Topics

Category: Healthcare Industry News

  • A New Model to Track Growing Patient and Consumer Engagement Adoption

    Date: August 18th, 2015Source: Healthcare InformaticsTopics: Health IT, Patient Engagement
    In July, leaders at Scottsdale Institute (SI) announced the creation of the SI Patient/Consumer Engagement Adoption Model™. The SI Patient/Consumer Engagement Adoption Model “is an assessment tool and adoption model to help U.S. healthcare systems measure effectiveness in engaging patients and consumers in managing their own health and wellness." SI said they developed the model in response to the growing demand and necessity for patients and consumers to participate in their own care.
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  • How Big Data is Driving the Consumerization of Healthcare

    Date: August 14th, 2015Source: U.S. News & World ReportTopics: Mobile Health, Patient Engagement, Digital Health, Data Analytics
    Big data can help physicians understand patient behavior, which in turn impacts care delivery and their practice. Doctors in 2015 have a unique advantage in that their patients actively monitor their health with mobile apps, wearable devices and social media. People keep a closer eye on their workouts, caloric intake, sleep patterns and vitals than ever before, creating a resource that could only exist in the digital age. However, very few mobile and wearable apps can be accessed by both the doctor and patient. The healthcare industry's next step in mobility involves making that connection between physicians and patients so that each party benefits from the amount of available data.
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  • Denver-based Dispatch Health Hopes to be 'Uber for Healthcare'

    Date: August 12th, 2015Source: 7News Denver (KMGH)Topics: HIE, Mobile Health, Emergency Services
    A Denver-based company hopes to be the next "Uber for health care," providing a doctor on your doorstep instead of a costly trip to the hospital. For two years, Dispatch Health has worked with local fire departments when people call 911, but starting Monday, the company is expanding its services to a fleet of private vehicles staffed with doctors and nurse practitioners. Dispatch Health, previously known as True North Health Navigation, is a current CORHIO HIE participant. Their medical practitioners access the HIE from wireless enabled iPads.
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  • ED Physician Work Group Outlines Recommendations for National HIE

    Date: August 10th, 2015Source: iHealthBeatTopics: HIE, Emergency Services, Patient Care
    Health data exchange can provide more complete patient records to emergency physicians, but changes are needed to enable a national health information exchange, according to a paper published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, FierceHealthIT reports. The paper included suggestions by an American College of Emergency Physicians work group (Hall, FierceHealthIT, 8/7).
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  • How to Tackle America’s Physician Shortage

    Date: August 10th, 2015Source: FORTUNE MagazineTopics: Value-Based Care, Healthcare Policy, Primary Care
    Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010, 16.4 million Americans have entered the healthcare system. This record number of insured individuals applies tremendous pressure on an already stretched system, but it also creates opportunities for innovation. The population of newly insured patients includes many who are living close to the poverty line. The rate of low-wealth Americans who are now insured increased by 13% while a Gallup poll found that low-wealth Americans were more likely to struggle with chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, depression, and high blood pressure.
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  • Physician Quality Reporting Adds Extra Compliance for Hospitals

    Date: August 10th, 2015Source: Healthcare Finance NewsTopics: PQRS, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Value-Based Care
    With new quality ratings programs making hospitals more on the hook than ever for their physicians' performance, experts say managers will have to think beyond the traditional hospital walls to avoid costly ratings. The Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) incentive payment adjustments begin in 2015, which means provider organizations are due to start reporting on specific quality measures. Through PQRS, providers can assess the quality of care and quantify how often they are meeting a particular quality metric. Using the CMS feedback report, they can also compare their performance against their peers.
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  • Web-based mHealth Tools Can Drive Patient Engagement, Care Satisfaction

    Date: August 10th, 2015Source: FierceMobile HealthcareTopics: Mobile Health, Patient Engagement
    Access to online educational content specific to medical issues and Web-based tools that enhance communication between patients and providers can help users gain a deeper understanding of care and boost patient satisfaction, reveals a new Brigham and Women's Hospital study. The use of an online patient-centered toolkit (PCTK) also facilitates patient involvement and input into the plan of care, states the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
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  • Report: Radiology Has The Greatest Need for Image Sharing

    Date: August 3rd, 2015Source: HIT ConsultantTopics: HIE, Health IT, Radiology, Image Sharing
    Ninety-six percent of providers identified radiology on their list of departments that had the greatest need for image sharing, according to new report by peer60, a smart data software company. The report findings are based on a survey of more than 500 healthcare organizations, the report confirms while radiology departments have the greatest need for image sharing today, there is a growing need to exchange this information across departments and facilities as coordination of care is “now a critical component in the effective practice of medicine.”
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  • Cerner's Military EHR Contract Expected to Speed March to Interoperability

