CHIME Statement on 21st Century Cures Passage

Statement from CHIME Interim Vice President of Public Policy, Leslie Krigstein

ANN ARBOR, MI, JULY 10, 2015 – The 21^st Century Cures Act is a landmark piece of legislation that will move our nation closer to a 21^st Century healthcare system. As recognized in this bill, health information technology will serve as the foundation to foster many of the ideologies in delivering lifesaving cures to patients more rapidly.

The Committee’s choice to tackle the complex issue of interoperability is to be commended. Without nationwide interoperability, we will be unable to derive the value promised by the nation’s $30 billion investment in electronic health records (EHRs). Expediting cures to patients will not be possible without a health information highway that allows providers and patients the data they need, when and where they need it.

CHIME appreciates the Committee’s recognition that harmonizing standards adoption will exponentially move interoperability forward. We agree that clear, enforceable standards are necessary to foster nationwide interoperability. The inclusion of increased testing requirements for certified products, including ‘real world’ testing, is a priority for CHIME members as a means to bring value to the certification program.

We appreciate the Committee’s inclusion of the need to ensure the information in one’s EHR belongs to the patient. We hope that this language will begin a sincere dialogue on the need to address the ongoing patient safety and care coordination challenges arbitrarily imposed by the lack of a national approach to patient identification. Without a patient identity matching strategy, patient data matching errors and mismatches will become exponentially more problematic and dangerous.

We view this legislation as a starting point in the conversation on health IT reform. We hope to build on the language in 21^st Century Cures Act to ensure the Meaningful Use Program, among other ongoing federal policy initiatives, enable the implementation and use of EHR systems to meaningfully improve patient care.

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

Contact
Stephanie Fraser
Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
734.665.0000
[email protected]