The House of Representatives recently voted to lift a ban prohibiting funding for a national patient identifier system (NPI) designed to improve patient matching.
So, what does that mean moving forward?
Let’s dive into the implications of the House’s vote.
What Will an NPI System Do?
Now that the House has lifted the ban on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) providing funding a national patient identifier, it’s important to become familiar with exactly what an NPI system
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How Back-End Technologies Will Help Improve Patient Outcomes In 2020
For years, healthcare organizations have faced unique barriers to technological innovation. Enterprise-wide issues of disconnected systems and data, the slow speed of application creation, implementation, and maintenance, a lack of mobile capabilities, and the challenges of ensuring security, privacy, and compliance have made it difficult to innovate quickly to improve patient outcomes.
However, this paradigm is changing. In 2020, we will see big changes as healthcare organizations embrace the
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Time’s Running Out: Why Providers Must Adopt Telehealth in 2020
Sometimes life just gets in the way. Work schedules, family obligations, and unforeseen circumstances can make going to the doctor an inconvenience rather than a helpful necessity. It’s not uncommon for patients to forget or intentionally skip appointments, cancel unexpectedly, or even put off scheduling necessary follow-up visits.
But patients don’t have to neglect their healthcare just because of a hectic work schedule or a last-minute meeting. Telehealth is emerging as a convenient
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4 Ways to Make Security Training A Priority in Your Healthcare Organization
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Healthcare finally made the shift–it went digital. Overdue, perhaps – and maybe less rapid than the transition by other industries – but nonetheless notable. The age of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has dawned, and healthcare is riding the wave. You go, healthcare!
For healthcare organizations, the advent of IoMT means new technology tools like smart medical devices extending and streamlining care throughout the hospital. This gives clinicians more mobility and more efficiency
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What Will It Take To Build The Uber of Medical Records? 3 Critical Steps to Consider
Our healthcare system has struggled with data silos and clumsy, antiquated data sharing practices forever and a variety of stakeholders will need to work together to achieve anything close to an “Uber of medical records.”
It’s well documented and understood that the healthcare industry has historically been slow to adopt new technology while other business sectors have welcomed it with ease. For example, while most industries abandoned the fax machine in the 1990s, as recently as 2017, fax
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Addressing Healthcare’s IT Security Oversight Challenges
Data theft within the healthcare sector continues to skyrocket, led by third-party data breaches and phishing attacks. Halfway through 2019, the number of patient records breached already exceeds the 2018 number by more than 10 million. Perhaps most concerning, many of the breaches lasted weeks or months before they were discovered.
Many health executives lack direct technology experience relevant to the healthcare industry, according to a Black Book Research survey of 308 executives. In
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Can Digital Health Bridge The Low-Income Gap?
We’ve known for a few years that income correlates with health in a major way. From the length of life to stroke risk to self-reported health status, the more access, opportunity, and means of upward mobility a person has, the better their projected health outcomes.
Waves of organizations are stepping up to help put things on a better course. Accountable and managed care organizations like Upward Health are working with payers, providers, and local governments to bring doctors, nurses, and
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Social Determinants of Health Trends in 2020: The End of the Beginning?
2020 will mark the end of the beginning of Social Determinants of Health (SDoH).
One would be remiss not to give pause and to consider how much time it has taken to get to this pivotal period in US health and healthcare delivery and, focus on the cornerstone “why” healthcare must, with a fierce urgency, step into the twenty-first century of US healthcare delivery. Meaning, it has taken nearly seventy years to go from the World Health Organization identifying the profundity of SDoH influence on
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Identity and Access Management – Bridging the Efficiency and Security Gap in Healthcare
The healthcare sector is charged with preserving some of the most sensitive information of any industry. Hospitals and clinics are required to securely store data, such as social security numbers, patient medical records, insurance policy details, and credit card numbers. Although healthcare administrators are confronted with copious amounts of sensitive information, it would be incorrect to assume that the industry is a beacon of cybersecurity best practices. In fact, 13.2 million patient
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New Year, New Codes: Best Practices for Keeping Your Chargemaster Up-To-Date
While Q4 is busy for every industry, it is especially taxing for those in the healthcare space. In addition to the quarterly update of HCPCS codes, Q4 brings the release of next year’s Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and HCPCS codes and also sees the release of the final rules for the prospective payment systems.
On top of the work going on behind the scenes, the end of the year is a notoriously busy time for hospitals as patients make a mad dash to complete their final visits for the year.
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