Without much warning, the novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has taken over our healthcare system. It has taxed our healthcare workers, our national stockpiles of PPE, and affected millions of Americans nationwide. In addition to healthcare workers on the front lines, the pandemic has also impacted the healthcare revenue cycle, causing major confusion, questions, and inconsistencies as coding specialists learn the latest COVID-19 codes and guidelines at warp speed. With cases rising by the tens of
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Shoring Up the Healthcare Supply Chain: 4 Lessons From The COVID-19 Pandemic
In December 2019, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response told a House committee that “supply chain issues were among the most significant challenges to preparing for an influenza pandemic as well as other infectious diseases.” A few months later, healthcare systems across the country and around the world are face-to-face with that harsh reality, as many of the largest healthcare suppliers are unable to fully meet the growing global demand for personal protective equipment
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How AR and MR Technology Can Reduce Medical Vulnerability to Improve the Patient Experience
Hospitals and health systems work hard every day to deliver patient-centered care. In fact, “the patient experience” is something now being measured, monitored and discussed throughout the healthcare continuum. Yet for most patients, moments of anxiety and medical vulnerability still abound, and the conversation rarely addresses this important fact.
Patients awaiting an X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scan, for instance, maybe fearful of the results.
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Fear of Changing EHRs? Here’s What You Should be Concerned About
Over the years, the EHR has developed a poor reputation as a time-waster, a source of frustration for staff and a significant contributor of burnout in the healthcare industry. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 59% of physicians said their EHR negatively impacted their time at work. This is because EHRs can be inflexible, hard to use and lack interoperability with other systems.
With so many problems surrounding the reputation of these tools, its
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Digital Health Contagion: How COVID-19 Accelerated The Positive Spread of Digital Solutions
Remember – just three short but world-changing months ago – when many of us were at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The date was January 13th, 2020. Coronavirus was a problem in China, of vague interest – perhaps like SARS, unlikely to have a big impact in the U.S. Our community of healthcare executives, investors, and entrepreneurs were once again gathering in San Francisco. And the adoption of digital health? Well, there was still more talk than action.
The arguments for
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The Technological Ironies of the Current State of Value-Based Care
Even though many think of 2008 as the first time CMS began emphasizing quality over quantity via the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA), the truth is that we’ve been on a 30-plus-year journey to get to this point.
It really started when managed care became a hot trend, but eventually, the friction between payers and providers was too high and patients were caught in the middle. Then came accountable care, which while still important today, ultimately isn’t creating
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Value-Based Care’s Story Will Turn in the 2020s
Value-based care initiatives matured in recent years thanks to exciting new technology and influential policy changes. But the coming decade will see transformative changes that will eventually lead to a uniform realization of value-based care across the entire healthcare continuum.
Specialty pharmacy represents one area of healthcare that is wholeheartedly welcoming a discussion about value. With the costs of six-figure specialty drugs and the number of patients using them continuing to
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Health IT’s Vital Role in Controlling The Spread of COVID-19
The healthcare system in the United States is becoming overwhelmed as a result of COVID-19 and there is no doubt that this epidemic will test the limits of healthcare delivery systems from end to end. Of course, at the present moment, everyone’s focus is (and rightly should be) on ensuring hospitals and healthcare workers have the appropriate equipment and protective gear they need to stay safe and adequately treat patients. That said, there are other IT considerations that should be taken into
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5 Lessons from Past Epidemics and Shortages to Help Supply Chains Cope with COVID-19
If we don’t learn from history, are we doomed to repeat it? In 2009, as the H1N1 swine flu swept the globe, U.S. hospitals began to run out of test kits. Some had to set up tents to handle the rush of patients. Supplies of personal protective equipment including N95 respirator masks ran out in many places despite millions distributed from the national stockpile.
Today’s coronavirus crisis is exponentially worse yet eerily familiar. Hospitals in New York, the pandemic’s epicenter, are
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What Does The CARES Act Mean for Hospitals and Health Systems?
As of today, the coronavirus has infected almost 2 million worldwide and caused the deaths of more than 125,000 people (Worldometer data as of 12:15 PM on April 14, 2020). In the United States, the relevant figures are more than 600,000 infected and north of 25,000 deceased. Without successful social distancing, those numbers could be dramatically worse.
And still, they are dwarfed by the massive numbers associated with the economic impact of the coronavirus and the illness it causes,
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