Anthony Brino
With digitization and interconnected devices come HIPAA compliance costs and a web of security issues. Organizations should thus be devoting extra scrutiny to vendors and designing security architectures from the get-go, one cyber-security analyst suggests.
At a Health IT Standards Committee meeting, ONC head Farzad Mostashari outlined his argument for a proposed vendor fees that's been rattling the industry. It would reduce financial uncertainty and sustain certification programs, he argued.
As President Obama takes his budget and deficit-reduction proposals to Congress and the public, the Department of Health and Human Services has unveiled its proposed budget for the 2014 fiscal year.
Since 2007, and in the wake of the Great Recession, an additional 10 million Americans have enrolled in Medicaid, at the same time that states' tax revenue declined. But those long-plagued by Medicaid debt are starting to address their problems, several states are forging ahead with accountable care innovations and the consumer experience is becoming an increasingly important point of focus as states begin to modernize their systems.
Nearly 50 years after the creation of Medicaid, the program faces steep financial challenges. Modernizing the IT systems underpinning Medicaid promises to usher in a more consumer-friendly era.
Although HIE "is advancing rapidly" in much of the country, "it is being held back by demand--and supply-side friction created by variation in federal and state programs and policies that give unequal and sometimes conflicting emphasis on interoperability," Micky Tripathi, Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative president and the federal Health IT Policy Committee's HIE workgroup chair told the panel April 3.
Creating policy recommendations for HIE data query and response that reduces "real or perceived barriers," without being overly prescriptive, is the privacy and security "Tiger Team" subcommittee's task at hand in the coming months.
Clinician-to-clinician Direct messaging is now available across New York as part of the Statewide Health Information Network of New York. Albany Medical Center, one of the busiest trauma centers in Upstate New York, will be the state's first provider using the Direct service, which integrates into providers' electronic health record systems.
Two new surveys find big variations in physician use of health information exchange. While many large practices are thinking about analytics, patient tracking and performance data for ACOs, some smaller practices were unaware of their state-based HIEs or the Direct Project.
The Office of the National Coordinator's Health IT Standards Committee is urging ONC leaders to lean towards menu options and certification for use cases on Stage 3 meaningful use rather than core requirements, and to especially keep in mind that standards for a variety of clinical procedures are still evolving.