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FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announces the formation of a task force that will seek ways to increase use of broadband to deliver telehealth, mobile apps, and telemedicine. Heading up CONNECT2HEALTHFCC will be Michele Ellison, a lawyer who runs the agency’s enforcement bureau. Wheeler said in the announcement, “We must leverage all available technologies to ensure that advanced health care solutions are readily accessible to all Americans, from rural and remote areas to underserved inner cities. By identifying regulatory barriers and incentives and building stronger partnerships with stakeholders in the areas of telehealth, mobile applications, and telemedicine, we can expedite this vital shift.”
Reader Comments
From Just Tim: “Re: MU stages beyond stimulus payments. What is the legislative basis to extend the MU program? MU requirements were supposed to run in conjunction with years in which payments were made, not years after penalties kick in. I’d certainly agree that if someone never got to Stage 3, they could reasonably be penalized on an ongoing basis. Otherwise, we’ve just created a large bureaucracy with the power to continue to push unfunded mandates.” Legal scholars and political junkies, the less legislative among us are calling.
From Dim-Sum: “Re: military EHR replacement. Word on the street is that the vendors of choice and partners are as follows. Six service integration (SI) firms will bid Epic. The team that is getting the most news is Leidos/Accenture/Harris. Cerner has a single exclusive SI partner (still doing research to see who that SI is). Allscripts cannot find a partner for their Sunrise. Meditech has the incumbent Northrop Grumman. McKesson walked away from GDIT/Vangent. Siemens has a yet to be named DoD giant. Competitive bids will require an investment by prime and sub software solution firm of about 1.5-2 percent of the total contract value. That means that to win a $5B deal with the DoD, the investment for resources, capabilities, compliance, and regulatory wherewithal (see FISMA, FedRAMP, DIACAP, 508, JITC etc) is $50 million USD. Good Luck beltway bandits and COTS EHR dreamers.” Unverified.
From Brenda: “Re: Washington’s insurance exchange. Add it to the list of those having issues. By the way, I’ve recommended HIStalk to countless people and I’m glad our company has been a sponsor for about a year now.” The Healthplanfinder exchange has 15,000 applications that are stuck because the user-entered information can’t be matched to the state’s Medicaid benefits database or contain incomplete information (hello, programmer edits?) I speculate that the state incurred the wrath of the grammatical gods when it combined “health plan finder” into a single word.
From Charger: “Terrific correspondence from Orlando; much appreciated since I could not attend! I’m …read more
