Government and Industry Affairs

Greenway is shaping the national dialogue on healthcare IT. Testifying on numerous occasions before Congress and the President's Administration, for over 10 years, we have been involved in government relations work to advance health through IT in the United States.

With an active voice and comprehensive strategy regarding government relations, Greenway is viewed as a leader impacting the adoption of technology, specifically electronic health records (EHRs), in healthcare. In the mid-1990s healthcare IT took to the national stage. Since then, Greenway has remained committed to leveraging its own experience for shaping the future of healthcare IT. We saw that the federal government was going to legislate and regulate healthcare IT and Greenway was determined to have a voice in that work.

Greenway has testified and/or formally addressed Congress as well as both Presidential Administrations on 12 occasions since 2005. Topics include increasing physician reimbursement, financial incentives for EHR adoption, EHR return on investment (ROI), privacy, security, confidentiality, compliance, healthcare IT standards convergence (HITSP), healthcare IT industry interoperability, EHR certification (CCHIT) and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE).

Testimonies and Statements Before the U.S. Congress:

• 111th Congressional Session: Testimony of Justin T. Barnes Before NCVHS Executive Subcommittee Hearing on "Meaningful Use"

• 110th Congressional Session: Testimony of Justin T. Barnes Before U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology
  • Follow up on Testimony

• 110th Congressional Session: Testimony of Justin T. Barnes Before U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)
   

• 109th Congressional Session: Opening Statement for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
   

• 109th Congressional Session: Opening Statement before the U.S. House Health Care Reform Subcommittee of the Republican Policy Committee

Greenway addressed the Congressional Budget Office on budget options for healthcare and healthcare IT. The provisions we addressed begins on page 88 with option 46. Click here to view the details.

Through Greenway’s involvement in federal healthcare governance committees and expert testimony, we were able to help shape the new Stark/safe harbor regulation to maximize its healthcare IT adoption incentive to physicians and hospitals.

Greenway’s solutions and services are directly impacted and improved based on the participation in government affairs. We work with industry leaders to brainstorm goals for improving patient care through healthcare IT. Our internal teams then push innovation transferring goals into proven interoperability, regulations and standards that will improve care.

For example, Greenway, a Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) member, is working with CDISC and IHE on an integration profile to address single-source data capture at the point of care for patient care and clinical research. The result would alleviate the need to re-enter data into specialized research and surveillance applications, saving time and reducing the opportunity for data errors. The mission of CDISC is to develop and support global, platform-independent data standards that enable information system interoperability to improve medical research and related areas of healthcare.

In 2005, Greenway partnered with other industry leaders to help create the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT). This group is a recognized certification body (RCB) for electronic health records and their networks, and an independent, voluntary, private-sector initiative. CCHIT’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of healthcare IT by creating an efficient, credible and sustainable certification program.

Greenway is also one of the founding companies of HIMSS Electronic Health Records Association (EHR Association). HIMSS EHR Association is a trade association of EHR vendors that addresses national efforts to create interoperable EHRs in hospital and ambulatory care settings. It operates on the premise that the rapid, widespread adoption of EHRs will help improve the quality of patient care and the productivity of the healthcare system.

Greenway serves in an advisory capacity on public policy and state and federal legislation with an emphasis on key congressional committees, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Each year, Greenway renews its commitment to innovation and industry-leading activities, acting in an advisory capacity on public policy and state and federal legislation, testifying before Congress, and leading federal and regional healthcare governance committees for:

• Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT)
• Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP)
• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
• Electronic Health Record Association (EHR Association)
• Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC)
• National Governor’s Association (NGA) Health Information Protection Taskforce
• Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) 
• Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC)
• National Quality Foundation (NQF)
• National Committee for Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS)