The Uncertainty Bomb
By PAUL KECKLEY
I like certainty and routine. I like my daily Tall Dark Roast with no room for cream at 5 am at Starbucks. I like the same restaurants, the same suits and ties and the same TV shows. Holidays throw me off and I get bored quickly when I have down time.
For six years, the healthcare industry in the U.S. has been adjusting to its new normal based on the regulatory framework of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It became routine to discuss the volume to value, accountable care organizations, bundled payments, Medicaid expansion and Healthcare.gov. We were certain they’d be around for years to come.
Then came th...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 27, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Weekly Overseas Health IT Links – 26th November, 2016.
Here are a few I came across last week. Note: Each link is followed by a title and few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.-----http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/cios-trump-ditch-meaningful-useCIOs to Trump: Ditch Meaningful UseScott Mace, November 14, 2016Healthcare CIOs describe their wishes for the incoming president. Among them: National data standards, stronger data security, and continuing efforts to advance technology.Scuttling meaningful use for hospitals, continuing w...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - November 25, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David More MB PhD FACHI Source Type: blogs
What does the Trump presidency imply for healthcare and healthcare IT?
John Halamka, MD, served the Bush administration for four years and the Obama administration for six. Change in Washington happens incrementally, he says: There is always an evolution, not a revolution, regardless of speechmaking hyperbole. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog)
Source: Healthcare IT News Blog - November 21, 2016 Category: Information Technology Tags: Compliance & amp; Legal Electronic Health Records Government amp; Policy MACRA Meaningful Use Source Type: blogs
Leave my patients ’ health data alone!
The patient looked angry and I felt his frustration. His voice was rising, “Why is the chart 54 pages long? My son has only been here five times!” In the olden, pre-electronic health record days, chances are the chart would most likely have been less than 10 pages. However, since the government takeover of medical records, this is no longer the case. When the government rolled out its meaningful use regulations and the now upcoming MACRA laws, the medical record got pumped up as if by a rapid infusion of body-enhancing steroids.
In the state of NJ, the law states that I can charge $1 per page to produce a copy of medic...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 17, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/linda-girgis" rel="tag" > Linda Girgis, MD < /a > Tags: Tech Health IT Source Type: blogs
The Impact of the 2016 Election on Healthcare IT
Today it’s pretty obvious that the Presidential is on everyone’s mind. While I don’t plan to discuss the details of the election and the specific results, it’s worth thinking about what Donald Trump in the white house will mean for healthcare IT.
Let’s start off with the easy one: Meaningful Use/MACRA. One doctor tweeted me that now that Trump is President, MACRA will be gone. I don’t think that’s further from the truth. In fact, I really can’t imagine any scenario where the EHR Incentive program (Meaningful Use, which still applies to hospitals and Medicaid) and the MACRA pr...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 10, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: John Lynn Tags: ARRA EHR EHR Stimulus Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare HealthCare IT MACRA Meaningful Use ACA Affordable Care Act Donald Trump HITECH Obamacare Source Type: blogs
What is Patient and Family Engagement?
I recently participated in a nationwide (not the United States) healthcare IT planning effort and one recommendation was universal availability of patient portals. Several reviewers commented that patient portal is a loaded term - it implies that clinicians control the data and patients are given a view into it. One person said, “that’s so 10 years ago”BIDMC has been working with patient/family shared medical records, Open Notes and various consumer-facing apps since 1999. Over that time we ' ve discovered that patients typically do not want raw data, they want something actionable -...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - November 9, 2016 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
No Matter What, Congress Will Act On Health Care Next Year
When Congress passed the Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act (MACRA) last year, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) said “stick a fork in it; it’s finally done.” While some elements—especially Medicare’s long-flawed Sustainable Growth Rate formula—were permanently remedied, other provisions were temporarily addressed by the bill and come due again in September or December of next year.
So, while the presidential candidates and others consider broad-based health care policies, the passage of which in the near term is dubious, the...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 7, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Billy Wynne and Devin Zatorski Tags: Featured Medicaid and CHIP Medicare 2016 election Congress MACRA Source Type: blogs
A letter to health care technologists
Dear health care technologist or regulator,
The world of health care is changing exponentially. Speaking as one the nation’s over 800,000 physicians, I can confidently say that most of us understand the fact that the current health care system is unsustainable, and can’t carry on as is. There are many potential solutions to explore, and everyone in health care needs to try to come together in an attempt to address these problems and determine an appropriate future direction.
