On March 9, 2020, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), under U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its final rules on healthcare interoperability and medical record ownership and access. These rules, titled the Cures Act Final Rules, align with complementary rules proposed by the Center...

The U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services recently announced a new strategy to reduce the administrative and regulatory burdens of electronic health record and other technology systems. Designed to give clinicians more time to focus on patient care, the strategy may fall well short of its objectives for better patient access and improved...

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and U.S. Congress among others are calling for improved transparency, better access and an end to aggressive healthcare collection tactics. Physicians are joining the chorus, with a sobering take on the health-related impacts of unaffordable...

Though the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ updated Star Ratings and proposed rules on hospital price and quality transparency may be clumsy, even ineffective, their intentions are clear. The largest source of revenue to hospitals in the U.S. is setting a new, much higher bar for the way hospitals and payers help patients find and...

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed far-reaching new rules requiring hospitals and health plans across the U.S. to make prices for many of their more common procedures available to the public. The industry is realizing that this alone will not empower patients with the tools they need - and finding patient-first ways to...