Expanding the Reach of Health IT Update on Interoperability and Telemedicine Joel White, Health IT Now

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Expanding the Reach of Health IT Update on Interoperability and Telemedicine Joel White, Health IT Now"

Noah Tate
8 years ago
Views:

1 Expanding the Reach of Health IT Update on Interoperability and Telemedicine Joel White, Health IT Now 1

2 About HITN Not-for-profit founded in 2007 Central goal is advancing the adoption and use of health information technology to: Lower costs Improve quality Better Outcomes Promote Safety 65 Diverse organizations representing patients, providers, employers and payers 2

3 Some of Our Members 3

4 Activities What We Do: Develop policy Engage in Legislative and Regulatory Advocacy Promote Education (briefings, meetings, consortium) Priorities: Promote Interoperability Standards Create a more robust Meaningful Use program Promote standards that support payment and delivery reforms Promote standards that improve clinical workflows Expand legislative incentives for adoption and use of health IT Improve Access to Care and Lower Costs Through Telemedicine Create a Regulatory Framework for Innovation Establish a regulatory environment that promotes innovation and patient safety Use HIT to expand research opportunities and lower their cost 4

5 Context Provider adoption of HIT significantly lags other industries and leads to inefficiencies, medical errors, poor outcomes and even death. Interoperable EHRs and information exchange will enable measurement, tracking, and feedback that empower providers and payers to better treat and care for patients. Congress enacted HITECH to incent provider adoption of technology and exchange of information and to improve: Care delivery Quality outcomes Efficiency PPACA requires payment and delivery systems changes that can only be done well with robust and shared data (ACOs, hospital readmissions, medical homes). 5

6 Physician Adoption of EHRs Source: CMS 6

7 Participation Source: CMS. Data accessed on January 23, 2012 at 7

8 Payments 8

9 Following Dollars to Adopters/Users 9

10 Meaningful Use Issues 10

11 Issues Very low standards in Stage 1 to incent adoption not high value. HHS released revised standards for Stage 2 in March. Opportunity to get this right. Not all providers recognized. Limits effectiveness of care teams and coordination Lack of interoperability is creating market and policy problems: Provider frustration that the systems they buy cannot talk to each other Difficult to coordinate care across providers Participation in ACOs and medical homes more risky and less likely to succeed Efficiencies in Medicare and Medicaid harder to realize. More duplicate tests, etc. Program rules as compliance exercises not improvements to workflow Data silos inhibit exchange and trust. Timing disconnect between care models and technology standards. Promoting interoperability in Medicare and Medicaid creates business cases across markets. 11

12 Solutions Radically transform interoperability paradigm End data silos and blocking Expand program to recognize all providers Standards should enhance clinical and administrative workflows. Technology should be in background. Coordinate and enhance standards to improve performance across federal programs. 12

13 Telemedicine 13

14 Current State Medicare spends less than 0.005% of program dollars on telemedicine Statute is exclusive. If it isn t defined, it isn t covered Licensure requirements stuck in 20 th Century and limit access needlessly 14

15 Solutions Coverage for services should be inclusive. Discretion should be given to Secretary or MCAC DOD/VA model can be adopted to address licensure issues Expands the current Department of Defense (DOD) state licensure exemption to allow credentialed health care professionals to work across state borders without having to obtain a new state license. Expands the definition of exempt health care professional to include qualified DOD civilians and personal service contractors. Removes the current service location requirement, to allow for care regardless of where the health care professional or patient is located. National database of licensure and credentialing administered by DoD in concert with VHA. 15

16 Why is this Important? 16

17 More Why it is Important Health programs account for 80 percent of new spending in CBO baseline budget projections 17

18 The Legislative Process 18

19 The Legislative Environment Current budget environment: If it doesn t save, it won t fly CBO predisposed to be against you Current Legislative environment: Big-ticket challenges of tax reform, and debt/deficit debate Show me the jobs! End of year train wreck Current Political Environment Even year, divisible by 4 SCOTUS 19

20 Contacts: Questions? Joel White James Turner, MJ, CHISP, CCP Executive Director Senior Policy Counsel and VP, Strategic Initiatives O: C: C: Jim Bialick Grant Olson VP, Technology and Public Policy VP, Public and Media O: O: C: (858) C:

Overview of MU Stage 2 Joel White, Health IT Now

Overview of MU Stage 2 Joel White, Health IT Now 1 Agenda 1. Introduction 2. Context 3. Adoption Rates of HIT 4. Overview of Stage 2 Rules 5. Overview of Issues 6. Trend in Standards: Recommendations v.