On Nov. 26, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology’s Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC), which advises the government on its electronic health record incentive program, published recommendations for Meaningful Use Stage 3 requirements. These requirements will go into effect in 2016.
For the most part, the Stage 3 recommendations continue the Stage 2 goals, with higher thresholds for demonstrating Meaningful Use, but also introduce some new objectives. One new objective would require providers to give 10% of the patients the ability to submit patient-generated health information. The goal of this requirement would be to improve health outcomes and/or to increase patient engagement in care. Another new objective expands the information that eligible clinicians and hospitals would have to provide at transitions of care. The expanded information requirements would include a care synopsis, setting-specific goals, and instructions for care during the transition. A third new objective is the requirement that providers implement 15 clinical decision support interventions, as opposed to the proposed five in the stage 2 proposal.
Comments are due January 14, 2013. Click here to view.
Also on Nov. 26, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a request for information (RFI), seeking comments regarding health plan quality management in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) exchanges. In the RFI, CMS said it intends to propose a phased approach to quality reporting and that new quality reporting standards would be put in place until 2016. The purpose of the RFI is to seek information on the quality improvement strategies health insurance issuers currently use, what opportunities exist to further the goals of the National Quality Strategy through quality reporting requirements in the exchanges, and what factors should be integrated in designing an approach to meaningfully calculate health plan value.
Comments are due December 27, 2012. Click here to view.
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