From the category archives:

HITECH Updates

Is your sales force HITECH ready?

March 9, 2010

In talking with some HIMSS exhibitors last week the issue of prepping sales teams to confidently talk to prospects about meaningful use, CMS incentives and other HITECH Act topics came up.  Grappling with the many implications of EHR adoption is a challenge for health care providers. As part of a consultive selling approach, HIT vendors [...]

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HITECH Answers adds 20th Webinar

March 8, 2010

A year ago the concept for HITECH Answers took shape.  From the outset, our number one priority was to build a resource site delivering independent analysis of the HITECH Act through the convenience of webinars. Our vision of a “virtual library” of on demand webinars that could be “checked out” by subscribers and their staffs [...]

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ONC Issues Certification Programs Rules

March 6, 2010

The ONC released its expected NPRM for the Establishment of Certification Programs for Health Information Technology on March 3rd this week during the biggest HIT conference of the year at HIMSS in Atlanta. Eligible professionals and eligible hospitals qualifying for incentive payments under the CMS Incentive Programs must meaningfully use certified EHR Technology. The NPRM [...]

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Blumenthal’s Keynote at HIMSS

March 6, 2010

ONC David Blumenthal spoke to a full house on Wednesday as the keynote speaker at the HIMSS Conference in Atlanta. He said he was a new comer to HIMSS, this being his first time there. He spoke about the ONC and the last 10 months of work producing the current proposed rules. Even though there [...]

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ONCHIT Interim Final Rule Overview

March 1, 2010

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) on December 30, 2009. The rules propose the initial set of standards, certification criteria, and implementation specifications. The rules are the first step in an incremental approach to adopting standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria to enhance the interoperability, functionality, utility and [...]

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HITECH Grants are Awarded

February 27, 2010

This month HHS awarded almost $1 billion centering around three different grant areas with money coming from the ARRA. The HITECH Act mandated initiatives to increase the adoption of EHRs through to 2015. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health information Technology (ONCHIT) within HHS is driving the initiatives. In the big picture, personal [...]

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The Government is Serious: Breach Notifications will be posted

February 23, 2010

The following guest post is provided by Alex Zaltsman, CEO of Experior Data Security and Encryption and contributing expert to HITECH Answers.  For more information, visit our HIPAA page.
The government is naming names! Today the Office of Civil Rights, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, did what they said all along that they [...]

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CMS NPRM Overview

February 22, 2010

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). It has taken the recommendations from the HIT Policy committee and outlined the objectives and measures that define meaningful use for stage 1 of EHR adoption. Stage 1 for the most part will begin in 2011. The objectives fall [...]

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CCHIT Releases New Test Scripts

February 15, 2010

The following guest post is provided by Jim Tate, President of EMR Advocate and a contributing expert for HITECH Answers.
CCHIT has released their updated Certification Test Scripts and related documentation and will begin accepting applications  for both their ‘Comprehensive’ and ARRA (Meaningful Use) Certification programs. The revised certification materials are available on the CCHIT website. The [...]

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The Quest for EHR Adoption

February 15, 2010

Today the public is commenting on the ONC Interim Final Rule and the CMS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The IFR issues rules for an initial set of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for Complete EHRs and EHR Modules. The NPRM proposes rules for the Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs. These rules are six years [...]

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