Will health information exchange become Medicare payment criterion?

The use of interoperable electronic health record (EHR) systems to share information could eventually become part of reimbursement criteria in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, according to a new position paper from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The report, "Principles and Strategy for Accelerating Health Information Exchange (HIE)," states the government's principles in three categories: accelerating health information exchange, advancing standards and interoperability, and consumer/patient engagement. The strategies were informed by the stakeholder comments that ONC received in response to a request for information it issued earlier this year.