Although more than 30,000 clinicians qualified to receive incentive payments in 2011, many physicians remain uncertain about the EHR Incentive Program and how to register for, report and attest to meaningful use, according to an article published May 14 in the
Archives of Internal Medicine.
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) EHR Association (EHRA) has requested federal officials to allow Stage 1 meaningful use providers to continue using sanctioned Stage 1 certified technology in 2014 in lieu of switching to an updated 2014 edition of certified technology.
It’s no surprise that when a proposed rule on meaningful use is revealed, a litany of organizations want their voices heard. May 7 was the last day to submit comments to the Stage 2 meaningful use proposed rule to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and five organizations have joined the din of democratic speech on the legislation.
The first year of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) EHR incentive programs is currently lacking certain efficiencies to verify that providers meet the designated requirements, according to an April report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has submitted its comments on the proposed rules for Stage 2 meaningful use, calling for more time to allow healthcare organizations to better prepare.
Although the federal Medicare incentives will be available through 2016, and Medicaid incentives through 2021, widespread gaps in readiness throughout the states illustrate the challenges physicians face in meeting the federal schedule for the incentive programs, according to an article published in the April edition of
Health Affairs.
Sharing clinical data electronically is a critical challenge for fixing the healthcare system, according to a viewpoint report published this week in the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
The fastest sales growth and heaviest competition in the EMR market is in products sold to physicians, particularly tools sold over the internet, according to healthcare market research firm Kalorama Information.
To achieve EHR adoption nationwide, federal policies also may have to focus on encouraging adoption among non-primary care specialists, as well as addressing persistent gaps in the use of EHR systems by practice size, physician age and ownership status, according to an article published in the April edition of
Health Affairs.
Hospital and health system business administrators are no strangers to deadlines. According to a poll conducted by U.S. audit, tax and advisory services firm KPMG, various levels of doubt are being felt across the healthcare community concerning its capability to meet the new EHR standards.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has corrected the Stage 2 meaningful use Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
The percentage of doctors using electronic records has doubled in the last two years, said Doug Fridsma, MD, director of the Office of Standards and Interoperability of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), at the ICD-10 Summit sponsored by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).
The role of privacy officer has changed since it was mandated in 2003 by HIPAA. New regulations, technology and data-sharing initiatives have reshaped the landscape, according to Chris Dimick, staff writer for
Journal of AHIMA, who outlined the new role of the privacy officer in the April edition.
Human error remains the greatest threat to data security across the healthcare industry, according to an April report from Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics.
Creating and maintaining a successful and sustainable health information exchange (HIE) initiative is difficult but not impossible, according to an April report from the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC).
The American Medical Association (AMA), along with state and national medical specialty societies, have sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expressing serious concern about an onslaught of overlapping regulations that affect physicians. Programs with overlapping timelines include the value-based modifier, penalties under the e-prescribing program, physician quality reporting system and EHR incentive program, along with the transition to ICD-10.
The drive for paperless medicine creates a lot of opportunities for innovative companies, but only six companies earn over half of the revenue in the EMR market, according to market researcher Kalorama Information. Still, the healthcare market research publisher indicates there are opportunities for smaller EMR products to grow; leadership of the $17.9 billion market for EMR is more fluid than it might appear from those results, according to the New York City-based organization.
Forty-nine states and Washington, D.C., already have taken action supporting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (PPACA) implementation, such as passing legislation, issuing regulations or other guidance, or actively reviewing insurer filings, according to an issue brief from Commonwealth Fund.
The EZ DERM EHR iPad application (app) is now powered by the Nuance Communications’ Nuance Healthcare 360 | Development Platform.
Quality improvement and patient-centered care—two concepts essential to the health reform effort—will require health IT. Current and future physicians must master the minimal competencies required to use health IT if the healthcare system is to reach its quality and cost containment goals, according to an article in the March edition of
Health Affairs.
