Comment Period Ends for HHS Proposed Rule

Comment period for the HHS proposed rule published on 4/17/12 come to an end today. The proposal among several other things, proposes to change the compliance date for the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) for diagnosis coding, including the Official ICD-10-CM Guidelines for Coding and Reporting, and the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) for inpatient hospital procedure coding, including the Official ICD-10-PCS Guidelines for Coding and Reporting, from October 1, 2013 to October 1, 2014.

A very controversial issue, this has brought all the usual and some not so usual suspects out to comment. The groups might seem to be similar in theme but their comments are all but the same. Here are some we thought you should know about:

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) – urges HHS to remain committed to ICD-10, while calling the one year delay an appropriate “middle ground” for all stakeholders.

The American Medical Association (AMA) is urging for more than a year delay.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the organization that states it represents over 64,000 health information management professionals worldwide – argues there should be no delay.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) – supports the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposed one-year delay and strongly recommends that CMS move forward with both the CM and PCS coding systems at the same time.

Tennessee Medical Association - advocating Oct. 1, 2014, as the final deadline for ICD-10 compliance.

Texas Medical Association – is concerned that the eventual adoption of the ICD-10 set of diagnostic codes “will introduce great cost … without a corresponding benefit.” They are glad the federal government postponed adoption of the ICD-10 coding system until 2014 but believes it should skip ICD-10 for a more up-to-date coding system. If officials don’t do that, then they should delay ICD-10 even longer.

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) – suggests doing a list of things before considering adopting ICD-10. Among those items are doing a comprehensive cost benefit analysis, pilot programs, and consider additional code set approaches.

Michael Crosnick, Blog: MikeOnHealthcare.com
LinkedIn Profile or Twitter: @MichaelCrosnick

It has become widely accepted that electronic health record systems have the capacity to improve quality in the healthcare industry by reducing or eliminating errors. For this to be successful requires clinicians and staff become proficient and effective users of the EHR. Converting from paper charts to an EHR necessitates a paradigm shift in learning, work effort, and workflow changes associated with any transition to a electronic database system – more so with a mission critical system that has the potential to impact the health of a patient.

In the rush to meet government mandates or receive CMS incentives, many hospitals and providers have adopted EHRs utilizing the same clinical workflows established in their pre-EHR setting. In other words, they have simply automated an inefficient process overlooking strategies to improve decision support, workflow efficiency, effectual user training, communication, and financial performance. That said, there is still ample opportunity to for process improvements in a post EHR implementation environment.

Following completion of the EHR implementation, the office can still develop a strategy to move beyond simply using the features and functions of the EHR and begin focusing on the data in the system to maximize the benefits that a functional EHR system can provide. An ideal start is to take advantage of the reporting features of the EHR to assess and measure the effects of the EHR to date. Analysis of reports will assist in determining what areas of the EHR are most effective and what can be improved upon in order to advance actual practice transformation.

Primarily, evaluate interfaces to other providers and healthcare systems with which the practice communicates (i.e., clinics, labs, hospitals, etc.). An EHR implementation can be compromised and data rendered ineffective if the interfaces are not operating effectively. Presuming all interfaces are working as designed, the office manager can begin the course of action of measuring operational specifics such as percentage of clinic visits, the amount of lab values entered, the number of e-prescriptions sent over a set timeframe, etc. Additionally, some practices measure the effect the EHR has on reimbursements and if the practice is realizing higher revenue related to the introduction of an EHR.

Once the effectiveness of the EHR has been properly evaluated, the office manager can begin to identify areas of opportunity to further optimize the operations of the practice. While there are a myriad of ways to increase EHR utilization, the following points represent examples as to how to achieve this:

Refresher training post EHR implementation
Electronic Health Records are similar to any other technology we use in that we are unsure if we are taking full advantage of all available features. There are many reasons why this may occur. First, during the first few weeks of use and training, users are typically focused on grasping the functionality of the system as opposed applying it in a meaningful manner. Secondly, once the user becomes accustomed to using the system in a way that appears adequate, it becomes difficult to change embedded routines. In order to mitigate these issues, it is beneficial to have the users go through refresher training courses in order to fully comprehend what EHR functions may have been overlooked or are not being utilized to their maximum degree. Refresher training is also beneficial for users who only use the system periodically or who are less knowledgeable of the system.

