HHS SAYS MORE PHYSICIANS, HOSPITALS USING ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS (EHRs)

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 

More physicians and hospitals are using EHRs than before

CDC data provides baseline for EHR adoption among health care providers

Significant increases in the use of electronic health records (EHRs) among the nation’s physicians and hospitals are detailed in two new studies published today by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

The studies, published in the journal Health Affairs, found that in 2013, almost eight in ten (78 percent) office-based physicians reported they adopted some type of EHR system. About half of all physicians (48 percent) had an EHR system with advanced functionalities in 2013, a doubling of the adoption rate in 2009.

About 6 in 10 (59 percent) hospitals had adopted an EHR system with certain advanced functionalities in 2013, quadruple the percentage for 2010. Unlike the physician study, the hospital study does not have an equivalent, established measure of adoption of some type of EHR system; it only reports on adoption of EHRs with advanced functionalities.

“Patients are seeing the benefits of health IT as a result of the significant strides that have been made in the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records,” said Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., national coordinator for health information technology. “We look forward to working with our partners to ensure that people’s digital health information follows them across the care continuum so it will be there when it matters most.”

The information in the studies was collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics and the American Hospital Association in 2013.

These data provide an early baseline understanding of provider readiness to achieve Stage 2 Meaningful Use of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive programs.  Stage 2 will begin later this year for providers who first attested to Stage 1 Meaningful Use in 2011 or 2012. About 75 percent of eligible professionals and more than 91 percent of hospitals have adopted or demonstrated Stage 1 Meaningful Use of certified EHRs.

The studies also show that more work is needed to support widespread health information exchange and providers’ ability to achieve Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Among the details include the following:

In 2013, health information exchange among physicians was relatively low: 4 in 10 (39 percent) reported they electronically share data with other providers, but only 14 percent electronically share data with ambulatory care providers or hospitals outside their organization.
In 2013, the vast majority of hospitals had capabilities that could be used to support many Meaningful Use Stage 2 objectives but were not being used. However, 10 percent of hospitals were providing patients with online access to view, download, and transmit information about their hospital admission.
Throughout 2014, HHS has prioritized its efforts to support providers in achieving Meaningful Use Stage 2 and work toward an interoperable health system that enables nationwide health information exchange. These include:

On-the-ground support from many of the 62 ONC-funded regional extension centers to more than 150,000 providers that serve all types of patients, including Medicare, Medicaid, private pay, and uninsured, helping them use their EHRs to meet the Stage 2 measures such as those for clinical quality improvement, transitions of care, care coordination, and the privacy and security requirements;
Sharing tools and resources to support providers in engaging their patients in their health and health care using health IT tools, and to help meet the “view, download, and transmit measure” needed to achieve Meaningful Use Stage 2; and
Webinars, user guides, tip sheets, listserv subscriptions and other educational resources provided by the CMS eHealth University and available on the CMS website.

HHS TOUTS "SECURE HEALTH DATA" AS AN IMPROVEMENT IN CARE

FROM: U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Secure health data helping patients, doctors improve care and health

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the release of new data and new opportunities for researchers and developers at the beginning of Health Datapalooza IV. This is the fourth annual national conference on health data transparency, which brings together government, non-profit, and private sector organizations to look at the potential for open data from HHS and other sources to help improve health and health care.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today released new data – including county-level data on Medicare spending and utilization for the first time, as well as selected data on hospital outpatient charges. In addition, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released additional information on the adoption of specific electronic health record (EHR) systems, as well as the winners of new opportunities for building innovative tools that build off health data.

"A more data driven and transparent health care marketplace can help consumers and their families make important decisions about their care," said Secretary Sebelius. "The administration is committed to making the health system more transparent and harnessing data to empower consumers."

Today HHS released data and tools that will help researchers and consumers take advantage of health information:
Building on the release last month of the average charges for the 100 most common inpatient procedures, CMS today released selected hospital outpatient data that includes estimates for average charges for 30 types of hospital outpatient procedures from hospitals across the country, such as clinic visits, echocardiograms, and endoscopies.
CMS today released new data sets for the first time at the county level: one on Medicare spending and utilization, and another on Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. Both data sets will enable researchers, data innovators and the public to better understand Medicare spending and service use, spurring innovation and increasing transparency, while protecting the privacy of beneficiaries. The data will also be available through an interactive state level dashboard based on the spending information, allowing users of any skill level to quickly access and use the data.
ONC released data today from the Regional Extension Centers about the different brands of EHR products used by 146,000 doctors by state, specialty, and each doctor’s stage in meaningful use attestation.
HHS is also co-sponsoring a national competition – known as a "code-a-palooza" – to design an innovative app or tool using Medicare data that primary care providers can use to help manage patient care. The national competition, sponsored by ONC, the Health Data Consortium
, and the cloud software company Socrata, will give $25,000 in prizes to the teams of coders and medical experts that build the best tools or apps by the end of Datapalooza.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is demonstrating the latest applications of its two powerful health databases, the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). HCUP is the largest collection of longitudinal hospital care data in the U.S., representing 97 percent of all inpatient hospital discharges. MEPS is the most complete source of U.S. data on the cost and use of health care services and insurance coverage, obtained through large-scale, annual surveys of families, individuals, medical providers and employers.
ONC in coordination with the Health Resources and Services Administration selected the winners of the Apps4TotsHealth Challenge, which was launched to help parents and caregivers of young children better manage their nutrition and physical activity. The winning developers, researchers, and other innovators make use of Healthdata.gov data to strengthen these tools and make them more user-friendly. More on the winners here.
ONC also announced today the launch of the Blue Button Co-Design Challenge, designed to spur the creation of new applications that will allow patients to better use their own health data to improve their own care. The challenge will ask the public to vote on ideas from which developers will build tools to address health priorities determined by public voting.