HIT Policy Committee on Meaningful Use Definition
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Two big events this week, no doubt what everyone will be talking about. Monday, Obama will be speaking in Chicago at the 158th annual meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) on the need for health care reform. Not to ruin their string of 70 years of fighting any major health reform, the AMA has been vocal this past week against the president’s plan. The AMA president, Dr. Nancy Nielsen’s address to the groups delegates called for; “No more short-term fixes. No more waiting. No more promises.”
The AMA is the largest physician’s lobby that represents a quarter of a million doctors. But that is only ¼ of the nation’s doctors and why some say they are losing their clout. Can you really speak for a profession when only a quarter of them join your team? No doubt everyone will be tweeting from the AMA meeting.
Tuesday, the Health IT (HIT) Policy Committee will hold its second meeting. You can participate via web cast or audio.
In the first meeting, three points were addressed. First, “the focus is not on information technology, but on how to make the health system better.” Second, the ARRA HIT provisions were a down payment on the administrations broader goals of comprehensive health care reform. Third, the ARRA HIT provisions needs to result in three things; Improving population health, improving individual health, and health system efficiency.
Tuesday’s meeting promises to unveil recommendations, from a workgroup, on the definition of “meaningful use” of electronic health records. This has been confirmed by a senior special advisor to ONCHIT, John Glaser. Glaser said in an email to Health Data Management, “This definition, if approved by the committee, will be forwarded to ONC for consideration.”
Our predictions of what the blogs will be talking about?
Could Health IT be the root of reform?
Can Health IT cut health care costs?
Did Obama win over AMA?
Who is the winner in the “meaningful use” show down?
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