Sen. Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa) has sent letters to 31 hospitals nationwide asking for their experiences with health IT systems, according to a release from Sen. Grassley.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal brought the first HIPAA action under the HITECH provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in a suit against Health Net of Connecticut, according to report by AHA News Now.

1. Loosened cost controls. HMOs in the late 1990s had successfully slowed growth in healthcare spending, but by the end of that decade they had come to be regarded as heartless conservators of the bottom line. Managed care's tight controls…

The Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Md., will collaborate in research, education and patient care with the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to a Johns Hopkins news release.

Almost 44 percent of office-based physicians used electronic health records in 2009, up from 41.5 percent in 2008 and 35 percent in 2007, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under CMS' newly proposed "meaningful use" regulations, many hospitals would not be able to qualify as meaningful users and thus would not be eligible for healthcare IT incentive funding, according to a release by the Hospital Association of New York…

HHS has issued two sets of proposed regulations that clarify standards hospitals, physicians and other providers must meet to be eligible for $14.1 billion and $27.3 billion in funding under the HITECH Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment…

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued Transmittal 1867 (pdf), which is designed to help physicians, non-physician practitioners and hospitals, as well as Medicare Administrative Contractors, to help prevent misuse of modifiers used to identify adverse events and…

The upcoming implementation of ICD-10 has been seen by many as a necessary update of a rapidly outdated system, whereas others feel that the changes are too sweeping to be enacted in only three years, according to a report in…

The Philadelphia Secret Service has entered into an investigation into the alleged theft of patient records from the University of Pennsylvania Health System, according to a report in the Philadelphia Daily News.