President Bush news from FierceHealthIT

With state and federal legislators, employers and health plans clamoring to see health organizations adopt more and better health IT, the status of CIOs who must get the job done has risen, according... Read more...

I don't know about you, but for me, the pre-HIMSS show excitement is building. I think this should be one of the most vibrant--and overwhelming--shows in the history of HIMSS itself. Why? Well, in... Read more...

Of late, the volume of noise on the e-prescribing front has gotten steadily louder, with calls on all sides for rules that will encourage (or force) e-prescribing technology use. Now, with a new... Read more...

Despite evidence to the contrary, health-IT czar Robert Kolodner insists that the U.S. will still meet the health IT adoption goals set by President Bush. Bush has set a goal of seeing that the... Read more...

HHS head Mike Leavitt is asking employers to commit to a set of four goals which include asking health vendors to get their data interoperability act together. As part of this effort, Leavitt and his agency would like to see employers work closely with RHIOs, both by feeding them cost and quality information and using the information to make plan management decisions. In addition to encouraging interoperability, the goals ask employers to make vendors like health plans and third-party …

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Well, if the suspense has been eating you up inside, help may be on the way. By the end of this week, HHS should announce an acting National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. That's the target--specifically Friday Sept. 22--identified by David Brailer, M.D., the first person to hold the job and head of the search process. "The acting coordinator is already in government," Brailer said recently in an exclusive interview with Health Data Management. "It's been harder to …

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In an effort to encourage wider adoption of digital health records, federal officials last week finalized rules to allow hospitals and others to give doctors computers, software and related services without running afoul of federal fraud and abuse laws. The new policies exempt high-tech gifts from laws limiting products doctors can receive from health care providers without charge, protecting them from prosecution. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said the move was a step …

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