Top stories in health and medicine, May 29, 2014
From MedPage Today:
Primary Pain Points: ‘Messing With the Computer’. “Messing with the computer takes the physician’s head out of the exam,” Jordan Grumet, MD, a primary care clinician in a small practice in Northbrook, Ill., told MedPage Today in response to the question “What frustrates you?”
No Link Seen Between Vaccines and Lupus. Recent vaccination was not associated with an increased risk for the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
More Brain Bleeds With Stroke Drug in ‘Real World’. In a real-world practice setting, the use of tissue plasminogen ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 29, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: MedPage Today Tags: News Heart Neurology Rheumatology Source Type: blogs
Cloud-based (SaaS) vs. Server-based EMR System - Evaluate Your Options
EMR & Medical Billing Best Practices Series: #8
In our blog's best practice series for electronic health record implementations, we recently covered the need for planning and process mapping when shopping for an EHR. We also highlighted some tips for involving staff in the EHR implementation process, specifically with regarding to training. Before moving from planning to training, another essential decision your medical office needs to make is whether a server-based or web-based EHR is best suited to your needs.
Server-Based EHR Systems
A server-based EHR system stores all data and most functionality in house, which me...
Source: EMR EHR Blog for Physicians - May 24, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Suzanne Prasad Source Type: blogs
CMS Issues RFI on Transforming Medical Practices and Value-Based Payment
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is soliciting public commentary on the optimal ways to transform medical practices and prepare them for value-based purchasing. Entitled Request for Information: Transforming Clinical Practices, the RFI seeks responses from Clinicians, Health Plans and a variety of other associations about large scale transformation of clinician practices, to generate better care and better health at lower costs.
According to CMS, the feedback from the RFI may be used to develop future Requests for Proposals and test new payment and service delivery models to assist practices in their ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - March 24, 2014 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
ICD-10 Coding Could Create Cash Crunch in Physician Offices
On October 1, 2014, all health care providers will switch from ICD-9 coding to ICD-10 coding when they bill private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid . To understand how large this move is, there are only 20,000 ICD-9 codes while the number of codes in ICD-10 set is nearly 70,000.
Healthcare finance officials disagree on whether the new coding will increase or decrease initial denials. It is clear that when the October 2014 deadline comes, provider productivity will see an initial drop in due to denial of claims that will eventually drop off to similar levels existing today. However, denial management will become easier as...
Source: EMR EHR Blog for Physicians - March 14, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Alok Prasad Source Type: blogs
Podcast: HIMSS CEO Steve Lieber, 2014 edition
It’s time for my annual podcast interview with HIMSS President and CEO Steve Lieber, this time from the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., on the day before the official opening of the 2014 HIMSS Conference, rather than in his Chicago office a week or so in advance.
Lieber reiterated HIMSS’ position that the federal government should extend the attestation period for Meaningful Use Stage 2 by one year. I wasn’t there, but today at the CIO Forum, one of the preconference educational symposia, ONC Chief Medical Officer Jacob Reider, M.D., hinted that there will be an announcement on Stage 2 f...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - February 24, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil VerselNeil Versel Tags: Accountable Care Organizations ARRA care coordination certification cloud computing consumerism EMR/EHR health information exchange health IT health reform Healthcare IT HHS HIMSS hospitals ICD-10 Innovation meaningful use Source Type: blogs
ICD-10 Update: Conversion Finally Getting Testing but Program Will Be Costly
On October 1, 2014 of this year CMS is requiring all providers and health systems to submit their bills using a new coding system ICD 10.
Federal health officials recently announced "end-to-end" testing of Medicare claims using the ICD-10 diagnostic and procedure codes. This is an attempt to deliver much sought-after assurances that its contractors will be prepared for the October 1st, 2014 implementation date. The testing will allow the participating providers and suppliers to submit test claims to the CMS with ICD-10 codes and receive a remittance advice explaining how the claims were processed, according to the CMS.
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Source: Policy and Medicine - February 24, 2014 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Why I love Mary
Mary: "Dr. Grumpy's office, this is Mary."Ms. Tinfoil: "Hi, I need to see the doctor."Mary: "Okay, we have an opening next Tuesday at..."Ms. Tinfoil: "Does your office have WiFi?"Mary: "No, we're a small practice and..."Ms. Tinfoil: "That's good. My last neurologist was using WiFi to read my thoughts. He fired me when I told him I was reporting him to the police."Mary: "Okay... What are you coming in for?"Ms. Tinfoil: "I want someone to look at my MRI films. All the doctors say they're normal, but I know they work for the government. You can see the microtransistors they placed in my brain to use WiFi on me, and I need a n...
Source: Doctor Grumpy in the House - February 19, 2014 Category: Neurologists Authors: Grumpy, M.D. Source Type: blogs
ONC Health IT Fellows: Leaders in Health IT
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has a Health IT Fellows program. You can also get involved in the Health IT Vanguard program as a Meaningful Use Vanguard (MUVer).The purpose of the Health IT Fellows (“Fellows”) is to provide grassroots insight and critical feedback/critique of appropriateness, clarity, and effectiveness of resources, tools, and other technical assistance initiatives of the ONC and others geared towards their peers. Fellows are empowered to ensure these and other communications are realistic, authentic, and clear to their colleagues in an effort to ensure t...
