Meditation is beneficial to mental health and gives you an stress free life. Use an Herbal Incense while Meditating.

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/re-imagining-healthcare

LAS VEGAS – “We have a good shot at really moving at an exponential pace over the next five to 10 years, to really get to where we want to go,” said Janet Corrigan, president and CEO of the National Quality Forum, speaking to a packed house in the auditorium-sized Venetian Showroom on Tuesday morning.

Key to effecting that “logarithmic” change across healthcare? The use of standardized performance measures – for which “health information technology is essential,” she said.

Corrigan’s discussion, “Future Directions in Quality Measurement: Implications for HIT,” identified those measures and described how they’re essential to value-based purchasing, public reporting, meaningful use and quality improvement – in short, all the vehicles that will be essential to “move forward in building high-value health systems” and bring about “fundamental reform.”

Performance measures are “a tool,” she said. “Nothing more than a tool. But they are a very important tool.”

As such, Corrigan called for “measures and incentives at every level – embedded in the payment programs and public reporting efforts at every layer of the healthcare system.”

Still, she emphasized, it’s important to “prioritize” and also “focus on measures that matter.”

Also critical to that portfolio of standardized measures, useful for all types of providers and levels of care, is that they be embedded in accountability programs – but done so in a way that is aligned across all of them.

“Providers cannot deal with different demands in different payment and public reporting programs,” said Corrigan, noting that there are now “more than 100 public reporting programs at the local level alone,” to say nothing of federal programs.

Without a smart approach to quality measurement, we “run the risk of extraordinary burden and losing the focus of the providers on the front lines,” she said.

But it’s clear these measures are vital to bringing about badly-needed change across healthcare. At the end of the day, said Corrigan, a smart, IT-enabled utilization of performance measures represents “a huge opportunity to turn this big ship around.”

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/performance-measures-crucial-health-improvement-says-corrigan

LAS VEGAS – Lack of staffing resources was cited as the most significant barrier to implementing IT, according to the 2012 HIMSS Leadership Survey, which was released Tuesday morning at HIMSS12.

Nearly two-thirds of the 302 IT executive level respondents expect to add staff in the next year to successfully implement their IT initiatives.

Kay Hix, CIO and vice president of Carilion Clinic in the Roanoke, Va., area, said that while her healthcare organization had embarked on their electronic medical record initiative long before Meaningful Use came along, the Stage 1 requirements created more complexity in terms of measuring for quality. As a result, resources were getting stretched.

Underlying the need for staffing resources is the continued focus on meeting federal initiatives. Thirty-eight percent indicated that achieving Meaningful Use is the top IT priority for the next two years. Having a fully operational EHR in place was identified as a primary clinical IT focus by a quarter of respondents, and implementing ICD-10 was cited as the primary financial IT focus by more than two-thirds of respondents.

Nearly half of respondents reported that their healthcare organization participates in a health information exchange (HIE). However, only 22 percent of respondents reported that while there was an HIE in their region they were not participants. The Indiana Health Information Exchange is in the area of Deaconess Health, which is based in Evansville, Ind., but CIO Todd Richardson pointed to sustainability as the biggest challenge for HIEs. Instead, Richardson advocates for interoperability between the different clinical systems of hospitals and health systems.

Despite the recent announcement of a delay in the ICD-10 deadline, hospitals and health systems that are already deep into the implementation of the new code system are still expecting to continue. Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they expect to complete their ICD-10 conversion by the October 2013 deadline. While Susan Heichert, senior vice president and CIO of Allina Hospitals and Clinics, based in Minneapolis, Minn., said her organization was “extremely disappointed,” it is “too costly a train to stop” in an organization as big as hers.

Richardson pointed out that healthcare organizations can’t bet on changes and dates. “You can’t not start,” he said. “You just keep working on it.”

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/2012-himss-leadership-survey-it-staffing-shortage-key-barrier-meeting-it-priorities

[View the story "Twitter Recap: Biz Stone Keynote" on Storify]

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/himss12-twitter-recap-biz-stone-keynote

LAS VEGAS – There’s no way around it: Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs, are the future of healthcare in the United States, and providers had better get on the bus sooner rather than later.

