In an opinion piece for The Hill‘s “Congress Blog,” Jonathan Bush — co-founder, chair and CEO of athenahealth, a provider of cloud-based electronic health records and physician services — writes that the potential of the meaningful use program to improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs “will only be realized” with the necessary transparency “that’s required to measure whether the money is being used for the purpose Congress intended.”
Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.
According to Bush, “The government has no way of verifying that the physicians who claim to have met the meaningful use criteria are actually using health information technology in any meaningful way.” He notes that this “could lead to enormous disparities between what physicians and hospitals are able to do with their EHRs and their actual ability to improve patient care” and potentially waste “billions of taxpayer dollars.”
Bush writes, “The government needs to take steps now to ensure that meaningful use is actually meaningful.”
To achieve this end, Bush recommends that CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT “urge EHR vendors to release more performance data so that providers can make informed purchases.” Bush adds that health care “providers and EHR vendors should be required also to submit actual performance data to CMS” to qualify for incentive payments.
In addition, Bush recommends that CMS:
Source: iHealthBeat
Medical identity theft has become one of the most lucrative forms of identity theft, according to a panel of cybersecurity experts at the recent Digital Health Conference in New York, MedPage Today reports.
About Medical Identity Theft
Scammers can use electronic health records, health insurance information and other personal health data to make false or inflated insurance claims, get prescription drugs or obtain medical treatment at the account holder’s expense.
Some fraudsters obtain personal health data through “phishing” scams in which they pretend to be a representative of a physician practice or insurance company. Data breaches at health care facilities also can lead to medical identity theft.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, medical identity theft can cause patients to:
Lucrative Form of Identity Theft
The cybersecurity experts noted that EHRs can be worth up to $50 on the black market, while Social Security numbers are worth about $3 and credit card information is worth about $1.50.
John DeLuca of IT company EMC said that unlike a credit card number, patients’ health information cannot be canceled or altered to prevent criminals from using the data (Petrochko, MedPage Today, 12/7).
Source: iHealthBeat
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Last week, the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems teamed up with the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation, the Optum Institute for Sustainable Health and Siemens Healthcare to launch a social media initiative aimed at helping physicians share information about health IT, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 12/2).
The project — called, “Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Health Care” — provides a social platform for physicians to share their health IT experiences and learn from their peers (Gale, CMIO, 12/5).
Peter Basch, AMDIS member and board chair of the new initiative, said, “Our goal is to help other doctors navigate how to use health IT to make care better, safer and more effective.” He added, “With meaningful use incentives now being offered by federal and state programs to support the use of health IT, we have the opportunity to leverage this significant investment to transform health care” (Modern Healthcare, 12/2).
Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.
Additional organizations collaborating with AMDIS on the social media project include the:
Source: iHealthBeat
An electronic video surveillance system helped a New York hospital’s intensive care unit increase its hand hygiene compliance rate from 6.5% three years ago to more than 80% today, according to a study published last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the New York Times reports.
Most hospitals report hand hygiene compliance of roughly 40%, according to the Times.
How the System Works
About four years ago, Manhasset, N.Y.-based North Shore University Hospital installed an electronic video surveillance system manufactured by Arrowsight to provide instant feedback on ICU practices.
Under the system, ceiling cameras are pointed toward sinks and hand sanitizer dispensers outside of patient rooms, while a door sensor tracks when someone enters or leaves the room. An Arrowsight employee monitors the video from a remote location and issues staff a pass or fail grade. Anyone entering a patient room must wash his or her hands within 10 seconds to pass.
Success rates then are emailed to the hospital’s nurse manager twice per shift, and an LED display across from each nurses’ station reports hand hygiene compliance.
Effects of the System
Although the study did not evaluate infection rates, Bruce Farber — the head of infectious diseases at North Shore — said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections have dropped since the hospital implemented the electronic video surveillance system.
Isabel Law, the surgical ICU’s nurse manager, said that North Shore nurses now “have a picture to see how we’re doing” (Rosenberg, New York Times, 11/24).
Source: iHealthBeat
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As more consumers turn to the Internet for health information, physicians increasingly are using social media platforms to connect with patients, U.S. News & World Report reports.
According to a National Research Corporation survey conducted earlier this year, about 20% of U.S. consumers use social media websites to obtain health information. The survey found that Facebook is the most popular social media site for looking up health data, followed by YouTube, Twitter, MySpace and FourSquare.
To take advantage of this online patient presence, many physicians are using social media sites. According to U.S. News, more than 1,300 physicians have registered with TwitterDoctors.net, a database of physicians who tweet health information.
How Doctors Are Using Social Media
Glen Stream — president of the American Academy of Family Physicians — said he uses Facebook to engage patients in discussions about their health. He posts reminders and links to health care resources and updates his Twitter account when he attends medical meetings and conferences.
Other physicians say they use social media sites to:
Privacy Concerns
Some physicians are concerned about using social media sites to communicate with patients because they say tweets or other public posts about diagnoses or treatments could violate patient privacy.
Many doctors say that personal medical questions should be addressed through in-office visits or phone calls (Haupt, U.S. News & World Report, 11/21).
