As is our custom every month, we compile our Top 10 most read posts that deserve a second read. This list takes those lists just one step further. With more than 16,400 combined reads, these are the 10 most read articles of 2024.
Thank you to all these authors that have shared their thoughts with us and our readers.
HIMSS Forum Illuminates AI Progress: Focus on Operational Efficiency and Five Other Takeaways
By Beth Friedman, Sr. Partner, FINN Partners
LinkedIn: Beth Friedman
The same day White House officials announced a second round of industry commitments for the “safe, secure, and trustworthy use and purchase of AI in healthcare,” a group of more than 200 healthcare professionals met to discuss the identical topic (and a few more) during the HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum. Held in San Diego, the event featured speakers from high-profile organizations including Microsoft, Cleveland Clinic, and the American Medical Association. Continue reading…
Using Predictive Analytics to Manage Cash Flow in Hospitals
By Devin Partida, Editor-in-Chief, ReHack.com
LinkedIn: Devin Partida
Effective cash flow management ensures hospitals have the resources to provide uninterrupted, high-quality patient care. These institutions face unique financial challenges, like managing expenses for medical supplies, equipment and staff salaries. However, predictive analytics is transforming health care finance. This advanced approach allows hospitals to anticipate and prepare for financial challenges, ensuring they can continue to provide excellent services without the stress of financial unpredictability. Continue reading…
Financial Clearance Automation to Accelerate Patient Access and Shrink Denial Rates
By Matt Bridge, Senior Vice President – Strategy and Solutions, AGS Health
LinkedIn: Matt Bridge
Finance leaders are battling the rising denial headwinds that threaten to derail the progress healthcare organizations have made toward stabilizing revenues after years of operating in the red. For many, the solution is an optimization of financial clearance and other patient access processes. Doing so, however, is often hampered by staffing and outdated technology limitations that impede efficiencies and increase front-end authorization errors – errors responsible for more than half of all claim denials. Continue reading…
Waking up to the Financial Realities Affecting Healthcare’s Sickest Patients
By Mark Spinner, President and CEO, AccessOne
LinkedIn: Mark Spinner
Every year, Americans are bombarded with financial advice like “sock away 12 months of living expenses.” But guidance like this feels increasingly tone-deaf when someone is hit with a $1,000 emergency room bill — and they don’t have the funds to pay it. It’s a reality that’s becoming more common, according to AccessOne’s 2023 annual consumer healthcare finance survey: A whopping 44% of Americans say their healthcare costs have increased, making it harder to pay for health screenings, surgeries, and emergency care. Continue reading…
The Reality of Autonomous Coding
By Suhas Nair, Director of Product Management, AGS Health
LinkedIn: Suhas Nair
Autonomous coding is an AI-driven leap forward from traditional Computer-Assisted Coding (CAC) systems, promising transformation for labor-intensive and error-prone coding processes in healthcare, with substantial benefits in terms of cost savings, efficiency, and reduced denials. However, to optimize its value and protect investments in coding solutions, healthcare organizations must understand the realities and limitations of this evolving technology. Continue reading…
What is FHIR in Healthcare?
By John Ellis, DO, VP of Regulatory & Clinical Affairs, NextGen Healthcare
LinkedIn: John Ellis, DO
One of the key players in the healthcare insights arena is FHIR. Let’s break down what FHIR is and why it’s so crucial in achieving true healthcare interoperability. FHIR, pronounced, as you might have guessed, “fire,” stands for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources. It’s an open standard developed by HL7 (Health Level Seven International), designed to facilitate the exchange of healthcare information in a standardized way. Think of it as a universal language that healthcare systems and applications can use to talk to each other. Continue reading…
How Generative AI Can Support Value-based Care
By Rahul Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, HSBlox
LinkedIn: Rahul Sharma
A 360-degree view of the patient is essential in providing clinicians, payers, and patients themselves with actionable insights that can lead to improved outcomes. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly playing major roles in data digitization, prediction analytics, and decision support systems. For example: Continue reading…
How Researchers are using FHIR Factories to Study EHR Data at Scale
By Jeff Strada, The George Washington University – Milken Institute School of Public Health
LinkedIn: Jeff Strada
New tools have been developed for researchers and clinicians to access electronic health record (EHR) data in a more productive manner. An awardee of a 2020 ONC Leading Edge Acceleration Project (LEAP) in Health IT, MedStar Health Research, worked in tandem with HealthLab and Georgetown University Medical Center to develop products. This trio created two new data tools which are part of MedStar’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Factories: An Evolving Digital Architecture to Scale Health Research Project. Continue reading…
Advancing Interoperability with Better Data Usability
By Holly Miller, MD, Chief Medical Officer, MedAllies
LinkedIn: Holly Miller, MD, MBA, FHIMSS
The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) recently became operational, offering promise in, and a national focus on, boosting nationwide interoperability. TEFCA, which was created as part of the 2016 21st Century Cures Act, is a set of regulations designed to improve healthcare interoperability by establishing standards and infrastructure that ease data exchange among key stakeholders, including providers, payers, and information technology partners. TEFCA also supports individuals who want to retrieve their own healthcare data. Continue reading…
Health Equity Depends on Pragmatic Tech for Healthcare’s Digital Have-Nots
By Bevey Miner, Executive Vice President, Healthcare Strategy and Policy, Consensus Cloud Solutions
LinkedIn: Bevey Miner
No matter how large or well-resourced a health system may be, making the right care decisions ultimately depends on its ability to exchange information with healthcare’s “digital have-nots”—organizations that weren’t eligible for EHR implementation incentives, like post-acute facilities, home health, substance use disorder clinics and assisted living facilities. When these technology connections don’t exist, this leads to breakdowns in efficiency and communication that affect access to care, including transitions in care, leading to poor quality outcomes. Continue reading…