News
The ONC and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are both looking to the future and plotting long-term information exchange and interoperability policy strategies.
After an eventful two-year stint as deputy national coordinator, Farzad Mostashari, MD took the helm at ONC just as the meaningful use program began to gather steam. His tenure will be remembered as one of unprecedented change for the industry. Here's a look back at some of his star turns in Healthcare IT News over the years.
Farzad Mostashari, MD has said he intends to step down from the national coordinator post this fall. Mostashari spent four years with ONC, first as a deputy national coordinator, then taking over as the national coordinator in 2011. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the announcement in a letter to HHS staff.
HHS Secretary Sebelius, in an internal memo to staff, highlighted the ONC chief's accomplishments during the last four years.
Despite the fact that patients are clamoring for it and health organizations see its benefits, electronic communication from primary care physicians won't become commonplace until doctors' workloads are reduced -- or they get paid extra for emails and phone calls.
More than half of hospitals are sharing clinical information outside their affiliations. But two clinical data categories critical to care coordination still lag, ONC researchers found.
They get one year to solve complex problems. And then, whether they fail or succeed wildly, the HHSentrepreneurs such as Zac Jiwa and his brethren are cut loose. Jiwa discusses the obstacles and opportunities.
Healthcare organizations are seeing their top talent poached, even after offering big bucks. Many hospitals are "robbing Peter to pay Paul" just to keep their projects staffed up. At a pivotal moment in healthcare, that's putting a damper on progress.
Medicare will levy $227 million in fines against hospitals in every state but one for the second round of the government's campaign to reduce the number of patients readmitted within a month, according to federal records released Friday.
The same software commonly used in academic settings has potential to clear up much of the confusion around upcoding, cutting and pasting of medical records, and the fraud and abuse concerns the practice has triggered.