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One of the overarching themes of this year's annual health information data security conference, "Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance through HIPAA Security"--jointly hosted this week by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights--was the issue of patient trust. Patients, however, have good reason to be skeptical about their information remaining secure.

Industry stakeholders continue to weigh in with their opinions about whether the Meaningful Use program should be "rebooted," with the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association in strong disagreement with GOP senators that the program needs to be overhauled.

The adoption of electronic health record systems has increased "dramatically," more than doubling since 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' latest figures, released May 22

Providers opting to use cloud-based electronic health record systems must scrutinize their vendors more now that the HIPAA omnibus rule makes clear that such vendors can be punished as business associates, according to James Koenig, privacy practice co-leader for PwC, who spoke at the sixth annual NIST/OCR HIPAA Security Rule Conference May 21 in Washington, D.C.

The owners of Juneau, Alaska-based Bartlett Regional Hospital voted recently to break their contract with Cerner for a new system, rather than incur the expense of implementation, according to an article from KTOO News. Bartlett is the latest U.S. hospital to run into financial trouble while installing a new EHR system.

Providers need to make more effective use of patient problem lists in their electronic health records, according to speakers participating on a recent webinar sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Health Resources Services Administration.

A coalition of consumer organizations has taken issue with GOP senators call for the Meaningful Use program to be "rebooted," recommending instead that the program be strengthened and perhaps even accelerated.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued new guidance to help eligible professionals participate in both the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program and the Physician Quality Reporting System program. Eligible professionals who successfully participate in both programs can receive incentive payments in 2013 and avoid penalties in 2015.

National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari recently advised providers to take better advantage of their electronic health record systems to improve processes and patient care.

True to its word, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is moving at full steam to provide governance support to health information organizations (HIOs) to spur the industry to widespread electronic data exchange. ONC has formed a governance framework with business, trust and other principles to create a "common foundation" for all types of health information exchange governance models. Still, I wonder if this decision ultimately may come back to haunt the industry.