Industry letter seeks incentives for EHR, remote patient monitoring interoperability
Incentivized integration between EHRs and remote patient monitoring would lead to better use of patient-generated data in payment reform efforts. That’s the message sent to the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees in a letter from several industry organizations.
The letter to Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Reps. Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Sandy Levin, D-Mich., is a response to discussions about repealing the sustainable growth rate formula and reforming the Medicare physician payment system. The American Telemedicine Association, Continua Health Alliance, Association for Competitive Technology and Telecommunications Industry Association urged the use of open and voluntary standards for interoperability between remote patient monitoring devices and EHRs.
“As you consider the future of the sustainable growth rate formula, we urge you to ensure that incentives for the adoption of interoperable electronic health records encompass the full panoply of patient health data – including data generated from remote monitoring systems," the letter reads.
It goes on to say that remote monitoring has significant health and financial benefits, including connecting “patients and healthcare providers outside of healthcare facilities, allowing for ongoing treatment and for early discovery of the warning signs for ailments such as congestive heart failure, pneumonia, myocardial infraction and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.”
Actively involving patients in their own care empowers them and makes them more likely to make healthy lifestyle changes, the groups also wrote. “Interoperable remote monitoring improves care, reduces hospitalizations, helps avoid complications and improves satisfaction, particularly for the most chronically ill.” The potential cost savings could result in savings of $36 billion worldwide by 2018, according to the letter.
The letter implores that Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) incentives require EHR systems to incorporate open, voluntary and consensus-based industry standards for interoperability with remote patient monitoring systems; and that HHS establishes target goals for the use of remote patient monitoring of patient-generated health data for treated patients with one or more high priority conditions.
Read the entire letter.
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.