Source: iHealthBeat
On Friday, HHS launched a new Web-based tool that allows small-business owners to compare locally available health plan benefits and their costs, Modern Healthcare reports.
The tool — which businesses can access through the HealthCare.gov website created under the federal health reform law — provides information from more than 530 insurers about more than 2,700 plans (Lee, Modern Healthcare, 11/18). Using their ZIP codes, business owners can obtain data, such as:
Comments About the New Site
Officials from the National Federation of Independent Business — which opposes the health reform law and is involved in a lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the overhaul — praised the new website provision.
Amanda Austin, the group’s director of federal public policy, said such tools that employ consumer-driven approaches will be helpful for small-business owners (Bristol, CQ HealthBeat, 11/18).
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the site “will help business owners navigate what has traditionally been a complicated and confusing decision,” adding, “Both owners and their employees can feel more confident that the plans offered will be the best to suit everyone’s needs” (Modern Healthcare, 11/18).
According to HHS, small businesses spend as much as 18% more than larger companies for the same amount of health benefits (CQ HealthBeat, 11/18).
Source: iHealthBeat
Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton has released a report detailing the top nine ways IT is transforming the health care industry, Becker’s Hospital Review reports (Rodak, Becker’s Hospital Review, 11/16).
The report noted that health IT has significant potential to make the U.S. health care system more patient-centered.
Nine Transformative Characteristics
According to the report, health IT can:
Source: iHealthBeat
On Monday, the American Hospital Association submitted comments to HHS responding to a proposed rule that aims to improve patient access to laboratory testing results, AHA News reports. AHA publishes AHA News.
AHA said the proposed rule would remove barriers to health information sharing and help patients play a more active role in their care. However, the association noted that the proposed rule could create significant operational challenges for hospital labs, particularly those that provide reference testing for external health care providers.
AHA recommended that the final rule include language allowing labs to deny patient requests for test reports if a lab’s authentication process cannot ensure that a test result belongs to a particular individual.
AHA also suggested that regulatory agencies work to inform patients that the proposed rule would give them access to a complete test report but that interpretation of the results still would be left to a physician (AHA News, 11/14).
HIMSS’ Comments
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society also submitted comments to HHS about the proposed rule.
In the letter, HIMSS officials recommended that federal officials consider how the patient access requirements would create new costs for labs.
HIMSS also called for federal officials to provide guidance to help labs determine the appropriate authentication measures needed to verify patient identity.
In addition, HIMSS recommended that HHS align the final rule with new HIPAA requirements mandated under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package (Underwood/Lieber, HIMSS letter, 11/11).
Source: iHealthBeat
The U.S. market for electronic health record systems is expected to reach $8.3 billion by 2016, growing at an annual rate of more than 12%, according to a report from Millennium Research Group, a Toronto-based market research firm, Health Data Management reports.
Increased Demand for EHRs
The report — titled, “U.S. Markets for Electronic Medical Records 2012” — predicted that Medicare reimbursement penalties for noncompliance with meaningful use requirements starting in 2015 will fuel steady demand for EHR systems (Goedert, Health Data Management, 11/10).
Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record systems can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments. Eligible health care providers who do not meet meaningful use requirements by 2015 will see their Medicare reimbursements decline by one percent annually to a maximum of five percent.
According to the report, many hospitals are electing to replace rather than upgrade their current EHR system to comply with meaningful use requirements.
Market Growth Expected To Benefit Established Vendors
Mickel Phung, an analyst for MRG, said that more than 750 new EHR vendors have entered the market in the last two years but that such companies might not have long-term sustainability. Phung said, “Customers want to make sure their systems meet complex and changing requirements. The best way to do that is to go with a larger company with long experience in the market.”
He added that most EHR buyers receive recommendations from colleagues when making purchasing decisions, “which also will favor companies with an established presence” (Byers, CMIO, 11/10).
Source: iHealthBeat
During a meeting on Wednesday, the Health IT Policy Committee began discussing provisions that could be included under Stage 3 of the meaningful use incentive program, Healthcare IT News 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.
Details of the Discussion
Paul Tang — chair of the committee’s meaningful use work group, and chief innovation and technology officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation — said the same process used to develop stages 1 and 2 will be used for Stage 3. He added that the meaningful use work group will rely heavily on public comment.
Gayle Harrell, a committee member and Florida state legislator, said the Policy Committee already is learning from experiences with stages 1 and 2. She said specialty care providers should be considered in Stage 3 because “75% of the cost of care is provided by specialists.” She added that every specialty should have the ability to qualify for meaningful use.
Some committee members cautioned against developing requirements that could be too stringent.
Harrell said that it is important to create criteria that can be harmonized with other federal health care requirements so that Stage 3 is not too burdensome.
Neil Calman, a committee member from the Institute for Family Health, said officials should “pull back” on Stage 3 criteria because health care providers will be working to fulfill accountable care organization requirements. ACOs are designed to increase health care provider collaboration to improve care and lower cost (Manos, Healthcare IT News, 11/10).
Source: iHealthBeat
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