Dive Brief:
- DirectTrust provided comments in a letter in response to the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT's (ONC) request for information on assessing interoperability for MACRA.
- The nonprofit organization urged ONC to initially develop simple metrics, acknowledging that further research will be needed as interoperability becomes more widespread.
- It also suggested ONC develop baseline measurements of fax and mail communications being replaced by the electronic exchange of health data.
Dive Insight:
DirectTrust also encouraged ONC to expand interoperability measures beyond certified EHR technology since there "are significant numbers of exchange partners outside the population of providers using certified EHR technology, for example, home health agencies and social service agencies."
In addition, the group said it knows many providers and health information exchanges use direct messaging among themselves and with other entities that are not using certified EHR technology. So it suggested 'message disposition notifications' (MDNs) may be a useful measure as they are a key part of Direct exchange.
Dr. David Kibbe, DirectTrust president and CEO, said the acknowledgement of receipts and the use of exchanged data through message disposition notifications along with delivery system notifications and failure notifications should be quantified.