Meaningful Use
Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO John Halamka, MD, tend to see health IT in a similar way: it should be nimble, simple, robust and preferably cloud-based. Today, they announced a collaboration like no other.
ONC's draft plan for nationwide interoperability has sparked optimism from some quarters -- and a "wait-and-see" approach from others. We round up reaction to the roadmap.
Retained, executive search firm, SSi-SEARCH, reveals new findings in its 2014 annual CIO survey results, designed to capture insights on how the CIO role is evolving. Among the findings: A growing workload and continued rapid change.
Stage 2 meaningful use attestations have shown an uptick, but many providers still struggle. With the Flex-IT Act gaining traction in the House, Rep. Renee Ellmers and 28 fellow members of Congress have again called on HHS for a shorter reporting period. The AMA, meanwhile, is "appalled" that more than half of eligible providers will face penalties in 2015.
Could younger patients be the key to achieving Stage 2 meaningful use patient access requirements? A new report finds strong desire for online medical records among the 18- to 34-year-old generation, with 43 percent of millennials saying they want to access their portals via smartphone.
Weill Cornell's Keith Hentel, MD, will be the first to tell you: His radiology department intentionally failed to meet Stage 1 of meaningful use. They could have done it. But it would have meant pouring already limited resources into something that "doesn't really move our practice anywhere in the right direction," he said.
Offering a bit of leeway, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has pushed out the deadline for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to attest to meaningful use for the 2014 reporting year, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 31.
A report from the Office of Inspector General outlines the top challenges faced by the Department of Health and Human Services in FY 2014. Among them: meaningful use and interoperability. OIG also highlighted several area HHS continues to struggle with heading into 2015, including electronic health records.
Electronic health records have seen encouraging uptake among office-based physicians in recent years, with eight in 10 now having at least a basic EHR in place. But what do these doctors really think about how health IT works at the point of care? Their frank opinions may surprise you.
With just 2 percent of physicians having managed to attest to Stage 2 meaningful use, clearly something is holding back the vast majority of docs from succeeding in the program. The American Medical Association says they should not be penalized.