Diana Manos
Members of the American Hospital Association (AHA) prepare to swarm Capitol Hill this week with a list of legislative measures they want changed. According to Rick Pollack, AHA executive vice president, the meaningful use rule will be at the top of the list.
While the Healthcare IT Policy Committee, a federal advisory panel, is working on projects that will outline patient protections, patient privacy activists warn that allowing patients to opt out of participation in electronic health information exchanges will be critical to building public trust.
The comment period on phase one of the proposed certification rule closed on Friday with groups calling for the feds to take precautions not to hinder the current ongoing healthcare IT adoption process.
Ninety percent of U.S. healthcare leaders and 84 percent of global healthcare leaders recently surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) believe information technology will be a "key factor" for changes in healthcare in the near future and over the coming decade.
Some regional extension centers (RECs) - federally funded healthcare IT resource centers to help providers adopt IT and qualify for meaningful use - will open nationwide in the next few weeks, according to federal officials.
Premier healthcare alliance has launched a new meaningful use best-practices library to help hospitals effectively implement electronic health records and earn Medicare and Medicaid bonuses.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday awards for more than $267 million to 28 non-profit organizations to establish Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers.
The Medicare recovery audit contracting (RAC) project has some accountability, integrity and reliability shortcomings, according to a new report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Some members of Congress will ask federal officials to postpone the start date for when providers must begin to show meaningful use of health data to qualify for bonuses under the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who spoke in a healthcare policy session last month at the Health Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference.
The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $162 million for state-federal health information exchange cooperative agreements. The funding has been awarded to 16 states – or their designated entities, such as state health departments.