Establishing a “super user” who is proficient in using the EHR is a recommended industry practice. The super user is someone who has become proficient in the system and takes on the role of resident EHR expert assisting others in the practice come up to speed in a rapid manner. The super user is also the go-to person for system related questions as well as issues related to functionality and works as a mentor to new users entering the practice.

Enhanced Workflows post EHR Implementation
It is essential to evaluate both clinical and operational workflows after EHR implementation. Used properly and aligning staff roles with the new technology, the practice has the opportunity to maximize value and eliminate waste and redundancy.

All too often, staff will remain in their pre-EHR roles after EHR implementation. Redeploying staff to perform tasks to augment the use of an EHR should be explored. Even in a post-go live environment, the staff can enhance their ability to evaluate internal operations such as care management and streamlined processes .

An EHR driven staff realignment methodology can have a positive effect on productivity as well as cost and patient care. To leave the workflow in a paper-based state is to not take full advantage of all the performance improvement opportunities the EHR can offer.
Determining whether the practice has realized the benefits of an EHR optimized environment are visible by way of the following examples; some are more tangible than others:

• Increase in staff productivity (i.e., less time spent looking for patients and other staff).
• A noticeable improvement in the perception of the value of an EHR.
• Reduced time spent reviewing patient charts after hours.
• Ability to see more patients without extending hours.

Although the impact of these examples may vary from specialty to specialty, the practice will invariably experience a notable and positive change to both its clinical and non-clinical workflows.

This article post first appeared on Michael Crosnick’s blog, Mike on Healthcare.  Mike is an EHR Project Manager at Integrated Healthcare Solutions and a past Project Manager of PMO at Tenet Healthcare.

Join a NeHC Workgroup

The National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) defines itself as a public-private partnership that enables secure and interoperable nationwide health information exchange to advance health and improve health care. NeHC was established through a grant from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to build on the accomplishments of the American Health Information Community (AHIC), a federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) until 2008, and is led by some of the nation’s most respected thought leaders in healthcare and health IT.

The National eHealth Collaborative’s NeHC University is a web-based education program designed to provide stakeholders with timely and relevant information on health information technology and health information exchange in the US. The University offers introductory and advanced programs focusing on health IT topics, trends, and initiatives. I have attend many of their programs and highly recommend checking them out.

NeHC has announced its latest collaborative effort through a new program designed to “further augment and fill the gaps in HIE business and implementation guidance currently available through government, vendor, and consulting resources.” The HIE Learning Network provides a place for collaborative problem solving, networking, co-mentoring, and information sharing in real time. The University wants interested stakeholders to participate in the HIE Learning Network.

Step one of the HIE Learning Network is several workgroups focusing on these topics:

• Business Models for Financial Sustainability
• Best Practices for Prioritizing and Phasing Implementation of HIE Services
• Addressing Variations in Implementation of Interoperability Standards
• The Role and Function of HIE in Support of Accountable Care

If you are interested, consider joining a workgroup.

The NeHC also recently published Health Information Exchange Roadmap: The Landscape and a Path Forward. The paper discusses both the public and private sectors efforts to create and implement interoperable health information exchange. It also show how these approaches fit together for a strategy for nationwide health information exchange. It maps out the four phases it believes will make progress and become sustainable.

Consultant/Founder at HealthTechture
Linkedin Profile

If we’re going to cement health information exchange as a way of conducting business in the delivery of health care to patients, we need to further define Health Information Exchange (HIE) as a discipline that applies to the practice of exchanging health information in order to coordinate care and support the real-time health and wellness of patients.

HIE is a potential attribute of healthcare systems (just as patient safety and quality are attributes) that aims to ensure that an interoperable, longitudinal, real-time flow of patient information is available for the patient and his caregivers so that knowledge from this information can support wise choices on behalf of the patient.

As a discipline, we have to teach providers how to do HIE, thus we must develop a HIE Cookbook approach to HIE education and learning.  As we develop HIT workforce initiatives, we should be training workers as HIE Specialists so that they can be brought into hospital and provider organizations to ensure that health IT systems are developed, implemented, and deployed with health information interoperability ensured so that robust health information exchange is achieved with external parties.

