infographic explores whether ACOs are beneficial to the patient and the tax payer in the long run. 2011 has been a busy year for ACOs dominating the industry with the announcements of the ACO final rule, Medicare Shared Savings Program, NCQA Accountable Care Organization Accrediation program, and the 32 health systems selected for the CMS ACO Pioneer Program. Medicare can potentially save as much as $960 million dollars over three years through Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). With
Read More
Guest Post: 3 Key Takeaways from 2011 mHealth Summit
The following is a guest post written by Charles Huang discussing his 3 key takeaways from attending this year's mHealth Summit that was held in Washingon D.C. earlier this month that was recently posted on his blog: At the beginning of December, the 2011 mHealth conference took place in Washington DC. For conference attendees, it was a chance to be lost amongst thousands of others in the cavernous Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center (sans WiFi or conference supplied beverages,
Read More
Video Case Study: How Telehealth Can Eliminate Barriers to Care
The following video demonstrates how telehealth, including videoconferencing, can cost-effectively improve access to care for a high-medical-need population that is socially isolated, geographically dispersed, and experiences language and cultural barriers to care. In this project, specially trained pharmacists provided medication therapy management services to nearly 100 older Cambodian-Americans. Results Pharmacists identified 604 potentially harmful medication-related problems (MRPs).
Read More
Infographic: How Important is Protecting Patient Privacy?
Infographic highlighting the importance of protecting patient privacy Patient privacy continues to make headlines in the news signifying an epidemic in security breaches in healthcare organizations increasing over 32%in the past year costing an estimated 6.5 billion annually according to a recent study by Ponemon Institute. On Wednesday, a class action suit has been filed seeking as much as 16 million in damages for a data security breach involving the electronic medical records of 16,000
Read More
Guest Article: Six Strategies to Become A More Efficient Project Manager
This guest post is provided by A.G. Wu, Engagement Leader at Cerner Corporation on six strategies to become a more efficient project manager: Be a mentor. Promote independence in those around you. I hold regular meetings with clients (not just the PM) to ensure a full understanding of the WHY’s behind everything our project methodology entails. Areas benefited include MethodM access, meeting and event preparations, conversion readiness reviews, RDDS, and scope creep. All of which save time
Read More
iTriage Acquisition Marks the Advancement of mHealth
Health insurance giant Aetna announced during their investor's conference this past Thursday that it has acquired mhealth startup Healthagen, the developer of mobile app iTriage for an undisclosed price. Aetna’s Chairmen, CEO, and President Mark Bertolini told investors “About a month and a half ago we bought at little company called iTriage…the fastest growing consumer application in healthcare today.” iTriage lets users check symptoms, find doctors, make appointments, and do medical shopping.
Read More
2011 Annual Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services
KLAS has released their annual 2011 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services report. The report provides a summary of the KLAS performance ratings gathered over the past 12 months (18 months for select services) for healthcare IT software and services vendors in 111 market segments based on the ratings from over 18,000 interviews with healthcare providers. Epic continues to dominate the marketplace as the top ranked overall software vendor scoring 87.1 out of 100. For
Read More
Healthcare Reform’s Impact: Staff and Service Cuts Expected
The newest HealthLeaders Media Intelligence Report, Reform’s Impact: Staff and Service Cuts Expected, reveals that only 40% of healthcare senior executives who completed the survey believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will result in better access to healthcare services, despite the fact that many pundits insists that access will be the only element of healthcare that PPACA will improve. Fully 72% believe the law will lead to increased utilization of health services. The 2011
Read More
Interactive: A Status Report on Health Information Technology in the States
This map above provides a status report on where states stand in distributing Medicaid incentive payments for adoption of health information technology based on the latest data that was provided by CMS October 2011. The 2009 economic stimulus law signed by President Barack Obama contained $27 billion in federal funds for eligible health providers who install electronic health records and follow government “meaningful use” guidelines to improve patient care. This portion of the law — known as
Read More
5 Ways Healthcare Organizations Can Reduce Security Breaches
5 ways healthcare organizations can reduce occurrences of security breaches to combat the growing epidemic of security breaches in healthcare.
Read More