The North American Spine Society has signed a letter along with other specialty societies addressing electronic health record information for clinical data registries to United States Representative Diane Black.
The societies support Rep. Black's bill "Electronic Health Record (EHR) Improvement Act" to "recognize the value of specialty clinical data registries as quality measurement and performance improvement tools in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs." The programs allow physicians participating in clinical data registries to satisfy the quality reporting component of meaningful use.
The letter goes on to suggest broadening the deeming authority to include full meaningful use credit for physicians participating in registries using EHR systems, as registries have changed since the original legislation was introduced.
"The value of registry participation goes beyond simple quality measurement. With the evolution of health information technology, a new kind of clinical data registry is emerging that extracts data directly from EHR for analysis and faster feedback to physicians on quality initiatives," states the letter. Other societies signing the letter include the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
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