WASHINGTON – After signing the healthcare reform bill into law on March 23, President Barack Obama traveled to Iowa and Maine to promote his vision, which includes the role of healthcare IT in saving lives and cutting cost.

Obama visited Iowa City, Iowa on March 25 and Portland, Maine on April 1.

At the Maine rally, Obama said passage of the healthcare reform law is a reminder that the country has the power to shape its own destiny.

“It has reminded us that we, as a people, do not shrink from a challenge,” he said. “We overcome it.”

Obama has had a history of supporting healthcare IT advancement, which includes a call for every American to have an electronic health record by 2014. The president requested $110 million in his budget this year, to strengthen healthcare IT policy coordination and research activities.

Last year, the administration backed more than $20 billion over 10 years to advance healthcare IT adoption in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

At the president’s rally in Portland, Maine Gov. John Baldacci touted healthcare IT as the means for improving quality of care, noting that Maine has been an early leader in the adoption of medical technology.

Information technology “plays a huge role” in medical reform, Baldacci told Healthcare IT News. “A huge role. It’s going to be through medical information technology that you’re going to enhance the ability of the providers to give quality care but also do it in a way that will reduce costs. It’s a critical element that needs to be part of this.”

David Howes, a physician and CEO of Portland, Maine-based Martin’s Point Health Care, said the reform law is “an enormous step forward.”

“The bill builds support for primary care and EHRs,” Howes said. “It contains flexibility and support for new models of care and Medicare quality and effectiveness measures. It is an enormous step forward for the American people and businesses.”

“I think it’s an opportunity for the president to help market the good parts of the bill,” said Gordon H. Smith, executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association, prior to the president’s visit. “I think it’s a battle for the hearts and minds of the public.”

Above article publish on http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/obama-launches-national-campaign-sell-health-reform-health-it

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will grant Alaska, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin federal matching funds for EHR implementations.

The funding is allotted under The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grants cosist of:

• $900,000 for Alaska;
• $2.6 million for Kentucky;
• $1.48 million for South Carolina; and
• $1.37 million for Wisconsin

According to CMS officials, matching state funding for EHR adoption is “another key step to further states’ role in developing a robust U.S. health information technology infrastructure.”

CMS officials said EHRs will improve the quality of healthcare for citizens. The records make it easier for the many providers who may be treating a Medicaid patient to coordinate care. Additionally, EHRs make it easier for patients to access the information they need to make decisions about their healthcare.

ARRA provides a 90 percent federal match for state planning activities to administer incentive payments to Medicaid providers.

“Meaningful and interoperable use of EHRs in Medicaid will increase health care efficiency, reduce medical errors and improve quality-outcomes and patient satisfaction within and across the states,” said Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at CMS.

CMS officials said the four states plan to use the funding to analyze their healthcare IT activities. They will assess barriers to the state’s use of EHRs and determine provider eligibility for EHR incentive payments. Each state will also create a state Medicaid HIT Plan, which will define the state’s vision for its long-term HIT use.

CMS announced on Jan. 4 that Pennsylvania and Tennessee will also receive similar funding.

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“The ARRA incentives have the potential to significantly accelerate adoption of EHR technology by office-based physicians, other eligible providers and hospitals,” said Alisa Ray, the Commission’s executive director.  “These first four health IT companies, demonstrating their compliance with the proposed Federal standards, are now able to offer certified products to providers who wish to purchase and implement EHR technology and achieve meaningful use in time for the 2011-2012 incentives.  We’ve had about 25 applications in our 2011 programs and inspections are continuing.  Look for additional announcements from these early applicants in the upcoming days and weeks.”

Both certification programs are represented among the four products. The CCHIT Certified 2011 Comprehensive program differs from the Preliminary ARRA certification program by providing a more rigorous inspection of integrated EHR functionality, interoperability, and security in addition to full compliance with Federal standards.  As part of the Comprehensive inspection process, key aspects of successful use are verified at live sites, and usability is rated.  The CCHIT Certified Comprehensive program is intended to serve health care providers looking for maximal assurance that a product will meet their complex needs, as well as support their achievement of meaningful use to qualify for the ARRA financial incentives.

The product certified in the CCHIT Certified 2011 Comprehensive program is ABELMed EHR-EMR/PM, Version 11, by ABEL Medical Software Inc.

