Government & Policy
With Minnesota's GOP caucus set for Feb. 7, we spoke to the North Star State's health IT honcho about public-private partnerships, electronic health records, health information exchange, telehealth and more. Often billed as the healthiest state in the U.S., Minnesota has long been a healthcare IT leader.
Healthcare technology stocks don't have the obvious roadblocks facing many other healthcare sectors in 2012, according to industry analysts who spoke to an audience of 600 at the Nashville Health Care Council on Feb. 1.
Often considered the healthiest state, Minnesota began harnessing HIT to bridge private and public health years before the HITECH Act. It's building on that EHR foundation for health information exchange, and is also currently cultivating a new crop of HIT professionals: informaticians.
Critics say Washington is moving too slowly on regulations and guidance for health insurance exchanges, leaving states in a time crunch wherein they must act on imperfect information.
With even more seniors than Florida, the Pine Tree State's Medicaid woes threaten health insurance coverage for as many as 65,000 citizens, not all of them retirees, either.
Attendees of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Care Innovations Summit discuss their takeaways from the event, which drew more than 1,000 attendees in person and 1,500 online viewers.
Whether the information is stored in an EMR, passed through an HIE, coded in ICD-10 or otherwise used, these tactics will help when "selling the value of information governance" within healthcare entities.
A think tank with a healthcare task force chaired by former Senators Tom Daschle, a Democrat, and Bill Frist, MD, a Republican, is advocating for improved and better-used health information technology. Among the group's recommendations is "robust" data exchange.
Wendy Whittington, CMO of Anthelio Healthcare kicks off her wish list with the hope for a great emphasis, among the private sector and government alike, on ONCs Federal Health IT Plan.
Healthcare information exchange sustainability does not just happen. To help achieve it, ask all stakeholders, early and often, what services they want and need. Here's how, with a 12-point checklist for accomplishing that.