The HIMSS EHR Association in a letter urged the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and CMS to quickly issue a final rule regarding 2014 meaningful use reporting requirements and to delay the start of Stage 3 until at least 2018, Healthcare IT News reports (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 7/11).
One of the many Holy Grails in health care -- trailing somewhat behind the perennial pursuit of lower costs -- is the notion of interlinking the sometimes disparate components of medical devices, clinical systems, information systems and communication platforms to streamline care and make the entire delivery universe safer for patients.
The number of eligible health care professionals and hospitals that have attested to Stage 2 of the meaningful use program rose slightly in June, according to the latest CMS data, Health Data Management reports (Slabodkin, Health Data Management, 7/9).
A few weeks ago, the nation's health care organizations received the promise of some much-needed relief from the pressure of meeting looming deadlines for achieving Stage 2 of the meaningful use program. That came with the release of a proposed rule from CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT intended to give providers more flexibility and time in achieving Stage 2 objectives.
The Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems is seeking clarity around CMS' proposed changes to the meaningful use program, Modern Healthcare reports.
AMDIS has tasked board member Michael Zaroukian with drafting formal comments to CMS' proposed rule (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 6/19).
Jacob Reider, deputy national coordinator and chief medical officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, said that the agency wants to make the meaningful use program more flexible and less focused on providers meeting a specific set of clinical quality measures, Modern Healthcare reports.
The American Hospital Association sent a letter Tuesday asking CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to quickly finalize a proposed rule that extends the meaningful use timeline so that providers can take advantage of the added flexibility, EHR Intelligence reports (Murphy, EHR Intellig
Stage 2 meaningful use attestation among eligible hospitals and providers has increased slightly over the past month, according to CMS, Health Data Management reports.
On Thursday, the American Hospital Association sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget's Office placing its support behind a proposal to open up data on the of public health agencies and registries to receive data from health care providers under the meaningful use program, EHR Intelligence rep
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released a paper outlining a 10-year plan to achieve an interoperable health IT infrastructure in an effort to reduce costs while improving population health and patient engagement, FierceHealthIT reports (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 6/5).
Electronic health records dramatically advance patient care. At Atrius Health, we fervently support the intent of meaningful use, a CMS program started in 2011 that provides financial incentives to organizations that use EHRs to improve patient care and penalties to those that don't. We have watched with anticipation as this program has helped move the majority of U.S. physicians to electronic patient records. However, as the program progresses, we encourage Congress and CMS to re-assess the program's sustainability.
On Tuesday, House Republicans sent a letter to National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo questioning her office's authority to regulate health IT products as called for in a recently released draft report, The Hill reports (Al-Faruque, The Hill, 6/3).
Health IT is a key part of many of the programs that will receive a total of up to $110 million in federal funding through CMS' Health Care Innovation Awards, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 5/23).
The health care industry is divided over a proposed rule released earlier this week by CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT that would give providers an additional year to upgrade electronic health record systems to meet reporting requirements for Stage 2 of the Medicare meaningful use program, Modern Healthcare
In a nearly 1,700-page proposed rule on fiscal year 2015 inpatient payment policies released Wednesday, CMS appears to have quietly set Oct. 1, 2015, as the new ICD-10 implementation deadline, Health Data Management reports (Goedert, Health Data Management, 5/1).
In a letter to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, the American Hospital Association raised concerns about a proposed rule containing voluntary certification criteria for electronic health record systems in 2015, EHR Intelligence reports (Murphy, EHR Intelligence, 4/29).
User-centered design processes must be applied to each capability an EHR technology includes that is specified in the following certification criteria: § 170.315(a)(1) through (4), (8) through (10), and (18) and (b)(2) and (3).
In a letter to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, the Electronic Health Record Association raised concerns about a proposed rule containing voluntary certification criteria for electronic health record systems in 2015, EHR Intelligence re
The federal government continued to implement the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, during the first quarter of 2014.
The first quarter of 2014 saw a number of important developments:
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