CHIME urges Congress to help improve care for chronic conditions
CHIME has sent a letter to the Chronic Care Working Group of the Senate Committee on Finance to develop policies that will enable better healthcare for chronically sick patients.
Signed by CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell and CHIME Board Chair Marc Probst, CIO at Intermountain Healthcare, the organization calls for removing existing policy barriers, facilitating interoperability across the care continuum, strengthening telehealth reimbursement policies under Medicare and fostering quality measurement policies that enable delivery system reform.
Removing barriers to boosting chronic care will require flexibility in the resource and reimbursement options available to healthcare providers as they start to adopt new payment and delivery models, according to the organization.
CHIME also noted the need for interoperability, urging the committee to focus on policies that will drive the secure exchange of health data. The organization said the committee could leverage the Meaningful Use program to ensure that providers have systems capable of exchanging data.
CHIME also urged the committee to boost the use of telehealth by addressing cross-state licensure issues, which often pose legal barriers.
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Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.