Imagine having to make a large purchase, but not having any insight into how much it will cost or if you will be able to access it after you have purchased it. Most consumers wouldn’t make an investment like that; they would demand information into where their money is going and what they would be bringing home with them. But as patients, this is a scenario that can be all too familiar: we aren’t sure what we’re going to have to pay and then don’t have much if any, understandable information to
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Patients Are Not Consumers. Healthcare Is Not A Typical Business
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I have an extreme Diet Coke emergency. (I never have, but that’s beside the point.)
At 2 AM on a Wednesday I awake with an unforgiving need to drink Diet Coke. I dress and head out to find the nearest 24-hour convenience store, where I can satisfy my damnable craving by paying a bit more for Diet Coke than I would at a grocery store.
I pay slightly more for a few reasons related to the cost of convenience, the lack of more affordable options at 2 AM, the
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10 Considerations for Success In A Post-MACRA Value-Based Healthcare Reality
The first two years of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) Quality Payment Program (QPP) are in the books and many organizations are wondering if their strong performances will ever be met with a significant upside adjustment.
Year 1 (2017) enjoyed very high participation levels, 95% of eligible clinicians, but very low upside adjustments. Between the Test Pace option, artificially low bar (3 points) for an upside adjustment, and numerous opportunities to score
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How Tech Giants are Helping Providers Reinvent Patient Care
Healthcare costs are on the rise, and they show no signs of leveling off. According to the latest data available from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, healthcare spending in the United States reached $3.5 trillion in 2017, or $10,739 per person. Those costs are projected to rise by about five percent year-over-year.
As expenditures continue to skyrocket, healthcare providers are looking to new technologies and care strategies that can help them treat patients more effectively at a
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5 Trends Shaping the Future of the Global Ultrasound Market
2018 was a record year for the world ultrasound equipment market, with revenues increasing by 6.8%, tipping the market over the $7 billion mark for the first time. Despite the backdrop of global economic uncertainty, the ultrasound market is forecast to continue to grow relatively strongly in the coming years, with the following trends driving growth.1. New Users of UltrasoundOver the years, the use of ultrasound has gradually expanded beyond radiology, cardiology and OB/GYN to a wide range of
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Why Real-Time Health Data Is a Requirement in Today’s Health System
Thanks to technological innovation in the industry and CMS’ push for interoperability, today there’s more patient health data being collected than ever before. The problem is that the data is either not easily accessible to providers or it’s claims based and therefore not timely. The lag time between the collection and sharing of health data makes it difficult, and in some cases impossible, for providers to get a complete picture of their patients’ health, to appropriately treat ongoing
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What’s AI’s Holdup in Healthcare? The Answer Is In The Cloud
When you consider what technology has the most potential to transform healthcare over the next decade and beyond, no doubt your first thoughts turn to artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL). Already these technologies are showing promise in helping clinicians work faster and smarter, identifying trends, alerting us to signs that can predict and prevent diseases, and providing insights into potential treatments and cures.
But AI, ML, and DL alone cannot
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How A Hybrid Cloud Fax Solution Protects Patient Health Information
Electronic health and medical records (EHRs) enhance the patient experience and improve care coordination, but they can also put patients and providers at risk if they are not protected. Security vulnerabilities can arise from communicating via unsecured channels such as email and can result in data breaches, compromised patient records, and even identity theft. As medical records contain personal information such as social security numbers and insurance ID numbers, they are often even more
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Interoperability: Why Health Systems Need to Integrate Their Digital Stack
Several years ago, Thomas Friedman, the best-selling New York Times columnist, began pointing out how application programming interfaces (APIs) and the resultant connectivity was enabling one-touch consumer engagement with a broad range of services. We now take it for granted that we can call a car service from our phone, watch the driver approach on a map, and then pay for our ride without leaving a single application.
Similarly, we can scroll through dozens of different brands of olive oil
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4 Reasons Why Healthcare Executives Are Less Eager to Invest in Health IT
Hospital and health system C-suite executives recognize that technology will play a central role in helping their organizations meet quality and cost objectives. Yet that’s not necessarily translating to a market that’s more fruitful for health IT companies. In fact, if your healthcare system is taking a more conservative approach to health IT investments in 2019, it’s not alone.
A recent survey of 100 C-suite leaders by Managed Healthcare Executive found that fewer than half of healthcare
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