Inside CHIME: CHIME Lays Out Advocacy Priorities

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Weinstock 70x70 2.16.17 by Matthew Weinstock
Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME

As the new administration gets to work on its healthcare agenda, CHIME suggests regulatory reforms to streamline health IT policies.

CHIME today sent Sec. Tom Price, M.D., a set of recommendations for addressing critical health IT policy issues. The Trump administration continues to build its team at HHS – the Senate Finance Committee held a confirmation hearing Feb. 16 for Seema Verma to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CHIME will continue to work with Congress and the administration on these and other critical issues facing our members. You can find the full CHIME letter here; the highlights are listed below:

  • Patient Identification: HHS should support private sector-led efforts to find a solution to patient
    identification. This includes providing technical guidance to such efforts as CHIME’s National Patient
    ID Challenge    .
  • Meaningful Use: HHS should delay Stage 3 Meaningful Use requirements and use of Version 2015
    CEHRT indefinitely while retaining a 90-day reporting period after 2017.
  • MIPS: HHS should treat 2018, in addition to 2017, as a transition year and remove the mandate to meet
    Stage 3-like measures under the Advancing Care Information (ACI) performance category of the Merit-
    Based Incentive Program (MIPS).
  • Interoperability: HHS should prioritize the adoption of a single set of standards to facilitate interoperability.
  • Quality: HHS should institute a 90-day reporting period for 2017 and beyond and to postpone
    reporting requirements of electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) until an appropriate
    technical infrastructure is in place.
  • Telemedicine: HHS should expand its coverage of telemedicine services and expand its coverage policies
    to support payment and delivery reform efforts.
  • Cybersecurity: HHS should encourage investment in good cyber hygiene through positive incentives
    for providers.

More Inside CHIME Volume 2, No. 4: