By Trish Rivard – On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the ‘Big Beautiful Bill Act’ into law. Under the law’s new Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace policies, federal funding will decrease by $1 trillion while the uninsured population will increase by 11.8 million over the next decade.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the publication of its Living HHS Open Data Plan and the rollout of a refreshed HealthData.gov website marking a transformative milestone in the Department’s commitment to transparency, innovation, and data-driven decision-making.
By Tom Keane & Steven Posnack – ASTP/ONC released a final rule enabling the use of certified EHRs to submit prior authorizations, select drugs consistent with a patient’s insurance coverage, and exchange electronic prescription information with pharmacies and insurance plans.
By Renee Freyer – Like any large program, MIPS evokes a range of opinions and perceptions, even misconceptions. MIPS was designed to use both a carrot and stick approach to encourage medical practices to provide higher quality care at a lower price.
The CMS Making Health Tech Great Again initiative is announced. “Let’s stop waiting and let’s definitely stop faxing. Let’s start building. The right data at the right time can mean the difference between loss and hope. The time is now. Are you in?”
At the White House, tech leaders commit to create a Patient-Centric Healthcare Ecosystem. Administrator Oz secured commitments from major healthcare and IT firms, including Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Google, and OpenAI. to begin laying the foundation for a next-generation digital health ecosystem that will improve patient outcomes, reduce provider burden, and drive value.
The following is communication from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on QPP and MIPS updates.
By Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser – As the ASTP blog indicates, the interoperability landscape has certainly shifted from when the Direct Project was introduced back in 2009/2010. At the time, there were significant government efforts for two interoperable exchange modalities, one for “push,” and one for “query.” Today, both of these modalities continue to grow.
By Jordan Everson & Brett Andriesen – The Direct Project created Direct Secure Messaging, a simple, secure, scalable, and standards-based method to send health information between partners and to provide a straightforward pathway to acquire unique provider and organizational addresses to engage in exchange that resembles secure email.