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ehr onc final certification - Department of Health Care Services

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intensive process and too administratively, technically, and financially burdensome. A<br />

large portion <strong>of</strong> commenters further conveyed specific challenges including: the ability to<br />

differentiate between a “use” and a “disclosure” (as these terms are defined at 45 CFR<br />

160.103); storing three years worth <strong>of</strong> disclosures, which many noted could be<br />

voluminous; that health care providers, especially hospitals, have decentralized systems,<br />

which today are manually accessed to create an accounting <strong>of</strong> disclosures; the<br />

development time for such a capability would take more time than is available before the<br />

meaningful use Stage 1 effective date; that it would be difficult to account for these types<br />

<strong>of</strong> disclosures in real-time without a code set for disclosures; that this requirement could<br />

affect workflow; and the scope <strong>of</strong> electronic exchanges that the term “disclosure” would<br />

encompass is unclear. A majority <strong>of</strong> commenters also echoed that the Secretary should<br />

use discretion provided by the HITECH Act to delay the compliance date for accounting<br />

<strong>of</strong> disclosures for treatment, payment, and health care operations. Commenters supported<br />

this suggestion by pointing out that the Secretary has not yet formally established the<br />

policies for accounting <strong>of</strong> disclosures. They explained that the HITECH Act requires the<br />

Secretary to promulgate a rule no later than six months after the Secretary has adopted a<br />

standard for accounting <strong>of</strong> disclosures, which has not yet occurred. Many <strong>of</strong> these<br />

commenters suggested that the <strong>certification</strong> criterion and standard should be removed or<br />

their adoption delayed until after the technical specifications for accounting <strong>of</strong><br />

disclosures can be harmonized with the Secretary’s forthcoming promulgation <strong>of</strong> a<br />

regulation on this issue. Other commenters noted that the HIT Policy Committee<br />

included accounting <strong>of</strong> disclosures in its suggestions as a meaningful use Stage 3<br />

objective. In response to the questions we posed, several commenters noted that to whom<br />

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