New This Week on HealthIT.gov

In This Issue

Happy week after Health IT Week! Hope you were as energized as we were by the incredible support and enthusiasm for using Health IT to improve health, healthcare and to control costs.

The Online Insurance Marketplace

You may have heard that there is a big milestone coming up next week with the implementation of the health care law. When the online insurance marketplaces go live next Tuesday, approximately 7 million uninsured Americans are expected to be able to get affordable health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Like any “go-live” there may be some glitches and problems at first, but those will be addressed and adjusted along the way, and the Health Insurance Marketplace will be ready and open for business on October 1^st.

The way it works is, depending on a person’s income, he or she may be eligible for subsidies to purchase health insurance. When all is said and done: “Nearly all eligible uninsured Americans (about 95%) live in states with average premiums below earlier projections. And nearly all consumers (about 95%) will have a choice of health insurance companies, each of which offers a number of different plans,” writes Jeanne Lambrew, Deputy Assistant for the White House Office of Health Reform. If you are interested in more details, read more of Lambrew’s blog post.

Breaking News: New ONC eRX Study

The American Journal of Managed Care published earlier today new ONC research showing the percentage of providers who e-prescribed through one popular EHR vendor vaulted from 7% to 54%. We think it’s pretty good news!

Million Hearts®

Many of you should know that Million Hearts® is a national initiative to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017 and is supported by an ONC Call-to-Action. Million Hearts® brings together communities, health systems, nonprofit organizations, federal agencies, and private-sector partners from across the country to fight heart disease and stroke. It is a critical element of the National Quality Strategy and has the potential to help improve the health of millions of Americans by improving the ABCs:

Aspirin when appropriate
Blood pressure control
Cholesterol management and smoking cessation.

ONC’s goal is to help 1,000 health care providers leverage Health IT to track and measure success on two Million Hearts® measures: Blood Pressure Control and Smoking Cessation. Learn how you can get started in the Million Hearts® Call-to-Action on ONC’s Health IT.gov Million Hearts page.

Behavioral Health & HIT

ONC’s Office of Policy and Planning just released an issue brief that discusses adoption of health IT among behavioral health providers and highlights all the behavioral health activities we support along with our federal partners.

Workforce resource

Find our newest HealthIT.gov workforce content, including links to educational opportunities and competency programs for patient-centered medical homes, health information exchange, population management and much, much more.