Lee Stevens / Policy Director, State HIE Program
Following our release of Key Considerations for Health Information Organizations Supporting Meaningful Use Stage 2 Transitions of Care, today we’ve posted our second interoperability deep dive document for Health Information Exchange Organizations (HIOs), Key Considerations for Health Information Organizations Supporting Meaningful Use Stage 2 Patient Electronic Access Measures.
Interoperability is achieved when information is exchanged between two or more products or systems and then is able to be used by the person or system that received the information.
The new patient electronic access requirements (View-Download-Transmit and patient secure messaging) under Meaningful Use Stage 2 represent a transformative step forward for health information exchange and interoperability.
When they take effect in January 2014, patients all over the country will find themselves newly empowered with access to their health data.
What does the new interoperability guide cover?
This new report provides HIOs with expanded information about approaches to support the three patient electronic access measures in Stage 2 for achieving interoperability. Built into the document is:
- A review of View-Download-Transmit (VDT) and secure messaging Meaningful Use (MU) objectives and measures
- An overview of associated certification requirements
- A discussion of additional considerations for HIOs supporting VDT and/or patient secure messaging functionality, including potential documentation that may be required if an eligible provider is audited
Interoperability requirements for certified EHR technology Stage 2 use
We also explore requirements for when and how certified EHR technology must be used for Stage 2, as summarized in the following table (Click on image to enlarge).
We hope you find this information useful as you seek to support providers and hospitals in achieving Stage 2 MU objectives. We encourage all readers to use this document in conjunction with the Patient and Family Engagement Interoperability Training Module on healthit.gov.
If you have questions, please contact Lee Stevens, State HIE Policy Office Director, atlee.stevens@hhs.gov
This article was originally published on the ONC’s HealthIT Buzz and is re-published here with permission.