The House Energy and Commerce Committee met Feb. 11 to begin marking up the legislative language it will report to the House Budget Committee as part of the reconciliation process. Currently, there is $7.6 billion allocated by the committee to bolster the E-Rate program, as well as funding for COVID-19 testing and data management. […]

COVID-19 vaccine

Digital workflow software provider ServiceNow is working with state and foreign governments to help speed up their coronavirus vaccination efforts, and is targeting Federal government organizations for the same services as they roll out more aggressive steps to boost vaccination rates. […]

military healthcare, veterans healthcare

While the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact healthcare delivery to veterans well into 2021, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its Veterans Health Administration (VHA) component are already taking into account requirements for telehealth services when the pandemic abates but its mental-health impacts persist.  […]

Telehealth
FCC
Health and Human Services HHS

President-elect Joe Biden said today he will nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The nomination will be subject to Senate confirmation. Becerra is a former member of Congress and would become the first Latino to head HHS. […]

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is leading a bipartisan group of 49 members of Congress urging Senate and House leadership to include in end-of-year legislation language to make permanent Medicare telehealth expansions that were enacted earlier this year. […]

AI
military healthcare, veterans healthcare

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is delaying the implementation timeline for certain provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act in order to offer more flexibility for healthcare providers dealing with COVID-19, according to a notice set to be published in the Federal Register today. […]

Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it completed transferring patient data for approximately 88,000 veterans to its new electronic health record (EHR) solution as the agency prepares for the system’s launch at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Spokane, Wash. […]

The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program office announced that the Departments of Defense (DoD), Veterans Affairs (VA), and Homeland Security’s U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) component have expanded their joint health information exchange (HIE) network after connecting with CommonWell Health Alliance. […]

The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program office last month released to Congress its interoperability strategy which aims to optimize the interoperability of information systems that the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) use to support health care of active duty military and veterans. […]

military healthcare, veterans healthcare

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimburses states for most Medicaid costs and is supposed to oversee how states use funds, but its IT systems have had problems with ensuring proper oversight, and CMS no longer supports efforts to reduce duplication by state systems, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said. […]

Telehealth

In a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Democrat House Representatives are asking for a review of the Trump administration’s recent order to have hospital data on coronavirus be reported to a private contractor through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rather than through the CDC. […]

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced bipartisan legislation to streamline patient electronic health record (EHR) matching among healthcare providers using the United States Postal Service (USPS) address-formatting tool. […]

VA
EHR

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has experienced delays in converting facilities to its new electronic health record (EHR) capabilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now targeting October to implement the changes. […]

CDC

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a slew of new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) initiatives on July 28 to enable innovative research objectives through technologies such as AI and cloud. […]

Telehealth

Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is calling for any changes made to accommodate telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic to be made permanent following new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstrating the expanding use of telehealth services to avoid the virus. […]

Categories