Mary Mosquera

A Department of Health and Human Services advisory panel wants feedback from the public about concepts it has developed for clinical quality measures for meaningful use in 2013 and 2015.

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) has unveiled the first version of the software that will allow simple information exchange between providers, a crucial enabler for the first stage of meaningful use of electronic health records.

A Department of Health and Human Services advisory group has proposed broad steps that healthcare organizations should take in order to establish their corporate identities for the simple exchanges of patient information that will be required under the first stage of meaningful use.

The Office of the National Coordinator will start real-world testing of clinical information exchanges between healthcare providers using "NHIN Direct" standards and services in late December or early January, according to the connectivity project's director.

Health IT vendors should make sure they market and sell their products and services to healthcare providers in minority communities to avoid a new form of "digital divide" that could leave low-income areas without the benefit of electronic health records, according two of the nation's top physicians.

The Health IT Policy Committee has created a task force to pursue the use of directories across state HIEs to support provider and patient look-up as well as to enhance public health reporting.

The federal Health IT Policy Committee has endorsed a set of recommendations on when healthcare providers must obtain consent before exchanging patient heath records electronically with other clinicians, testing labs or health information exchange (HIE) networks.

Health information exchanges cannot share sensitive patient information beyond a simple point-to-point exchange without first obtaining a patient's consent, concluded the federal privacy and security tiger team.

A Health and Human Services Department advisory panel has taken the first steps to enabling people who are enrolled in federal and state health and social services programs to easily find out if they are eligible for benefits from other programs.

The Office of the National Coordinator is finalizing the details and design of NHIN Direct, the health information exchange tool-set it is preparing to help physicians and small practices share basic healthcare records securely over the Internet.