Without standardizing the language fhat healthcare organizations use for delivering care, analyzing finances and assessing technology, “how in the world can you systematically innovate?” That’s the question Marshall D. Ruffin, Jr., MD, MBA, MPH, chief technology officer of the nonprofit Inova Health System in northern Virginia, poses regarding the increase in chief innovation officers in healthcare.

The HIT Policy Committee is forming a new workgroup on accountable care and health IT, Accountable Care Workgroup, which will be charged with making recommendations on how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policies and programs can advance the evolution of a health IT infrastructure that enables providers to improve care and population health while reducing costs in accountable care models. 

More than 500 organizations will begin participating in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Through this new initiative, made possible by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, CMS will test how bundling payments for episodes of care can result in more coordinated care for beneficiaries and lower costs for Medicare.

This week’s news covered a wide range of topics but a couple of stories really make you wonder. Apparently, critics of healthcare reform are finding different ways to voice their disapproval.

Healthcare continues to be one of the hottest areas for hiring in the U.S. and one of the toughest to recruit in-demand talent. CareerBuilder’s annual survey finds 22 percent of healthcare hiring managers plan to add full-time, permanent healthcare employees in 2013, up 3 percentage points in 2012. At the same time, 23 percent of healthcare employers reported that they currently have open positions for which they can’t find qualified talent.

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.