IT needs to target health disparities, consumer groups say

A coalition of consumer health organizations is calling on federal health information technology policymakers to live up to the congressional mandate that the federal electronic health-record incentive payment program should address health disparities.

The coalition -- formed in 2005 and whose members include unions, the AARP, ACLU, and numerous other advocacy groups -- is led by the not-for-profit National Partnership for Women & Families, which has had a representative on the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee since its inception in 2009. The action plan contains a 31-page appendix linking its recommendations to add to or amend, by rule number, existing Stage 2 and proposed Stage 3 meaningful-use criteria. The report noted that Stage 1 meaningful-use criteria for federal EHR incentive payments—and the soon-to-be activated Stage 2 criteria—“require providers to record a patient's demographic information and to generate at least one list of patients by specific condition” to target for the alleviation of disparities. “However, there is no requirement to view lists of patients by disparity variables such as race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic or disability status. Moreover, neither stage requires anything more to explicitly identify report, address and reduce health disparities,” the report said. Mark Savage, director of health IT policy and programs at the partnership, said within the HIT Policy Committee there is “a generalized acknowledgement” of the need to further address health disparities.