News Bureau 10-29 to 11-4
11/04/09
Healthcare IT News
Closing VCE Keynote: Don’t underestimate EMR usability
If you think electronic medical record usability means user satisfaction, guess again. Or better yet, listen to the closing HIMSS Virtual Conference keynote this afternoon at 1:30pm CT. While meaningful use criteria dont address measures of usability, usability affects adoption rates, efficiency, training and support costs, said Jeffrey Belden, MD. In his session, Understanding the Landscape of EMR Usability: Implications for ARRA and Beyond, Belden defines usability and the 10 principles of usability.
11/04/09
TradingMarkets.com
Ingenix Survey Finds Physicians Have Limited Understanding of new Government Stimulus Incentives for EHRs
A recent survey found that cost is the top concern among physicians considering electronic health records (EHRs) for their practices. Also, survey respondents had limited understanding of the financial assistance for implementing an EHR system now available to physicians through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
11/03/09
Health Affairs
Evidence Of An Emerging Digital Divide Among Hospitals That Care For The Poor
Some hospitals that disproportionately care for poor patients are falling behind in adopting electronic health records (EHRs). Data from a national survey indicate early evidence of an emerging digital divide: U.S. hospitals that provide care to large numbers of poor patients also had minimal use of EHRs. These same hospitals lagged others in quality performance as well, but those with EHR systems seemed to have eliminated the quality gap. These findings suggest that adopting EHRs should be a major policy goal of health reform measures targeting hospitals that serve large populations of poor patients.
11/03/09
Yahoo! Canada
Medical Services Company Gets Booster Shot From Swine Flu Vaccine
First, San Francisco-based McKesson (NYSE:MCK - News), the largest health care services company in the U.S., has the contract to distribute swine flu vaccine. Add to that the government incentive for development of health care electronic records, and the company is in good shape to outrun some 2008 setbacks.
11/02/09
CPB News
Top Court Opens Access to Medical Records
On Monday the state’s top court opened up Georgians’ access to a deceased spouse’s medical records.
11/02/09
Health Care Law Blog
HIPAA Enforcement Meets HITECH: HIPAA Administrative Simplification: Enforcement Rule
On October 30, 2009, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued the HIPAA Administrative Simplification: Enforcement Interim Final Rule, 45 CFR Part 160 (74 Federal Register 56123, October 30, 2009). This new rule was developed and adopted by HHS to conform the enforcement regulations under HIPAA to the revisions made to HIPAA under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
11/02/09
Fort Worth Business Press
Electronic medical records critical to better health care
When Dr. Henry Plummer developed the concept of the “unit record” nearly 100 years ago, his idea was to place all of a patient’s records in a single file that traveled with the patient and could be stored in a central repository. His concept of medical care continuity quickly became the standard for medical record keeping worldwide.
11/02/09
Press & Guide
Electronic records put your medical information right at doctor’s fingertips
An electronic medical record is a computerized version of that file. Health systems are concerned about maintaining the confidentiality of all patient records and have instituted safeguards to ensure that only authorized personnel can access those files.
11/01/09
PCMagazine
The Web offers an answer to the conundrum of digitizing medical records
Everything about healthcare these days has become a hot-button issue, even down to digitizing medical records. This was one of Barack Obama’s top technology talking points on the campaign trail. But so far, progress on this front has been slow. According to a report co-authored by University of Virginia economics professor Amalia Miller, a big hindrance to getting medical records digitized is privacy protection, such as HIPAA and state regulations. So while doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies are dragging their feet, the Web has stepped up as a way for individuals to take matters into their own hands. Specifically, companies such as Google and Microsoft are creating ways to put your chart in the cloud.
10/30/09
The-Review.com
House Democrats unveil health care bill; vote may be next week
Cheered by President Barack Obama, House Democrats rolled out landmark legislation Thursday to extend health care to tens of millions who lack coverage, impose sweeping new restrictions on the insurance industry and create a government-run option to compete with private insurers.
10/30/09
Earthtimes.org
Fifteen Vendors Seek NCQA Software Certification(SM) for 2010
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced today that 15 vendors will seek certification for software related to the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) and Integrated Healthcare Association’s (IHA) California Pay for Performance (P4P) measurement sets. Such software programs collect relevant data from health plan databases and calculate rates for health care measures that assess the quality of service and care.
