Image by Baranka via Flickr ScienceDaily (May 11, 2009) — Many countries worldwide are digitizing patients’ medical records. In the US, for example, the recent economic stimulus package signed into law by President Obama includes $US17 billion in incentives for health providers to switch to electronic health records (EHRs) and $US2 billion for the development [...]
HIT Policy Committee meeting results
May 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Health Information Technology Policy Committee, a federal advisory panel created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, met this morning in Washington for the first time and boiled down its initial work activities to three areas. After batting around ideas for creating as many as six work groups, the panel in the [...]
White House Press Release “Coming together to bring down the cost of health care”
May 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Image by ~MVI~ via Flickr RISING HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE BURDENING FAMILIES, BUSINESSES, GOVERNMENTS, AND THE ECONOMY: For years, rising health care costs have been a burden on families, businesses, and the entire economy. Since 2000, health insurance premiums have almost doubled and health care premiums have grown three times faster than wages. These rising [...]
Caution advised when entering agreements for remotely hosted EHR
May 8, 2009 By 6 Comments
Image via Wikipedia Group practices planning to use remotely hosted electronic health records software to qualify for federal economic stimulus payments must take care when entering the contracts, one consultant advises. For example, practices should require that the vendor pay a hefty penalty if its software fails to meet the yet-to-be-defined certification requirements for [...]
4 Wisconsin hospitals band together to share an EHR environment
May 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Image via Wikipedia After Congress allocated upward of $19 billion in health information technology funding as part of the economic recovery package, the Sauk City-based Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative of 35 free-standing hospitals said it could help its member hospitals and critical-access hospitals across the country understand how the legislation works. To read the rest [...]
Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson releases outline of principles for health care reform.
May 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
May 4, 2009 – Today, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson released an outline of principles for health care reform, entitled, “Governing from the Middle: A Wise Path for Health Care Reform.” “I believe meaningful health care reform is within reach and Congress must find a middle ground to improve care by lowering cost and expanding access,” [...]
