Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)

See the following -

Bryan Sivak: Chief Disrupter At HHS

Tom Sullivan | Healthcare IT News | July 30, 2013

The term disruption is perhaps a bit overused in the technology and healthcare sectors these days, but if there is one place where it’s needed most, that just might be the federal government. Read More »

Building the Health Information Infrastructure for the Modern ePatient

Alex Howard | O'Reilly Radar | February 21, 2012

To learn more about what levers the government is pulling to catalyze innovation in the healthcare system, I turned to Dr. Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_ONC). As the National Coordinator for Health IT, Mostashari is one of the most important public officials entrusted with improving the nation's healthcare system through smarter use of technology.

Read More »

Cal INDEX and Inland Empire HIE Will Merge to Form California's Largest Health Information Exchange

Press Release | Cal INDEX | January 17, 2017

The California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal INDEX) and Inland Empire Health Information Exchange (IEHIE) today announced a planned merger that will create one of the nation's most comprehensive nonprofit health information exchanges (HIEs). Claudia Williams, former White House technology senior advisor, will lead the new organization as CEO, effective February 1, 2017. The merger, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2017 and will operate as a tax-exempt public benefit corporation under a new name...

Read More »

Can The Feds Make Health IT Systems Talk To Each Other?

Kenneth Corbin | CIO | February 7, 2014

Government officials are reluctant to issue mandates on standards and interoperability for health IT devices and applications -- but advocates say that's exactly what healthcare needs to promote innovation and improve patient care. Read More »

Caradigm and the Future of Healthcare IT

Bryce Istvan | Seeking Alpha | February 14, 2012

Microsoft (MSFT) and General Electric (GE) have begun finalizing the details for their healthcare IT joint venture called Caradigm. The venture is "aimed at driving a paradigm shift in the delivery of care by enabling health systems and professionals to use real-time, systemwide intelligence to improve healthcare quality and the patient experience..." One major thing to note is the apparent commitment to keeping the jointly developed platform open source...

Read More »

careMESH to Participate in the CMS Electronic Medical Documentation Interoperability Program

Press Release | careMESH | February 8, 2019

careMESH®, the only service provider that guarantees 100% digital delivery of referrals and care transitions to any healthcare organization nationwide, announced today that it has joined the Electronic Medical Documentation Interoperability (EMDI) program of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)...Under the program, careMESH will partner with a hospital to leverage its existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to deliver digital referrals and care transitions to post-acute healthcare providers. Receiving clinicians will be able to reply to the sender, save patient records to their own EHR, and close referral loops through automated workflow tools. This allows both the hospital and the receiving providers they interact with to...

Read More »

CCHIT To Test EHR, HIE Interoperability

Patrick Ouellette | EHR Intelligence | October 12, 2012

To follow up yesterday’s news that Healtheway’s public-private partnership with eHealth Exchange (formerly NwHIN) was official, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) announced plans to work on a health information exchange (HIE) testing program. Read More »

Certification For Electronic Health Record Product Revoked

Press Release | Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) | April 25, 2013

Two electronic health records, previously certified as products to be used as part of the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs, have had their certifications revoked. [...] Read More »

Challenging HIT Vendors To Contribute Solutions

Rupinder Colby | HITECH Answers | January 22, 2014

[...] Today’s environment largely consists of providers within a community that share patient information by pushing and pulling episodic data—mainly leveraging Continuity of Care Documents (CCD). Unfortunately, the first generation of exchanges are not prepared to meet healthcare’s long term needs and the time is now for HIE 2.0. Read More »

Check out the enhanced ONC Health IT Dashboard

Want to better understanding health IT and the transformative changes that electronic health records (EHR) are having in our nation's health care system? Read More »

CHIME and DirectTrust Announce Collaboration

Press Release | CHIME, DirectTrust | August 30, 2017

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and DirectTrust today announced they are collaborating to promote the universal deployment of the DirectTrust framework and health information exchange network as the common electronic interface for health information exchange across the U.S...

Read More »

Cloud Providers Reaffirm Commitment to Open Healthcare Interoperability During 2019 Blue Button Developers Conference

Press Release | HL7 | July 30, 2019

As healthcare evolves across the globe, so does our ability to improve the health and wellness of communities. Patients, providers, and health plans are striving for more value-based care, more engaging user experiences, and broader application of machine learning to assist clinicians in diagnosis and patient care. Too often, however, patient data are inconsistently formatted, incomplete, unavailable, or missing - which can limit access to the best possible care. Equipping patients and caregivers with information and insights derived from raw data has the potential to yield significantly better outcomes. But without a robust network of clinical information, even the best people and technology may not reach their potential...

Read More »

CMS Announces New Meaningful Use Implementation Timeline

Nicole Freeman | EHR Intelligence | December 6, 2013

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in conjunction with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) have updated the implementation timeline for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Read More »

CMS Promoting Interoperability Program: A Public Health Perspective

Well, here we go again. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has now released a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), titled Medicare Program; Revisions to Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Revisions to Part B for CY 2019; Medicare Shared Savings Program Requirements; Quality Payment Program; and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program...As this NPRM was released, the CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, published an open letter to doctors which is focused on reducing the burden on doctors so they can spend more time with physicians. HL7 has begun a similar initiative on reducing clinical burden. So the key question is: Does this NPRM go far enough to reduce provider burden in the spirit of Dr. Verma's letter?

Read More »

CMS Releases Proposed Updates to Medicare MIPS Promoting Interoperability Program for Physicians

On July 29, 2022 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) related to changes in the Medicare Program Physician Fee Schedule for 2013. Among the proposals in this lengthy document are those related to the Promoting Interoperability Program for physician practices, the successor to the Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology that was originally rooted in the 2009 HITECH Act. This program has been evolving over the years and this NPRM proposes some meaningful changes to the public health reporting component which would first be used for calendar year 2023.

Read More »