Administration: Current Activities

AHIC 2.0 Holds Public Forum to Review Recommendations From Phase I of the Process and Next Steps: The AHIC Successor process held on June 4th the last of its public forum meetings associated with Phase I of the process—the “Planning and Establishing” phase. Three of the four Planning Groups focused on governance, financial sustainability for the organization, and membership shared their recommendations during a public forum in Washington, D.C. at the Brookings Institution. (Last updated June 16) Click here for more information.

CMS Initiative Tests EHR System’s Ability to Transmit Data: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun a new pilot in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) to test the feasibility of transmitting data directly from electronic health records (EHRs). (Last updated June 16) Click here for more information.

AHIC Transition Grantee Announced - At this morning's meeting of the American Health Information Community in Washington DC, Secretary Leavitt announced a grant to a team made up of LMI and the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, to convene diverse organizations to design a new public-private partnership, known as "AHIC 2.0."... More>>

Medicare Outlines Hospital Quality Payment Program - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last week proposed to Congress several options for changing the way Medicare pays hospitals, as part of a report on transitioning hospital payment toward mechanisms that reward quality over quantity... More>>

AHIC Meets to Discuss Workgroup Updates and Transitions - The American Health Information Community (AHIC) met on July 31 to discuss its plans for transitioning into a future AHIC body that will operate as a public-private venture.? According to the July 2007 AHIC successor white paper, an AHIC successor will be charged with developing a unified approach to realizing an effective, interoperable nationwide health information system that supports the health and well-being of individuals and communities in the U.S... More>>

AHRQ Issues RFP on Technical Assistance for HIT and HIE in Medicaid and SCHIP - On June 13, 2007, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) entitled Technical Assistance for Health IT and Health Information Exchange in Medicaid and SCHIP. Proposal responses to AHRQ are due July 17, 2007... More>>

GAO Calls for Comprehensive Privacy Approach for National Strategy in HIT Implementation - On June 19th the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report highlighting the progress, shortfalls and necessary steps that HHS must complete in order to ensure privacy and security measures and benchmarks in the creation of a nationwide health information network (NHIN)... More>>

AHRQ Publishes RFI on National Health Data Stewardship Entity -The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) published in the Federal Register a Request for Information (RFI) on the creation of a "public-private national health care data stewardship organization with oversight of the various uses of healthcare data," outside of the care delivery setting... More >>

Nationwide Health Information Network Trial Implementation Solicitation Posted - The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) has posted its solicitation for contractors for the upcoming Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) trial implementation projects... More>>

CDC Launching Public Health and HIE Initiative - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI) has announced an initiative which focuses on establishing, managing or enhancing existing HIES in order to "exchange information between clinical care and public health to support public health situational awareness."... More>>

IRS To Grant 501(c)3 Hospitals Exemption When Donating EHR Enabling Devices - An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) memo released this week outlined specific protections for hospitals that provide physicians who have staff privileges with financial assistance to acquire and implement software that is used predominantly for creating, maintaining, transmitting, or receiving electronic health records (EHRs)... More>>

CDC Launching Public Health and HIE Initiative Contractors - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI) is now soliciting contractors to carry out an initiative on establishing, managing or enhancing existing health information exchanges (HIEs) to support public health... More>>

HHS Developing Plans for Nationwide Network of Networks in Health Information Exchange - In a further step to define and carry out the vision of a Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a proposal to connect existing HIE networks in up to 10 locations around the country... More>>