FDA has granted 510(k) clearance to the health software firm WellDoc to begin marketing its DiabetesManager System, a mobile phone application designed to help patients and health care providers manage Type 2 diabetes, The Gazette reports.
How It Works
The application collects real-time patient data on blood-sugar levels and other health indicators (Rand, The Gazette, 8/2). The system then runs the data through a program that uses automated clinical coaching and behavioral algorithms to identify trends and generate relevant educational materials (Dolan, Mobihealthnews, 8/2).
WellDoc’s application also offers nutritional recommendations and other guidance on disease management.
Next Steps
WellDoc said it plans to begin marketing the product in early 2011.
The company said it eventually might apply the technology to the management of other chronic conditions such as asthma, cancer and heart disease (The Gazette, 8/2).
Source: iHealthBeat
Specialists at Oklahoma State University established a satellite video feed to provide medical consultations to fellow physicians 7,000 miles away in Iraq, the Tulsa World reports.
Oklahoma physicians have weekly teleconferences to brainstorm with Iraqi doctors in Kadhamiyah Hospital — the second largest hospital in the country with 655 beds — to hear medical cases, provide expertise and help plan interventions for Iraqi patients.
OSU uses the telemedicine system to conduct real-time audio and visual consultations with doctors in rural areas.
Anil Kaul — associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the OSU medical school — developed the idea for the consultations with physicians in Iraq (Archer, Tulsa World, 7/26).
Broadcast Coverage
KFSM reported that in addition to the video link, the physicians in Iraq are able to share medical records, X-rays and charts through a high-speed Internet connection (Ketz, KFSM, 7/22).
Source: iHealthBeat
Ninety-four percent of physicians said they use smartphones to manage personal and business workflows and to access medical data, a report from Spyglass Consulting Group found, Health Data Management reports (Health Data Management, 7/26).
According to the report, growth in smartphone use is driven by physicians’ desire to:
The number of physicians who said they used the technology in 2010 has increased by 60% from 2006, when Spyglass conducted a similar survey. In 2006, 59% of physicians used smartphones.
According to Gregg Malkary, managing director of Spyglass, physician use of smartphones is growing more rapidly than use by the general public (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 7/23).
Smartphone Drawbacks
Roughly 80% of physicians surveyed said they faced difficulties responding to colleagues in a timely manner with smartphones.
Physicians also expressed concerns with the lack of financial incentives for clinician use of the devices.
In addition, respondents said they were overwhelmed by the volume of incoming messages they received on the phones (Health Data Management, 7/26).
Fifty-six percent of respondents said they were concerned that the lack of standardized guidelines for transitioning care between colleagues could lead to errors in patient care.
Methodology
The survey was based on telephone interviews of more than 100 physicians working in ambulatory and acute care environments conducted over a three-month period, beginning in March 2010 (Healthcare IT News, 7/23).
Source: iHealthBeat
On Wednesday, the American Medical Association released a memo saying that the final rule for the “meaningful use” of electronic health records is an improvement over the proposed rule but that it also contains several problems, Modern Healthcare reports (Robeznieks, Modern Healthcare, 7/21).
The final rule, released last week, sets criteria for providers to meet to receive Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments included in the 2009 economic stimulus package for the meaningful use of EHRs (Pecquet, “Healthwatch,” The Hill, 7/21).
According to the AMA memo, problems with the final rule include:
AMA noted that CMS followed several of the association’s suggestions in crafting the final rule, including:
AMA said it will work with other stakeholders — including CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT — to help physicians purchase, implement and use EHRs (CMIO, 7/21).
Source: iHealthBeat
Every Friday evening, Tom Girton, administrator of the Pediatric Center in Glen Allen, Va., e-mails a report of the week’s financial activity to each physician in the group.
He doesn’t ask doctors to sign checks when they are seeing patients, and he periodically provides a list of total disbursements by vendor for physicians to review.
These are only a few of the internal controls Girton implemented when he was hired to help the 12-physician medical group after his predecessor was caught embezzling. Girton’s predecessor had worked for the practice for about 20 years and was a trusted member of the team, Girton says. It was not until one of the newer physicians in the group started asking questions that the fraud was discovered.
“One of the younger doctors said, ‘I am working way too hard; I can’t believe I am not making more money than this,’ ” Girton says.
The former administrator was terminated in 2004 on suspicions of theft, according to Girton. Court records show that she was charged with mail fraud and aiding and abetting in December 2006 and that she pleaded guilty in January 2007 in U.S. District Court, Richmond, Va. She was sentenced in May 2007 to 15 months in prison and two years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $97,464 in restitution.
The physicians at the Pediatric Center aren’t alone. Approximately $994 billion is lost annually to employee fraud in the United States, according to the latest data from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. After financial services and government, healthcare is the industry third most likely to be affected by employee theft, according to the most recent ACFE survey.
