STAT+: CMS evaluates one year of health tech progress, announces eight new pledge categories
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- CMS held an event at HHS headquarters on Monday evaluating one year of health tech progress and announcing eight new pledge categories from private industry partners.
- Health IT professionals and Medicare staffers staged a theatrical skit centered on a coffin labeled "RIP CLIPBOARD," symbolizing the end of paper intake forms in provider waiting rooms.
- Zac Jiwa, a federal Medicare official, led the skit by asking "who killed the clipboard?" while health IT officials and experts denied responsibility from cue cards.
- Denials covered standards implementation, health information exchange networks, electronic health records, and apps — all parts of health data initiatives private industry promised Medicare a year ago would improve care.
Why it matters: CMS is publicly tracking whether private-sector pledges on health data modernization — EHRs, HIEs, apps, and standards — have delivered, and is using theatrical staging to spotlight the transition away from paper clipboards in clinical workflows.
