By Jonathan Krasner – We are all well aware of the epidemic of large data breaches that have been occurring recently. Anthem, Blue Cross, UCLA, the list goes on and on. Over 143 million records breached to date – an astounding figure! Since 2009, when the Office of Civil Rights “Wall of Shame” came into existence, there have been over 1,200 breaches of 500 records or more that have been reported.
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By Angela Hunsberger – Over the past decade rapid changes in healthcare technology have caused a whirlwind of medical software adoption, and, in some cases, an overconsumption of ancillary products. Medical practices have implemented EHRs, patient portals, and secure messaging to participate in programs such as Meaningful Use and Patient Centered Medical Home certification.
By Steve Spearman – If you haven’t heard, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center recently agreed to pay a $218,400 settlement to HHS for HIPAA violations, in addition to implementing a “Corrective Action Plan”.
By John Halamka MD – As we gather together stakeholders for strategic planning of next year’s priorities, what are we hearing and what we have learned? With these observations, what are we planning to do in FY16? Over the next month, we will present a 5 page list of “bottom up” stakeholder enumerated high priority projects, categorized as core, advanced, and innovative.
By Edgar Wilson – Discussions of the benefits, potential, and future of EHRs trumpet the advance of personalized healthcare built on the intersection of patient history and genetic data. President Obama has advanced a program to integrate genomics data into both research and treatment, known as the Precision Medicine Initiative.
Registration is now open for the 5th Annual Consumer Health IT Summit hosted by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. This popular event is free and sells out each year. Register today to reserve your seat.
In July of this year, ProPublica released a searchable database of 16,827 surgeons performing one of eight elective procedures in Medicare and their individual complication rates. They focused on elective cases because they typically involve healthier patients with the best odds of a smooth recovery.
By Jim Tate – I read it almost every day. “Meaningful Use (MU) is over”. “The incentives are almost all paid out”. Everyone is acting like the entire CMS EHR Incentive Program is slipping away and with it the entire concept of MU. Better hold your horses. The death knell of MU has been overplayed.
By Dinesh Sheth – Why is it that patients are slow to take charge of their health records? Some articles suggest that management of health information should be a patient-driven initiative and the points that are used to propagate this idea are not without merit.