eHI Policy Working Group Hears from Capitol Hill Staff and Administration Officials
December 17, 2007
Last Tuesday, the eHI Policy Working Group (PWG) met to discuss the current state of the Wired for Health Care Quality Act of 2007, the E-MEDS bill and the outlook for allowing ePrescribing of controlled substances.
Staff from the Senate's committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) joined the PWG to discuss the future outlook and recent changes to the Wired act (eHI members can read the newest version of the bill by clicking here).
HELP staff told the group that changes have been made to the quality provisions in the bill, in response to concerns raised recently by physician organizations. These changes include provisions to risk-adjust quality measures and call for the use of clinical data for quality reporting, in addition to claims data. Senators Judd Gregg (D-NH) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have taken the lead in addressing these concerns.
Staff also reported that they are working with Senator Leahy (D-VT) to incorporate elements of his privacy legislation, and discussions are ongoing. Leahy would like to include provisions from the privacy bill in the Wired Act, before it reaches the Senate floor. However, some provisions in Leahy's broader privacy bill are too controversial to include, if the Wired Act is to proceed with unanimous consent among Senators.
In addition to HELP staff, Senator John Kerry's (D-MA) Legislative Assistant also joined Tuesday's call, along with the Legislative Assistant from the office of Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-PA). Kerry and Schwartz are the respective Senate and House lead co-sponsors of the E-MEDS bill, legislation designed to increase the utilization of ePrescribing systems through upfront funding and incentive payments from Medicare for ongoing use. The bill would incentivize the use of ePrescribing by 2011 through a ten percent per claim reduction for any drug prescribed through non-electronic means. The bill also contains a provision that allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to grant one and two year " hardship? extensions for providers unable to adopt the technology.< P>
Kerry's aid confirmed Senate support for attaching the E-MEDS bill to the Medicare bill which is currently being drafted by the Senate Finance Committee, a committee of which Senator Kerry is a member. Schwartz's aid also added that support for the House version (HR.4296) has been wide ranging and bi-partisan. Schwartz's aid was confident that the bill will be a part of any Medicare bill that makes its way through the House. However, developments on Friday of last week now call this strategy into question (see related story regarding the outlook for the Medicare bill).
Tony Trenkle, Director, Office of E-Health Standards and Services at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also joined the PWG call, along with Paul Uhrig, General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development of SureScripts, to discuss the previous week's hearing on the Drug Enforcement Agency's (DEA) progress in developing regulations to allow ePrescribing of controlled substances.
Following a brief history of the issue, Trenkle outlined CMS' work in the area of ePrescribing, and noted that CMS has been and is continuing to work with the DEA to develop regulations that will allow for an efficient, safe, uniform and scalable way for ePrescribing controlled substances. The DEA is primarily concerned with diversion control and having a system that allows for proper authentication and non-repudiation while maintaining the integrity of and transmitted data. Trenkle believes that by teaming with industry and capitalizing on the technologies already in use in this area, an integrated network allowing for the ePrescribing controlled substances is possible. Trenkle stated that CMS is ready to move forward with pilot testing of proposed regulations in order to move the process of regulation forward, although it is unclear, he said, whether pilot testing is really necessary.
If you have any questions or are interested in participating in the Policy Working Group (PWG), please contact Aaron.Holman@ehealthinitiative.org.
