The Supreme Court justices today voted to keep the individual mandate as a tax in a 5 to 4 decision in the ruling of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). According to the Supreme Court blog, the entire PPACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government has the power to terminate states' Medicaid funds.

Exposure to tablet devices may alter programmable shunt valve settings, based on the results of research published June 26 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, the state Medicaid agency, has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services $1.7 million to settle possible violations of the HIPAA Security Rule. Alaska DHSS has also agreed to take corrective action to properly safeguard the electronic protected health information of their Medicaid beneficiaries.

While physicians can mend patients and help their conditions improve, they cannot guarantee that patients will take their pills after hospital discharge. However, a perspective published online June 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine outlined a strategy that may help remedy the notion of medication nonadherenceautomated hovering.

Once again, this weeks health IT-related news runs the gamut of pertinent topics. It never ceases to amaze me the sheer volume of activity in this arena. Studies proving reduced utilization and improved clinical outcomes and reports predicting significant growth in various health IT-related market come fast and furious. State and federal government agencies are impressively busy with pilot programs, new frameworks, new positions and much more.

Carestream Health showcased works-in-progress lesion management 3D tools on its Carestream Vue PACS workstation June 18 at the International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT (ISCT) in San Francisco.

Interoperability is the driving force behind many initiatives on the health IT landscape with the latest meaningful use objectives leading the way. Stage 2 will force interoperability via health information exchange (HIE) if the notice of proposed rulemaking passes as is.

A total of $662 million in incentives were paid in total for both the Physician Quality Reporting and e-Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Programs, according to a conference call hosted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) June 19. The amount represents a 72 percent increase over 2009.