EHRA Recommends Simplifying Standards to Scale SDOH

The HIMSS Electronic Health Records Association recently analyzed how healthcare organizations collect social determinants of health information. While EHRA's Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity Task Force sees great value in using SDOH to help address healthcare disparities, it says a gradual transition toward more widespread adoption of standardized screeners – in sync with the health IT industry's evolution and readiness to adopt new tools – is the correct approach.This past year, social determinant screenings were voluntary under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Inpatient Prospective Payment System, or IPPS, under which more than three-quarters of the nation's inpatient acute-care hospitals are paid, according to the American Hospital Association.