On Tuesday, the FCC released its National Broadband Plan.  It notes that “the United States is not taking full advantage of the opportunities that health IT provides. It lags other developed countries in health IT adoption among primary health care providers,” and provides eleven recommendations to close the gap between the U.S. and leaders in healthcare IT adoption.

Here are the FCC’s recommendations:

1. Congress and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) should develop a strategy to document the proven value of e-care technologies and incentivize their meaningful use.  When testing new payment models, HHS should explicitly include e-care applications and evaluate their impact on healthcare costs.  Major pilots of e-care should be designed to adhere to HHS standards for program design and data capture.  Until outcomes-based payment reform is implemented, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should proactively reimburse care providers for e-care technologies under current payment models.
2. Congress, states and CMS should remove regulatory barriers to the adoption of health IT solutions.
3. The FCC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA ) should clarify regulatory requirements and the approval process for converged communications and health care devices.
4. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC ) should establish common standards and protocols for sharing administrative, research and clinical data; and provide incentives for their use.
5. Congress should provide consumers access to—and control over—all their digital health care data in machine-readable formats in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost.
6. The FCC should replace the existing Internet Access Fund with a Health Care Broadband Access Fund.
7. The FCC should establish a Health Care Broadband Infrastructure Fund to subsidize network deployment to health care delivery locations where existing networks are insufficient.
8. The FCC should authorize participation in the Health Care Broadband Funds by long-term care facilities, off-site administrative offices, data centers and other similar locations. Congress should consider providing support for for-profit institutions that serve particularly vulnerable populations.
9. To protect against waste, fraud and abuse in the Rural Health Care Program, the FCC should require participating institutions to meet outcomes-based performance measures to qualify for Universal Service Fund subsidies, such as HHS’s meaningful use criteria.
10. Congress should consider providing an incremental sum of up to $29 million per year for the Indian Health Service for the purpose of upgrading its broadband service to meet connectivity requirements.
11. The FCC should periodically publish a Health Care Broadband Status Report.

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Yesterday, the FCC released the National Broadband Plan called for by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  The plan identifies ways to expand access to broadband and promote economic growth and job creation in areas unserved or underserved by broadband internet access.

Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra writes on the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) blog, “I’ve established a Broadband Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Technology, co-chaired by Larry Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce, and Scott Blake Harris, General Counsel at the Department of Energy. This interagency group will focus closely on the plan by the FCC—an independent agency—and advise the Administration on actions it can take to promote broadband as a platform to improve the lives of everyday Americans and drive innovation in the economy.”

CTO Chopra says that this subcommittee will meet the goal outlined by President Obama, to “build upon our efforts over the past year to make America’s nationwide broadband infrastructure the world’s most powerful platform for economic growth and prosperity.”

Additionally, CTO Chopra says that the White House is committed to build upon the almost $2 billion already put forward by the Department of Commerce and the USDA to deliver broadband to communities with limited or no broadband access.  He says this will “stimulate job creation, and foster long-term economic growth” and support the Department of Health and Human Services’ commitment to the free and secure movement of healthcare information from where it is collected to where it is needed.

Also, CTO Chopra writes that the Broadband Subcommittee will support the Department of Energy’s $11 billion ARRA investment to modernize electricity transmission with an interactive “Smart Grid;” the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to integrate web-based technologies into the National Emergency Communications Plan for emergency response efforts; and collaboration across all Departments and agencies to promote the adoption of new, secure broadband platforms.

“The Administration will continue to engage the public on this issue, as Secretary Arne Duncan did last week when he called for public input on the draft National Education Technology Plan, which articulates a bold vision of a world-class education environment powered by technology that relies on broadband access both in and out of school.” Writes CTO Chopra, “The Administration also continues to implement its Open Government Directive, which is seeking public input on how each Federal agency should achieve greater transparency, participation, and collaboration, in part by taking fuller advantage of the capabilities of broadband.”

He closed by thanking FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski for his “tireless work and your dedication to the broadband future of the country.”

Writing on the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC) Health IT Buzz Blog, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology said that today’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) award of over $160 million in federal funds for “meaningful use” of health IT was “a key step” toward establishing a national Health Information Exchange.

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He writes, “An unprecedented level of coordination and collaboration is needed to achieve our vision of a secure, interoperable, nationwide health information infrastructure where health data can follow patients to their point of care.  We must find innovative ways to break down the barriers that prevent the seamless exchange of information, and States have to be key players.”

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This round of health IT awards saw 16 states and State Designated Entities (SDE) receive part of a $160 million grant to “rapidly build capacity for exchanging health information among and between health care professionals and hospitals.”  These exchanges will allow any two care providers within a state to send and receive relevant clinical data for patient treatment.

The end goal for Dr. Blumenthal is expanding these exchanges to the national level.  He says this is essential for “health data to follow patients to the point of care.”  For example, if you hurt yourself while vacationing in Florida and were unresponsive, a national health exchange would enable the local doctor to access all relevant information from your primary care provider in Virginia.

These awards build on February’s billion-dollar funding announcement by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis which established Regional Extension Centers.  These are local centers to enable smaller, primary-care physician practices to adopt health IT, that will serve “every nook and cranny of the country,” according to Joshua Seidman of the ONC.  He added that “additional REC cooperative agreements will be announced in the near future” and REC grants will be “focused on solo and small group practices, community and rural health centers, public and critical-access hospitals, and other settings that predominately serve uninsured, underinsured, or medically underserved patients.”

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On the HHS’ Health IT Buzz blog, Dr. Joshua Seidman writes about the Regional Extension Centers announced February 12th, and their upcoming expansion. “In the coming weeks, ONC will be rolling out more components of our HIT Extension Program. In particular, we’ll keep you apprised of our plans for the HIT Research Center (HITRC) that will help provide support and continuity to the RECs and create a virtual community of shared learning.”

Seidman says that Regional Extension Centers, local centers to enable smaller, primary-care physician practices to adopt health IT, will serve “every nook and cranny of the country, and that “additional REC cooperative agreements will be announced in the near future.”  The grants will be “focused on solo and small group practices, community and rural health centers, public and critical-access hospitals, and other settings that predominately serve uninsured, underinsured, or medically underserved patients.”

Priorities for HHS dollars include:

• Vendor selection guidance
• Workflow redesign guidelines
• Health Information Exchange (HIE) interoperability
• Privacy and security
• Local workforce training
• Meaningful use

Seidman writes about meaningful use, “We know that simply doing the wrong thing faster won’t improve the care delivery system. Meaningful use of EHRs requires important changes that will result in a better, more convenient and efficient care delivery system for clinicians and patients.”

Keep these priorities in mind when looking for health IT grants that your business is positioned to compete for: the White House’s priorities of expanding health care coverage and job creation carries over to health IT.

Call it serendipity. It was Fall 2008, and Melissa Chapman was attending a healthcare IT conference. Featured was a new technology that allowed a diverse set of healthcare organizations — including the VA, Social Security Administration, MedVirginia and the Indian Health Service — to securely share vital health information on-demand. Chapman was thrilled. The Federal Health Architecture program she had initiated had come a long way since she left HHS as CIO in 2003. She quickly asked: “How can I get involved with this again?” It wasn’t long before Chapman joined Agilex, a key developer of the technology, as vice president of health solutions.

On the heels of her new role, Chapman recently spoke with ExecutiveBiz about her plans to help this rapidly growing company, which has generated $20 million in healthcare IT alone over the last two years, continue its ascent as a significant player in the arena.
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