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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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
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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Do We Really Understand Documentation Requirements for ICD-10 PCS?
Editor's Note: Dr. Jon Elion is the founder and CEO of ChartWise Medical Systems, He is a practicing board-certified cardiologist in Providence, RI and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University.
After decades of experience with ICD-9, we have learned and come to grips with its quirks. We do not yet have that comfort level with ICD-10 -- after all, it’s still pretty new to most of us in the U.S. I’m not really concerned about the diagnosis side of ICD-10 and its Clinical
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6 Reasons Why ICD-10 Safe Harbor Is Dangerous for Healthcare Delivery
Editor's Note: The Coalition for ICD-10 has issued the following statement in response to the recent efforts to create a "safe harbor" for physicians, which would prohibit claims from being denied due to incorrect or unspecified ICD-10 codes, will result in dangerous consequences for the healthcare delivery system.
Multiple bills have been introduced in Congress that create a “safe harbor” for physicians by prohibiting claims from being denied “due solely to the use of an unspecified or
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Information Blocking in Health IT: Myth or Reality?
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.
Do we believe in something we can’t see?
The suggestion has been made that some vendors are actively engaged in “information
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