HIMSS EHR Association
The HIMSS Electronic Health Record (EHR) Association is a trade association of Electronic Health Record (EHR) companies, addressing national efforts to create interoperable EHRs in hospital and ambulatory care settings. The EHR Association operates on the premise that the rapid, widespread adoption of EHRs will help improve the quality of patient care as well as the productivity and sustainability of the healthcare system.
News and Resources
EHR Association Elects Leadership (June 17, 2013)
The results of the EHR Association's annual elections return several Executive Committee members, including the chair and vice chair, and add new members, maintaining balanced representation from companies that serve healthcare enterprises with both ambulatory and acute care EHRs, and companies that focus solely on the ambulatory EHR market. Read the full press release.
Electronic Health Record Association Announces EHR Developer Code of Conduct (June 11, 2013)
The Electronic Health Record Association (EHR Association), a collaboration of more than 40 EHR companies, announced today the landmark EHR Developer Code of Conduct, developed by the Association as a reflection of its members' commitment to supporting safe healthcare delivery, fostering continued innovation, and operating with high integrity in the market for EHR users and their patients and families. Read the full press release.
EHR Association Responds to Proposed Changes to Stark Anti-Kickback Regulations (June 10, 2013)
The EHR Association has responded to CMS and the OIG on "Medicare Program; Physicians' Referrals to Health Care Entities with Which They Have Financial Relationships: Exception for Certain Electronic Health Records Arrangements". Specific comments are offered on the (1) deeming provision, (2) electronic prescribing provision, and (3) sunset provision, as well as feedback on additional topics these agencies consider changes to the original Stark Anti-Kickback regulation. Read the full response.
EHR Association Responds to Senators' White Paper, "Reboot: Re-examining the Strategies Needed to Successfully Adopt Health IT - April 2013" (May 16, 2013)
In response to the white paper published by Senators John Thune (R-ND), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Pat Roberts (R-KN) , Richard Burr (R-NC) Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Mike Enzi (R-WY) seeking feedback on federal progress promoting health IT adoption and standards, the Association responded to its five key points, agreeing that in order for providers to best leverage health IT towards the aims of meaningful use and interoperability, Congress and the administration as well as providers and health IT developers will have to work together closely. Read the full response
EHR Association Responds to Proposed EHR User Fee (April 10, 2013)
In a statement released today, the EHR Association responded to the EHR user fee proposed in President Obama’s FY 14 budget. The Association believes that adding costs to the healthcare system at a time when providers already feel significant effects from several new legislative and regulatory programs, including payment cuts, is not an approach consistent with the government's larger goals of fostering broad health information technology adoption to support healthcare delivery system reform. View details of the President’s proposal and more information on the proposed user fee
EHR Association Provides Guidance on MU2 Secure Transport (February 22, 2013)
The EHR Association's Standards & Interoperability Workgroup has published its Practical Guidance to Implement Meaningful Use Stage 2 Secure Health Transport for Certification and Meaningful Use. The guidance document analyzes the regulation and explains the flexibility offered both to EHR vendors in achieving certification, but more importantly to our customers in leveraging this flexibility while successfully attesting to this component of the meaningful use criteria. This useful guide is being made available to all industry stakeholders. Read the full document
EHR Association Responds to ONC's Patient Safety Plan (February 4, 2013)
The EHR Association responded to ONC's Health Information Technology Patient Safety Action & Surveillance Plan for Public Comment (the Plan), published in December 2012. The Association applauds ONC and the Plan for recognizing and reaffirming the inherent patient safety advantages of EHRs over paper. We also concur with ONC that all EHR stakeholders must remain vigilant to assure that development and implementation of EHRs does not introduce unacceptable patient safety risk. Read the full responses
EHR Association Comments on Industry Readiness for Electronic Quality Reporting (February 1, 2013)
The EHR Association submitted comments on the CMS RFI regarding the readiness of hospitals, EHR vendors, and other interested parties to electronically report certain patient-level data under the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program using the Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Category I beginning with calendar year 2014 discharges. Read the full response.
EHR Association Responds to the HIT Policy Committee’s Request for Comments on Stage 3 Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records
The EHR Association has responded to the HIT Policy Committee’s Request for Comments on Stage 3 meaningful use requirements. Our responses were developed through the collaborative effort of the 41 EHR Association member companies, working through the efforts of workgroups that focus on public policy, meaningful use, standards and interoperability, patient safety, quality measurement, and clinician experience. Over the past several weeks, we have worked to ensure a comprehensive review and consideration of the Request for Comments and to develop balanced recommendations that serve all health IT stakeholders. Follow this link for the full response.
EHR Association Responds to the AHRQ RFI on Quality Measurement Enabled by Health IT
(September 21, 2012) The EHR Association provided input to the Agency for Health Research and Quality’s request for proposal on quality measurement enabled by health IT. In framing their general support for using EHRs and other health IT to capture clinical quality measures (CQMs), the Association makes note of the many stakeholders involved in the development of CQMs, the importance of collaboration among those stakeholders and the several programs that require CQM reporting, and the importance of measuring healthcare outcomes in order to use the results to promote the three aims of the National Quality Strategy – drive improvements in individual healthcare, foster health communities, and identify cost effective care models. Read the full RFI response.
