Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued its final rules on Medicare Accountable Care Organizations, which bolster the menu of options for providers looking to better coordinate care for patients and aim at making it easier for providers to deliver high quality care and use healthcare dollars more wisely.
Drummond Group Inc. submitted documentation to the DEA last week for its electronic prescribing of controlled substances certification process. Pending approval, officials say Drummond will provide ePCS certification to healthcare software companies with the capability of e‐prescribing controlled substances.
Gary and Mary West, co-founders of the West Wireless Health Institute, announced Oct. 19 the formation of a $100 million investment fund with a mission to lower healthcare costs. The West Health Investment Fund, LLC was created to spur the development and adoption of healthcare innovations specifically focused on making healthcare more affordable.
The American College of Physicians, which represents 132,000 internal medicine specialists, is proposing a privacy rule that says researchers should maximize appropriate uses of information to achieve scientific advances without compromising ethical obligations to protect individual welfare and privacy.
The Center for Connected Health has received a research grant from the McKesson Foundation's Mobilizing for Health initiative to integrate a text-messaging program into an existing program at Massachusetts General Hospital to help diabetes patients better manage their condition.
The U.S. healthcare system scored 64 of a possible 100 on key measures of performance, according to the third national scorecard report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System. The report also reveals a poor score on measures of efficiency, showing relatively low use of electronic information systems and high administrative costs.
Eastern Connecticut Health Network, Inc. (ECHN) is building an HIE, and the health system has tapped MobileMD to help get the job done, signing a five-year agreement.
Eighteen California hospitals, health systems, clinics and physician groups -- many of them catering to underserved populations -- will receive grants totaling nearly $20 million from Blue Shield of California to help them participate more effectively in accountable care organizations (ACOs).
Healthcare IT stakeholders gathered Oct. 14 in Washington for a work meeting, discussing ways IT could help improve transitions in care.
Within the past month, 14 critical access hospitals have joined the Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NeHII), Nebraska's statewide health information exchange.