This enablement of health information exchange in the healthcare delivery process will have the antecedent benefit of creating data repositories that will permit the secondary uses of data that can drive population health, patient safety and quality improvement.  But, the focal point of HIE in the context of health care reform is transforming the delivery of care from episodic patient care to the health, wellness and care management of the patient.  The movements toward patient centered medical home and accountable care will be best facilitated if we institutionalize health information exchange in our hospitals, physician practices, and with patients fully engaged in the information flow.  Health Information Exchange must be integrated into the new models of care that are emerging and we need to make sure that we are empowering our IT workforce and our line health care workers to make HIE a transparent component of the clinician workflow and the patient’s daily life.

HIE resources to explore:

• NeHC HIE Learning Network
• HIMSS HIE
• HIMSS HIELights
• eHealth Initiative HIE Toolkit
• State HIE Programs
• Sustaining State HIE Toolkit
• AHIMA HIE

Eric J. Klos is founder of Healthtechture,  a business consulting services firm offering strategic planning, marketing, business development, capture management, and proposal support to companies targeting Federal Health IT initiatives and those that operate in the HIE market space (consulting firms and HIE technology vendors). He can be contacted at: eklos@healthtechture.com

The Public Health Service Act Section 3001(c)(8) requires the National Coordinator to “establish a governance mechanism for the nationwide health information network.” The nationwide health information network is defined as a set of standards, services, and policies that enable secure health information exchange over the Internet. Now published in the Federal Register is the ONC’s Request for Information (RFI) which they are seeking public comments on the governance for the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN).

The ONC announced the request stating these key components of the proposed governance approach for NwHIN to include:

• a focus on entities that facilitate electronic health information exchange;
• a set of conditions for trusted exchange (CTEs) in three areas: safeguards, interoperability, and business practices;
• a voluntary validation process for entities to demonstrate conformance to the CTEs and to increase provider confidence that the exchange entities meet these requirements;
• processes to regularly update and improve CTEs;
• a process to classify the readiness of technical standards and implementation specifications to support interoperability CTEs; and
• approaches for monitoring and transparent oversight

The three conditions for trusted exchange (CTE) further detailed:

• Safeguards to focus on the protection of individually identifiable health information (IIHI) to ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability and to prevent unauthorized or inappropriate access, use, or disclosure.
• Interoperability to focus on the technical standards and implementation specifications needed for exchanging electronic health information.
• Business Practices to focus on the operational and financial practices to which NVEs would need to adhere in support of trusted electronic health information exchange.

The public comment period will be 30 days beginning on May 15th.

I had the opportunity at HIMSS this year to speak to Dr. Doug Fridsma, Director Office of Standards and Interoperability and Acting Chief Scientist for the ONC. He spoke to me about the nationwide health information network. Listen to the interview.

View the presentation, Nationwide Health Information Network: Conditions for Trusted Exchange Request For Information (RFI). Presented by Steven Posnack, Director, Federal Policy Division for the ONC.

HIT Policy Committee needs new Patient Advocate

Established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the Health IT Policy Committee is one of three that makes recommendations to the ONC on standards, implementation specifications, and certifications criteria. It has been instrumental in the framework of defining meaningful use of certified technology. The HIT Policy committee members include; 3 individuals chosen by the Secretary of HHS, 13 members appointed by the Acting Comptroller General of the United States, 4 members appointed by the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate and the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. The current Chair of the committee is ONC Farzad Mostashari and the Vice Chair is Paul Tang, the Vice President and Chief Innovation and Technology Officer of Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

The ARRA also requires that 3 members of the HIT Policy Committee be advocates for patients or consumers. Termsof the members are for 3 years, except the Comptroller General designated staggered terms for the members first appointed. When vacancies are filled, the appointment is only for the remainder of that term. The new member may serve past the appointment while successors are selected. The vancany is also filled in the same manner in which the original appoinment was made.

Due to a vacancy on the Committee, GAO is accepting nominations of individuals to fill one of these three positions allocated for Patient or Consumer Advocate. For this appointment the following has been published in the Federal Register: Letters of nomination and resumes should be submitted between May 5 and 25, 2012 to ensure adequate opportunity for review and consideration of nominees.

The Health IT Policy Committee meets once a month usually in the first week of the month. Their next meeting is on June 6, 2012. Meetings are open to the public and you can participate virtually. Learn how to participate in the meetings.

