The last time you made a difficult decision, chances are you engaged in some form of a process called the 5 W’s, or maybe the 5W’s and Sometimes How, or 5W+1H … maybe 6 W’s.Right. So, what the process lacks in an agreed-upon name it makes up for with the logical consistency of directed, relevant questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? It’s a process journalists often use consciously in writing articles, and it comes in handy for non-journalists when the goal is breaking down options and
Read More
Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
The ABCs of FHIR: Reinventing Health IT Interoperability
The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource, or FHIR (pronounced ‘fire’), is a new term in healthcare that’s witnessing growing interest and spreading almost like fire. FHIR is the latest standard to be developed under HL7 and is expected to contribute significantly to improving patient care, countering the barriers to interoperability, boosting information sharing, and unboxing innovation in healthcare. Stakeholders from all across the healthcare system are excited and enthusiastic about
Read More
3 Ways MACRA is Changing Physician Payment in Medicare
The entry of the MACRA proposed rule, a little more than a year back, flagged a solid and remarkable consent to move towards esteem-based care, yet up to this point, a hefty portion of the subtle elements encompassing how it would be executed stayed obscure.In any case, a week ago, CMS discharged about 1,000 pages that shed light on how a doctor can improve their payments by following MACRA proposed rule.History Before MACRA proposed rule was introduced, specialists were paid for giving
Read More
What Dogs Can Teach Providers about Designing Care Plans
Several studies have shown that if dog owners are told to walk their overweight dog more often to improve the dog’s health, the dog owners will comply, and also lose weight themselves. Their concern for their dog’s health makes the goal of increased exercise an easy one to follow. The regimen combines the pleasurable activity of spending time with a pet with a healthy activity–walking. In this way, the dogs become accidental health coaches for the human patients, encouraging them to be more
Read More
If MPIs are Dead, What’s Next For The Future of Patient Matching?
Healthcare technology continues to advance with ever greater sophistication and functionality. Yet one key component in the health IT toolkit has not kept pace with innovation. Patient matching technologies, including conventional master patient indexes (MPIs), hit a wall 10 years ago, and it’s time to admit it: conventional MPIs are a dying breed.The reason is that patient matching needs have grown exponentially at exactly the same time the underlying technology for patient matching solutions
Read More
Mid-Year Checkpoint: 3 Ways to Improve Health Plan Member Engagement
Summer is almost over, but for health plans it’s time to check in on plan performance and course correct to meet 2017 goals. For those who fall shy of meeting projected performance targets, it’s not too late to boost vital metrics like Star rating or HEDIS score. With less than five months left in 2017 it may seem an impossible goal to move the needle on quality ratings, but that’s not the case. It is not too late to make a difference, provided you are smart and targeted in your approach.One of
Read More
Why The Mental Health Industry Is Ripe For Innovation
Technology has been tested and proven effective in many advanced and innovative industries, and is now extending and applying its benefits to more regulated industries such as healthcare. According to Mary Meeker's Internet Trends 2017 report, healthcare is “at a digital inflection point.” She recognized and attributed this change in part to the increase of data collection from fitness trackers and health apps as well as the increase of hospitals sharing healthcare data with patients.As part of
Read More
How Will ACA-Repeal Legislation Impact The Medicaid Population?
The expansion of Medicaid and insurance subsidies through the ACA meant 20.4 million more people had health insurance in 2016 than in 2010. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, somewhere just north of 20 million Americans would lose health insurance in the various repeal-and-replace scenarios that have been floated of late and rejected, for now. That number jumps to 30 million-plus if Obamacare is simply repealed.What all proposed ACA-repeal legislation has in common is
Read More
Why The Opioid Epidemic Makes EHRs Essential To Public Health
When public health is threatened by an outbreak of SARS or Zika or avian influenza, widely disseminated information becomes a crucial tool used to curtail the spread of disease.But transmittable diseases are not the lone threats to public health. Other metaphorically pathogenic events—the current opioid epidemic, for example—are more effectively managed by making sure doctors have complete information when evaluating patients and, especially, writing prescriptions.Even if you know what the
Read More
Mobile Messaging vs. Online Patient Portals: Streamlining the Patient Intake Process
The waiting room is full, there is a line forming in front of the scheduling desk, new patient information has to be collected, patients’ records must be updated, and appointments need to be rescheduled. The patient intake process, particularly for new patients, can be time-consuming and arduous for administrative staff.One of the most effective ways to reduce staff’s workload, while speeding up the patient intake process, is with automated mobile-first messaging strategies. This approach
Read More
