Preliminary results of a pilot project testing standardized reporting of public health information from electronic health records (EHRs) reveals that by using templates for clinical data, public health officials can improve the quality and coordination of care as they try to contain problems such as West Nile Virus, or outbreaks of whooping cough or flu. The pilot project is part of a three-year program in which IBM, the CDC, and the Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC) are collaborating on ways to make patient health data in EHRs quicker and easier for health officials to access.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released on Thursday the final requirements for stage 2 meaningful use, which aims to promote the implementation of electronic medical records among healthcare providers.
Make clear that stage two of the program will begin as early as 2014. No providers will be required to follow the Stage 2 requirements outlined today before 2014.
Outline the certification criteria for the certification of EHR technology, so eligible professionals and hospitals may be assured that the systems they use will work, help them meaningfully use health information technology, and qualify for incentive payments.
Modify the certification program to cut red tape and make the certification process more efficient.
Allow current “2011 Edition Certified EHR Technology” to be used until 2014.
Medicare, the popular healthcare program for the elderly that both political parties vow to rescue from financial ruin, will spend less money over the coming decade than previously expected, U.S. analysts said on Wednesday. In a report on the U.S. economy and budget, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reduced its spending forecasts for Medicare by $19 billion for 2012 and by $169 billion over the coming decade from earlier this year. Total Medicare spending is projected at $7.7 trillion for the 10 years ending in 2022. The change reflects lower spending growth for doctors, hospitals and prescription drugs since the U.S. economy fell into recession in 2007.
U.S. hospitals want to know what's going on with Medicaid. The American Hospital Association has asked Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, for clarification on Medicaid expansion. Expansion of state Medicaid programs, which cover low-income and disabled residents, is a provision of health care reform. But the U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 ruled that states aren’t required to change their Medicaid programs. Through a combination of Medicaid and a series of state health exchanges, the Affordable Care Act is designed to provide coverage for an additional 32 million Americans.
The Shumlin Administration has taken the first step to design the specific healthcare benefit packages that will be available in Vermont through the new marketplace exchange beginning in 2014. Consumers will have a range of options with different deductible levels, co-payment requirements and caps on out of pocket expenses. While some states are still struggling with the basic details of creating a consumer exchange, Vermont has made a lot of progress and the Green Mountain Care Board is now ready to consider the basic outline of benefit packages that will be available to all individuals and small businesses in January of 2014.
On June 13, 2011, paramedics rushed a gravely ill 43-year-old woman straight to intensive care. She had a rare lung disease and was gasping for breath. The hospital employed the most stringent and severe form of isolation, but soon the bacterium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, was spreading through the hospital. Seventeen patients got it, and six of them died. Had they been infected by the woman? And, if so, how did the bacteria escape strict controls in one of the nation’s most sophisticated hospitals, the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.? What followed was a medical detective story that involved the rare use of rapid genetic sequencing to map the entire genome of a bacterium as it spread.