Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

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The 128-Byte Data Field That Could Save Lives And Billions Of Dollars

Dan Munro | Forbes | March 25, 2013

I can easily think of 5 articles that highlight the extraordinary waste and cost of the U.S. healthcare system. [...] The PwC report concluded that about $1.2 trillion was wasted – each year. Here’s how PwC further categorized that waste... Read More »

The Administration's Cancer Moonshot Will Just Start Coming Together as They Leave Office, but Republicans Can Keep It Going.

Sean Captain | Fast Company | January 29, 2016

When President John F. Kennedy made his moonshot speech in September 1962, he thought he had at least two years left in office—over six if he got reelected. Plus, his party controlled Congress, giving him even more power to reach that goal. President Obama announced his moonshot to cure cancer (to be headed by VP Joe Biden) in his final State of the Union address. This week the administration revealed in a memorandum that the program may not be fully fleshed out until the final weeks of Obama's second term—with Republicans likely still holding Congress and perhaps entering the White House...

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The Belarusian Connection

Bill Gertz | The Washington Free Beacon | February 3, 2014

U.S. intelligence agencies last week urged the Obama administration to check its new healthcare network for malicious software after learning that developers linked to the Belarus government helped produce the website, raising fresh concerns that private data posted by millions of Americans will be compromised. Read More »

The Health Care Website Is Not Like Facebook

Marina Koren | Nextgov | October 25, 2013

When questioning executives of the contractor behind the problem-plagued health care website during a House hearing Thursday, Rep. Steve Scalise brought up a popular, user-friendly site for comparison. Read More »

The Health-Exchange Failure Isn't Just An IT Problem

Brendan Greely | Bloomberg Businessweek | October 23, 2013

[...] This is a culture problem, the hardest kind to fix for any organization. Which means that whatever happens with Healthcare.gov, the root cause—a culture problem—will definitely not be fixed by Nov. 15. Read More »

The Imminent Industry-Association War Over ICD-10

Tom Sullivan | Government Health IT | February 6, 2012

The stage is set for a war over U.S. adoption of ICD-10. Indeed, such a fight could pit industry associations that stand to profit from the code set against those representing the providers who have to actually implement and pay for the ICD-10 conversion.

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The Infinite Bewilderment Of Signing Up For Obamacare Subsidies

Garance Franke-Ruta | The Atlantic | November 5, 2013

Having spent quite some time last week deep in the weeds of Obamacare, whacking my way through the burrs and brush of its extensive questionnaires with a story subject, I am here to tell you two things. First, it is confusing. Second, every little bit of misinformation and confusion matters. Read More »

The Obamacare Insurance Exchange Train Is Already Coming Off The Rails

Sally Pipes | Forbes | May 27, 2013

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) raised eyebrows across the country last month when he publicly fretted about an Obamacare “train wreck” as the Administration rushes to implement the many provisions of the law that take effect in 2014. Read More »

The Promise of a Little Blue Button

John Moore | Chilmark Research | September 11, 2012

...despite some shortcomings, the event was focused around what may be the government’s (VA & CMS) finest contributions to promoting patient engagement – the Blue Button.
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The Real Trouble With the Birth-Control Mandate

John H. Cochrane | The Wall Street Journal | February 9, 2012

Critics are missing the main point. There are good reasons that your car-insurance company doesn't add $100 to your premium and then cover oil changes.

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The Rise Of Medical Identity Theft

Michael Ollove | The Pew | February 7, 2014

If modern technology has ushered in a plague of identity theft, one particular strain of the disease has emerged as most virulent: medical identity theft. Read More »

Thousands Of NFL Players' Medical Records Stolen From Skins Trainer

Barry Petchesky | Deadspin | June 1, 2016

In late April, the NFL recently informed its players, a Skins athletic trainer’s car was broken into. The thief took a backpack, and inside that backpack was a cache of electronic and paper medical records for thousands of players, including NFL Combine attendees from the last 13 years. That would encompass the vast majority of NFL players, and for them, it’s a worrying breach of privacy; for the NFL, it’s potentially a costly violation of medical privacy laws.Last month the league alerted the players’ union to the theft...

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Todd Park Invites Food & Tech Innovators to the Health Datapalooza

Danielle Gould | Forbes | March 20, 2012

At Food+Tech Connect, we often write about how the food tech community, particularly startups, can benefit from open government data. Just as open data has been used to fuel multi-billion dollar industries in other sectors, like the weather industry that uses raw satellite data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The U.S. Read More »

Todd Park Takes Federal CTO Post

Bernie Monegain | Government Health IT | March 9, 2012

Todd Park will take over as assistant to the President and U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO), filling a vacancy created by last month's departure of Aneesh Chopra, the nation's first CTO. Read More »

Todd Park: More can, should be done to capture unique EHR safety issues

Dan Bowman | Fierce Health IT | November 17, 2011

As Chief Technology Officer at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, it's Todd Park's job to be excited about innovation. And, as anyone who's seen him speak live can attest, he takes his job very seriously. Read More »