Interoperability
As the Department of Health and Human Services invests $67 million in insurance exchange navigators and $150 million more in enrollment assistance, some attorneys general are raising privacy and fraud concerns, and looking for answers.
Five hospitals across West Virginia have recently signed on with the state's health information network, bringing the total number of hospitals connected to nine.
The ONC and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are both looking to the future and plotting long-term information exchange and interoperability policy strategies.
Healthcare organizations are seeing their top talent poached, even after offering big bucks. Many hospitals are "robbing Peter to pay Paul" just to keep their projects staffed up. At a pivotal moment in healthcare, that's putting a damper on progress.
Maine Medical Center's troubled EHR rollout reveals how difficult and costly it can be to keep a large implementation on course. The ensuing rough weather ripples through every part of the organization, keeping everyone off kilter until the ship can be righted.
Cat and dog owners know that pets that chase their tails will eventually catch them – but they won’t stay caught for long. Healthcare providers who manage the exchange of health information understand the feeling.
Most health IT professionals are probably more focused on implementing or maintaining systems than they are tracking larger healthcare trends, such as the pace at which hospitals and practices are being bought and sold. The fact is, however, that IT can be a significant factor in the decision-making of healthcare administrators.
CommonWell Health Alliance announced this week that Mobile, Ala.-based CPSI and Tucson, Ariz.-based Sunquest Information Systems are the two latest vendors to sign on to the interoperability organization.
2013 has been billed as the year of EHR dissatisfaction, with up to 23 percent of physician practices reporting they were trading in their current EHR system for a new brand altogether and, according to a new Black Book Rankings report, there were a handful of vendors that came out on top.
With more than $500 million in HITECH Act startup funding set to run out by the end of the year, too many health information exchanges "haven't figured out how to fund themselves."