AHRQ’s www.ahrq.gov draft brief titled “Telehealth: An Evidence Map for Decision-making” identifies and describes a limited number of key characteristics from available evidence to help make policy decisions concerning telehealth and to help guide future studies. (more…)
Five HIT Leaders Adopt Framework
Carequality, an initiative of the Sequoia Project in December announced the initial implementers of the “Carequality Interoperability Framework”. The five health IT leaders include athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Epic, NextGen Healthcare and Surescripts. (more…)
Evaluating Telehealth Services
The Oregon Office of HIT www.oregon.gov/oha/ohit/pages/index.aspx contracted with the Telehealth Alliance of Oregon (TAO) www.ortelehealth.org to evaluate telehealth services available in the state. (more…)
Advanced TeleHealth Solutions New Guide
On January 1, 2016, CMS www.cms.gov launched the “Home Health Value Based Purchasing Program” (HHVPB) as a pilot in nine states. CMS estimates that the program, once fully implemented will save $380 million annually by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and skilled nursing facility usage. (more…)
HIEs Reduce Costs for Imaging
The leading provider of image-enabled HIE solutions eHealth Technologies http://ehealthtechnologies.com and Baystate Health www.baystatehealth.org one of the largest integrated healthcare systems in New England, now enables users of the Pioneer Valley Information Exchange www.pvix.org (PVIX) to access diagnostic quality images for radiology exams that have been performed at six locations across western Massachusetts. (more…)
Senate Releases Draft Legislation
On January 20th, Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) www.alexander.senate.gov and Ranking Committee Member Patty Murray (D-WA) www.murray.senate.gov released the draft of the committee’s bipartisan legislation to improve health information technology. (more…)
PSC of Wisconsin Seeks Applicants for Grants
Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission (PSC) http://psc.wi.gov is looking for “Medical Telecommunications Equipment Grants” for FY 2016-2017. The Universal Service Fund’s Telemedicine Equipment Program was created to help nonprofit medical clinics, hospitals, or public health agencies purchase medical telecommunications equipment to augment or enhance the delivery of medical services especially to rural or underserved areas. (more…)