Super Moon Impacts Health Data Protection . . . well, maybe.

David Finn, Health IT Officer at Symantec
LinkedIn Profile

I do a lot of talking about Health IT. And mostly about security, privacy and compliance. I get to talk to providers, to other technology and software vendors – - many that service the healthcare industry, some exclusively. We talk, we have a great discussion about what needs to happen and how some of these things may come to pass. Months later, sometimes a year or more later – - I’ll meet up with these people and ask how things have been going since we last talked. And most of the time things aren’t going as planned. At best, the plan has started but it is going slow, hard to get money and/or staff, other priorities keep pushing it down the list. At worst, nothing has changed – - they haven’t been able to convince their leadership that this is as important as they think it is.

Here is the good news: I’ve started to see that beginning to change. I’m starting to hear things like “compliance is not security”. And that is the sad truth. You can be in compliance with all the rules and still have some pretty serious privacy breaches and, as we see on HHS’s Wall of Shame”, lots of data loss.

So, what is going on? Security isn’t “clinical”. Privacy isn’t a “strategic function” for most hospital CIOs. Why is healthcare more interested in security and privacy and why does the IT security community suddenly seem so focused on healthcare? Did it have anything to do with the Super Moon? Did the impact of the audits and penalties finally kick in and healthcare is going to get serious about the protection of data – - confidentiality, integrity and availability. Maybe everyone finally has the EHR in and has attested to Meaningful Use and is going to use the delays in ICD-10 and Stage 2 Meaningful Use to do all the “security stuff” now? Or perhaps healthcare has figured out that it really is about the data and you can’t really protect the data if you don’t understand it – - have the data about the data. How can you protect it if you don’t know where it is, who is using it, where it comes from and where it goes?

I wish I had an answer but what I’ve found in many years of looking for a variety of answers is that it is almost never one thing. The delays will help providers or at least take some of the pressure off. Although the Supreme Court ruling on ACA and the Presidential election will add more uncertainty to the mix, one thing we know won’t change is the need to protect data. We also know the need to share it is going to increase, the need to keep the data available and accessible to the right people at any time on any device. And I think that is part of what’s happening. It is kind of a “perfect storm”. Healthcare has to do what security, privacy and compliance has always been about doing.

The EHR drove a lot of this – - just having all that data in one place. Then meaningful use pushed beyond having it to having to share it. The slow march in healthcare toward virtualization – - server, storage, desktop helped make cloud more acceptable. And then mobile, perhaps you’ve heard something about mobility, mHealth, and consumerization. We even have mHIMSS! Users, who can always go faster than a corporate IT department – - they have less to worry about – - figured out that it isn’t about IT, it is about the data.

IT departments are starting to understand and respond to that need. Unfortunately, they still feel the burden of responsibility for protecting the data (and the users) despite the long list of other To Do’s and the limited budget and staffing they get. Protection is not about point solutions – - it is about a strategy and a risk-based approach to protection.

The idea of relying on risk analysis in order to make important decisions is not new to the medical community. When deciding whether to perform invasive procedures or difficult therapies, clinicians always consider the implications and trade-offs to the patient. You have to assess the Return on Investment or the ability to attract specialists or expanded diagnostic capabilities when looking at expanding your facility or purchasing an expensive piece of diagnostic equipment. This is a kind of risk analysis.

Today, an enormous amount of information is captured, stored and viewed in electronic form. This includes EMRs, immunization and other registries to large national databases. We expect digital patient information to be accessible, dependable and protected from abuse or improper access. This trend toward digital data and the requirements to share it will only grow.

The risks to the data have become greater, too. Exchange of clinical information has been growing and is now mandated. The threat landscape has also been transformed as more information is collected and stored in the offices and computers of healthcare providers. What providers need is an approach to risk that allows medical organizations to identify risks to that information, prioritize those risks and take the actions required to manage them and control risks. Now, clearly, is the time to start that.

Weekly Broadcast on Meaningful Use and Health IT.

MU Live! is a 30 minute internet talk radio show hosted by HITECH Answers. Register below to receive notification on how to participate and listen in.

May 22,  2 pm Eastern: This week we welcome Gregg Masters, CEO of XanateMedia.com and founder of ACO Watch.  Gregg joins us to discuss ACOs and Meaningful Use: Connecting the Dots.

