News

Summaries of open source, health care, or health IT news and information from various sources on the web selected by Open Health News (OHNews) staff. Links are provided to the original news or information source, e.g. news article, web site, journal,blog, video, etc.

See the following -

Congress & GAO Take Aim At DOD-VA Health Records Program

Amber Corrin and Camille Tuutti | FCW | March 7, 2013

When the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments last month announced a change of course in a long-awaited joint health records program, it sparked concerns at the Government Accountability Office. Now, the program faces further challenges from Capitol Hill. Read More »

Congress Demands No More iEHR Delays

Anthony Brino | Healthcare IT News | December 16, 2013

The Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense have come under fire this past year over their botched development of the integrated electronic health record system, which resulted in a go-live pushback and a doubling of overall costs. The myriad implementation setbacks have prompted Congress to finally put its foot down. Read More »

Congress Demands VA, DoD EHR Interoperability Progress

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | December 13, 2013

Under the new defense authorization bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department will have just about a month to develop a plan for interoperable digital health records. Read More »

Congress Looks To Set Firm VA-DoD EHR Integration Timeline

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | July 23, 2013

A bill introduced in Congress late last month would set a firm timeline for the EHR integration efforts of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense... Read More »

Congress Probes Mental Health Services At VA

David Pittman | Medpage Today | February 13, 2013

Mental health services at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) don't seem to be improving despite increases of nearly 40% in both staff and budget in the last 6 years, a congressional committee charged Wednesday. Read More »

Congress Shouldn't Debate Copyright In A Reality-Free Zone

Parker Higgins | Electronic Frontier Foundation | November 20, 2012

Just a few days ago, an unusual thing happened in the halls of Congress: somebody made a case for a copyright policy grounded in reality. The Republican Study Committee (RSC) — an organization that represents more than two-thirds of all GOP Congressmembers — issued a report challenging longstanding copyright myths and offering ideas for potential reforms. [...] Read More »

Congress Tells Energy Dept. To Develop 'Exascale' Computers In 10 Years

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | December 16, 2013

Congress is directing the Energy Department to take the next decade to develop a new class of supercomputers capable of a quintillion operations per second to model nuclear weapons explosions, according to language in the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the House last week, with a Senate vote expected this week. Read More »

Congress Tries To Curtail NSA Spying, Sort Of

Aliya Sternstein | Nextgov | January 16, 2014

Buried in a soon-to-pass government spending bill is a ban on the monitoring of any specific U.S. citizen's phone calls and online activities. The small, vague passage, however, leaves wiggle room for the National Security Agency to continue sweeping up Americans' call and Internet data en masse. Read More »

Congress unhappy with DoD, VA health records progress

Leo Shane III | Marine Times | April 16, 2014

House lawmakers plan to hold back millions in dollars of technology funding from Defense and Veterans Affairs department planners until Congress is convinced they are making progress on developing a way to share electronic medical records. Read More »

Congress' Plan To Stop Exporting Technology To Repressive Regimes

Brian Fung | Nextgov | February 7, 2013

When a U.S. company wants to export military technology, it has to go through a rigorous approval process in Washington. That’s because, of course, if it ends up in the wrong hands, the technology could interfere with U.S. foreign policy, destabilize conflict-prone regions, or worse... Read More »

Congress: How Much More Must Veterans Sacrifice?

Chris Miller | Policymic | March 10, 2012

At a time when over 2.5 million American men and women have been added to the rolls of combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Veteran’s Affairs Committees of both the U.S. House and Senate have agreed to cap budget increases for the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Read More »

Congressional Hearing To Focus On Entrepreneurs, Mobile Medical Apps

Greg Slabodkin | FierceMobileHealthcare | June 21, 2013

The House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology will hold a hearing on June 27 to highlight entrepreneurs creating healthcare apps, according to the subcommittee's announcement. Read More »

Congressman Promotes Western NY Tech Economy

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | December 20, 2012

While most of Washington D.C. is engulfed in fiscal cliff negotiations, Congressman Brian Higgins, a Democrat from western New York, is urging lawmakers to support wider use of electronic health records and is also touting his home region’s somewhat bustling health IT economy. Read More »

Congressmen Voted Out Over Their Pro-Obamacare Stances Are Angry

Elahe Izadi and Sam Baker | The Wire | November 15, 2013

Vulnerable House Democrats back in 2009 knew that they were risking their political careers by casting votes for the Affordable Care Act. And more than 60 of them — including some who didn't even vote for the bill — lost their seats the following year. Read More »

Conn. Governor To Feds: Get Your Act Together On Healthcare.gov

Staff Writer | Government Health IT | November 11, 2013

Trade associations and others have fought the ICD-10 Oct. 1 deadline next year, mainly because of the difficulty, and some industry observers have questioned whether CMS can also meet that deadline. Read More »