Siemens Healthcare has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MobileMD, an HIE provider.

athenahealth has entered into a collaboration agreement with Medley Health, a provider of membership practice marketing and communications services for independent primary care physicians. 

Accountable care organization (ACO) principles have captured the interest of health plans and providers that are under pressure to moderate the costs of care and the premiums they are charging employers and individuals, according to a recently published white paper from Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA).

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) is seeking opinion on mobile devices as health information tools.

The number of hospitals ready to meet Stage 1 of meaningful use jumped 16 percent from February to September, according to a HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) Analytics Report, Summary of Meaningful Use Readiness. In those seven months, U.S. hospitals went from 25 to 41 percent being well positioned. The report also indicated that more eligible hospitals are likely to succeed in meeting the criteria for this first stage.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized a 3.79 percent reduction to the home health prospective payment system (PPS) rates for calendar year 2012 and an additional 1.32 percent reduction for CY 2013, according to its final rule to update the home health PPS for CY 2012.

The sustainability of health information exchanges (HIEs) may come down to marketing and a reasonable business model, according to Scott Momrow, vice president of the Healthcare Information Xchange New York (HIXNY), a nonprofit organization designated as a regional health information organization (RHIO) by the New York State Department of Health.

Although the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) regional counsel offices are required to notify Office of Medical-Legal Affairs (OMLA) about all paid tort claims to initiate OMLA's review of VA practitioners involved in the claims, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that this notification does not always occur because VA lacks an internal control to help ensure that regional counsel offices comply with this requirement.