By John Halamka MD – My assessment of the current Meaningful Use program and a proposal to better serve the needs of stakeholders. I’m likely going to violate many rules with this post. First, it’s over 1500 words, which is not ideal for social media. Second, there are many who will find my conclusions politically unpopular. I’m not criticizing people, I’m just commenting on ideas.
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By Andy Slavitt – Recently, prescription drugs have been in the news a lot, particularly with respect to their cost. Millions of Americans rely on prescription medications to manage chronic illnesses or treat acute conditions, and drug innovation has resulted in better health outcomes for people across our nation.
IEEE activities in eHealth intended to expand interoperability, grow industry ecosystem and support new life-saving capabilities. Announcing a new standard and two new standards development projects designed to support plug-and-play, interoperable communications across eHealth devices.
CMS has been carefully monitoring the transition and is pleased to report that claims are processing normally. Generally speaking, Medicare claims take several days to be processed and, once processed, Medicare must– by law – wait two weeks before issuing a payment.
CMS released the Calendar Year 2016 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System policy changes, quality provisions, and payment rates final rule with comment period on October 30, 2015.
By John Halamka MD – The November HIT Standards Committee included a comprehensive review of the CMS Meaningful Use Stage 3/Modification Rule and the ONC 2015 Certification Rule. We began the meeting with a presentation from Robert Anthony of the Meaningful Use Stage 3 and Modification Rule.
The comment period for the RFI for MACRA, which was originally 30 days and scheduled to close on November 2, 2015, will now close on November 17, 2015.
CMS released the final rule for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs. To support provider participation in 2015, CMS has also released FAQ #12985 in response to inquiries about the public health reporting objective in 2015.
The Obama administration issued its final rule for the 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule that includes several health IT provisions. Under the final rule, FQHC and rural clinics will be required to use CEHRTs.