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.

Care transition programs seem to be working. In communities where the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) piloted quality improvement initiatives aimed at coordinating care for recently discharged Medicare patients, there were significant declines in rates of 30-day rehospitalizations and all hospitalizations, according to research published Jan. 23 by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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.

Washington issued a new set of state standardized guidelines for pre-operative care in the form of pre-surgical checklists that address nutritional support to prevent infections, reducing cigarette smoking, improving diabetes care and coordinating medication.

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.