HIMSS Addresses Challenges In Health IT

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

The IT challenges you face with your healthcare clients are not going unnoticed.

The Healthcare Information And Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has sent a letter to the U.S. Department Of Health And Human Services (HHS), to address issues that the country’s healthcare system faces around IT concerns.

The Letter

HIMSS sent a letter to HHS Secretary, Sylvia Mathews Burwell on September 30, announcing the Office Of The National Coordinator’s (ONC) plans to review the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan in order to facilitate collaboration between HIMSS and ONC: “While we champion a vision of coordinated care leading to a positively transformed health system in the United States, we want to express our concerns that the road to that goal has become rocky and offer solutions to address these concerns. To help re-establish manageable expectations, HIMSS offers to work with HHS to devise a comprehensive plan to address all health IT issues germane to transforming the nation's healthcare system ...We welcome the opportunity to work with ONC to review the multitude of overlapping programs, determine how they currently fit into the larger health IT blueprint, and formulate a best approach to revising expectations and timelines working within congressional and administration intent.”

ONC Goals

According to Fierce Health IT, the ONC has listed three areas of policy focus including:

• The EHR Incentive Program. Urging CMS to adjust the 2015 requirement to one, three-month reporting period vs. a full a year
• Interoperability. Continuing to work with ONC to achieve a “nationwide, interoperable health IT infrastructure”
• Electronic Reporting Of Clinical Quality Measures. Working with CMS on reporting requirements as established by multiple stakeholders for addressing barriers that providers and vendors currently face

Meaningful Use Stage 3

The letter also addresses “continued alignment between other CMS quality improvement and quality reporting programs” in light of approaching Meaningful Use Stage 3. HIMSS has announced plans to develop a multi-stakeholder roadmap for overcoming the most pressing barriers.

Their goals around this initiative include reviewing and refreshing current recommendations for overcoming challenges to robust electronic reporting of clinical quality measures, and developing a roadmap for transitioning EHR-enabled CQM reporting for all CMS quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs.

Going Deeper

HIMSS is actively involved in improving IT in healthcare in the United States. To learn more about the resources they offer solutions providers, please refer to this article.

The full letter from HIMSS is available for review here.