The fervor and buzz around electronic health records is mounting as federal legislation threatens fines for non-compliance by 2016. Ironically, the EHR adoption rate for medical practices remains relatively low, especially among practices with fewer than 50 physician providers.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is looking for quality measures to use for a "Physician Compare" website it will launch by Jan. 1, 2011, enabling consumers to research and compare physicians, according to a Government Health IT news…

The Department of Health & Human Services will award "Early Innovators" grants to states that demonstrate a rapid movement toward implementing statewide health insurance exchanges for consumers, according to an HHS news release.

The Office of the National Coordinator will begin testing clinical information exchanges between healthcare providers using NHIN Direct by late December or early January, according to a Government Healthcare IT report.

The New York Department of Health and the New York eHealth Collaborative have submitted a plan to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to create the country's largest electronic medical records network, according to a NYeC…

Mergers and acquisitions are being largely driven by clinical integration through healthcare information technology, according to a Healthcare IT News report.

A recent report published by the Healthcare Performance Management Institute analyzed how healthcare organizations are using social media to achieve improved patient outcomes while reducing operational costs of care, according to an HPMI news release.

A survey conducted by SK&A, a healthcare information solutions and research company, showed that hospital- and health system-owned medical practices are leading the industry in adoption of electronic health records, according to a company news release.

A recent report published by MGMA showed that medical practices that use electronic health record systems report better financial performance than practices that do not have such systems, according to an MGMA news release.

Even groups of providers without an electronic health record system could access enough clinical data to function as accountable care organizations, according to a report cowritten by Elliot Fisher, MD, who coined the term ACO, in the Journal of the…