Health spending has been growing at historically low levels in recent years. The Office of the Actuary (OACT) in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that national health spending grew by 3.9 percent each year from 2009 to 2011, the lowest rate of growth since the federal government began keeping such statistics in 1960. Estimates from the Center for Sustainable Health Spending at the Altarum Institute suggest that the slowdown largely continued into 2012, with health spending growing by 4.3 percent last year. The Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust Employer Health Benefits Survey shows similar moderation, with premiums in employer-sponsored health plans increasing by 4 percent in 2012.

The FCC has tapped Matthew Quinn, MBA, to serve as the agency’s director of healthcare initiatives, according to an announcement.

The HIT Policy Committee has added two new workgroups to its roster. The FDASIA workgroup will focus on identifying key considerations to improve patient safety and promote innovation in health IT, and the ACO workgroup will identify high priority areas where the use of health IT can support accountable care models.

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) announced the completion of its 2013 WEDI Report roadmap and disclosed the final list of executive steering committee members and advisors, according to a press announcement.

Several representatives of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton addressed issues tied to the power of data to transform healthcare.

The U.S. healthcare workforce is unprepared to handle the 14 million people soon entering the system when coverage is provided by the Affordable Care Act in 2014, according to an Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC) report.

The proposed 2014 budget for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) includes $1 million from a new tax on health IT vendors, but the plan calls for increasing revenue from the tax in coming years if the tax is enacted.

A new survey from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) on IDC-10 preparations finds a disturbing lack of industry progress during the past year.