Oct 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
Smartphones and tablets are playing a bigger role in healthcare, and more change will take place when providers connect with patients using mobile apps, healthcare experts say.nnThe number of U.S. adults using mobile phones for health-related activities, including looking up health information, grew from 61 million in 2011 to 75 million in 2012, according to a Manhattan Research survey of 8,745 adults. Meanwhile, the number of people using tablet computers for healthcare nearly doubled from 15 million to 29 million.nnOlder consumers haven’t been left behind: Nearly half of online consumers aged 55 and older who own or use a tablet are using these devices to look up health information or tools. Finally, among the 15% of online consumers who have tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers or laptops, 60% are using all three types of devices for health-related online activities.nn”What we’re witnessing is the rise of a technology that enables people to easily get health information without going to the high priests of healthcare,” Joe Smith, MD, told InformationWeek Healthcare. “The longstanding asymmetry between providers and patients on health information is starting to break down.” Older consumers’ use of tablets for healthcare purposes, he said, “heralds a wonderful change in healthcare. You’re seeing an emboldened, engaged aging population, and the country definitely needs that.”nnAs for the use of multiple devices, he said, “it’s pretty easy to access the information independent of the hardware platform. So I think it’s more representative of the fact that people are using whatever gadget is available to them to find out information about their health.”nnMany consumers are already using standalone mobile health applications to track their fitness, wellness, exercise, and diet. Some are utilizing apps created for people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, noted Smith, but there’s still less use of those than there is for fitness and wellness tracking, he said.nnNevertheless, he said, as people get used to mobile technology that reminds them to take their pills or get more exercise, “they’ll start using it to find out whether their asthma is likely to be worse today because of a pollen count, or is my heart rate climbing with my activity today in a different way than it has in the past, and as a result, is my heart failure getting worse?”nnSource: www.informationweek.com; Ken Terry; October 8, 2012.
Oct 10, 2012 | Uncategorized
Despite a one-year extension, many covered entities are still unlikely to achieve compliance with the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision(ICD-10), barring a change in their implementation strategy, this according to a recent report from the Health Information and Managements Systems Society (HIMSS). The recently published “Implementing ICD-10 by the Compliance Date: A Call to Action” lays out a plan for achieving ICD-10 compliance by the new deadline: Oct. 1, 2014. In particular, HIMSS G7, the leadership group charged with assessing obstacles in the way of ICD-10 compliance, has identified four areas key to ensure that providers are ready by October 2014.nnCreate and receive support for four regional ICD-10 Solution Centers: “The breadth and scope of ICD-10 changes necessitate the testing of business processes as well as IT systems,” indicate the authors of the G7 Advisory Report. Regional support would enable the sharing of best practices to help implementers of ICD-10 overcome obstacles unique
to their areas of practice. Moreover, covered entities would have the opportunity to participate in end-to-end testing, perhaps the most crucial component of the implementation process and one that is often not afforded enough resources (i.e., time.)n
nnProvide vendors with tools to assess readiness: ICD-10 compliance requires the coordination of providers and vendors. In order to avoid the rejection of their claims, providers must work with vendors capable of processing them. HIMSS G7 calls for an accurate survey of vendor readiness that includes progress milestones and the adoption of ICD-10 readiness tools to measure preparedness and provide collaborative solutions.nnIncrease education for independent physicians and practices: According to a recent survey, HIMSS reported that approximately 90% of responding healthcare organizations expected to meet the original ICD-10 compliance deadline, Oct. 1, 2013. The same can’t be said ofsmall to mid-sized providers, who lag behind in their preparation for and implementation of ICD-10. The thought-leadership group seeks to address “a lack of comprehensive awareness of both the value of ICD-10 and the implementation requirements” by engaging more than 20% of these physicians through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) regional extension centers (RECs), medical specialty societies, and practice management vendors by year’s end.nnEstablish an authority for providing coding support and resources: The implementation of ICD-10 places strain on covered entities to expand their code base and reconsider their documentation. It’s to be expected that implementers will encounter a whole slew of challenges requiring insight from authoritative resources capable of answering their questions. HIMSS G7 urges groups such as CMS, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), American Hospital Association (AMA), and American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) to come together as a “single source of truth” for approaches to coding correctly and accurately.nn
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The implementation of ICD-10 will test the entire healthcare industry in terms of cost, time, and technology. Through proper planning and collaboration, more covered entities will achieve compliance and avoid future losses, which they likely can’t afford.
nSource: www.ehrintelligence.com; Kyle Murphy; October 10, 2012.
Oct 3, 2012 | Uncategorized
Below is a portion of Selena Chavis’ article on ICD-10 Testing Strategies, from the publication, For the Record.nnAs hospitals prepare for the new coding system’s arrival, sound testing strategies will be critical to success.nnUnprecedented. That’s how some industry professionals describe the impending impact of ICD-10 on healthcare organizations’ systems and processes. Like the implementation of any new large-scale project, testing will play a critical role in ensuring that the go-live has a minimal effect on patient care and revenue cycles. And it’s hardly going to be as easy as an open-book test, experts say.nn“Testing is going to be incredibly difficult,” says Stephen Stewart, MBA, FACHE, CPHIMS, CHCIO, SHIMSS, chief information officer for Henry County Health Center in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, adding that healthcare organizations should not expect that testing for ICD-10 will mirror that which would typically accompany other implementation initiatives. Industry professionals warn that the impact of the new coding system is expected to go much deeper than previous new-system deployment.nnUrgencynFor some hospitals, the postponement of the ICD-10 go-live date to 2014 is a welcome relief to a full plate of other IT-oriented projects vying for financial and staff resources. Even against competing priorities, Stewart believes the decision to delay ICD-10 has done a disservice to much of the industry because there is a sense of diminished urgency. “I don’t feel the sense of urgency that should be out there,” he notes. “There are those who are still hoping it will go away.”nnVendor and payer readiness are key components for making the puzzle pieces fit together during the testing phase. A 74-bed community-based health center, Henry County’s current payer mix is made up of 50% Medicare, 14% Iowa Medicaid, and about 25% Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa. With only three primary payers to consider, Stewart says the facility may be in a much better situation than some hospitals due to the fact that this group of payers appears to be more prepared for the ICD-10 transition than most.nnWhile most vendors initially made the commitment to be ready for testing by this October, Stewart points out that the deadline’s delay has changed the urgency. He believes this shift in attitude is a mistake. “It’s still coming, and it’s still going to happen,” he says. “I know some organizations that haven’t even done an analysis of where their problem areas are. How do they know if their vendors are ready?”nnFor the rest of Chavis’ article, visit fortherecordmag.comnnSource: www.fortherecordmag.com; Selena Chavis; September 24, 2012.
Sep 26, 2012 | Uncategorized
nnThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an updated interactive map containing information about each state’s Medicaid Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program. The Affordable Care Act requires each state to have a RAC program aimed at identifying and recovering overpayments and identifying underpayments made to Medicaid providers. States are at various stages of implementing their programs. For those that have selected RACs, the map includes detailed information, including the name and contact information of the RAC medical director. It also contains information about the contingency fee paid to the RAC.
Sep 19, 2012 | Uncategorized
Adoption of EHRs helps physicians to get up to speed on incoming patients before handoffs from the emergency department.nnAs the number of hospitals with electronic health record systems grows, a new study finds that inpatient physicians who receive patients from the emergency department have begun to do “chart biopsies” of electronic records to prepare for the handoffs.nnAlthough the study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) doesn’t reach any conclusions about whether chart biopsies are an improvement over traditional handoff methods, it points outs that “chart biopsies appear to impact important clinical and organizational processes. Among these are the nature and quality of handoff interactions and the quality of care.”nnThe study defines a chart biopsy as “the activity of examining a patient’s health record to orient oneself to the patient and the care that the patient has received in order to inform subsequent conversations about or care of the patient.” To understand how this process works, the researchers studied general internal medicine physicians and surgeons who received patients from the ED at the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) for a two-year period.nnAt UMHS, hospital physicians had access to two EHRs: one was for inpatient and outpatient documentation, and the other was used in the ED. When ED doctors and nurses entered data into their EHR, the inpatient doctors could view that data immediately. Over time, they began to review the ED charts before having a conversation with the ED physician who admitted the patient.nnThe three main functions of chart biopsies, according to the study, are getting an overview of the patient, preparing for handoff and subsequent care, and defending against potential biases.nnAccording to Hilligoss, every UMHS physician that he observed did some kind of chart biopsy. But they didn’t do one in every case–sometimes they were too busy–and every doctor did them differently. Hilligoss did point out, however, that doctors in hospitals other than UMHS were also starting to perform chart biopsies; fellow academics at other institutions have told him this. “It isn’t something that anyone has preplanned for, but because the EHR is there, they’re naturally doing it,” he said.nnSource: www.informationweek.com; Ken Terry; September 17, 2012.
Sep 12, 2012 | Uncategorized
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On August 1, 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released the fiscal year (FY) 2013 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (“PPS”) Final Rule. The Rule contains several updates to Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) programs implemented in prior rule makings. The Rule also finalized the market basket update of 2.8% for IPPS hospitals. The following are programs meant to improve quality of care for patients:
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- Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program
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- Changes to the Value Based Purchasing (VBP) Program
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- Readmissions Reduction Program
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- Expiration of Certain Payment Rules to LTCHs & Moratorium
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- Hospital Acquired Condition Program
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Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) ProgramnIn the Rule, CMS proposes programmatic changes to the Hospital IQR program for the FY 2015 payment determination and subsequent years. The IQR program requires that IPPS hospitals successfully report on 55 measures in FY 2012, 57 in FY 2013, 55 in FY 2014, 59 in FY 2015, and 60 in FY 2016.
nProviders that do not successfully report face a 2% reduction in their market basket update. For 2013, this means hospitals that fail to report will only see a 0.8% increase in their market basket.nnThe proposed changes are intended to reduce burdens on hospitals, create a more streamlined data set, and improve care generally through increased focus on various areas of hospital services. Notably, the Rule reduces the number of measures from 72 to 59 for the FY 2015, and 60 for the FY 2016 payment determination. More specifically, CMS removes one chart-abstracted measure and 16 claims-based measures.nnNext week we will review the changes made to the Value Based Purchasing (VPB) Program.nnSource: www.polsinelli.com; September 11, 2012.
