Top News
2023 Public Policy Year-in-Review
AMIA’s 2023 summary of progress in public policy is now available! Looking back, AMIA engaged more members in public policy, expanded AMIA’s network among public and private healthcare stakeholders, and established member-validated public policy “North Star” priorities for the next several years. In 2023, 25x5 Task Force's Policy and Advocacy Workstream drafted two policy briefs outlining their recommendations to federal policy makers to reduce documentation burden.
Additionally, in 2023 AMIA:
- Received 42 sign-ons supporting AMIA's application to the Department of Labor to create a "Clinical Informatics" Occupational Code and/or adequately updating existing codes. Learn more.
- Collaborated with Harvard Medical School's Division of Clinical Informatics (DCI) to host a conference discussing regulatory pathways to use ethical AI in health care. Several papers and policy materials and events are expected to come out of this meeting. See more about the conference.
- Submitted 17 comment responses to federal agencies, making 2023 the highest year of submissions since 2018! See AMIA's comprehensive list of comments in 2023.
To learn more about what AMIA accomplished in 2023, check out the AMIA 2023 Policy Year-in-Review.
Regulatory
ONC Draft USCDI v5 Available for Public Comment
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Draft United States Core Data for Interoperability Version 5 (USCDI v5) is now available for public comment. The latest draft version includes 13 new data elements and two new data classes. The following AMIA recommendations were incorporated in Draft USCDI v5:
- Route data element to Medications data class
- Author and Author Role data elements to Provenance data class
- Test Kit Unique Device Identifier data element to Laboratory data class
- Orders data element and Orders data
ONC is accepting feedback until April 15.
Learn more about Draft USCDI v5.
CMS Releases Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released their final rule on interoperability and prior authorization. This follows the proposed rule released in March 2023, to which AMIA submitted comments. The goal is to improve patient, provider, and payer access to interoperable patient data and reduce prior authorization burden. AMIA advocated that payors denying prior authorization must include a denial reason. CMS finalized this in their final rule, which is a huge AMIA win! Some highlights of the final rule include:
- Maintain HL7 & FHIR application programming interfaces (APIs) to improve electronic exchange of health care data and streamline prior authorization.
- Encourage providers to adopt e-prior auth processes and improve prior authorization.
- Encourage providers to adopt e-prior authorization processes and improve prior authorization by providing decisions regarding authorizations within 72 hours and require payers to publicly report certain metrics.
The rule, effective January 1, 2026, adds MIPS measure for eligible clinicians and hospitals and critical access hospitals.
View the press release and fact sheet.
Around the Web
- The Evolution of Patient-Centered Care: Patient Access to Their Health Data; healthit.gov
- Biden-Harris Administration Launches Effort to Increase Medicare Advantage Transparency; cms.gov
- ONC’s Health Information Technology Advisory Committee: 2023 Recap and a Look Ahead to 2024; healthit.gov
- HTI-1 Final Rule Information Sessions
- Overview with Question & Answer Information Session #2: February 1 at 1p.m. ET – Register for the information session.
- Insights Condition Information Session: February 8 at 3:00 p.m. ET – Register for the information session.
AMIA’s Washington Download is your source for health informatics policy news and information from around the Beltway, covering action from the Hill, the Administration, and important AMIA collaborators.