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From the White House to the Office of the Inspector General, the government has issued plans that will involve the advancement of healthcare IT in 2011.
To facilitate the awarding of billions of dollars in incentive payments to eligible meaningful users of electronic health records, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in late December plans to upgrade its computer systems in 2011. This is none to soon, as registration opened January 3 for providers attesting to be meaningful users.
CMS also announced plans to improve its Physician Directory tool, which provides consumers with information about Medicare providers, including data about quality of care.
Oversight of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive plan falls under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Inspector General. In short, the OIG plans to be all over CMS. The OIG outlined in its 2011 work plan how it plans to extensively monitor the CMS technology upgrade and the disbursement of incentives.
The OIG 2011 work plan also includes plans to review CMS policies on breaches and medical identity theft; a review of CMS implementation of the Privacy Rule standards; the use of smart card technology to reduce TANF (temporary assistance for needy families) payment errors; and state Medicaid agencies' progress in implementing Medicaid Recovery Act incentives for EHRs.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology published a final rule on January 7 on the permanent certification program for health information technology. The new rule will replace the temporary certification rule as of Jan. 1, 2012. Certification is required to qualify for EHR incentives for meaningful use.
The White House has called for a "universal exchange language" to enable healthcare providers to share health information in real time, in order to modernize and coordinate diagnosis and treatment while incorporating privacy and security of personal data.
To accomplish that, the White House has called for the ONC and CMS to develop the technical definitions and descriptions for the standard language and include them in requirements for meaningful use of electronic health records in 2013 and 2015.
