Health IT vendors stepped up to the plate this week with interesting contributions.

To minimize the impact of climate change and enable quicker recovery following extreme weather events, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg seeks to amend construction codes of hospitals and healthcare facilities in the city.

Average Medicare spending per patient in the last two years of life rose 15 percent from $60,694 to $69,947 between 2007 and 2010, according to a June 12 brief published by the Dartmouth Atlas Project. Researchers examined the last two years of Medicare claims records of 1,107,702 Medicare patients who died in 2010, both among 306 hospital referral regions and among more than 2,400 hospitals.

Yet another survey indicates that healthcare providers are making slow if any progress toward ICD-10 implementation.

At the Health Datapalooza IV conference that kicked off in Washington D.C. on June 3, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of open-source health data for researchers and developers.

Contrary to some perceptions that immigrants drain money from government programs, when it comes to Medicare, immigrants are in fact contributing billions of dollars more than they use, according to a Health Affairs study set to appear in the June issue.

Looking to move to the public sector? The Department of Health & Human Services is seeking a "Jedi Master" for its CIO office.

Surveys continue to indicate that healthcare organizations are making slow progress transitioning to ICD-10. The implementation date is firm, however, so stakeholders must start now to allow for proper internal and external testing.