The Preliminary ARRA 2011 program is a modular, limited certification and inspects technology only against the Federal standards. It offers maximal flexibility for health IT companies, developers and providers in meeting ARRA 2011-2012 certification requirements. The products certified in the Preliminary ARRA 2011 program are:

• eHealth Made EASY, Version 3, by eHealth Made EASY, LLC, supporting 2 of 27 meaningful use objectives  for eligible providers
• eHealth Made EASY – PQRI Made Easy, Version 3, by eHealth Made EASY, LLC, supporting 2 of 24 meaningful use objectives  for hospitals
• KIS Track, Version 5.1, by Kaulkin Information Systems, supporting 2 of 27 objectives for eligible providers
• Medios, Version 4.5, by IOS Health Systems, supporting 27 of 27 objectives for eligible providers

The Certification FactsTM label displayed with every product listing describes all certifications granted and lists which meaningful use objectives are supported by the technology. The ARRA certification component of both programs is considered preliminary because the definitions of meaningful use, criteria and standards have been proposed but not yet finalized by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Health IT companies testing against the proposed standards now will be provided the opportunity to quickly close any gaps after the final rules are published in the Federal Register in spring 2010.

Above article published http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/press-releases/commission-announces-first-2011-certified-electronic-health-records#ixzz0ZGreIpcy

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Iowa will receive $1.6 million in matching funds.

“While Iowa is the first state to receive approval of its plan for implementing the Recovery Act’s EHR incentive program, a number of other states have submitted plans as well,” said Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at CMS.

Iowa will, according to CMS, use the funds for planning activities such as conducting an analysis to determine the status of health IT in the state, including barriers to EHR implementation, eligibility for EHR incentive payments and the creation of a state Medicaid health information technology plan.

Above article published http://www.healthimaging.com/index.php?option=com_articles&view=article&id=19710:iowa-gets-16-in-arra-funds-for-ehr-planning

In 2004, the trade group Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society helped found CCHIT. For several years, the commission served as the sole certifying entity for EHR systems.

CCHIT’s affiliation with HIMSS has led some observers to express concern that the commission is too closely aligned with the health IT industry.

In response to such concerns, federal committees recently approved a plan that would allow multiple entities to certify EHR systems. The plan would require all interested parties, including CCHIT, to apply for designation as an official EHR certifier.

Although the government has yet to appoint official certifying bodies, CCHIT is continuing to offer its EHR certification programs. The group also recently launched a new “Preliminary ARRA Certification” program that aims to help vendors comply with the forthcoming meaningful use rules (Blankenhorn, ZDNet Healthcare, 11/11).

Above article published http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2009/11/12/cchit-continuing-role-as-major-ehr-certifier-amid-hitech-talks.aspx

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology next year plans to develop a “site certification” program for hospitals and physician groups that use self-developed EHRs or a mix of commercial and proprietary applications, says Mark Leavitt, M.D., chair of the Chicago-based organization. The effort also will offer certification for those organizations that use an older, commercial clinical system that’s been heavily customized, he notes.

Although it has not yet been officially designated as an official EHR certifying body under the incentive program called for in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, CCHIT already is developing a new certification program designed to measure whether software is compliant with the yet-to-be-finalized federal “meaningful use” EHR standards. The site certification component will feature sliding-scale pricing to make it affordable to providers of various sizes, Leavitt says.

“Site certification is designed to help the early adopters who were EHR pioneers,” Leavitt adds.

The site certification effort won’t start until the middle of next year once the final “meaningful use” rules are enacted. CCHIT, however, will begin accepting applications Oct. 7 for its “ARRA 2011 Certification” program for vendors’ EHRs. That program is based on the proposed rules the government expects to publish in December.

Government regulators are considering a proposal to authorize multiple EHR certification programs. Leavitt says he’s confident the government will designate CCHIT as an official certifier of meaningful use for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs. He also says it’s “not clear why others would want to launch” certification efforts. He points out that CCHIT is a not-for-profit group and contends that it would be difficult for others to start from scratch and cover their costs, much less make a profit.

CCHIT also is continuing with its longstanding effort to certify vendors’ EHRs for meeting a set of criteria much broader than the anticipated “meaningful use” standards. The criteria for the updated “CCHIT Certified 2011″ program will become “more rigorous,” Leavitt says. For example, vendors will need to prove that the application has been up and running at two sites for at least 45 days. Plus certifiers will, for the first time, assess the “usability” of EHR software for ambulatory care settings.

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The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology is adopting a two-tier system of testing and certifying IT systems.

In a conference call with vendors and developers of health IT systems Thursday, CCHIT Chairman Mark Leavitt announced the not-for-profit organization’s new testing program, as the group readies itself for the new realities of the healthcare IT market since passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

One testing and certification program, dubbed Preliminary ARRA 2011 Certification, will specifically test for compliance with what is expected to be—at least initially—a fairly limited set of criteria that HHS and the CMS will use to determine eligibility by hospitals and office-based physicians for an estimated $34 billion in federal subsidy payments for the purchase of EHRs under the stimulus law.

The other, the so-called CCHIT Certified 2011 testing program, will use an elaborate set of about 300 criteria, primarily developed by the organization since its founding, that will closely resemble previous CCHIT testing and certification programs. The core CCHIT criteria will be tweaked to ensure systems that pass muster for its more advanced testing program also will meet ARRA requirements.

