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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Interoperability is the Core of Successful Mobile Healthcare
Editor's Note: Alan Portela is the CEO of AirStrip and has more than 25 years of experience in bringing groundbreaking medical technology solutions to market.
With the ONC’s recent release of their 10-year interoperability vision, it might seem like the industry is starting to make things easier for clinicians. In reality, 2015 is starting off to be one of the worst times ever to be a physician. Interoperability is a critical issue to support a transition from fee-for-service to value-based
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Mobile Health Apps: If You Build Them, Will They Come?
Editor's Note: Deborah Hernandez is the Director of Client Services at Communispace Health
It’s hard to find a pharma or medical device company these days that doesn’t have at least one mobile app in development. And now that, as of February 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued guidance on which apps need to be regulated and which ones don’t, it will be interesting to see if this almost exponential development trend continues.
In its guidelines, FDA outlined which
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10 Ways Remote Patient Monitoring Saves Money
Founder and CEO, Robert Herzog of eCaring describes how patients and home aides using remote patient monitoring can save up to $4000 per year in reduced ER visits and readmissions.
While much has been made of the myriad devices and wearables, including the much anticipated Apple iWatch in April, coming to market in 2015, to have a real impact on the cost of health care in the US will require getting access to the Internet, and practical tools to utilize it, for many of the 9 million
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Do All Physicians Oppose the Transition to ICD-10?
Editor's Note: The Coalition for ICD-10 is a broad-based healthcare industry advocacy group — hospitals, health plans, hospital and physician office coding experts, vendors, and the health information technology (HIT) community— united in support of the U.S. adoption of the ICD-10 coding standard.
According to French abstract artist Robert Delaunay, “Our understanding is correlative to our perception.” Many in the healthcare community may have the perception that all physicians oppose the
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Why the ICD-10 Dual Coding Proposal Is A Recipe for Disaster
The Coalition for ICD-10 has issued a new position statement in response to the latest trial balloon from ICD-10 opponents, which proposes that CMS allow a ICD-10 dual coding system approach in which small physician offices would be able to submit claims coded in either ICD-10 or ICD-9 during a transition period after Oct. 1, 2015.
Members of the Coalition are united in making the following statement:
Concerns have been raised about the potential financial impact on small physician offices
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Why Data Sharing Is Vital to the Healthcare Revolution
Editor's Note: J.T. Treadwell is the Managing Director at Symphony Technology Group, a private equity firm where he focuses on analytics and healthcare technology. He has led a variety of Symphony investments, including health care IT companies Evidera, Symphony Performance Health, and Symphony Health Solutions.
The Affordable Care Act is the most far-reaching healthcare legislation in the U.S. since Medicare was introduced fifty years ago. In contrast to previous attempts to adjust our
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5 Key Steps to Reduce Outpatient Coding Denials
Assessing current outpatient coding procedures and creating a plan that aligns HIM, clinical documentation improvement, and revenue cycle will help reduce claim denials and improve the overall financial health of your organization.
Time is money. It’s a well-known phrase that applies to every industry whether you are repairing a broken pipe or scrolling through endless pages of physician dictation to find the specific detail needed for a code. Efficiency is a key component to keeping
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