The Health IT Disparities Workgroup is seeking comments on its draft of strategies and tactics designed to reduce health IT disparities, according to a Health IT Buzz report.
The strategies to ensure access to health IT in underserved communities are aligned with the five goals of the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan that was released for public comment on March 25.
Below are examples of tactics the workgroup proposed to achieve the five goals.
1. Establishing a Public-Private Digital Parity Partnership, in which health IT vendors pledge to work with a specific number of providers who practice within medically underserved areas.
2. Aligning future HHS and non-HHS health IT and payment reform pilots and initiatives to include medically underserved communities.
3. Develop providers and patient advocacy groups to create and disseminate multilingual information on how HIPAA and other laws are use to protect patients' private, confidential and sensitive information.
4. Educating consumers about the availability and value of personal health records, mhealth and other types of e-health or consumer health IT applications.
5. Linking current HHS comparative effectiveness research objectives with HHS health IT grants and programmatic outcomes, when applicable.
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The strategies to ensure access to health IT in underserved communities are aligned with the five goals of the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan that was released for public comment on March 25.
Below are examples of tactics the workgroup proposed to achieve the five goals.
1. Establishing a Public-Private Digital Parity Partnership, in which health IT vendors pledge to work with a specific number of providers who practice within medically underserved areas.
2. Aligning future HHS and non-HHS health IT and payment reform pilots and initiatives to include medically underserved communities.
3. Develop providers and patient advocacy groups to create and disseminate multilingual information on how HIPAA and other laws are use to protect patients' private, confidential and sensitive information.
4. Educating consumers about the availability and value of personal health records, mhealth and other types of e-health or consumer health IT applications.
5. Linking current HHS comparative effectiveness research objectives with HHS health IT grants and programmatic outcomes, when applicable.
Related Articles on Health IT Disparities:
HHS, USDA's Memorandum of Understanding to Expand Health IT in Rural HospitalsUrban EDs More Likely Than Rural Counterparts to Adopt CPOEs
FCC Continues Temporary Funding of Telehealth for Rural Hospitals