Health Care It Scope

Summer of 2012 will be an interesting time in healthcare, as Stage 2 requirements of meaningful use will finally come to light. In the meantime, doubts remain regarding the successful adoption of Stage 2 – and whether it’s even possible. As of now,...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services soon expects to publish a final rule making changes to Medicare's Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program. CMS has sent the rule for review to the Office of Management and Budget, one of the last steps...

Despite what you’ve been told all these years, your dreadful handwriting is not the only cause of prescription mistakes. In fact, a recent study suggests that outpatient computer-generated prescriptions may be just as error-prone as your old...

Physicians understand the potential of health information technology to help improve patient care, and doctors are willing to work with the federal government through incentive programs designed to encourage more practices to go paperless. But the...

Many physicians don't use the community medication histories and the formulary information available to them in electronic prescribing systems because the data is incomplete and the systems are poorly designed, according to a new study from the Center...

By Mary Mosquera The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid  Services should reduce the duplicate requirements in its two programs that pay incentives to healthcare providers who use health information technology. It should also reconcile areas in the...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), recently signed into law by President Obama, provides welcome news to technology suppliers who are facing a 0.1 percent 2009 U.S. growth rate, according to new research from IDC's Industry Insights...

Physicians have been encouraged to switch from paper records to electronic systems in their offices, and the push seems to be working. In 2010, 50.7% of office-based doctors used some type of electronic medical records system -- more than twice the...

Doctors can now submit prescriptions for schedule II, III, IV, and V controlled substances electronically under a new Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) rule. DEA’s interim final rule, “Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances,”...

Current policy will unjustly base 2012 penalties on physicians’ e-prescribing use in 2011 The American Medical Association (AMA) and 103 state and specialty medical societies urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to revise the...

The American Medical Association (AMA) and 103 state and specialty medical societies are urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to revise the Medicare e-prescribing penalty policy, which would penalize physicians in 2012 if they don't...

By Mary Mosquera The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has named electronic prescribing network provider Surescripts as an organization that can test and approve certain electronic health records modules, bringing to a total of six the...

Surescripts announced yesterday it would expand its electronic prescribing network to offer health information exchange services for all types of clinical information, including the basic health record sharing envisioned under the federal Nationwide...

Even when physicians have access to e-prescribing capabilities, many do not routinely use the technology, particularly the more advanced features the federal government is promoting with financial incentives, according to a new study by the Center for...

Even when physicians have access to e-prescribing capabilities, many do not routinely use the technology, particularly the more advanced features the federal government is promoting with financial incentives, according to a new study by the Center for...