Bernie Monegain

Humana, one of the nation's largest health-benefits companies, has promised to adopt machine-readable patient ID cards and, in the process, won the acclaim of the Medical Group Management Association, which estimates the cards could save physician offices and hospitals as much as $1 billion a year.

More data means better care, and to that end Lourdes Hospital has expanded its Web-based clinical portal.

Healthcare IT leaders in Indiana say they have a tested model of healthcare data exchange - and the government would get a quick return on its investment if it were replicated around the nation.

MTBC, a revenue cycle management and healthcare IT company, is taking to the air to call attention to its offerings.

Eastern Maine Medical Center, the 2008 winner of the Davies Award that recognizes excellence in the use of information technology, has joined the ranks of hospitals coping with tough economic times. Hospital officials say they will cut 76 jobs, reduce overtime and put several projects on hold.

Electronic health records in use at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation for nearly a decade will support a new $2.5 million diabetes research project focused on California's Asian population.

All eight facilities in West Virginia's network of acute, psychiatric and long-term care hospitals have now rolled out barcode technology for medication administration.

Patients at Texas hospitals that have automated some of their health information systems appear to have fewer complications, lower death rates and reduced costs, according to a report in the Jan. 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, a staunch advocate of healthcare IT, says he'll retire from active management and his role as chairman and member of the board of directors in May.

Incentives for healthcare IT are among 11 healthcare reform priorities being advocated by the American Medical Group Association as the new administration and Congress consider an economic stimulus package that includes $20 billion for healthcare IT.