In an opinion piece for The Hill’s “Congress Blog,” Rep. Renee Elmers (R-N.C.) — chair of the House Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology — writes that small medical practices face “ineffective and inefficient government burdens” in implementing health IT systems.
In a subcommittee hearing last week, Elmers heard testimony on the barriers that small medical practices encounter in adopting health IT. She writes that such obstacles include:
Elmers also discusses the challenges that small medical practices face in meeting federal mandates for electronic prescribing.
Elmers notes that she has introduced a bill (HR 2128) that aims to put “decision-making power back in the hands of doctors and patients.” The bill would cancel planned penalties for hospitals and physicians that “cannot yet e-prescribe” and remove e-prescribing from the requirements for demonstrating meaningful use of electronic health records, according to Elmers. Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.
Elmers writes that the bill would prevent physicians and hospitals from facing “further payment reductions due to the cumbersome regulations” in the e-prescribing and meaningful use programs.
She concludes, “Small medical practices should not be left in the dark on transitioning to more modern record-keeping practices. We must help to remove the barriers facing small practices so they too are able to offer the latest in health IT for their patients — while ensuring the information is secure and privacy is protected” (Elmers, “Congress Blog,” The Hill, 6/9).
Source: iHealthBeat
An FDA spokesperson recently said the agency intends to provide “greater regulatory clarity” on health-related mobile applications, as the technology becomes more popular and sophisticated, InformationWeek reports.
Apps Evolving
Health-related apps increasingly are offering more services to users. For example, some can send data to patients’ electronic health records or assist clinicians in diagnosing or treating patients.
Based on this evolution, experts have raised concerns with the apps’ reliability, safety and security standards.
FDA Guidance
According to a recent agency email, “The rapid development and use of mobile apps for medical purposes has signaled the need for greater regulatory clarity.” The email added that FDA plans “to provide draft guidance for public comment prior to finalizing, which will provide clarity for manufacturers as they continue to develop innovative, health-related mobile apps.”
InformationWeek reports that FDA could consider apps as medical device data systems and regulate them under agency 501(k) rules for medical devices.
FDA defines MDDS products as hardware or software items that convert, display, store or transfer medical data. MDDS products do not modify data or control the functions or parameters of other medical devices.
Timing, Concerns
Monique Levy, vice president of research at Manhattan Research, said FDA’s plans come “at an interesting time” when mobile health apps are shifting from consumer-directed products to products that help link patients and clinicians.
App developers are concerned about how intensive new FDA regulations could be and whether they could hinder innovation, especially among startups and other smaller companies (McGee, InformationWeek, 6/7).
Source: iHealthBeat
Barriers such as cost and the lack of technical resources persist for health care providers in small practices that are seeking to adopt electronic health records and participate in the meaningful use program, Government Health IT reports.
Under the 2009 economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR systems can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.
On Thursday, physicians and health IT experts from the public and private sectors spoke at a hearing of the House Small Business Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology.
Solo Practitioner Comments
Sasha Kramer — a solo practitioner dermatologist in Olympia, Wash. — said small physician practices face financial challenges when trying to adopt EHR systems.
She noted that some health care providers encounter difficulty trying to negotiate terms with a vendor because of limited market share (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 6/2).
She told the panel that she purchased an EHR system two years ago but that her vendor has since been acquired by another company that does not support the system (DoBias, National Journal, 6/2). She has since installed another system, and the costs associated with the implementing the two systems has reached $73,000 (Daly, Modern Physician, 6/2). Kramer also said her patient volume fell by 75% and revenues decreased as she learned to use the first EHR system.
Kramer urged legislators to delay financial penalties that would affect those who do not become meaningful users of health IT.
Vendor CEO Comments
Andrew Slavitt — CEO of health IT company OptumInsight — said that the meaningful use incentive payments will not be enough to offset lost productivity (Government Health IT, 6/2).
Slavitt said “the greatest barrier [to health IT adoption] is that the decision support and productivity-enhancing capabilities … are not driving the purchase and design of technology.” Instead, compliance reporting criteria necessary to demonstrate meaningful use are at the forefront, according to Slavitt.
He added, “As long as meaningful use is the priority, improving user-friendly and productivity capabilities of EHRs will suffer” (Goedert, Health Data Management, 6/2).
Mostashari Chimes In
National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari acknowledged that implementing health IT is a “challenging process” (National Journal, 6/2).
Mostashari said, “I make no bones about the transformation of workflows and processes and the difficulties that many practices, especially smaller practices, will face as they make this difficult transition” (Government Health IT, 6/2).
However, he added that health IT adoption “will not only lead to improved patient care and coordinated care, but also help those practices succeed over the long run” (National Journal, 6/2).
Source: iHealthBeat
Physicians might be better able to choose the most beneficial medications for patients with software that monitors lists of drug side effects, according to a study by the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Healthcare IT News reports.
For the study, which appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed more than 5,600 drug labels and more than 500,000 labeled side effects.
Researchers found that the average drug label listed 70 different side effects and that more commonly prescribed drugs averaged about 100 side effects. One label listed up to 525 possible reactions.
Jon Duke — a Regenstrief Institute investigator and assistant professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine — said all the side effects listed can “overwhelm doctors who must weigh the risks and benefits when prescribing a medication.”
Software Details
The team of investigators developed a computer program, called SPLICER, that can identify side effects in drug labels with 95% accuracy. The program also can monitor label patterns continually and detect changing trends.
Jeff Friedlin — a co-author of the study, as well as a Regenstrief investigator and assistant professor of family medicine at the school of medicine — said SPLICER can process 5,600 labels in one day on a supercomputer with about the same accuracy as a human (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 5/24).
