State Seeking Input on How to Spend Health IT Funds

The Massachusetts Health Information Technology Council has scheduled five hearings to hear suggestions how it should implement electronic health records (EHRs) and health information exchanges (HIE) for physicians and hospitals across the state.

Depending on who's doing the estimating, Massachusetts will get between $40 million and $70 million over the next year from the federal stimulus bill to promote EHRs and HIEs. What should we spend it on? The council wants to hear suggestions.

The hearings will be held at five locations from April 13 to April 28.

April 13
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Massachusetts Medical Society
860 Winter St.
Waltham, MA

April 14
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Baystate Educational Center (up to 75 people)
361 Whitney Avenue
Holyoke, MA

April 22
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Plymouth South Middle School
488 Long Pond Rd
Plymouth

April 27
10:00 am – 12:00 pm Boston
1 Ashburton Place
21st floor, Conference Rooms 2 & 3
Boston
(This hearing will focus specifically on issues pertaining to public health)
 
April 28
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Worcester City Hall
Levi Lincoln Chamber
455 Main Street
Worcester

Here are the questions that the council says it wants to explore:

1. What are the greatest barriers and challenges facing physicians and hospitals in implementing EHRs/HIEs that will qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments?
   Are there different types of barriers for Primary Care, Specialists or different specialties?
2. What implementation strategies should the Commonwealth pursue to assist hospitals, physicians, health centers, and others to qualify for federal incentive payments to adopt and implement Electronic Health Records (EHRs) with a Health Information Exchange (HIE)?
   Should we prioritize by provider types?
   Should HIE be a high priority where there is substantial penetration of EHRs?
3. What types of financing strategies, should the Commonwealth consider to assist hospitals and physicians to implement EHRs and HIEs?
   How should the State prioritize using its limited funds?
4. What other kinds of assistance do physicians and hospitals require to adopt these technologies?
5. Under the Federal Stimulus bill, there are significant changes to the Privacy rules/HIPAA which create conflicts between HIE and privacy. How should information be exchanged or shared without compromising the security of the data, and the privacy of the patient?
6. What are the major challenges that Public Health Hospitals and community health centers will encounter and how can stimulus funds assist them?
7. How can the state best ensure that EHR/HIE implementation will enhance population health and allow local communities and the state to enhance public health reporting and surveillance?
8. What outcomes should the federal government and the state track to document the benefit of EHR/CPOE on health care quality?
9. What experiences have you had with EHRs or HIE? What lessons have you learned from this experience?  What lessons learned from North Adams, Newburyport and Brockton should the state take into account while developing and implementing a statewide plan?
10. What can the role of the state be to enhance the position of local HIT companies for a national role?
11. Does the availability of federal stimulus funding in the form of Medicaid/Medicare incentive payments change your views on the adoption and use of EHRs? Why or why not?
12. Have you already received assistance from a hospital, independent practice association, non profit or government organization in the implementation or use of an electronic health record? If so, has the assistance been effective?
13. What are the aspects of EHR/HIE that are most important to consumers? (e.g., patient portal, clinical decision support, privacy)
14. How can the private sector help to accelerate HIT implementation?