Physician Services Company Announces Meaningful Use Service for Doctors DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., April 26 /PRNewswire/ — WorkSmart MD, a Florida based physician services company, announces the launch of Offsite Practice Support and Meaningful Use consulting services for doctors. The company's services facilitate cost effective and easy transition from paper-based medical records to electronic. On February [...]

Within the past month four renowned institutions — Mayo Clinic of Medicine, Harvard University, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — were awarded research grants totaling $60 million through the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) program. The SHARP Program funds research focused on achieving breakthrough [...]

Be wary of any vendor claiming that they are certified or promising they will be certified. Although some EHR vendors are better prepared to meet the certification when available, not a single vendor today is certified for the EHR incentive payment program. More importantly, you cannot meet the requirements of “meaningful use” by simply implementing [...]

On March 24, 2010 the Office of the Federal Register made an Interim Final Rule (IFR) on Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) available. This IFR contains rules that health care providers will need to follow to prescribe controlled substances electronically in accordance with the law. The Interim Final Rule [...]

The ultimate objective of every HITECH initiative is to create a National Health Information Network. With close to 1,000 EHR vendors, and no standards, how will we accomplish this mission? The State Health Information Exchange project is an initiative managed by the ONC (Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology). The main objective is [...]

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ, April 20, 2010 – The Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council released a new brief today on the rising threat of medical identity theft, calling for the use of two-factor authentication with smart card technology as the ideal way to protect patient identities and information. According to a recent Ponemon Institute study, nearly [...]

It's estimated that fewer than 7% of providers in the small physician practice (1-10 physicians) have adopted and are successfully demonstrating use of electronic health record system. The reasons vary from cost to fears and myths about the “inefficiencies”, and concerns that “the government still hasn't told us what the standards are.” Doctors and other [...]

Adapting and using electronic health records in small practices is no easy matter. A variety of public and private organizations have assisted these small practices across the country in accomplishing this, and on a national basis the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, has established a program of [...]

The promise of a National Health Information Network (NHIN) is an exciting thought. Finally – Dr. Smith will be able to send John Doe's health record to Dr. Jones across town. Best of all, the NHIN, through its integration with state HIE's and RHIO's, should allow Dr. Jones to receive Mr. Doe's health record in [...]

Standards organization Health Level Seven International is urging the United Sates to move full speed ahead with its programs for the voluntary certification of health information technology – with what the group calls “reasonable and important modifications.” Health Level Seven International (HL7) is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited standards developing organization (SDO), with more than 2,300 members [...]

April 1, 2010 by TKrieger A gloStream Partner recently sent me an interesting article about EMR bullies.  These are EMR salespeople visiting doctor’s offices claiming that their solution is stimulus certified and that physician’s using their application will be able to get funding right away.  To be sure people, there are folks out there today speading such [...]

Contributed by Patty Enrado Critics of the federal stimulus grants for EHR adoption say the federal government is throwing money at health IT and won't be getting anything in return for it.  Whether you believe money should be going into an EHR adoption initiative, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is making [...]

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine has received nearly $8 million in federal stimulus money from the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP), the state designated entity for health information exchange development. That funding will position the school as a regional extension center (REC), allowing it to help 1,765 healthcare providers in Lorain, Cuyahoga, [...]

CALIFORNIA: The Assembly Health Committee voted 15-0 last week to pass a bill that would require health plans and insurers to fully reimburse physicians for the direct and indirect costs of acquiring and administering vaccines. The bill would define costs to include the cost of administration for the vaccine, storage and refrigeration of the immunizations, clinical staff time, [...]

The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is a set of standards, services and policies that enable secure health information exchange over the Internet. The NHIN will provide a foundation for the exchange of health IT across diverse entities, within communities and across the country, helping to achieve the goals of the HITECH Act. This critical part of the national health IT agenda will enable health information to follow the consumer, be available for clinical decision making, and support appropriate use of healthcare information beyond direct patient care so as to improve population health.