ICD-10 deadline will stand pat; Incoherent text messages could help with stroke diagnosis;

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> Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's annual meeting in New Orleans last week that the ICD-10 implementation deadline of Oct. 1, 2014 won't be changed. Her announcement confirmed messages sent last month to the American Health Information Management Association and the American Medical Association.

> Jumbled text messages could soon become an indispensable tool for diagnosing stroke symptoms, according to research that will be presented at the scientific meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in San Diego next week. In a case study, researchers focused on a 40-year-old man who showed signs of "dystextia," a new term for incoherent text messaging that can sometimes be confused with autocorrect garble. Announcement

EMR News

> The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT last week released a pair of data briefs on electronic health record adoption and Meaningful Use attestation for acute care hospitals in the U.S., based on data from the American Hospital Association. According to the EHR adoption brief, 44.4 percent of acute care hospitals had implemented a "basic" system, more than tripling adoption rates from 2009 (12.2 percent). According to the Meaningful Use attestation brief, which examined hospital progress in meeting 24 objectives, 16 objectives boasted adoption rates of at least 80 percent in 2012.

Health Insurance News

> The health reform law's Medicaid expansion may be an even bigger boom to insurers as some states, led by Arkansas, are considering expanding the program by using the private insurance market. The plan is to use federal dollars provided under the reform law to pay private insurance companies to insure the expanded Medicaid population. But the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services must first approve this unique approach to Medicaid expansion. Article

> Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas is taking matters into its own hands to help spread the word and enroll more people into the state's health insurance exchange. Through its statewide "Be Covered Texas" campaign, which Blue Cross launched Tuesday, the largest insurer in Texas hopes to reach almost six million uninsured residents. Article

And Finally... Much ado about almost nothing. Article