(This guest blog was written by Bill Sinn, marketing director, healthcare practice, Pitney Bowes Software.) It's only three years since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Obama, and the industry is already seeing huge changes. For instance, the U.S. has expanded the number of citizens receiving preventative care, ...

If you attended the 2012 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, held in Las Vegas at the Venetian Sands Expo Center from Feb. 20-24, you were part of a record-breaking event. As of Friday morning, attendance at HIMSS12 reached 37,032 attendees, surpassing the HIMSS11 attendance figure of 31,500 attendees. They participated in more than 300 ...

The Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program provides funding to 17 selected communities throughout the United States that have already made inroads in the development of secure, private and accurate systems of electronic health record (EHR) adoption and health information exchange. The Beacon Program is supporting these ...

Kaiser Permanente has donated its Convergent Medical Terminology (CMT) to the International Healthcare Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) for U.S. distribution through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) so that all health care providers-large and small-can benefit from the translation-enabling ...

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Chicago, and the Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), Austin, TX, were named yesterday by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as the first technology review bodies that have been authorized to test and certify electronic health record (EHR) ...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) has launched the official website for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. This website provides the most up-to-date, detailed information about the EHR incentive programs. The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs will provide incentive payments to eligible ...

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 ...

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 ...

(Editor's note: The following is a message from Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, posted on May 14, 2010.) Private and secure health information exchange enables information to follow the patient when and where it is needed for better care. The Federal government is working to enable a wide range ...

(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 ...