MIPS Audits: Lessons Learned from Meaningful Use
The following is a guest blog post by Jim Tate, Founder of EMR Advocate & MIPS Consulting. Just as the Meaningful Use (MU) EHR Incentive program brought potential audits to providers, so it will be with the MIPS program. Both programs were enacted by Federal legislation, and while there are differences, they are also similarities. The MU program […] (Source: EMR and HIPAA)
Source: EMR and HIPAA - July 17, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Blogger Tags: Administration Ambulatory C-Suite Leadership EMR-EHR Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Regulations EMR Advocate Guidehouse Jim Tate meaningful use Meaningful Use Audit Medicaid Medicare MIPS MIPS Audit MIPS Consulting Source Type: blogs
EHR Certification Suits Capture Attention Of Congress, Regulators
As we reported last week, it’s come to light that whistleblowers have filed suit against Community Health Systems and its EHR vendor Medhost, in a complaint which claims that the for-profit hospital giant attested to meaningful use compliance despite knowing the EHR system didn’t meet certification standards. This is the latest in a string of […] (Source: EMR and HIPAA)
Source: EMR and HIPAA - March 29, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: Anne Zieger Tags: Ambulatory C-Suite Leadership EMR-EHR Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Regulations Community Health Systems eClinicalWorks EHR Certification Greenway Health Jim Banks ONC Promoting Interoperability Source Type: blogs
Three Ways the Health IT Field is Slow to Modernize
Many observers have noted the incongruity of the US federal government paying out billions upon billions of dollars in the Meaningful Use program to convert health organizations to electronic records. No other industry required incentives (or subsidies, or some might even say bribes) to strive for the obvious improvements represented by digital technologies. I might […] (Source: EMR and HIPAA)
Source: EMR and HIPAA - March 11, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: C-Suite Leadership EMR-EHR Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System IT Dev Ops Amazon AWS Cloud Computing FHIR Free EHR free software Google Cloud Healthcare Cloud Healthcare Platforms Microsoft Azure Open Sou Source Type: blogs
Checking Boxes
By HANS DUVEFELT MD
I pay $500 per year for UpToDate, the online reference that helps me stay current on diagnostic criteria and best treatment options for most diseases I might run into in my practice. They also have a rich library of patient information, which I often print out during office visits.
I don’t get any “credit” for doing that, but I do if I print the, often paltry, patient handouts built into my EMR. That was how the rules governing meaningful use of subsidized computer technology for medical offices were written.
If I describe in great detail in my office note how I motivated a patient to quit smoki...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 1, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Patients Physicians EMR Hans Duvefelt primary care Source Type: blogs
The Root Cause of Physician Burnout: Neither Professionals nor Skilled Workers
BY HANS DUVEFELT MD
Too many specific theories about physician burnout can cloud the real issue and allow healthcare leaders to circle around the “elephant in the room”.
The cause of physician burnout isn’t just the EMRs, Meaningful Use, CMS regulations, the chronic disease epidemic or any other single item.
Instead, it is simply this: Healthcare today has no clear definition of what a physician is. We are more or less suddenly finding ourselves on a playing field, tackled and hollered at, without knowing what sport we are playing and what the rules are.
Historically, physicians have been viewed as profession...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 2, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Physicians Hans Duvefelt physician burnout Source Type: blogs
Dander Up, Down, and All Around
Today ' s topics: VA health care politics; a clear-eyed and sane report from a bastion of managerialism, with related observations on innovators trying to create real bottom-up value.It ' s the last day of the year, so let ' s get this done. Owing to various largely unforeseen challenges, happily now largely behind us, this " Dander " series was interrupted for some time. Apologies to anyone who noticed. In any case, to refresh: as Chief Blogger and FIRM president Dr. Poses has indicated often enough in these pages, health care developments raising our dander are still everywhere, all the time, and on the increas...
Source: Health Care Renewal - December 31, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: blogs
Data Demands Still Tax Physicians
Though most medical groups have invested heavily in health IT, particularly EHRs, most are still struggling to manage the data necessary for running the practice. Sure, Meaningful Use incentives helped them get the technology in the door, squeezing the best performance out of it calls for institutional and financial resources that many can’t afford. As […] (Source: EMR and HIPAA)
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 26, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Anne Zieger Tags: Ambulatory Clinical Health IT Company Healthcare IT Org Type Role Topic Geneia Healthcare Quality Data HEDIS Medical Groups Medical Practices Physician IT Source Type: blogs
Physician Burnout, Data Scientist, Facebook, and Patient Engagement
It’s been quite a while since I did a Twitter round up and so I thought it would be fun to take a quick look around the Twittersphere to see what people are sharing. You all probably already know you can follow me anytime on Twitter (@techguy) or the Healthcare Scene Twitter account (@HealthcareScene). We’re always sharing and connecting with others in the healthcare IT community.
Now, without further ado, some tweets I saw that stood out to me and a little bit of short commentary (some might say snark) on each.
Very concerning is the increasing rates of physician, nurse and other healthcare burnout. Further, ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 19, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: John Lynn Tags: Ambulatory Analytics/Big Data C-Suite Leadership Clinical Communication and Patient Experience Hospital - Health System Facebook Gabe Charbonneau MD Savvy Coop Tamara McCleary Source Type: blogs
Process Re-engineering Can Produce Results, Lumeon Finds
A rigorous look at organizational processes, perhaps bolstered by new technology, can produce big savings in almost any industry. In health care, Lumeon finds that this kind of process re-engineering can improve outcomes and the patient experience too–the very Triple Aim cited as goals by health care reformers.
