DOD’s Telehealth Center Launches Website for Kids in Military Families

On Wednesday, the Department of Defense’s National Center for Telehealth and Technology announced the launch of the interactive website MilitaryKidsConnect.org, which aims to help children of deployed military personnel manage their stress, Modern Healthcare reports.

The National Center for Telehealth and Technology runs DOD initiatives aimed at applying IT tools to psychological health.

Details of the Website

The website provides educational videos, games and other tools geared toward children in three age groups:

■ Ages six through eight;

■ Ages nine through 12; and

■ Ages 13 through 17.

The website also offers social networking tools to help children share their experiences with having deployed parents (Zigmond, Modern Healthcare, 1/18).

Source: iHealthBeat

Physician Owners More Likely To Cite Difficulty in Adopting EHRs

Physicians who have an ownership stake in their medical practice are more  likely to consider electronic health record implementation very difficult, according to a study published in the Journal of the  American Medical Informatics Association, CMIO reports.

Methodology

For the study, researchers at Boston University Medical School and Boston  Medical Center surveyed 156 Massachusetts physicians who participated in a pilot  program run by the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, a not-for-profit  organization that encourages health IT adoption. Researchers surveyed the  physicians first in 2005 — before their practices had implemented an EHR system  — and again in 2009, after their practices had completed EHR implementation.

In the study, researchers defined “physician owners” as doctors with a full  or partial ownership stake in their medical practice.

Study Findings

Among all of the surveyed physicians, researchers found that:

• 35% reported that EHR implementation was very difficult;
• 54% reported that EHR implementation was somewhat difficult; and
• 12% reported that EHR implementation was not difficult.

Researchers found that 38% of physician owners considered EHR implementation  very difficult, compared with 26% of non-owners.

Conclusions

According to the study authors, the findings suggest that physician owners  are more likely to see challenges in EHR adoption because they bear a certain  amount of financial risk related to owning, operating and managing a medical  practice.

Researchers recommended that organizations and government agencies working to  promote health IT adoption in medical practices focus on physician owners and  the role that non-physician employees play in implementing EHRs (Gale, CMIO, 1/17).

Source: iHealthBeat

Small Medical Practices More Susceptible to Health Data Breaches

Take the necessary precautions to ensure your data is secure and protected! If you have any questions or need assistance, contact us at 615-425-2719 and we will discuss how we can help!

Many small medical practices are more susceptible to health data breaches  because they rely on out-of-date technology and overlook adequate  data security protections, according to Kroll Fraud Solutions’ annual cybersecurity trends forecast, American Medical News reports.

According to Jason Straight — managing director of Kroll’s Cybersecurity and  Information Assurance unit — many small practices do not have the technical  expertise to adopt tools that help prevent breaches. Straight added that other  practices have the tools but do not implement or monitor them appropriately. For  example, some practices might install data encryption tools incorrectly.

In addition, Straight noted that some smaller practices might not perform  routine maintenance of a system if they are planning to install a replacement or  upgrade.

In comparison, large organizations often spend more money to protect their  data, according to Beth Givens, founder and director of Privacy Rights  Clearinghouse.

To avoid health data breaches, Straight recommends that small practices:

• Emphasize a culture of data security that includes training on and  enforcement of security policies;
• Create an incident response plan and team that is involved in daily  operations of the organization; and
• Establish a document retention policy that describes how an organization  handles patient information (Dolan, American Medical News,  1/16).

Source: iHealthBeat

Report: Mobile Health Apps Generated $718M in Revenue Last Year

In 2011, mobile health applications generated about $718 million in revenue,  about seven times more than the estimated $100 million generated in 2010, according  to a report from Research2Guidance, MobiHealthNews reports.

However, the report states that the mobile health market still is in its  “embryonic” stage and could see more growth in the coming years.

Key Findings

The report predicts that mobile health device and service sales will become  the main drivers of revenue for the mobile health market in 2012 and in the  following years.

According to the report, other factors that could contribute to mobile health  revenue over the next four years include:

• Advertising on mobile health applications;
• Paid downloads; and
• Transactional revenue (Dolan, MobiHealthNews, 1/12).

Source: iHealthBeat

CMS: $2.5B in Meaningful Use Payments Distributed So Far

CMS officials recently announced that $2.5 billion in meaningful use  incentive payments had been distributed as of December 2011, Modern Healthcare reports.

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who  demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records can qualify  for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.

Officials made the announcement on Tuesday during a meeting of  the Health IT Policy Committee.

