Senators Blast ONC Interoperability Roadmap for Lack of Details
While the Office of the National Coordinator for Health ITs draft Interoperability Roadmap attempts to define a framework for interoperable electronic health records, five Republican Senators charge that the document is heavy on generalities and light on specifics.
While the Office of the National Coordinator for Health ITs draft Interoperability Roadmap attempts to define a framework for interoperable electronic health records, five Republican Senators charge that the document is heavy on generalities and light on specifics.
The ONC roadmap provides a framework for responsibility, governance, and accountability in regard to the future development and implementation of interoperable EHRs. But instead of offering specific objectives, deadlines, and action items, ONCs roadmap falls short on the nitty gritty technology specifics that vendors and providers need when developing IT products, write Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), and John Thune (R-S.D.) in a blog published by Health Affairs.
ONC proposed high-level goals for how to achieve interoperability, like building on existing infrastructure and empowering individuals, but the roadmap fails to outline real and actionable next steps, state the senators. It is not enough for ONC to identify factors it believes are important. It must also delineate how it will find specific solutions to these concerns.
They go on to say: High-level ideas are important, but we are concerned that without specific requirements and action items, we will not advance towards the goal of improving health care coordination and patient care, which was the intent of the HITECH Act. As a result, they say we are left with many outstanding questions about how to achieve interoperability and how to address the cost, oversight, privacy, and sustainability of the meaningful use program.
Erica Galvez, ONCs Interoperability and Exchange Portfolio Manager, agrees that the governance framework and rules of the road in the Interoperability Roadmap are meant to serve as a set of high-level principles. However, Galvez tells Health Data Management that ONC has no intention of getting to the really granular details in that type of framework. That level of detail is what should be handled through the industry-led process that we called for in the roadmap and we think industry should be on the hook to carry out a collaborative process where they make decisions about detailed implementation pieces, she adds.
Yet, it isnt just ONCs Interoperability Roadmap that falls short, according to the senators. They also point to a steady stream of other disappointing high-level documents on interoperability: the JASON reports, the Health IT Policy and Standards Committees reports, the Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure report, and the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020 report.
All of these reports, as well as the ONCs latest roadmap, are missing the same thing: practical and actionable steps to ensure a proper return on the American peoples investment, argue the senators.
The blog points to the lack of progress toward interoperability as the key reason for the lackluster performance of the HITECH Acts stimulus. Despite spending $28 billion to date of a total taxpayer investment of $35 billion, significant progress toward interoperability has been elusive, according to the senators.
Stage 1 of the meaningful use program failed to include any meaningful health information exchange requirements, and lacked a vision to achieve interoperability, they assert. Instead, Stage 1 incentivized the widespread adoption of EHR systems that providers now say are difficult to use and lack the ability to exchange information without costly upgrades. We are now well into Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program and providers are struggling to meet even modest health information exchange requirements.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which is chaired by Alexander, was scheduled to hold a March 5 hearing on Americas Health IT Transformation: Translating the Promise of Electronic Health Records Into Better Care. However, it was postponed. Despite the delay, Alexander and his colleagues will no doubt keep the interoperability of EHRs on their legislative agenda in the new Congress.
The ONC roadmap provides a framework for responsibility, governance, and accountability in regard to the future development and implementation of interoperable EHRs. But instead of offering specific objectives, deadlines, and action items, ONCs roadmap falls short on the nitty gritty technology specifics that vendors and providers need when developing IT products, write Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), and John Thune (R-S.D.) in a blog published by Health Affairs.
ONC proposed high-level goals for how to achieve interoperability, like building on existing infrastructure and empowering individuals, but the roadmap fails to outline real and actionable next steps, state the senators. It is not enough for ONC to identify factors it believes are important. It must also delineate how it will find specific solutions to these concerns.
They go on to say: High-level ideas are important, but we are concerned that without specific requirements and action items, we will not advance towards the goal of improving health care coordination and patient care, which was the intent of the HITECH Act. As a result, they say we are left with many outstanding questions about how to achieve interoperability and how to address the cost, oversight, privacy, and sustainability of the meaningful use program.
Erica Galvez, ONCs Interoperability and Exchange Portfolio Manager, agrees that the governance framework and rules of the road in the Interoperability Roadmap are meant to serve as a set of high-level principles. However, Galvez tells Health Data Management that ONC has no intention of getting to the really granular details in that type of framework. That level of detail is what should be handled through the industry-led process that we called for in the roadmap and we think industry should be on the hook to carry out a collaborative process where they make decisions about detailed implementation pieces, she adds.
Yet, it isnt just ONCs Interoperability Roadmap that falls short, according to the senators. They also point to a steady stream of other disappointing high-level documents on interoperability: the JASON reports, the Health IT Policy and Standards Committees reports, the Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure report, and the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020 report.
All of these reports, as well as the ONCs latest roadmap, are missing the same thing: practical and actionable steps to ensure a proper return on the American peoples investment, argue the senators.
The blog points to the lack of progress toward interoperability as the key reason for the lackluster performance of the HITECH Acts stimulus. Despite spending $28 billion to date of a total taxpayer investment of $35 billion, significant progress toward interoperability has been elusive, according to the senators.
Stage 1 of the meaningful use program failed to include any meaningful health information exchange requirements, and lacked a vision to achieve interoperability, they assert. Instead, Stage 1 incentivized the widespread adoption of EHR systems that providers now say are difficult to use and lack the ability to exchange information without costly upgrades. We are now well into Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program and providers are struggling to meet even modest health information exchange requirements.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which is chaired by Alexander, was scheduled to hold a March 5 hearing on Americas Health IT Transformation: Translating the Promise of Electronic Health Records Into Better Care. However, it was postponed. Despite the delay, Alexander and his colleagues will no doubt keep the interoperability of EHRs on their legislative agenda in the new Congress.
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