In the 80's there was a popular phrase in the IT space: "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." Buying IBM was a "safe bet" that wouldn't get questions or scrutiny from company leadership. The same today could be said about EMRs. Purchasing one of the "Big 3" EMR systems to meet federal requirements for incentive programs has been a no-brainer for the last decade.
However, now that meaningful use of those records by patients is necessary, many medical professionals are struggling with their
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Is Accountability The Missing Element in Better Healthcare?
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.
Who is accountable for the actions of Adam Lanza, the troubled young man who in December 2012 killed 26 people in Newtown, Connecticut?
He is, of
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How Mercy Health Is Using Telehealth to Make Healthcare Easier
At Mercy Health, our promise to the community we serve is to make lives better – mind, body and spirit – and to genuinely enjoy being of service while making healthcare easier. One way we’re accomplishing this is through telehealth initiatives.
Telehealth represents the biggest entry point for providers like ours to manage the population, particularly the baby boomer and older generations, as the physician shortage looms and care between visits becomes increasingly important. In 2029, when
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New Paradigm: An Operating System for Value Based Care
Health care in the U.S. is on the threshold of fundamental change. Powered by advances in federal policy, the underlying way in which we pay for health care is moving from the traditional fee-for-service, pay-for-volume historic approach to one that pays for demonstrated value. The way in which value is measured is still evolving, but risk-sharing, measuring the health status of populations, and coordinating care in order to improve effectiveness and reduce the total cost of care are the basic
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Why Non-Specific ICD-10 Codes Are a Non-Issue
A safe harbor or grace period that would allow the submission of “less specific” ICD-10 codes after the ICD-10 transition continues to be raised as a way to alleviate the burden of the transition on physicians. For example, HR 2247, the ICD-TEN Act, would prohibit Medicare from denying claims “due solely to the use of an unspecified or inaccurate subcode.” A letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from several members of Congress recommends that CMS indicate “whether
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Catholic Health’s CIO Talks Leveraging Health IT for Value-based Care
Editor's Note: Deloitte Insights for CIOs provides relevant research, fact-based analysis and pragmatic perspectives on the technology issues that matter most to CIOs and other executives with an interest in technology.
When it comes to disruptive forces, health care providers seem to have it all: evolving legal and regulatory requirements, unsustainable economics, challenging demographic shifts, industry consolidation, and fast-moving technology-driven change, among others. All of these
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Wearables Are Our Foray Into Empowering A Healthier Population
In 1937, Sylvan Goldman, the owner of the Humpty-Dumpty grocery store chain, invented the shopping cart. Determined to reduce the cost of having to staff his stores with enough clerks to personally help each customer with over-the-counter purchases, he changed the paradigm. He created displays and shelves where people could help themselves, and, to prevent any inconvenience, he invented the shopping cart so they didn’t have to struggle with armfuls of goods. For all
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Importance of Expanding Health IT Incentives to Mental Healthcare
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.
Chances are good someone close to you is suffering from a mental health disorder right now.
You may not know it. While paranoid schizophrenia
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Closing the Loop on Revenue Cycle Management
I’d like to start with a disclaimer: my colleagues and I are completely focused on empowering consumers to take greater control of their own health. However, since healthcare organizations don’t give a damn about this, I’ve decided to take a different approach: let me help you get paid.
Huh? Those two goals - consumer empowerment and provider collections - seem at direct odds with one another. They are not. Despite what overpaid consultants and healthcare payments specialists are telling you,
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The Impact of Creating Emotion in Healthcare Design
Editor’s Note: Stuart Karten is the principal of Karten Design, a product innovation consultancy creating positive experiences between people and products specializing in health technology.
Interfacing with the healthcare system is a journey fraught with emotion. Feelings like fear, embarrassment, and hope all play a role in how people perceive their experiences. During the course of designing medical and digital health products over 30 years, we’ve begun to understand the role that
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