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.
In an attempt to keep government accountable for its actions, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made available a web-based tool for the public to monitor and measure how the healthcare system performs.
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.
Various types of information communication technology (ICT) are being employed by private organizations to address key health system challenges. However, for successful implementation, more sustainable sources of funding, greater support for the adoption of new technologies and better ways of evaluating impact are required, according to an article published in the May 1 issue of the
Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has amended the Physician Payments Sunshine Act to provide time for organizations to prepare for data submission.
Most of the major payment changes to the healthcare industry—those that could substantially realign incentives, reduce costs and help drive delivery system reform—are associated with various pilot projects or other initiatives that will come out of the Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), according to Gail R. Wilensky, PhD, senior fellow at Project HOPE, a global health education and humanitarian assistance organization.
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).
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.
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.
Cost trends in U.S. healthcare consistently increase at about 2.5 percentage points faster than the general rate of inflation – clearly an unsustainable rate, according to an April report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has corrected the Stage 2 meaningful use Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
Now that 27 Medicare Shared Savings Program participants have been announced, bloggers for
Health Affairs examined the state of accountable care organizations (ACOs). Turns out, the fun is just getting started.
Assigning a numerical value to an outcome can objectify the healthcare processes and lead to a clearer understanding of how and when high-quality care is provided, according to an article published in the March/April edition of
Physician Executive Journal of Medical Management.
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is collaborating with other industry and government entities to support the healthcare industry’s upgrade to ASC X12 5010. This support will take the form of a multi-tiered campaign to gather feedback, track challenges, identify and provide guidance to correcting ASC X12 5010 implementation-related issues, especially among commercial payors.
Under the new Medicare Shared Savings Program, 27 accountable care organizations (ACOs) have entered into agreements with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), taking responsibility for the quality of care furnished to people with Medicare in return for the opportunity to share in savings realized through improved care.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted the full set of clinical quality measures included in the proposed rule for Stage 2 of meaningful use (MU) of EMRs on its website.
Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Herb Kohl, D-Wis., authors of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, have outlined substantive points to guide federal implementation of the act. Grassley and Kohl wrote to the Acting Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner with their points and also asked questions about when CMS will begin data collection.
With projections of long-term deficits dependent on projection of healthcare costs, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has updated its HealthCare Budget Deficit Calculator to show what long-term budget deficits would look like if the U.S. did not pay as much for healthcare. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t look good.
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).
