The Health IT Policy Committee has endorsed a package of Meaningful Use Stage 3 recommendations governing quality measures that includes an “innovative pathway” giving eligible professionals and hospitals more flexibility in achieving compliance.

Leaders from the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee have introduced the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act), which would set quality standards and mandatory reporting deadlines for post-acute care provided by long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies.

A Suffolk Superior Court Judge has put a three-week hold on the deal between Partners HealthCare System and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office to allow comments from other stakeholders, including competing hospital systems and medical groups.

Finally! That seems to be the most common reaction to the proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) that would let providers use the 2011 Edition CEHRT or a combination of 2011 and 2014 Edition CEHRT for the Meaningful Use reporting period in 2014.

A definitive agreement may be signed as early as September. The potential affiliation would make Banner Health Arizona’s largest private employer with a combined 37,000 people, as well as make it the first non-profit statewide integrated care network.

The majority of healthcare organizations are prepared to begin ICD-10 testing in the near future, however concerns persist about the impact of ICD-10 on work, productivity and revenue, according to a joint survey from the eHealth Initiative and the American Health Information Management Association.

The ongoing dispute between Highmark and UPMC in Pennsylvania had created considerably concern in the state over what would happen to patients with Highmark health plans who receive care from UPMC after 2015 when the contract between the two organizations ends.

A pilot at Boston Medical Center that reduced clinically significant alarms in its cardiac unit made it easier for nurses to respond to alarms signaling genuine problems, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.