Latest California Healthline Stories
Inland Empire Health Information Exchange Near Launch
Health officials in Riverside and San Bernardino counties have spent the last two years planning and gathering stakeholders to build the region’s first health information exchange. About 15 hospitals and 2,000 doctors are expected to participate in the initiative.
American Indian Providers Get Help With EHRs
Christine Schmoeckel of the state’s Office of Health Information Integrity was pretty happy yesterday.
“Our newest news is that we have a fourth regional extension center in California,” she said. “This is great news, that we now have four centers.”
Schmoeckel was hosting yesterday’s California health information technology stakeholders’ meeting, in part because many health IT leaders are in Southern California this week, meeting with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
New Trend in Sustainable HIEs: Fair Share Financial Support
Regulatory policy from CMS aims to incentivize health information exchanges to secure funding from other sources. Whether HIE initiatives can leverage this opportunity and secure funding from enough stakeholders will depend on a variety of factors, including payment reform.
Stimulus Money Still Flowing to Health IT Projects
More than two years after enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal government continues to implement provisions of the HITECH — Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health — Act. The second quarter of 2011 featured a change in leadership and progress toward meaningful use of EHRs.
Senate Vote Could Be Swayed by AMA Stance
On Monday, the American Medical Association came out against use of bisphenol-A (BPA) in consumer products, citing the chemical’s effect as an endocrine disruptor. That specifically includes endorsement of a ban on use of BPA in baby bottles and baby “sippy” cups, and that ban is at issue in today’s Senate Committee on Health.
AB 1319 (Betsy Butler, D-Marina del Rey) would limit BPA use in baby bottles and cups, infant formula and baby food sold in California. It passed the Assembly at the end of May, and now is up for a vote in today’s Senate health committee hearing.
“The AMA has found that BPA is an endocrine disruptor and it would like to ban products that contain it,” Butler said. “It’s all about the science. There are many medical and health organizations promoting this idea [of banning BPA in baby products]. The opposition to BPA has grown stronger and stronger from the health community.”
Grant Moved Up To Get IT Dollars
Kim Belshé’s committee-of-one turned out to be extremely efficient.
It is a daunting task, applying for a federal establishment grant for the California Health Benefit Exchange — it lays out the direction and scope of the entire exchange, so the board’s plan was to complete it in September. That was complicated slightly by the fact that Belshé was the only board member on the committee supervising the grant application.
It became clear, however, that some of the work needed to get started — particularly the health information technology work — which means it needs federal cash sooner rather than later. So the exchange board announced at last week’s meeting that it is applying for the grant now, with final approval of that grant being sought at next month’s board meeting.
HIPAA Changes Seek Balance of Compliance, Right To Know
HHS hopes proposed changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s privacy rules will be relatively easy for health care providers to comply with and give individuals more details about who has access to their protected health information.
Milestones Mark ARRA, HITECH First Quarter
The arrival of a new national coordinator for health information technology and an invitation to the public to help define the country’s health IT strategy highlighted developments early this year in the federal government’s implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
EHR Cost Savings Could Extend to Health Plans
Health plans don’t directly use electronic health records, but because EHRs could save insurers some money, health plans will want to do everything they can to make the EHR transition smooth, according to Patrick Johnston, president and CEO of the California Association of Health Plans.
Johnston’s organization put together a health care forum yesterday in Burlingame that focused on health plans’ involvement in the EHR movement.
“We as health plans do have a responsibility to address cost drivers in our own business,” Johnston said. “That which plans spend themselves and that which cause our providers to spend. And that’s a complex subject matter.”
EHR Security Measure Might Have Hidden Consequences
The intent of SB 850 is relatively simple, its author Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said yesterday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“Specifically, the bill requires the electronic health record to log a change or deletion, and that change or deletion note needs to include the identity of whoever made the change,” Leno said, adding “Without these requirements and protections, there could be real concern for the well-being of the patient.”
Changes to an EHR can go unnoticed and can be harder to trace than changes made to paper records, according to Leno.