Health Care It Scope

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) said Wednesday that a proposal to implement “blended” payment rates for Medicaid is “on the table” in negotiations over raising the federal debt limit. This proposal could save the government...

Maria DeLeon, MD, (sitting) of Southwest Orlando Family Practice says she appreciated that the practice's information technology director, Jason Casorla, (standing) was in the office during its 2004 electronic health record system transition.primary care...

Health plan executives say their three major challenges are figuring out how to deal with healthcare reform, the health insurance industry's systemic shift from wholesale to retail business and bending the cost curve. Resolving the challenges...

The Health Resources and Services Administration at HHS has announced it will dole out $12 million in up to 40 grants to help rural hospitals and physicians meet meaningful use criteria, AHA News reports. Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus...

Many physicians are eligible for federal incentive payments for the meaningful use of electronic health records but lack a basic EHR system, according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs, Healthcare IT News reports. Under the 2009...

By Diana Manos, In a broad State of the Union speech Tuesday night, President Obama hailed the information age in America and the need for the federal government to support IT innovation. "In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives,...

HHS will allocate up to $335 million for existing community health centers through the Expanded Services initiative, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday. The funding is available through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and is...

(Editor's Note: The following is a response to a July 15, 2010 posting by Leslie Kane about the ease of demonstration of "EHR Meaningful Use -- So Easy, Even a Caveman Could Do It?". The Kane Scrutiny blog on Medscape.) As President of Geriatric...

Three-year funds made available under ARRA will flow to organizations that serve diverse and vulnerable populations. On Sept. 1, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced three sets of grants and cooperative agreements totaling...

This week brought another snapshot of how not-for-profit hospitals fared last year as unemployment climbed and shaken markets dropped sharply before beginning to recover. Moody's Investors Service published the median financial performance for about...

Transparency has become a hot issue and goal for governments lately, most recently in California following the scandal that rocked the city of Bell, which was spending $1.6 million annually on salaries for three city employees. The alarming revelation...

The Obama administration used about half of a 50-page report on innovations targeted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to underscore the importance of health and medical IT to the nation’s economic future. The stimulus legislation, passed...

Patients treated at hospital emergency rooms that use all-digital-records systems are more likely to have shorter stays than at hospitals with paper or basic digital-records systems, according to a study by an Arizona State University professor. The...

The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) announced today that it recognizes widespread adoption of electronic health records could be used by doctors to both improve patient outcomes and assess ongoing clinical competence for purposes of medical...

We're finding more and more that electronic health records, as defined by the standards for "meaningful use," are far less than comprehensive. Mental health providers, with the exception of psychiatrists, aren't eligible for federal subsidies. Dental...