February was a big month in healthcare IT. There was HIMSS12, the biggest healthcare IT conference in the industry. This year more than 35,000 people attended the show in Las Vegas, talking about a wide variety of issues including The Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. Farzad Mostashari, M.D.’s announcement of the proposed rule for Stage 2 of meaningful use. In addition, The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Service, Kathleen Sebelius announced a delay to the date organizations must comply with the ICD-10 coding set by. All of these big events reflected the most popular articles on HCI this past month.
1) Breaking: HHS Announces Delay to ICD-10 Compliance
The news about the ICD-10 compliance date delay came out in mid-February after numerous protests from the American Medical Association (AMA) and several other industry groups. Other groups, like the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) came down on the opposite side, decrying the move and saying the compliance date should stay at Oct. 1, 2013.
2) Are State AGs Already Becoming More Aggressive on HIPAA
In this blog, HCI Contributing Editor David Raths talked about recent conversations he has had with various healthcare privacy experts who predict as more breaches are reported, more state attorneys general will prosecute them.
Not everyone was a fan of the big industry event. In this blog, Pete Rivera explains he wasn’t a big fan of the event, and it had nothing to do with the Las Vegas location. Pete says the sessions at this year’s HIMSS were very bland.
4) CMS Releases Stage 2 Meaningful Use NPRM
In the midst of the always crazy HIMSS conference, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted the proposed rule for Stage 2 meaningful use under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act/Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (ARRA-HITECH) Act.
5) In Plain English Please? Health Literacy’s Rising Prominence
In this article, HCI Assistant Editor Gabriel Perna talks about why health literacy has become an emerging issue in the healthcare industry. Health literacy is simply the ability to read and understand health information, whether it’s doctor’s instructions, a package, or any information that consumers have to read involving their health.
