CMS Unveils Health Pledges at HHS 'RIP CLIPBOARD' Skit
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- CMS announced eight new pledge categories as part of evaluating one year of health tech progress, per the article headline.
- HHS headquarters hosted an Agatha Christie-style whodunit skit Monday with health IT professionals and Medicare staffers wearing black veils and holding white roses, featuring a coffin prop reading "RIP CLIPBOARD."
- Zac Jiwa, a federal Medicare official, led the reveal asking "So who killed the clipboard?" while health IT officials read denial cue cards.
- Health IT officials and experts denied that standards implementation, health information exchange networks, electronic health records, or apps killed the clipboard — all parts of health data initiatives private industry promised Medicare a year ago it would improve.
- The clipboard is described in the skit as a decades-old information-gathering staple of health care provider waiting rooms — the paper form CMS aims to retire through its electronic health data initiatives.
Why it matters: CMS added eight new pledge categories to its health tech initiative, pressuring private firms that promised improvements a year ago. The theatrical HHS staging underscores how the agency is using public industry commitments to force accountability on electronic data exchange that has lagged for decades.
