assn.org/resources/doc/washington/ehr- meaningful-use-testimony-03may2013 .pdf.
Senators want HITECH Act reviewed
Six Republican senators voiced “signifi- cant concerns” with the government’s implementation of the Health Informa- tion Technology for Economic and Clini- cal Health (HITECH) Act and meaning- ful use program in a letter to U.S. De- partment of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The letter says their concerns include “the lack of data to support the Admin- istration’s assertions that this taxpayer investment is being appropriately spent and actually achieving the goal of in- teroperable health IT.” They also asked for a list of every contract or task order awarded under the HITECH Act. A 28-page white paper, “REBOOT: Re- examining the Strategies Needed to Suc- cessfully Adopt Health IT,” accompanied the letter. It lists five implementation deficiencies:
1. Lack of a clear path toward interoper- ability,
2. Increased costs, 3. Lack of oversight, 4. Patient privacy at risk, and 5. Program sustainability.
To read the white paper, visit http://1.
usa.gov/11aglPX. TMA has shared some of the same concerns in various comment letters to HHS and the Office of the National Coor- dinator for Health Information Technol- ogy (ONC).
“In our experience, interoperability and HIE [health information exchange] is still extremely difficult to accomplish despite several years of meaningful use,” Joseph Schneider, MD, chair of TMA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Health Information Technology, said in a letter to federal of- ficials. “We have found that each vendor
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