Attendees at the ACO Symposium at HIMSS12 appeared to recognize this, as Monday’s pre-conference event was standing room only.

Antonio Linares, MD, medical director at Wellpoint, reassured the audience that “unlike most things you encounter in Las Vegas, there is a win-win relationship for all those involved with ACOs.”

[See also: Usability 101 workshoppers conduct research methods for improving EHRs.]

ACOs, as defined in Section 3022 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, bring together primary care providers, specialists and other providers to manage the full continuum of patient care and assume accountability for the total costs and quality of care for a defined population.

Healthcare information technology is the essential backbone for ACOs, said Joe Damore of Premier, Inc. Damore told attendees that the comprehensive IT needs of ACOs extend beyond an electronic medical record system that links a hospital and physician practice. He said ACOs need an HIE, a population health data management system, a robust business intelligence and predictive analytics platform, and ultimately a consumer health platform or portal.

Linares emphasized the data exchange and reporting function of ACOs. He said IT executives would be asked to focus intently on reporting analytics as ACOs take hold.

“We need to develop real-time information exchange for disease management. ACOs will ultimately require us to transfer data bi-directionally in real-time from provider to health plan.”

While the future may be boundless for ACOs, Linares said the current menu of ACO options for providers include the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the Advance Payment ACO Model; and the HHS Pioneer ACO program.

“There’s a real opportunity for greater gain sharing in the Pioneer program,” Linares said.

Most of the Symposium speakers praised the final ACO rules released late last year by the Department of Health and Human Services. Linares said HHS “really listened to constructive comments from stakeholders” and made positive changes to the proposed rules.

A redesigned healthcare delivery system, of which ACOs are a critical component, will ideally lead to improved population health and better cost control, but should also improve the care experience for patients, Damore said. The process builds directly on the “Triple Aim” designed by former CMS administrator Don Berwick, MD, while he led the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

“ACOs will help enable patient engagement,” Damore said. “That’s the direction in which we’re moving.”

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/acos-need-more-emr

Well…of course!

If Sue is like any of us, she is finding it difficult to re-evaluate her ICD-10 options around an unknown date.

Plan B will be whatever makes the AMA happy. So does anyone have a clue of what that might be? Will it be further delays, ICD-11, SNOMED? Whatever the federal government’s plan will be it will NOT mean staying the course.

Right now you should put a freeze on Coder Education. If ICD-10 is delayed more than six months, you will risk training too early. Skills and abilities will be lost if training occurs too soon.

Don’t freeze Physician Education, just re brand it as a CDI initiative instead of ICD-10. Documentation improvement should be on your budgets annually. Use this time to improve your documentation, as well as documentation workflows. This is a great opportunity to remove paper from your documentation processes in favor of typed or transcription workflows. You can get a jump on ICD-10 and/or ICD-11 today by creating or improving your CDI efforts.

We all have to wait on the delay decision, but I think most would be surprised if the date was before 10/01/2014. In fact, many believe the delay will be at least 2 years. You can update your systems now in preparation for 10/01/2014, but what happens if we leapfrog ICD-10 altogether and jump right into ICD-11? This makes sense of course if the regulations are delayed more than one year. Moving to ICD-11 in 2015 or 2016 would be a bold move, and I am not sure the American Medical Association has the desire to go this route.

What about SNOMED? Some of my most connected friends in the industry believe the feds will and should convert the billing codes to SNOMED before ICD-??. They believe that having two systems, one for clinical and another for financials is ridiculous. I am not bright enough on this topic, but my understanding is that SNOMED can be used across the board and there is a code for any conceivable situation. This move would save a ton of dollars in redundant software and workflows, but again would require the Feds to do something a little more progressive than their typical MO.

You would be somewhat foolish to think the game has not changed, and that staying the course is a prudent move.

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/himss-ahima-re-assert-need-icd-10-vigilance

LAS VEGAS – The economy might not be filling everyone’s wallets these days, but the landscape for venture capital firms looking to invest in healthcare has never been hotter.