Details of the Announcement

CMS officials noted that as of December 2011:

• $1.38 billion had been paid out under the Medicare meaningful use incentive  program; and
• $1.15 billion had been paid out under the Medicaid meaningful use incentive  program.

Robert Tagalicod — director of CMS’ Office of eHealth Standards and Services  — said the final payout totals could be higher because eligible professionals  can wait until as late as February 2012 to attest to meaningful use for the 2011  calendar year (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 1/10).

Robert Anthony — a specialist in CMS’ Office of eHealth Standards and  Services — said that just during the month of December 2011:

• The Medicare program distributed $464.7 million in incentive payments to  4,997 eligible health care providers and 193 eligible hospitals; and
• States distributed $229.4 million in Medicaid incentive payments to 2,794  eligible health care providers and 230 eligible hospitals.

Jessica Kahn, technical director for health IT at CMS, said that 41 states  launched Medicaid meaningful use programs in 2011, but only 33 have started  distributing incentive payments. Kahn added that in January 2012, Colorado and  Kansas launched Medicaid meaningful use programs, bringing the total number of  states with programs in place to 43.

Officials Post Meaningful Use Data Online

Also during the Health IT Policy Committee meeting, officials noted that CMS  has launched a website containing monthly reports and data on  the meaningful use incentive program.

In addition, National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari announced  the creation of a public use file containing de-identified data  from meaningful use attestations. The file contains information such as:

• The date and state of attestations; and
• The health IT vendors or modules used in demonstrating meaningful use  (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 1/10).

Source: iHealthBeat

Group: EHRs Among Top Technology Priorities for Health Care Executives

Electronic health records are among the top 10 technologies that health care  executives should pay close attention to this year, according to a new report from research firm ECRI Institute, Healthcare IT News reports.

The report — titled, “Top 10 C-Suite Watch List: Hospital Technology Issues  for 2012” — aims to help health care executives prioritize their efforts to  implement and improve health care technologies (Manos, Healthcare IT  News, 1/3).

Robert Bense, a clinical manager at ECRI Institute, said, “The price tag for  these technologies is going up, and the real question and one of the points we  needed to make with this list is that hospitals need to be very selective about  where they spend their money.” He added, “They don’t have the option to buy it  all as they may have done many years ago” (Lee, Modern Healthcare, 1/2).

In its discussion of EHRs, the report notes that medical device integration  and the federal meaningful use program “ultimately aim to improve health care  and patient safety. Successful deployment should not only ensure reimbursement,  but also enhance patient safety and quality of care, facilitate nursing workflow  and increase physician and nursing satisfaction” (Pearson, CMIO, 1/5).

Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who  demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs can qualify for Medicaid and  Medicare incentive payments.

Jeffrey Lerner, president and CEO of ECRI Institute, said this year’s top 10  list of health care technologies focused on the “ongoing impacts of health care  reform initiatives and new technology developments that emphasize  patient-centered care” (Healthcare IT News, 1/3).

Source: iHealthBeat

Health IT Among Top Priorities for State Lawmakers in 2012

Health IT issues will be among the top priorities for state lawmakers in  2012, according to an  annual report that the National Council of State Legislatures released on  Tuesday, Government Health IT reports (Sullivan, Government  Health IT, 1/4).

Report Details

The report lists the top 12 issues that state lawmakers will face in 2012.  One of the priority areas covers various health care issues, including the  federal health reform law, health insurance exchanges and health data exchanges  (NCSL release,  1/3).

In its discussion of the health care issues, NCSL said that health insurance  exchanges and health information exchanges will be “dominant issue[s] for  legislative sessions” (Government Health IT, 1/4).

Health Insurance Exchanges

Under the federal health reform law, states by January 2014 must create  insurance exchanges that provide coverage options for individuals and small  businesses.

States can choose to administer their own exchanges — for which they must  have some infrastructure in place by January 2013 — or ask the federal  government to run the exchanges for them (iHealthBeat,  11/2/11).

In its report, NCSL said that health benefit exchanges will be a major  priority area as states work to meet the January 2013 deadline for having some  infrastructure in place. NCSL also noted that states might face challenges in  finalizing their plans because federal officials have yet to release final rules  governing the health benefit exchanges.

Health Information Exchanges

The report also predicts that state lawmakers will prioritize efforts to  develop and improve health information exchanges that allow health care  providers to share patients’ medical data. NCSL added that promoting more  widespread adoption of electronic health records will be the first step toward  advancing health data exchange.

The report stated, “By mid-year 2012, every state should have Medicaid EHR  incentive programs in place and will be working toward building a health  information exchange by late 2014 or early 2015” (Government Health IT,  1/4).

