Health IT panel gets an earful on plan

The Health Information Technology Policy Committee heard from its Strategic Plan Workgroup, which delivered advice to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for an annual update to the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan.

At a full-committee meeting May 19, the Health IT Policy Committee took under advisement the work group's recommendations to make several tweaks to the plan. ONC head David Blumenthal said a final vote on the recommendations could come at the policy committee's next meeting, scheduled for June 25. The Health IT Policy Committee was created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to advise the ONC on IT policy issues. One member of the policy committee found the language of the report to be incomprehensible to a lay audience. Another member complained that it lacked specifics. Others said that the national plan needs constraints on its scope. Under the ARRA, HHS must submit to Congress by Nov. 1 each year an annual operating budget for the ONC showing how its expenditures are aligned with "the specific objectives, milestones and metrics" of the national strategic plan.