Tomorrow, January 29, 2013, the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee and HIT Standards Committee will hold a joint hearing from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to:

• Provide an update on health information exchange activity across the nation,
• Assess the exchange needs of providers as they take on new payment models, and
• Discuss additional steps ONC can take to accelerate and reduce the cost of health information exchange for providers and patients across organizational and vendor boundaries.

The hearing will take place at the Dupont Circle Hotel located at 1500 New Hampshire Avenue N.W., in Washington D.C. The ONC is also inviting anyone to join by webcast.

The hearing will be comprised of four panels:

1.      Health Information Exchange Enabling Healthcare Transformation

• What specific exchange functions have you deployed to support accountable care (ACOs, medical homes, other improvement initiatives)? Why did you prioritize these services?
• What measurable or observable impact have you seen on health care quality, cost and improved process? What services have had the biggest impact? Lessons learned?

2. Technical and Business Barriers to Interoperability and Exchange and Opportunities

• What additional steps can be taken to increase interoperability and information exchange across vendors and providers? What business practices by providers and vendors are currently blocking health information following patients to support patient care? What can be done to address cultural and economic disincentives for HIE that result in “data lock-in”?
• Which of the following new payment models are having the greatest impact on incentivizing health information exchange: hospital readmission penalties, value based purchasing, bundled payments, ACOs, Medicare Advantage, or patient-centered medical homes? Are they providing the business case for providers to exchange across organizational boundaries?

3.      Governance Barriers and Opportunities for Health Information Exchange

• What are the key near-term challenges and opportunities to create a trusted environment for securely sharing health information across providers, vendors and HIOs/HISPs?
• ONC wishes to encourage health information exchange governance entities to come together to identify common solutions to common problems
  • What deliverables and goals should the group have?
  • What issues should the group focus on?
  • What other considerations are critical for the success of such an activity?

4. Consumer-Mediated Health Information Exchange

• What would it mean for patients to be an “HIE of one” (e.g., patients can access, aggregate and share their own information)? How would this help in care coordination? What would it require?
• What are the opportunities and challenges to enable this kind of consumer-mediated exchange in the next two years?

Learn more about the hearing and how to participate.