Health Information

Implementation Briefs

Transforming Health Care Delivery

Categories: Health Care Quality and Delivery System Reform, Health Information, Health Insurance, Long Term Care, Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare

Posted on January 16, 2013

Experts and stakeholders agree the current health care system is unsustainable. By 2020, health care spending will comprise almost 20% of the gross domestic product. Furthermore, an ever growing body of evidence clearly indicates that the system is not experiencing improvements in quality that are reflective of the cost growth. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) takes significant strides towards the transformation of the American health care delivery system from a system that rewards volume to a system that rewards quality and value. The programs and initiatives...

Update: AHRQ Project to Develop a Health Information Rating System

Categories: Health Information, Implementation Update

Posted on January 9, 2013

Previous implementation briefs have addressed the electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs enacted by the HITECH Act, part of ARRA. These programs financially incentivize adoption of EHR technology that meets standards of interoperability and accessibility, among other criteria, and incentivize providers to use the technology to engage with patients and improve patient care. Among other goals, the EHR incentive program is intended to improve patient...

Improving Care Coordination – Spurring Use of Health Information Technology in Long-Term Care

Categories: Health Care Quality and Delivery System Reform, Health Information, Long Term Care, Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare

Posted on November 14, 2012

Historically, the American health care system through its siloed delivery and reimbursement models has failed to support a patient-centered and coordinated delivery system. Fragmentation has resulted in a health care system where potentially avoidable hospital readmissions, duplicative testing, and medication errors are common. Widespread adoption and use of Health Information Technology (HIT) has the potential to decrease these occurrences by enabling providers to electronically exchange health information with other providers and their patients across settings of care to better coordinate patient care. Recognizing the potential benefit of widespread use of HIT, in 2009 Congress authorized...

Update: Health Information Technology – Adoption Incentives

Categories: Health Information, Implementation Update

Posted on October 11, 2012

A previous Implementation Brief discussed the electronic health record (EHR) incentive program enacted by the HITECH Act, which is part of ARRA^[1]. Stage 1 of that program began in 2011 and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that through July 2012, more than $6 billion in Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments had been made to 132,511 physicians and hospitals that demonstrated meaningful use of EHRs^[2]. On August 23, 2012, CMS published a final rule on the Stage 2 Meaningful Use criteria that eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must meet to qualify as meaningful users of electronic health records (EHRs) and receive incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid programs^[3]. This final rule builds upon the Stage 2 proposed rule, released on March 7, 2012. The Stage 2 final rule also revises certain Stage 1 criteria, which were finalized in the July 28, 2010 final rule^[5]. Stage 1 of the incentive program was designed to encourage providers to move key clinical data into an electronic format, and focused on establishing the functionalities of a certified EHR system^[6]. With the final rule, CMS continues its incremental approach to continuing this transitional process and strikes a balance between stakeholders calling for Stage 2 to require demonstrated improvements in care as a result of EHR use and those seeking more flexibility in the rules, with incentives simply to acquire EHR technology.

Update: Data Collection Standards Under the Essential Health Benefits Final Rule

Categories: Health Information, Implementation Update

Posted on September 5, 2012

By Nancy Lopez Background On July 20, 2012, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a final rule[1] establishing data collection standards for health insurance issuers as part of HHS’s implementation of certain aspects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) essential health benefit provisions.[2] As discussed in an [...]

Administrative Simplification: Adoption of Operating Rules for Health Plan Eligibility and Health Care Claim Status Transactions

Categories: Health Care Quality and Delivery System Reform, Health Information, Health Insurance, Implementation Update

Posted on April 13, 2012

On July 8, 2011 the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an Interim Final Rule with Comment Period (IFR) regarding the operating rules for two types of HIPAA transactions: eligibility for a health plan and health care claim status. The rules are in response to Section 1104 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which directed the Secretary to adopt certain operating rules for transactions to enable electronic health information exchange and create greater uniformity in the transmission of health information. The ACA defines operating rules as...

Release of Medicare Data for Performance Measurement

Categories: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Health Care Quality and Delivery System Reform, Health Information, Implementation Update, Medicare

Posted on July 6, 2011

Health policy experts and lawmakers believe that measuring and publicly reporting information about the performance of physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers is critical to improving health care quality and controlling costs. Advancing health information access and transparency is a goal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which includes a number of provisions to incentivize quality measurement and reporting and to enable more informed consumer decision-making.

Health Information Privacy and Security

Categories: Health Information

Posted on December 13, 2010

The health reform law makes no major revisions to legislation enacted in 2009 to strengthen the standards for health information privacy and security. However, because protection of individuals’ interests in the privacy and security of their health information is foundational to the implementation of many aspects of health reform, this entry summarizes the key provisions of the 2009 law and describes the process of implementation as well as activities to date.

Health Information Technology – Adoption Incentives

Categories: Health Care Quality and Delivery System Reform, Health Information

Posted on May 3, 2010

The health reform law makes no major revisions to provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 to move the nation toward a national health information policy and create incentives for the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (HIT). However, because the adoption and use of HIT is foundational to the implementation of many aspects of health reform, this entry summarizes the key provisions of the 2009 law.