The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced positive and promising results from the first performance year of the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model, including higher quality care and lower Medicare expenditures. But, seven of the ACOs will switch to a different ACO model and two will drop out entirely.

More Pioneer accountable care organizations (ACOs) improved quality than lowered costs, according to first-year results.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) will work together on two timely and critically important issues--information governance and standards--to advance health information management and health IT.

It doesn’t seem that the federal government took off much time for the 4th of July holiday—at least when it comes to health IT. From cybersecurity to a health IT safety plan, there is plenty to consider.

Non-targeted patient record query recommendations are forthcoming and may be unveiled at the next Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) on Aug. 7, Privacy & Security Tiger Team Co-chair Devon McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said at the July 9 HITPC meeting.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT discussed the recently released Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan during a July 10 webinar, including goals of the plan and strategies for carrying out those goals.

Two reports from Health Affairs point to a strong increase in health IT adoption among hospitals and physicians groups due to federal incentives, but amid uneven progress with considerable barriers to overcome—especially in achieving Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2.

Recommendations for query exchange and provider directory were approved by the Health IT Policy Committee at their July 9 meeting.