Chapter 224 of the General Laws of Massachusetts: A 2012 Massachusetts law requiring all
physicians to demonstrate proficiency in the use of electronic health records at the level of Meaningful Use as a condition of
relicensure, starting in 2015. Read more details here.
ACO (Accountable Care Organization): A movement to
reduce costs and improve healthcare quality by changing incentives and
workflow.
ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act):
a $787 billion stimulus measure signed by President Obama in February
2009 to provide aid to states and cities, funding for transportation and
infrastructure projects, expansion of the Medicaid program to cover more
unemployed workers and health IT funding.
ASP (Application Service Provider): A software
system running remotely from the user and typically accessed over the
Internet. (also called hosted or SaaS [software as a
service]). Can reduce capital and support costs for EMR’s.
AUI (Adopt, Upgrade, Implement): During the first
year of the Medicaid-track incentive program, providers do not have to
measure meaningful use, simply provide proof of commitment to purchasing
a certified EMR or upgrading to a certified EMR. During the second year,
practices must achieve meaningful use measures.
CCHIT (Certification Commission for Health Information
Technology): a recognized certification body for
electronic health records and their networks. It is an independent,
voluntary, private-sector initiative established by the Health Care
Information Management Association, the Healthcare Information and
Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the National Alliance for Health
Information Technology.
Certified EMR: An Electronic Medical Record
system capable of fulfilling some or all of the criteria of meaningful
use as defined under ARRA. (see also CCHIT)
CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services):
The Federal agency responsible for ARRA-HITECH incentive payments (among
other things)
CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry): a
process of electronic entry of medical practitioner instructions for the
treatment of patients under care. These orders are communicated over a
computer network to the entities responsible for fulfilling the
order.
DIRECT Project: A 2010 Federal project to implement
simple, point-to-point HIPPA-secure Internet-based transfers of health
information. Direct should enable existing electronic exchanges to
become more standardized and convenient.
Drummond Group: Drummond Group
Inc. is an ARRA approved interoperability test lab providing a
variety of testing services. Founded in 1999, DGI has tested over a
thousand international software products used in vertical industries
such as automotive, consumer product goods, healthcare, energy,
financial services, government, petroleum, pharmaceutical and
retail.
EHR and EMR: Electronic Health Record (EHR) software
and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software are used interchangeably
these days. Prior to integration and interoperability, an Electronic
Medical Record (EMR) was a standalone software system that physicians
and clinicians interacted with to electronically capture and document
past medical history, clinical assessment, care provided to and
responses of the patient, and note the plan of care for the patient,
post discharge. The EMR is a clinical software record of care provided a
patient. In contrast, integration of two or more systems providing data
into a patient’s clinical record is an Electronic Health Record
(EHR), documenting a patient’s encounter of care. The EHR contains
clinical content and data from multiple medical sources, such as
labs.
EOHHS: Executive Office for Health and Human
Services, the Massachusetts state agency responsible for the development
of the State Health Information Exchange (among other things).
EP (Eligible Provider): Any physician not working
primarily in a hospital setting seeking reimbursement under ARRA. You do
NOT qualify if you furnish 90% of your services in a hospital setting,
either inpatient or outpatient or emergency department during a calendar
year.
FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources): An HL7 standard for secure interchange of data using modern, web-based technologies.
HIE (Health Information Exchange): the system for
the electronic movement of health-related information among
organizations according to nationally recognized standards.
HIMSS: The Healthcare Information and Management
Systems Society (HIMSS) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to
improving the quality, safety, cost-effectiveness, and access to
healthcare, through the best use of information technology and
management systems. Originally founded in 1961 as the Hospital
Management Systems Society, it is now headquartered in Chicago,
Illinois. The society includes more than 35,000 individual members, over
520 corporate members, and more than 120 not-for-profit organizations.
HIMSS’ annual conference draws upward of 35,000 attendees and
provides extensive educations sessions in addition to a massive
expo.
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act): enacted by Congress in 1996. Title I of HIPPA protects
health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they
change or lose their jobs. Title II of HIPA, known as the administrative
simplification provisions, requires the establishment of national
standards for electronic healthcare transactions and national
identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers.
Provisions also address the security and privacy of health data. The
standards are meant to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the
nation’s health care system by encouraging the widespread use of
electronic data interchange.
