Physicians who assign their reimbursement and billing to a critical access hospital are now eligible to participate in the Meaningful Use program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced.

Health information exchanges (HIEs) offer opportunities to improve care and reduce healthcare costs but there are significant barriers to participation, according to a survey of 527 physicians conducted by Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Health Care.

In comments submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) voiced concern about hospital readiness to submit accurate and complete quality data by way of EHR systems.

Considering we reported on three data breaches this week alone, it seems the final privacy rule couldn't be released soon enough. The final omnibus rule is designed to strengthen the privacy and security protections for health information established under HIPAA, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The rule enhances patients' privacy protections, provides individuals new rights to their health information and strengthens the government’s ability to enforce the law.

In a departure from other organizations' comments on the proposed rule for Meaningful Use Stage 3, the Rhode Island Quality Institute has advocated for accelerated standards that advance the benefits of health technology, as well as enable healthcare transformation and payment reform.

The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) has begun the process of notifying approximately 6,000 Medicaid clients that some of their personal information was misplaced by a third-party contractor. The contractor, Goold Health Systems, processes Medicaid pharmacy transactions for the UDOH.

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the Stanford University School of Medicine, both located in Stanford, Calif., are notifying approximately 57,000 patients about a potential data breach.

It seems fitting that just before the final privacy rule was released, the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence announced plans to test tools and technologies to support the secure exchange of electronic health information, especially for small healthcare providers.