• On July 7, the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT (ONC) announced an additional funding opportunity limited to applicants that are either currently funded as a Regional Extension Center (REC) or new applicants not currently funded in specific regions in the nation not yet covered by an REC, specifically: Orange County, California; the State of New Hampshire and select counties in the State of Florida. Applications must be submitted by August 6th. (see Grant.gov 7/7/2010 http://www.grants.gov/, Search per Catalogue of Federal Assistance (CFDA) number 93.718 or funding number EP-HIT-09-003-W3)

• On July 19th, the eHealth Initiative released a new report entitled: “The State of Health Information Exchange in 2010: Connecting the Nation to Achieve Meaningful Use”, which details findings from its Seventh Annual National Survey on Health Information Exchange. The survey compiles information from a survey of 234 active health information exchange initiatives (HIEs) in the country, of which 56 are State designated entities. The report found that among the 199 respondents, there are 79 initiatives considered “operational” or currently exchanging health data – up from 57 in 2009 – and that while more exchange-oriented organizations appear to be self sustaining than last year, sustainability remains an issue. The primary improvements reported from participation are: reducing clinical administrative time, reducing time processing laboratory andradiology results and reducing cost by (partially) eliminating redundant testing The complete report may be found at: http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/

• Congress is already weighing back in, providing oversight with regard to HITECH implementation. On July 20th, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health held a hearing, introduced by Chairman Pete Stark, on promoting the adoption of and meaningful use of HIT. The somewhat contentious discussion focused on DHHS efforts to move forward with regard to the new proposed certification and final “meaningful use” rules for Stage 1 of the Medicare and Medicaid incentives. Members questioned David Blumenthal, MD of ONC and Tony Trenkle of the CMS Office of E-Health Standards and Services about likely effectiveness of the final rules. Some Republicans questioned whether the final rules went too far in favor of providers, setting the bar too low at the onset. Other Members inquired about privacy and security, the impact on rural and underserved communities, and the effect on multi-campus providers who can otherwise only get support as if they were a single entity. Additional information including witness testimony may be found at: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings/hearingDetails.aspx?NewsID=11261

• On July 22nd the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) together with The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) held a webinar entitled: “Audio Training on the Final Rules for ONC Certification and Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.” The presentation slides are available at: http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/downloads
/TempCert-SCC-Slides-072210.pdf

An audio recording will be available on the CMS site at a later date.

Additional webinars offering guidance are being planned by the Office of the National Coordinator and will be announced in Technology in Focus “What’s Happening”.

• On Tuesday, July 27th, the House Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health held its own hearing on: “Implementation of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical (HITECH) Act” also featuring Drs. Blumenthal and Tony Trenkle of CMS. Among other issues, Committee Members discussed the manner in which multi-facility hospital providers would receive incentives, and whether the new certification process for electronic health records could be implemented fast enough to meet HITECH incentive timetables.
The Committee staff briefing memo, a link to the witness testimony, and video of the hearing may be found at: http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2090:hearing-on
-implementation-of-the-health-information-technology
-for-economic-and-clinical-health-hitech-
act&catid=132:subcommittee-on-health&Itemid=72

• The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened a joint public meeting on July 26th and 27th on Wireless Medical Technologies. The two-day meeting was prompted by recommendations of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan to unleash the power of broadband to improve health while cutting costs. Panels of more than 30 experts, led by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowscki and White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra were scheduled to kick-off the program. Following the joint public meeting, the FCC and FDA signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the agencies would work together to create an efficient regulatory structure for wireless-enabled medical devices and services. The agreement contains a five-year sunset provision.

Considerable additional information including a link to the FCC/FDA Memorandum of Understanding may be found at: http://reboot.fcc.gov/workshops/fcc-fda-joint-meeting-on-life-saving-wireless-medical-technology

• Government Health IT reports that 30 organizations requested applications to become a temporary EMR certification body and that six completed applications have been received by the ONC. This would mean beginning this fall, there may be several certification bodies rather than just one as in the past. Dr David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for HIT, stated that having several temporary certification bodies would allow “more opportunity, a broader pipeline for certification, hopefully more price competition and shorter waiting times…”. CCHIT, the only existing certification body, was not grandfathered by ONC and has to go through the evaluation process like all other applicants. EMR certifications should be announced starting in the fall after the certification bodies have been approved and testing completed.
http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?tid=65&nid=74280

• Tony Trenkle of CMS, speaking at this month’s HIT Policy Committee Meeting, gave some insight into the Stage 2 meaningful use requirements. He reported that the 10 optional elements in the modified Stage 1 requirements would become mandatory in Stage 2. He also stated that many of the thresholds that were relaxed for Stage 1 would be enforced at the original levels in Stage 2. For instance the threshold of 40% for eprescribing would be raised back to 70% in Stage 2. The Stage 2 requirements are expected to be published later this year and go into effect in 2013. (http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/policy/
showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226100125&queryText=
stage%202%20meaningful%20use).