Meaningful Use
Texas Health Resources received more than $19.5 million in Medicare incentive payments at the end of May for meeting first stage meaningful use. But according to Ferdinand Velasco, MD, vice president and CMIO, the heath system didn’t do it for the money.
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.
Innovative tools and data that federal health agencies have released to the public can help healthcare providers meet meaningful use of electronic health records, says Todd Park, chief technology officer for the Department of Heath and Human Services. Speaking to an audience at the Government Health IT Conference on June 15, Park offered several examples.
Even doctors who have purchased and successfully implemented electronic health record systems did not always know what they were buying until they were up and running, ONC director Farzad Mostashari, MD, told an audience June 15 at the Government Health IT Conference in the nation's capital.
The opt-in legislation for Maine's health information exchange was met with "clear opposition" by providers throughout the state, but a revised version that is pending the governor's approval, would make it a mandate that providers who are participating in the HIE provide their patients with a separate form to opt-out.
The Vermont Healthcare and Information Technology Education Center (HITEC) has received $2 million in funding for the state's workforce development training project, which seeks to match unemployed and underemployed Vermonters with their future employers.
No matter what happens politically or in policy circles, "seismic shifts" are going to occur in healthcare, and IT needs to be a major part of reshaping the landscape, according to H. Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
The Bipartisan Policy Center's Health Project has launched a Task Force on Delivery System Reform and Health IT. The Task Force, co-chaired by former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, now co-leaders of the Health Project, includes 24 health system experts and leaders.
Sometimes what may seem like a small expense – $3,700 – can make all the difference to patients in need of care, but with no insurance or means to get it.