When it began testing IT systems in 2006, and on through 2008, CCHIT had offered just one, gold-standard set of criteria for each type of EHR system it tested—ambulatory EHRs or inpatient EHRs, for example.

But by April, CCHIT announced it would halt further testing to adapt its systems to accommodate the stimulus law criteria, development of which remains a work in progress. At the time of the announcement, Leavitt said the organization would keep its full-featured certification program, but would add two new testing and certification regimes scaled down to meet the minimum requirements of the stimulus law.

One new program would have tested IT systems by “module” against the new criteria under the recovery act, which requires providers to put “certified” EHR systems to “meaningful use” in order to qualify for federal subsidy payments. The proposed new modular approach was expected to appeal to some physician office practices and, more commonly, to hospitals, that want to piece together a comprehensive IT system from component parts produced by multiple IT vendors.

The other new CCHIT regime would have offered “on-site” testing and certification of EHR systems—again, against the less stringent stimulus law criteria with an eye toward qualifying for federal subsidies. This form of testing would have been conducted on systems installed at physician offices or hospitals. It was an approach targeted to appeal to providers who have developed their own EHRs or planned to assemble an EHR from noncertified sources, and to the open source development community, according to CCHIT.

According to Leavitt Thursday, CCHIT’s testing scheme will be modified again, but only somewhat. While site certification has been dropped as a certification scheme in and of itself, “site certification is still there,” Leavitt said. “In Preliminary ARRA Certification 2011, you can get a product or a site certified.”

Leavitt said it’s unclear whether providers adopting EHRs that have passed the test under the more rigorous CCHIT Certified 2011 program would want on-site certification, but if there is demand for the service, CCHIT will provide it.

Starting in June and running through its latest report in August, the HIT Policy Committee, which was created under the recovery act, has issued three sets of recommended definitions of meaningful use. Some of those recommendations have been controversial. To have market relevance, however, any program of certification of EHR systems that CCHIT develops must take those meaningful use standards into consideration to ensure that certified systems will enable providers to meet meaningful use standards and qualify for federal subsidies. The meaningful use standards, ultimately, will be developed by the CMS, which is tasked with running the bulk of the EHR subsidy program through Medicare and Medicaid.

In addition, CCHIT has to keep an eye on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS, which, on behalf of the HHS secretary, will issue its own certification criteria for EHR systems, since, to qualify for subsidies under the stimulus law, providers also have to use “certified” EHR systems. Leavitt said CCHIT is forecasting ONC will issue its final rule on certification standards by Dec. 31 this year and that they probably will be the same or perhaps even less stringent than the recommendations the HIT Standards Committee made to ONC in August.

“We believe the final requirements will be the same as or less stringent that the current recommendations,” Leavitt said.

Both CCHIT testing and certification programs will open for vendor applications Oct. 7. Duration of certification is expected to run though Dec. 31, 2012, when certification criteria under the ARRA are expected to be ratcheted up, becoming both more numerous and more stringent.

Fees for certifying systems will vary with the certification scheme and the product, according to CCHIT Executive Director Alisa Ray. Under the CCHIT Certified 2011 program, the fee to a vendor to certify an EHR is $37,000 for either an ambulatory-care or an emergency department system, $49,000 for an inpatient system and $18,000 for an electronic prescribing system. Annual renewal costs are $9,000 for each, except e-prescribing, which is $7,000.

For Preliminary ARRA 2011 Certification, costs are pegged to the number of modules being tested, with fees set at $6,000 for one or two modules, $10,000 for three to five, $15,000 for six to 10, $24,000 for 11 to 20 and $33,000 for more than 20. Annual updates range from $1,000 to $5,000.

According to EHR vendor representative Justin Barnes, who listened in on Thursday’s CCHIT call, CCHIT probably has hit on the right strategy by launching its new testing and certification program this fall, based on an educated guess at what the government’s criteria might be, but before the final rules are published. Barnes is the chairman of the Electronic Health Record Association, and a vice president overseeing corporate development, marketing and government affairs for Greenway Medical Technologies, a Carrolton, Ga.-based EHR system developer.

“The detail that we have right now around meaningful use, you really can’t write a product to it,” Barnes said. “The interim final rule will come down at the end of this year. I think that will be a fairly close definition that we could follow. I think it will be plenty to work off of. The certification process, I believe, will be tweaked a little bit as well.”

Barnes said he hopes Leavitt is right when he predicts the ONC and the CMS will not vary too far from the current recommendations in writing the preliminary rules. He also said he hopes they don’t dally in unveiling their preliminary rules so everyone involved, both EHR vendors and users, have time enough to act.

“If there are any discrepancies, that could pose an interest to some people if you have to do heavy product development,” Barnes said. “It takes 12-plus months for the product cycle to add functionality on the ambulatory side and 18-plus months on the inpatient side. There is a word of caution here. That’s why we’ve urged ONC to move on this as fast as they can.”

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