Government & Policy

Now that we have experience with two stages of meaningful use, it's also clear that a three year cycle is needed to ensure safe, high value, well adopted, introduction of new IT functionality.

Two sides of the innovation play will come together next week near Washington, DC. What new technologies might emerge?

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has proposed a bill to extend meaningful use incentives to mental health practitioners, who currently have been left out of the program.

Currently, mental health providers are not eligible to receive federal electronic health record incentive payments under the meaningful use program. One U.S. Senator, however, is working to change that.

Don't hold your breath if you are looking for a delay in meaningful use Stage 2 of the federal EHR incentive program.

Researchers and other clinicians love it. Privacy officers, not so much. The popular file hosting site isn't HIPAA compliant, and hasn't shown much interest in business associate agreements.

"Everyone is gaming the system," Nirav Shah, MD, said of NY's Medicaid, just not for much longer. Reforms that include non-traditional services put the state on track to save $34 billion.

Wish there could be a delay of Stage 2 meaningful use? Talk to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, not the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. And don't hold your breath.

Before White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park even uttered a word about HealthCare.gov in front of the House panel that had subpoenaed him to testify Nov. 13, the chairman and the ranking member were sparring over the failed launch of the government's insurance website.

United States CTO Todd Park faces heat from a frustrated GOP-led committee, while the public tries to defend him.