Group Recommends Faster Paths to Health IT Interoperability

February 18, 2016 - Health IT interoperability is a key area for elevating health system value identified by a coalition of industry stakeholdersHealth IT interoperability is a key area for elevating health system value identified by a coalition of industry stakeholders. The Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) published a set of recommendations on Feb. 17, taking into consideration care planning, medication management, IT interoperability, legal barriers, information flow improvements and Food and Drug Administration reforms.

The report — informed by HLC’s National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation (NDHI), a platform for health industry collaboration — offers a blueprint for policymakers to drive health system transformation.

The companies and organizations involved in the NDHI initiative support establishment of a Dec. 31, 2018 deadline for achieving nationwide exchange of health information through interoperable certified EHR technologies.

“A system built on accessible information and secure, meaningful data sharing will elevate healthcare delivery, advance quality and cost-efficiency, and enable new strides in medical research,” the HLC document states.

Accordingly, all NDHI members agree on the following points:

• Policymakers should encourage use of technologies and applications that enable bidirectional and real-time exchange of health data currently residing in in EHR systems.
• Only those EHR technology products that do not block or otherwise inhibit health information exchange should be certified.
• The federal government should work with the private sector to build on current and emerging best practices in patient identification and matching. The aim in this area would be “to identify solutions to ensure the accuracy of every patient’s identity — and the availability and accessibility of their information — absent lengthy and costly efforts, wherever and whenever care is needed,” the report states.
• Interoperability requirements or incentives should be “technology-neutral” and focused on outcomes rather than on adoption or use of specified technologies. The report emphasizes that future policies should not “stifle innovations in health system connectivity.”

Beyond those areas, NDHI advocated for more ambitious goals, including the national objective for achieving widespread health information exchange by the end of 2018. Additionally, the group said consumers should have easy and secure access to their electronic health information and be able to direct it to any desired location — with assurance that it will be “effectively and safely used to their benefit.”

“By bringing together the ideas and technological expertise from both the public and private sectors, interoperability is an achievable goal that can and should be accelerated through innovation and partnership between government and the private sector,” the document states.

The report also points out that diverse state laws create barriers to the implementation of health information exchanges within and across state borders. “Healthcare organizations have long advocated for the harmonization of national and state privacy and security requirements in order to simplify compliance and facilitate greater information sharing, and promote patient access,” the report states. “We believe that a broader harmonization that would clearly incorporate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act governing standards would benefit the healthcare system without creating any material adverse impact on individuals.”

Additionally, the report calls for more government cooperation with the private sector in building a national infrastructure in support of matching patients to their health information across all care settings.

“Positive health system transformation does not require a wholesale remaking of health delivery structures, but rather the enabling and acceleration of patient-centered innovation,” the report concludes.