Health IT Issues that Deserve a Second Read – March 2016

Top10-200One of the ways that HITECH Answers is different from other media sites is the sense of community. The thought leaders in our community are good about sharing their thoughts on the issues of today. We publish at least eleven guest posts a week now, on our three sites. In case you missed some, here are the top ten read and shared guest posts of the month. You can also read previous month’s Top Ten Lists. Thank you for contributing and reading.

How MIPS Affects Physician Reimbursement
By Jeff Jones, Business Project Analyst, GroupOne Health Source Inc.
Twitter: @GroupOne_Health

[tweetthis]How #MIPS Affects #Physician Reimbursement by @GroupOne_Health @CMSGov[/tweetthis] – Declining reimbursement is one of the greatest financial challenges physicians face today. While there isn’t much you can do to stop reimbursement cuts, you can be proactive in learning about the Merit Based Incentive Payment System and how it will impact physician reimbursement. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…

The Top 5 EHR Usability Problems and How to Fix Them!
By Bennett Lauber, Chief Experience Officer, The Usability People
Twitter: @UsabilityPeople

[tweetthis]Top 5 #EHR Usability Problems and How to Fix Them @UsabilityPeople #healthIT [/tweetthis] – This year at HIMSS in Las Vegas there was no shortage of talk about the “lack of usability” in EHRs. In the final HIMSS16 show daily (Thursday March 3, 2016) there were four articles (“When EHRs cause Harm,” “5 UX steps to Healthy Clinical apps,” “Nurse: We face severe IT usability problems,” and “The leading health IT issues? Poor usability and missing safeguards”) that addressed some aspect of EHR usability. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

Final HIPAA Lessons
By Matt Fisher, Attorney and chair of the Health Law Group at Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, LLP.
Twitter: @matt_r_fisher

[tweetthis]Lack of BA agreement and #HIPAA risk analysis leads to $1.55 million fine @matt_r_fisher @HHSGov[/tweetthis] – It has been a frequent message that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been providing numerous HIPAA lessons over the past few years through settlement announcements. The most recent lesson was released on March 16th. This time, North Memorial Health Care of Minnesota (NMHC) did not have a business associate agreement with a major service provider, nor had it conducted the required risk analysis under the Security Rule. NMHC’s violations netted it a $1.55 million fine and a Corrective Action Plan. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

How Millennials Are Impacting Healthcare IT
By Kerri Knippenberg, Business Development Analyst, DICOM Grid
Twitter: @dicomgrid

[tweetthis]5 ways #Millennials are impacting #healthIT @dicomgrid[/tweetthis] – Millennials between the ages of 18 and 24 have been changing the norms as consumers. Nearly all business sectors have been affected by millennials because they are not sticking to traditional consumer trends. Below I highlighted 5 ways in which millennials are changing the world of healthcare: Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

Avoiding One of the Most Common Analytics Pitfalls
By Christy Green, Director of Strategic Consulting & Cheryl Mason, MSHI, Senior Manager of Strategic Consulting and Clinical Informatics, Health Language
Twitter: @Health_Language

[tweetthis]Avoiding One of the Most Common #Healthcare #Analytics Pitfalls @Health_Language[/tweetthis] – Today’s hospital and health system executives cannot help but hear the clamor to advance data-driven care delivery models focused on proactive management of populations. Pressed by a sense of urgency to position for the future of risk-based reimbursement arrangements, executives can often overlook a cornerstone element to success with analytics: data normalization. In fact, it is not uncommon for a health system to invest millions of dollars in an analytics solution, only to realize later that the reports being produced are inaccurate or meaningless due to missing or poor quality data. How can healthcare executives avoid this situation? Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…

10 Tips To Prepare for MIPS – Merit-Based-Incentive Program System
By Peggy Losey, Manager of Ambulatory Incentive Programs, ehealthcare Consulting Inc.
Twitter: @ehealthcareorg

[tweetthis]10 Tips To Prepare for #MIPS – Merit-Based-Incentive Program System @CMSGov[/tweetthis] – Since first hearing of the new Pay-for-Performance reimbursement model MIPS, created through the MACRA legislation, I have noticed a strong similarity to the auto industry. Detroit roots, here! Comparisons are made in both industries to the continual introduction of new models, incentives to get you to “buy”, new technology and a focus on top performance! All driven by behind the scenes mandates of federal regulation toward safety, advanced technology, affordability and the best customer experience. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…

2016: The Year of Increased Risk for EHRs
By Mark Menke, Chief Technology Officer of Network DLP, Digital Guardian
Twitter: @DigitalGuardian

[tweetthis]2016: The Year of Increased Risk for #EHRs @DigitalGuardian[/tweetthis] – Last year, we witnessed a number of data breaches occur within hospital networks, health insurers, physicians’ offices, and much more. In fact, Community Health Systems, Premera and Anthem were just some of the bigger names who made cybersecurity headlines in 2015, resulting in more than 94 million records exposed. Attacks ranged from simple, employee-targeted breaches, to more complex methods carried out by sophisticated hackers. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

Steep Price Tag for Not Entering a Business Associate Agreement
By Sam Barnes, OMW Health Law

[tweetthis]Minnesota hospital pays steep price for not entering a Business Associate Agreement #HIPAA[/tweetthis] – North Memorial Health Care of Minnesota (North Memorial) recently agreed to settle charges that it violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules by essentially failing to enter into a Business Associate Agreement. Pursuant to the settlement, North Memorial agreed to pay $1,550,000. This settlement is a reminder of the importance of executing business associate agreements before sharing protected health information. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

4 Reasons the Best Health IT Pros Don’t Want to Work for You
By Tim Cannon, VP of Product Management & Marketing, HealthITJobs.com
Twitter: @HealthITJobscom

[tweetthis]4 Reasons the Best #HealthIT Pros Don’t Want to Work for You @HealthITJobscom[/tweetthis] – Health IT professionals are in high-demand, and the competition for talent is stiff. What’s worse, your talented pros are always on the lookout for new opportunities, leaving you with more health IT jobs to fill. But why are they leaving? And why can’t you get new talent to accept your offers? Here are some of the top things that drive talented health IT candidates away and how to fix them: Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

Enabling Nationwide Interoperability
By John Halamka, MD & Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative
Twitter: @jhalamka

[tweetthis]Enabling nationwide #Interoperability by @jhalamka, Micky Tripathi MeHC @ONC_HealthIT[/tweetthis] – It’s been over 10 years since ONC head David Brailer and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson published the “The Decade of Health Information Technology”, one of the goals of which was to create “a new network to link health records nationwide.” Since the beginning, government planners have advanced the notion of a national-level network, at first suggesting a single “national health information network” architecture, which was later modified to be a “nationwide health information network” built on a foundation of federally-subsidized regional health information organizations (RHIOs) working together across the country. More recently, the ONC Interoperability Roadmap, recognizing that the building blocks of universal interoperability could not be so neatly erected, leans on the idea of “coordinated governance” of networks. Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…

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