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Meaningful Use
At a pivotal moment for healthcare, it's time to reform regulatory approaches, improve access to data for care coordination and establish a national patient ID, says John Halamka, MD, who offers some perspective to CMS and ONC on the future of MACRA, interoperability and more.
While healthcare entities are waiting for EHR vendors to make data more interoperable, a raft of emerging technologies are enabling information exchange in ways that work effectively today, according to Lisa Moon, a partner with the Timmaron Group.
John Halamka, MD, served the Bush administration for four years and the Obama administration for six. Change in Washington happens incrementally, he says: There is always an evolution, not a revolution, regardless of speechmaking hyperbole.
"As I've said many times, one of the great challenges we have is that the 2015 Edition final rule has an enormous scope extending beyond meaningful use with the notion that it can be coupled to every government healthcare IT program," writes John Halamka, MD.
"Some agreed with my initial analysis that clinicians will have a hard time translating complex MACRA payment processes into altered clinical behavior," writes John Halamka, MD. "Others felt I was over-harsh, negative and inappropriate. It's never my intent to criticize people, instead I want encourage dialogue about ideas....
"Sometimes when you remodel a house, there is a point when additional improvements are impossible and you need to start again with a new structure," writes Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO John Halamka, MD, about a 962-page rule that "no mere human will be able to understand."
Starting in 2019, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, will change how they pay physicians in a profound way. Unfortunately, the details are complicated and confusing, and many of the particulars have yet to be worked out, which has led many healthcare leaders to glaze over the details and focus on more immediate concerns.
On Jan. 14, thirty-one healthcare organizations sent the following letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. Given the recent comments of CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt at the J.P. Morgan Annual Health Care Conference, we remain optimistic.
From population health management to meaningful use, cybersecurity to EHR usability, healthcare will face an array of challenges and opportunities over the next 12 months. Beth Israel Deaconess CIO John Halamka, MD, offers his predictions for 2016.
