The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the Health IT Dashboard today. The Health IT Dashboard has been established to present key information about the strategy of ONC, its health care innovation grants programs, and available research data tracking the nationwide adoption of health care IT.  The Health IT Dashboard has summary of information about all ONC grant programs, and detailed presentations of performance data for the Health IT Regional Extension Centers and Community College Consortia to Educate Health IT Professionals programs. It also includes over 150 maps presenting ONC data at State, County, and Grantee geographic boundaries.

In June, ONC researchers and the ONC State Health Information Exchange Program will publish an electronic health record (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE) dashboard including more state-level maps, charts, and data sets that describe trends in physician and hospital utilization of health IT.

To view the Health IT Dashboard, click here.

The National eHealth Collaborative will host a 1 hour discussion with Claudia Williams, Director of the State HIE Program at ONC to discuss the recently released national HIE strategy.  The discussion will take place tomorrow (May 2) at 3:30 PM EDT.  The national HIE strategy can be viewed here.  To register for the program click here.

Comments to the Medicare and Medicaid Program; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program-Stage 2 Proposed Regulations are due in two weeks.  If you wish to make comments to these proposed regulations, they must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 7.  Comments can be submitted electronically at www.regulations.gov.  You can also submit written comment by mail, overnight mail, or hand deliver at the addresses set forth in the first page of the proposed regulations.  The proposed regulations can be downloaded here.

Comments to the Health Information Technology: Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology, 2014 Edition; Revisions to the Permanent Certification Program for Health Information Technology  Proposed Regulations are due in two weeks.  If you wish to make comments to these proposed regulations, they must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 7.  Comments can be submitted electronically at www.regulations.gov.  You can also submit written comment by mail, overnight mail, or hand deliver at the addresses set forth in the first page of the proposed regulations.  The proposed regulations can be downloaded here.

CMS has released its statistics for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Program for activity from January 2011 through February 2012.  Highlights of the report are:

• Over 211,500 eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) have registered for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs since January 2011;
• Over 20,000 registered for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs in the month of February;
• Over 62,000 EPs, eligible hospitals, and CAHs have been paid for successfully participating in the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs;
• Over $3.8 billion has been paid in Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program payments to EPs, eligible hospitals, and CAHs across the country; and
• Over $738 million was paid in the month of February.

The complete report is available online by clicking here.

On Monday, April 2, at 1:00 pm EDT, the National eHealth Collaborative will release the “Health Information Exchange Roadmap” with a webinar introducing the report.  You can register here.