Click Here to sign up to tune in

Want to be notified by email of upcoming shows and guests? Sign up here and keep up to date on our MU Live! programming in 2012.

CMS EHR Incentive Program Report
It has been one year since the first Medicare EHR incentive payments were issued. The following EHR Incentive program data comes from the CMS March program status report. Over 255,700 [...]…»
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National Nurses Week, Preview of SIIM Meeting, Health IT News Roundup
This week on Voice of the Doctor: National Nurses Week, News Round Up and a Preview of SIIM Meeting.  Tune in Friday’s at 2:30 Eastern.  For show information visit Voice of [...]…»
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ONC Launches Health IT Website
The ONC has launched its newest website that presents key information and data to enable collaborative monitoring of the impact of federal policies, programs, and research activities related to health IT. The Health IT Dashboard currently provides [...]…»
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Medical Records, Interoperability and API’s
There are currently over 500,000 apps for the iPhone. Apple has written only a handful of those. How many would there be if Apple had to write a custom interface [...]…»
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ONC Writes Guide on HIPAA Privacy & Security
ONC’s Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (OCPO) has released a new guide for providers and their staff to help understand HIPAA  privacy and security when it comes to electronic health records (EHRs) and meaningful use. “Guide to Privacy and Security of Health Information” is a [...]…»
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Medical Records, Interoperability and Portable Entertainment
My medical data should move with me as easily as my music or photo library… I made this statement in a recent TweetChat on healthcare information technology. It spread like wildfire, retweet after retweet, around the world, reaching [...]…»
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E-Prescribing Incentive Program Deadline June 30
e-Prescribing Program Penalties begin January 1, 2013. In 2008, MIPPA established a five-year incentive program that began in 2009, to promote the adoption and use of electronic transmission of prescriptions (e-Prescribing). The Act also outlined a penalty phase [...]…»
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National Nurses Week 2012
In 1954, 100 years after Florence Nightingale’s mission to Crimea, the first National Nurse Week was observed in October. In 1974, the International council of Nurses (ICN) proclaimed Florence Nightingale’s May 12th birthday as “International Nurse Day”. Then in 1982 the American Nurses Association Board of Directors formally acknowledged [...]…»
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MU Live!
Have 30 minutes?  Spend it with us. Tune in on May 15,  2 pm Eastern: This week we welcome Brad Tritle, CIPP, Chair of the Social Media Work Group for the HIMSS Personal Health IT Task Force. Brad joins us to discuss health information exchange and PHRs in stage 2 [...]…»
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Resources:
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Updated Version 4.0 of Meaningful Use Manual for Medical Practices
The 4th edition of The Incentive Roadmap® adds new and expanded information on performance of HIPAA Compliant Security and Risk Analysis for meaningful use, extended chapter for Specialists and new information proposed NPRM for Stage 2 [...]…»
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EHR Buyer Guides
There are hundreds of EHR systems available for just about every medical specialty and practice size. EHR software buyers face a huge challenge as they determine which software is right for their practice. Listed below are links to EHR buyer guides [...]…»
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HIPAA Toolkit
Designed to educate providers on HIPAA rules and regulations, HIPAA Tool Kit is an ideal resource for performing ongoing compliance assessments or creating a new compliance program  [...]…»
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List Your EHR System or IT Consulting Services
HITECH Answers reaches thousands of physicians and hospitals visiting our site each month. A Health IT Marketplace listing is the perfect place to reach new customers and buyers.

CMS EHR Incentive Program Status

Just the Facts from Joe Friday

The numbers and facts you are about to see are all true… As of May 11th

It has been one year since the first Medicare EHR incentive payments were issued. The following EHR Incentive program data comes from the CMS March program status report.

ONC recently launched a Health IT website to provide key information and data on Federal Health IT initiatives and programs. For more numbers check out the Health IT Dashboard. This interactive site is using the ONC data to map and chart for usability.

The public comment period for the ONC and CMS proposed rules for Stage 2 Meaningful Use ended this week. Review some of the submitted comments from industry leaders.

• There are currently 446 submitted comments posted for the CMS NPRM.
• There are currently 445 submitted comments posted for the ONC NPRM.

