Yesterday, at an mHealth event in Washington DC, Michael Fitzmaurice of AHRQ stated:
We’ll tell the world what meaningful use is on 6/16.
Referring to the next meeting of the ONC Policy Committee.If this indeed comes true, Chilmark will feel pretty good about this as it is something we predicted back on April 30th.
Many a vendor will also breath a sigh of relief as the delay in a meaningful use definition, which is required as part of the ARRA stimulus funding for EHRs, has stalled the market. But that raises another question: Will the market continue to keep checkbooks in their drawers awaiting the definition of “certified EHRs?”
Hopefully, when it comes to certified EHRs, ONC will take a more measured and rational approach as advocated by the likes of the Markle Foundation, Adam Bosworth (former head of Google Health and one of the original developers of XML standard), Chilmark Research and many others rather than the approach that one legislator down in the Garden State of New Jersey has proposed in recent legislation that states, and I kid you not:
A prohibition on the sale or distribution in this State of HIT products that have not been certified by CCHIT…
Needless to say, it appears (thanks Mr. HIStalk) that this legislator has fans in Chicago (HIMSS), who, as we all know, is a big time supporter of all things CCHIT.
The Consumer Partnership for eHealth has developed a consumer pathway to “meaningful use” of HIT, and has developed specific elements to get us there (interim) by 2011 and (more extensive) by 2013. See http://ixcenterblog.org/ for summary.
CJ responds to Mark Leavitt…OOPS!
CCHIT chair Mark Leavttt has reportedly lied regarding the Federal Standard for HIMSS’ conflict of interest with CCHIT. Leavitt was a HIMSS operative and HIMSS employee up to Jan 1, 2009 according to very important corporate records. Such records are undoubtedly under the scrutiny of the Internal Revenue Service and the subject of great concern at upcoming hearings inside the Beltway…OOPS! Somebody forgot to tell Mr Leavitt to tell the truth about who his boss is, and it ain’t Bruce Springstein! IRS docs show Leavitt received the standard employee benefits package, you know like expensive Health Insurance paid for by the employer, HIMSS. How about those travel perks too; lodging, meals, per diem allowance, cab fare, blackberry, incidentals- we are supposed to believe he doesn’t work for HIMSS when HIMSS pays all the bills. THen why is Leavitt listed as “left employment from HIMSS on Jan 1, 2009”? We want to know how many BONUS BUCKS Leavitt got from 2005-2009 (and other payments). How much was put into his 401k for the same period? Oh by the way converting cash and other benefits into, as Leavitt puts it, “LOANS” doesn’t fly by the IRS, who will and can impute all of this as taxable income. Leavitt has received in excess of $10,000 and has violated the Federal Standard he mentioned in the Health Blog. OOPS! Not disclosing the compensation on grant applications is the same as LYING to the Federal Government. It’s time for Leavitt and Lieber to admit they both work for HIMSS and that CCHIT is for-profit organization nested within HIMSS. Time for the HIMSS BOD to cleanup: ask Lieber to step down as CCHIT Trustee Chair and Mark Leavitt to confess, admit defeat and resign. Remove hand from cookie jar.
cj
More interesting comments appear on the WSJ. It appears that more than just a few people are upset about the relationships between Leavitt/Lieber, CCHIT/HIMSS and they are actively speaking their minds on the web, clearly calling for investigations and disclosure, revocation and penalties.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/06/05/gawande-at-harvard-health-system-is-failing-our-people/tab/comments/#comment-505809
Will be really interesting to see what they come up with. Glad to see CCHIT renounced the NJ bill. There’s even more to the financial implications: http://www.emrandhipaa.com/emr-and-hipaa/2009/06/08/financial-ties-to-nj-bill-to-make-non-cchit-ehr-use-illegal/
Um John the Policy committee is just an advisory board and won’t be the ones to make the rules. Also in the ONC’s one strategic plan they are very clear that this isn’t the mechanism that will be used.
http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/reports/plans/onc_hit.pdf
Define “Meaningful Use of an EHR”: Recovery Act §4101- The Recovery Act authorizes that incentive payments may be made to eligible professionals and hospitals that are using EHRs in a meaningful way. Specific understanding of what constitutes meaningful use will be determined through a process that will include broad stakeholder input and discussion. HHS is developing milestones for major phases of the program’s activities with planned delivery dates.
There will be a public process, then ONC will come up with a policy statement, CMS will operationalize it, etc.