Monday, April 26, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

ACP: EHRs Critical to Effective Reporting of Quality Measures

Posted: 26 Apr 2010 07:09 AM PDT

Increasing the use of quality measurement as part of EHR systems is critical to achieving meaningful use, the Philadelphia-based American College of Physicians (ACP) reported in a paper released at last week’s annual meeting in Toronto.   Using EHRs as the basis for quality measurement systems would allow for a more complete reflection of care processes and patient outcomes, which would ultimately result in a more clinically useful set of quality data, says the paper. In order to take full advantage of the benefits that EHRs could offer for quality measurement and reporting procedures ACP believes the following: The primary purpose of EHR-based quality measurement and reporting should be to facilitate higher-quality, cost-effective health care. In order for an EHR-based quality measurement and reporting program to engage all health care stakeholders, it must use clinically relevant measures and be accurate and trusted by a full range of stakeholders, particularly patients, physicians, and other health care providers. Data to support EHR-based quality measurement and reporting should rely upon information routinely collected during the course of providing clinical care, including relevant data supplied by patients. EHR-based quality measurement should begin with the goal of facilitating the real-time collection of data that support the effective use of point-of-care clinical decision support algorithms. EHR-based quality measurement and reporting must not increase administrative work and/or impose uncompensated financial costs upon physicians and other health care providers, health care organizations, or patients. Data elements that comprise quality measure data sets should be defined in a standard way to enable health IT developers to implement them effectively. ACP supports the commitment of the HIT Standards Committee, the National Quality Forum, the NQF Health Information Technology Expert Panel, Health Information Technology Standards Panel, and others to develop unified standards for structured, codified data elements, calculation logic, measure structure, and reporting structure for quality measures. The development of these standards requires concerted and consistent input from all stakeholders.

Transengen and Passport Partner on RCM

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 07:21 AM PDT

Revenue cycle management companies TransEngen Inc. (Norwalk, Conn.) and Passport Health Communications Inc. (Franklin, Tenn.) have reached an agreement to jointly offer a comprehensive financial triage solution to health care providers.  The companies say that together they will improve the process of screening health care patients prior to treatment to determine eligibility for assistance and decrease bad debt.  Passport will integrate TransEngen’s HelpEngen solution into its Patient Access Suite to provide medical assistance and charity care assessment for uninsured patients and others who are unable to pay for their health care. HelpEngen enables financial counselors and other employees to screen patients’ eligibility for appropriate government benefit programs such as Medicaid, SCHIP and even non-medical type programs such as food stamps. The software generates prefilled application forms and supports all aspects of the enrollment process, says the company. Passport will incorporate HelpEngen into its solutions for patient verification and managing patient payments to help perform an up-front medical assistance analysis, where necessary.

Kentucky HIE Launches With 7 Pilot Sites

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 07:16 AM PDT

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear joined federal officials today to announce that Kentucky has officially launched the Kentucky Health Information Exchange (KHIE). The project, funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through its Medicaid Transformation Grant program, allows the Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services to begin exchanging information with hospitals and clinics as the first step in creating a statewide network. The seven participating providers — Appalachian Regional HealthCare, Central Baptist Hospital, Pikeville Medical Center, St. Joseph Hospital, Trover Medical Clinic, University of Kentucky Hospital and the University of Louisville Hospital — were selected based on technological readiness, volume of Medicaid patients and referral patterns. The governor says the project will create a method for doctors and other authorized clinicians to access information about a patient's medical history, including data about prescriptions, previous treatment, lab and diagnostic test results, immunizations and other basic patient information. CHFS has been working to build a secure system that providers will use to share data with Medicaid and one another, creating different levels of connectivity from basic to more advanced that can be scaled to meet the needs of medical providers at different stages of adopting HIE technology. The cabinet will also work to bring other hospitals and providers on board in the months and years.

University Hospitals Goes Live on Revenue Cycle Solution

Posted: 22 Apr 2010 07:42 AM PDT

University Hospitals , a six-hospital network based in Cleveland, has implemented Siemens Healthcare ’s (Malvern, Pa.) Soarian Financials at its University Hospitals Case Medical Center facility, becoming the first academic medical center in the country to go live on the Web-based revenue cycle solution. An integrated, enterprise revenue cycle solution, Soarian Financials includes a contract engine, an enterprise-wide master person index, a claims engine, and denial management into a revenue cycle solution. University Hospitals also went live on Soarian Scheduling, which can help staff more effectively manage the complexity of the scheduling process and reduce delays and waste, says the company. The roll-out completes University Hospitals’ migration of its hospital facilities to Soarian Financials and marks the sixth facility to deploy solutions from the Soarian Health Information System portfolio. The 1,032-bed University Hospitals network includes a major academic medical center, community hospitals, outpatient health centers, outpatient surgery centers, urgent care centers, cancer centers, rehabilitation facilities, pediatric specialty centers and mental health facilities. Its flagship medical center, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, is the primary teaching affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  

McClellan to Chair Aging Technologies Commission

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 07:29 AM PDT

Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., has been named chair of the Commission of the Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), an international coalition dedicated to the development, evaluation, and adoption of emerging technologies that can transform the aging experience. In his role, McClellan will help to drive research and education around key policy issues to advance aging services technologies, and support efforts that educate healthcare professionals on how health IT can benefit older adults and their caregivers. A former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, McClellan is now director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform and Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair of Health Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Comprised of more than 400 technology companies, aging-services organizations, businesses, research universities, and government representatives, CAST is supported by the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, a member organization centered on advancing a new and better system of long-term care and services for America’s seniors.

Uninsured Mexicans find care

Posted:

2/2/2010 © Orlando Sentinel When Josefina de la Rosa was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, she could not afford treatment. In stepped nonprofit Casa de Mexico, which finds doctors to help.

Patient or fetus -- whose rights prevail?

Posted:

1/26/2010 © Associated Press The case of Samantha Burton, who was forced to remain in the hospital for the welfare of her fetus, is drawing attention to the question of whether pregnancy deprives patients of their rights.

As records go digital, cultures clash

Posted:

By Sammy Mack 1/21/2010 © Health News Florida The switch to electronic medical records has been rocky for doctors in Broward who refused to pay what they called unwarranted charges and were turned over to collections. More disputes are arising as midcareer physicians bump up against the world of high-tech software sales.

Doctor wrote 1,000 scripts/week

Posted:

By Carol Gentry 1/15/2010 © Health News Florida Since 2004, a Miami psychiatrist has prescribed almost 14 million pills to Medicaid patients at a cost to taxpayers of $43 million, a feverish pace of 1,000 prescriptions a week. A state senator says the doctor should be the "poster boy for tougher enforcement actions."
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)