The missing ingredient in many PHI privacy and security efforts? The patient. Rick Kam offers suggestions on how to change that.

While HHS has developed tentative or final regulations for most of the ACA, some are still evolving and may end up tweaked to balance market changes, state participation and stakeholder concerns, as the rulemaking process hints so far.

The State Innovation Model Awards are for states working to test multi-payer payment and service delivery models.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and ONC head Farzad Mostashari, MD, urged the industry to ramp up its transformation away from fee-for-service and toward patient-centered and value-based models.

In the wake of the 2012 U.S. presidential and congressional elections, the University of Miami School of Business Administration will bring together some of the nation's top health care policy and industry leaders for The Business of Health Care Post-Election, a conference focused on the future of health care reform and what it means for health care organizations and business in general (www.bus.miami.edu/healthcare2013)

A key part of health reform's administrative simplification goals, rules for claims, eligibility and transaction standards won't be enforced until March 31. Health plans are also preparing for new identification standards.

Minnesota and Rhode Island state-based health insurance exchanges also get the go-ahead, bringing the total to 12.

Mostashari salutes Kentucky, Ohio, Delaware and Massachusetts for meaningful use rates, helped by ONC extension centers, beacon communities and state health information exchanges.

Videos and other tools promote patient-provider communications and patient involvement with their health, leading to better outcomes.