Updated OIG 2015 work plan adds EHR issues under review

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General continues to refine its scrutiny of electronic health records, adding a new focus area in an update to its work plan, but deleting several older items previously under review. The 2015 update says that for the first time, OIG will review the use of EHRs by accountable care organizations to coordinate care.

"We will review the extent that providers participating in ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program use electronic health records [EHRs] to exchange health information to achieve their care coordination goals," it says. "We will also assess providers' use of EHRs to identify best practices and possible challenges in their progression toward interoperability [the extent that information systems can exchange data and have the ability to interpret those shared data]."

Other EHR-related priority areas that OIG is already working on that will remain in the 2015 work plan include...