The Medical Group Management Association recently completed a survey to collect data on embezzlement in medical practice groups. According to the survey—the full results of which will be released this summer—44% of reported thefts occurred when employees stole cash receipts either before or after they were recorded on the practice’s books. David Gans, MGMA’s vice president of innovation and research, says the median amount of reported employee theft was $5,000 and was stolen over a median period of eight months.
“Employees are seeing hundreds or thousands of dollars go past them everyday,” Gans says. “So, if you don’t have good controls in place, a $20 here and a $20 there, and before long, it adds up.”
Denise McClure, president of Boise, Idaho-based Averti Fraud Solutions, collaborated with the MGMA on the survey. She says medical practice groups are particularly susceptible to embezzlement because they typically operate with a small number of employees, which can create a familial subculture and a perception of mutual trust.
“Doctors want to practice medicine more than they want to practice business management,” McClure says. “So, they often believe the right thing to do is to hire someone and trust them.”
But that attitude, McClure says, can lead to problems. She believes in the so-called 10/10/80 rule: 10% of employees definitely will steal; 10% never will, and the remaining 80% may commit fraud if the right opportunity arises. With that in mind, McClure says, the most effective way to prevent employee theft is to properly segregate duties.
For example, the person who processes invoices should not also apply payments. And ideally, someone who has no responsibility for bank deposits or bill payment should review bank reconciliations. However, because many medical practices have one- or two-person accounting departments, separation of duties is often impossible.
“When you can’t segregate, monitoring and oversight is the next best thing,” McClure says.
That can mean implementing surprise audits, cross-training employees to do one another’s jobs, or setting up an anonymous hot line through which employees can report suspected fraud.
“It doesn’t really matter what it is, as long as employees know you are going to be looking at their work,” McClure says.
Because employees who appear to be the most trustworthy are sometimes the ones who end up stealing money, it can be difficult for employers to identify perpetrators. However, New York attorney Preston Ricardo, who has worked on several occupational fraud cases, says some common indicators include extreme personal financial problems, lavish purchases that are beyond the employee’s means, people who seem disgruntled about their salaries and workloads, and those who work odd hours or never take vacations.
Ricardo says small-business owners who are victims of employee theft frequently are reluctant to press charges for fear of attracting negative publicity or alarming investors. But, he says, victims should also consider the possibility that they may be able to recoup losses.
“There are ways in our legal system for getting a good portion of the money back,” Ricardo says. “We’ve been able to get some good settlements for our clients.”
Source: ModernPhyisican
For Healthcare organizations, Open Text Fax Server, RightFax Edition (formerly Captaris RightFax) provides the best option yet to securely send, receive, and store confidential information about patients, providers, and insurers. A centralized document delivery hub fully supports regulatory compliance. The system also provides tamper resistant document delivery and receipt as well as encrypted and certified delivery options.
HIPAA regulations require health care organizations to be more efficient and to run their organizations more securely to enhance patient service and ensure the privacy and security of private personal health information. The road to HIPAA compliance can be a challenge. Access to personal health information must be limited and its confidentiality must be diligently protected. Secure systems and processes must be in place to provide information in a timely, efficient, and cost-effective way to the people that need to use it to drive patient healthcare decisions. In addition, healthcare organizations need to provide a reliable audit trail for tracking and reporting communications.
Source: Open Text
Encryption and Certified Delivery of Sensitive Documents with Fax Server Documents can be sent with Fax Server using encrypted or certified delivery options that keep information private and secure. This is critical to ensure documents are kept private and secure and helps healthcare organizations ensurance regulatory compliance.
When a user sends a document via certified delivery, the document is not sent directly to the recipient. Instead, it is sent to the organization’s Fax Server certified delivery Web site called Fax Server Secure Documents. The recipient receives an email message that indicates a certified document is available, with a link to the Fax Server certified delivery Web site.
All first time visitors to the Fax Server Secure Documents Web site must create a password upon access to the site. Each subsequent time recipients visit the site they must supply the password. Certified document recipients can change their passwords at any time.
Fax Server stores the history of each certified document so users can track when the document was sent, when it was retrieved by the user (or if it was not retrieved), and when each attachment to the certified document was viewed.
When an encrypted PDF document is sent, the recipient receives an email message with the document attached as a PDF file. Users can select to password protect the document so that the recipient is required to type in the password in order to open and view the document. The recipient will be prompted for this password each time the file is opened.
For encrypted PDF files sent via certified delivery, the recipient must log on to the Fax Server Secure Documents Web site and download the file. The recipient must enter a password for the PDF file to gain the permissions established for the file.
For encrypted PDF files sent via email, the recipient receives the PDF as an attachment to an email message. The recipient must enter a password for the PDF file to gain the permissions that you established for the PDF file.
