Healthcare information exchange just got a whole lot easier for the people of Pennsylvania as the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority has announced that the Keystone Health Information Exchange (KeyHIE) is now connected to the PA Patient & Provider Network (P3N).

CMS received more than 3,700 comments by the time the June 27 deadline to submit comments on CMS’s Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) new payment model passed. Various groups in the healthcare industry issued statements and suggestions.

Health information exchanges (HIEs) not only need to move data, they need to do so securely, quickly and cost efficiently. The many competing interests inherent in the American healthcare system have meant certain obstacles must be scaled before HIE implementation can become ubiquitous.

While the healthcare industry increasingly adopts EHRs, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) called for a national patient ID system to improve safety and interoperability.

Several data security experts testified before a congressional panel in favor of a House proposal to elevate HHS’s chief information security officer (CISO) to a separate office, while one expressed concerns about making the office a presidential appointment.

The percentage of healthcare data breaches due to criminals has risen from 20 to 50 percent since 2010, according to a study by Ponemon Institute.

The global healthcare IT market is estimated to reach $228.79 billion by 2020, growing at a annual rate of 13.4 percent, according to a report by Research and Markets.

The global health information exchange (HIE) market is expected to reach more than $1.5 billion by 2020, according to a new report published by the India-based firm Markets and Markets.