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.
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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.
CMS is reopening the Preview Period because 17 additional QPP performance measures were recently identified to be included in the CY 2023 QPP public reporting information. CMS also made additional updates and display corrections to the CY 2023 QPP performance data available during the Preview Period that closed in June.
On July 15, 2025, CMS issued a proposed rule that proposes updates to Medicare payment policies and rates for hospital outpatient and Ambulatory Surgical Center services under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and ASC Payment System Proposed Rule for calendar year 2026.
By David Van Houtte – With a recent increase in rules and regulations from CMS, health plans are feeling the pressure of more scrutiny, and the fear of penalties looms. For example, the No Surprises Act, passed in 2022, has already resulted in healthcare facilities, payors, and providers paying more than $11 million in penalties.