Meaningful Use
Christopher Boone, director of outpatient quality and health IT for the American Heart Association in Dallas, will fill a vacancy on the federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee. Boone will fill one of three committee positions held by advocates for patients or consumers.
Former President Bill Clinton will deliver the keynote at HIMSS13 in New Orleans on March 6. HIMSS officials released its list of speakers on Sept. 5, the same day Clinton delivered the keynote at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
Look up the term "bioinformatics" and the definition will most likely be a convoluted series of references to algorithms, databases, artificial intelligence, computation theory, discrete mathematics, signal processing, statistics and a half-dozen other terms for complicated concepts. In essence, it is difficult to explain because there are so many facets to it.
Two years ago this summer, the meaningful use Stage 1 final rule was revealed to an eager public. Immediately, hospitals and physician practices got down to business. Since then, core measures have been tackled and menus sets have been ticked off lists. Some criteria were relatively doable, some have remained maddeningly problematic, but more than $2.5 billion in checks have been mailed out so far.
David Blumenthal, MD, who was the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology from 2009 to 2011, has been appointed president of the Commonwealth Fund. He will succeed Karen Davis, effective Jan. 1, 2013.
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the substance of the Affordable Care Act, it's time to refocus attention toward the essentially bipartisan support for health IT. At the same time, it's worth reconsidering some closely-held beliefs about technology's role in care delivery.
The White House held a two-hour town hall meeting on Tuesday to get the pulse of how health IT is advancing nationwide, according to one panelist at the private session.
No matter how you feel about the federal incentive program to drive the adoption of healthcare it, the numbers speak for themselves. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in early May that the federal government had paid out more than $5 billion in meaningful use incentives as of April. This money went to 93,650 physicians – $287 million to Medicare providers and $299 to Medicaid providers.
Most hospital CIOs would agree that achieving meaningful use of electronic health record systems is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a rigorous, complex program that demands difficult and bold action from even the most seasoned IT experts. Most seem ready to tackle the work, both to improve patient care – and to collect the attendant incentive money.
Catholic Health Initiatives is partnering with Orion Health to build an enterprise-wide HIE that will enable physicians and clinicians to access patient records across its 100 facilities in 19 states. Once connected, CHI plans to link to statewide HIEs in states where its 76 hospitals are located.