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 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 of the month. You can also read previous month’s Top Ten Lists. Thank you for contributing and reading.
Random HIPAA Audits are Coming
By Steve Spearman, Founder and Chief Security Consultant for Health Security Solutions
Twitter: @HIPAASolutions
Last week, in Washington, D.C., NIST and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) held their 8th annual Safeguarding Health Information: Building Assurance through HIPAA Security seminar. Here are some of the major takeaways and big announcements that came out of that conference. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Compliance With HIPAA Privacy Rule Spotty
By Matt Fisher, Attorney and chair of the Health Law Group at Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, LLP.
Twitter: @matt_r_fisher
The Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) of the Department of Health and Human Services recently released the review results from its assessment of the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) oversight of the HIPAA Compliance Rule. Not too surprisingly, the OIG found weaknesses in the way in which OCR oversees compliance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Health Care Is Increasingly Moving to the Cloud
By Nicole Lewis, iHealthBeat
Like many hospital CIOs, John Halamka is obsessed with patient data security. For the last seven years, Halamka, who is CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has shied away from embracing cloud service providers offering to host the hospital’s mission-critical applications on their cloud computing platforms. To ensure security, Halamka built a private cloud that stores and distributes critical information across multiple data centers — but that model is about to change. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBM) and the impacts of PQRS
By Tom S. Lee, Ph.D., Founder & CEO SA Ignite
Twitter: @saignite
Did you know the VBM applies to MSSP ACOs this year? Or that as few as 3% of your providers can affect your total score by as much as 50%? Or more importantly that VBM quality and cost performance will constitute up to 60% of a provider’s future MIPS score? SA Ignite brings clarity to these questions and more in the following FAQ. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Maximizing the Value of ICD-10
By Ken Edwards, VP of Operations at ZirMed
Twitter: @zirmed
This is a moment in healthcare when we are laying the foundation for new capabilities, new precision, and new operational enhancements for healthcare organizations. If you embrace it–and if you lead your team to focus on maximizing the benefits of it–you will also be keeping your organization on the crest of the key major changes taking place in healthcare today. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
The Apervita Approach to Health Analytics
By Sarianne Gruber
Twitter: @subtleimpact
“Tossed away is the idea of a data model and relational databases” avowed Dr. Brad Ryan, as he began comparing Apervita’s new technology platform to the traditional health data solutions. Dr. Brad Ryan, Chief Commerce Officer of Apervita, describes its core functionality as an “enabler”, but to the user, it is market place exchange on a cloud-based platform. Apervita has conceived a common way for sharing information, and coined it “a democratization of health knowledge”. Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…
The Exponential Future of Patient Engagement
By Frank Fortner, President of Iatric Systems
Twitter: @iatricFJF
In October of 2014, I attended the CHIME fall conference and had the privilege of listening to Dr. Peter Diamandis, CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, and author of books such as “Abundance” and “Bold.” He brings an optimistic message about the value created through the exponential growth of certain technologies — that starts after they become “digitized,” yielding exponential leaps forward rather than small, linear steps. Examples include artificial intelligence, 3D printing, digital photography, and more. In short, once digitized, and after moving through the subsequent phases of: deception, disruption, demonetization, and dematerialization, a technology reaches the final stage of democratization — essentially it’s small, it’s cheap, and it’s everywhere! Just think about the computing power of your smartphone, its digital camera, and its instant access to more data than U.S. presidents had just 20 years ago! Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
ICD-10 in these First Few Weeks
By Crystal Ewing, Product Manager at ZirMed
Twitter: @ZirMed
Now that ICD-10 is here, we can finally set aside the lingering debate about whether the change would occur in our lifetimes—or ever. We can begin to see the pay-off of months and years of training and preparation—and we can look forward to fewer articles about “truly bizarre” ICD-10 codes. That’s got to be a relief for everyone, especially those who have walked into a lamppost at some point. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
A Brief Summary of the CMS Meaningful Use Final Rule
By John Halamka, MD
Twitter: @jhalamka
I’ve been asked to summarize the 752 page CMS Meaningful Use Final Rule. Although it is a final rule, it has a 60 day comment period, so there is still is an opportunity to modify some of the criteria. Between the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the publication of the CMS Final Rule, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) passed to include sunsetting the Meaningful Use payment adjustment for professionals at the end of 2018. Also, MACRA requires the establishment of a Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) which would incorporate Meaningful Use. The comment period will be used in an attempt to align the Meaningful Use program and the MIPS program. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
A Theory of Interoperability
By Keith Boone, Healthcare Standards
Twitter: @motorcycle_guy
Definitions of interoperability surround us, but all the attention in the world to definitions make very little difference in the end. I have a theory that people will believe two systems are interoperable when they can observe that the systems work together in simple ways with little to no effort, and in complex ways with some effort. In neither case does that effort require substantial coordination between multiple parties (to achieve interoperability at the technical level). Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…
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