The emergence of a national health IT policy

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) creates the framework for a national health IT policy. Such a policy has never previously existed. In order to develop such a policy, a new set of federal advisory committees has been convened – the Health IT Policy Committee has now met and has reported its findings to date here.

In a short amount of time, the Health IT Policy Committee has developed a very positive framework that helps IT developers (such as Practice Fusion) gear their efforts in a consistently meaningful direction. The HIT policy started with an “ultimate vision to enable significant and measurable improvements in population health through a transformed health care delivery system.” Adapted from the National Priorities Partnership, several overall goals have been identified: (1) improve quality, safety and efficiency; (2) engage patients and their families; (3) improve care coordination; (4) improve population and public health, and reduce disparities; and (5) ensure privacy and security protection. This overall vision is described in a “meaningful use preamble” document.

For each of these Health Outcomes Policy Priorities, a series of Care Goals have been defined in a “meaningful use matrix.” And for each of these Care Goals, a series of Objectives for 2011, 2103 and 2015 have been proposed, as well as Measures associated with these Objectives by which to determine “meaningful use.”

Actual detailed Certification Criteria are currently being defined, and will be derived from the Objectives. Practice Fusion has been engaged in this process and has submitted commentary to the committee.

The traditional certification criteria for EHRs has come from CCHIT, a non-profit agency that grew out of an EHR vendor trade organization (HIMSS), but was spun-off as an independent agency. CCHIT had been designated as the sole certification pathway for EHRs prior to ARRA. However, the certification criteria developed by CCHIT since 2006 were developed in the absence of a guiding national health IT policy. Such criteria could be characterized as being more product-centric than results-oriented.

The newly created Meaningful Use Objectives, from which new certification criteria will be derived, commendably is more focused on results than any particular “functionality” characteristics of the software. It is as yet unclear how the certification process will be carried out, and what role CCHIT will play in this process, but what is becoming clear is this: in order for EHRs to be examples of “enabling technology” that will truly transform healthcare, “what counts are results.” Practice Fusion remains committed to engaging this process and developing products that will satisfy all the “meaningful use” criteria and truly help enable a transformed healthcare system.

Robert Rowley, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Practice Fusion, Inc.
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