Knowledge Center

WASHINGTON, DC — February 19, 2019 — WEDI, the nation’s leading nonprofit authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange and a statutory advisor to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today issued the following statement on behalf of its President and CEO, Charles Stellar. The statement was issued following the release last week at the HIMSS Global Conference and Exhibition by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) announcement on Interoperability and Patient Access, and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology announcement on Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program:

“WEDI and its members support seamless access to health information by providers and patients to make better choices about care and treatment. At the same time, it is essential that we also protect the privacy and security of patient health information. As we continue to review the proposed rules, we will focus on ensuring it further protects patients, minimizes administrative burdens, and establishes clear data standards and operational protocols to put meaningful information into the hands of patients, providers, and insurance providers.

“We look forward to submitting our recommendations to ONC and CMS during the comment period and continuing to work closely with Administrator Verma and Dr. Rucker on facilitating health care data interoperability. We will work hard to ensure that implementation enhances care coordination, safety, efficiency and value in a way that protects patient privacy. WEDI applauds the HHS efforts to assure that the proposed rules consider the comments and recommendations from many industry stakeholders, and when finalized, truly protect patients.”

Jay Eisenstock, Chair of WEDI added: “WEDI will hold a series of webinars over the next couple of weeks covering more specifics and a deeper dive into the proposed rules. We will use these webinars to solicit comments from our members in order to compile the WEDI response to the RFI by the April deadline.”

About WEDI
WEDI is the leading authority on the use of health IT to improve healthcare information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency, and reduce costs of our nation’s healthcare system. WEDI was formed in 1991 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and was designated in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS. WEDI’s membership includes a broad coalition of organizations, including: hospitals, providers, health plans, vendors, government agencies, consumers, not-for-profit organizations, and standards development organizations. To learn more, visit www.wedi.org and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.