Outlook 2015: Health IT

Health IT developers and users in 2015 will need to crack the code on APIs, FHIR, DS4P, 42 CFR Part 2, ICD-10 and Stage 2 MU—shorthand for the key technology challenges looming in the year ahead.

Application programming interfaces are likely to be hot in 2015 as federal policymakers and some mainline EHR developers have embraced the API approach. The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources specification, a project of a major health IT standards group, will be explored in 2015 as a possible means to achieve consensus among health IT players on a common way for IT systems to use APIs to communicate with each other.

Their aim is to help healthcare providers connect their legacy electronic health-record systems with new Web-based mobile healthcare devices and applications. They also want to realize the potential of using “big data” to improve quality and reduce costs.

Data segmentation for privacy, or DS4P, technology passed the pilot stage in 2014 and could move into implementation in 2015 as providers grapple with ways to keep separate in their EHRs federally protected general healthcare data and more strictly protected patient records associated with behavioral-health treatment under a federal law known as 42 CFR Part 2.

Another huge health information technology challenge is that the CMS has set Oct. 1 as the day all hospitals, physicians, claims clearinghouses and health insurers must switch to using the ICD-10 diagnostic and procedural coding system for claims. But the American Medical Association and the Texas Medical Association are fighting hard against implementation. Medical group lobbying succeeded in delaying implementation in 2014.

Finally, at least 1,000 hospitals and more than 100,000 physicians and other eligible professionals face the steep climb to meeting Stage 2 requirements for meaningful use of EHRs in 2015.

Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn