Indiana HIE has success using real-time alerts in the emergency department, reduced non-emergency visits by 53 percent By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Changes would affect hospital-based physicians who assign their reimbursement and billing to a Method II CAH for the EHR Incentive Programs By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Providers must toughen security and privacy as compliance deadline for new HIPAA rules approaches By Greg Bengel, contributing writer
As we move towards interoperability, patient data is constantly changing hands, but proprietary EHR vendor codes inhibit the true exchange of patient information.
The transcription group at Intermountain worked closely with its Nuance Healthcare implementation team to plan for the go-live. Together, they developed a strategy for a fast, successful enterprise-wide rollout. Following the implementation at the hospitals, the rollout to Intermountain’s 150 clinics began.
This independent mixed case study and white paper performed at the request of Greenway Medical Technologies provides an independent in-depth analysis of how Greenway’s services, solutions, and technology are helping medical practices undergo EMR-to-EHR conversions.
Many industry leaders championed a free market approach to healthcare during the 12th Annual World Health Care Congress last week. Here are a few key reasons why I don’t think this model is “the fix” our industry so desperately needs.
Our inaugural class of Health IT Change Agents set a high bar, but this year’s class can more than hold its own when it comes to driving positive change and advancing health IT.
For the past five years, EHR/MU was selected as the top health IT initiative for the coming year. This year, there’s a new top initiative, and what it is should come as no surprise.
Health IT is in a state of constant evolution, and it often seems that, for every problem solved, another is created. That’s why it’s vital we stop to assess where the industry stands from time to time, as well as look to the future to determine the best course to take to achieve our collective goals.
With all the talk of Big Data, there are still big questions as to how to most effectively leverage information and data to make a positive impact on healthcare delivery, cost, and outcomes. One health system leader thinks an approach developed by a Major League baseball team might be a game changer.
An Accountable Care Organization (ACO) utilizes a payment and care delivery system that bases payments to providers on quality metrics and seeks to reduce the total cost of care for a certain population of patients. ACOs use a range of payment models and consist of groups of coordinated healthcare providers that provide care to groups of patients. ACOs are accountable to a third-party payer and the group of patients for the appropriateness, quality, and efficiency of the health services they provide.
In 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) set forth initial guidelines for ACOs to be created under the Medicare Shared Savings Program. These guidelines contained all necessary steps required for a physician, health care provider, or hospital to voluntarily participate in ACOs.
The quality measures used to evaluate an ACO's performance as defined by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) fall into five domains. These domains are patient/caregiver experience, care coordination, patient safety, preventative health, and at-risk population/frail elderly health.
The three stakeholders in an ACO are the providers, payers, and patients. Providers are a network of hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare professionals. The primary payer is the federal government, Medicare, but also includes other payers such as private insurances or employee-purchased insurance. The patient population of an ACO will primarily consist of Medicare beneficiaries, but in larger ACOs can also include those who are homeless and uninsured.
According to a new report, a lack of out-of-network interoperability is the biggest obstacle facing ACOs today. By Katie Wike, contributing writer
