Industry Leaders and Experts Add their Views to the Stage 2 Discussion

Judy Hanover, research director at IDC Health Insights in Framingham, Mass., says that the NPRM follows pretty closely the recommendations of the federal HIT Policy Committee and Standards Committee. “I think the increase in requirements for e-prescribing and decision support infrastructure is great,” she says. Hanover also thinks it makes sense to allow physicians in the same practice to report together. (CMS is proposing a group reporting option to allow Medicare providers within a single group practice to report core and menu objective data through a batch file process in lieu of individual Medicare EP attestation through the CMS Attestation website.) “I like the cross-tabulation in clinical quality measures with other CMS programs such as PQRS,” she adds. “If they can simplify submission, it would be good, but it remains to be seen how it will be implemented.”

Bob Schwyn, a principal with the Pittsburgh-based consulting firm Aspen Advisors LLC, says CIOs should pay close attention to the clinical quality measures section of the NPRM, which he believes raises the bar pretty significantly. He said that with Stage 1, some clients manually tabulated results while others were content to rest on their laurels that they were using a certified EHR to meet the measure. “But there should be an increased focus on the quality of data being gathered through the EHR and how that information is incorporated into quality improvement programs,” Schwyn says.

Both Hanover and Schwyn note that the language in the patient engagement section clarifies what is required of patient portals. In Stage 1, Schwyn says, providers tried lots of different ways to provide “electronic copies” of health records to patients, including handing them thumb drives, CDs, etc., rather than thinking about what made most sense from a business perspective.

Healthcare Informatics will continue to share the perspectives of industry leaders on the release of the Stage 2 NPRM in the coming days and weeks.