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Biden appoints permanent ONC head, acting CMS, HHS leaders
Dr. Micky Tripathi will lead the ONC as the new national coordinator for health information technology, while agency veterans Liz Richter and Norris Cochranwill serve as interim leaders for CMS and HHS, respectively.
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A slew of leadership appointments at federal agencies marked Joe Biden’s first official day as president.
The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology all gained new leadership though the only permanent appointment is the new head of the ONC.
This story was originally published on March 9, 2020. As part of MedPage Today s review of the past year s top stories, we are republishing it, along with an update examining subsequent developments related to policies on electronic health records in 2020.
WASHINGTON The Trump administration today issued two final rules related to interoperability of healthcare records, with administration officials noting that making patient health records portable and accessible is especially critical during incidents such as the COVID-19 outbreak. At a time when the healthcare system could be under stress with the handling of the COVID virus, the urgent need for coordinated, integrated care could not be clearer, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said on a phone call with reporters. In a healthcare system characterized by the easy and seamless flow of information, one in which a patient s own data follows them to the provider they choose, ca
In March, MedPage Today
published a story outlining two new interoperability rules issued by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Below we report on what has happened since.
In March, the Trump administration issued two final rules related to interoperability of healthcare records, with administration officials noting that making patient health records portable and accessible is especially critical during incidents such as the COVID-19 outbreak. And yet, the outbreak itself has delayed implementation of some of those same rules.
ONC issued a rule implementing the clinical interoperability provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act dealing with electronic health records (EHR), ONC head Don Rucker explained on a March 9 phone call with reporters. Our rule requires hospitals and doctors to provide software access points endpoints, if you will to their [EHR] databases so that patients ca