Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) is proposing new measures for vendors to comply with systems interoperability standards for electronic health records as he pointed to concerns over the progress of interoperability efforts, GovInfoSecurity reported Thursday.
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee writes that Burgess is drafting a bill called “Ensuring Interoperability of Qualified Electronic Health Records” that also calls for the creation of a bipartisan, Congress-appointed committee to oversee standards and policies for health information technology.
“The ultimate goal is to provide private sector-centered mechanisms that will accelerate innovation and make meaningful improvements to the overall quality of care,” Burgess told the publication.
He echoed concerns by other Republican lawmakers on the $35 billion government investment for the implementation of EHR systems under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.
McGee reports that Burgess is proposing the 12-member, Congress-appointed panel to replace current federal advisory committees and recommend EHR interoperability measures to ONC.
The draft bill also requires HHS to submit a report in 2017 on the results of interoperability efforts and the particular EHR providers that met the standards to penalize those that are not compliant by 2019, the report said.