So said Neil W. Borg, managing director of BC Ziegler, one of the oldest healthcare-directed VC firms, at the start of Monday’s Health IT Venture Fair Strategic Partner Forum.

Speaking before a packed conference room filled with VC firms and entrepreneurs – a curious mix of somber suits and briefcases interspersed with South Park T-shirts and North Face backpacks – Borg was part of a five-member panel that kicked off the day-long conference with an overview of the healthcare investment space. He pointed out that the healthcare space, in the midst of serious reform, is ripe for investment from not only traditional VC firms, but from other venture capital sources as well.

“The big healthcare names (in managed care, health information exchange and pharma) are paying attention to the innovators and making strategic investments,” he said, pointing out that the larger companies are acquiring smaller, innovative companies.

The venture fair and strategic forum, launched in 2007 by HIMSS and the law firm of Blank Rome LLP, has experienced significant growth in its seven years, according to organizers. What began in 2007 as a small pre-conference get-together of some 25 people attracted more than 300 attendees this year. They gathered to listen to presentations from 18 up-and-coming healthcare companies, so-called “elevator pitches” from three brand-new companies, and a special panel presentation by Aventura, a past participant that has enjoyed significant success since receiving VC support.

The day-long conference began with breakfast, of course, then was followed by the panel. Aside from Borg, it featured Blank Rome partner Beth Cohen, healthcare lawyer Howard Burde, Jay Srini of SCS Ventures and Joseph B. Volpe III of Merck Global Healthcare. The panelists talked not only about the healthcare investment landscape, but offered their insight into the hot trends, ideas for attracting investors and pitfalls and guidelines to living with investors.

The overriding theme: Healthcare innovation is stepping into the limelight.

“The rest of the economy has discovered healthcare,” said Burde.

Of the hot trends, Borg identified revenue cycle management and patient access solutions, population management and remote patient management. All of the panelists highlighted data analytics, or the ability to take data accumulated in the healthcare space and put it to use in clinical and business functions, as well as mobile health.

‘The world is mobile,” added Burde. “You can’t be tethered anymore, so all health is mobile. Everyone is constantly on the move.”

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/health-it-venture-fair-targets-and-coming-hit-vendors-hot-trends

Follow Diana Manos on Twitter @DManos_IT_News.

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ahima-stands-firm-plea-no-icd-10-delay

The Healthcare IT News social media community had plenty to say when Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum opined this past January that he rejects the notion “that people die in America because of lack of health insurance.”

Healthcare IT News LinkedIn Group member Dennis Fliegelman explained that Santorum was probably referring to the fact that physicians cannot refuse to provide life-threatening treatment. “Healthcare, like education, are both required for a productive society,” he wrote.

Fellow member Larry Steller agreed with Fliegelman’s comments. “Unless you can include a physician of the ilk of a Dr. Kevorkian, I would challenge you to identify a physician who would allow anyone to die due to a lack of healthcare coverage,” he responded to the group. Steller continued by saying the federal government is not the right place to force insurance companies to end maximum limits and pre-existing conditions.

But when LinkedIn group member Earl Foutch heard Santorum’s statement, he was appalled. “It seems patently obvious to me that the lack of health care insurance and/or healthcare access would lead to death if not serious health problems,” he wrote.

The rhetoric was also heating up on Twitter. One tweeter, @CVMac was confused by the senator’s presentation – but asked Santorum himself: “Could you be any more out of touch?”

The consensus around the issue seemed to be that it’s been overanalyzed, and the media frenzy it created out of proportion to the comments themselves. “Leave it to TV and newspapers to take his words out of context,” tweeted @joeshomel71.

Got something to say? Tweet at us @HITNewsTweet or follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn!

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/buzz

Whither public HIEs?

LONDON – Some sobering news came from across the pond this past year. On September 22, England’s Department of Health announced it would finally scrap the country’s decade-long, problem-plagued health information technology initiative, the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

Nearly £6.5 billion had already been spent on the planned £11 billion National Health Service (NHS) project, which sought to outfit UK hospitals and health trusts with electronic records and link them via a nationwide health information exchange system.

