No-cost health clinics around the country are using health IT for various functions, Government Technology reports.
An in-house health clinic for city workers operated by Healthstat in Lakeland, Fla., has embraced new technology to help fulfill its goals of reducing local health care costs.
City workers who seek care at the clinic must first complete assessment information on health risks. The information is entered into a computer to establish a baseline and to determine a worker’s top risk factors, according to Karen Lukhaub, the city’s director of risk management and purchasing.
Ron Schroll, CIO of Healthstat, said that predictive modeling software determines which patients are at risk for certain conditions.
Servers hosted at the company’s corporate office in Charlotte, N.C., keep all records confidential in a virtual private network, according to Lukhaub.
In addition, no medical records are available through laptops at the clinic, and regular audits are conducted by outside firms so that clinics can follow proper security protocols.
Use of PHRs
Meanwhile, officials of Manatee County, Fla., recently created the Center for Health and Lifestyle Management, which is deploying personal health records that will be attached to claims, plans and prescriptions.
Bob Goodman, the county’s health benefits manager, said that new technology will use logarithms to select appropriate care for specified conditions.
The PHRs will be viewable on Web-based charts.
Consumers Urged To Find Secure Sites
Barbara Ryland of Crowell & Moring — which manages HIPAA-related issues — recommends that workers ask whether a health clinic is regulated by HIPAA and whether medical records are kept confidential from employers (Nichols, Government Technology, 7/20).
Source: iHealthBeat
Comments are closed.
Copyright 2015 - Pulse Practice Solutions | 615.425.2719