By Mordy Pelleg – For clinicians working in the complex American healthcare system, getting paid for every single procedure, service and visit has always been something of a challenge. Yes, fee-for-service medicine created a fairly linear relationship between effort and remuneration, but even in that scenario many hospitals and practices have teetered on the edge of solvency, in part for lack of efficient billing practices.
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By John Halamka MD – Would you buy an iPhone if the only apps that ran on it were written by Apple? Maybe, but the functionality would not be very diverse. The same can be said of EHRs. Athena, Cerner, Epic, Meditech, and self developed EHRs such as BIDMC’s webOMR are purpose-built transaction engines for capturing data.
By Susannah Fox – On his first day in office, President Obama announced administration policies to make government serve the American people better through greater transparency, collaboration, and participation. Known as the federal government’s Open Government Initiative, each agency has developed a plan every other year outlining steps.
By Glenn Krauss – Clinical documentation improvement specialists play a vital role in the hospital revenue cycle world. When one refers to “CDI,” what in-arguably comes to mind is clarification of diagnosis, whether it be primary or secondary diagnosis, HACs or present on admission indicators.
By William Hersh MD – Earlier this month was graduation at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and I was proud to see 41 individuals listed in the program receiving Graduate Certificates as well as master’s and PhD degrees in biomedical informatics.
By William A. Hyman – Discussions of HIPAA and HIPAA violations are common in these pages, and are of course important for those subject to the requirements and wrath of HIPAA. I have also heard that “What about HIPAA?” is a question that can kill an app developer’s bid for funding.
By Rod Baird – By now most of the healthcare community is familiar with the term Hospitalist. It was first coined in 1996. The earliest use of the term SNFist seems to be in a 1999 NEJM article. The name refers to a Physician or other Medical Professional who specializes in treating the residents of LTPAC institutions.
Since January 2016, hospitals in three states and the District of Columbia have been maliciously attacked and patient health data has been put at risk. These cyberattacks are a result of “Ransomware”, a malware system designed to “kidnap” data, prevent victims from accessing their information, and extort them for the decryption key.
By Matt Fisher – It seems as though multiple times per year the Department of Justice, HHS, or some other enforcement agency announces the largest sweep or takedown of health care related fraud. A joint Department of Justice and HHS announcement on June 22, 2016 is the latest example.