Source: Non-Clinical Physician Jobs, Careers, and Opportunities - February 16, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Joseph Kim, MD, MPH Source Type: blogs
Brad Adds...
Dalai's note: As my earlier post was prompted in large part by my friend Brad Levin's discussions of PACS deficiencies, I gave him a heads up upon its publication. Brad zeroed in on this snide comment..."As an aside, some have suggested that IT-savvy departments assemble their own PACS from off-the-shelf components. To that, I can only say, "BWWWWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!" Good luck, folks. Not going to happen for the foreseeable future, at least not in my enterprise.” He wrote the following response which is most worthy of your attention. Without further ado, heeeeerrrrrrreeeee's Brad!Clearly you are skeptical, but I assure you,...
Source: Dalai's PACS Blog - February 1, 2014 Category: Radiologists Source Type: blogs
Lawmakers Revise SGR Repeal Proposal, Scale Back Penalties; Another Short Term “Doc Fix” Likely Until Early 2014
Discussion Draft to repeal Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) payment formula. The changes followed feedback from physician groups and include physician-favorable modifications to the October version.
The revised draft includes scaling back the Value-Based Performance (VBP), the amount of payment that is contingent on performance. This phase-in approach, according to the drafters, "allows professionals time to adjust to the single consolidated incentive program." The maximum upside adjustment also decreased to the revised proposal numbers.
The updated draft bill also calls for subjecting non-physicians, such...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 5, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Thankful for Amazing Support
I’m so excited. Things are coming together for a really big announcement next Monday. I’m really excited about what we’ve put together and I think many readers will be interested in it as well. I’ve leaked the idea a little bit on Twitter, but I should be able to announce a lot more details next Monday. Watch for that next week.
Until then, it seems really appropriate at this time of Thanks to take a few seconds to recognize the many sponsors who support the work we do here at EMR and HIPAA. It’s been a really great 6 months and we’ve received a lot of amazing support. In fact, I&#...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 3, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: John Lynn Tags: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR HealthCare IT Amazing Charts Canon Colocation America Doc Halo EHR Ads EHR Advertising EHR Vendor EMR Ads EMR advertising EMR and HIPAA EMR Vendor Health Fusion H Source Type: blogs
4 Common Challenges in Small Clinic EHR Implementations
One mistake many offices make when converting files to electronic health records is to attempt to do everything at once. If your medical office isn't ready for a full-scale EHR implementation, a push to complete the process on a tight deadline overwhelms and burns out staff. Converting records at a pace that isn't right for your office—or doing so before you're ready or have the right resources in place—can also corrupt your patient care processes, resulting in treatment mistakes or poor patient experience. Here's a look at how to face those, and other, EHR challenges in a small or mid-sized medical office.
Limited Tec...
Source: EMR EHR Blog for Physicians - October 20, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Shreya Iyer Source Type: blogs
5 EHR Myths Debunked
The people at AdvancedMD put out a whitepaper called EHR Myths Debunked: 5 Status Quo Myths that Hold You back and Reduce Your Bottom Line. I love the topic of debunking EHR myths. There are a lot of them out there that are propped up by misinformation. Plus, the EHR world is moving so quickly, it’s hard to keep up with all of the changes which solve the previous issues.
I love a lot of the stats in the whitepaper that they use to debunk the myth. For example, they say that “$42,000 could be wasted annually on paper charts.” This goes with the myth that looks at the financial sense of a paper chart s...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - October 14, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: John Lynn Tags: EHR EHR Benefits Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR HealthCare IT ADP AdvancedMD EHR Costs EHR Myths Paper Charts Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Cloud Spending To Ramp Up Over Next Few Years
For years, healthcare IT executives have wrestled with the idea of deploying cloud services, concerned that the cloud would not offer enough security for their data. However, a new study suggests that this trend is shifting direction.
A new study by market research firm MarketsandMarkets has concluded that the healthcare industry will invest $5.4 billion in cloud computing by 2017. This year should see a particularly big change, with total healthcare cloud investment moving from 4 percent to 20.5 percent of the industry, according to an article in the Cloud Times.
The current US cloud market for healthcare is dominated b...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - October 4, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Katherine Rourke Tags: EHR Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR EMR Security EMR Technology HealthCare IT HIPAA General Hospital EHR Medical Privacy Security Rule AT&T Carecloud Carestream Health Healthcare Cloud IBM Merge Healt Source Type: blogs
4 Things You Should Do to Make Sure You’re Compliant with Meaningful Use
The following is a guest post by Beth Houck, Vice President of Client Services at SA Ignite.
As we near the last quarter of 2013, many providers will have earned over half of their Meaningful Use (MU) incentive dollars and will be adept at following the workflows required to meet the Stage 1 measures. With two years (or more) of following MU under their belts, it’s really just old hat, right? Maybe, but not so fast.
For small practices with no turnover and no upgrades to their EHR, practice managers can follow many of the same checklists that got them through the first year: verification that all non-percentage ba...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 26, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: John Lynn Tags: ARRA EHR EHR Stimulus Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR HealthCare IT HITECH Meaningful Use Beth Huock EHR Incentive FQHC Meaningful Use Compliance Meaningful Use Reporting MU Reporting SA Ignite Source Type: blogs
