Portrait of Alex Baker

Interoperability in Action: ONC Informs CMS Ruling on Hospital Measures for Public Health and Health Equity Reporting

Alex Baker | October 25, 2022

This is the second blog post in a two-part series that examines how policies finalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in the 2023 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) final rule are advancing the use of interoperable health IT. Previously, we looked at a new measure under CMS’s Promoting Interoperability Program that rewards hospitals for exchanging information under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA. 

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Portrait of Kathryn Marchesini , , ,

Two Sides of the AI/ML Coin in Health Care

Kathryn Marchesini | October 19, 2022

As we’ve previously discussed, algorithms—step by step instructions (rules) to perform a task or solve a problem, especially by a computer—have been widely used in health care for decades.  One clear use of these algorithms is through evidence-based, clinical decision support interventions (DSIs). Today, we see a rapid growth in data-based, predictive DSIs, which use models created using machine learning (ML) algorithms or other statistical approaches that analyze large volumes of real-world data (called “training data”) to find patterns and make recommendations.

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Portrait of Ali Massihi

Where APIs meet Health Equity by Design: Introducing the FHIRedApp Health Innovation

Ali Massihi | October 18, 2022

With a heightened focus on health equity throughout our work, ONC has adopted the concept of “health equity by design.” Along those lines, health IT can, and should, be used to better identify and mitigate disparities while enhancing opportunities for underrepresented populations. In 2019, under the Leading Edge Acceleration Projects (LEAP) for Health IT program, ONC funded the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School (Dell Med) to design,

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Portrait of Alex Baker , , ,

Interoperability in Action: CMS Rule Builds on ONC Initiatives to Simplify Health Information Exchange

Alex Baker | October 13, 2022

On August 1, 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced final changes to its payment program for acute care hospitals in 2023. The FY 2023 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) final rule also included policies for the 2023 Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program, which rewards eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) for the meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology, and for the Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, which requires hospitals to report data in key areas.  

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Portrait of Amanda Woodhead

Top Three Themes from ONC’s Electronic Health Information Sharing Workshop

Amanda Woodhead | October 5, 2022

ONC recently held a health care provider-focused workshop and guided discussion on opportunities and challenges related to sharing electronic health information (EHI). More than 200 people involved with utilizing health information technology (health IT) to share EHI participated in the half-day workshop. They also provided perspectives on October 6, 2022, when the definition of “information blocking” no longer limits its focus to the subset of EHI represented by data elements in the United States Core Data for Interoperability version 1 (USCDI v1).

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