Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

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Medicare Paid Doctors, Hospitals $6.3 Billion To Adopt E-Health Records

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | October 24, 2013

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services paid out $6.3 billion to hospitals and medical professionals in 2012 to adopt electronic health record systems, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday. Read More »

Medicare takes another step toward telehealth

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | December 3, 2013

Medicare is expanding coverage for telehealth consults next year, as part of a gradual embrace of the technology that mobile and remote healthcare advocates have been hoping to accelerate. Read More »

Medicare, Medicaid EHR Meaningful Use Payments Surpass $8B In October

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | November 9, 2012

Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record payments have surpassed $8 billion since its inception, with $8.36 billion paid out to 165,800 eligible physicians and hospitals in total program estimates through the end of October. Read More »

Medicare, Medicaid EHR Payments Break $10B barrier In December

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | January 9, 2013

Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record payments are estimated to have blasted through $10.3 billion to a total of 180,200 physicians and hospitals through December since the program’s inception. Read More »

Most health care records now are electronic

David Jackson | USA Today | July 16, 2013

An ever-expanding amount of the nation's medical records are now computerized and part of an ambitious electronic medical records program, the Obama administration reports. Read More »

Mostashari Talks 'Human Toll' Of Broken Health System

Tom Sullivan | Government Health IT | March 7, 2013

During the Thursday morning keynote at HIMSS13, the national coordinator for health IT, Farzad Mostashari, MD focused on the nation's broken healthcare system, while delving into a range of topics. Read More »

Mr Fax goes to Washington D.C.

Recently, I had the honor of travelling to Washington D.C. to speak on behalf of a substantive and important policy issue, digital cloud fax technology (DCFT) and interoperability in the health care industry. Federal officials are on a mission to create a seamless exchange of personal health information (PHI) and electronic health records (EHR). That's the layman's definition of interoperability. Although I am a layman on Capitol Hill, J2 Global Inc (J2), a provider of eFax Cloud Services remains a champion for DCFT. We are a key player in the field and we used our influence to educate federal officials about an issue that is extremely important to us and to our customers. Specifically, we were there to speak about a proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

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My Big Idea For Healthcare: Pricing Transparency

Mary Pat Whaley | LinkedIn | June 6, 2013

Last December I wrote about what I thought would be the "Big Idea" for healthcare in 2013. "Show me the fees!" I said. Well, they have - in fact, much more than I would have ever imagined. 2013 has seen an explosion in pricing transparency in healthcare - or maybe better said, charging information in healthcare... Read More »

New data shows Affordable Care Act (ACA) helped Seniors save $8.9 billion on prescription drugs nationwide

Press Release | CMS News | November 26, 2013

Seniors and people with disabilities with Medicare prescription drug plan coverage saved $8.9 billion to date on their prescription drugs thanks to the Affordable Care Act, according to new data released today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Read More »

Next Wave of Entrepreneurs Arrives at HHS to Help Tackle Major Healthcare Challenges

Press Release | US Department and Health and Human Services (HHS) | November 13, 2014

Today, Bryan Sivak, U.S. Department and Health and Human Services Chief Technology Officer, announced the newest cohort of HHS Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Part of the Secretary’s Initiatives to better serve the American people, the HHS Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program matches HHS employees with external expertise to work on a high risk high reward projects over a 13-month period.

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North Carolina's Central Regional Hospital Rolls Out VistA For Less Than $1 Million

Central Regional Hospital, a state psychiatric and medical facility located in Butner, North Carolina, has just completed a full-scale implementation of the open source VistA electronic health record (EHR) system. The hospital, after three years of work, was able to self-implement and customize the fully-featured EHR at a cost of less than $1 million. The 398-bed hospital serves the acute and long-term inpatient mental health and medical needs of North Carolina citizens from 26 counties and employs more than 1,900 staff, including 50 doctors, 300 professional nurses, 700 nursing assistants, 40 psychologists, and 70 social workers. Central Regional Hospital is a major teaching site for 23 psychiatric residents per year from Duke University and the University of North Carolina medical schools.  It also provides training for medical students from both schools as well as psychiatry subspecialty fellowship training. Read More »

Number of Public HIEs Drop, Bringing Viability into Question

Greg Slabodkin | Health Data Management | July 8, 2016

Despite federal funding that aided their creation, the number of community and state health information exchanges is declining as HIEs struggle to remain financially viable now that seed money has dried up. Those are among the results of a new national survey published in the July issue of Health Affairs that tracked community and state HIE efforts soon after federal funding ended. “We found 106 operational HIE efforts that, as a group, engaged more than one-third of all U.S. providers in 2014,” states the study’s authors...

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Obama and Biden Blast EHR Vendors for Data Blocking

As they are winding their terms in office, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden dropped a stink bomb on the health IT industry. Speaking at different events on Friday, January 9th, the President and Vice President both criticized proprietary electronic health record (EHR) vendors as the primary obstacle to the success of their administration’s health care strategy. This is the highest level acknowledgment so far of the serious impact that “lock-in” EHR software vendors are having on America’s medical infrastructure and the ability of physicians to provide medical care.

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Obama Reelection Doesn't Alter Complexity Of EHR Adoption

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | November 8, 2012

The reelection of President Barack Obama won’t change the intricate realities underway in the trenches as physicians and practices perform the difficult task of replacing paper with electronic health records (EHRs). Read More »

Officials Aren’t Counting The Growing Cost Of Online Obamacare Fraud

Aliya Sternstain | Nextgov | October 24, 2013

Don't ask the federal government how much money citizens are losing to Obamacare Internet scams. Tracking the dollars stolen through fake exchanges and other sites that prey on insurance applicants apparently is not under the administration's jurisdiction. Read More »