On New Years Eve, just as the Covid-19 outbreak in Los Angeles was at its worst, all 451 of Olympia Medical Center’s exhausted employees learned they would soon lose their jobs. After 74 years, the hospital closed for good on March 31st, leaving residents of the surrounding community — poor and mostly people of color — without a place to see a doctor. And it isn’t the only hospital closing. At least 47 hospitals have closed or filed for bankruptcy in the last year, and there will
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Mastercard, b.well Team Up on Digital Health Patient ID Verification for Interoperability
What You Should Know: - b.well Connected Health today announced a partnership with Mastercard to provide individuals a simpler and more secure way to prove their identity online and in-person when accessing healthcare services. - The partnership enables healthcare organizations to provide their members and patients with a biometric alternative to verify their identity in-person or virtually, replacing traditional processes involving physical documents such as a
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Health Plans Must Go Beyond the ONC Mandate and Prioritize Member Experience
We are all frustrated when there’s a glitch with our online banking, or if bandwidth problems interfere with streaming the movie we want to watch. Imagine how individuals will react when the results of a cancer screening don’t find their way into Apple Health or Google Health, where such information is supposed to be easy to find. Or worse, if an individual is given the wrong information about a cancer diagnosis. An individual’s first call about missing health data or claims is going to
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HHS Awards $20M in Funds to Increase Data Sharing Between HIEs & Immunization Registries
What You Should Know: - The ONC today unveiled a series of investments to improve
the sharing of health information related to vaccination. - The new investments will provide opportunities to track
vaccination progress, help clinicians contact high-risk patients, and help
identify patients due to receive the second dose of the vaccine. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
acting through the Office of the National
Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today
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ONC Issues First Health IT Standards Bulletin Discussing USCDI & SVAP
What You Should Know: - The ONC released the first ONC Standards Bulletin, a new communication tool ONC will use to periodically update the healthcare industry about ONC health IT standards and policy initiatives. - Based on a HITAC recommendation, the Bulletin is part of the
ONC’s ongoing efforts to communicate, coordinate, and promote the adoption and
use of health IT standards to facilitate the access, exchange, and use of
electronic health information. - The inaugural ONC
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How to Capitalize on Digital Health Momentum in 2021
As we re-examine the healthcare system in the wake of the pandemic, we are continually identifying opportunities to rebuild parts of the system to new and improved specifications. One critical facet is digital health, where we continue to struggle with what should really be table stakes: the ability to integrate data from disparate organizations and systems into a unified view of the whole person and take action. During the height of the pandemic, telehealth made it possible to deliver care
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CIO: 3 Rules for Meeting ONC/CMS Interoperability, While Improving Cybersecurity
Healthcare data security has been a growing concern for CIOs for the last year or so, as hackers are increasingly targeting health information. Now, with a global pandemic forcing a shift to telemedicine and remote work, and new rules from the ONC and CMS introducing more regulatory burden, healthcare CIOs have more to manage than ever. Fortunately, it is possible to roll out new capabilities while simultaneously improving cybersecurity by following these three rules: Rule 1: Think Like an
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Despite COVID-19: Providers Should Not Lose Sight of MIPS Compliance
When 2020 began, no one anticipated that complying with the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)—the flagship payment model of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Quality Payment Program (QPP)—would look so different halfway through the year. Like many other things, the COVID-19 crisis has delayed, diverted, or derailed many organizations’ reporting efforts and capabilities. Lower procedure volumes, new remote work scenarios, and shifting priorities have taken attention
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5 Steps for Interoperability Excellence for Healthcare Providers
As if 2020 couldn’t be any more challenging for healthcare providers, new federal rules on interoperability and patient access, granting patients direct access to their healthcare data, begin taking effect in 2021 and will continue into 2022. These rules, while ultimately beneficial to patients, bring an additional level of operational complexity to many revenue-stressed healthcare organizations. If anything, the 2020 pandemic has illustrated the vast potential of interoperability. For
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COTA Lands $34M to Drive Innovation in Oncology Using Real-World Data
What You Should Know: - COTA, Inc., a healthcare technology company that uses
real-world data to bring clarity to cancer care, has secured $34M in funding. - Access to over one million patient data records and additional
funding support enhanced real-world data and analytics services in oncology. COTA, Inc., a Boston, MA-based healthcare technology company that uses real-world data to bring clarity to cancer care, today announced it has raised $34 million in Series D funding led by
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