Welcome, State Advocates!

Why Health IT is Truly the Cat's Meow
Those of us who work in the health IT world spend our days analyzing policies, creating advocacy strategies, and talking about meaningful use criteria, quality improvement, and care coordination till we're blue in the face. But how does that play out when we leave the office? More often than not, we bring our work home.

Meaningful Use March Madness: SO/GI or Bust!
BACKGROUND: ONC released a Request for Comment (RFC) in December outlining its current thinking for Stage 3 of Meaningful Use. One recommendation includes requiring that certified EHRs have the functionality to collect sexual orientation and gender identity (SO/GI) data. The CLAIM: The collection of SO/GI information has little or no clinical relevance, makes both providers and patients uncomfortable, and is not yet sufficiently standardized. REALITY: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations experience significant health disparities; Meaningful Use offers an unprecedented opportunity to better understand and begin to address these disparities by making sure EHR systems are able to collect vital SO/GI data.

Meaningful Use March Madness: Keep Up the Pace
BACKGROUND: Recently at the Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing on health IT, members debated the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program. Christine Bechtel's testimony highlighted the astounding progress that has been made in two short years, and encouraged Congress to keep up the pace on EHR adoption. THE CLAIM: Meaningful use is too difficult. REALITY: There are already hundreds of thousands of providers who have succeeded at meaningful use. [Click headline to read more.]