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HHS Formally Recognizes Health IT Interoperability Standards

Excerpt: In the Jan. 21 Federal Register, HHS formally recognized three new interoperability standards related to electronic health records, personal health records and electronic quality monitoring, Government Health IT reports. Formal recognition of health IT standards is a two-step process in which Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel-established specifications are first accepted by the HHS secretary and then recognized a year later (Moore, Government Health IT , 1/22).

Health IT Spending Expected To Jump in Next Five Years

Excerpt: Annual health IT spending is expected to increase from $6.9 billion in 2007 to $10.8 billion in 2012, according to a study released Monday by market research firm Input, Government Health IT reports. Overall, the health IT market will expand at a rate of 8.6% annually, according to Input.

Advisory Group on Health IT Standards Begins To Privatize

Excerpt: HHS this month is set to begin the process of privatizing the American Health Information Community by releasing an initial notice of the availability of a competitively awarded grant for establishing an AHIC successor organization, Government Health IT reports.

Supreme Court Snubs Citizens Whose Social Security Will Be Confiscated If They Refuse Government Health Care

"Despite having paid thousands of dollars each in Social Security and Medicare taxes during their working lives -- for which they never sought reimbursement -- the five plaintiffs were told by officials at the Social Security Administration and Department of Health and Human Services that they had to forfeit all of their Social Security benefits if they wished to withdraw from (or not enroll in) Medicare.... The plaintiffs sought a judicial ruling that would prohibit SSA and HHS from enforcing these policies, which they believed conflicted with the Social Security and Medicare statutes. A sharply divided U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit eventually upheld [the policies]. By its decision not to hear the case, the Supreme Court let that controversial ruling stand."

OMB to Grade Federal Agencies on Health IT Interoperability Plans

Excerpt: Agencies must finalize plans by Jan. 1 on how they will incorporate health IT standards and quality metrics in their contracts, said Karen Evans, the Office of Management and Budget's administrator for e-government and IT.

HHS Developing Emergency-Responder Health IT Use

Excerpt: The Health and Human Services Department is developing details of an emergency-responder electronic health record as another early use for health IT. HHS plans to publish the final detailed use case in December, according to John Loonsk, director of interoperability and standards with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

HHS Releases Health IT Network RFPs

Excerpt: The Health and Human Services Department released requests for proposals late yesterday and today that will pave the way for developing a national health information network infrastructure that will support the exchange of electronic health records. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, which resides in HHS, posted the multiple RFPs on FedBizOpps. Proposals are due July 7 for three of the RFPs.

Lawmakers to Mark Up Federal Employee Health IT Bill

Excerpt: The legislation aims to hasten the voluntary adoption of electronic health records for federal employees who participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2008-2012 (PDF)

115 pages. Excerpt: The Plan has two goals, Patient-focused Health Care and Population Health, with four objectives under each goal. The themes of privacy and security, interoperability, IT adoption, and collaborative governance recur across the goals, but they apply in very different ways to health care and population health.

Debunking the Democratic Argument for Government-Run Health Care

Excerpt: The Democrats' case to expand government health care is so full of holes that passing it quickly is their only hope. If Americans slow down and ask questions, they will be hard-put to come up with answers. In fact, if members of Congress slow down long enough to read the detailed reports of their own Congressional Budget Office (CBO) -- or even its director's recent Senate testimony -- they will understand that many of the slogans they use to justify government intervention are false.