Document Management From The Editor

11. MGMA 13 Helps Practices Weather The Storm 10/15/2013

    Medical practices are being bombarded with a variety of new challenges, including health IT demands and reimbursement changes. MGMA 13 provided attendees with some much needed advice. Here are my top three takeaways from the event.

12. The EHR Honeymoon Is Over 7/23/2013

    According to Black Book Rankings’ latest ambulatory EHR satisfaction survey, many providers have become so dissatisfied with their existing EHRs, they’re looking to rip and replace these systems within the next 12 months.

13. Can Entrepreneurs Save Healthcare? 5/28/2013

    I love to hear Jonathan Bush speak. Say what you will about his agenda as president and CEO of EHR vendor athenahealth, but the guy is a charismatic, passionate, and persuasive public speaker. When you hear Bush give a keynote, it’s clear he’s inherited much of the political swagger that runs in his bloodline (former president George H.W. Bush is his uncle and George W. Bush is his cousin).

14. Critical Content Can’t Be Siloed 7/5/2012

    This special edition of Health IT Outcomes focuses on the “critical” patient health and financial data we are in the process of digitizing as a healthcare system. The federal government has deemed this move as a monumental step in cutting healthcare costs and improving patient care in the United States. It has even put incentives in place to spark IT adoption to this end. However, not everyone is convinced reduced costs and improved quality of care will be the result of this initiative.

15. Gainsharing: An Alternative To ACOs? 12/2/2011
    Gainsharing — a pay-for-performance program in play at select hospitals throughout the U.S. — is creating an accountable care environment (and benefits) without adhering to the ACO (accountable care organization) final rule issued by CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services). By Ken Congdon, Editor In Chief, Health IT Outcomes
16. ICD-10 And Meaningful Use Dominate AHIMA 2011 10/11/2011

    Last week marked the 83rd annual American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) convention. This year’s event was held in Salt Lake City, and attendance seemed a bit lighter this year than in years’ past — perhaps the result of fiscal cautiousness given our struggling economy. However, one contingent of the AHIMA membership community was at the conference in full force — coders. This attendance, no doubt, was heavily influenced by the upcoming transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets scheduled to take place in October 2013. ICD-10 will increase the sheer number of codes by nearly five times — from 14,000 to almost 70,000 — and changes the format of codes overall. For example, an ICD-9 code could only be up to five characters in length, where an ICD-10 code can be up to 7 characters long. These changes require upgrades to coding software and supporting backend systems, as well as significant change management on the part of the coding community. As expected, a number of ICD-10 solutions and services were on display in the AHIMA 2011 Exhibit Hall geared toward helping healthcare facilities meet these new coding requirements.
    By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes

17. Healthcare Reform In Effect, IT In Demand 9/28/2010
    A week ago today, the first key provisions of the new U.S. healthcare law went into effect. These initiatives are geared toward opening up the healthcare market to more consumers, while restricting the ability of insurance companies to sift out many high-risk clients. By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes
18. A Year In Healthcare 7/30/2010

    ARRA not only helped spur healthcare technology adoption, it also helped spawn Health IT Outcomes (HTO). Editor In Chief Ken Congdon takes a look back at HTO's first year covering the HIT space.

19. Taming The Paper Dragon In Healthcare 6/2/2010

    Last month, I moderated a panel discussion at AIIM Expo 2010 (a leading information management trade show) on the value of electronic document management in the healthcare industry. Document imaging and management technologies are relatively mature, but many healthcare facilities are still largely paper-based. Moreover, many believe that simply implementing EMR or EHR packages (initiatives in which most hospitals are currently engaged due to ARRA [The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act]) is all that’s required to decrease their dependency on paper. This misconception is why I felt this topic was such an important one to tackle at a venue like the AIIM Expo. My panelists included executives from document scanner manufacturers, traditional document imaging and management software houses, records management companies, and business process outsourcing firms. Each provided different, and compelling, reasons for why basic electronic document management systems and services are invaluable to the entire healthcare enterprise.