News from the AOA's Blog

The federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced that health care providers and public health agencies in Minnesota and Rhode Island last month began exchanging health information electronically using specifications developed under the agency’s Direct Project.

The Direct Project represents an important early stage effort to facilitate the secure transfer of electronic health record (EHR) data as envisioned under the federal government’s Health Information Technology for Economics and Clinical Health (HITECH) initiative, according to the ONC.

Other Direct Project pilot programs will be launched soon in New York, Connecticut, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and California to demonstrate the effectiveness of the project’s “streamlined” approach to information exchange for core elements of patient care and public health reporting, according to a Feb. 2 ONC announcement.

In order to qualify for recently opened Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs, health care practitioners must meet specified objectives for the “meaningful use” of electronic health records, including demonstrated capability to electronically exchange key clinical information (for example, problem list, medication list, medication allergies, and diagnostic test results) with other care providers or patient-authorized entities.

The ONC is in the process of establishing a Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) of state and regional health information exchanges through which health care practitioners will eventually be able to exchange health data.
 The Direct Project is designed to give limited groups of health care practitioners a way to securely exchange electronic health information until those exchanges are established.

To qualify for the Stage 1 incentive payments available this year, health care practitioners are only required to test their certified EHR technology’s capacity to electronically exchange key clinical information, the AOA Health Information Technology Subcommittee notes.

However, because health care practitioners may need to send test messages to demonstrate information exchange capacity, they may have to work with their software vendor to make sure their EHRs meet the Project Direct specifications.

Moreover, optometrists and other health care practitioners will be required to successfully exchange EHR information to continue qualifying for incentive payments in future years as well as eventually become part of the planned national electronic health records network, the subcommittee notes.

“Optometrists who wish to qualify for payments under the Medicare or Medicaid incentive programs would do well to become familiar with the Direct Project specifications, check into the development of Direct Project initiatives in their states, and be ready for the eventual development of NHIN-affiliated health information exchanges,” advised AOA HIT Subcommittee Chair Philip Gross, O.D.

Additional information on the Direct Project and the federal EHR incentive programs can be accessed on the AOA Web site EHR page (www.aoa.org/EHR).