Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)
Not all HIE products are created equal; some are more equal than others. At least that's according to the findings of a new Black Book Rankings report that names the top performing HIE vendors across five different categories.
The ONC's Meaningful Use Workgroup will submit draft recommendations for Stage 3 of the Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program on Feb. 14. So far, the workgroup has developed a number of ideas that have consensus, but clinical quality measures may not be as easy to include in digital systems as previously thought.
CMS is extending the deadline for eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program 2013 reporting year from 11:59 p.m. EST on Feb. 28, 2014, to 11:59 p.m. EST March 31, 2014.
A health IT consultant described the "Tower of Babel"-eqsue barrier she encounters coordinating disparate EHR systems to a panel at the Health Innovation Day conference. William Check, CTO at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association responded: "What you just described could have been the cable industries. It's amazing the parallel here."
Malcolm Gladwell, the best-selling author and New Yorker staffer, likened the change required for healthcare to clear the interoperability hurdle to several events of this generation, "three lessons in culture, framing and consequence," as he put it during a talk Thursday at Health Care Innovation Day in Washington.
Health networks and physician practices have the most to gain from an interoperable ecosystem and, it follows, the most to lose if it doesn't go right. But one could argue that American patients and taxpayers stand to gain or lose just as much.
Strong momentum continues for the meaningful use program as CMS revealed that it has disbursed more than $19 billion in reimbursement incentives. There were 440, 998 registered providers participating in the federal electronic health record incentive program as of the end of 2013, with $19.2 billion paid out in incentives, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
CCHIT surprised many in the industry this past week when it announced it would be bowing out of the EHR certification game to focus on advisory services and thought leadership. Alisa Ray, executive director and CEO of the standards and testing pioneer, spoke with Healthcare IT News about the rationale behind that decision.
Blackford Middleton, MD, first came across the term "clinical decision support" in 1983. Today, Middleton continues his decades-long work on CDS and hoping the federal meaningful use program can help make clinical decision support systems more accessible, intelligent and interoperable.
Karen DeSalvo, MD, talks with Healthcare IT News Editor Bernie Monegain about the work ahead and what has influenced her on her way to becoming the national coordinator for health information technology. DeSalvo is the fifth coordinator and the first woman to serve in the post since it was established by President George W. Bush in 2004.