2009 in Retrospect

Another good read that supports that significant shifts are taking place is over at the Health Care Blog:

December 06, 2009
2009: A Year of Surprises and Change for the EHR Technology Market
By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER



Below are the bullets from that post that discuss the shifts that have taken place in 2009:

• Payment for Meaningful Use of EHR technology, not for the software and hardware itself.
• It's become PC to ask tough questions about EHRs, quality, and health care costs
• CCHIT's loss of invulnerability and the displacement of its monopoly on EHR certification
• The Power Shift Away from Legacy HIT Firms
• Interest in HIT by Big Technology Companies

I am in strong agreement!
As a strong advocate of Patient-Centered Collaborative Care, these developments are the most promising I have seen in more than 2 decades. Transformation to PCCC is simply not possible without these shifts. Much more needs to take place, but these are definitely steps in the right direction. These shifts contain many validations of what I have felt compelled to be blogging about this year.

Meaningful Use Rules Due this Month

Below are more good quotes from:

Reading the Tea Leaves: CMS to Release MU Rules this Month

December 2, 2009 by John Moore, Chilimark Research

1) "HIT vendor pronouncements and promises that they will meet any and all MU criteria are extremely misleading.
Yes, HIT vendors may put in the minimum feature set to become a “certified EHR” (we still do not know what a certified EHR is yet) and they will likely have the capabilities embedded in their solution to meet MU criteria (especially in 2011), but the challenge is not so much the software, but how it is implemented. Implement it poorly and physicians/hospitals will struggle mightily to demonstrate meaningful use of their EHR.

2) CMS will release MU rules with very low barriers to entry in 2011, but 2013 will have much higher barriers/hurdles to jump and same holds true for 2015.

3) The biggest challenge in 2011 and for that matter the entire HITECH Act is the successful implementation of certified EHRs that have a glide path leading the adopter on a clear upgrade and workflow optimization path for meeting MU criteria in 2013 and 2015.

4) The infrastructure for data exchange in support of care coordination is simply not there."

The points about vendor pronouncements and the implementation challenges are spot-on!