Don McDaniel

Just last week, the CMS Office of the Actuary published its analysis of the recently passed “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”. It presents a future-state picture that may not be that pleasing to physicians, particularly physicians operating in small, independent practices.

EHR adoption is still very low in the United States, especially among smaller practices. Therefore, to facilitate the adoption and the achievement of meaningful use of these EHRs among small practices, the Office of National Coordination for Health Information Technology (ONC) has now designated some 60 Regional Extension Centers (REC).

Does HITECH treat MA providers differently than providers that participate with the original Medicare program?

I’ve spent the past few weeks attending a number of healthcare information technology meetings focused on achieving interoperability in healthcare - so-called eHealth.