By Tom Philpott: PNT columnist President Obama’s ambitious plan to establish a lifetime electronic record for service members and veterans will improve delivery of benefits, speed processing of claims and, over time, open VA health care to any veteran, regardless of their medical condition or income level. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki first raised the idea of a more sophisticated electronic record system, and linked it to automatic enrollment by all [...]
The law offers bonuses for health IT adoption but will penalize physicians who don’t have adequate systems by 2015. By Doug Trapp, AMNews staff. Washington – President Obama on Feb. 17 signed a $787 billion stimulus bill that directs about $150 billion toward speeding adoption of health information technology and maintaining health care coverage, among other provisions. The sweeping measure — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — [...]
So-called “e-prescribing” systems that allow doctors to select lower-cost or generic medications can save $845,000 per 100,000 patients per year, according to a study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Complete use of e-prescribing systems with formulary decision support could reduce prescription drug spending by up to $3.9 million per 100,000 patients per year, according to the authors. Many employer [...]
By Damian Sofsian The medical treatment business has changed significantly in the past few years. It presents many administrative difficulties during the preparation of insurance policy procedures and dealing with complicated claim forms. To avoid these complexities, doctors look out for outside help, and hire representatives to advise them, attend insurance company seminars, and provide them with regular financial reports. This is called medical billing outsourcing. It has become a [...]
By Jacob Goldstein Remember that survey last year that found only 17% percent of U.S. doctors have electronic health records? Turns out, the figure’s even lower for hospitals. In all, about 9% of hospitals have EHRs, according to a survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Only 1.5% of U.S. hospitals have adopted “comprehensive” EHRs — those with a complete set of bells and whistles, installed throughout the [...]
A recent study looked at why Massachusetts has the highest adoption rate in the nation. By Pamela Lewis Dolan What’s working to bolster electronic health record adoption in Massachusetts could prove successful for the rest of the country, according to a recently released report. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts commissioned two studies by the Falls Church, Va.-based technology services company CSC, which examined the adoption rates of health IT [...]
Nationwide efforts aimed at bringing about a transformation from paper based prescribing to electronic prescribing received a push, as results of a new survey revealed that most physicians who participated in an eprescribing pilot believed the technology helped them in practicing better and safer medicine. The survey, conducted by HaldyMcIntosh & Associates, for the Southeastern Michigan ePrescribing Initiative (SEMI), an electronic prescribing collaboration, reported a high level of satisfaction and [...]
By Paul Watson | Tribune Newspapers MANILA – It started out as a Thanksgiving Day stomachache, a nagging pain that sharpened until it reverberated from California halfway around the world. When the ache in her lower abdomen became excruciating, the young woman was rushed to a surgery center, where the doctor diagnosed a ruptured appendix. The woman needed an operation—fast. But before the surgeon could wheel her into the operating [...]
If you’re looking for a home-based business that can help you pull in $20,000 to $45,000 a year using your computer, a work-at-home opportunity doing medical billing may sound like the perfect choice. But before you part with your money, consider this: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has brought charges against promoters of medical billing opportunities for misrepresenting the earnings potential of their businesses and for failing to provide key [...]
Federal stimulus incentives for hospitals and physicians to implement interoperable electronic health records (EHRs) will not nearly compensate them for the overall costs they will incur, but future penalties from reduced Medicare reimbursement could be a bigger motivator, according to “Rock and a Hard Place: An Analysis of the $36 Billion Impact from Health IT Stimulus Funding,” a paper published by the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) Health Research Institute. To help [...]
Physicians can earn tens of thousands in IT incentives, but they must act quickly to achieve the biggest benefit and avoid penalties. By Chris Silva, AMNews staff. Washington – The recent economic stimulus package provides a significant investment in health information technology that could benefit many physicians. But the government is expecting doctors to do their part to implement health IT and is prepared to penalize those who don’t. Over [...]
The process of collecting fees for medical services is called medical billing. The medical bill which is issued by the physician is said to be a claim. Medical billing may be handled directly by the physician and his or her staff, or it may be administered by a third party. The third party is an independent contractor or company that specializes in handling medical billing. Once the patient service is [...]
Over the past two years, about 84 million U.S. clinicians have traded in their paper prescription pads for electronic prescribing software. By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee InformationWeek More doctors have traded in their paper prescription pads for e-prescribing over the last two years. However, the bulk of e-prescriptions are being generated by doctors using standalone e-prescribing software, not more comprehensive, integrated e-medical record systems, says a new study. Just two years [...]
By J.E. Robertson Electronic medical records (EMR), like health insurance, benefit from being spread over the widest pool possible. A system that aggregates and cross-references data from hundreds of millions of patients can find statistical evidence far more efficiently than today’s statistical modeling for health problems and solution improvement. Allowing for non-identified EMR sharing across the system creates a universal pool of data in which drug side-effects, treatment failure or [...]
By Jayapradha Edavalath, Research Analyst Wireless Technology Boom: Conduit to E-Prescribing The healthcare industry’s transition from paper-based record to electronic record is witnessing yet another revolution- Electronic Prescription. Healthcare facilities of all sizes today are employing the advantage that comes with the mobility of wireless technologies. The market for wireless technology in Europe is becoming a ‘mass market’ and is increasingly gaining momentum. With the advent of wireless networking, many [...]
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