One of the ways that HITECH Answers is different from other media sites is the sense of community. The thought leaders in our community are good about sharing their thought on the issues of today. We publish at least seven guest posts a week now, Monday through Thursday. In case you missed some, here are the top ten read and shared guest posts of the month. You can also read previous month’s Top Ten Lists. Thank you for contributing and reading.
Prepare for Post-EHR Era with Actionable Data Delivered in Clinical Context
By Joe Condurso, President and Chief Executive Officer at PatientSafe Solutions, Inc.
The billions of dollars spent over the last four years on electronic health records (EHRs) have helped many healthcare organizations achieve Meaningful Use, but many would argue they have not improved operational efficiency, clinical quality or safety to the levels leaders expected. The reason for this is EHRs are primarily designed for physician order entry to facilitate accurate billing and not necessarily to support clinicians at the point of care, with high frequency, short duration tasks and decision making at the bedside. These clinicians, who are downstream of the physician order, need mobile tools capable of delivering contextual clinical data and communications to more safely and effectively care for patients at the point-of-care. Continue reading on HITECH Answers.net…
The Consumerization of Healthcare: Can Providers Keep Pace?
By Terry Edwards, President and CEO, PerfectServe
Healthcare is undergoing a wave of consumerization. Changing regulations are requiring patients to contribute more financially toward their own care, turning them into true healthcare consumers and motivating them to make more careful and informed decisions. At the same time, the consumerization of healthcare is driving more players into the healthcare space – from tech giants like Google and Apple, to convenience-focused retailers like Walmart and CVS. These new entrants are not only creating savvier, more informed patients, but are opening up more choices for where and how consumers direct their healthcare dollars. Continue reading on HITECH Answers.net…
Medicare Payment Change is A-Comin’
By Matt Fisher, Attorney and chair of the Health Law Group at Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, LLP.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) made a major announcement on Monday, January 26th about payment models under Medicare. For the first time and in a very aggressive manner, CMS set a firm timeframe for implementation of alternative payment methodologies. The new timeframe furthers the goals of the Affordable Care Act in changing the manner in which healthcare is delivered and paid for in the country. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
The Interoperability Roadmap
By John Halamka, MD
On January 29, 2015, CMS announced their intent to update the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs for 2015 and beyond, reducing the reporting burden on providers, while supporting the long term goals of the program. On January 30, 2015, ONC released the Interoperability Roadmap and the Standards Advisory. A busy week. What does it all mean? Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…
CMS Intends to Modify Requirements for Meaningful Use
By Patrick Conway, MD, Deputy Administrator for Innovation & Quality, CMS Chief Medical Officer
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are pleased to announce our intent to engage in rulemaking to update the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs beginning in 2015. These intended changes would help to reduce the reporting burden on providers, while supporting the long term goals of the program. Continue reading on HITECH Answers.net…
5 Significant Health IT Trends for 2015
By Justin Barnes
While I know meaningful use (stages 2 and 3), electronic health record (EHR) interoperability, ICD-10 readiness, patient safety and mobile health will all continue to trend upwards with great importance, the five areas that I strategically see growing rapidly in 2015 are focused on the consumerism of healthcare, personalization of medicine, consumer-facing mobile strategies, advancements in health information interoperability including consumer-directed data exchange and finally, innovation focused on tele-health and virtual care. Continue reading on HITECH Answers.net…
Meaningful Use Audit Outcomes: Data Released by CMS
By Steve Spearman, Founder and Chief Security Consultant, Health Security Solutions
For eligible providers (EP) and hospitals (EH), attesting to Meaningful Use can have a huge financial impact on their organization. When an organization attests, they are required to satisfy a certain number of objectives and associated measures demonstrating the meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology (EHR). If the Meaningful Use (MU) standards are met, organizations receive significant incentive payments that help remediate the cost of implementing use of an EHR. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
Searching for Creative Patient Portal Solutions
By Joy Rios, Health IT Consultant at Ask Joy Health IT Consulting
This year, as you may already know, both hospitals and physician practices participating in Meaningful Use must offer patients a way to access their health records electronically. The patient electronic access objective specifically calls for providing patients the ability to view online, download, and transmit their health information. Those familiar with this objective often call it VDT for short. Continue reading on HITECH Answers.net…
The Value of Healthcare Portals for Patient Engagement
By Jonathan Catley, Online Sales & Marketing Manager, MD Connect
More and more, doctors and patients are relying on the internet to interact with each other. Using healthcare portals accessible on the web has revolutionized communication and substantially reduced the number of phone calls that are needed. The experience of one Montana patient, is typical. He pointed out that, “If I need a prescription renewed or have a question for [the doctor], you hop on the portal, and his nurse usually has an answer back to you within an hour.” Continue reading on HITECH Answers.net…
Universal Health Data and HIEs
By Robert Rowley, MD, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Flow Health
Health information exchange (the verb) has been the goal of health IT, now that we have moved into the “post-EHR adoption” era of healthcare. Published and private surveys have shown that about 80% of physician practices have implemented an Electronic Health Record (EHR), and of those, about 90% have participated in Meaningful Use. The challenge before us now, then, is somehow connecting the fragmented places where health data resides, and bring them together into a unified health data layer that is current, secure, and usable. Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…