Health IT Now recommends HHS, Congress take steps against non-interoperable systems

Health IT Now, buoyed by RAND's recent report on electronic health records, has called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Congress to "decertify systems that require additional modules, expenses, and customization to share data," and to investigate business practices that prohibit or restrict data sharing in federal incentive programs.

The RAND report, published in April, decried the lack of interoperability between EHRs and that data sharing standards had been watered down in years past. Health IT Now is a broad based coalition of health plans, provider organizations, associations and others that supports the adoption and use of health IT; interoperability of EHRs is one of its top priorities.

"Taxpayers have paid $24 billion over three years to subsidize systems systems that block health information in a program Congress created to share health information," Health IT Now Executive Director Joel White said in a statement. "We call on HHS and Congress to use their authority to investigate business practices that inhibit or prohibit data sharing in federal incentive programs."