Meaningful Use

Healthcare improvement alliance Premier will spend $400 million to acquire CECity, a privately-held, SaaS-based healthcare solutions company. Much like Premier, CECity focuses on performance management and improvement, pay-for-value reporting and professional education.

ONC head Karen DeSalvo, MD, is slated to appear for a Senate committee hearing to determine whether it will grant her its nomination.

With Stage 2 meaningful use, ICD-10, the HIPAA Omnibus Rule and the Affordable Care Act dominating the agenda these past few years, Beth Israel Deaconess CIO John Halamka, MD, is doing some research to help reshape next priorities.

Two reports from two separate research firms -- Kalorama and Black Book Rankings -- indicate the market for EMRs is still healthy, even as incentives for meaningful use dwindle and a large shift in vendor market share occurs.

CHIME, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, says the requirements for Stage 3 meaningful use are over the top, and its executives proposed several changes.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has paid out more than $30 billion in EHR incentive payments to hospitals and providers who have attested to meaningful use as of March 2015. Which platforms were used for attestation? We have some helpful charts that break it down for you.

Could chronic care management be the new meaningful use? Some entrepreneurs see even greater financial incentives on the immediate horizon.

"Both Epic and athena are justifiably proud of their products and their people, and both defend their worldview with great passion and (particularly in athena's case) no shortage of hyperbole. Did I really need to choose sides?"

To date, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has paid out more than $30 billion in EHR incentive cash to hospitals and providers that meet meaningful use requirements. Check out our breakdown of these payments by hospital and provider type, as well as attestation stats by month.

President Obama's nomination of ONC Chief Karen DeSalvo, MD, to the post of Assistant HHS Secretary, did not surprise many in health IT circles. After all, she was already Acting Assistant Secretary. As some stakeholders say, if she is confirmed, they will have an advocate in an even higher position in government.