President Obama tapped as the federal government’s chief technology officer Todd Park, who had been serving as the CTO at the Department of Health and Human Services. Park replaces Aneesh Chopra, the government’s first CTO, who resigned last month [see Aneesh Chopra Resigns as Federal CTO]. Chopra also had been serving as the associate director of technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, a position Park [...]
LAS VEGAS – The enigmatic duration of HHS’ intended delay of ICD-10 is giving payers and providers hope for a little breathing room when it comes to training coders – but it simultaneously creates a need to ratchet up employee retention efforts. As such, providers need to plan for both training and retention regardless of what new deadline HHS might issue for ICD-10 compliance, said Bonnie Cassidy, AHIMA past-president during [...]
In the course of meeting Stage 1 Meaningful Use criteria, Beaufort Memorial Hospital in Beaufort, S.C., will have the basic infrastructure in place for health information exchange, which by design will enable meeting the more complex HIE requirements expected for Stages 2 and 3. To have patient data available and shareable makes a lot of sense – and a lot of patients would agree with that, said Ed Ricks, vice president of [...]
Regional extension centers can help you select and implement an electronic health record system and attest to meaningful use. There are 62 RECs spread across the country. Implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system in your primary care practice is no small task. You must consider hundreds of individual elements about the system itself, plus the cost, the hit to your practice’s productivity during installation, and, of course, compliance with [...]
The widespread development of health information exchange is happening quickly, and with it comes worries about confidentiality, privacy and security. But its benefits far outweigh potential concerns and include improved quality of care and reduced healthcare costs. Despite HIE’s reserved reception among hospitals and practices nationwide, many have said it will play a significant part in meaningful use stages down the road. And since there’s no time like the present [...]
HealthAmerica and Preferred Primary Care Physicians have launched a new pilot program aimed at providing more coordinated and patient-centered primary care and improved communications among patients, physicians and care teams. Preferred consists of 32 board-certified physicians and five physician extenders specializing in internal medicine and family practice. It has 14 practice locations in the South Hills and three locations in Uniontown in Fayette County. In addition, Preferred offers state-of-the-art outpatient [...]
If properly executed, green IT can mean healthcare organizations see fewer bills, contribute lower levels of carbon emissions, and enjoy an easier transition into mandated practices. But it has to be done right. Noble and potentially cost-efficient, but embracing the “go green” trend isn’t simple. Jerry Buchanan, account director Healthcare Technology and Services at eMids Technologies, shares five powerful green IT practices for healthcare. 1. EMR: Paper trails have met their match with [...]
The Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture have signed a memorandum of understanding linking rural hospitals and clinicians to capital loan programs to help them purchase software and hardware needed to implement health IT. On Aug. 16, the White House publicly announced the Administration’s commitment to this agreement. [See Obama's new rural jobs initiative includes health IT.] HHS’ Rural Health Information Technology Task Force, has been working with the [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The government’s soaring healthcare bill will be high on the agenda of Congress’s new deficit-cutting “super committee,” which has been assigned the task of finding by November 23 at least $1.2 trillion in savings. Few major structural changes are expected for the Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs given the time constraints. The 12 committee members — six Democrats and six Republicans — also are unlikely to [...]
The Obama administration on Friday said it would stop granting new waivers to the health-care overhaul in September following sharp opposition from Republicans who cited the waivers in their bid to undermine the law. As of the end of May, the administration had granted 1,433 waivers to a part of the 2010 law that prevents employers and other health-plan providers from capping annual benefit payouts below $750,000 a year. Those [...]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will pay physicians four to eight weeks after they verify that they have satisfied conditions for meaningful use of electronic health records. That means that the soonest that CMS will issue incentives is in May. Providers will not receive the incentive payments within that time frame, however, if they have not yet met the threshold of $24,000 for allowed charges in claims for [...]
President Obama on April 13 rebutted a House Republican plan to trim $4 trillion worth of federal deficits over a decade with his own proposal that he said would protect guaranteed benefits in Medicare and Medicaid. Obama also proposed that the Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board be directed to enact even deeper reductions than outlined. The 15-member board was created by the health system reform law to improve Medicare quality [...]
For those of you who do not know me personally, I am an internist and have been in private practice in central Florida for more than 30 years. Like so many of you, I have had to make changes — expensive changes — over the years to keep my office up to date, my practice competitive, and to provide better service to my patients. Right now, one of the biggest [...]
The Homeland Security Department plans to acquire an electronic health record system to improve the quality and efficiency of its health care for illegal aliens and other foreign fugitives detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. DHS clinicians and staff at 22 locations will use the electronic health record (EHR) to replace the current manual and stand-alone automated systems. [See also: VA, citing taxpayer savings, seeks open source EHR.] [...]
“OCR’s requested budget will support our ability to protect the public’s right to equal access and opportunity to participate in and receive services from all the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) programs without facing unlawful discrimination, and to protect the privacy and security of individuals with respect to their personal health information. OCR’s performance objectives are in line with HHS’ objectives for transforming the healthcare system, increasing access to high quality, effective [...]
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