Posted on March 29th, 2012 by Frank Fortin
In an age where the federal government has settled on a total of 33 quality metrics in its final rule for accountable care organizations, figuring out how to track data and meet quality and performance benchmarks is becoming a critical part of a physician’s role in providing quality care to patients. More practices in Massachusetts [...]
Filed under: Accountable Care Organizations, Electronic health records, Health IT, meaningful use | No Comments »
Posted on February 14th, 2012 by Erica Noonan
The acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said today her agency may delay adoption of a complex new insurance coding system. Speaking at a conference of the American Medical Association on Tuesday, Marilyn Tavenner (right) said CMS is considering giving the nation’s doctors more time to switch to the ICD-10 systems. Currently, [...]
Filed under: Electronic Medical Records, Health IT | 6 Comments »
Posted on January 17th, 2011 by Frank Fortin
The “dizzying” pace of change in our health care system requires physicians to adapt quickly to this new world, says chief medical office of CMS’ New England Region, Dr. William Kassler. Speaking at the Massachusetts Medical Society’s health IT conference on Friday, Dr. Kassler began his remarks by outlining the impressive breadth of innovation occurring [...]
Filed under: Electronic Medical Records, Electronic health records, Health IT | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 14th, 2011 by Frank Fortin
Dr. David Blumenthal, the leader of the federal government’s health IT initiative, keynoted the MMS’ health IT conference with remarks today asserting that adoption of health IT is a professional imperative for physicians. “Information and its management is a core competency for the profession,” he said. “Can we be technically competent if we don’t manage [...]
Filed under: Electronic Medical Records, Electronic health records, Health IT | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 9th, 2010 by Frank Fortin
The state agency charged with helping physicians and hospitals implement electronic health records has released its list of 18 certified “implementation organizations” to act as consultants to practices during the implementation process. They range from hospitals and health care systems, to private consulting firms, to even a few EHR vendors themselves. The state also unveiled [...]
Filed under: Electronic Medical Records, Electronic health records, Health IT, meaningful use | No Comments »
Posted on March 15th, 2010 by Frank Fortin
The MMS told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services today that its proposed rules for a national electronic health record incentive program are too aggressive, and would deter many physicians from participating in the program. The MMS said the program “asks for too much, too soon” from many physicians, especially those in small practices. [...]
Filed under: Health IT, Medicare, meaningful use | No Comments »
Posted on June 29th, 2009 by Frank Fortin
The American Medical Association and 81 state and specialty medical societies told federal officials last week that proposed milestones for the physician installation of electronic health records is too aggressive because physicians “lack the necessary infrastructure, standards, and systems” to achieve the council’s proposed timetable. The Massachusetts Medical Society was one of the state medical [...]
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Posted on April 7th, 2009 by Frank Fortin
The Massachusetts Health Information Technology Council has scheduled five hearings to hear suggestions how it should implement electronic health records (EHRs) and health information exchanges (HIE) for physicians and hospitals across the state. Depending on who's doing the estimating, Massachusetts will get between $40 million and $70 million over the next year from the federal [...]
Filed under: Health IT | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 10th, 2009 by Frank Fortin
The new edition of Health Affairs, published today, is called "Stimulating Health IT." It is devoted almost entirely to the challenge of implementing comprehensive health IT systems throughout the country. It relies heavily on case studies of EHR pilot projects. In two articles of local interest, Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative Executive Director Micky Tripathi co-authors articles [...]
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Posted on March 9th, 2009 by Frank Fortin
The Massachusetts Medical Society has published an overview of how the new federal health IT funds could affect the Massachusetts health care system over the next five years. The complete picture will take many months to develop, but we can pass along some preliminary details. The funding will come in two pools: A relatively small [...]
Filed under: Electronic health records, Health IT | No Comments »
