The American Medical Association (AMA) has submitted comprehensive comments to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in response to the sweeping set of proposed changes to health information technology certification and implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act and to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to its proposal on patient access and interoperability. The AMA supports several of the proposed changes, especially around health IT vendor practices, technology development, and Electronic Health Record (EHR) performance. The AMA also identified proposals that could prove problematic and run counter to the goals Congress set out to achieve in the Cures Act, particularly around privacy. “The AMA strongly supports...

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) wants to remind eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals that the Annual Call for Measures for the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program is still open. Submit a measure proposal by June 28, 2019. Proposals submitted by the deadline will be considered for inclusion in future rulemaking. CMS is interested in adding measures that: Build on the advanced use of certified electronic health record technology (CEHRT) using 2015 Edition Certification Standards and Criteria; Promote interoperability and health information exchange; Improve program efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility; Provide patient access to their health information; Reduce clinician burden; and Align with MIPS Promoting Interoperability Performance...

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it is extending the public comment period by 30 days for two proposed regulations aimed at promoting the interoperability of health information technology (health IT) and enabling patients to electronically access their health information. The new deadline for the submission of comments – June 3, 2019 – will allow additional time for the public to review the proposed regulations. The extension of the public comment period coincides with a release by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the second draft of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, along with a related Notice of Funding Opportunity. HHS also today released of a set of frequently asked questions...

CMS is getting even more serious about keeping people out of the hospital, with each newly issued rule reflecting that commitment. Starting at the beginning of this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sought to further incentivize providers by building in reimbursement for home health monitoring applications and the labor required to make these systems successfully operate. In a final rule issued last November, the CMS clarified their stance, highlighting the three CPT codes in question, along with their explanation and further information surrounding the decision-making process that led to the final ruling. You can find far more detailed information (over 2,300 pages of it, in fact) within the Federal Register document, but for our purposes and for sanity’s sake, I want...