As healthcare providers increasingly embrace big data, they find themselves at a crossroads: the challenge of using relevant data to improve patient care while ensuring the highest levels of privacy and compliance with regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Violations of HIPAA can result in reputation damage, loss of patient trust, and also severe penalties—up to $50,000 per violation, alongside potential criminal charges. These legal parameters are
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The Health IT Needed to Implement Harris’ Medicare Home Care Proposal
Vice President Harris’ proposal to expand Medicare to include home care for seniors and people with disabilities could potentially provide up to 20 hours of weekly in-home care. The eligibility requirements for recipients is that they must face challenges with daily activities or suffer from serious cognitive impairments like Alzheimer’s.
Given this could potentially open up access to home care to millions of Americans who currently can’t afford to pay for it, will undoubtedly place an
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How Medicare Advantage Programs Can Address Social Risk and Improve Health Outcomes
There are almost 33 million people enrolled in eligible Medicare programs. Nearly half are enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, and that number is expected to continue its climb. While many MA plans offer services that align with social determinants of health (SDOH) goals, there are still gaps in how these services reach and support vulnerable populations. This challenge is multifaceted. Critical issues include:
An incomplete understanding of how MA services impact different SDOHs
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Why Healthcare Execs are Hesitant to Embrace Long-Term AI Contracts
AI promises significant advances in patient care and healthcare operations, from improved diagnostics and personalized treatments plans to streamlining administrative tasks. Yet, a clear pattern has emerged in the decisions healthcare technology leaders are making around AI adoption within their organizations. Leaders are grappling with how to balance cutting-edge innovation with the risks and complexities of adopting an AI solution.
Despite the enormous potential of AI, healthcare executives
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Transforming The Contact Center Into A Value-Based Care Engine
The most effective way to reduce the amount of money our country spends annually on healthcare – which now exceeds $4.1 trillion – is to help people avoid becoming sick in the first place. That’s the fundamental premise of value-based care (VBC), which focuses on improving patient outcomes and quality of care while driving down costs.
VBC is great in intent and theory, but many provider organizations today are struggling to meet the quality and financial metrics stipulated under these
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Unlocking Value-Based Care Through Accurate Provider Data
There’s no better illustration of the healthcare system’s data problems than this: 80% of entries in the nation’s five largest health plans were inaccurate as recently as last year. With a majority of patients relying on their health plan’s provider directory to select a physician, it’s not hyperbole to say incorrect provider data is dragging the entire industry down.
How can value-based care be realized when patients can’t find the provider information they need? Something as small as
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Managed Print Services: A Cure for Healthcare’s Printing Headaches?
Despite advances in digital applications, healthcare organizations generate a host of printed documents daily, from patient forms to disclosure agreements to labels and more. The healthcare industry is a heavy user of printing services, with print usage increasing 28% from the peak of the pandemic and continuing to grow at a 5% rate each year. Because of this, print assets must be dependable, as any downtime directly impacts employee productivity and patient experience. The overwhelming number
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How Reasoning-Based AI Improves Care Transitions
It’s human nature that when we are told to do something, we want to know the reason why.
That’s especially true when the direction comes from a machine, and it concerns something as important as healthcare. However, some artificial intelligence (AI) systems being used in healthcare do not offer that option; instead, they issue generic prompts with limited transparency into the reasoning behind it.
In contrast to these large language-based models of AI, other systems emphasize
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Modernizing Healthcare Communications with Cloud-Based Faxing
Healthcare organizations recognize that modern communication systems are crucial to enhancing operational efficiency and securing sensitive patient information. While some have been slow to adopt new technologies due to concerns over HIPAA regulations and potential risks to patient data, it is possible to strike a balance between innovation and compliance when updating legacy technology. This is especially true with an often underappreciated yet necessary technology: fax servers.
The
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How Cybersecurity Breaches Affect Patient Care and Recovery
The healthcare industry has long been built on the promise of providing uninterrupted care across a vast and interconnected ecosystem. However, in recent years, the sector has faced an escalating threat—cyberattacks. Data breaches, ransomware attacks, and system vulnerabilities have emerged as major disruptors, threatening sensitive patient information and the very foundation of patient care. As healthcare providers increasingly rely on digital systems, these threats pose significant challenges
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