In the pursuit of better healthcare, the United States government signed the 21st Century Cures Act in December 2016. It has approved $6.3 million in funding, primarily geared for the National Institutes of Health. Known as the Cures Act, it was created to accelerate medical product development and introduce innovations to patients that need them more urgently. It is set to enter the enforcement phase in July 2021.
Aside from promoting medical product advancement, the Cures Act also empowers patients to be in control of their healthcare information, which subsequently improves the quality of care they receive. The government has also developed new standards to ensure that healthcare organizations improve the adoption and promotion of interoperability as well as the exchange of healthcare information without impeding access to data while also allowing patients to view this data.
The last interoperability rule was released in March 2020, which details the timeliness and framework, allowing healthcare organizations to restructure their process to share patient data. As a result, they must support application programming interface (API), which provides access to real-time health data. With the enforcement date of the Cures Act fast approaching, the healthcare industry must prepare to comply with it. Here are four practical steps to do so:
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Focus on Identifying Data
The first step to prepare your healthcare practice for Cures Act compliance is to recognize the systems, tools, and applications that contain the necessary data elements to support interoperability. Once you’ve identified the data sources, you can remedy and document any lapses in data collection.
Each process in a healthcare organization manages and captures data differently, so you’ll have to discern the appropriate information when preparing for interoperability. Prioritize high-quality data, as it will be easier to integrate.
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Map Data Fields
Once you’ve named all useful data sources, you’ll now have to map data fields to the Health Level 7 (HL7) transaction sets and the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standards. Since the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR, Release 4) was declared to be the standard for swapping health information, you’ll need to discuss how your organization will process external data and streamline it into your patients’ records. For this to be possible, you will need to map data sources, fields, and formats.
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Evaluate Strategy and Develop Its Implementation
The next step is to create a compliance strategy and a plan to implement it. The strategy must consider all assessment outcomes and detail the processes, technologies, key people, and the funding required to abide by the new information exchange standards.
An excellent place to start is to assess what you need to update your technology. It will also help to define your organization’s path going forward while validating the exchange of healthcare information.
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Create a Timeline
As the Cures Act was released in March 2020, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has specified that interoperability changes must apply within the next six to thirty-six months.
However, the pandemic has disrupted many processes. As a result, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a month later that the ONC and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are implementing discretionary enforcement measures until July 2021. Keep in mind that numerous components were not extended, such as the payer-to-payer transactions due in January 2022.
Conclusion
The Cures Act is groundbreaking legislation that will improve numerous healthcare processes. Staying updated on its requirements for your organization to remain compliant is crucial, as making the transition will undoubtedly uncover some issues along the way. By keeping these four steps in mind, you’ll ensure that your healthcare organization is well-prepared for the change.
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