Articles and Blogs

The National eHealth Collaborative will host a 1 hour discussion with Claudia Williams, Director of the State HIE Program at ONC to discuss the recently released national HIE strategy.  The discussion will take place tomorrow (May 2) at 3:30 PM EDT.  The national HIE strategy can be viewed here.  To register for the program... READ MORE

Comments to the Medicare and Medicaid Program; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program-Stage 2 Proposed Regulations are due in two weeks.  If you wish to make comments to these proposed regulations, they must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 7.  Comments can be submitted electronically at www.regulations.gov.  You can also submit written... READ MORE

Comments to the Health Information Technology: Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology, 2014 Edition; Revisions to the Permanent Certification Program for Health Information Technology  Proposed Regulations are due in two weeks. If you wish to make comments to these proposed regulations, they must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m.... READ MORE

CMS has released its statistics for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program for activity from January 2011 through February 2012.  Highlights of the report are: Over 211,500 eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) have registered for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs since January 2011; Over 20,000... READ MORE

On Monday, April 2, at 1:00 pm EDT, the National eHealth Collaborative will release the “Health Information Exchange Roadmap” with a webinar introducing the report.  You can register here. Should you have any questions, please contact Alisa Kuehn at 317.977.1475 or akuehn@hallrender.com. READ MORE

ONC has developed 20 curriculum components that are available at no cost that are designed around 6 mobile workforce roles (as described here).  The components include slide-based lectures with audio narration and transcripts, learning activities, self assessment questions, and instructor manuals. To set-up a profile and download the components, please click here. Should you... READ MORE

Later today (March 29 from 3 – 4 pm EDT), CMS will hold a national provider call to discuss EHR incentive program basics to eligible professionals. Registration for the call closes today at 12 pm. To register, go here. Should you have any questions, please contact Alisa Kuehn at 317.977.1475 or akuehn@hallrender.com. READ MORE

The public comment period regarding securing health information while using mobile devices ends on March 30, 2012. Information regarding ONC’s Mobile Device Roundtable discussion and a link to provide comments can be found here. Should you have any questions, please contact Alisa Kuehn at 317.977.1475 or akuehn@hallrender.com.   READ MORE

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its opinion yesterday in the case of Mayo Collaborative Servs., dba Mayo Med. Labs., et al. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. (No. 10-1150) (March 20, 2012) (see PDF here).  The Court reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and held that the patent claims at issue... READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced on Tuesday, March 13, 2012, that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (“BCBST”) will pay $1,500,000 to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”).  BCBST had previously notified HHS that 57 unencrypted hard drives containing protected health information, social... READ MORE