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Hello, {{lead.First Name:default=Subscriber}}, welcome to HIMSS' Health IT Policy Update, bringing you the latest news on Congressional, federal, and state health IT legislative and regulatory activities from HIMSS' Government Relations office. We welcome your feedback. If you're reading this complimentary newsletter online or receiving it as a forward, please subscribe.

Post-Election Analysis: What to Expect During the Lame Duck Session
Here’s what the industry can expect to see, or not see, on the legislative agenda between now and the end of the year.

Post Election Results Webinar
On Tuesday, Nov 15, HIMSS held a webinar on the election outcomes. If you missed it, you can still access.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Holds Hearing on Cybersecurity of Connected Devices
The hearing focused on the security of the “Internet of Things,” and efforts to combat malicious actors that target vulnerabilities in an increasingly connected world, which is a significant issue for medical devices, hospitals, and other care settings.

Several Online Resources Available to Learn about the Quality Payment Program
The CMS site includes information about the two tracks for the program—Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs) or the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)—as well as education and tools that provide links to past webinars and other information sources.

OCR Highlights Best Practices for Strengthening Authentication Process
The best practices are designed to help healthcare entities safeguard and strengthen their authentication methods to decrease risk of cybercrime resulting in breaches due to weak authentication.

NH-ISAC Hosts its Bi-Annual Cyber Summit Nov 14-16th
Over 40 sessions of numerous cybersecurity topics were addressed during breakout sessions, sponsored by various healthcare cybersecurity professionals.

VA Releases RFI on VistA Modernization
The RFI seeks to identify solutions and services to standardize the disparate VistA application instances, to update its FileMan API, to segment and isolate its business logic layer, to consolidate its six regional data centers into a cloud environment, and to close gaps in VistA security.

2016 State Election Results
Republicans will control majority of the state houses.

Clinical Analytics & The Power of Perspective
This episode explores the current & future state of clinical analytics with HIMSS North America Board member Ruben Amarasingham, President & CEO of PCCI.  Ruben also discusses how PCCI’s mission-driven approach to pay equity has been a market differentiator for recruiting top talent.  James Deren, Director of IT Planning for CareTech Solutions, will also share insights on health IT trends as part of HIMSS Innovation Community.

Listen to Clinical Analytics & The Power of Perspective
Post-Election Analysis: What to Expect During the Lame Duck Session
Over the next few weeks and months, as we learn more about the new Congress and President-elect Trump’s policy agenda in the early days of his administration, HIMSS will continue to provide analysis and projections around what to expect in both the short and long term.

HIMSS Innovation Center provides the perfect location for a "perfect storm" of activity
Anyone questioning the state of innovation in healthcare need look no further than the HIMSS Innovation Center in Cleveland, OH, which served as the back-drop for four key healthcare innovation events in a one-week period.

MACRA hidden impacts – removal of SSN from Medicare cards
A little publicized change to Medicare beneficiary cards could mean big headaches for providers who aren’t prepared.

Episodes of care: A new direction for payment models?
In a value-driven payment environment, the nature of the patient’s health condition is becoming as important as the services delivered. 

Healthcare and Agriculture: United in Using Data to Improve the Quality of Life
Healthcare and agriculture are "two of the most essential industries in the world"—and together accountable for most of the increases in life expectancies around the world.  At the same, each industry has distinct margins of error that can have widespread implications. Medical error now is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. behind only heart disease and cancer. Similarly, miscalculations in farming can lead to food shortages or, conversely, to misapplications of potentially hazardous materials, or to E. coli in the food chain.#PutData2work

HIMSS ICD-10 Task Force sunsets in December
It’s been just over one year since the implementation of ICD-10 and it appears to be a smooth transition. Given there were no major issues observed over the last year, the HIMSS ICD-10 Task Force plans to sunset on December 1, 2016. 

Potential Impact on Health IT as US Adjusts to Republican Sweep in Election 2016
On the morning after the most disruptive election in American history, what can we surmise about areas of IT that offer the greatest upside for growth during the coming months and years?

What are the key population health management capabilities?
Like a Rubik’s Cube, the functionality and performance metrics for population health management can be difficult to define, align, and deploy.  Fortunately, the HIMSS Clinical & Business Intelligence Committee is here to create healthcare industry tools and resources that employ practical guidance.

Health IT Policy Update is a weekly online newsletter published by HIMSS.

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For information on Health IT Policy Update:
Samatha Burch
Senior Director, Congressional Affairs
HIMSS North America
sbburch@himss.org, 703-562-8847

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The inclusion of an organization name, product or service in this publication should not be construed as a HIMSS endorsement of such organization, product or service, nor is the failure to include an organization name, product or service to be construed as disapproval.