Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Summary of Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) Request for Information (RFI) Responses HHS report in PDF format - "Five hundred and twelve organizations and individuals provided nearly 5,000 pages of information. The responses have yielded a rich and descriptive collection of thoughts on interoperability and health information exchange. ONC created a Federal government Review Task Force (RTF) to review the RFI responses. For the purpose of the RTF process and to aid in producing this summary document, the RFI responses were categorized into two types: (1) individual responses, which were mostly concerned with a narrow set of issues and (2) organization responses, which included all other responses, most of which were comprehensive and detailed submissions. While this document includes both individual and organization responses, except as noted below, it primarily reflects the responses of the organizational respondents, and numerical references (e.g., most, many, few, etc) used to describe responses throughout the report are based on the responses submitted from organizations only. Drawn from the respondents’ unique perspectives, the comments offered a wide range of thoughtful suggestions."  
  

Grassley boycott possible for Medicaid commission  Stpry at The Hill - "With the nation’s governors and congressional Democrats already saying they will not participate in an ostensibly bipartisan commission considering Medicaid reforms, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) also may decide to steer clear, according to an aide. Under the fiscal year 2006 budget resolution provisions that created the commission, Grassley and other congressional leaders are entitled to appoint members of Congress to act as nonvoting advisers to the commission being assembled to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt."