Editor's Note: The Coalition for ICD-10 has issued the following statement in response to the recent efforts to create a "safe harbor" for physicians, which would prohibit claims from being denied due to incorrect or unspecified ICD-10 codes, will result in dangerous consequences for the healthcare delivery system.
Multiple bills have been introduced in Congress that create a “safe harbor” for physicians by prohibiting claims from being denied “due solely to the use of an unspecified or
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Information Blocking in Health IT: Myth or Reality?
Editor's Note: Irv Lichtenwald is president and CEO of Medsphere Systems Corporation, the solution provider for the OpenVista electronic health record. Prior to joining Medsphere, he served as CFO of Advent Software, a leading provider of investment management solutions. Between 1995 and 2003, Irv led Advent through three public stock offerings.
Do we believe in something we can’t see?
The suggestion has been made that some vendors are actively engaged in “information
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How Apple, Qualcomm & Lawyers will Revolutionize Healthcare
Editor's Note: This post is written by Jeffrey Vogel, David Wong and Kathleen Collins from Bulger Partners, an advisory firm that specializes in healthcare IT.
The opportunity for technology in healthcare is monumental – and it’s no surprise that change is needed. Healthcare is a cumbersome, $3 trillion industry bloated with high costs, inefficiencies, and information asymmetries. Today, the wealth of data being created in medical settings is often not archived, shared, or
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5 Cultural Pitfalls To Avoid In Health System Integration
Editor's Note: This spotlight article was recently included in PwC's Q1 2015 US health services deals insights report.
These days it seems every health system is in the middle of a transformation — be it buying, selling or trying to integrate the assets it has amassed over time. Being in the business of transformation, this means we find ourselves invariably and repeatedly answering the question, "What are the big stumbling blocks to avoid?"
Without fail, our answer will include some
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Behavioral Health: We Need EHRs, But incentives Would Help
Editor's Note: D'Arcy Gue is one of the co-founders of Phoenix Health Systems, a healthcare IT consulting and outsourcing firm. In April 2015, Phoenix welcomed a merger with Medsphere Systems Corporation and now serves as the vice president of industry relations for Phoenix Health Systems, the health IT services division of Medsphere.
Acute care hospitals have demonstrated what happens when you pay people—when you incentivize them—to do something.
Just 9.4 percent of
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Rebooting Meaningful Use: Is It Accomplishing Its Mission?
Editor's Note: Dr. Reid Coleman is the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) for evidence-based medicine at Nuance.
Meaningful Use is an important set of criteria designed to improve quality and safety, but is it accomplishing its mission?
The proposed rules for Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 3 were just released by both CMS and the ONC. Many writers have commented on these rules, and this blog post is not a commentary about the rules. As always, I recommend readers go to John
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Meaningful Use Stage 3: 8 Key Questions for Physicians
This post is sponsored by Revenue XL
By now, most physicians know about Meaningful Use (MU)—the government program that provides incentive payments to eligible providers that meet specific criteria when implementing certified electronic health records (EHR). Providers currently meet either Stage 1 or Stage 2 criteria, depending on their implementation timeline.
However, on March 20, 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a notice of proposed rulemaking for Stage
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Want a Connected Healthcare System? You Are the Missing Key
Editor's Note: John H. Hammergren is chairman, president and chief executive officer of McKesson Corporation.
How often do we visit the doctor’s office and think, “This again?” when handed a long medical form to fill out? Don’t we all wonder why our medical information can’t be automatically transferred from our primary care physician to the specialist? Or to the hospital or outpatient surgery center?
The answer is this: we don’t currently have a national network of connectivity that
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Women’s Health Leader Dismayed by Proposed Changes to Meaningful Use Criteria
Debra L. Ness, President, National Partnership for Women & Families issues statement in response to the recently proposed modification to meaningful use for 2015 to 2017, released by CMS on Friday.
“The proposed modification to meaningful use for 2015 to 2017, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday, is a startling and unwelcome departure from the administration’s commitment to health care transformation that produces higher value, more patient-
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The Kabuki Dance Of “Blocking Data” In Healthcare
The lack of data interoperability in healthcare continues to plague and haunt the entire industry. Much of the challenge falls squarely in the realm of Electronic Health Record (EHR) software, but EHR software is by no means the only category where this challenge is directly affecting patient lives. I ‒ along with countless others ‒ have written extensively about this topic. Last year I did a 5‒part series on just "interoperability" which I published on Forbes. One piece highlighted the
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