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Use of EHR Drops in Physician Offices
According to a recent report by research firm SK&A, office-based physician Electronic Health Record (EHR) use dropped by roughly four percent between 2015 and 2016. The report, EHR Software Usage by Physicians, within their Market Insight series, investigated 290,000 provider offices between August 2015 and February 2016 via phone interviews. The previous year’s report put the rate at 62.8 percent of physician-office EHR use. These new figures show the level at 59 percent. Dips in EHR use were consistent across the board, with smaller practices seeing the most decline. Despite the sinking national numbers, looking state-by-state has some positive figures. Wyoming led the way with 71.7 percent office use, with South Dakota coming in a close second at 69.42 percent. Even the lowest, New York, was still above 50 at 54.32 percent.
APAC Healthcare IT Integration Market: Increasing Adoption in Asia and Oceania
Market research firm, Verify Markets, announced in their most recent report that the Asia-Pacific Healthcare IT Integration Market is valued at over $120 million in sales for 2015. Increases of adoption rates in Asian countries in both the public and private sectors has led to an enormous amount of data. Healthcare IT infrastructure maturity varies based on country and region within said country. New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia have made huge efforts toward effective integration within hospitals to achieve health information exchange. Key players in the study, among others, include Orion Health and InterSystems, both eHI members.
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Top Cybersecurity Democrat Writes to Commend FDA
Representative Jim Langevin (D-RI) wrote the Food and Drug Administration, commending the agency on their recent draft cybersecurity guidelines. Langevin, who co-chairs the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, said in his letter that he “strongly support[s] FDA's efforts to improve the security of medical devices, and if finalized, the draft guidance would make substantial progress in this area.” The FDA is updating digital security recommendations to prepare for the Internet of Things. Representative Langevin goes on to say “The threat malicious actors pose to medical devices is particularly concerning, as many of these devices have the potential to harm patient safety if compromised.”
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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT:
AHA Issues Telemedicine Brief
The American Hospital Association issued a new brief regarding telemedicine on Tuesday. It covers:
- Growing evidence indicates that telehealth lowers costs.- Medicare pays little for telehealth, while other payers have more quickly adopted it.
- Coverage should be incorporated into emerging payment models.
- Additional research is required to advance care delivery and enhance the patient experience.
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UPCOMING EVENTS:
Monday, May 9, 2-3 pm ET, Interoperability Meeting
Tuesday, May 10, 11:30 am -1 pm ET, Policy Working Group Lunch Meeting: eHI Policy Lunch featuring Sarah P. Farrell, PhD, RN, Health Market Development Executive, Apple Education
Wednesday, May 18, 2-3 pm ET, Advisory Board on Business & Clinical Motivators
Wednesday, May 25, 2-3 pm ET, 2016 Population Health Survey Webinar, sponsored by Medicity
Thursday, May 26, 2-3 pm ET, Council of Data Analytics Experts
October 4-5, 2016, Innovation Showcase at House of Sweden, in Washington, D.C.
To be included in any of the upcoming events email claudia.ellison@ehidc.org.
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CMS Releases Anticipated Medicare Regulation
Details of a proposed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies regulation entitled “Medicare Program; Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Model (APM) Incentive under the Physician Fee Schedule, and Criteria for Physician-Focused Payment Models,” were released Wednesday. CMS emphasizes that the proposed rule addresses:
- Proposed criteria for use by the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) in making comments and recommendations on physician-focused payment models.
- Establishing incentives for participation in certain APMs;
- Establishing the MIPS, a new program for certain Medicare-enrolled practitioners;
eHealth Initiative plans a number of resources for its members to familiarize them with the contents of the proposed regulation and to highlight multi-stakeholder issues. We will be announcing an educational eHI webinar and an accompanying briefing sheet in the weeks ahead.
Rural Broadband Bill Pushes Forward
This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee marks up 22 new bills on a range of issues. Of the 22, the Rural Health Care Connectivity Act (H.R. 4111) is garnering increased attention. The bill, introduced by Representative Leonard Lance (R-NJ), would amend the Communications Act of 1934 to include skilled nursing facilities among the types of health care providers who may request the necessary broadband services to serve patients in rural areas at comparable rates to urban areas. Responding to the bill, the American Telemedicine Association said in a letter that Congress should increase the access to more than just nursing homes. An identical bill was introduced by Senator Thune last August. The House bill has a five percent chance of being enacted, while the Senate version has a better chance at 39 percent, according to govtrack.us.
New Rules on Health IT
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services continue to encourage states to utilize the reforms in Medicaid managed care plans to incentivize health information exchange adoption. Monday, CMS published their final rule on the matter. This rule outlines standards for managed care plans and states, “we do not believe it is appropriate for us to require or mandate this option, as states may have various options or paths to increase EHR and HIE adoption outside of their managed care contracts.” CMS Administrator, Slavitt, and Vikki Wachino, CMS Deputy Administrator and Director for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, described the advantages to the rule in full in a blog post.
New Bill Introduced on 90-day Reporting Period
Under a new bill introduced last week in the Senate, providers would now have 90 days for Meaningful Use reporting, down from a full year. Introduced by a bipartisan group of senators, the Flexibility in Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reporting Act, is similar to a CMS rule from one report in 2015, which was a 90- day period. This bill would make it 90 days across the board. Russell Branzell, President and CEO of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, released a statement praising the bill. He described it as a "sensible approach" to updating Meaningful Use. The Federation of American Hospitals also penned a letter in support of the measure.
CISO Coming to HHS
Two members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced a bill onto the floor that requires the Department of Health and Human Services to designate the HHS Chief Information Security Officer as the head of all information security matters at HHS. The bipartisan HHS Data Protection Act creates the position of CISO for HHS to be filled by presidential appointment, going into effect October 1, 2016. All responsibilities of the current CISO nested within the CIO are to be transferred to the new CISO by September 30.
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eHI Launches 2016 Population Health Survey
In collaboration with Medicity, eHealth Initiative is conducting a survey of population health measures. Results of the survey will be announced at a webinar on May 25. To register for the webinar, click here. For more information or to be included in the survey, email info@ehidc.org.
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