Open Text Fax Server, RightFax Edition stores detailed information about each sent and received fax. The Fax Reporter administrative utility organizes and presents this information for reporting and billing purposes.
With Fax Reporter you can
Source: Open Text
If you have a lot of faxes coming in and out of your office, you’ve likely dealt with some of these problems: paper jams, constant ringing, and an endless queue of employees at the machine.
Though faxing may seem like a technology of the 1980s, a lot of businesses still need to fax documents. Businesses that deal with contracts and signed documents are one example of frequent fax users. E-mail may be the transfer method of choice these days, yet somehow the fax has endured. So, if you’re a fax user, you might as well be a savvy one and take advantage of the conveniences of modern technology — the fax server.
This is a server that is equipped with fax software and is attached to both a fax-capable modem and a telephone line; modem software that allows you to send faxes over the Internet may also be installed.
How It Works
A fax server receives documents from users on your network, converts them to faxes, and then sends them over the telephone line or Internet. It also receives incoming faxes, stores them, and sends them along to individual users. Users on your network can send documents to the fax server in a couple of ways. They can e-mail them to the server or use a Web interface to upload the document to the server. Uploading faxes through a Web interface requires special client software, but most fax software programs are not overly expensive.
To receive incoming faxes, the fax software can send users an e-mail with their fax document attached as a PDF file. Alternatively, users can regularly check the file directory where the faxes are stored on the server, or they can use client software to log in through a Web interface and view the received documents.
Fax Server Advantages
There are several advantages to a fax server setup. The first and most obvious is that employees don’t have to leave their desks to fax; they can simply send and receive from their workstations. Secondly, fax servers can handle a good deal of fax traffic by storing and queuing up the documents that need to be sent. The server will send the faxes in the order in which it receives them.
Another key advantage: Because they are transmitted in digital form, documents don’t have to be printed before they are faxed. This saves both paper and printer ink. What’s more, incoming faxes can be printed on a standard printer, offering more readability than documents printed on a fax machine.
Faxes More Easily Stored
Fax servers also make life easier for office managers who want to make sure the company follows government data retention rules. Since all faxes are stored in an electronic file, they can be easily viewed and backed up. There is also a greater sense of transparency since managers can see which documents flow in and out of the server.
For larger companies, these management advantages can be a key selling point for fax servers. Larger companies with multiple fax machines can also cut down on telephone lines with the Fax over Internet Protocol (FoIP) technology.
The good news is that smaller companies can still reap the benefits of a fax server, even if you cannot afford to invest in a dedicated server. You can install software and a fax modem on a server that does multiple tasks.
Whether your company is large or small, it’s worth considering the advantages of a fax server. After all, the fax has come a long way since we began buying those huge, beeping machines in the eighties.
Source: AllBusiness
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
On Tuesday, National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal and Director of CMS’ Office of e-Health Standards and Services Tony Trenkle defended the final rules on the “meaningful use” of electronic health records before a hearing of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, CQ HealthBeat reports.
Federal officials released the final rules on July 13. The 2009 economic stimulus package’s health IT provisions allocate as much as $27 billion in incentive payments for health care providers who meaningfully use EHRs (Adams, CQ HealthBeat, 7/20).
Lessened Restrictions, Hospital Provision Criticized
Multiple health provider groups have lauded HHS’ decision to ease some requirements of the proposed version of the rule.
However, some lawmakers and hospitals are questioning a provision to consider hospital systems with multiple facilities as one provider, rather than treating each facility as a separate hospital, for payment purposes (Lillis, “Healthwatch,” The Hill, 7/20).
In addition, some Republicans on the subcommittee said the rules were too lenient for health care providers and questioned why federal officials weakened provisions included in earlier versions of the rule.
CMS has said the final rule offers more flexibility to health care providers (McCarthy, CongressDaily, 7/21).
Blumenthal reminded the panel that the meaningful use rule is the first of three sets of regulations and applies only to incentives granted before 2013. The two subsequent sets of rules will have more stringent requirements, Blumenthal told the panel (Long, NextGov, 7/20).
Concerns on Security, Reliability of Patient Data
Republican Reps. Wally Herger (Calif.) and Sam Johnson (Texas) questioned why the rules fail to require providers to exchange electronic health data in a secure way. Instead, the rules require health care providers to test systems for their ability to exchange information during the first rule phase.
Blumenthal responded that exchange systems are not yet ready for deployment in all parts of the country and said stricter rules would unfairly penalize health care providers in some regions.
Trenkle said that officials sought to stay consistent with Medicare payment policies in crafting the final rule (CQ HealthBeat, 7/20).
Herger also suggested that the eased requirements for electronic prescribing might allow physicians to focus on information from relatively healthy patients rather than from patients with more complicated health histories.
Meanwhile, Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) called the final rules “responsible” (CongressDaily, 7/21).
Source: iHealthBeat
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