Accessing & Using APIs from Major EMR Vendors – Some Data at Last!
By MATTHEW HOLT
Today I’m happy to release some really unique data about a pressing problem–the ability of small tech vendors to access health data contained in the systems of the major EMR vendors. There’ll be much more discussion of this topic at the Health 2.0 Provider Symposium on Sunday, and much more in the Health 2.0 Fall Annual Conference as a whole.
Information blocking, Siloed data. No real inter-operability. Standards that aren’t standards. In the last few years, the clamor about the problems accessing personal health data has grown as the use of electronic medical records (EMRs) increased ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 19, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Matthew Holt Tags: Health 2.0 Matthew Holt Tech THCB API CHCF EHR vendors EMR Survey Source Type: blogs
Clarifying certification requirements for hospitals
" As I ' ve said many times, one of the great challenges we have is that the 2015 Edition final rule has an enormous scope extending beyond meaningful use with the notion that it can be coupled to every government healthcare IT program, " writes John Halamka, MD. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog)
Source: Healthcare IT News Blog - September 16, 2016 Category: Information Technology Tags: Compliance & amp; Legal Electronic Health Records Government amp; Policy Interoperability Meaningful Use Source Type: blogs
Engaging Patients With Health Data Cuts Louisiana ED Overuse
Maybe I’m misreading things, but it seems to me that few health IT pros really believe we can get patients to leverage their own health data successfully. And I understand why. After all, we don’t even have clear evidence that patient portals improve outcomes, and portals are probably the most successful engagement tool the industry has come up with to date.
And not to be a jerk about it, but I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find HIT gurus who believed the state of Louisiana would lead the way, as the achingly poor southern state isn’t exactly known for being a healthcare thought leader. As it so happens, though, t...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 15, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Anne Zieger Tags: Digital Health EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare Healthcare Business HealthCare IT HIE Patient Portal Patients Population Health Management EHR Awareness Emergency Department EMR Awareness Source Type: blogs
Doctor Survey Can ’t Muster Enthusiasm for Electronic Health Records
Medscape’s annual report on electronic health records (EHRs) is out for 2016. With more than 15,000 physicians over 25 specialties responding, there’s little to celebrate in it. The survey confirms what we know about the Meaningful Use program–it succeeded in getting doctors to use EHRs (slide 2) and to convert their paper charts to EHRs (slide 30). What the Meaningful Use program failed at, apparently, is meaningful use of EHRs.
When doctors were asked about the effects of the EHR on their practice, most reported “no change” (page 18). Yes, they say it has helped them with “documentatio...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 14, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: EHR Benefits EMR Polls Meaningful Use Doctor Satisfaction EHR Adoption EHR Satisfaction Medscape Ratings Usability Source Type: blogs
Clarifying Certification Requirements for Hospitals
With all the changes happening to Meaningful Use, Quality Measurement, and MACRA in 2016, I ’ve been asked many questions by many organizations to help them plan for the future.As I ’ve said many times, one of the great challenges we have is that the 2015 Edition final rule has an enormous scope extending beyond Meaningful Use with the notion that it can be coupled to every government healthcare IT program. Standards needs to be based on requirements and specific use cases with little optionality, so creating a broadly scoped rule before the use cases are known just doesn ’t work. Although it is my h...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - September 14, 2016 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Study: Health IT Costs $32K Per Doctor Each Year
A new study by the Medical Group Management Association has concluded that that physician-owned multispecialty practices spent roughly $32,500 on health IT last year for each full-time doctor. This number has climbed dramatically over the past seven years, the group’s research finds.
To conduct the study, the MGMA surveyed more than 3,100 physician practices across the U.S. The expense number they generated includes equipment, staff, maintenance and other related costs, according to a press release issued by the group.
The cost of supporting physicians with IT services has climbed, in part, due to rising IT staffing expe...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 9, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Anne Zieger Tags: EHR EHR Benefits Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare HealthCare IT MACRA Meaningful Use Medication Adherence Patient Portal Group Practice Health IT HIT Medical Group Management Association Medic Source Type: blogs
Switching EHRs, The Trends And What To Consider
The following is a guest blog post by Winyen Wu, Technology and Health Trend Blogger and Enthusiast at Stericycle Communication Solutions as part of the Communication Solutions Series of blog posts. Follow and engage with them on Twitter: @StericycleComms
In recent years, there has been a trend in providers switching Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems: according to Software Advice, the number of buyers replacing EHR software has increased 59% since 2014. In a survey by KLAS, 27% of medical practices are looking to replace their EHR while another 12% would like to but cannot due to financial or organizational constrain...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 8, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: John Lynn Tags: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare HealthCare IT AthenaHealth Cerner Communication Solutions Series eCW EHR Switching Epic Stericycle Stericycle Communication Solutions Winyen Wu Source Type: blogs
A Consulting Firm Attempts a Transition to Open Source Health Software (Part 2 of 2)
The previous section of this article covered the history of HLN’s open source offerings. How can it benefit from this far-thinking practice to build a sustainable business?
The obvious place to turn for funding is the Centers for Disease Control, which lies behind many of the contracts signed by public health agencies. One way or another, a public health agency has to step up and pay for development. This practice is called custom-developed code in the open source policy memorandum of the federal Office of Management and Budget (p. 14 of the PDF).
