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 thoughts on the issues of today. We publish at least eleven guest posts a week now, on our three sites. In case you missed some, here are the top ten read and shared guest posts in the month of February. You can also read previous month’s Top Ten Lists. Thank you for contributing and reading.
Most Played Radio Episode in February
From Voices in Value-Based Care, host Beth Houck talks to Dr. Michael Sanders, CMIO at Flagler Hospital in Saint Augustine, Florida. Hear about how the hospital implemented AI and are seeing reduction in costs, length of stays, and readmissions. The successful program has brought clinician buy in and participation beyond expectation. Now even the community has started to buy in. Learn why Dr. Sanders thinks the Community Hospital of today is creating the next generation of health care.
Most Read Thought Leader Posts in February
Ransomware Attack on CT Optometry Office Raises Tax Fraud Concerns
By Art Gross, President and CEO, HIPAA Secure Now!
Twitter: @HIPAASecureNow
Cybercriminals target businesses of all industries and sizes, however, it seems as though their sights are set more on small and medium-sized businesses than large corporations. While there are many factors that may influence the shift of attention to small businesses, one explanation stands out, and really is quite simple. Cybercriminals target small businesses, in large part, because they don’t expect to be targeted. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Summary of New ONC and CMS Notices of Proposed Rulemaking for Health IT
By William Hersh, MD, Professor and Chair, OHSU
Blog: Informatics Professor
Twitter: @williamhersh
During the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) each dropped a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) concerning functionality, interoperability, certification, and others aspects of electronic health record (EHR) use. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
IoT: A Better Healthcare Identification Strategy
By Robert Kowalik, Practice Director Healthcare at Bluvision, part of HID Global
Twitter: @HIDGlobal
Hospitals face countless logistics, compliance, and safety hurdles every day. Expensive equipment goes missing or maintenance schedules delayed in searching for assets. Patients and visitors get lost trying to navigate a hospital’s corridors. Security personnel scramble to locate a clinical staff member who triggered a duress alert. Small instances that slip through the cracks, like a nurse not washing his or her hands before administering treatment, can have lasting consequences for patient safety and hospital management. Continue reading on HealthDataAnswers.net…
Fundamental Guide to HIPAA Security Risk Assessments
By Ken Reiher, VP Operations, ComplyAssistant
Twitter: @ComplyAssistant
Conducting regular HIPAA security risk assessments helps covered entities ensure compliance with HIPAA’s administrative, physical and technical safeguards, and helps expose areas where an organization’s protected health information (PHI) could be at risk. In today’s digitized healthcare environment, there is no limit to the places where protected health information (PHI) resides, and the associated risk that comes with it. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
The Four Cs: A Call to Action for Digital Health Tools
By Nirmal Patel, MD, MPH, Chief Clinical Transformation Officer, Babyscripts
Twitter: @Babyscripts
The United States spends more of their GDP on healthcare than any other developed nation, and yet it produces some of the poorest outcomes — notably in the field of maternal and infant health. The advent of digital health has presented the opportunity for a paradigm shift in the delivery of care, and support from investors and policy-makers shows that as far as they’re concerned, digital health is not a new frontier for healthcare, but the current playing field. Continue reading on HealthDataAnswers.net…
What’s the Goal: HIPAA Enforcement
By Matt Fisher, Attorney and chair of the Health Law Group at Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, LLP.
Twitter: @matt_r_fisher
Compliance with HIPAA and the attendant privacy and security requirements is a frequent topic of discussion. Discussions around compliance are driven by the daily reporting of breaches and the probably more than daily issues faced by patients, clinicians and others when HIPAA is misinterpreted. In that face of all of these issues, there are not many options to turn to in order to obtain redress. Unless state law offers some alternative, HIPAA permits filing a complaint with an organization’s privacy officer, the Office for Civil Rights, or the applicable attorney general. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Another 734 Pages from ONC
By William A. Hyman
Professor Emeritus, Biomedical Engineering
Texas A&M University, w-hyman@tamu.edu
ONC has released another Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, this time entitled 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program. It comes in at 734 pages. In brief, the 2016 21st Century Act mandated certain actions by ONC (among others) aimed at advancing interoperability; supporting the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information; and addressing occurrences of information blocking. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
What’s Needed for the Private Market to Take Data Security Seriously?
By Grant Elliott, President and CEO, Ostendio
Twitter: @ostendio
After the Marriott data breach, the Quora breach, the Anthem breach, and the Uber breach… well, you get the picture. After all of these data breaches, from the commercial perspective, it’s clear that the free market is failing to drive companies to implement adequate data security. Financially, the cost of the breaches, and any subsequent fine, is likely to be far less punitive than it appears on the surface. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Changes Could Be Coming to HIPAA — and Providers Are Worried
By Kayla Matthews, HealthIT writer and technology enthusiast, Tech Blog
Twitter: @ProductiBytes
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) went into effect in 1996, and it has changed dramatically in the intervening decades. Initially created to make health insurance coverage easier to maintain for employees as they moved between jobs, the Act has expanded to include patient privacy and security. The Act has received updates over the years — the government added the Enforcement Rule in 2006, the Breach Notification Rule in 2009 and the Omnibus Final Rule in 2013. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
How to Guarantee Patient Payments When Deductibles Reset
By Deirdre Ruttle, Vice President of Strategy, InstaMed
Twitter: @InstaMed
Let’s face it: patients are frustrated with confusing and inconvenient healthcare payments experiences. They can become even more frustrated at the start of a new year when deductibles reset. Patients may not fully understand deductible resets, their healthcare plan’s policies or healthcare vernacular in general. When patients are confused, they are less likely to pay, which can lead to bad debt and uncollected balances. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
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