Conclusions
Researchers said that technology could be used to help patients know what side effects could affect them.
Duke said existing technology could help transform drug labels “from lengthy static documents to dynamic resources, capable of delivering personalized patient information.”
He added, “Such labels could take into account the individual patient’s medical conditions and highlight those side effects that could be especially dangerous” (MyHealthNewsDaily/MSNBC, 5/23).
Source: iHealthBeat
As prisons take steps to implement electronic health records, debate is stirring over whether mining inmates’ medical data would violate their privacy, ABC News reports.
Putting EHRs in Prisons
In a 2010 audit, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice recommended that federal officials gather analytical health data on inmates to curb rising health care costs in the federal prison system.
David Fathi — director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project — said paper records create challenges for prison doctors because inmates often are transferred between facilities. Fathi said EHRs potentially could facilitate communication between prisons and “improve the quality of care in a prison system.”
Privacy Concerns
Research organizations often mine data from EHRs to advance medical studies. DOJ potentially could use the same data-mining techniques to collect information on health care in federal prisons.
Existing law does not require organizations to obtain patient consent before mining EHR data as long as the information is de-identified, meaning that it does not include personal information such as last names or addresses.
However, some privacy advocates have expressed concern that de-identified data sometimes provide enough information to identify an individual.
Fathi said, “The most important question is whether the information remains identifiable.” He added that ACLU is not worried about the mining of prison EHR data, as long as the information cannot be used to identify particular inmates (Ono, ABC News, 5/24).
Source: iHealthBeat
What Healthcare IT solutions are you looking to implement this year? I am sure EMR is on the list but there are other IT solutions out there that can bring HUGE benefits to your practice.
As the Healthcare world changes, ALL practices will need to invest in technology other than EMR at some point. The benefits of these technologies are tremendous and will provide your practice with improved productivity, reduced costs, improved patient care, etc. The most challenging part is to figure out where to start and how to get the most bang for your buck. As difficult as this may be, my suggestion is to start somewhere and start now! Make the investment and benefits will come!
In this edition of “The Pulse Beat”, you will find articles that explain WHY Healthcare IT should be at the top of your To-Do-List.
Thanks again and GREAT READING!
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Two new HHS Office of Inspector General audits raise concern on health IT security issues, Modern Healthcare reports.
Office of Civil Rights Audit Details
In one report, the inspector general points to lax HIPAA enforcement standards at the HHS Office for Civil Rights.
The report referred to data from audits at seven hospitals that found weaknesses in IT security measures for electronic protected health information.
The report added that neither HHS’ civil rights office nor CMS, which previously oversaw HIPAA security issues, had conducted security audits (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 5/17).
ONC Audit Details
A separate HHS OIG audit said that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT failed to advance IT security requirements (AP/Washington Post, 5/17).
The report examined ONC’s interim final rule and final rule on standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria for the meaningful use program.
According to the report, ONC included in the final rule “application security controls” that function within health IT products but did not include “general IT security controls” (Modern Healthcare, 5/17).
Response to the Reports
The HHS Office for Civil Rights expressed concern over whether investigators could draw comprehensive conclusions from the audits of seven hospitals. The office added that it regularly performs compliance reviews on breaches that affect at least 500 individuals.
Meanwhile, ONC said it is trying to find a balance between promoting electronic health record adoption and adding burdensome requirements. The office said it would “actively explore” stronger safety measures (AP/Washington Post, 5/17).
Source: iHealthBeat
About four out of five U.S. Internet users have searched for health information online, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation, AFP/Google reports. CHCF publishes iHealthBeat.
For the report, researchers from Princeton Survey Research Associates International conducted telephone interviews of 3,001 adults between August 2010 and September 2010.
Key Findings
Researchers found that 80% of U.S. Internet users — or 59% of the U.S. population — used the Internet to search for one of 15 health issues, such as data on food recalls, health conditions, hospitals or physicians.
About one in three U.S. adults said the Internet helped influence their health care decisions or the decisions of someone they know.
The report also found that:
However, researchers found that few respondents turned to social media platforms to engage with others about health issues. Only 9% of respondents who use social media tools said they have started or joined a health-related group on a social networking site (AFP/Google, 5/12).
Source: iHealthBeat
The Institute for Health Technology Transformation has released a report outlining the best strategies for using health IT to engage patients in their care, Healthcare IT News reports.
The report — titled, “Top Ten Things You Need To Know About Engaging Patients” — relied on input from health IT experts across the country.
Top 10 List
The top 10 strategies are:
According to the report, health care organizations that are focused on patient engagement will succeed under new health reform models such as accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes (CMIO, 5/4).
Source: iHealthBeat
MGMA Supports ICD-10 Testing With Outside Organizations
July 30, 2013
Report: Many EHR Users Set To Replace Systems Within the Next Year
July 30, 2013
Providers, Vendors Urge Congress To Delay Meaningful Use Stage 2
July 30, 2013
Many Doctors May Find Meeting ‘Meaningful Use’ Requirements a Challenge
June 28, 2013
When it Comes to ICD-10 Physician Documentation: Collaborate and Educate
June 28, 2013
The Slow Crawl Toward Improved EHR Usability and Interoperability
June 28, 2013
Efficient Patient Communication and Engagement
June 13, 2013
ONC Issues Guidance on Stage 2 Transition of Care Requirements
May 31, 2013
Drugmakers Leverage Doctor, Patient Data To Market Their Products
May 31, 2013
Consumer Organizations Defend Meaningful Use Program
May 31, 2013
