Three-quarters of U.S. states have begun developing a health information exchange (HIE) of some kind, according to a new report from the State-Level HIE Consensus Project.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded $50million in IT grants to 20 states to improve access to primary medicalcare for Medicaid beneficiaries.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) reported to the Senate on the progress that has been made to integrate their systems and improve care to wounded veterans.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch has directed the Citizens HealthInitiative to develop a plan for improving the state's healthinformation infrastructure to improve healthcare quality andaffordability for residents.

As the healthcare system in the United States moves toward wider ITadoption, approximately 40,000 additional health IT professionals willbe needed, according to a study presented to the House SteeringCommittee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics.

Purchasing an EHR system can be similar topurchasing a new car; what you get depends a great deal on what you’rewilling to spend. Like automobiles, EHRs can vary widely on the optionsavailable to the consumer at a base level. For institutions seeking toimplement EHR capabilities, lessons learned from PACS adoption can helpguide the vendor selection process, according to Kevin W. McEnery, MD.

Health IT interest is growing steadily within state governments andstate-backed health IT projects are high on the radar for proposedagendas, according to a report from Input, a government businessresearch company.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed a rule that would expand on the number of "never events," or preventable errors, a patient incurs in a hospital, and for which the agency said it will no longer pay the hospitals.