Jeff Rowe

The Dept. of Health and Human Services obviously listened to the resounding criticism that the proposed meaningful use criteria were asking for too much, too soon or all or nothing.

The most well-known patient privacy advocate voiced her support for the Dept. of Health and Human Services' new patient privacy policy.

University of Missouri researchers are developing an EHR that will encompass the needs of older patients, the numbers of which are growing exponentially as more and more Baby Boomers continue to age.

While Congress was in recess, President Obama appointed Donald Berwick, MD, to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which has been without an administrator since 2006. Let's forget the usual politics for a moment and focus on the impact this appointment will make on health IT adoption.

They say as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services goes, so goes the rest of the payer industry. CMS is close to releasing the final meaningful use criteria. There are rumblings out in the marketplace that commercial payers are putting meaningful use criteria in their physician contracts.

It’s never too early to start work on the 2013 quality measures, which is exactly what the federal health IT panel is doing.

Steven Waldren, MD, director of the Center of Health Information Technology at the American Academy of Family Physicians, gave an interesting provider perspective about meaningful use, financial incentives and hospitals reaching out to physician groups in a recent Q&A.

The Leapfrog Group's recent report on CPOEs stresses the importance of proper testing and monitoring of health IT to avoid potential risk and harm to patients. The report focused on CPOE adoption, it also looked at the efficacy of CPOE systems. While the report was on CPOEs, its findings are relevant for EHR adoption.

Given all the discussion surrounding topics such as privacy and “Meaningful Use”, it’s easy to forget that HITECH was rolled out last year as part of a larger economic stimulus package.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently launched an official web site for its EHR incentive programs. It's a great idea, but it should have been launched soon after the programs were announced.