A bad process, according to Robbie Hughes, Founder and CEO for Lumeon, can be described as, “The wrong people have the wrong information at the wrong time.” One example is a surgery unit that Lumeon worked with on scheduling surgeries. The administrative staff scheduled the surgeries based on minim...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 19, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Health Care Healthcare HealthCare IT Fee for Service Fee-For-Value Longitudinal Care Operations Management Optimization Patient Engagement Process Re-engineering Source Type: blogs
New INFRAM Model Creates Healthcare Infrastructure Benchmarks
During the frenzy that was healthcare organizations rushing to implement EHRs and chase government money, it was amazing to see so many other projects get left behind. One of the biggest areas that got left behind was investments in IT infrastructure. All the budget was going to the EHR and so the infrastructure budgets often got cut. There were some exceptions where upgrades to infrastructure were needed to make the EHR work, but most organizations I know chose to limp along with their current infrastructure and used that money to pay for the EHR.
Given this background, I was quite intrigued by the recent announcement of ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 14, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: John Lynn Tags: Cloud Computing EMR Technology HealthCare IT Hospitals Cisco EMRAM Healthcare CIO Healthcare IT Infrastructure HIMSS Analytics Hospital CIO INFRAM Marlon Harvey Source Type: blogs
The Futility of Patient Matching
By ADRIAN GROPPER, MD
The original sin of health records interoperability was the loss of consent in HIPAA. In 2000, when HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) first became law, the Internet was hardly a thing in healthcare. The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) was not a thing until 2004. 2009 brought us the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use and 2016 brought the 21st Century Cures Act with “information blocking” as clear evidence of bipartisan frustration. Cures, in 2018, begat TEFCA, the draft Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement. The next update to the draft TEFCA is expect...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Patients Physicians Politics HIE Interoperability ONC TEFCA Source Type: blogs
Ensuring that the 21st Century Cures Act Health IT Provisions Promotes Interoperability and Data Exchange
By KENNETH D. MANDL, MD; DAN GOTTLIEB;
JOSH C. MANDEL, MD
Josh Mandel
Kenneth Mandl
Dan Gottlieb
The opportunity has never been greater to, at long last, develop a flourishing health information economy based on apps which have full access to health system data–for both patients and populations–and liquid data that travels to where it is needed for care, management and population and public health. A provision in the 21st Century Cures Act could transform how patients and providers use health information technology. The 2016 law requires that certified health information technology products have an application ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 16, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Medicaid Medicare Patients Politics Tech Business model health information exchange HealthIT HIE HIPAA hoarding Information Blocking interop Interoperability patient engagement patient loyalty primary care referral leakag Source Type: blogs
Ensuring that the 21st Century Cures Act Health IT Provisions Promote Interoperability and Data Exchange
By KENNETH D. MANDL, MD
The opportunity has never been greater to, at long last, develop a flourishing health information economy based on apps which have full access to health system data–for both patients and populations–and liquid data that travels to where it is needed for care, management and population and public health. A provision in the 21st Century Cures Act could transform how patients and providers use health information technology. The 2016 law requires that certified health information technology products have an application programming interface (API) that allows health information to be accessed...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 16, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Medicaid Medicare Patients Politics Tech Business model health information exchange HealthIT HIE HIPAA hoarding Information Blocking interop Interoperability patient engagement patient loyalty primary care referral leakag Source Type: blogs
Apple Watch Leaves Patients Connected with No Where To Go
By GRACE CORDOVANO, Ph.D., BCPA
The highly anticipated unveiling of the Apple Watch Series 4 caused a news and social media sensation. Apple coined the iconic timepiece as the “guardian of your health”, with health tracking functionalities such as the ability to detect atrial fibrillation (AFib) by a self-performed electrocardiogram (ECG). But from patients’ and carepartners’ perspectives, there is a long road to a universally accessible, seamlessly implemented, mass-adoption, and meaningful use for this wearable technology.
Many experts, such as Dr. Eric Topol a cardiologist at the Scripps Resea...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 28, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Apple Tech Apple Event AppleWatch DigitalHealth Healthcare innovation mHealth PatientAdvocacy Wearables Source Type: blogs
Open Source Software and the Path to EHR Heaven (Part 1 of 2)
Do you feel your electronic health record (EHR) is heaven or hell? The vast majority of clinicians–and many patients, too, who interact with the EHR through a web portal–see it as the latter. In this article, I’ll describe an EHR heaven and how free and open source software can contribute to it. But first an old joke (which I have adapted slightly).
A salesman for an EHR vendor dies and goes before the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter asks him, “Would you like to go to heaven or hell?”
Surprised, the salesman says, “I didn’t know I had a choice.”
Saint Peter suggests, “How abo...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 19, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: EHR Electronic Health Record EMR Alert Fatigue Electronic Medical Record EHR Free Software Healthcare Analytics Healthcare Interoperability Healthcare Reform Open Source EHR Open Source Software Standards Vista Source Type: blogs