HISP (Health Information Service Provider): An organization that manages security and transport for health information exchange among health care entities or individuals using the Direct standard for transport. There is no specific legal designation for an HISP, nor are HISPs specifically regulated by Meaningful Use certification rules. The term HISP was coined to describe specific message transport functions that need to be performed to support scaled deployment of the Direct standard in the market. HISP functions can be performed by existing organizations (such as EHR vendors, hospitals, or HIE organizations) or by standalone organizations specializing in HISP services.
HIT (Health Information Technology): hardware,
software, integrated technologies or related licenses, intellectual
property, upgrades, or package solutions sold as services that are
designed to support the use by health care entities or patience for the
electronic creation, maintenance, access, or exchange of health
information.
HITECH (Health Information for Economic and Clinical Health
Act): refers to the health information technology provisions of
ARRA to build a national program to improve patient care and control
costs through federal investment in information technology
infrastructure: the adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMR's)
capable of interoperability with privacy and security
HITSP (Health Information Technology Standards
Panel): A not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder coordinating body
designed to provide the process within which stakeholders identify,
select, and harmonize standards for communicating and encouraging broad
deployment and exchange of health information technology throughout the
healthcare Spectrum.
Hosted EMR: see ASP
ICD-10: The International Statistical Classification
of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision, of 1992, is a
medical classification list by the World Health Organization
(WHO), for the coding of diseases, signs and symptoms, abnormal
findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of
injury or diseases. The code set allows more than 14,400 different
codes and permits the tracking of many new diagnoses.
IMPACT (Improving Massachusetts Post-Acute Care
Transfers): A Regional Extension Center funded, two-year grant
to develop and pilot transfer information in electronic form in the
Worcester, MA region
Interoperability, syntactic: The basic
capability to communicate and exchange information - summary documents
can be exchanged, opened, read, and stored. The data elements in these
documents, however, may need to be extracted and manually keyed into the
new system if they are to be used independent of the initial
document.
Interoperability, semantic: The ability to
automatically interpret data in the information exchanged meaningfully
and accurately in order to produce useful results as defined by the end
users of both systems.
IOO (Implementation Optimization Organizations): a
group of organizations including vendors, consultants, or other private
organizations responsible for deploying EHR’s in the nationwide
HIE.
KLAS: (acronym stems from founders’ initials)
A private independent organization that gathers, analyzes and reports on
EMR and other healthcare technology products and services. http://klasresearch.com
Meaningful Use: Adopting and using an EMR system for
ePrescribing, electronically capturing health information in a
standards-based, structured format; using that information to track key
clinical conditions and communicating that information for care
coordination purposes; implementing clinical decision support tools; and
reporting clinical quality measures and public health information.
MA Broadband 123: The MA program to provide
broadband Internet to all areas of the state by June 2013
MeHI (Massachusetts eHealth Institute): A
quasi-public state organization set up in 2008 to focus eHealth
activities, currently serving as the REC for Massachusetts.
ONC (Office of the National Coordinator): principal
adviser to the Secretary of HHS for development, application, and use of
health information technologies; coordinates HHS’s health
information technology policy and programs internally and with other
relevant executive branches; develops, maintains, and directs the
implementation of HHS’s strategic plan to guide the nationwide
implementation of interoperable health information technology in both
the public and private health care sectors.
Patient-Centered Medical Home: an approach to
providing comprehensive primary care that integrates patients as active
participants in their own health and well-being. Patients are cared for
by a physician who leads the medical team that coordinates all aspects
of preventative, acute and chronic needs of patients.
Patientslikeme.com: A website where patients can
share in-depth information on treatments, symptoms and outcomes. (www.patientslikeme.com)
PECOS: An Internet-based Provider Enrollment, Chain
and Ownership System which can be used in lieu of the paper Medicare
enrollment application to: submit an initial Medicare enrollment
application, view or change enrollment information, track an enrollment
application through the web submission process, add or change a
reassignment of benefits, submit changes to existing Medicare enrollment
information, reactivate an existing enrollment record, or withdraw
from the Medicare Program. The PECOS number is one of the items required
by the CMS ARRA-HITECH registration website.
PHI (Protected Health Information): any information
relating to an individual’s medical records, health plan
beneficiary information, physical or mental health information, or
provided health services collected during the health services.
PHR (Personal Health Record): an electronic record
of individually identifiable information that can be drawn from multiple
sources and that is managed, shared, and controlled by an
individual.
REC (Regional Extension Center): as set out in the
ARRA, regional extension centers provide technical assistance and
disseminate best practices and other information to aid health care
providers with the adoption of health information technology. REC is to
target especially providers in underserved populations, rural health
clinics, and small practices.
SaaS (Software as a Service): see ASP
