New Interoperability Guide: View-Download-Transmit for HIOs

Lee Stevens and Erica Galvez | July 23, 2013

Following our release of Key Considerations for Health Information Organizations Supporting Meaningful Use Stage 2 Transitions of Care, today we’ve posted our second interoperability deep dive document for Health Information Exchange Organizations (HIOs), Key Considerations for Health Information Organizations Supporting Meaningful Use Stage 2 Patient Electronic Access Measures.

Interoperability is achieved when information is exchanged between two or more products or systems and then is able to be used by the person or system that received the information.

The new patient electronic access requirements (View-Download-Transmit and patient secure messaging) under Meaningful Use Stage 2 represent a transformative step forward for health information exchange and interoperability.

When they take effect in January 2014, patients all over the country will find themselves newly empowered with access to their health data.

What does the new interoperability guide cover?
This new report provides HIOs with expanded information about approaches to support the three patient electronic access measures in Stage 2 for achieving interoperability.  Built into the document is:

  • A review of View-Download-Transmit (VDT) and secure messaging Meaningful Use (MU) objectives and measures
  • An overview of associated certification requirements
  • A discussion of additional considerations for HIOs supporting VDT and/or patient secure messaging functionality, including potential documentation that may be required if an eligible provider is audited

Interoperability requirements for certified EHR technology Stage 2 use

We also explore requirements for when and how certified EHR technology must be used for Stage 2, as summarized in the following table.

Measures

VDT objective:

Does the EP/EH need to use CEHRT to send initial information to patient?

VDT objective:

Does the patient need to receive /view / download information using CEHRT?

VDT and secure messaging objective:

Does the patient need to use CEHRT to transmit information?

Secure messaging objective:

Does the EP need to use CEHRT to receive information from patient?

VDT measure 1: 50% of unique patients provided timely online access to their health information

No

Yes

N/A

N/A

VDT measure 2: 5% of unique patients view, download or transmit their health information to a 3rd party

No

Yes

They may, but are not required to

N/A

Secure messaging measure 1: 5% of unique patients send a secure message to the EP

N/A

N/A

They may, but are not required to

Yes

 

 

We hope you find this information useful as you seek to support providers and hospitals in achieving Stage 2 MU objectives. We encourage all readers to use this document in conjunction with the Patient and Family Engagement Interoperability Training Module on healthit.gov.

If you have questions, please contact Lee Stevens, State HIE Policy Office Director, at lee.stevens@hhs.gov or provide comments below.