Bill H.2378

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2670 FILED ON: 1/21/2011

HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 2378

By Mr. Sannicandro of Ashland, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 2378) of Tom Sannicandro and Chris Walsh relative to electronic and portable health records. Public Health.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the Year Two Thousand Eleven

_______________

An Act relative to electronic and portable health records.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD TECHNOLOGY.

Subdivision 1.Implementation.

By January 1, 2015, all hospitals and health care providers must have in place an interoperable electronic health records system within their hospital system or clinical practice setting. The commissioner of public health, in consultation with the e-Health Advisory Committee, shall develop a statewide plan to meet this goal, including uniform standards to be used for the interoperable system for sharing and synchronizing patient data across systems. The standards must be compatible with federal efforts. The uniform standards must be developed by January 1, 2012, and updated on an ongoing basis. The commissioner shall include an update on standards development as part of an annual report to the legislature.

Subd. 1a.Definitions.

(a) "Certified electronic health record technology" means an electronic health record that is certified pursuant to section 3001(c)(5) of the HITECH Act to meet the standards and implementation specifications adopted under section 3004 as applicable.

(b) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of health.

(c) "Pharmaceutical electronic data intermediary" means any entity that provides the infrastructure to connect computer systems or other electronic devices utilized by prescribing practitioners with those used by pharmacies, health plans, third-party administrators, and pharmacy benefit managers in order to facilitate the secure transmission of electronic prescriptions, refill authorization requests, communications, and other prescription-related information between such entities.

(d) "HITECH Act" means the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act in division A, title XIII and division B, title IV of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including federal regulations adopted under that act.

(e) "Interoperable electronic health record" means an electronic health record that securely exchanges health information with another electronic health record system that meets requirements specified in subdivision 3, and national requirements for certification under the HITECH Act.

(f) "Qualified electronic health record" means an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that includes patient demographic and clinical health information and has the capacity to:

(1) provide clinical decision support;

(2) support physician order entry;

(3) capture and query information relevant to health care quality; and

(4) exchange electronic health information with, and integrate such information from, other sources.

Subd. 2.E-Health Advisory Committee.

(a) The commissioner shall establish an e-Health Advisory Committee to advise the commissioner on the following matters:

(1) assessment of the adoption and effective use of health information technology by the state, licensed health care providers and facilities, and local public health agencies;

(2) recommendations for implementing a statewide interoperable health information infrastructure, to include estimates of necessary resources, and for determining standards for clinical data exchange, clinical support programs, patient privacy requirements, and maintenance of the security and confidentiality of individual patient data;

(3) recommendations for encouraging use of innovative health care applications using information technology and systems to improve patient care and reduce the cost of care, including applications relating to disease management and personal health management that enable remote monitoring of patients' conditions, especially those with chronic conditions; and

(4) other related issues as requested by the commissioner.

(b) The members of the e-Health Advisory Committee shall include the commissioners, or commissioners' designees, of health, human services, administration, and commerce and additional members to be appointed by the commissioner to include persons representing Massachusetts's local public health agencies, licensed hospitals and other licensed facilities and providers, private purchasers, the medical and nursing professions, health insurers and health plans, the state quality improvement organization, academic and research institutions, consumer advisory organizations with an interest and expertise in health information technology, and other stakeholders as identified by the commissioner to fulfill the requirements of section 3013, paragraph (g), of the HITECH Act.

(c) The commissioner shall prepare and issue an annual report not later than January 30 of each year outlining progress to date in implementing a statewide health information infrastructure and recommending action on policy and necessary resources to continue the promotion of adoption and effective use of health information technology.

Subd. 3.Interoperable electronic health record requirements.

To meet the requirements of subdivision 1, hospitals and health care providers must meet the following criteria when implementing an interoperable electronic health records system within their hospital system or clinical practice setting.

(a) The electronic health record must be a qualified electronic health record.

(b) The electronic health record must be certified by the Office of the National Coordinator pursuant to the HITECH Act. This criterion only applies to hospitals and health care providers if a certified electronic health record product for the provider's particular practice setting is available. This criterion shall be considered met if a hospital or health care provider is using an electronic health records system that has been certified within the last three years, even if a more current version of the system has been certified within the three-year period.

(c) The electronic health record must meet the standards established according to section 3004 of the HITECH Act as applicable.

(d) The electronic health record must have the ability to generate information on clinical quality measures and other measures reported under sections 4101, 4102, and 4201 of the HITECH Act.

(e) The electronic health record system must be connected to a state-certified health information organization either directly or through a connection facilitated by a state-certified health data intermediary.

(f) A health care provider who is a prescriber or dispenser of legend drugs must have an electronic health record system.

