Last month, CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced several initiatives to innovate the delivery of patient care at the ground level.  In collaboration with the Trump Administration and other federal agencies, CMS is taking steps to implement a system in which patients have control of their electronic health information and can easily transfer it between health care providers.  This system, referred to as “MyHealthEData,” is also intended to allow both physician and patient to access the clinical and payment data required to make the best healthcare decisions at the point of care.

Doctor using tablet to view electronic medical recordAs announced, CMS’s short-term efforts in connection with the MyHealthEData initiative include:

  • Launching Medicare’s Blue Button 2.0, which will allow a patient to access and share his/her healthcare information and medical history with a new physician, leading to less duplication in testing and enabling continuity of care.
  • Requiring providers to update their systems to improve data sharing.
  • Requiring hospitals to share specific types of data with a patient’s receiving facility or post-acute care provider following discharge.
  • Streamlining documentation and billing requirements for E&M codes to allow doctors to spend more time with their patients.
  • Reducing the incidence of unnecessary and duplicative testing that occurs as a result of providers not sharing data.

CMS is also taking steps to overhaul the EHR incentive programs (including the Advancing Care Information category of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the EHR Incentive Programs for Hospitals) to prioritize interoperability of EHR systems, reduce the time and costs required to comply, and prevent providers from withholding healthcare data from patients.

For more information on the MIPS and the Quality Payment Program, please see our prior post here and CMS’s interactive website on the Quality Payment Program here.

For more information on the MyHealthEData Initiative, please see CMS’s published Fact Sheet.  Stay tuned to Fox Rothschild’s Physician Law Blog for updates.