On August 10, 2020, the New York eHealth Collaborative was pleased to submit comments on the proposed 21st Century Cures Act Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reporting Program.
Highlights of our comment letter:
- ONC should prioritize the Interoperability criterion for inclusion in the Reporting Program, including information about associated usability and costs.
- NYeC recommends additional, optional detail on questions relating to usability, cost, interoperability, and privacy and security. Specifically, ONC should collect information on the specific features of a health IT product that directly contribute to providers’ ability to meet requirements for value-based payment and/or quality improvement programs; ease of connecting to patient portals and consumer-based apps; implementing, migrating, or upgrading health IT products; privacy and security training; and limitations in a product’s ability to support interoperability and exchange standards.
- NYeC recommends that the survey emphasize reporting on the most recent version of health IT available, but still allow users to report on previous versions of health IT if they choose.
- ONC should utilize a web-based tool that saves progress and is interactive, easy to search, customizable, and allows users within the same organization to send each other sections of the survey to complete as well as view which parts have already been completed.
NYeC appreciates the opportunity to provide these comments and looks forward to continuing to work with ONC to improve the usability and availability of certified health IT.
Read the full comments here.