By Karen B. DeSalvo & Matthew Swain – The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) issued its annual report to Congress on health IT progress. Developing this report provided us with an opportunity to reflect on our collective health IT journey and the significance of the past year for HHS and our federal and private partners.
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By John Smithwick – In the past few years, knowing what happens to patients between visits or after acute episodes hasn’t been a priority for provider organizations. As more and more reimbursements are tied to quality measures and outcomes, organizations are finding it vital to know the health status of their populations so they can spot problems earlier and intervene sooner to prevent the need for costly procedures.
One of the ways that HITECH Answers is different from other media sites is the sense of community. The thought leaders in our community are good about sharing their thought on the issues of today. Here are the top read and shared guest posts of February.
Adoption and utilization of digital health tools among providers, clinical research organizations, payers and pharmaceutical companies is set to increase this year, according to a paper Validic published in advance of the and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) association’s 2016 Annual Conference & Exhibition.
By Matt Fisher – The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of the National Coordinator of HealthIT (ONC) and others are becoming prolific in the amount of HIPAA guidance being issued.
By Terry Hayes – Keeping healthcare information flowing to the right people, at the right time, creates the potential for more effective patient care and population health management. However, a greater number of moving parts also means greater risk.
This week’s HIE rundown includes: ONC launches the Interoperability Proving Ground (IPG), Caradigm announced the launch of Open Exchange, and DataMotion Health announces new platform capabilities for sharing info & communicating.
By Lucia Savage & Aja Brooks – Welcome to the fourth and final blog post in our series on how HIPAA supports interoperability. In the previous installments, we provided practical examples and illustrations that show how Health Care Operations Permitted Uses and Disclosures apply to covered entities.
By Andy Slavitt – I love working with Karen De Salvo. She can talk in half sentences and I can finish them. We’ve naturally been working together for months on some of the initiatives we’re talking about here, and always check in to compare facts, see if we’re seeing the same thing.