Speak up now and help ONC’s Health Information Technology Policy Committee (HITPC) as they begin to develop meaningful use stage 3 recommendations that target a collaborative model of care with shared responsibility and accountability, and build upon previous meaningful use objectives. The HITPC has held a series of public hearings and listening sessions to hear testimony from […]

On November 29, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a report on the oversight of the EHR Incentive Program by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The report, “Early Assessment Finds That CMS Faces Obstacles in Overseeing the Medicare EHR Incentive Program,” was […]

Expected to reach $10B by year’s end Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record incentive  payments are estimated to have reached $9.245 billion to 177,100 physicians and hospitals through November since the program’s inception and are anticipated to reach $10 billion by the end of the year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will post final figures later this month as it captures […]

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services have revised aspects of their measures in the meaningful use Stage 2 final rule. The interim final rule allows for public comment and makes several changes that primarily affect hospitals. The changes offer more clarity for providers and better align standards to the timeframe. […]

Having lived through Hurricane Irene and a blizzard in 2011, Gus Lara, clinical applications analyst at ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Somerset, N.J., said the cancer treatment practice had experience to draw on as it prepared for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29. But, as Lara soon found out, you learn something new […]

WASHINGTON – The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is expected to call for public comment on a draft of Stage 3 meaningful use requirements this month, according to leaders of ONC’s HIT Policy Committee. At the Oct. 3 HIT Policy Committee meeting, the meaningful use workgroup presented preliminary recommendations for Stage 3 to the […]

2013 will be a crucial year for physicians to avoid possible pay reductions under quality reporting and health information technology programs.   A physician’s decision not to report Medicare quality measures or participate in paperless prescribing and health record programs in 2013 will be a costly one in the long run. The programs have been […]

NEW YORK – The Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY) sees itself as a “public utility” as much as an HIE. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, as patients bounce between hospitals (and as other public utilities, such as electricity and transportation, are compromised), it has enabled critical continuity of care. The images […]

The “Three-Part Aim” is an increasingly popular term in conversations about the future of health care in the United States. Embracing a vision for a healthier America, the Three-Part Aim, a term promoted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, lays out three inter-related goals: Better care Better health Lower costs through improvement Every […]

Physicians should talk to seniors about what they find online and recommend trusted health care sites, experts say. No longer, it seems, can it be assumed that patients age 65 and older aren’t using technology as a means of managing their health. A survey of 2,870 U.S. adults found that more than half of the […]