| Influencing Government Policy |
Meaningful Use Incentives: The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has developed the meaningful use incentive program, which offers Medicare and Medicaid bonus payments for the "meaningful use" of EHRs. The program has changing requirements for participants, and ASCO looks to work with CMS to ensure their criteria that can be fulfilled by the oncology community.
Stage 1: Participants in the incentive program must first pass Stage 1 before receiving any bonus payments. This stage has providers using the EHR to capture basic data and perform baseline functionality. ASCO commented on the proposed regulation for this stage:
Stage 2: While Stage 1 focused on data capture, Stage 2 has providers actively transferring data amongst themselves, with public health agencies, and with patients.
Other Letters: ASCO has also commented on other HIT legislation and regulation.
| Setting Standards for EHR Functionality and Data Elements |
Clinical Oncology Requirements for the EHR (CORE) Document
ASCO, with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the NCI Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCP), worked on the Clinical Oncology Requirements for the EHR (CORE) project, which produced a document that detailed the informatics needs of practicing oncologists. The document covers functional requirements, data element specifications, and interoperability requirements.
Integrating Cancer Research and EHRs
In 2009, a multidisciplinary group of volunteers created a list of desirable EHR functionality and data elements that would be useful for the purposes of cancer research. Participation in research is an important element of quality cancer care and there is potential to facilitate more participation through better integration of EHRs.
Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT)
CCHIT, one of the largest certification EHR organizations in the country, has formed an Oncology Work Group that is tasked to create functionality requirements necessary for CCHIT certification. ASCO has commented on these criteria and looks forward to continuing the dialogue between the two organizations.
EHR Roundtable
In 2007, ASCO hosted an EHR Roundtable, which brought together senior thought leaders from government, academic centers, community-based oncology practices, and patient advocacy organizations. Participants exchanged firsthand knowledge of their experiences with EHR selection and implementation and developed recommendations for critical components of oncology EHRs.
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