But the missed deadlines, cost overruns and physician resistance since the top-down program was launched in 2002 had finally gotten to be too much. Policymakers opted to eliminate huge swathes of NPfIT (while attempting to salvage certain portions that actually worked). The program was deemed unfit, according to the Department of Health, to offer “the modern IT services that the NHS needs.”

The project’s original sin, said many, was its government-led approach, By hand-picking vendors and following a one-size-fits-all nationwide strategy – and especially by giving short shrift to the needs and feedback of physicians – NPfIT, however well-intentioned, was bound to fail.

“Labour’s IT programme let down the NHS and wasted taxpayers’ money by imposing a top-down IT system on the local NHS, which didn’t fit their needs,” said Andrew Lansley, the UK’s secretary of state for health.

Marc Willard, CEO of San Jose, Calif.-based enterprise HIE platform developer Certify Data Systems, is from England. And although he’s been living and working stateside for more than 15 years, he couldn’t help but be aghast at what he saw going on in his home country.

“It came down to everyone trying to create this centralized business model and just asking folks to share information,” he said. “Politics got in the way, and it just failed.”

A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” Willard founded Certify Data Systems eight years ago. Having spent five of those years, in consultation with physicians and healthcare organizations, developing the company’s HIE technology – which launched in 2009 and is now deployed at more than 70 hospitals and health systems – he isn’t an impartial observer. But while he concedes that it’s “very hard to compare and contrast the UK with North America,” he feels sure that the U.S. will be learning similar lessons on the HIE front as England did with NPfIT.

The top-down approach to public HIEs – with their requirements that physicians and hospitals store patient information in centralized databases, with their unreliable funding models – are ill-suited to catch on with docs and stay sustainable, Willard argues.

“When you try to bring competing agendas together, you’re always going to get conflicts of interest,” said Willard. “My view is that, if you take a region, and say there’s five health systems and 1,500 physicians, everyone is going to have a different viewpoint. When the goal is to share everything, it sounds great on paper but it doesn’t work that way … you just create this political dynamic that is really hard to overcome.”

Instead, “Why not just connect folks and share information when it’s needed?” After all, “you go outside of healthcare and see that sort of situation working all the time: a network approach,” he said.

The state-level HIE, meanwhile, is “a very tough business model to sustain year after year,” said Willard. “What happens when the funding runs out?” (Indeed, as John Hoyt, executive vice president of HIMSS Analytics, told Healthcare IT News last month: “I don’t know if the government wants to be in the funding business [of HIEs] forever.”)

And especially in this limping economy, in this charged political environment, who wants to hinge their HIE’s long-term success on the whims of Washington and the state capitals?

Willard’s experience with Certify has shown him that many more health systems are opting to go it on their own, embracing the premise and the promise of an enterprise model: “healthcare is local, connect your community, make sure you connect your primary care physicians, and then, if the patient crosses boundaries from one health system to another, make sure, through standards, that you can offer the patient information to other health systems,” he said. “I just don’t think one size fits all.”

A recent KLAS study, “HIE Perception 2011: Public or Private?” polled providers about their concerns when it comes to HIE vendors. And while the research firm found providers were equally split between public and private exchanges, it did note that, for some of them, the private model won out thanks to the promise of better control over data, more robust prospects for funding and a quicker time to go-live, despite the need for more integration and interfacing.

“What we are really finding is that there is no one-size-fits-all HIE vendor,” said Mark Allphin, the report’s author. “The selection depends so much on the provider’s needs and priorities.”

Such a diversity of wants and needs is exactly why NPfIT didn’t work in the UK. As Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of NHS said upon the program’s shuttering, an effective and successful health system depends on “information systems that are driven by what patients and clinicians want. … Restoring local control over decision-making and enabling greater choice for NHS organizations is key as we continue to use the secure exchange of information to drive up quality and safety.”
 

Article source: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/lessons-uk