Diana Manos
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has named Johnson City, Tenn.-based Mountain States Health Alliance the recipient of its 2012 National Quality Healthcare Award, the 19th organization to receive the distinction.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a national survey on July 18 on the use of electronic health records by office-based physicians. The results should help fuel the fire over any lasting debate as to whether stimulus package funding used to incentivize the use of EHRs was well spent.
Stoltenberg Consulting has found a way to put more health IT experts in the field with a new junior consultant program.
As the country gears up for the presidential election, the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) has proposed language for inclusion in the Democratic and Republican National Committee party platforms to support the transformation of healthcare in America through information technology.
The message was loud and clear at the Third National Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Summit in Washington, D.C., June 6-8. If I had to sum it up, it would be that ACOs are not like the old HMOs of the 1980s. They are backed by advanced healthcare IT this time, and an even greater urgency to make adjustments to the healthcare payment model.
With the Supreme Court decision on the health reform law expected for delivery by the end of June, more policymakers, experts and stakeholders have been vocal about their predictions of the outcome.
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) believes a private-public partnership would be better to run the future Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN), rather than a federal body alone.
The White House held a two-hour town hall meeting on Tuesday to get the pulse of how health IT is advancing nationwide, according to one panelist at the private session.
No matter how you feel about the federal incentive program to drive the adoption of healthcare it, the numbers speak for themselves. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in early May that the federal government had paid out more than $5 billion in meaningful use incentives as of April. This money went to 93,650 physicians – $287 million to Medicare providers and $299 to Medicaid providers.
This past April, the federal government announced the names of 27 healthcare organizations nationwide that will be part of a brand new Medicare Shared Savings Program. If the doctors and other providers in one of the newly selected accountable care organizations (ACOs) are able to lower costs and improve care, they will reap financial rewards. Yet if you ask any of those involved, the money is not what excites them. It’s the opportunity to deliver better healthcare.