ONC: Public health reporting numbers 'transformative'

Three years after the launch of the Meaningful Use program, at least half of participating hospitals are able to electronically send data to public health agenices for each of three pulbic health reporting measures.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) released a data brief on the rate of electronic sharing of public health data at the same time the information was shared at the monthly federal Health IT Policy Committee meeting. According to 2014 data from the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, hospitals at Stage 2 of Meaningful Use (MU) were electronically reporting to public health more than those that were only attesting to Stage 1. For these Stage 2 hospitals, 88 percent were electronically reporting to immunization registries, 85 percent were electronically submitting lab results and 75 percent successfully reported the syndromic surveillance measure.

Seventy-two percent of Stage 2 hspitals reported, without exclusion, on all applicable public health measures, compared to 5 percent of Stage 1 hospitals, according to the data brief.

Speaking at the meeting, ONC public health analyst Dawn Heisey-Grove said the numbers are transformative. "We're rapidly changing the whole perspective on what can be done in terms of public health."

"We could not be doing what we're doing now without HITECH and Meaningful Use," said Paul Tang, MD, HITPC co-chair. "$30 billion is really a drop in the bucket compared to the $3 trillion spent every year. A lot has been accomplsihed in a few short years. We've really gone from 0 to 60."

Coupling incentive payments to the use of certified health IT increased the uptake of certified healht IT systems that used similar standard for information storage and exchange, according to the brief, and led to public health agencies adapting their systems to the new standards.