TSP's G Fund Helps Delay Debt Ceiling
Sequester Hits Disaster Relief
Feds Respond to Oklahoma Tornadoes
Making Government 'Simpler'
OK Senator Wants Aid Offset by Budget Cuts
Boldly Go Where No Fed's Gone Before
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
John Pulley
John Pulley has written the Health IT Update blog since May 2011. Prior to becoming a regular contributor to Nextgov, he covered technology for Federal Computer Week and Government Health IT magazines. He has written about government for Federal Times and Air Force Times, as well. Pulley has worked in journalism for more than 20 years. He began his career covering local government for regional newspapers. In addition, he served as a writer and senior editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education for seven years. In 2006, he founded The Pulley Group, an editorial services agency.
Electronic records surge continues
December 7, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
Almost 72 percent of office-based physicians in the United States use an electronic medical record or electronic health record, new government statistics show. Close to 40 percent use digital record systems that meet federal requirements for basic functionality. The number of doctors with some sort of EMR/EHR is up 26 ...
FDA needs mobile health IT office, lawmaker says
December 5, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
A California congressman introduced a bill this week to promote health IT innovation, in part by creating a Food and Drug Administration office to oversee mobile health technology. U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, a Democrat, said in a news release that his Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act would foster innovation ...
Trending: Health IT in 2013
December 3, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
AT&T released predictions Monday for 2013’s biggest health IT trends: A shift from stand-alone mobile health apps to “sponsored mHealth solutions” from health-insurance companies, health care providers, employers and other stakeholders, resulting in more patients using the apps and participating more fully in their own health care. The movement of ...
Oversight of e-health record incentive program is lax, IG says
November 30, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
Health care providers should do more to prove that their electronic health records meet meaningful-use standards, says the Health and Human Services Department inspector general. In a report issued Wednesday, HHS IG Daniel Levinson said the information providers submit to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services lacks validation. As ...
More doctors prefer pixels to prescription pads
November 28, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
E-prescribing has gone mainstream. According to federal officials, almost half of all physicians prescribe drugs electronically through an electronic health record. That’s a 41 percent increase since December 2008, according to a report released this week by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. States with the highest ...
Doctors abroad report mixed results for health IT
November 26, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
Health IT fails to consistently provide primary care physicians with timely information about patients or information on physician performance, a recent survey of doctors in 10 industrialized nations found. Even so, physicians say they’re seeing more progress in health IT than in some other health care areas, according to the ...
Virtual visits to doctors' offices yield good outcomes
November 21, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
Doctors who confer electronically with patients suffering from sinusitis and urinary tract infections correctly diagnose the infections at about the same rate as they do when seeing patients in their offices, yet they are more likely to prescribe antibiotics, according to a research letter published online this week in the ...
Seeing health IT through patients' eyes
November 20, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
The National eHealth Collaborative on Monday released a framework to guide the transition from provider-centered health IT to a system built around patients. The collaborative’s Patient Engagement Framework outlines five major phases from the perspective of patients: inform me, engage me, empower me, partner with me and support my e-community. ...
Health information exchanges face significant financial challenges
November 19, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
Concerns about competition could undercut development and long-term sustainability of health information exchanges, according to preliminary findings of a survey by the eHealth Initiative. Of 126 exchanges that responded to the group’s 2012 survey, 36 said competition from other HIEs was an important challenge, and 50 worried about competition from ...
HHS extends states' health-exchange deadline, again
November 19, 2012
FROM NEXTGOV
For the second time in a week, states that have delayed taking action to create federally mandated health insurance exchanges were granted an extension of a key deadline by the Department of Health and Human Services. As noted last Thursday by The Hill Healthcare, the latest delay extends the deadline ...
