American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
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GOP Lawmakers Urge Halt On Meaningful-Use Payments
HHS should suspend incentive payments to providers in the electronic health-records program and delay penalties to those that do not integrate health IT until the federal department can define clear, interoperable standards, House Republican leaders suggested Thursday in a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Read More »
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GOP Senators: Health IT Policy Needs 'Reboot'
Six Republican Senators are asking the healthcare community for input on “recalibrating” health information technology policy, arguing that there are several problems with the current trajectory of the meaningful use program. Read More »
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Growth Of SMART Health Care Apps May Be Slow, But Inevitable
This week has been teaming with health care conferences, particularly in Boston, and was declared by President Obama to be National Health IT Week as well. I chose to spend my time at the second ITdotHealth conference, where I enjoyed many intense conversations with some of the leaders in the health care field [...]. Read More »
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Have Best-Of-Breed EMRs Lost The Hospital Battle?
Is a best-of-breed or enterprise/single vendor EMR implementation the best approach for your hospital? This topic has been the focus of much debate ever since EMR software came into existence, and both sides have compelling arguments. Read More »
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Health IT Buzz: Progress on Adoption of Electronic Health Records
Latest Health IT Buzz on Health Information Technology (HIT) from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) - Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [ARRA] – which included the creation of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs – was signed into law, the nation has seen unprecedented growth in the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). Between 2009 and 2012, EHR adoption nearly doubled among physicians and more than tripled among hospitals. Read More »
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Health IT Collaborative Releases Patient Engagement Guide
Healthcare providers wanting a recipe to follow to improve patient engagement within their organizations can start by looking over the Patient Engagement Framework released by the National eHealth Collaborative. Read More »
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Health IT's Next Big Challenge: Comparative Effectiveness Research
Healthcare providers are being pushed to deliver more cost effective medical care and to improve the health of not just individual patients but large populations. One key to carrying out both mandates is finding more clinically effective treatment options. Read More »
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Healthcare Needs a Big Data Infusion
To improve medicine and health IT, we need a big heaping dose of data. That’s the takeaway from a conversation with Aneesh Chopra, the former U.S. CTO and assistant to President Obama, at South by Southwest in Austin on Friday. Read More »
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HHS Steps Back On NwHIN Governance
HHS, through its Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has decided to punt on its previous drive to regulate the proposed nationwide health information network. Read More »
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HIMSS Unwraps Tools To Measure HIT Value, Success
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society today announced the release of a new online collection of data – both quantitative and qualitative – designed to help providers, lawmakers and other stakeholders research the value of health information technology. Read More »
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HIMSS13: What Will Happen When The Health IT Boom Ends?
With HIMSS13 less than a week away, much of the news surrounding the annual event centers on new products and services health IT developers and vendors are looking to sell to healthcare organizations and providers with the promise of improving patient care and ostensibly reducing costs... Read More »
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How Have HRSA Grants Helped Or Hindered EHR Meaningful Use?
Has $176.9 million in Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grants to networks of health centers sufficiently increased the meaningfulness of their EHR adoption and use? According to the Office of Inspector General, the answer to that question is both yes and no. Read More »
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How Health IT Benefits From Obama's Re-election
The day after President Obama was re-elected and Democrats held onto control of the U.S. Senate, the future looked bright to folks in the health IT field. Read More »
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Inside The Struggle For Electronic Health Record Interoperability
Over the past few months, stories have popped up chronicling doctors’, clinicians’ or other health care providers’ headaches moving to and/or accessing EHRs. The chorus of complaints has led the Senate Appropriations Committee to submit language in a draft bill that calls for a report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on what “the challenges and barriers” are to EHR interoperability.” Read More »
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Lack Of Funding, Clout Didn't Deter Kolodner From Tackling ONC's Top Spot
Dr. Robert Kolodner had his eyes wide open when he took the top spot at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS. He knew that his predecessor, Dr. David Brailer, had asked in vain for billions of dollars to help subsidize the cost of EHRS to hospitals and physicians, federal money he thought ONC needed.
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