The Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) recently approved a report and set of recommendations developed by the Intersection of Clinical and Administrative Data (ICAD) Task Force.

Read Full Post.

On December 10, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services released a notice of proposed rulemaking Reducing Provider and Patient Burden by Improving Prior Authorization Processes, and Promoting Patients’ Electronic Access to Health Information, which builds on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Interoperability and Patient Access final rule released earlier this year. This new proposed rule includes additional proposed requirements for payers to implement standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs) that can help address critical health care challenges such as improving the efficiency of prior authorization processes.

Read Full Post.

Standards come about for many reasons. They make things more efficient, cost effective, and safer to name a few. Often you’ll hear witty banter in the standards community (I know…right!?) about whether something is “fit for purpose.” This is also accompanied by the question, “what’s your use case?”

Read Full Post.

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the final 2020-2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan (the Plan). The Plan demonstrates the federal government’s ongoing, coordinated focus on improving the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information.

Read Full Post.

Successful health research hinges on the quality of the data used to advance discovery and needed health IT functionality. Electronic health data are increasingly available and can be a significant boon for the medical research community. Coupled with ubiquitous use of consumer and patient health technologies and increasing prevalence of application programming interfaces, or APIs, there is potential to expand existing data sources for research.

Read Full Post.