Health IT Issues that Deserve a Second Read – September 2018

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  in the month of September. You can also read previous month’s Top Ten Lists. Thank you for contributing and reading.

Most Played Radio Episode in September

From Conversations on Health Care, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Intermountain Healthcare of Utah’s CEO Emeritus Dr. Charles Sorenson about Intermountain’s innovative, integrated care delivery system committed to improved outcomes and contained costs. He is Founding Director of the Intermountain Healthcare Leadership Institute which seeks to train future clinician leaders in their team-based model of care delivery.

Most Read Thought Leader Posts in September

Specialty Drug Life-Cycle and How Improved Technology Can Save Time and Patients’ Lives
By Leslie Hoyt, Chief Growth Officer, ZappRx
Twitter: @ZappRx

In healthcare, whether you’re a technology vendor, provider, hospital executive or clinical staff member, the collective goal is to help patients get better by efficiently working together. While the healthcare sector is making progress in many areas, unfortunately, a substantial portion of the industry is still playing technology “catch-up” to other markets. As a result, many areas in healthcare are using outdated technology and operational processes. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

Healthcare Data Breaches Rise Along with Consumer Concerns of Privacy and Data Security
By Art Gross, President and CEO, HIPAA Secure Now!
Twitter: @HIPAASecureNow

A recent survey conducted by the health insurance company Aetna revealed some significant results as to what consumers consider to be their most important concern in terms of healthcare. According to the survey of 1,000 consumers, concerns of patient privacy and data security are more important than the cost of care. 80% of survey respondents indicated that privacy was a top concern regarding their health care, while 76% of individuals felt the same high level of concern for their data security. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

What is Considered a HIPAA Breach in 2018?
By Marty Puranik, Founder, President, & CEO, Atlantic.Net
Twitter: @AtlanticNet

Especially given the Breach Notification Rule, the requirement to send out notifications to patients and other parties following compromise of your healthcare information defenses, it is important to think specifically about what a breach is and how likely ones of different types are to occur. What is and is not a HIPAA breach? Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

How Healthcare Practices Can Improve the Patient Experience and Boost Revenue
By Marvin Luz, Senior Director of Revenue Services, Greenway Health
Twitter: @greenway

The consumerization of healthcare is dramatically changing the equation for providers. Competitive pressure is forcing providers to invest in new technologies and processes designed to improve the patient experience, all while they’re seeking ways to grow revenue. The goals of providing a better patient experience and increasing revenue are not diametrically opposed. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…

Looking at MIPS Through A Different Lens: From Compliance Burden to Change Enabler
By Tom S. Lee, PhD, Founder & CEO, SA Ignite
Twitter: @saignite

Incentive focused programs such as PQRS and Meaningful Use created opportunities for providers to benefit financially from submitting quality data and attesting to meaningful EHR use, respectively. Because these programs were initially voluntary, providers could choose (or not) to take on their data submission related compliance burdens. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

Interoperability: Moving Beyond Talk to Taking Action
By David Lareau, CEO, Medicomp Systems
Twitter: @MedicompSys

Long a favorite topic of discussion among health IT insiders, interoperability has finally started to earn the attention of a wider industry audience. To list just two of many possible recent examples: CMS illustrated its emphasis on the concept by relabeling the incentive program once known as “Meaningful Use” as the new and improved “Promoting Interoperability,” and six of the most prominent companies in technology – including Amazon, Microsoft and Google – publicly pledged to collaborate towards a future of true healthcare interoperability. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

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

The excuses for health information not freely flowing are numerous, but very often come back to alleged privacy concerns under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and its associated regulations, or “HIPAA” as it is more often referred to. The excuses often fall back on a position that HIPAA requires all patient-related information to be fully locked down and maintained in “airtight” systems that can only be opened with permissions. While that is the perceived standard, actual systems do not really reflect this position. Continue reading on HITECHAnswers.net…

Referential Matching: The New Gold Standard in Patient Matching Technology
By Nick Orser, Product Marketing Manager, Verato
Twitter: @Verato_Software

No matter what patient matching technology you use, and no matter what vendor it is from, it uses fundamentally the same approach to patient matching as every other technology. This is true whether you use the built-in master patient index (MPI) module in your EHR from Epic®, Cerner®, or another vendor, or whether you use an enterprise master patient index (EMPI) product from a vendor like IBM®. Continue reading on HealthDataAnswers.net…

The Combination of AI, Data Analytics and Medicaid Could Transform Healthcare Delivery
By Sita Kapoor, Data Scientist & Chief Information Officer, HealthEC
Twitter: @HealthEC_LLC

Unexpected, large-scale partnerships have the potential to spur dynamic change in the healthcare industry. We need to look no further than the innovative venture announced earlier this year between Amazon.com, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase designed to improve healthcare delivery and lower costs for the U.S-based employees of these corporate giants. Continue reading on RCMAnswers.net…

Blockchain & Healthcare: Has the Killer App Arrived?
By Jim Tate, EMR Advocate
TTwitter: @jimtate

Everywhere I look in healthcare technology I’m seeing claims that blockchain technology is the silver bullet. We are being told that distributed ledgers will solve all the pain points found in interoperability and soon data will flow like the mighty Mississippi River. Toss in a few smart contracts and insurance companies will evaporate as reimbursement for healthcare services will be totally under the command of computer code. One wishes it would all be so easy. Continue reading on HealthDataAnswers.net…

Read All Our Industry Expert Posts

Tune in to our HealthcareNOW Radio for Health IT programming 24/7  

[gallery_carousel style=”modern” visible_items=”4″ total_items=”-1″ category=”radio-lineup” orderby=”rand” order=”DESC” auto_rotate=”yes” animation=”fade-in”]