Source: iHealthBeat

VA Announces Launch of Facebook Pages for all 152 Medical Centers

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On Wednesday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it has  established Facebook pages for all of its 152 medical centers, Healthcare IT News reports.

VA first started using the social networking site when it established a  single Facebook page for the Veterans Health Administration in 2008. The  department now has:

• More than 150 Facebook pages;
• 64 Twitter feeds;
• A YouTube channel;
• A Flickr photo page; and
• A “VAntage Point”  blog (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 12/22).

Although VA health care providers cannot discuss an individual’s specific  health concerns on Facebook, VA employees still can use the social networking  site to provide helpful information to veterans (VA release, 12/21).

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said, “By leveraging Facebook, the department  continues to expand access to VA, and embrace transparency and two-way  conversation.”

VA officials said they plan to continue expanding the agency’s Facebook  presence and focus on setting up a Twitter feed for every VA medical center  (Healthcare IT News, 12/22).

Source: iHealthBeat

Patients Want To Access, Share Their Health Data, Studies Find

Patients want the ability to access and share their electronic health  information, but some physicians are wary of the idea, according to two studies  published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Reuters reports.

Access to Physician Notes

For  the first study, Harvard Medical School researchers and colleagues surveyed  more than 37,000 patients and more than 170 primary care physicians at three  hospitals about their expectations for a soon-to-be-launched system called  OpenNotes. The system provides patients with an online portal to access their  physician’s notes (Grens, Reuters, 12/19).

Researchers found that:

• More than 90% of patients were enthusiastic about the launch of the  OpenNotes system (Mestel, “Booster Shots,” Los Angeles Times, 12/19);
• 35% of patients expressed concerns about the privacy of the system; and
• 22% of patients expressed interest in sharing their physician’s notes with a  family member, physician or other health professional (Reuters, 12/19).

The study also found that 64% of physicians invited to use the OpenNotes  system agreed to do so (Quinton, National Journal, 12/19). Many of the  doctors who agreed to participate in the program said they thought it would  increase patient satisfaction and improve patient safety.

Of the physicians who declined to participate, four out of five said they  thought the OpenNotes system would be time-consuming because it would require  them to answer more patient questions. A majority of the physicians who chose  not to participate also said that greater patient access might lead doctors to  censor notes related to mental health, substance misuse and other issues  (Reuters, 12/19).

Sharing PHR Data

For the second study, Stanford University researchers and  colleagues asked 18,471 Veterans Health Administration patients who use the  Department of Veterans Affairs’ MyHealtheVet personal health record system if  they would be interested in sharing their health information with a caregiver,  family member or outside health care provider. They found that:

• 79% of patients were interested in sharing their PHR with at least one  person;
• More than 50% were interested in sharing their PHR with a partner or spouse;
• 23% were interested in sharing their PHR with a child;
• 15% were interested in sharing their PHR with another family member;
• 7% were interested in sharing their PHR with an unrelated caregiver; and
• 2% were interested in sharing their PHR with a friend or neighbor.

Researchers noted that patients were most interested in sharing medication  lists, appointment information and test results (National Journal,  12/19).

Donna Zulman — a physician at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System  and lead author of the study — said the findings indicate that “health  systems need to be developing these record systems that allow patients to share  their health information.” She added that allowing family members and other  health care providers to access a patient’s health information could streamline  care for complex, chronic conditions (Reuters, 12/19).

Source: iHealthBeat

Demand for Mobile Health Tools Likely To Increase, Report Finds

The demand for mobile health technologies among health care providers likely  will increase over the next several years, according to a report by market research firm IDC Health  Insights, CMIO reports.

For the report — which was sponsored by Intel — researchers analyzed  results from an online survey of mobile health decisionmakers at 50 hospitals in  the U.S. and Western Europe.

Key Findings

The report found that:

• 42% of respondents said that physicians at their organization had high to  very high adoption rates for mobile health tools; and
• 86% of respondents predicted that physician adoption of mobile health tools  would increase over the next one to two years.

Respondents reported using an average of 6.4 different mobile devices each  day. According to the report:

• 84% of respondents reported using laptops:
• 56% reported using PC tablet computers; and
• 54% reported using workstations on wheels.

Respondents said that the top barriers to adopting mobile health tools were  concerns about data security and cost.

Based on the survey results, IDC Health Insights predicted that spending on  mobile health technologies will increase through 2015, driven primarily by  spending on software, infrastructure upgrades and data security rather than  spending on hardware (Gale, CMIO, 12/14).

Source: iHealthBeat