One of the biggest changes to physician practice over the last decade has been with regards to our interaction with information technology. The ne...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 31, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/suneel-dhand" rel="tag" > Suneel Dhand, MD < /a > Tags: Tech Health IT Source Type: blogs
Ushering In The New Era Of Health Equity
Editor’s note: Joseph Betancourt is one of the theme advisors for the June 2017 Health Affairs equity theme issue.
The passage of health care reform and current efforts in payment reform have fueled a significant transformation of the US health care system. An entire new set of structures is being developed to facilitate increased access to care that is cost-effective and high quality. High-value health care is the ultimate goal. Guided by the 2001 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Crossing the Quality Chasm, the nation has charted a path to deliver care that is safe, efficient, effective, timely, patient-centered, and...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 31, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Joseph R. Betancourt Tags: Featured Health Equity Population Health Quality MACRA Social Determinants of Health triple aim Source Type: blogs
“Excuse me, I have requested a download” of health records (watch)
Our August 2010 Man of the Month, “E-Patient” Dave eBronkart speaks. This post was originally published on MedCity News.
“E-Patient” Dave eBronkart speaks at MedCity ENGAGE 2016.
Back in June, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO Dr. John Halamka wrote about a certain perceived shortfall in the Meaningful Use “view/download/transmit” requirement for patient engagement in electronic health records.
In a blog post that MedCity News reposted as a MedCitizens contribution, Halamka said:
Meaningful Use Stage 2 has a requirement that I’ve always considered to be the “cart before the horse” — patient...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - October 31, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Access Advocacy Health IT Patients Patients' Rights Source Type: blogs
Employee Burnout, Whose Problem Is It?
BY HANS DUVEFELT, MD
Today I attended a very entertaining and inspiring seminar, and yet I left it with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Bryan Sexton, a national authority on health worker burnout and patient safety, made a convincing case for the importance of addressing burnout. Staff burnout causes surgical complications, medication errors and even hospital deaths. And burnout affects roughly half of all healthcare employees.
But his solution, which I was invited to substantiate by participating in Duke University’s latest NIH sponsored study, was a series of educational videos and daily SMS reminders pr...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 3, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Employee Burnout. Whose Problem Is It?
BY HANS DUVEFELT, MD
Today I attended a very entertaining and inspiring seminar, and yet I left it with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Bryan Sexton, a national authority on health worker burnout and patient safety, made a convincing case for the importance of addressing burnout. Staff burnout causes surgical complications, medication errors and even hospital deaths. And burnout affects roughly half of all healthcare employees.
But his solution, which I was invited to substantiate by participating in Duke University’s latest NIH sponsored study, was a series of educational videos and daily SMS reminders pr...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 3, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Burning Out on Employee Burnout
BY HANS DUVEFELT, MD
Today I attended a very entertaining and inspiring seminar, and yet I left it with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Bryan Sexton, a national authority on health worker burnout and patient safety, made a convincing case for the importance of addressing burnout. Staff burnout causes surgical complications, medication errors and even hospital deaths. And burnout affects roughly half of all healthcare employees.
But his solution, which I was invited to substantiate by participating in Duke University’s latest NIH sponsored study, was a series of educational videos and daily SMS reminders pr...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 3, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Is the FDA Sleeping With the Enemy?
By SAURABH JHA, MD
Publishing in the BMJ, Vinay Prasad, an oncologist and healthcare’s leading evidence-based iconoclast, found that over half of medical reviewers who leave the FDA work for device and pharmaceutical industries. Prasad’s findings created disquiet amongst purists of various stripes. The media was shocked and tried shocking people by showing how shocked it was. The Lown Institute, which has been fighting physician conflict-of-interest (COI) with industry, seemed exasperated that yet another COI has emerged. Even pro-industry observers were upset by Prasad’s data-driven insinuation that a career in the ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 2, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
As Patient Engagement Advances, It Raises Questions About Usefulness
Reading ONC’s recent summary of patient engagement capabilities at US hospitals left me feeling both hopeful and wistful. The ONC, as usual, is trying to show off how much progress the field of health IT has made since Meaningful Use started, and the statistics in this dashboard meet those goals. On the other hand, I look at the statistics and wonder when real patient empowerment will emerge from these isolated gains.
The ONC dashboard includes information both on raw data exchange–what Meaningful Use called view, download, and transmit (VDT)–and the uses of that data, which ultimately mean much more than...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 26, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: MACRA Meaningful Use Patient Advocacy Patient Portal Advanced Interoperability Data Exchange EHR Patient Engagement Meaningful Use Patient Engagement Patient Empowerment Patient-Generated Data Source Type: blogs
