The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded $1.5 billion in new Exchange Establishment Grants to California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont to ensure these states have the resources necessary to build a marketplace that meets the needs of their residents.

One of the main features of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is health insurance exchange either run by the state, operated by the federal government or through a joint effort. That means a shift in the leadership of healthcare delivery and finance towards empowering the states, Judith Bentkover, PhD, academic development director of the executive master’s program in healthcare leadership at Brown University in Providence, R.I., told Clinical Innovation + Technology.

On Jan. 14, Virginia Senator Stephen H. Martin presented Senate bill SB No. 1275 to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth. As a reviewer of such bills for his provider, Colin Banas, MD, CMIO of the VCU Health System in Richmond, Va., recognized that if this legislation passes, it could ostensibly make healthcare information exchange and EHRs illegal. Read the experience in his own words.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) appointed Jason Mitchell, MD, to lead its Center for Health IT. In his new role as the center’s director, Mitchell will apply his technical skills and understanding of healthcare to facilitating health IT adoption among AAFP members and promoting the value of health IT to a broader audience.

The Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) has named its 2012 award and scholarship recipients. The HIMSS Foundation and five HIMSS chapters provided 10 scholarships to students enrolled in health IT and management systems degree programs.

Healthcare consultants now have a way to demonstrate their expertise in the area of patient-centered medical homes (PCMH). The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) established the PCMH content expert certification to help provider organizations gauge consultants’ knowledge of the NCQA PCMH recognition program.

The Health Information and Management Systems Society EHR Association called on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to develop Meaningful Use Stage 3 requirements that build off work accomplished during Stages 1 and 2.

Kathleen A. Frawley, JD, MS, was elected by members of the American Health Information Management Association to serve as president and chair of the organization’s board of directors for 2013. She assumed the role on Jan. 1.