An online poll of physicians from across the U.S. indicates that more than 60 percent of the respondents agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act.  The E-mail poll to 9,500 members of the American College of Physician Executives invited respondents to post comments to the survey, and many strong opinions were expressed.

The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act and the contentious individual mandate, finding the latter constitutional if viewed as a tax.  The decision allows the government to continue rolling out the healthcare law, scheduled to go into full effect in 2014, and prevents insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that over 100,000 healthcare providers have received meaningful use incentive payments.  Less than three months ago, the goal of 100,000 healthcare providers using Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems meaningfully by the end of 2012 was proposed in a ‘blog post by acting administrator Marilyn Tavenner and coordinator Farzad Nostashari,

Last week, New York state legislators voted unanimously to require drug prescriptions to be issued electronically within three years.  Included in the legislation is the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing (I-STOP) Act, which will create an online, real-time database for physicians and pharmacists to track the dispensing of prescription drugs.

The monitoring registry will require physicians and pharmacists to view timely and enhanced information on patients’

A Wall Street Journal article reports that a recent wave of hospital mergers may lead to challenges when different systems, terminologies, and documentation methods are already in place.  In particular, facilities utilizing different Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems could face growing pains when being merged.

As almost a third of hospitals in the U.S.

A Boston Consulting Group study found that the United States ranked behind eight other industrialized nations in value-based healthcare adoption.  The global management consulting firm assessed the progress of twelve countries toward this end, an approach which could reduce the industry’s expenses while improving patients’ health outcomes.

The report, “Progress Toward Value-Based Health Care: Lessons from 12 Countries,”