Subd. 4.Coordination with national HIT activities.

(a) The commissioner, in consultation with the e-Health Advisory Committee, shall update the statewide implementation plan required under subdivision 2 and released June 2008, to be consistent with the updated Federal HIT Strategic Plan released by the Office of the National Coordinator in accordance with section 3001 of the HITECH Act. The statewide plan shall meet the requirements for a plan required under section 3013 of the HITECH Act.

(b) The commissioner, in consultation with the e-Health Advisory Committee, shall work to ensure coordination between state, regional, and national efforts to support and accelerate efforts to effectively use health information technology to improve the quality and coordination of health care and the continuity of patient care among health care providers, to reduce medical errors, to improve population health, to reduce health disparities, and to reduce chronic disease. The commissioner's coordination efforts shall include but not be limited to:

(1) assisting in the development and support of health information technology regional extension centers established under section 3012(c) of the HITECH Act to provide technical assistance and disseminate best practices; and

(2) providing supplemental information to the best practices gathered by regional centers to ensure that the information is relayed in a meaningful way to the Massachusetts health care community.

(c) The commissioner, in consultation with the e-Health Advisory Committee, shall monitor national activity related to health information technology and shall coordinate statewide input on policy development. The commissioner shall coordinate statewide responses to proposed federal health information technology regulations in order to ensure that the needs of the Massachusetts health care community are adequately and efficiently addressed in the proposed regulations. The commissioner's responses may include, but are not limited to:

(1) reviewing and evaluating any standard, implementation specification, or certification criteria proposed by the national HIT standards committee;

(2) reviewing and evaluating policy proposed by the national HIT policy committee relating to the implementation of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure;

(3) monitoring and responding to activity related to the development of quality measures and other measures as required by section 4101 of the HITECH Act. Any response related to quality measures shall consider and address the quality efforts required under chapter 62U; and

(4) monitoring and responding to national activity related to privacy, security, and data stewardship of electronic health information and individually identifiable health information.

(d) To the extent that the state is either required or allowed to apply, or designate an entity to apply for or carry out activities and programs under section 3013 of the HITECH Act, the commissioner of health, in consultation with the e-Health Advisory Committee and the commissioner of human services, shall be the lead applicant or sole designating authority.

(e) The commissioner of human services shall apply for funding necessary to administer the incentive payments to providers authorized under title IV of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

(f) The commissioner shall include in the report to the legislature information on the activities of this subdivision and provide recommendations on any relevant policy changes that should be considered in Massachusetts.

Subd. 5.Collection of data for assessment and eligibility determination.

(a) The commissioner of health, in consultation with the commissioner of human services, may require providers, dispensers, group purchasers, and pharmaceutical electronic data intermediaries to submit data in a form and manner specified by the commissioner to assess the status of adoption, effective use, and interoperability of electronic health records for the purpose of:

(1) demonstrating Massachusetts's progress on goals established by the Office of the National Coordinator to accelerate the adoption and effective use of health information technology established under the HITECH Act;

(2) assisting the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Human Services in determining eligibility of health care professionals and hospitals to receive federal incentives for the adoption and effective use of health information technology under the HITECH Act or other federal incentive programs;

(3) assisting the Office of the National Coordinator in completing required assessments of the impact of the implementation and effective use of health information technology in achieving goals identified in the national strategic plan, and completing studies required by the HITECH Act;

(4) providing the data necessary to assist the Office of the National Coordinator in conducting evaluations of regional extension centers as required by the HITECH Act; and

(5) other purposes as necessary to support the implementation of the HITECH Act.

(b) The commissioner shall coordinate with the commissioner of human services and other state agencies in the collection of data required under this section to:

(1) avoid duplicative reporting requirements;

(2) maximize efficiencies in the development of reports on state activities as required by HITECH; and

(3) determine health professional and hospital eligibility for incentives available under the HITECH Act.

(c) The commissioner must not collect data or publish analyses that identify, or could potentially identify, individual patients. The commissioner must not collect individual patient data in identified or de-identified form.

Subd. 6.State agency information system.

Development of state agency information systems necessary to implement this section is subject to the authority of the Office of Enterprise Technology in chapter 16E, including, but not limited to:

(1) evaluation and approval of the system as specified in section 16E.03, subdivisions 3 and 4;

(2) review of the system to ensure compliance with security policies, guidelines, and standards as specified in section 16E.03, subdivision 7; and

(3) assurance that the system complies with accessibility standards developed under section 16E.03, subdivision 9.

Name:	District/Address:	Date Added:
Tom Sannicandro	7th Middlesex	10/16/2012
Chris Walsh	6th Middlesex	2/4/2011