Tom Sullivan

Mitt Romney won in Iowa Tuesday by a slim margin of eight votes over Rick Santorum and a few percentage points over Ron Paul. Although healthcare was not a major topic of debate for GOP candidates, it's a matter of great importance to Iowans.

After a political impasse, in which Republicans effectively blocked his Senate confirmation, Donald Berwick, MD, will step down next week as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. President Obama has nominated CMS principal deputy Marilynn Tavenner as Berwick's replacement.

Think your challenges are daunting when it comes to implementing ICD-10? Put things in perspective by imagining the Mount Everest the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has to climb.

Even with the major revisions to the final regulations for accountable care organizations (ACOs), uncertainty remains. The risks and technical challenges hospitals will face in transforming to the ACO model are daunting and require consideration.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are giving payers, providers and vendors a bit of a break. It has instituted a 90-day grace period for HIPAA 5010. January 1, 2012 is still the compliance date, but CMS said it will not "initiate enforcement action" on that compliance before March 31, 2012.

The American Medical Association (AMA) on Tuesday said that its delegates are working to stop implementation of ICD-10.

Government Health IT Editor Tom Sullivan spoke recently with Ana Croxton, NextGen Healthcare's vice president of EDI products and services, about its 5010 efforts and what lies ahead on the road to ICD-10 -- including a service that's not yet released but is in the design phase to help users understand ICD-10 codes.

With the new final rules issued Thursday by CMS for accountable care organizations (ACO), the healthcare industry is working to understand the changes, which appear at first glance to make the qualifying parameters more achievable.