HRSA Webinar on Using an EHR and Quality Data for Smoking Cessation
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is an agency operating under Health and Human Services (HHS) with a primary goal of improving access to health care services for the uninsured, isolated, or medically vulnerable. HRSA provides leadership and financial support to providers in every U.S. state and territory. As part of this goal, the agency hosts educational webinars for providers on a regular basis, many of which address health IT initiatives and challenges. On Friday, June 21 at 2 pm EDT the organization will hold its next event, Using an EHR and Quality Data for Smoking Cessation. You can register here.
In other HRSA news, the agency is reissuing a request for comments and input on ways to improve healthcare for rural populations through EHR and health IT adoption. In a notice published in the Federal Register, HRSA asks industry leaders to comment on the Rural Health Information Technology Network Development Program (RHITND). Input is needed on the program’s proposed performance measures for improving care for the uninsured and underserved in rural communities. The original notice published in the Federal Register on March 7, 2013 received no public comments.
From the notice:
The intent of RHITND is to support the adoption and use of electronic health records (EHR) in coordination with the ongoing HHS activities related to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The HITECH Act provides HHS with the authority to establish programs to improve health care quality, safety, and efficiency through the promotion of health information technology, including EHR.
Health IT and EHR adoption in rural communities has grown with the help of funding and outreach from the Regional Extension Centers (RECs) and a $400 million dollar investment by the FCC issued in January of this year to boost Internet access for telemedicine.
Read the full notice here. You can submit your comments by email to OIRA_submission@omb.eop.gov or by fax to 202-395-5806. Direct all correspondence to the “attention of the desk officer for HRSA.”