The free rider problem is acute in health care. In particular, the pro...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 7, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: HealthCare IT Population Health Management Business Models CDC Free Software HLN Open Health Tools Open Source Public Health Source Type: blogs
The Roadmap To Physician Payment Reform: What It Will Take for All Clinicians to Succeed under MACRA
As the largest change in Medicare physician payment since the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) will affect up to 836,000 clinicians and allocate more than $1.2 billion in payment bonuses and penalties in its first year alone. Reflecting the importance of this policy, the 962 page proposed rule for its implementation generated thousands more pages of comments, with nearly 4,000 organizations and individuals submitting formal comment letters to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The proposed rule has been summarized by CMS, and there have been severa...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 30, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Mark McClellan, Frank McStay and Robert Saunders Tags: Costs and Spending Insurance and Coverage Medicare Payment Policy ACOs Alternative Payment Models Comprehensive Primary Care Plus MACRA Merit-Based Incentive Payment System Source Type: blogs
Three Words That Health Care Should Stop Using: Insurance, Market, and Quality (Part 2 of 2)
The previous part of this article ripped apart the use of the words “insurance” and “market” to characterize healthcare. Not let’s turn to another concept even more fundamental to our thinking about care.
Quality
The final element of this three-card Monte is the slippery notion of quality. Health care is often compared to the airlines (when we’re not being compared to the Cheesecake Factory), an exercise guaranteed to make health care look bad. Airlines and restaurants offer relatively homogeneous experiences to all their clients and can easily determine whether their service succeeded o...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - August 23, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Health Insurance Exchanges Healthcare Business Healthcare Reform Healthcare Reimbursement MACRA Meaningful Use Personal Musings Personalized Medicine Population Health Management Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Behavioral He Source Type: blogs
A piece of advice to those who want to disrupt health care
Living in the fine city of Boston, I am fortunate enough to be located right in the middle of a medical hub. A place that’s full of exciting new research, developments, and ideas. Working at the front line of hospital care, also with a keen interest in quality improvement, patient experience, and technology, I frequently attend social and professional healthcare networking events around the city.
While doing this, I’ve gotten to meet a lot of interesting, diverse and ambitious people. But there’s a trend I’ve noticed among many students and resident physicians who are interested in health care policy and technology...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 23, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/suneel-dhand" rel="tag" > Suneel Dhand, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
Three Words That Health Care Should Stop Using: Insurance, Market, and Quality (Part 1 of 2)
Reading the daily papers, I have gotten increasingly frustrated at the misunderstandings that journalists and the public bring to the debates of over health expansion, costs, and reform. But you can’t blame them–our own industry has created the confusion by misusing terms and concepts that work in other places but not in health. Worse still, the health care industry has let policy-makers embed the incorrect impressions into laws and regulations.
So in this article I’ll promote the long process of correcting the public’s impressions of health care–by purging three dangerous words from health ca...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - August 22, 2016 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Health Insurance Exchanges Healthcare Business Healthcare Reform Healthcare Reimbursement MACRA Meaningful Use Personal Musings Personalized Medicine Population Health Management Behavioral Health Health Care Costs Health Care Insura Source Type: blogs
Advice to the New National Coordinator
By JACOB REIDER, MD
Two and a half years ago, John Halmaka posted an entry with this title – and I recall that it was a good summary of the state of the industry. While I didn’t agree with all of his suggestions, I enjoyed the review and it offered a good set of guiding principles. Since I was Acting National Coordinator for about the same duration as Vindell will serve, (Fall of 2013 – after Farzad Mostashari departed, and before Karen DeSalvo arrived) I’ll offer some thoughts from one who has been in his position.
Certification. The health IT certification program is the core of ONC’s responsibility...
Source: The Health Care Blog - August 15, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Advice to the new National Coordinator
Two and a half years ago, John posted an entry with this title – and I recall that it was a good summary of the state of the industry. While I didn’t agree with all of his suggestions, I enjoyed the review and it offered a good set of guiding principles. Since I was Acting National Coordinator for about the same duration as Vindell will serve, (Fall of 2013 – after Farzad Mostashari departed, and before Karen DeSalvo arrived) I’ll offer some thoughts from one who has been in his position.
Certification. The health IT certification program is the core of ONC’s responsibility to the ...
Source: Docnotes - August 15, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jacobr Tags: Electronic Medical Records Medicine and technology Uncategorized Usability Value Source Type: blogs
Advice to the new National Coordinator
Two and a half years ago, John posted an entry with this title?- and I recall that it was a good summary of the state of the industry. ?While I didn’t agree with all of his suggestions, I enjoyed the review and it offered a good set of guiding principles. ?Since I was Acting National Coordinator for about the same duration as Vindell will serve, (Fall of 2013 – after Farzad Mostashari departed, and before Karen DeSalvo arrived) I’ll offer some thoughts?from?one who has been in his?position.
Certification. ?The health IT certification program is the core of ONC’s responsibility to the nation. ?Whil...
Source: Docnotes - August 15, 2016 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jacobr Tags: Electronic Medical Records Medicine and technology Uncategorized Usability Value Source Type: blogs
