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Consumer advocacy organization Consumer Watchdog issued a letter last week chastising the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its interpretation of security protocols for personal health records (PHRs). The Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization is seeking to repeal the HHS interpretation and “properly implement what Congress enacted.”
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee completed its mark up to H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, late Friday evening without the inclusion of a self-referral amendment.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a report approximating the costs of the current updated economic stimulus package currently being debated in the Senate, as well as estimating its assistance to the U.S. healthcare system.
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Last week, House Energy and Commerce Committee’s markup of HR 3200—American’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009—Reps. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. and Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, offered, and then withdrew, an amendment to close the in-office ancillary services exception for advanced medical imaging under the Stark law.
The healthcare reform bill approved last week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee contained an amendment prohibiting the federal government from using comparative-effectiveness research to “deny or ration care.”
In a letter to Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt, congressional committee representatives from the House and Senate called on the agency to immediately rescind the December 2007 income eligibility caps on Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that denied Ohio's request to extend health coverage to more children.
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The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Clinical Operations Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on implementation specifications for content exchange, vocabulary and code set standards for the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use.
In 2006, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a branch of the FDA, began examining the number of medical device reports they received. Over the past two years, the number of submitted reports has increased, sparking a demand for the CDRH to make a move to electronic reporting.
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.