Bonus Features – December 17, 2023 – 97% of hospitals now capable of enabling electronic access to patient records, 70% of hospitals face hidden business continuity challenge, plus 31 more stories
This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job. News In a blog post, ONC highlighted trends in patient access to electronic health information. Nearly all (97%) hospitals and roughly almost two-thirds (65%) of physician practices are now capable of enabling patient access. Th...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 17, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Brian Eastwood Tags: Healthcare IT Aaniie American Organization for Nursing Leadership Andor Health Arcadia Healthcare Solutions Avalon Healthcare Solutions AVIA Biofourmis Brett Zelkind Bryan Olson Carallel CAST Software CLEAR CodaMetrix CommonWel Source Type: blogs

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has taken steps to address social drivers of health, but consistency and implementation are lagging.        (Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - December 15, 2023 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Melinda K. Abrams, Rachel Nuzum, Debbie I. Chang, Rocco Perla Source Type: blogs

Abbott Gets Real About " Formulary Exclusions " Bankrolled by Rival Dexcom in the U.S.
My followers may recall that I ' ve written not-so-kind blog posts about how Dexcom paying legally-exempted rebate kickbacks (seehttps://blog.sstrumello.com/2023/06/dexcom-pays-pbms-kickbacks-to-exclude.html for one such blog post) to major Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) contingent upon " formulary exclusions of less costly rival continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems such as Abbott Freestyle Libre. The retail prices for both CGM sensor brands are remarkably close (ranging from $57.33/sensor to $61.28/sensor). However, the cost computation is not based on the cost per sensor, but must be computed on a cost per ...
Source: Scott's Web Log - December 14, 2023 Category: Endocrinology Tags: 2023 Abbott Freestyle Libre 3 coupons Dexcom PBM PBMs Source Type: blogs

Impetus and Edict: What the Latest CMS Data Standards Mean for EHRs – Regulatory Talk Series
This article is the second in the Healthcare Regulatory Talk series. More regulatory churn is coming to shake up e-prescribing, this time with new data standards to step up clinical decision support at the point of care. The latest policy update from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) adds key provisions to the December 2022 proposed rule requiring adoption of a new NCPDP SCRIPT standard version. In the lead-up to a final rule, CMS is giving the industry impetus and edict to accelerate a new era in medication management. Before I dive into the specifics of these new requirements from CMS, let’s consider...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 12, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: AI/Machine Learning Ambulatory C-Suite Leadership Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Regulations 21st Century Cures Clinical Decision Support Clinical Grade AI DrFirst EHR Certification EHR Development EHR R Source Type: blogs

My Cancer Story  
By JEFF GOLDSMITH On Christmas Eve 2014, I received a present of some profoundly unwelcome news: a 64 slice CT scan confirming not only the presence of a malignant tumor in my neck, but also a fluid filled mass the size of a man’s finger in my chest cavity outside the lungs. Two days earlier, my ENT surgeon in Charlottesville, Paige Powers, had performed a fine needle aspiration of a suspicious almond-shaped enlarged lymph node, and the lab returned a verdict of “metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with an occult primary tumor”.  I had worked in healthcare for nearly forty years when ca...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Medical Practice The Business of Health Care Cancer Jeff Goldsmith Medicare Advantage Patient Experience Source Type: blogs

Patients are Not “Consumers”: My Cancer Story 
By JEFF GOLDSMITH On Christmas Eve 2014, I received a present of some profoundly unwelcome news: a 64 slice CT scan confirming not only the presence of a malignant tumor in my neck, but also a fluid filled mass the size of a man’s finger in my chest cavity outside the lungs. Two days earlier, my ENT surgeon in Charlottesville, Paige Powers, had performed a fine needle aspiration of a suspicious almond-shaped enlarged lymph node, and the lab returned a verdict of “metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with an occult primary tumor”.  I had worked in healthcare for nearly forty years when ca...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 5, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Medical Practice The Business of Health Care Cancer Jeff Goldsmith Medicare Advantage Patient Experience Source Type: blogs

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Legislative solutions to the prescription drug price issue were slow to materialize until the Inflation Reduction Act changed how Medicare pays for drugs.        (Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - November 29, 2023 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Anna Kaltenboeck Source Type: blogs

Embracing and Prioritizing Cloud-Based Care in Rural Communities
The following is a guest article by Nathan Shepard, SVP of Product at Azalea Health As rural providers look to replace legacy solutions, they’re confronted with several critical decision points. One of the most pressing questions that has far-reaching ramifications is whether they should opt for an on-premises or cloud-based solution. While many providers see the benefits and name recognition of on-premises solutions and view a cloud-first system as less mature, eliminating the need for an on-premises system reduces the worries inherently tied to on-site solutions. No matter what an organization selects, buyers yearn for...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 29, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Ambulatory Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT IT Infrastructure and Dev Ops Telemedicine and Remote Monitoring API Application Programming Interfaces Azalea Health Cloud Based Healthcare Cybersecurity Source Type: blogs

