Group Practices

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CMS Data: 95% of Medicare RAC ‘Corrections’ Are Overpayments

Joseph Goedert | May 24

Medicare Recovery Audit Contractors are increasingly successful at finding overpayments, but the amount of underpayments the contractors unearth continues to dwindle, according to data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Electronic Data Interchange

New Interoperability Training Tools Focus on Stage 2 Criteria

Joseph Goedert | May 24

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has launched a suite of electronic health records interoperability training tools.

EHR

Health Info Exchange

Hospitals

Policy & Regulation

Stimulus

Intermountain Tracking Patients’ Cumulative Radiation Exposure

Joseph Goedert | May 24

Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City now enables patients and physicians to access radiation histories and the cumulative radiation a patient has received.

Medical Imaging

EHR

Hospitals

Consumer Health

Disease Management

AHA Welcomes Senate Legislation to Rein in RACs

Joseph Goedert | May 23

The American Hospital Association is supporting legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate to impose significant new restrictions on the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractors program.

Comments (1)

Hospitals

Payers

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Policy & Regulation

Electronic Data Interchange

New Analytics Initiative for Consultancy Encore Health

Joseph Goedert | May 23

Encore Health Resources, a Houston-based health information technology consulting firm, has launched a new health analytics consulting practice to help organizations design and implement their analytics strategies.

Hospitals

Payers

Vendor News

HIT Vendor Round-up: Prognosis, HealthInfoNet, PracticeMax & McKesson

Joseph Goedert | May 23

New leadership, an acquisition and milestones are among recent health information technology vendor announcements:

EHR

Health Info Exchange

Hospitals

Vendor News

Practice Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Revenue Cycle Management

Impatient About Electronic Health Records

Glen Tullman | May 23

I’m impatient about realizing the benefits of electronic health records—we all are. But, as the futurist Roy Amara once cautioned, “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

Comments (1)

Policy & Regulation

EHR

Hospitals

Health Info Exchange

First Vendors Get Accredited for Direct Messaging Services

Joseph Goedert | May 22

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission has accredited the first four vendors to meet newly developed best practices for providing secure messaging services using the Direct Project protocols.

Health Info Exchange

Hospitals

EHR

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Systems Integration

Feds: 2013 Goal for Meaningful Use Participation Already Met

Joseph Goedert | May 22

As of April, the federal government has met its goal for provider participation in the electronic health records meaningful use program by the end of 2013, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

EHR

Hospitals

Policy & Regulation

Stimulus

Revenue Cycle & Payments

New WEDI Program Facilitates State ICD-10 Cooperation

Joseph Goedert | May 22

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange has launched a new program for states to collaborate on reaching compliance with the ICD-10 code sets.

Coding

Electronic Data Interchange

EHR

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle & Payments

University Settles with Feds After HIPAA Violations

Joseph Goedert | May 22

Idaho State University, which did not conduct a HIPAA security risk analysis for more than five years--even after suffering a breach of protected health information--has agreed to pay $400,000 to the HHS Office for Civil Rights to settle allegations of HIPAA privacy and security rule violations.

Consumer Health

Data Security

Policy & Regulation

Stimulus

Data Entry Error Leads to Data Breach at LSU

Joseph Goedert | May 21

A simple data entry error in March caused a data breach affecting 8,330 patients of Louisiana State University Health System in Shreveport, La.

Consumer Health

Data Security

Policy & Regulation

Stimulus

Consumer Groups, EHR Vendors Talk Back to GOP Senators

Joseph Goedert | May 21

Fourteen consumer organizations in a joint letter advise six Republican members of the U.S. Senate to not seek to pause or delay the electronic health records meaningful use program.

Comments (1)

EHR

Consumer Health

Health Info Exchange

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Stimulus

Vendor News

Healthland Acquisition Targets the Continuum of Care

Joseph Goedert | May 21

Healthland, a vendor of clinical and financial/administrative information systems for rural community and critical access hospitals, has acquired American HealthTech, which sells software to skilled nursing facilities and other post-acute care providers.

EHR

Hospitals

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Chronic Care

Health Info Exchange

Vendor News

Do You Know a ‘Health I.T. Young Blood’ ? – Contest Underway

May 21

Entries are now being accepted for the second annual “Health I.T. Young Bloods” contest sponsored by Health Data Management. The contest recognizes the technology accomplishments of clinicians, administrators and I.T. staff in the health care industry.

Hospitals

EHR