The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made progress on implementing its new electronic health records (EHR) system, but should postpone deployments of the system at additional locations because additional testing will likely identify issues that need to be resolved first, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee met Feb. 11 to begin marking up the legislative language it will report to the House Budget Committee as part of the reconciliation process. Currently, there is $7.6 billion allocated by the committee to bolster the E-Rate program, as well as funding for COVID-19 testing and data management. […]

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., reintroduced legislation on Feb. 3 that would work to improve information sharing between health IT systems to aid in the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines. […]

Digital workflow software provider ServiceNow is working with state and foreign governments to help speed up their coronavirus vaccination efforts, and is targeting Federal government organizations for the same services as they roll out more aggressive steps to boost vaccination rates. […]

While the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact healthcare delivery to veterans well into 2021, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its Veterans Health Administration (VHA) component are already taking into account requirements for telehealth services when the pandemic abates but its mental-health impacts persist.  […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the increased adoption of telehealth services, but that positive development for technology-delivered services comes with both benefits and community equity challenges, Federal leaders said this week. […]

The Federal Communications Commission on Jan. 6 called for comment on how the agency should proceed with deploying $249.9 million of new funding to support its existing COVID-19 Telehealth Program. […]

President-elect Joe Biden said today he will nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The nomination will be subject to Senate confirmation. Becerra is a former member of Congress and would become the first Latino to head HHS. […]

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is leading a bipartisan group of 49 members of Congress urging Senate and House leadership to include in end-of-year legislation language to make permanent Medicare telehealth expansions that were enacted earlier this year. […]

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), working in collaboration with the Defense Innovation Unit, is seeing promising early results for pre-symptomatic detection of COVID-19 among personnel. […]

In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is highlighting policy options to improve artificial intelligence (AI) tools that in turn can improve data access, create best practices, and improve health care delivery. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) is seeking to better inform the direction of efforts to improve access to emerging technologies and healthcare services to improve health outcomes for aging Americans. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it will be using 3-D printing to design, print, and produce its own medical devices. […]

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is delaying the implementation timeline for certain provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act in order to offer more flexibility for healthcare providers dealing with COVID-19, according to a notice set to be published in the Federal Register today. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Oct. 24 officially launched its new electronic health record (EHR) system at VA facilities in the Pacific Northwest and Las Vegas. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it completed transferring patient data for approximately 88,000 veterans to its new electronic health record (EHR) solution as the agency prepares for the system’s launch at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Spokane, Wash. […]

The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program office announced that the Departments of Defense (DoD), Veterans Affairs (VA), and Homeland Security’s U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) component have expanded their joint health information exchange (HIE) network after connecting with CommonWell Health Alliance. […]

The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program office last month released to Congress its interoperability strategy which aims to optimize the interoperability of information systems that the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) use to support health care of active duty military and veterans. […]

Data offers extraordinary power – and no two organizations harness this power better than the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These two groups rallied around a shared goal – to leverage technology to improve the lives of veterans and citizens alike. […]

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimburses states for most Medicaid costs and is supposed to oversee how states use funds, but its IT systems have had problems with ensuring proper oversight, and CMS no longer supports efforts to reduce duplication by state systems, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said. […]

Federal agency and private-sector healthcare officials agreed this week that the sharp increase in delivery of telehealth services during the coronavirus pandemic has advanced state of the art in service delivery, along with the need to ramp up cybersecurity protections. […]

In a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Democrat House Representatives are asking for a review of the Trump administration’s recent order to have hospital data on coronavirus be reported to a private contractor through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rather than through the CDC. […]

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced bipartisan legislation to streamline patient electronic health record (EHR) matching among healthcare providers using the United States Postal Service (USPS) address-formatting tool. […]

New data from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) shows a substantial increase in the use of online VA healthcare tools amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders. […]

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has experienced delays in converting facilities to its new electronic health record (EHR) capabilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now targeting October to implement the changes. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently reviewed usage health information exchanges (HIEs) at 48 VA facilities and community providers for possible barriers to their use. […]

President Donald Trump signed an executive order August 3 to make COVID-19 era changes to telehealth – such as telehealth coverage in Medicare programs and investments in telecommunications infrastructure – permanent after the pandemic ends. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is implementing a national digital divide consult as a part of its efforts to ensure that veterans without broadband connectivity can access necessary telehealth services, an agency official confirmed at a July 29 Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing. […]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a slew of new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) initiatives on July 28 to enable innovative research objectives through technologies such as AI and cloud. […]

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced key IT legislation, as well as a Federal Communications Commission (FCC), out of today’s business meeting. […]