HHS requests feedback on accelerating info exchange

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a request for information (RFI) as it considers policy moves to further accelerate interoperability and health information exchange beyond initiatives previously launched under the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

With the adoption of basic EHR systems well underway, HHS has turned its attention to accelerating information exchange. “We seek to build on that work by engaging other policy areas within HHS jurisdiction to promote routine sharing of information among healthcare providers across settings of care to support care coordination and delivery system reform,” the department noted in the RFI. “We also recognize that economic and regulatory barriers may impair the development of a patient-centered, information-rich, high-performance healthcare system where persons’ health information follows them wherever they access healthcare services.”

That means expanding from acute care hospitals and physician practices to other care settings, such as long-term care facilities, and rehabilitation and psychiatric hospitals. Under fee-for-service, many providers and software vendors still do not have a business imperative to share health information, HHS stated.

The RFI detailed potential options to accelerate HIE progress, including:

• Expand states’ authority to rely less on traditional Medicaid forms of payment, which would encourage HIE, and remove other state-level regulatory barriers to data exchange;
• Expand HIE requirements for new accountable care organizations, bundled payments and primary care programs; and
• Develop new measures of care coordination that encourage records sharing during care transitions in Meaningful Use and quality reporting programs.

Comments are due by April 21.