What ’ s a Problem, Technology, Opportunity, or Issue That Not Enough People are Talking About?
The world of healthcare IT is similar to the birth and expansion of our universe. It started out slowly until a big bang set it all off into motion. And now, just like the expansion of our universe, healthcare IT is only picking up speed and getting bigger and bigger. So with the world of healthcare IT only getting faster and expanding out into newer and bigger areas, how can we keep track of everything? Alone, the task is impossible, but together we just might manage it. In search of a status report, we reached out to our brave Healthcare IT Today community to see what problems, technologies, opportunities, or issues they...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 28, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Grayson Miller Tags: C-Suite Leadership Clinical Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System LTPAC aidoc BJ Boyle Caregility Carta Healthcare Elad Walach Foley & Lardner Hlth HLTH 2023 HLTH2023 Isabel Hines Jeff Gartland Kedar Ga Source Type: blogs

SEMCAP Health Continues Strategic Investment in SafeRide Health and Secures Memorial Hermann Health System Co-Investment
Recent Series C Financing of Leading Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Platform Fuels Rapid National Expansion SEMCAP Health announces its continued support of portfolio company, SafeRide Health, with participation in the company’s recently announced Series C funding. This follows SEMCAP Health’s November 2021 initial investment in SafeRide Health, the leading network optimization platform for Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT). SafeRide Health’s ability to improve member experience and reduce costs for Medicaid and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries also attracted a strategic investment from Memorial Herm...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 27, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Healthcare IT News Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT Feby Abraham Health IT Funding Health IT Fundings Health IT Investment Memorial Hermann Memorial Hermann Health System Ralph Muller Robbins Schrader SafeRide Health SEMCAP SEMCAP Health Vic Kats Source Type: blogs

How Patient Activation Made It Possible to Thrive with Kidney Disease
By DAVE WHITE It had been 10 years since I’d seen a doctor when I arrived at the Emergency Room at George Washington University Hospital in October 2009. I was able to climb the first flight of stairs, but after I froze on the second, they brought me in on a wheelchair. That was the first time I heard the dreaded words, “Your kidneys aren’t working.” I was put on dialysis immediately, and my life transformed into a series of tests and procedures. But even after three weeks at the hospital, it didn’t sink in that there was no cure. I checked most risk factors for kidney disease: I ate the wrong foods, smo...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 27, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy chronic kidney disease Dave White Patient Activation Measure Patient Activism patient advocacy Source Type: blogs

Bonus Features – November 26, 2023 – 85% of healthcare orgs boosting IT spending in 2024, 70% of orgs actively considering generative AI, plus 18 more stories
This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job. News and Studies The latest Hospital Vitals report from Syntellis and the AHA found that hospitals have seen a 28% decline in cash reserves over the last 19 months. This is due in large part to increased expenses (from 25$ for...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 26, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Brian Eastwood Tags: Healthcare IT Aerin Medical Akasa American Hospital Association Artera AvaSure BrightSpring Health Services CancerIQ Carestream Health Clue CodaMetrix Da Vinci Project Derrick Sung eHealth Exchange EHR Association First Healt Source Type: blogs

Toward a Wider Adoption of Digital Insurance Cards
This article looks at what it will take to let us all check in to our doctor’s office as easily as we wave our cell phone before a scanner in a retail store. Start with Standards A typical digital validation in health care must be recognized by software on the patient’s device as well as sites at multiple institutions: providers, payers, pharmacies, and more. Therefore, standards are a prerequisite to digital insurance cards. Luckily (as the saying goes), there are many to choose from. HL7, which has been setting standards for health care since 1987, leapt into the modern age of computer standards by adopting...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 22, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Interoperability CARIN Alliance Commons Project Foundation Digital Insurance Card FHIR hl7 JP Pollak Leavitt Partners Mark Scrimshire OnyxOS Patient Identificat Source Type: blogs

Will We All Have To Become Biologically Enhanced Superhumans?
Okay, hands up who can tell who’s the most famous biologically enhanced superhuman in the world? True, it’s a quite close call between Captain America and The Incredible Hulk (sorry Spidey, you’re not even close). But are human-invented superhumans just a thing of a Stan Lee comic, or is it an actual scientific idea from a real laboratory? As a matter of fact, enhancing human capabilities has been on the minds of people for ages, but it has come a long way from ancient training methods to exoskeletons. Enhancing our abilities, be it permanently or temporarily is a tempting but risky matter. Will it be possibl...
Source: The Medical Futurist - November 21, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: berci.mesko Tags: Forecast Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Augmented Reality Bioethics Biotechnology Cyborgization Digital Health Research E-Patients Genomics Health Sensors & Trackers Healthcare Policy Medical Education Robotics Science Ficti Source Type: blogs

Bonus Features – November 19, 2023 – Critical access hospitals 16% less likely to participate in data exchange, two-thirds of orgs plan to increase AI spending by 25% in the next three years, plus 36 more stories
This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job. News Three U.S. Representatives have introduced the WEAR IT Act, which would let Americans use money from Flexible Spending Accounts or Health Savings Accounts to pay for devices such as blood glucose and EKG monitors or sleep ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 19, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Brian Eastwood Tags: Healthcare IT AccurKardia Aiberry Artisight Availity Avel eCare Azalea Health Bamboo Health BAMF Health BioIntelliSense CentralReach CHIME Fall Forum Circular Doccla Edifecs Equality Health Garrett Goldberg GE Healthcare Source Type: blogs