Four of the top vendors hospitals use to participate in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program are Allscripts, Cerner, Epic and Meditech, according to 2018 ONC data.

Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield awarded $817,000 to the Arkansas Rural Health Partnership to help rural hospitals and clinics in the state participate in its patient data sharing network, according to a Jan. 28 news release.

Epic, Cerner, Microsoft and other prominent health IT companies and executives are speaking up about HHS' proposed interoperability rule ahead of its anticipated finalization next month.

The Vermont Health Information Exchange is giving state residents the chance to opt out of its HIE until March 1, according to a Jan. 29 Burlington Free Press report. 

Van Nuys, Calif.-based Valley Presbyterian Hospital implemented CommonWell Health Alliance and Carequality's EHR data sharing program, according to a Jan. 28 news release.

Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital deployed a new Cerner EHR across its Manistique, Mich.-based network on Jan. 27.

Alton (Ill.) Memorial Hospital launched new dining software within its Epic EHR system this month to help monitor and manage patients' nutritional health, according to a Jan. 24 Telegraph report.

Epic published a statement to its website on Jan. 27 to clarify the company's stance on HHS' proposed interoperability rule.

Epic's recent stance against HHS' proposed data sharing rule threatens "the fundamental need for interoperability" in healthcare, according to Kenneth Mandl, MD, and Isaac Kohane, MD.

Microsoft Healthcare Corporate Vice President Peter Lee expressed his support for the proposed interoperability rule, according to CNBC.

Among patients offered online access to their health records, about 70 percent who have recently been diagnosed with cancer viewed their record at least once in the past year, according to ONC data.

Epic may hit HHS with a lawsuit depending on the data sharing stipulations the agency includes in its final version of proposed interoperability rules, according to Politico's Morning eHealth Jan. 23 newsletter.

Amanda Adkins, vice president of strategic growth at Cerner, is taking a leave of absence from the Kansas City, Mo.-based EHR company as she campaigns for a seat in Congress, according to a Jan. 23 McClatchy report.

Epic on Jan. 22 released an automatic software update to its standard travel screening questionnaire to help hospital clients spot new cases of coronavirus by asking patients about their recent international travel.

Four former Cerner employees filed a class-action complaint this week against the EHR vendor for allegedly mismanaging its retirement plan by maintaining expensive investment options that cost participants millions of dollars, according to court documents obtained by Bloomberg Law.

Epic CEO Judy Faulkner on Jan. 22 emailed some of the EHR giant's largest U.S. hospital clients, asking them to voice disapproval of HHS' proposed interoperability rule, CNBC reports.

ONC's proposed interoperability rules will require the healthcare industry to adopt standardized application programming interfaces to allow patients to access their medical records via smartphone apps, according to a Jan. 19 The Cap Times report.

While the widespread adoption of EHRs has helped hospitals transition from paper to electronic-based medical records, the technology has also contributed to clinician burnout and limited physician's face time with patients.

Fulton County Medical Center in McConnellsburg, Pa., on Feb. 3 will combine its primary care and specialty care EHR systems under a single Meditech platform.

Technology giants including Apple, Amazon and Google are just a few of many companies looking to capitalize on consumers' increasing demand for easier health records access, according to a Jan. 21 Business Insider and Kaiser Health News report.