Will HIE efforts be sustained?

During the past month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) presented their strategy to accelerate health information exchange (HIE).

The agencies issued a request for information (RFI) back in March, the results of which played a big part of the strategy going forward, they said.

Health IT “intermediates, enables and supports better capabilities” for population health management, care coordination and patient empowerment, said Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, national coordinator for health IT. “We recognize that this doesn’t take place within a vacuum. How the tools are used are critically related to how care is paid for and incentives for healthcare providers.”

This ties into the collaboration between agencies, which are necessary to aggressively move forward, he said. ONC and CMS already are moving care payment away from volume toward value, he said. Despite the efforts made regarding accountable care, bundled payments and health homes, “we recognize it is not enough,” said Mostashari. “We want to signal clearly our commitment to the concept that patients’ information should flow wherever the patient goes. Coordination should be rewarded. We wish to communicate as clearly as possible that we intend to develop and implement a set of policies and programs that encourage providers to routinely exchange health information through an interoperable system in support of care coordination across healthcare settings.”

Suggestions to drive HIE included use of payment models, involving providers such as long-term care and behavioral health and voluntary health IT certification. “We can’t rely on any one tool to achieve our goals. We need a coordinated strategy to accelerate exchange across the healthcare system. There is no one-size-fits-all for how information is going to be exchanged.”

Meanwhile, Mostashari—arguably the biggest driver of information exchange—announced that he will leave his post as national coordinator for health IT. His replacement will certainly have a roadmap guiding the route to more exchange of information but will he or she feel as strongly about it, and therefore, push just as aggressively?

Please share your thoughts.

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor