News Bureau 11-18 to 11-23
11/23/09
American Medical News
Digital divide emerges at hospitals serving poor patients
The research finds the digital divide is associated with differences in how well hospitals address racial and ethnic disparities in care and highlights the importance of helping hospitals go electronic.
11/22/09
San Diego Union-Tribune
Federal push to digitize health records
Once the networks are up and running, it should make hospitals, clinics and private practitioners’ offices run more efficiently — and cheaply. A 2005 report by the think tank Rand Corp. estimated that a properly designed network could save the health care system as much as $77 billion per year by providing doctors with the necessary tools to make decisions.
11/20/09
Boulder City Business Report
Health organizations e-link records
The Children’s Hospital, Exempla Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente Colorado are now linked via electronic medical records. By having the independent organizations linked, patients can visit any medical facility in the three networks and have doctors instantly access the patient’s records.
11/19/09
Insurance Networking News
P&C Carriers Face Uphill Battle with Medical Records
Still, medical records processing may be one of the more public—and inscrutable— challenges faced by both health insurers and P&C insurers, especially in light of the scramble to utilize electronic medical records under the Obama Administration’s push for stimulus funds to support improvements.
11/19/09
Jacksonville News
Jacksonville’s Availity, state roll out Medicaid medical record network
Beginning Thursday, no matter where most of Florida’s 2.6 million Medicaid recipients go for health care, their medical records will travel with them. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and a Jacksonville firm are launching a Web site that puts their records at doctors’ fingertips. The project is one giant step toward President Barack Obama’s goal of a nationwide health information network and costs the cash-strapped state no money to implement.
11/19/09
Earth Times
Medicare Extends Personal Health Record Pilot
November 19, 2009 — Medicare PHR Choice, a pilot program that provides beneficiaries with direct input of claims data into online personal health records (PHRs), will continue through December 2010 according to officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The pilot is available to people with Original Fee-for-Service Medicare who are primary residents of Utah and Arizona.
11/18/09
Federal Computer Week
Medical mapping tool ready for test drive
The National Library of Medicine wants health care organizations and vendors to test drive its new mapping tool that seeks to link a standard medical vocabulary to support applications for electronic health records, officials have announced.
