Citing the human and economic toll of central line-associated bloodstream infections$1 billion a year, with a mortality rate as high as 25 percent in the U.S. alonethe Joint Commission has organized a two-phase project to help healthcare providers globally live out the truism that the safest care is often the most cost-effective care.

The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have agreed on the platform for a joint project to create an integrated EHR product both departments are calling iEHR.

In an attempt to keep government accountable for its actions, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made available a web-based tool for the public to monitor and measure how the healthcare system performs.

The second-largest group purchasing organization (GPO) in U.S. healthcare is urging the IRS to formally block medical device manufacturers from tucking the cost of the impending 2.3 percent excise tax into the prices they charge hospitals for their products.

Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) EHR Association (EHRA) has requested federal officials to allow Stage 1 meaningful use providers to continue using sanctioned Stage 1 certified technology in 2014 in lieu of switching to an updated 2014 edition of certified technology.

The House Energy & Commerce Committee has unanimously approved the FDA user-fee bill that would reauthorize the Medical Device User Fee & Modernization Act (MDUFMA) with its FDA-industry agreement intact.

On the heels of comment submission regarding meaningful use Stage 2, healthcare associations are now submitting their conflicting comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking to postpone the compliance date for ICD-10 by one year to Oct. 1, 2014.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's (ONC) Office of the Chief Privacy Officer has published a 47-page "Guide to Privacy and Security of Health Information," offering detailed guidance for security risk analyses and management. The guide was developed in partnership with the American Health Information Management Association Foundation.