Government & Policy

With six months and counting until the compliance deadline, participants lagging and blaming fingers pointing in every direction, the healthcare industry isn't ready for HIPAA 5010. And that doesn't bode well for ICD-10, either.

Despite the criticism waged against the proposed ACO rules, there's an appetite in healthcare to rethink the delivery system – but only if CMS eases the measures.

The administrative simplification could save providers, insurers billions of dollars by enabling them to automate these processes.

With the prohibitive and rising cost of healthcare, there has never been a greater need for accountable care organizations, according to Mark McClellan, MD, former administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Farzad Mostashari, MD, the nation's healthcare IT chief, pronounced the graduates of a new health information technology program at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medical College to be leaders in a healthcare movement that's critical to the nation, as he addressed the graduating class on June 24.

Healthcare IT News interviewed three solo practitioners who have met Stage 1 meaningful use guidelines, and asked what advice they might have for other solo practitioners or small practices.

The Health IT Standards Committee recommends that ONC explore existing metadata standards, including for patient identity and privacy, and get evidence from real-world uses.

Ferdinand Velasco, MD, says the system did not pursue meaningful use for the incentive payments but because it is critical to advancing its health care.

Once electronic health records become nearly ubiquitous, the information within them will enable new applications and services geared toward better population health management, says National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has made available a free tool to simplify the reporting by physicians and practices of clinical quality measures for meaningful use.