Government & Policy
The Office of Inspector General has proposed three significant changes to safe harbor regulations pertaining to electronic health record services, according to a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. These amendments include updating the provision under which EHR software is considered interoperable, eliminating the electronic prescribing requirement from safe harbor and extending the sunset provision date.
Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, received accolades from both sides of the aisle at a hearing on Tuesday to consider her nomination as head of CMS. Senate Finance Committee leaders indicated a decision would come soon.
The missing ingredient in many PHI privacy and security efforts? The patient. Rick Kam offers suggestions on how to change that.
The acting CMS administrator's hearing comes as lawmakers in Washington are under increasing pressure regarding Medicare and Medicaid budgetary issues.
The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing April 9, beginning at 10 a.m., to consider President Barack Obama's nomination of Marilyn B. Tavenner for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Since 2007, and in the wake of the Great Recession, an additional 10 million Americans have enrolled in Medicaid, at the same time that states' tax revenue declined. But those long-plagued by Medicaid debt are starting to address their problems, several states are forging ahead with accountable care innovations and the consumer experience is becoming an increasingly important point of focus as states begin to modernize their systems.
Nearly 50 years after the creation of Medicaid, the program faces steep financial challenges. Modernizing the IT systems underpinning Medicaid promises to usher in a more consumer-friendly era.
The plan to insure as many as 27 million Americans under the federal health law beginning this fall will be the biggest expansion of health coverage since that launch. But six months before the process begins, questions are mounting about the scope and adequacy of efforts to reach out to consumers.
Robert Rowley, MD, delves into CMS data reported from meaningful use attestation and thus "arguably the most accurate source, free from vendor hyperbole," to determine which vendors are gaining ground, those that are sinking, and find patterns of doctors switching EHRs.
As mobile health gains ground as a way to improve population health and curb healthcare costs, models for making mHealth financially sustainable are topmost in the minds of stakeholders in the U.S. and across the globe.