Advisory Note: CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule
Early last week, on what was to be the first day of the HIMSS20 conference in Orlando, CMS published the Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule (CMS-9115-F), designed to give patients access to their health information and move the healthcare system toward greater interoperability.
One requirement is the addition of Patient Event Notifications from hospitals to outside providers. As a condition of participating in Medicare, hospitals will need to establish systems and processes by September 2020 to:
Generate electronic Patient Event Notifications when a patient is admitted to or discharged from the hospital.
Make reasonable efforts to ensure that notifications are sent to the core care team of all ED and hospitalized patients, such as their primary care provider (PCP) or practice group.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon
3. Include (at a minimum) information about the patient and the provider treating them.
This new capability will become a valuable tool in the IT arsenal, to keep the entire care team up-to-date about patient treatment in the hospital and take a much-needed step forward in improving care coordination across the community and across the nation.
Since the Final Rule was announced, careMESH has published this Advisory Note to help guide hospitals about the rule and other details in considering how they will meet the requirements for Patient Event Notifications. We invite you to download and share this paper.
CMS clearly believes that better notifications will usher in both a much-needed step forward in improving care coordination across the community and across the nation, and will likely drive better efficiency in hospital operations. The questions are how to get there, and how to minimize the challenges brought on by the FInal Rule.
Please email any time with questions!
Stay Well,
Catherine