By Matt Patterson MD – I had the privilege to present at the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Hearing. Leaders in the healthcare industry discussed how mobile applications are disrupting the ways in which doctors and patients engage in the health care system and impact the affordability, accessibility, and delivery of care.
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By Matt Fisher – After promising to provide guidance and insight for a breaking issue, the OCR came out with ransomware guidance under HIPAA. One major issue for debate was whether a ransomware attack constitutes a HIPAA breach. The guidance provides insight into where OCR is coming from and what it expects the industry to do in response to a ransomware attack.
By Keith Boone – One of the challenges of meaningful use is in how it has diverted attention from other uses of standards that could have value. Use of the Unstructured Document template provides one such example.
By Dr. Vindell Washington – Hospitals across the country continue to make progress toward the goal of ensuring that health information flows where it is needed the most. Today, almost all U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals have certified EHR technology and 82% are electronically exchanging health data outside their organization – double the percentage from 2008.
By Matt Fisher – With healthcare gradually (or rapidly) moving from a fee for service (FFS) world to a value-based care world, questions about the laws and regulations governing relationships within healthcare are increasing. The predominant current regulatory framework, exemplified by the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statutes.
By John Halamka – “Do we need more or less healthcare IT regulation and legislation” is that we need the right amount of the right regulations/legislation. Sometimes when clinicians prescribe medication, although it does therapeutic good, it creates side effects which need to be addressed by changing a dose or by adding additional medications.
By Mordy Pelleg – For clinicians working in the complex American healthcare system, getting paid for every single procedure, service and visit has always been something of a challenge. Yes, fee-for-service medicine created a fairly linear relationship between effort and remuneration, but even in that scenario many hospitals and practices have teetered on the edge of solvency, in part for lack of efficient billing practices.
By John Halamka MD – Would you buy an iPhone if the only apps that ran on it were written by Apple? Maybe, but the functionality would not be very diverse. The same can be said of EHRs. Athena, Cerner, Epic, Meditech, and self developed EHRs such as BIDMC’s webOMR are purpose-built transaction engines for capturing data.
By Susannah Fox – On his first day in office, President Obama announced administration policies to make government serve the American people better through greater transparency, collaboration, and participation. Known as the federal government’s Open Government Initiative, each agency has developed a plan every other year outlining steps.