As belts keep tightening to contain healthcare costs, most are looking for creative and innovative ways to improve healthcare, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) may have found one. The solution? CMS will make Medicare claims data available to rate doctors; however, most are asking whether this solution will hold any benefits.

LAS VEGASHealthcare organizations have dual, sometimes conflicting, responsibilities to provide safe, high-quality care and safeguard patients' sensitive information, said Eric M. Liederman, MD, MPH, director of medical informatics at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Sacramento, Calif., during a presentation at the 2012 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference.

LAS VEGASDespite proclamations that 2012 marks the end of the world, William Morgan, MBA, senior regional information management executive for Christus Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi, Texas, said that while there are numerous challenges to health IT, there also are solutions. Morgan spoke during the 2012 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference on Feb. 22.

LAS VEGASOutpatient settings now have an option to engage in a strategic performance measures initiative to improve preventive health outcomes through a health IT-enabled registry, based on positive outcomes presented Feb. 21 at the 2012 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference.

The National Committee for Quality Assurances (NCQA) tool for assessing and accrediting patient-centered medical homes has been endorsed by the federal government, but research published in the February issue of Health Affairs suggested that there was no significant association between a healthcare organizations ability to achieve a passing score on the assessment tool and the quality of care it delivers.

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, and developer of healthcare information systems and connectivity technologies, has entered into an agreement with Humana to accelerate the adoption of EHRs and the exchange of critical health and billing information among healthcare providers.

Many providers are skeptical of the growing trend among patients to rate healthcare experiences via web-based rating sites, but recognizing patients desires to provide feedback, the British National Health Service established a website that allows patients to rate care using metrics meaningful to providers and it has produced promising results, according to research published Feb. 13 by the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Although the requirements for Stage 2 of meaningful use are not yet final, IT services firm CSC said the direction is clear and healthcare organizations should focus on providing capabilities for engaging patients, coordinating care and capturing the data for quality reporting.