Diana Manos

With the prohibitive and rising cost of healthcare, there has never been a greater need for accountable care organizations, according to Mark McClellan, MD, former administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Ferdinand Velasco, MD, says the system did not pursue meaningful use for the incentive payments but because it is critical to advancing its health care.

Texas Health Resources received more than $19.5 million in Medicare incentive payments at the end of May for meeting first stage meaningful use. But according to Ferdinand Velasco, MD, vice president and CMIO, the heath system didn’t do it for the money.

Six new HIT Pro exams, funded by ONC, can help to ensure the U.S. has enough qualified workers to support healthcare in the years ahead.

Farzad Mostashari, MD, may be optimistic about the promise of healthcare information technology, but when he spoke April 26 at the Bipartisan Policy Center, he also warned of challenges ahead.

Presidential candidates are beginning to line up in the past month, as more Republicans declared their intentions of running. Several of them have strong ties to health IT.

The Department of Health and Human Services has launched two programs aimed at improving healthcare and reducing costs. Both rely heavily on healthcare IT.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has launched its attestation system – where hospitals and physicians participating in Medicare can verify online that they are meaningful users of certified electronic health records.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is seeking comments on approaches that will enable providers and other healthcare entities to obtain and manage digital certificates that are cross-certified with the Federal Bridge.

The start-up and management costs of an accountable care organization (ACO) is considerably higher than estimated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in its proposed rule, according to the American Hospital Association.