HIMSS Members from Across Nation Go to DC
for Fifth Annual National IT Week  
Plus  ”The Three Asks”
Washington, DC will see members of Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) chapters from across the country and related organization members go to Capitol Hall to make three requests, known as “Asks” in shorthand of Capitolese.

One Voice, One Vision: Transforming Health and Care
According to HIMSS Web site“National Health IT Week is a collaborative forum, now in its fifth year, of assembling key healthcare constituents—vendors, provider organizations, payers, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, government agencies, industry/professional associations, research foundations, and consumer protection groups—working together to elevate national attention to the necessity of advancing health IT.”

HIMSS Three Asks For 2010
These are the three requests members of HIMSS will be requesting from Senators, Congressmen and women, and their staff members. These three links go to PDF files:

• HIMSS recommends that any future policy pertaining to the electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) appropriately balance meaningful use criteria/measures with industry readiness without delaying the timeline for implementation.
• HIMSS recommends that Congress enable the study of an informed patient identity solution.
• HIMSS recommends that Congress work with the Obama Administration to make permanent the current physician self referral regulation exemptions (Stark exemptions) and anti-kickback safe harbors for EHRs.

For a complete schedule of National Health IT Week: June 14-19, 2010, click here.

SCHEDULE IN BRIEF
JUNE  14: Capitol Hill Briefing on Patients & Technology
eHealth Initiative:  ”The eHealth Initiative is actively working to ensure patient engagement and access to information is viewed as an integral part of the health information technology movement. This eHealth Initiative briefing will feature perspectives from Congress, Federal Agencies, Patients, and Industry Stakeholders.

“The session will address the strategies, challenges, and successes related to engaging patients in their health care through the use of technology.”

Featured Speaker: U.S. Congressman Michael C. Burgess, MD
Additional Speakers Include:

• Joshua Seidman, PhD, Acting Director of Meaningful Use Division, Office of Provider Adoption Support, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT
• Rushika Fernandopulle, MD, MPP, Co-Founder of Renaissance Health, Ix Center for Information Therapy, Practicing Physician
• Kate Christensen, MD, Medical Director of Internet Services Group, Kaiser Permanente
• Paul Berger, Stroke Survivor, ePatient

JUNE 14: HIMSS Federal Health Community
Invitation only event for federal stakeholders to tour George Washington University Hospital’s electronic health record implementation.

JUNE 15: NHIT Week 2010 Partners
Press Conference on Capitol Hill, House Triangle in front of Capitol

JUNE 15-16: Government Health IT Conference & Exhibition
Registration Required.

JUNE 16: CHIME StateNet and ALT Policy Briefing
College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME)
ONC’s Dr. Farzad Mostashari, Deputy National Coordinator for Policy and Programs will speak. Discussion of ”how CIOs are organizing and sharing information to leverage HITECH funding at the state-level.” Open only to CHIME members, StateNet CIO Coordinators, StateNet CIO participants, ALT members (and invited c-suite colleagues). Registration required.

JUNE 16: National eHealth Collaborative Stakeholder Forum – Legal Agreements for Health Information Exchange: What is the Right Model for My State?
“NeHC is offering a Special National Health IT Week Stakeholder Forum on Multi-Party Legal Agreements for Health Information Exchange as an opportunity for all stakeholders, especially state decision makers, to understand how multi-party legal agreements can be effective for data-sharing at the state level.

“This session is intended to provide decision makers and others with a foundational legal concept for understanding potential applications of multi-party data-sharing agreements. The Data Use and Reciprocal Services Agreement (DURSA) used by the NHIN Exchange will be presented as a case study in the development of multi-party agreements and participants will learn about those aspects of the DURSA that may be applicable to state level agreements.”

Open to the public. Participate online.

JUNE 16-17: HIMSS 10th Annual Policy Summit
“The HIMSS 10th Annual Policy Summit highlights keynote speeches and roundtable discussions from key decision-makers with their finger on the pulse of Capitol Hill and the White House.” Registration Required.

June 17: NHIT Week 2010 Partners Networking ReceptionProduced by eHealth Policy and CHIME. See http://www.e-healthpolicy.org/
for more information.

June 17: Capitol Hill Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics’ Technology Showcase