HHS Releases New Data on Hospital Charges.

On June 2, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the release of new publically available data on hospital charges. HHS also announced the release of data products and tools aimed to increase transparency about Medicare payments.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) first annual update to Medicare hospital charge data includes information comparing average charges for services provided in connection with the 100 most common Medicare inpatient stays (e.g., services provided in connection with joint replacements or to treat chest pain). The data allow for comparison of average charges between individual hospitals, local markets, and nationwide. The recently released 2012 data can also be compared with 2011 data released last year.

According to CMS, “[t]he data show significant variation in average charges from hospital to hospital—including those within the same community—for inpatient services that may be provided in connection with a given inpatient stay.”

The data set is available here, and more information about the data release is available via this CMS fact sheet.

ONC Releases Ten-Year Framework for Interoperable Health IT.

On June 5, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a ten-year plan for achieving an interoperable health information technology infrastructure.

The plan explains that despite significant progress,

“[I]t is not the norm that electronic health information is shared beyond groups of health care providers who subscribe to specific services or organizations. This frequently means that patients’ electronic health information is not shared across organizational, vendor and geographic boundaries. Electronic health information is also not sufficiently standardized to allow seamless interoperability, as it is still inconsistently expressed with vocabulary, structure, and format, thereby limiting the potential uses of the information to improve health and care.”

The plan sets out three, five, and ten-year agendas, and, to achieve an interoperable health IT “ecosystem”, ONC’s plan outlines nine guiding principles:

1. Build upon the existing health IT infrastructure, increasing interoperability and functionality as needed;

2. Strive for baseline interoperability while recognizing “one size does not fit all” and allowing innovators and technologists to vary the user experience;

3. Empower members of the public to become more active partners in health and wellness by making health information from the care delivery system easily available to individuals;

4. Leverage market forces, as payment and care delivery reform increase demand for interoperability;

5. Implement simpler solutions first with allowance for more complex methods in the future;

6. Maintain modularity to allow for innovation and the adoption of new, more efficient approaches over time without overhauling entire systems;

7. Take into account the range of capabilities among providers and users in order to consider the current environment and support multiple levels of advancement;

8. Focus on achieving the greatest value to individuals and providers; improved health, health care, and lower costs should be measureable over time and offset the resource investment; and

9. Ensure privacy and security of health information in order to maintain public trust; and support greater transparency regarding business practices of entities that use data, particularly those that are not governed by HIPAA.