HIT Standards Committee’s “Letter of Transmittal” Recommendations to Office of National Coordinator for Health IT
from August 2009 Meeting
Standards Transmittal Letters site
“The HIT Standards Committee, a federal advisory committee, provides recommendations on HIT standards issues to the National Coordinator for his consideration. Therefore, a formal transmittal letter must transmit the recommendations from the Standards Committee to the National Coordinator in his role as an HHS official. Once the FACA has been satisfied (i.e., a transmittal letter sent from the Standards Committee’s Chair to the National Coordinator in his governmental role), the National Coordinator can then determine the disposition of the recommendations.”

August 20, 2009 Standards Committee Meeting Transmittal Letter
with attachments linked below
PDF version         HTML Excerpted from ONC site pasted below:

David Blumenthal, MD, MPP
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Office
Department of Health and Human Services Room
Washington, DC

Dear Dr. Blumenthal:

The Health IT Standards Committee (the Committee) is charged with making recommendations to the National Coordinator on standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for the electronic exchange and use of health information, and with respect to certain topics, in accordance with policies developed by the HIT Policy Committee. Therefore, the Committee is submitting to you recommendations that we finalized at our August 20, 2009, Committee meeting. At that meeting the Committee heard presentations and received advice on a variety of topics from three of its Workgroups, the Clinical Quality Workgroup, the Clinical Operations Workgroup, and the Privacy and Security Workgroup. After considerable discussion of the presentations and the Workgroups’ input, the Committee agreed upon several recommendations, as described below.

The Clinical Quality Workgroup’s presentation pertained to the appropriate standardized performance measures that correspond to the HIT Policy Committee’s 2011 Meaningful Use Measures. The Clinical Quality Workgroup presented 30 quality performance measures and the data types required for each, of which they identified the National Quality Forum (NQF)-endorsed measures which can either be retooled for use in an Electronic Health Record (EHR) or will require attestation for the foreseeable future. As noted on the attached Meaningful Use Measure Data Element Grid, specific content and vocabulary standards were selected on all but six data elements.

The Committee discussed the Workgroup’s advice and reached several important decisions regarding the appropriate quality measures for the 2011 Meaningful Use Measures, and voted to accept the Meaningful Use Measure Data Element Grid as recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Based in part on the Workgroup’s input, the Committee is submitting to you for your consideration the following:

RECOMMENDATIONS

We are submitting to you as our Recommendations the attached “HIT Standards Committee Meaningful Use Measure Data Element Grid” for your consideration and possible consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as standards and certification criteria are developed.

The second set of recommendations originated from the Standard Committee’s Clinical Operations Workgroup (Operations WG). As background, during the July 21, 2009, Standards Committee meeting, the Operations WG presented descriptions, documentation, and initial recommendations on standards for 2011 Meaningful Use, which were accepted by the Committee. Then, during the August 20, 2009, Committee meeting, the recommendations on standards for 2011 Meaningful Use were accepted as outlined in the July 21st meeting, and an additional recommendation on quality measure reporting was added to round out the standards to support 2011 Meaningful Use criteria.

After lengthy discussion, the Committee decided on the content and vocabulary standards supporting Meaningful Use for 2011 as well as a gradual transition plan to 2013 per the attached “Summary of Clinical Operations Workgroup Recommendations.” The recommendations include messaging formats and all the vocabularies necessary for semantic interoperability, and the Committee is submitting them to you as our recommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We are submitting to you as our Recommendations the attached “Summary of Clinical Operations Workgroup Recommendations: for Definitive 2011 and 2013 Implementation” for your consideration and possible consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as standards and certification criteria are developed.

The third set of recommendations originated from the Standard Committee’s Privacy and Security Workgroup (P&S WG). The P&S WG recommended authentication, authorization, auditing and secure data transmission standards for consideration by the Committee. The Meaningful Use measures recommended by the P&S WG include: measures representing value that EHR adoption can contribute to an enterprise’s HIPAA compliance; measures representing changes in approach to HIPAA compliance resulting from EHR adoption; and measures that can be objectively assessed by HHS.

After discussion, the Committee decided on all of the privacy and security standards applicable to Meaningful Use of an EHR per the “Privacy and Security Standards Applicable to ARRA Requirements.” The Committee is submitting them to you as our recommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We are submitted to you as our Recommendations the attached “Privacy and Security Standards Applicable to ARRA Requirements” for your consideration and possible consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as standards and certification criteria are developed.

We fully appreciate your Office’s and the Department’s leadership role and efforts to advance widespread adoption of interoperable health information technology in the United States.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Perlin
Chair, Health IT Standards Committee

Attachments (3):
“HIT Standards Committee Meaningful Use Measure Data Element Grid” (pdf)
“Summary of Clinical Operations Workgroup Recommendations” (pdf)
“Privacy and Security Standards Applicable to ARRA Requirements”(pdf)

See HIT Policy Committee’s Formal Recommendations on e-Healthcare Marketing.