Government & Policy
The meaningful use Stage 2 NPRM suggests SMTP as the transaction technology to connect all EHRs -- a decision more political than tech-savvy -- but the standard introduces new security concerns, supports only push, and falls short of what many people consider necessary for health information exchange. But there's still time left in the public comments period.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder recently highlighted the Obama Administration's efforts to prevent Medicare fraud, through the Affordable Care Act and the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT).
Despite delays, and billing glitches, progress is being made on the conversion. And there are benefits to the HIPAA 5010 mandate that healthcare entities will reap once they comply.
Heather Haugen, the Breakaway Group's vice president of research, explains how the healthcare industry has to change for ICD-10.
William Yasnoff, president of the Health Record Banking Alliance explains how the extensible service, MyDataCan, could be critical to facilitating our nation's health information infrastructure. But only if it the service is valuable enough to attract a large number of users.
The battle plan, fought on two fronts, yielded an early if tactical victory in the one-year compliance delay that HHS proposed last week. But is the AMA's war to oppose ICD-10 over?
More than 98 percent of Massachusetts residents have health insurance, more than anywhere else in U.S., thanks to former Governor Mitt Romney's health reform law.
Will Saunders, group president of government healthcare solutions at Xerox, says state healthcare workers are "the unsung heroes" of healthcare reform. There are "incredible demands on them," he says.
No longer a pilot in any regard but name, the Nationwide Health Information Exchange is ready to enter a new phase as a non-federal, nonprofit entity enabling public-private interoperability and data exchange.
A new study from HIMSS Analytics and Kroll Advisory Solutions shows that, a diligent focus on security compliance notwithstanding, healthcare providers are still badly lacking when it comes to privacy protections. In fact, data breaches have only increased in recent years.