    Date: August 1st, 2015Source: Modern Healthcare (registration may be required to view)Topics: Military Health, Interoperability
    The U.S. military's giant electronic health-record contract announced last week with a consortium including EHR vendor Cerner Corp. likely will have a major impact on advancing interoperability in health information technology across the entire U.S. healthcare system, experts say. The military's goal is to use its new system to achieve health IT interoperability with thousands of civilian healthcare partners. That's because 60% to 70% of the care provided to the 9.6 million Military Health System beneficiaries—active duty military personnel, retirees and their families—is delivered by providers in the private sector.
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  • Maximizing Your EHR: 5 Strategies

    Date: July 30th, 2015Source: Physicians PracticeTopics: EHRs, Physician Workflow
    The way in which physicians interact with data as it pertains to patient care has clearly identified the EHR as a critical tool. The statistics speak for themselves — approximately 78 percent of all office-based physicians had an EHR in place as of 2013, according to a 2014 study in Health Affairs. However, this doesn't mean that physicians are satisfied with the EHRs they have; recent studies, including a 2014 report in JAMA Internal Medicine, have shown that even experienced EHR users find decreases in productivity. It becomes critical, then, to find ways to maximize the use of existing EHRs in an effort to improve efficacy for patient care and reduce end-user frustration.
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  • How to Develop Better Care Coordination: Four Steps

    Date: July 29th, 2015Source: Physicians PracticeTopics: HIE, Care Coordination, Medical Home Model, Accountable Care
    With the Affordable Care Act's focus on improving health and managing costs, industry leaders are giving the coordination-of-care their full attention. The ability to seamlessly share information between primary care physicians and specialists is critical to successfully accomplishing this objective.
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  • Dept. of Defense Awards Cerner, Leidos, Accenture EHR Contract

    Date: July 29th, 2015Source: Healthcare IT NewsTopics: Military Health
    The US Department of Defense handed down the largest and most-anticipated electronic health record system contract in history late Wednesday. And the winner is (drumroll, please) … Cerner, Leidos and Accenture. The contract's initial piece, valued at $4.3 billion, calls for the team to provide "an electronic health record off-the-shelf solution, integration activities and deployment across the Military Health System," a DoD spokesperson told Healthcare IT News.
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  • Information Blocking Discussed in July 23 Senate Hearing

    Date: July 24th, 2015Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: EHRs, Interoperability, Healthcare Policy, Information Blocking
    Information blocking—both by providers and vendors—is preventing the sharing of patients’ electronic health records and dashing any hope of realizing true EHR interoperability, according to witnesses who testified during a Senate health committee hearing on Thursday, July 23.
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  • Proposed CMS Rule Would Require Health Information Exchange for Long-Term Care

    Date: July 16th, 2015Source: Health IT AnalyticsTopics: HIE, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Long-Term Care, Transitions of Care
    A new proposed rule released this week in conjunction with the White House Conference on Aging would require long-term care (LTC) facilities and nursing homes to participate in health information exchange, CMS says. During a patient transfer or discharge, long-term care facilities would be required not only to document an event in the patient’s clinical record, but also to transmit that information to the receiving facility in order to promote continuity of care.
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  • Analytics Tip: Stop Cleaning Your Data

    Date: July 15th, 2015Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: Health IT, Population Health, Data Analytics
    Adopting a basic set of principles is the key to success with healthcare data analytics, according to John Showalter, M.D., chief health information officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. During a presentation at the Healthcare Analytics Symposium sponsored by Health Data Management, Showalter said the top two principles are: healthcare analytics is all about the individual patient, and don’t waste time and money cleaning your data before analyzing—just start using it.
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  • CMS Details MACRA Quality Reporting, Payment Reform Proposals

    Date: July 15th, 2015Source: Health IT AnalyticsTopics: PQRS, MACRA, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Value-Based Care
    In the first update to the Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) since the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula was repealed in April, CMS has unveiled its proposed rule for implementing some of its major changes to the industry’s clinical quality reporting and value-based reimbursement frameworks. The updates, slated to take effect at the beginning of 2016, include modifications to the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), EHR Incentive Programs, and Physician Value-Based Payment Modifier, among other things.
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  • Three Ways Hospitals are Improving Behavioral Health Care

