News Briefs: Practice Management Updates

This roundup includes the following brief practice management updates:

On July 16, HHS' Health IT Policy Committee, adopted a list of health information technology objectives and measures related to meaningful use (10-page PDF; About PDFs) of electronic health records, or EHRs.

The Health IT Policy Committee makes recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology regarding development and adoption of a nationwide health information infrastructure. The committee is working on defining the term "meaningful use," which is the standard physicians and other health care providers using certified EHR systems have to meet to be eligible for incentive payments from Medicare and Medicaid beginning in 2011.

Among other things, the committee recommends that by 2011, providers should be able to report a variety of quality measures to CMS, including information on

By 2013, the committee wants to add additional quality reports using health IT, more integration of health IT systems, and improvement in measures of care coordination endorsed by the National Quality Forum. The committee has not yet decided on many measures beyond 2013.

An interim final rule on meaningful use of health IT is not expected until December.

CMS is continuing to tweak the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, or PQRI, and recently proposed that physicians and other eligible health care professionals be allowed by 2010 to report PQRI quality measures data extracted from a qualified electronic health record, or EHR.

The proposal, which is in the July 13 Federal Register, (307-page PDF; About PDFs) says that EHR-based reporting would be allowed "for a limited subset of the proposed 2010 PQRI quality measures," including those related to control of diabetes and hypertension and for the prevention of and screening for influenza.

The agency has said it believes EHR-based reporting will promote the adoption of EHR systems and help overcome limitations associated with claims-based reporting of quality measures. CMS has been testing the submission of clinical quality data extracted from EHRs since 2008.

Since 2006, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, or CCHIT, has maintained bragging rights as the only federally recognized entity tasked with certifying electronic health record, or EHR, systems.

That status soon could change.

The federal Health IT Policy Committee's certification and adoption workgroup recently recommended that multiple organizations be allowed to become accredited HHS EHR certifiers.

The workgroup presented its recommendations to the Health IT Policy Committee (26-page PowerPoint file; About Downloading) on July 16, suggesting that

The workgroup also said that certification of EHR products should not be considered a "seal of approval" process.