Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
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CMS Awards Up-To-$15B Virtual Datacenter Contract
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has awarded a 10-year contract valued at up to $15 billion to eight vendors to compete to build various aspects of a virtual datacenter, which will provide the agency’s IT infrastructure and services that operate its business systems and better safeguard its healthcare information. Read More »
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CMS Backlog Shortchanges Doctors on E-prescribing Exemptions
Some physicians are reporting that the Medicare payments they’ve received for their services in 2012 are being reduced for a failure to prescribe enough electronically in 2011, even though the doctors filed waiver requests seeking special hardship exemptions. Read More »
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CMS Extends Hospital 2014 Meaningful Use Reporting Deadline
The 2014 meaningful use reporting deadline for eligible hospitals and CAHs is now set for Dec. 31, 2014...
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CMS Launches Chief Data Officer Position
Earlier this month, we reported how healthcare is increasingly embracing a new C-suite position: chief data officer. Now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is getting in on the act, with the appointment of its first CDO, Niall Brennan...
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CMS Launches Data Element Library To Support Interoperability
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the agency’s first Data Element Library (DEL). The DEL is a new CMS database that supports the exchange of electronic health information. Using this free, centralized resource, the public for the first time can view the specific types of data that CMS requires post-acute care facilities (such as nursing homes and rehabilitation hospitals) to collect as part of the health assessment of their patients. These assessments include questions and response options (data elements) about patients, including demographics, medical problems and other types of health evaluations. Read More »
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CMS Officials Warned Of Security Risks Just Before Healthcare.gov Went Live
Less than four days before Healthcare.gov went live, two senior officials at the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expressed reservations about the security preparedness of the site. Read More »
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CMS Reopens EHR Hardship Exception Application Timeframe
Providers looking to attest to meaningful use but running into problems with their EHR versions just got a new window of time to apply for a hardship exception. Indeed, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said on Tuesday it will reopen the submission period — the new due date for hospitals and physicians hoping to avoid 2015 Medicare payment adjustments is Nov. 30, 2014...
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CMS Supports Open Source/Modular Medicaid Information Technology
Investing in the future of Medicaid is one of the single biggest opportunities in the health care sector...Overall, CMS’ annual investment in state Medicaid Information Technology (IT) is more than $5 billion, enabling states to modernize their Medicaid IT systems to best meet their program, providers’ and beneficiaries’ needs. CMS and states are prepared to invest in innovative solutions. For this investment, we expect significant advances. Our new regulations require that states evolve their legacy Medicaid IT systems to leverage reusable solutions, and to practice industry-proven IT methods such as use of modularity, reuse, shared services (including Software-as-a-Service) by fundamentally shifting the financial incentives away from custom development. This opens opportunity to smaller vendors to develop focused solutions for use across multiple states or to introduce solutions from comparable sectors such as commercial insurance or large provider systems.
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CMS To Invest $5+ Billion a Year in Open Source and Cloud-based IT Infrastructure for Medicaid
After more than 40 years of relying on monolithic mainframe platforms to administer its services, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has embraced a new modular, open and agile approach to Medicaid health information technology for the Federal government and States. In many ways, this is the best of what open source advocates and technology innovators could have hoped for when it comes to open source policy from a government agency. According to Andrew Slavitt, Acting Administrator of CMS, the agency will spend more than $5 billion a year to fund this transformation.
CMS Wants Your Vote on Clinical Quality Measures
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants to get feedback on a list of 125 potential clinical quality measures for physicians and 49 potential measures for hospitals as part of its proposed rule for meaningful use stage 2. Ultimately, CMS will decide on just a subset of the suggested measures. Read More »
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CMS: Databases Can Be Used For Disaster Planning To Aid Vulnerable Populations
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will allow health information from eight databases to be used to identify vulnerable people who might need help during an emergency. Read More »
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CMS: Meaningful Use EHR Incentives Hit $12.3B In February
With some healthcare providers now into their second year of meaningful use reporting, Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record payments were estimated at $12.3 billion paid to a total of 219,000 physicians and hospitals through February since the program’s inception. Read More »
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Commentary: Concerns About Quality Improvement Organizations Actions Around Meaningful Use
The federal government is pressuring the medical community to reduce patient care costs while improving the quality of patient care to all patients, including Medicare beneficiaries. Read More »
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Congressman Offers 3-Point MU Fix
With $23 billion already spent on incentivizing providers to adopt electronic health records, many in government and industry are wondering whether taxpayers and patients got what they paid for...
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Consumers Abandoning Healthcare.gov
Can you blame them? According to Digital Trends (DT), "more than $500 million" was spent creating "the digital equivalent of a rock." DT's source is the General Accounting Office (GAO). Most spending went for contracts, saying... Read More »
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