The Google Glass device, wearable technology with a head-mounted display, is generating controversy over its potential impact on society in general and healthcare in particular. One of the entrants to the Glass Explorer program, which made the devices available to “bold, creative individuals” for testing, wrote about the possibility of “images filing directly to EMR charts and dictation on the fly all from Glass.”
June 4, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner received Senate confirmation yesterday to serve as permanent administrator of the federal agency. The landslide 91 to 7 vote, after she has served over two years as acting administrator following her predecessor Donald Berwick, M.D.’s resignation, makes Tavenner the first CMS administrator to be confirmed by the U.S.
May 16, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has debuted a public online database of hospital charges for the hundred most common inpatient procedures. The Obama administration’s efforts to bring transparency, accountability, and affordability to the healthcare industry under the Affordable Care Act have cast into sharp relief the large variances in medical billing charges from different hospitals,
May 10, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
The Department of Health and Human Services recently named Lyfechannel’s myfamily app as the winner of its Healthfinder.gov Mobile App Challenge. The challenge, sponsored by HHS’ Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and managed with help from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and healthcare IT company Health 2.0, sought software developers to design and create a mobile app that makes preventative care information and content from healthfinder.gov easily accessible and customizable.
May 2, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
One-time nurse Marilyn Tavenner is expected to win Senate approval to become the confirmed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). While Tavenner has been acting as administrator of the agency since being nominated by President Barack Obama after the December 2011 resignation of her predecessor, Dr. Donald Berwick, the Senate Finance Committee never held a nomination hearing in 2012,
April 10, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has started auditing some healthcare providers before giving them Meaningful Use incentive payments. According to the agency’s Office of E-Health Standards and Services, prepayment audits are being conducted on between five and ten percent of providers who attested to Meaningful Use of their certified Electronic Health Records systems in January 2013.
March 27, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
Oregon Health and Science University has notified 4,000 patients of a data breach stemming from the theft of an unencrypted laptop. The computer, which contained protected health information (PHI) including medical record numbers and types of surgeries, was used for research purposes, and only laptops used for patient care were being encrypted.
Officials at the school stated that most of the data was contained in daily surgery schedules and approximately 5,000 E-mails on the laptop computer.
March 26, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
An unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in California is suing the Internal Revenue Service, alleging improper access of 60 million medical records by 15 IRS agents. The covered entity, referred to in court documents as John Doe Company, acknowledges that the agents had a search warrant for the financial data of a former employee of the company,
March 18, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
Six healthcare IT giants announced this week the launch of a nonprofit organization to promote interoperability and universal access to healthcare data. At Monday’s press conference at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS13) conference, executives from Cerner, Allscripts, Greenway EMR, athenahealth (a Revenue Cycle Management company),
March 7, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
Governor Chris Christie announced yesterday that he supports the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program despite his opposition to the Affordable Care Act. The Republican New Jersey governor made it clear that the decision was purely a financial one, calling it “the smart thing to do for our fiscal and public health.”
Approximately 104,000 currently-uninsured low-income NJ residents will be covered under the government healthcare program,
February 27, 2013 | By Lawrence G |
