Depending on a vote by Congress this week, physicians working in ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) could be on track to receive long-awaited incentive money. H.R. 877, also known as the Electronic Health Fairness Act of 2015, is set to be voted upon on Wednesday. Spearheaded by Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn), the bill is designed to included ASC doctors in the EHR incentive payments that other physicians have been eligible to receive. Co-sponsoring the bill along with Black are nine Republicans and five Democrats.

If you’ve been following our blog during the latter half of this year (or any Health IT blog, for that matter), you are already well aware of the fact that the chaos of Meaningful Use Stage 3 (MU3) has been causing panic attacks for many folks in the healthcare industry. If you find yourself breaking out in hives at just the thought of MU3, you can at least take comfort in the knowledge that you are definitely not alone. Many groups are calling for it to be reformed.

This past year has been a landmark year for healthcare IT, government regulations and the growing use of electronic health records within medical practices. According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, 2016 could be just as big. At the Bipartisan Policy Center event on interoperability and information sharing in Washington, D.C. earlier this week, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo detailed her hopes of implementing a nationwide health information exchange for the coming year.

Tomorrow marks two months since the official implementation of ICD-10 across the country. Much was made about the transition with detractors loudly vocalizing their concerns about the negative consequences ICD-10 would bring on medical practices. But what does the data say? KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms in the United States recently conducted a survey of nearly 300 healthcare IT professionals via a webcast to gauge just how successful or problematic the ICD-10 transition has been.

Last week we held a webinar designed to assist your practice in its Meaningful Use attestation process. Unsurprisingly, many of you had several questions regarding Meaningful Use as we understand that this can be a complicated process. To help make your attestation process easier, we've answered the most frequently asked Meaningful Use questions and have split it up into a four-part series. Our hope is that this can be a resource for your practice moving forward in your Meaningful Use attestation, no matter which stage you're currently at.

Congress could potentially bring some relief to medical practices currently attesting to Meaningful Use Stage 2. Last week, Representative Tom Price (R-GA) proposed the Meaningful Use Hardship Relief Act of 2015, which would "authorize a blanket Meaningful Use significant hardship exemption for the 2015 reporting period due to the delay in timely publication of the Stage 2 Meaningful Use rule."

Last week we held a webinar intended to help with your Meaningful Use process: Troubleshooting Your Meaningful Use Reports. Unsurprisingly, many of you had several questions regarding Meaningful Use as we understand that this can be a complicated process at times. To help make your attestation process easier, we've answered the most frequently asked Meaningful Use questions and have split it up into a four-part series Our hope is that this can be a resource for your practice moving forward in your Meaningful Use attestation, no matter which stage you're currently at.

Last week we held a webinar intended to help with your Meaningful Use process: Troubleshooting Your Meaningful Use Reports. Unsurprisingly, many of you had several questions regarding Meaningful Use as we understand that this can be a complicated process at times. To help make your attestation process easier, we've answered the most frequently asked Meaningful Use questions and have split it up into a four-part series. Our hope is that this can be a resource for your practice moving forward in your Meaningful Use attestation, no matter which stage you're currently at.