Affordable Care Act (ACA)

See the following -

Fed Agency IT Collaboration Stumbles

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | November 13, 2013

With the federal government spending some $82 billion on IT in the 2014 fiscal year, the Obama Administration’s Office of Management and Budget has been trying to get more bang for those bucks by promoting smarter, shared IT, but there are some roadblocks to the plan, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Read More »

Federal health market surpasses 1 million signups

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar | Federal News Radio | December 29, 2013

A December surge propelled health care sign-ups through the government's rehabilitated website past the 1 million mark, the Obama administration said Sunday Read More »

Federal Health Officials Call For New Quality Measurement Framework

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | June 6, 2013

Federal health officials are calling for a new framework in quality measurement, as the U.S. healthcare system prepares for what is hoped to be a new era of accountability. Read More »

Fighting The Next Obamacare Tech Fail

Dustin Volz and Sophie | Nextgov | January 16, 2014

In terminating CGI Federal's role in HealthCare.gov, President Obama finally "fired" one of the parties responsible for Obamacare's faulty website. That may appease the chorus of those calling on Obama to hold someone "accountable," but it does nothing to fix the underlying problem: the system for selecting contractors that picked CGI Federal in the first place. Read More »

Finding The Value In HIE, IT Integration Will Push Adoption: Q&A

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | May 9, 2013

“What’s in it for me?” isn’t an unreasonable question when it comes to healthcare information technology.  Providers are being asked to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new IT systems, and finding the business case for these massive investments is crucial to spurring adoption and improving healthcare at its core. Read More »

First Teach No Harm

Phillip Longman | Washington Monthly | June 21, 2013

The U.S. spends $13 billion a year subsidizing graduate medical education. Yet almost all of this money winds up producing the wrong kinds of doctors in the wrong places, with America’s most elite teaching hospitals being the worst offenders. Read More »

Five Facts About Veterans’ Health Care

Sarah Kliff | Washington Post | November 12, 2012

With more than 1,400 hospitals, nursing homes and clinics nationwide, the Department of Veterans Affairs operates the country’s largest health care system. On Veterans Day, here’s a look at how it operates, who it covers and what role it plays in the larger American health care system. Read More »

Fixing The VA-DOD Health System Fiasco

Peter Levin | Politico | May 14, 2013

As health care plans nationwide enter the home stretch of implementing electronic records under the framework of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, and military service disability claims backlogs grow in size and attention, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon need a much more coherent approach to modernize and deploy their electronic health record systems. Read More »

For HIX Success, First Fix Government IT And Set Expectations

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | January 20, 2014

Health insurance exchanges should strive for several goals to prove their mettle and recover their public perception, according to the founding director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, an exchange that was once a national model and is now struggling to function. Read More »

For Many, Obama's Promise Of Health Care Choice Does Not Ring True

Laura Koran | CNN | October 31, 2013

In her grilling on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reiterated a frequent assertion in the Obamacare sales pitch --- consumers have options when shopping for insurance plans on the health care exchanges.

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Forget Obamacare: Vermont Wants To Bring Single Payer To America

Sarah Kliff | Vox | April 9, 2014

"If Vermont gets single-payer health care right, which I believe we will, other states will follow," Vermont Gov. Shumlin predicted in a recent interview. "If we screw it up, it will set back this effort for a long time.

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Former VA Official: Obamacare Puts Vets At Risk

Bryant Jordan | Military.com | May 3, 2013

The Affordable Care Act -- generally known as “Obamacare” -- could lead to increased health complications, emergency room visits and even shorter life spans for some veterans, according to a former under secretary of Health for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Read More »

Friday Shutdown Reader: The Impending Meaningless Deaths Of Lab Animals

James Fallows | Atlantic | October 11, 2013

The prospect for research animals is grim at best. The shutdown removes all purpose from their sacrifice. Read More »

From The Start, Signs Of Trouble At Health Portal

Robert Pear, Sharon LaFraniere and Ian Austen | New York Times | October 12, 2013

In March, Henry Chao, the chief digital architect for the Obama administration’s new online insurance marketplace, told industry executives that he was deeply worried about the Web site’s debut. “Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience,” he told them. Read More »

Fueling Public HIE With Business Tools And Standards

Tom Sullivan, | Government Health IT | July 1, 2014

Health information exchange technologies and business models among public health entities are in a state of flux. Yet the practice of HIE is going to be essential for public health departments to facilitate better care of individual and populations at a lower cost...

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