Whether the information is stored in an EMR, passed through an HIE, coded in ICD-10 or otherwise used, these tactics will help when "selling the value of information governance" within healthcare entities.

The Department of Health and Human Services, in proposing the delay, cites two surveys demonstrating just how far behind health care entities are in the ICD-10 conversion.

The administrative simplification could save providers, insurers billions of dollars by enabling them to automate these processes.

Between the lines of the proposed rules is CMS' recognition that meaningful use will take 4 years, right alongside mention that much of the existing EHR technology does not support certain MU2 core and menu objectives, while goals in patient engagement, care coordination, public health reporting, and medication reconciliation through HIE remains -- and then there's the foreshadowing of stage 4.

CMS and ONC both establish websites to track and analyze EHR incentive program data.

Health IT Policy Committee considers delaying by one year new EHR functions to deal with time constraints in meaningful use stage 2.

If the ACA is ruled unconstitutional, a number of HIT projects would feel the impact, including ACOs, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and others.

CMS will offer hospitals the option for electronic reporting of clinical quality measures for meaningful use in 2012 as part of proposed payment update rule.

In the latest incarnation of its hospital IT report, HIMSS Analytics outlines the issues destined to make their mark on health IT in 2011.