Electronic Health Records
Poll Finds Few U.S. Residents Use Electronic Health Records
June 17, 2010iHealthBeat - Fewer than one in 10 U.S. adults use an electronic health record, according to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive and HealthDay, HealthDay/U.S. News & World Report reports.
The poll was conducted online from June 8 to June 10 and included responses from 2,035 U.S. adults.
The poll found that 78% of respondents "strongly" or "somewhat" agree that physicians should have access to their EHRs. However, only 30% of respondents said their insurer should have access to their EHRs.
Twenty-eight percent of respondents reported that their primary care physician used an EHR system, while 42% were unsure.
The survey also found that EHR adoption was more prevalent in the Western U.S., where 35% of respondents said their physician used EHRs.
The study also found that:
• 9% of respondents said they could communicate with physicians via e-mail, up from 4% in 2006;
• 8% said they could schedule an appointment online, up from 3% in 2006; and
• 8% said they could obtain diagnostic test results via e-mail, up from 2% in 2006.
Health IT ARRA Projects, Funding Moving Forward
June 14, 2010iHealthBeat - Federal government agencies and departments are moving forward with implementing various health IT provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This update summarizes significant developments over the past few months.
Health IT Committees Move Forward
Both the Health IT Policy and Standards committees met several times in April and May with discussion and actions focused in several areas.
The Health IT Policy Committee unanimously approved recommendations from two work groups (Adoption and Certification, Privacy and Security) on the proposed rule for electronic health record certification program. Privacy work group recommendations focused on testing and certification of modular EHR component systems, including vendor module labeling to identify privacy and security components.
The Health IT Policy Committee also endorsed comments on an Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT plan to offer permanent certification of EHRs, including a provision to monitor EHRs after purchase to ensure providers are installing proper technology. ONC is expected to finalize its plan for permanent certification before the end of the year.
The Health IT Standards Committee discussed issues related to the March 24, 2010, Drug Enforcement Agency interim final rule regarding electronic prescribing of controlled substances.
A joint, ad hoc work group of the Policy and Standards committees was announced by National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal on May 19. The work group's charge is to recommend health IT standards and protocols that enable the electronic screening, triage and enrollment of individuals in health insurance exchanges required under the federal health care reform law, particularly those that may already be enrolled in or eligible for federal public benefit programs. The work group will be co-chaired by California HealthCare Foundation Chief Program Officer Sam Karp and White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra. CHCF is the publisher of iHealthBeat.
Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs
CMS awarded Northrop Grumman $34 million to develop the National Level Repository for EHR incentive payment transactions. The repository will support the administration of payment transactions conducted as part of Medicare and Medicaid's incentive program for medical professionals, hospitals and other organizations.
President Obama signed HR 4851, which included a modified definition to "hospital-based" physician for the Medicaid and Medicare EHR incentive program. Originally, the EHR incentive program established through ARRA had included language that excluded eligible professionals who furnished substantially all of their services in an inpatient or outpatient hospital setting from receiving incentive payments. Under the amendment made by this legislation, only services furnished in inpatient and emergency department settings would count against eligibility -- services furnished in hospital outpatient settings would not, thus paving the way for the latter group of physicians to receive incentive payments under the program.
Beacon Grant Awards Announced
Fifteen Beacon Community grantees were announced in May with the grantees sharing a total of $220 million in funds. The focus of the program is to encourage communities to use health IT to connect health care providers, community health programs, federal programs and patients and develop new ways of improving quality and efficiency.
Awards were made in the following states:
California -- The Regents of the University of California-San Diego ($15.28 million);
Colorado -- Rocky Mountain HMO in Grand Junction ($11.88 million)
Hawaii -- University of Hawaii-Hilo ($16.09 million);
Indiana -- Indiana Health Information Exchange in Indianapolis ($16.01 million);
Louisiana -- Public Health Institute in New Orleans ($13.53 million);
Maine -- Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems ($12.75 million);
Minnesota -- Mayo Clinic Rochester ($12.28 million);
Mississippi -- Delta Health Alliance ($14.67 million);
New York -- Western NY Clinical Information Exchange in Buffalo ($16.09 million);
North Carolina -- Southern Piedmont Community Care Plan in Concord ($15.91 million);
Oklahoma -- Community Services Council of Tulsa ($12.04 million) ;
Pennsylvania -- Geisinger Clinic in Danville ($16.07 million);
Rhode Island -- Rhode Island Quality Institute ($15.91 million);
Utah -- HealthInsight in Salt Lake City ($15.79 million); and
Washington State -- Inland Northwest Health Services in Spokane ($15.7 million).
An additional $30 million will be available to fund two additional Beacon communities. Letters of Intent were due by June 9; full applications are due by June 28.
Broadband Projects Announced
The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced an opportunity for certain state and local governments to apply for broadband stimulus funding to support public safety projects. Potential applicants include state and local governmental entities that the Federal Communications Commission recently permitted to deploy public safety broadband systems using the 700 MHz public safety broadband spectrum.
States Moving Forward With Health Data Exchange Plans
June 11, 2010iHealthBeat - The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has approved plans from Maryland, New Mexico and Utah to begin implementing regional health information exchanges using funds made available through the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, Modern Healthcare reports.
Maryland
Maryland's not-for-profit health IT organization -- the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients, or CRISP -- received nearly $10 million to build a statewide health data exchange.
The state plans to build the network in phases, starting with the exchange of laboratory results, radiology reports and other clinical information (Lubell, Modern Healthcare, 6/10).
In April, CRISP selected the health IT company Axolotl to provide the infrastructure for the exchange. According to Axolotl, the exchange eventually could link together 47 acute care hospitals and 7,907 physician practices and other health care providers (Flook, Washington Business Journal, 6/7).
New Mexico
The New Mexico Health Information Collaborate received $7 million to build the state's health information exchange. The online network is supported by Centergy Data Exchange Service from MedPlus, a health IT subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics (New Mexico Business Weekly, 6/7).
The exchange will work with New Mexico's regional health IT extension center, an organization tasked with helping health care providers implement electronic health records. Over the next two years, the state aims to connect 1,000 health care providers through the health IT projects (Modern Healthcare, 6/10).
Utah
The not-for-profit Utah Health Information Network has been tasked with developing the state's Clinical Health Information Exchange, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Jan Root, UHIN president and CEO, said most of the $15.8 million the state has received in federal grant money will go toward helping small clinics and health care provider offices implement EHR systems and connect with the health data exchange (Stewart, Salt Lake Tribune, 6/5).
OCR: Patient Data Breaches Nearly Tripled Since February
Report: Insurers Inaccurately Process Many Electronic Claims
Five California Hospitals Fined for Breaches of Patient Health Records
Report: Millions of U.K. Residents Unaware of Online EHR Postings
New RECs Gear Up To Help Health Providers Adopt, Use Health IT
Telehealth Beginning To Go Mainstream, But Long Road Lies Ahead
FCC, FDA, HHS also working on telehealth
HHS awards $84M for community EHR systems
Government as the Health IT Security Standard
Technological Advances Key to Healthcare Transformation
The 2010 Vision for Health Information Exchange
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