By Healthcare Facilities Today

The U.S. healthcare system is making advances in harnessing the power of health information to improve care, but many important health policy decisions must be dealt with, according to a report from the California HealthCare Foundation.

The report, "Ten Years In: Charting the Progress of Health Information Exchange in the U.S.," traces the history of the HITECH Act, healthcare reform, electronic health record adoption and health information exchange (HIE) efforts, according to an article on the Fierce Health IT website.

Among the questions still to be answered:

• Will a national HIE governance mechanism be implemented?

• How will the country overcome barriers to sharing health information across state lines?

• Will more regulation be required to ensure that stakeholders and vendors don't restrict data exchange that is in the best interests of patients?

• What steps will need to be taken to ensure that all health care stakeholders fully participate in HIE?

Concerns remain about gaps in adoption of EHRs, particularly in rural and low-income areas and among post-acute facilities, the report said. 

Some worry that Meaningful Use Stage 2 may be proceeding too quickly and its requirements may be too complex. Others are concerned about providers failing to use EHRs to their full potential, the article said. Still others warn against overemphasis on the role of EHRs in care coordination and analytics.

Read the article.