Update from the HIT Standards Committee

This Tuesday HIT Standards Committee reconvened for the monthly meeting in Washington last week. The group voted and approved the recommended privacy standards and performance measures  presented... If CMS incorporates these recommendations, we’ll see a glide path of multiple low-level standards taking effect in 2011 to more robust and specific single standards by 2015. The two advisory committees are working closely together and with each public meeting we’re watching the definition of “meaningful use” take its shape. We’ll provide a more detailed analysis on that front in an upcoming issue…

December is fast approaching (…can you believe it?) and these committees have much to accomplish before the issue of the proposed final rule. Among the advisory committee meetings, here are the upcoming events in the health IT and health reform schedule.

Tuesday September 22, 2009:
Senate Finance Committee
Full committee markup on proposed healthcare bill
Hart Senate Office Building 216 – 9:00AM
Washington, DC

Friday September 25, 2009:
Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
Takin’ HIT to the Streets – The ARRA Era
A one-day conference designed to help hospitals and health systems identify and qualify for funding opportunities from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Paris Las Vegas Hotel
Las Vegas, NV

Monday-Friday September 21-25, 2009
National Health IT Week
A collaborative forum now in its fourth year of assembling key healthcare constituents—vendors, provider organizations, payers, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, government agencies, industry/professional associations, research foundations, and consumer protection groups—working together to elevate national attention to the necessity of advancing health IT.
Washington, DC

For Past Updates and Twitter Thoughts

Please visit the Perot Systems Media Room for past editions of The Washington Updateand follow me on Twitter @MDKev.

As always, more later…

Kevin Fickenscher, MD

The views and opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Dell Services or its affiliates.