    Date: July 13th, 2015Source: TrusteeTopics: Behavioral Health, Emergency Services
    Years of deep cuts to mental health care services have left ill-equipped hospital emergency departments struggling to care for untreated patients. Three organizations confronted the problem head-on by integrating behavioral health into primary and specialty care, screening and supporting vulnerable families, and developing expansive partnerships with other organizations.
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  • EHRs and Patient Portals: Key Contract Considerations

    Date: July 10th, 2015Source: Physicians PracticeTopics: EHRs
    Most practices now use EHRs and slightly more than half use patient portals, but a significant percentage is still exploring their options when it comes to acquiring both technologies, according to our 2015 Technology Survey. If you are a manager or physician at one of these practices, doing your homework upfront may reduce the likelihood that you'll experience common post-implementation challenges, such as interoperability issues or work flow problems.
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  • See Which Hospitals Made the 2015 'Most Wired' List

    Date: July 10th, 2015Source: Healthcare IT NewsTopics: Health IT, Colorado Hospitals & Health Systems
    Out of more than 2,200 U.S. hospitals, only 338 made it to this year's Most Wired list, demonstrating some of the most advanced health IT use and adoption in the nation.
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  • Medicare Pushes Home Health to Adopt EHR, HIE

    Date: July 8th, 2015Source: Health Data ManagementTopics: HIE, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Home Health
    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants home health agencies to accelerate their use of health information technology. The agency is issuing no mandates yet, but certainly is leaving the door open. CMS’ encouragement of electronic health records and health information exchange is in a proposed rule for the calendar year 2016 Medicare home health prospective payment system.
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  • Supreme Court Upholds Subsidies in King v. Burwell

    Date: June 25th, 2015Source: Modern Healthcare (free registration may be required to view)Topics: Healthcare Policy
    Insurance premium subsidies will continue to flow to Americans in all states under the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 6-3 in King v. Burwell on Thursday. The justices sided with the Obama administration in the historic decision, saying the healthcare law allows Americans in all states—not just those that established their own exchanges—to receive the subsidies.
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  • Patient-Centered Medical Home Is a “Pragmatic” Shift in Care

    Date: June 23rd, 2015Source: Health IT AnalyticsTopics: EHRs, Care Coordination, Medical Home Model
    Becoming a patient-centered medical home takes a great deal of hard work and a steady commitment to continual practice improvement. To achieve the coveted Level III NCQA recognition, providers must operate at peak performance, leveraging health IT to bring coordinated, high-quality population health management to their communities. But the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) recognition brings more than bragging rights to successful organizations. As payers get serious about value-based reimbursement, providers that align themselves with emerging care delivery strategies may be in line for some financial success, as well.
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  • As Big Data Grows, the Need for AI Comes Into Focus

    Date: June 19th, 2015Source: Healthcare IT NewsTopics: Health IT, Population Health, Data Analytics
    No one questions that the era of big data is here, but Dr. Anthony Chang warns that the deluge of medical information is just beginning. "By 2020, there will be 200 times more data than any physician can absorb," said Chang, a practicing pediatric cardiologist. "And its doubling every two years." In his keynote address at the National Healthcare Innovation Summit in Chicago Wednesday morning, Chang said he worries that lives are being lost from the unrealized opportunity.
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  • Population Health: The Path Forward

    Date: June 16th, 2015Source: Healthcare InformaticsTopics: Health IT, Population Health, Long-Term Care, Accountable Care
    What does the future hold for the population health management concept? The present moment in U.S. healthcare is filled with both challenge and opportunity in this absolutely critical area of endeavor. On the one hand, the population health idea has taken off as it has never before. It is embedded in virtually all the main policy initiatives coming out of all the major public and private purchasers and payers of healthcare, whether in some of the mandates coming out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or embedded in the value-based purchasing (VBP) initiatives coming out of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for the Medicare program, or from nearly any of the major VBP programs sponsored by virtually all of the major U.S. health plans.
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  • Medicare ACO Regulations Look to Accelerate HIE

    Date: June 10th, 2015Source: HIE WatchTopics: HIE, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Accountable Care
    The final rule for the Medicare Shared Savings Program is out, aiming to help craft the next generation of Medicare ACOs. CMS' MSSP final rule is aimed at enhancing primary care services and offering more flexibility in order to increase participation. The agency wants to improve the program in a number of areas, including through a new ACO track based on some of the successful features of the Pioneer ACO Model; streamlining data sharing between CMS and ACOs to help ACOs more easily access data secure patient data; refining policies for resetting ACO benchmarks enable incentives for improving patient care and generating cost savings.
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