HIT Standards Committee endorses electronic observation methods, performance measures

The HIT Standards Committee recently approved recommendations for how providers can electronically record observations by doctors for qualification of bonus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, reports Healthcare IT News. Next year, providers will have to use either ICD-9 or Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine--Clinical Terms (or SNOMED CT) for qualification, and in 2013 they'll have to use ICD-10 and SNOMED CT, and two years after that, just SNOMED CT.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services both will "strongly consider" the input from the HIT Standards Committee, said Jodi Daniel, director of the Office of Policy and Research within the ONC, adding that "giving credibility" to the committee is "expected by our statute."

"But I can't say whether the recommendations will or will not be identical to what you see here," she said.

Furthermore, 30 performance measures that were initially given the OK in late July by the HIT Standards Committee's Clinical Quality Workgroup were endorsed by the committee itself. The measures will go into effect in 2011, and continue to become more intricate into 2015, when CMS will be paying out bonuses.

For more on the HIT Standards Committee's actions:
- read this Healthcare IT News article

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