For the first time in years, information technology (IT) leaders at healthcare organizations did not identify a lack of financial support for IT as an obstacle to implementation. So what's the problem? According to the 23rd Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey, released on Tuesday, one-quarter of respondents said adequate staffing resources within their ...

It’s hard to look your best when you are wearing too many hats.  While the business of health care struggles in a depressed economy and a revenue cycle containing a growing number of under and uninsured, pending government regulations such as HITECH, the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA 5010 and ICD-10 conversions have produced, for many,  a ...

On Sept. 27, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the launch of HealthCare.gov on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Healthcare.gov. ''HealthCare.gov on Facebook offers Facebook users a new tool to understand and stay informed about the Affordable Care Act,'' said Sebelius. ''This new page is another resource that people ...

To mark the important role health information technology (HIT) plays in improving healthcare delivery in America, more than 170 partner organizations have joined together for National Health Information Technology Week, June 14-18. With the theme: One Voice, One Vision: Transforming Health and Care, the 5th Annual National Health IT Week kicked ...

With patients across the country voicing a growing desire for greater engagement in and control over their medical care, a new study involving patients in Boston, Pennsylvania and Seattle will examine the impact of letting patients see the notes that doctors record during and after their visit. Funded through a $1.4 million grant from the ...

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced $83.9 million in grants to help networks of health centers adopt electronic health records (EHR) and other health information technology (HIT) systems. The funds are part of the $2 billion allotted to HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the ...

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have launched a national initiative to help consumers and communities get more value out of the Nation's wealth of health data.  Under the Community Health Data Initiative: HHS will release greater amounts of health data in more usable formats Software ...

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) submitted comments this week to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in response to the request for information, ''HIPAA Privacy Rule Accounting of Disclosures Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; Request for ...

(Editor's note: The following is a message from Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.)Healthcare professionals appreciate opportunities to learn from innovative colleagues and communities -- to see what really works, to get ''boots-on-the-ground'' perspectives, to learn best practices and to use the ...

When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finally released the long-awaited proposed definition of meaningful use as it applies to electronic health records (EHRs), it opened up a 60-day public comment period. In the spirit of ''full'' disclosure, the government has posted some of these comments on a Web site. Here are just a few ...