Digital Government

HHS pushes forward with IT consolidation

Asset-tracking, financial, e-mail and grant systems are some of the applications that are being standardized and consolidated across the department.

Digital Government

Major legal issues for health IT

Excerpts from a new report, “Assessing Legal Implications of Using Health Data to Improve Health Care Quality and Eliminate Health Care Disparities.”

Digital Government

Health IT to keep lawyers busy

A new report lays out a laundry list of legal issues that must be resolved for health IT to really pay off.

Acquisition

Cerner Corp. wins $51 million DOD health contract

Company will deliver the results of lab tests to online medical records of 9 million service members.

Digital Government

Uniform privacy rules are debated

A long-running debate over protecting the privacy of health information made an appearance at a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

Digital Government

Health association calls for code updates

A medical records code set currently in use is outdated and running out of room for expansion, the American Health Information Management Association says.

Digital Government

Health IT could get boost in Fed health plan

Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) plans to introduce a bill to get the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, the largest health plan in the country, to use health IT.

Digital Government

Take your medicine

How many federal agencies have adopted the health information technology standards that Congress approved in 2003 and 2004 as part of a White House-sponsored e-government initiative?

Digital Government

Consumers willing to pay for health IT

Accenture survey of 519 consumers found that 93 percent expect electronic medical records to improve the quality of care.

Digital Government

Health IT bills merged

The sponsors of two major Senate bills to promote health information technology have joined forces, merging the two major bills.

Digital Government

HHS seeks names for IT advisory board

A high-level commission, to be chaired by HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, will include 17 members from government and the private sector.

Digital Government

SSN: Not a candidate for patient IDs

The American Medical Association considers resolution banning use of Social Security numbers because of concerns about identity theft.

Digital Government

Why a national health care ID isn’t worth the fight

A conversation with the Markle Foundation's Carol Diamond about patient identifiers and the development of a national health information network.

People

Slow-going for anti-bioterrorism projects

CDC, DHS systems for detecting and managing epidemics or bioterrorism attacks are years from deployment, GAO reports.

People

Hope for patient ID dwindles

Experts now pin hopes on new ideas, such as record locator services, to help doctors find patient information.

Digital Government

Survey: Medicare patients not IT beneficiaries

A minority of Medicare patients in 2001 visited doctors who used clinical IT tools.

Digital Government

Tennessee backs BlueCross records project

Participation by the state's Medicaid program paves way to provide 4 million Tennessee residents with electronic medical records.

People

Medicare Web apps in development

First application will enable physicians to check on a patient's eligibility for benefits.

Digital Government

More health IT bills introduced

Like other recent legislation, the latest efforts to promote use of technology comes with bipartisan backing.

Digital Government

Kerry prods Republicans on health IT funding

Senator criticizes failure to commit more fiscal 2006 funds to support e-health initiatives.