This issue highlights American Heart Association's latest forecasting report that has already received a significant amount of coverage, and our recent policy statements on payment and delivery system reform, the Supplementation Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Active Transportation.   Payment and delivery system reform is a critical part of the ongoing effort to transform our health care system to provide the best prevention, treatment, care, and rehabilitation to our CVD patients. The SNAP policy statement positions the AHA for the first time with Farm Bill reauthorization and state advocacy on the special importance of this program in fighting hunger, while acknowledging that we need to address diet quality and access to healthy foods and beverages for low-income consumers.  Active transportation is an ongoing area of advocacy work at all levels of government where we want to assure people have the opportunity to safely bike, walk, and roll through their communities and to their destinations to be healthy and more physically active. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 3, 2017) — Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced 15 appointments to the new Health Information Technology (HIT) Advisory Committee.

Most agree that HIE’s have the potential to eliminate redundant and often harmful medical procedures. Some suggest that HIE’s are a critical component for any organization offering valued-based care and pop health services.

Many organizations are attempting to show value by measuring the volume of transactions and some are trying to showing how HIE's can create greater efficiencies from a cost savings perspective. These efforts are likely to fall short of what’s truly needed.

Adopting the rigor of a continuous process improvement approach to measure the value of investments is necessary to ensure continued sustainability of HIE's - at the state and community level. This resource can help provide with the basic building blocks to get started and a roadmap to ensure future success

Release from HHS: The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) established the Quality Payment Program for eligible clinicians. Under the Quality Payment Program, eligible clinicians can participate via one of two tracks: Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs); or the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). We began implementing the Quality Payment Program through rulemaking for calendar year (CY) 2017. This rule provides proposed updates for the second and future years of the Quality Payment Program. DATES: To be assured consideration, comments must be received at one of the addresses provided below, no later than 5 p.m. on August 21, 2017. 

The Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) represents the model by which the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will coordinate the identification, assessment, and public awareness of interoperability standards and implementation specifications that can be used by the health care industry to address specific interoperability needs including, but not limited to, interoperability for clinical, public health, and research purposes. ONC encourages all stakeholders to implement and use the standards and implementation specifications identified in the ISA as applicable to the specific interoperability needs they seek to address. Furthermore, ONC encourages further pilot testing and industry experience to be sought with respect to standards and implementation specifications identified as “emerging” in the ISA. Stakeholders are encouraged to review the content online and comment to provide feedback to ensure the ISA is as accurate as possible. Visit https://www.healthit.gov/isa/ to view the latest content. For a static version (for contracts, procurement, etc.), the 2017 Reference Edition is also available as PDF file.