One 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 in the month of September. You can also read previous month’s Top Ten Lists. Thank you for contributing and reading.
Slow and Steady: The Journey Toward Interoperability
By Greg Stack, Product Marketing Manager, Orion Health
Twitter: @OrionHealth
In this world of instant communication and seemingly endless amounts of disruptive apps, it may seem like health information technology (HIT) has languished. However, there has been a monumental shift in the HIT market, and it’s only just beginning. Less than a decade ago, nine out of ten clinicians in the U.S. used paper-based patient records. Now it’s estimated that by the end of the year, 90 percent will be using electronic health records (EHRs). Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…
Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence is Key to Fighting Ransomware in Healthcare
By Munawar Abadullah,CEO, ImpTrax Corporation
Twitter: @ImpTrax
Twitter: @MAbadullah
Every once in a while the world wakes up to the news of yet another data breach of incredible proportion, providing a crude reminder that healthcare IT systems are not as secure as they should be. Some black hat hackers sell stolen data in bulk on the dark Web while others use a technique called credential stuffing to automatically force authentication on targeted domains. But regardless of how the stolen data gets used, one thing is for certain: increasingly bigger cyber data breaches and thefts are clear indicators that passwords used on their own are an inadequate way to ensure security. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Study Finds That 30% of SMEs Lack an Incident Response Plan
By Art Gross, President and CEO, HIPAA Secure Now!
Twitter: @HIPAASecureNow
Cybersecurity issues have become very prevalent in the modern era, making headlines with their disasters and fines associated with them. While it may seem obvious that businesses should take precautions to protect themselves against these potential attacks, they have been slow to move forward with improving their security measures – especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). An article on SME dives into a recent study of how prepared SMEs are for a security incident when it comes to their data breach response plan. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
3 Meaningful Steps for Data Breach Prevention and Preparation
By Grant Elliott, CEO, Ostendio
Twitter: @ostendio
Reported data breaches show that HIPAA violation settlements are on the upswing, both in terms of the number of individuals affected and financial cost. We’re not done with 2017, yet OCR’s updated breach portal shows that nearly 4 million individuals have been affected by over 200 healthcare data breaches as of mid-September. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
New Data on Skilled Nursing Facilities Use of EHRs Establish the Path for Progress
By Seth Pazinski / Director, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Analysis
Twitter: @ONC_HealthIT
Data released by the ONC report for the first time, nationally representative measures on electronic health record adoption and health information exchange among skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Most SNFs (64 percent) used EHRs to manage patient health information in 2016. About 22 percent of SNFs reported participating in a state or regional health information organization (HIO); with a fifth of facilities (18 percent) using both an EHR and an HIO. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Stopping Revenue Leakage – A Quick Start Guide
By Crystal Ewing, Manager of Data Integrity, ZirMed
Twitter: @zirmed
Revenue leakage – defined in this case as the loss of reimbursement due to revenue cycle management (RCM) issues or inefficiencies – has long been an issue in healthcare. McKinsey & Company reports that today these inefficiencies consume 15 cents of every healthcare dollar – $400 billion out of the $2.7 trillion spent on healthcare annually in America. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
Rocket Pace, But To Where?
By Matt Fisher, Attorney and chair of the Health Law Group at Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, LLP.
Twitter: @matt_r_fisher
Not a day goes by (or many posts on The Pulse Blog) without a discussion of the rapid increase in data breaches impacting the healthcare industry. Information and statistics in this regard are inescapable. For instance, the so-called “Wall of Shame,” which is the public posting of breaches, recently crossed the 2,000 breach threshold. The Wall of Shame first came online in 2009 and took almost five years to hit the 1,000 barrier, but just another 3 years to hit 2,000. Clearly, the data show more breaches are happening and more frequently. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Expanding Patient Engagement Overseas
By David Wright, Senior VP, Government Services, GetWellNetwork
Twitter: @GetWellNetwork
An effective approach to patient engagement must consider not only the patient’s condition, but their demographics, health literacy, support system, family structure, personal goals and “capacity to engage.” Since a successful strategy involves a complex mix of medical and cultural understanding of the patient, the idea of expanding patient engagement best practices to countries with different social, religious and family culture may seem daunting. Continue reading on HIEAnswers.net…
5 Best Practices for Centralizing Patient Access
By Jamie Gier, CMO, SCI Solutions
Twitter: @SCI4Healthcare
For years, health systems have spent large amounts of capital on initiatives inside the walls of their hospitals, such as large-scaled EMR implementations. This has helped address important quality issues as well as meet regulatory requirements, but the stark reality is that these large investments have done little to help health systems — who are already operating with slim profit margins — generate much-needed revenue. This shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…
Opportunities and Threats to Home-Based Medical Care Under MACRA
By Bruce Leff & Christine Ritchie, The Commonwealth Fund
Twitter: @CommonwealthFnd
Home-based medical care offers older homebound adults with multiple chronic conditions and functional limitations access to care — while enabling them to avoid living in an institution. As the U.S. health care system moves away from paying for individual services toward more value-based care under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), we in the field have developed quality measures appropriate to the needs of the homebound, and are working to address shortcomings in the new payment system. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…
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