Healthcare IT News | Meaningful use, EHRs, ICD-10, HIE, NHIN, policy, big data and more

Prepare now for ICD-10, says expert June 18, 2013 | Diana Manos, Senior Editor

Practice coding claims from ICD-9 to ICD-10

If there was an overarching theme at the HIMSS Media/Healthcare IT News ICD-10 Forum on June 17, it was this: Don't wait to get your house in order for ICD-10. Though the Oct. 1, 2014 deadline for the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 is more than a year away, most of that time will be required for getting ready, experts warn. More

Jun18

Top 3 perks of patient engagement June 17, 2013 | Jeff Rowe, Contributing Writer

When you help patients help themselves, the benefits follow

There's a commonly held perception that healthcare is a process in which doctors take care of patients. But increasingly healthcare stakeholders are figuring out that, at times, a more effective way to help patients get healthy is to show them how to take care of themselves. More

Jun17

Gawande: Constant reinvention is crucial June 14, 2013 | Erin McCann, Associate Editor

Remembers back to 'period in time where there was no analytics, no effort to look at the data'

Atul Gawande, MD, professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and staff writer at The New Yorker, offered a reflective presentation earlier this month at Health Datapalooza IV, taking the audience back through what the healthcare system used to look like, and showing and how data innovations have helped set the stage for big transformations. More

Jun14

Stanford reports fifth big HIPAA breach June 13, 2013 | Erin McCann, Associate Editor

Stolen laptop at children's hospital compromises PHI of 13,000

Officials at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital are notifying nearly 13,000 patients that their protected health information has been compromised following the theft of a hospital laptop. More

Jun13

4 ways to get personal about mHealth June 12, 2013 | Tom Sullivan, Editor, Government Health IT

'Why would we tolerate living in a world of Flintstones in healthcare when we live in the world of Jetsons the rest of our life?'

There's an app for the Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle that lets users order a custom burrito and prepay for it, so it's ready when they arrive to pick it up. At one Houston-area hospital Harry Greenspun visited recently, patients can use that Chipotle app, he said, they just can't access their healthcare information. That got Greenspun talking about transformation. More

Jun12

EHR Association offers Code of Conduct June 11, 2013 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

ONC chief gives the plan thumbs up

Calling it a landmark move, the HIMSS EHR Association, a collaboration of more than 40 EHR companies, released an EHR Developer Code of Conduct. The code is a reflection of the industry's commitment to collaborate as trusted partners with all stakeholders, says Mickey McGlynn, chair of the organization. More

Jun11

New tool tracks remote monitoring ROI June 10, 2013 | Mike Miliard, Managing Editor

return on investment for remote patient monitoring tech

Helps evaluate present and future financial benefits, identify program efficiencies

The Center for Connected Health and the Center for Technology and Aging have launched a new tool to gauge the return on investment for remote patient monitoring technologies for patients with heart disease. More

Jun10

'Data drunks' and 'dataholics' unite June 07, 2013 | Erin McCann, Associate Editor

Health Datapalooza brings colorful mix of data gurus

The Fourth Annual Health Datapalooza stayed true to its name. It was, indeed, all about data -- how to liberate data, the need to liberate data, structuring data, promising new data apps, and how data scientists just might have the sexiest career of the 21st century. More

Jun07

Telehealth sees explosive growth June 06, 2013 | Erin McCann, Associate Editor

Market driven by aging population, increasing healthcare costs

Healthcare providers are taking telemedicine to new heights, with the market seeing growth of a whopping 237 percent within a five year period, according to a new Kalorama report. More

Jun06

3 reasons providers should get active June 05, 2013 | Jeff Rowe, Contributing Writer

The move toward value-based care means providers must be much more involved in pursuing improved outcomes

Remember when doctors made house calls? It's probably safe not to expect the return of those days any time soon, but some healthcare stakeholders are saying the time has come for providers to take a more active role in their patients' healthcare. More

Jun05

Today’s Headlines

Donald Berwick to run for Mass. governor A longtime proponent of evidence-based medicine, Donald Berwick, MD, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, believes his home state's healthcare system can be... More	Two EHR firms tap power of the cloud Watertown, Mass.-based athenahealth and Miami-based CareCloud, two EHR companies that espouse the advantages of the cloud, seem to be on a fast track for growth. More
Nontraditional care models gain traction Nontraditional care delivery models such as accountable care organizations and patient centered medical homes have been gaining traction in the healthcare arena, with more than half of physicians and... More	ONC's Ricciardi gives consumers voice ONC has a real understanding of the importance of consumer engagement, the head of the ONC's Office of Consumer eHealth, says. When ONC was originally created and even when HITECH passed, there... More
Mostashari: No more ICD-10 extensions Farzad Mostashari, MD, the national coordinator for healthcare IT, asserted today there would be no extension of the deadline for switching from the ICD-9 medical coding system to ICD-10. The... More	$275K HIPAA breach settlement for Prime Redding, Calif.-based Shasta Regional Medical Center, a Prime Healthcare Services hospital, has agreed to pay $275,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services to settle alleged HIPAA privacy... More