Leveraging Technology

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology should measure not only electronic health information exchange and use, but the availability of standards, structures and infrastructure to support those goals, AHA said in comments…
An estimated 84% of non-federal acute care hospitals had at least a basic electronic health record in 2015, up from 76% in 2014 and 28% in 2011, according to a report released today by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information…
The AHA today expressed support for draft legislation in the Senate that would eliminate the “all-or-nothing approach” to meaningful use under the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Programs.
Fewer than 1% of rural Medicare beneficiaries received a telemedicine visit in 2013, according to a study reported this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The average number of telemedicine visits for the 41,070 rural beneficiaries who did was 2.6, for a total of 107,955…
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology yesterday announced $1.5 million in funding to test selected clinical interoperability standards for health IT in priority areas, such as medication management, laboratory data exchange…
Policymakers can advance care delivery and benefit patients by expanding access to telehealth in Medicare and new payment models, according to a new AHA issue brief. “A growing body of evidence shows that telehealth can not only expand access to services but also create cost savings,” the report…
Telehealth is increasingly viewed as a cost-effective method to deliver patient care and expand access. The growing use of telehealth reflects larger health care trends that place the patient's care and experience at the center of treatment decisions.