Anthony Brino

The Office of the Inspector General found that nearly all of the more than 800 hospitals it surveyed in late 2012 had federally recommended EHR audit functions in place, but "may not be using them to their full extent," while only a quarter of them had policies on the notoriously problematic practice of copying-and-pasting.

As providers ready for meaningful use Stage 2 attestation and policymakers start designing Stage 3, CMS announced that the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs have paid out just shy of $17 billion to spur adoption thus far.

"Everyone is gaming the system," Nirav Shah, MD, said of NY's Medicaid, just not for much longer. Reforms that include non-traditional services put the state on track to save $34 billion.

American public health leaders are challenging the public and private sector to focus on both the population and the person, from regional planning to cancer therapy.

More than half of U.S. hospitals are currently connected to a regional, state or private health information exchange, with a majority of them citing this as their biggest challenge yet.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services CIO, Tony Trenkle, is stepping down this month amid the problematic rollout of the Healthcare.gov website, CMS announced in an email to the staff.

Now covering about half the state's beneficiaries, Colorado's Medicaid accountable care program saw a 15 percent reduction in hospital admissions and a 25 percent reduction in high-cost imaging in the 2013 fiscal year, contributing to $44 million in savings.

Three recent deaths at the Memphis VA Medical Center emergency department could probably have been prevented with better communication, digital documentation and better layout of the emergency department, according to an investigation by the Veterans Administration Inspector General.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee interrogated, scrutinized and criticized contractors for Healthcare.gov Oct. 24, just days after the Obama administration called in a "fix it" team amid growing public frustration over the site's problems.

HIM professionals of the early 1990s might not recognize the profession without paper, but they would understand the basic role -- and probably be proud of the new value it's bringing to American healthcare. That will be on display at the AHIMA convention next week.