2019: Healthcare IT gains new ground

Congress, government agencies, presidential candidates, consumers and the industry itself talk about the need to lower healthcare costs, but what does this entail? Many want to target drug costs and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has mandated hospitals to post a list of their standard charges by diagnostic-related group, in an effort for consumers to have transparent cost options. And providers need to collect every penny owed them and combat revenue leakage. This month, Healthcare IT News, MobiHealthNews and Healthcare Finance News take a look at what all of this means and how technology, as always, is spurring innovative solutions.

-- Susan Morse, senior editor, Healthcare Finance News

Barely a day goes by without news of a new malware variant, zero day threat or medical device vulnerability. Hospitals and health systems have come to understand in recent years – with many learning the hard way – that their mission-critical IT systems are facing a relentless and determined threat from innumerable cybersecurity bad actors.

To survive in this fraught new era, healthcare organizations need agile, adaptable and forward-thinking strategies to safeguard their most important asset: data. In August, Healthcare IT News, along with our sister sites, MobiHealthNews and Healthcare Finance, will focus on the many ways the industry is succeeding – and the places it's falling short – when it comes to the all-important task of enterprise-wide security.