Meaningful Use

James L. Madara, MD, addressed the 2016 AMA Annual Meeting, stressing the need to weed out electronic products that waste providers’ time and confuse patients.

Stakeholders have until June 27 to weigh in with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Why should you? Experts say the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act is an aggressive and transformational piece of rulemaking. 

The American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association call on ONC to rethink how it measures interoperability. Rather than simply gauging data exchange, they contend, ONC should focus on better care coordination.

The new tool includes pricing and product limitation data to help make the process of selecting an electronic health record system less complex, according to National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD. 

There needs to be a better business case for sharing data because consumers expect it and HIPAA allows it, said National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD. And Americans are growing increasingly impatient. 

Now that almost all U.S. hospital are using electronic health records, the industry is ready for the next phase of information sharing, improved outcomes and collecting the digital dividend.

Half of hospitals routinely use patient information received electronically from other providers, which National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD said is an indication of how far the healthcare industry has come for both patients and clinicians.

With meaningful use winding down, Poulton urged other EHR makers to work on technologies that enable providers to be more effective in the changing world or healthcare. 

Part of the Helping Hospitals Improve patient Care Act, the amendment also exempts ambulatory surgical centers from MIPS through 2017 and 2018.

The advisory committee said that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT should accelerate the definition and standards for President Obama's PMI and Patient-Generated Health Data.