Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

See the following -

Health Exchange Website Failures Were Both Predicted And Predictable

Katherine McIntire Peters | Nextgov | October 10, 2013

Who knew it could be so difficult to build an effective, user-friendly website capable of efficiently serving up complex information for millions of users? Quite a few people, actually. And that’s why the Obama administration’s bungling of the most public aspect of its signature policy initiative is so baffling. [...] Read More »

Health IT: The Coming Regulation

Andy Oram | Health IT | April 14, 2014

The Food and Drug Administration has spent decades refining its processes for approving drugs and devices (and is still refining them), so what would happen if they extended their scope to the exploding health software industry?  The FDA, and its parent organization, the Department of Health and Human Services, are facing an unpleasant and politically difficult choice.

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Officials Spent Just Two Weeks Testing HealthCare.gov Prior To Launching It

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | October 24, 2013

Contractors that helped develop the Obama Administration’s troubled online health insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov told lawmakers on Thursday they wish they’d had more time to test the site before launch but denied any ongoing problems with their portions of the site. Read More »

'Never events' at hospitals go unnoticed

Sarah Okeson | News-Leader.com | October 29, 2011

...Gillham's suicide at the the Cox North psychiatric facility is what the health care profession sometimes calls a "never event," tragedies that are not supposed to happen in a health care setting. Read More »

10 Mobile Health Apps From Uncle Sam

Michelle McNickle | InformationWeek | January 9, 2013

New mobile apps from the Department of Health and Human Services, for consumers and doctors alike, let you search medical literature, locate health centers, fight drug abuse and much more. Read More »

10 Questions For Obama’s Chief Technology Officer

John Harwood | New York Times | July 8, 2013

[Todd Park's] role has taken on heightened importance after several recent developments, including the implementation of the new health care law, efforts to reduce the backlog in Department of Veterans Affairs claims processing, and privacy issues raised by disclosures about data collection by the National Security Agency. Read More »

106,185 Americans selected health plans in first reporting period of open enrollment

Press Release | HHS.Gov | November 13, 2013

Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 106,185 Americans selected health plans in first reporting period of open enrollment and 975,407 customers went through the process but have not yet selected a plan; an additional 396,261 assessed or determined eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. Read More »

2013 Federal IT Budget Flat at $78.8 Billion

Jill R. Aitoro | Washington Business Journal | February 14, 2012

Three of the major departments to see IT budgets go up included the Treasury Department, HHS and the VA...The 6.9 increase included in the VA's $3.33 billion IT budget will support its Blue Button initiative to provide veterans with a simple way to access and download health records electronically...

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3 HHS Oversight Programs Threatened By Sequestration

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | August 9, 2013

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General is reducing staff by about 400 this year, as it implements a 20 percent budget reduction from Congress’ continuing federal funding resolution, sequestration. Read More »

3Rs For Innovating Novel Antibiotics: Sharing Resources, Risks, And Rewards

Anthony D So, Quentin Ruiz-Esparza, Neha Gupta, Otto Cars | BMJ | April 3, 2012

The stream of new antibiotics is struggling to keep up with emerging bacterial resistance. Anthony So and colleagues examine what can be done to increase innovation... Read More »

A Buffet Of Health Data

Aman Bhandari | HealthData.gov | September 18, 2012

Hundreds of codeathons are held throughout this country every year resulting in the development of innovative applications, like the “Like” button on Facebook, or solutions to critical social and health problems, like childhood obesity. Read More »

A Few Ways The Government Shutdown Could Harm Your Health (And The World’s)

Maryn McKenna | Wired | October 1, 2013

There’s going to be a lot — a lot — of coverage today on the federal shutdown, what it means and how long it might go on. I thought it might be worth quickly highlighting how it affects the parts of the government that readers here care most about: public health, global health, food safety and the spread of scary diseases. Read More »

A Glimpse Inside the $234 Billion World of Medical ID Theft

Rick Kam and Christine Arevalo | Government Health IT | February 8, 2012

Healthcare fraud is costing American taxpayers up to $234 billion annually, based on estimates from the FBI. It’s no wonder that a stolen medical identity has a $50 street value, according to the World Privacy Forum – whereas a stolen social security number, on the other hand, only sells for $1.

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A Layer Above It All: Healtheway’s Value Prop

John Moore | Chilmark Research | October 25, 2012

Now that NwHIN has been spun-out into the public-private entity Healtheway one has to wonder exactly what value they can deliver to market that will sustain them as they attempt to ween themselves from the federal spigot. Healtheway has no lack of challenges ahead but they intend to target one area that presents an interesting opportunity. Question is: Are they too early to market? Read More »

A New Kind of Doctor's Office Charges a Monthly Fee and Doesn't Take Insurance — and It Could Be the Future of Medicine

Lydia Ramsey | Business Insider | March 19, 2017

Dr. Bryan Hill spent his career working as a pediatrician, teaching at a university, and working at a hospital. But in March 2016, he decided he no longer wanted a boss. He took some time off, then one day he got a call asking if he'd be up for doing a house call for a woman whose son was sick. He agreed, and by the end of that visit, he realized he wanted to treat patients without dealing with any of the insurance requirements. Then he learned about a totally different way to run a doctor's office...

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