Government mandate on the use of exchange data

One of the main reasons the adoption of standards has been slow and uneven is due to the fact that Vendors don’t see much in return on investment (ROI). Majority of the Vendors are in the business of health information technology system to maximize profit and therefore see the adoption of standards for data exchange as weakening their competitive edge. I believe that government intervention in the use of exchange standards is what will drag the industry to accelerate and even the adoption.

Looking at the pharmaceutical companies and the adoption of safety standards, this would not have been possible without the “Big brother” – Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Even though some of the standards developed so far have been by Ad Hoc, De Facto and Consensus, but the wide use or increase in usage has been fueled by the government. Example: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid on e-prescribing, Healthcare Information Technology Standard Panel established by the Office of the National Coordinator for the Health Information Technology which is an arm of the government.

The fact is that it has been recognized that adoption will be delayed without the active involvement of the government. Within the last few years, the government has been playing a bigger role in the establishing of standards – HIPAA, Nationwide Health Information Network and the likes and Vendors who want to remain relevant in the market have become reluctant participants.

Government mandates on standards to facilitate adoption will be unavoidable like the involvement of FDA with pharmaceutical companies on safety standards. FDA now requires some smart phones with clinical applications to go through them for review and approval within certain standards before it goes to circulation as they now consider them to be medical device. Again the concern here is safety for the population and the government involvement will establish standard for wide adoption.

Health Information Exchange

As a doctor in solo practice, considering the benefit of the Regional Health Information Exchange (HIE) – reducing health care cost, improving quality of patient care and saving time. I will be more incline to hook up to the HIE if funding is easily available. Since the benefits are well documented, my goal will be to pursue the meaningful use funding and if able to secure that money, the transition will be smooth. If not, I will still attempt to connect through personal funding knowing that successful implementation will Improve quality of my practice, save time spent on seeing patients and I may be able to reduce my administrative cost.

Achieving these will enable me attract more  patients as the quality of my practice will be an advertisement to increase my patients volume while saving time will help my patients flow management and savings in administrative cost will increase my income. This will free up money for things like equipment or practice expansion. It is clear that the benefits in connecting to the HIE outweigh the risk. Therefore, I will pursue public or private funding to be connected.