National Nurses Week, Preview of HIIM Conference and Health IT News Round UP

Dr. Nick van Terheyden
Voice of the Doctor #VoiceoftheDr
LinkedIn Profile, Twitter: @drnic1

This month on Voice of the Doctor: National Nurses Week, News Round Up and a Preview of SIIM Meeting. 

Tune in Friday’s at 2:30 Eastern.  For show information visit Voice of the Doctor on HealthcareNOWradio.com.

May 11
May 6 – 12 is National Nurses Week. In honor of this I will be talking with Karen Kirby, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, FACHE who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare administration and has held top-level nursing and hospital administration positions, and serves as an Associate at the Institute for Nursing Healthcare Leadership within Boston’s Harvard healthcare community.

We will be joined by Kathy Douglas, RN, MHA, who is the President & CEO of the Sedona group and has just completed a Documentary Feature Film “Wise Women of Sedona“. We will be talking about nurses and their impact in the healthcare system, the rise of the Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO) and the current project they are both working on Nurses the Movie: An in-depth exploration of the complexity, challenges, sorrows and joys of being a nurse, seen through the voices and lives of nurses today.

You can see more on this Facebook page – ON Nursing Excellence.

May 18
News Round up of latest news and events with a discussion on Designing a Better Healthcare System that included some great suggestions including:

• Getting all the stakeholders in the room
• Design for failure because it is going to happen
• Riding the Motivation Wave
• Data + Design + Innovation = Better Health, and
• The patient of the Future won’t want today’s Healthcare

May 25
Preview of the upcoming Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine SIIM (#SIIM12) meeting scheduled for Jun 7 – 10 in Orlando
Bob Fleming, Director for Radiology Systems as Nuance Communications will be joinging me to discuss the latest innovations, technologies, and science in the imaging informatics community being presented at SIIM. The theme this year “Strategic Innovation through Enterprise Image Management”.

You can tune in to Voice of the Doctor three ways:

• Stream the show live on HealthcareNOWradio.com – click the Listen Live Now to launch our Internet radio player.
• You can also call in. A few minutes before our show starts, call in the following number: Call: 1-559-546-1880; Enter participant code: 840521#
• HealthcareNOWradio.com is now on iTunes Radio! Stream the show live – you’ll find this station listed under News/Talk.

Want to be notified by email of upcoming shows and guests? Sign up here and keep up to date on our programming in 2012.

Health IT Dashboard Tool Summarizes Information

The ONC has launched its newest website that presents key information and data to enable collaborative monitoring of the impact of federal policies, programs, and research activities related to health IT. The Health IT Dashboard currently provides summary information about all ONC HITECH grant programs, and detailed data from the Regional Extension Center, and Community College Consortia to Educate Health IT Professionals programs.

“The release of the Health IT Dashboard is a significant milestone and we are glad to welcome the website as a tool for delivering key data to ONC’s stakeholders and the interested public.” said Victor Lazzaro, ONC’s Performance Officer and Director for the Health IT Dashboard projects. The site is an interactive tool that allows users to map, chart, and access ONC data.

The Dashboard capabilities include:

• Generating maps of health IT adoption statistics for common groups of health care providers & hospitals,
• Examining the impact of ONC’s Recovery Act grant programs implementation at national and local levels
• Download and analyze the data for your own research projects.

ONC is also saying there will be updates as soon as June. Look for an EHR and HIE dashboard including more state-level maps, charts, and data sets that describe trends in physician and hospital utilization of health IT.

In the REC Dashboard data reveals key performance indicators. There are 140,057 enrolled providers which is 131% of the goal. Looking more closely, we can see in all provider groups the General Practice providers have the most live on EHRs totaling 33,696. These numbers of course might be different when you look since it is updating regularly.

The College Consortia and Education Dashboard data reveals progress to Health IT Workforce Development goals. The goals targeted to have 4200 students complete the program and the actual numbers were 11,964. The interactive map more closely analyzes the student data by state.

The ONC Overview Dashboard reveals the funding and the framework of the HITECH Act. You can view charts of funding obligations, maps of grantees by states, and framework flowcharts. Scanning over the interactive state map, you can easily see that the least amount of HITECH money is going to Wyoming, just under $5 million.

For more resources and websites, visit our EHR Adoption page.