Today the federal Health Technology Policy Committee is meeting to discuss the recently proposed regulations on electronic health records by the Health and Human Services Department. The committee is in place to advise the Health and Human Services Department.

In particular, they are meeting to discuss whether or not hospitals and doctors need more guidance on exchanging electronic medical records and laboratory data. They also need to decide if they need more flexibility to achieve “meaningful use” of EHRs.

The Health and Human Services Department published the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on January 13^th. Today the committee will consider changes in different areas of the recent proposed regulations.

The goal of today’s meeting is to deliver suggestions to clarify the current areas of uncertainty and make appropriate adjustments going forward.  It is possible that the committee will decide to drop as many as 6 meaningful use measures for next year, however, not in areas such as privacy and security.

The committee’s recommendations will be given to the Health and Human Services Department on the March 1^st, 2010.

Related posts:

1. Definition of EHRs Confuses Many Healthcare Providers While some consumer-advocate groups endorse the Obama administration’s definition...
2. Secretary Sebelius Seeks Health IT Boost Health and Human Services Department Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius is...
3. HHS Puts Money into Adoption of Electronic Health Records Friday, December 18th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human...
4. HHS To Request Public Comment The Department of Health and Human Services is requesting public...
5. HHS Awards $83.9M to Assist in Adoption of EHRs Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last week announced...