Better health information technology (HIT) usability and a continued emphasis on the industry’s movement toward interoperability are important aspects of the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan written by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC), according to The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).
In a letter to the ONC, AAFP Board Chair Reid B. Blackwelder, MD, FAAFP stated that his organization agrees with many aspects of the proposed HIT plan for the next five years. In particular, Blackwelder explained that HIT usability and interoperability are key points in the proposed plan. However, Blackwelder added that it wants to reduce the regulatory burden on providers. The AAFP also has doubts in all three categories – collect, share, use – described by the ONC in its five-year plan.
The ONC released the draft of its federal plan in Dec. 2014, and is accepting comments until Feb. 6. 2015. The draft had an interoperability focus and how health organizations can collect, share and then use data to improve the care process across the nation.
“The 2015 Strategic Plan provides the federal government a strategy to move beyond health care to improve health, use health IT beyond EHRs, and use policy and incentive levers beyond the incentive programs,” Karen DeSalvo, M.D., national coordinator for health IT and acting assistant secretary for health, said in a statement. “The success of this plan is also dependent upon insights from public and private stakeholders and we encourage their comments.”
Essentially, Blackwelder said in his letter that the Department of Health & Human Services would be better suited to to handle the “use” goals. HHS would need to “mirror these goals,” according to Blackwelder, especially as financial incentives need to be aligned around the appropriate care delivery.
“In reviewing the goals for “collect” and “share,” although they are appropriate goals and objectives, we believe they are indistinguishable from the goals and objectives of the prior decade,” Blackwelder wrote. “We are concerned that work has not been done to determine why these goals have not been achieved during the past ten or more years and how the tactics and activities of the next ten years will be different.”
Another concern Blackwelder brought up is that current successes were not brought up in the federal plan. More providers are adopting HIT and secure, interoperable exchanges are being used across the healthcare industry.
“We believe that the strategic plan should leverage these successes to support the goals of the plan,” the AAFP Chair explained. “Thus, we are concerned about the apparent absence of any short-term (1-3 year) goals to continue the momentum of these successes.”
Overall, the AAFP wants continued and “significant movement” toward achieving the three-part aim, Blackwelder said.
“We believe that focusing on key capabilities that health care organizations and providers really need could assure the concerted efforts. We propose that Population Health Management, Care Coordination, and Patient Engagement be the key capabilities focused on for the near term.”
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