HITPC, mobile health news top health IT headlines this week

This week the Health IT Policy Committee held its December meeting which covered the most recent Meaningful Use incentive figures, how to include patient-generated health data into records and more.

Incentive payments have hit almost $17 billion but another discussion during the meeting was about the barriers rural hospitals face in achieving Meaningful Use. Just acquiring an EHR system is the top challenge, with small facilities struggling to effectively evaluate systems, followed by confusing requirements, relevance of quality measure and leverage for provider compliance. Factors that helped rural hospitals attest included strong consultant or vendor support.

Also this week, Happtique certified its first round of health and medical apps that meet certain benchmarks in privacy, security and operability. Apps certified by the company’s Health App Certification Program (HACP) successfully completed technical testing as well as content testing by independent clinical experts. All developers of the apps also submitted their privacy policies, proof of FDA approval (if applicable) and documentation of content sources.

New legislation introduced in the House seeks to more widely integrate such wireless technologies in federal health agencies to decrease healthcare costs and improve quality of care.

The Health Savings Through Technology Act (H.R. 3577), introduced by Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), would create a commission to inventory existing data, examine the cost savings that can be achieved through the increased use of wireless health technologies and develop a comprehensive strategy for integrating these technologies into federal healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.

Data centers are crucial to managing and effectively using health information and electronic tools but center outages have a heavy financial toll for healthcare organizations, costing an average of $690,000 per incident, according to a Ponemon Institute/Emerson Network Power report.

That rate is a 41 percent increase since 2010. For larger organizations with more extensive IT systems, data center outages could cost $1.74 million per incident.

Does your organization have contingency plans in place to maintain access and security to its data? Please share your experience.

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor