Working Together to Accelerate Health IT
The EHR Association is an independent trade group within the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). From its beginning in 2004, the organization has been providing testimony, comments, and education to federal legislators and policymakers including the ONC and CMS.
The Association responded to ONC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the Voluntary 2015 Edition EHR Certification Criteria; Interoperability Updates and Regulatory Improvements this past week. The detailed response also included recommendations on the NPRM. The 36 member group has concerns about the “cost of more frequent certification and potential disruption in the progress being made on electronic clinical quality measure.” They would also like the ONC to keep their focus on increased interoperability. Read their cover letter to ONC.
The EHRA was also in the news recently when high profile athenahealth publicly resigned from the Association. In a blog post by Dan Haley, VP of Government Affairs for athenahealth, he stated they “never really belonged there in the first place.” He contiuned to point out their public policy priorities “are broader and more varied than those of the traditional software vendors that run the EHRA — and even where our priorities overlap, we’re too often on opposite sides of crucially important debates.” This all in the same wind as their quarterly results falling short of analysts’ estimates.
Will the EHR Association continue to be a voice and a driver of future policy? Is there even a bigger picture here? An interesting article from Brian Eastwood (@Brian_Eastwood) in CIO, Why Healthcare Needs Amazon (or Anyone) to Shake Things Up, is very timely.
About EHR Association
The EHR Association is comprised of industry experts in the field of healthcare information technology with a broad scope of expertise such as medical and clinical informaticists, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and technology experts who not only represent the EHR software industry but also interact and represent the entire healthcare community. The association is a partner of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and operates as an independent organizational unit within HIMSS for companies who are EHR software solution providers. The EHR Association helps HIMSS establish its strategic direction and official positions on issues related to the electronic health record.