Congress has requested a Health IT Policy Committee task force to develop recommendations for addressing technical and financial barriers to EHR interoperability, Paul Tang, MD, MS, vice chair of the HITPC, said during the group's June 30 meeting.
After all the hearings, workgroups and reports, Tang said the new task force will summarize of all the information gathered. “In addition, we’ll look at sort of a new area that we haven’t talked about in depth, which is the financial barriers to interoperability. And, we all know that plays a key role.”
Many stakeholders believe the biggest barriers to interoperability aren't technical but business related with economic disincentives the main cause of the struggle. Tang said that the HITPC task force will provide input to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT on the financial barriers to interoperability to help inform office's report to Congress.
Editor
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.