American Recovery and Reinvestment Act news and information

Physicians say they like to use medical scribes to handle EHR data entry because they find EHRs slow and clunky to use, interfering with their interactions with patients.
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Does the federally sponsored Direct messaging protocol pose an existential threat to vendors of health information exchange software? Time will tell, according to the author of a new market research report on health information exchanges.
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Hospitals and office-based physicians not yet using an electronic health-record system can get some free help from the federal government on what to expect when contracting to buy EHR software or services.
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Eight out of 10 eligible hospitals and 58% of eligible physicians and other medical professionals have received payments totaling $15.5 billion under the federal electronic health record incentive payment program, according to the latest CMS data.
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Not far into its public education campaign for healthcare reform, the Obama administration last week touted what it sees as some of the law's best provisions, while the House voted to delay what it views as two of the worst.
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The sailing term is luffing. When a boat points too close to the wind, its sails flap with little power and its forward progress slows.
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Now that a majority of healthcare providers have installed electronic health-record systems, the federal government is inching closer to adopting a regulatory and patient-safety framework for computerized healthcare devices.
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The University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center has notified 537 patients of a security breach involving their medical records after an unencrypted flash drive went missing.
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The CVS drugstore chain is getting out of the business of using its data from patient prescription drug records to mail prescription refill notices to customers on behalf of pharmaceutical manufacturers, citing as a reason for the policy change a more stringent provision of the omnibus privacy rule...
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Dr. Steven Stack, American Medical Association board chairman, gave a spirited defense of physicians and a sharp, but balanced critique of electronic health-record systems at a federal “listening” session Friday on EHRs and their potential for use in billing fraud.
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