The Office of the Inspector General lays out HHS challenges.

The HHS Office of Inspector General released a report this week that details the challenges faced by the Department of Health and Human Services over the past year. Meaningful Use / MIPS, interoperability, and electronic health records were all included in the list.

The report calls attention to the lacking oversight and control of the EHR incentive program and raises concerns about the continued challenges in interoperability. “The department must do more to ensure that systems are interoperable in order to realize these goals,” wrote OIG officials in the report.

Health IT organizations come together to prevent another ICD-10 delay.

15 organizations came together to urge Congress to guarantee no future delays to the ICD-10 deadline. The group of organizations call themselves the Coalition for ICD-10, and include the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, the American Health Information Management Association, and the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

This group composed a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senate leaders, expressing concerns that past delays have been “disruptive and costly.” They also claimed that the delays are an impediment to innovation in healthcare.

CMS has created a Chief Data Officer role.

This week, CMS announced a new office to be formed — the Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA) will oversee data collection and dissemination activities. Neil Brennan will lead the new office in his position as the first Chief Data Officer. OEDA will help the agency organize and leverage its endless data resources. The group is charged with helping the CMS use data to guide decisions and develop frameworks for the use of data to drive higher quality, patient-focused care.