Phase 6: Health IT & Patient Protections

A Focus on the Health IT Provisions of Federal Laws

With Congress' passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), net investments of approximately $19 billion were dedicated to support the growth of health information technology. In addition, the Patient Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PACA) relies on information tools to support many of its programs and grants.

Collaborative Comments

Connecting for Health has worked intensively with collaborators to create consensus recommendations, applying the Markle Common Framework to a range of policy, technical, and governance questions created by these new investments.

Meaningful Use Final Rule | CMS Proposed Rulemaking | Interim Final Rule

Media Releases

Connecting for Health collaborators continue to impact policy and implementation efforts throughout the country.

Aligning Health IT & Health Care Reform | Meaningful Investment of $19 Billion

A Focus on Personal Health

As part of our long-standing effort to improve individual access to personal health information, Markle challenged its Work Group on Consumer Engagement to identify potential breakthroughs that would allow consumers to benefit directly from the public investments in health IT being made through the Recovery Act. 

This work group came up with the idea of a simple “blue button” for people to download their own health information. In less than a year, this idea became a reality—fully implemented by the Veterans Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and a variety of private sector providers and payers. Innovators have shown that when consumers have access to their own information through a blue button download a variety of applications and services can be created to enhance the benefit of information access. 

Policies in Practice

The Common Framework for Networked Personal Health Information “Policies in Practice” outlines recommended practices supported by over 50 organizations for protecting information as it is shared using the blue button.

The Download Capability

Survey on Health in a Networked Life

Markle's Survey on Health in a Networked Life 2010 is the first survey of its kind to compare public and doctor priorities for health IT.  This survey showed strong support from both providers and the public for the blue button idea.

About Health in a Networked Life | Public Opinion Surveys on Health