Prescription Data-Mines and Insurance “Credit-Reports”

The End to “Rx” Privacy? 
Staff Reporters
Collecting and analyzing [HIPAA protected?] personal health information [PHI] in commercial databases is a fledgling, but exploding industry, despite privacy concerns.
Industry Leaders
For example, Milliman’s IntelliScript provides personal drug profiles to insurers. And, Ingenix’s MedPoint is owned by UnitedHealth, the corporation that owns UnitedHealthCare. UHC is also the nation’s second-largest [...]

Internet Drug Rx Abuse

NCASA Study
Staff Reporters
A large majority of 365 Internet sites that advertise or sell controlled medications by mail are offering to supply the drugs without a proper prescription, while the online trade is stoking the rising abuse of addictive and dangerous prescription drugs, according to a National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse [NCASA] at Columbia [...]

ERP/CRM/HIT Employment Resources

The Sheffield Group Job Opportunities
By Amy Kilcoyne
Below is a list of quality candidates for hire that are currently available for direct ERP/CRM/HIT [enterprise resource planning - customer relationship management - health information technology] resources employment.

 

Candidate 1

SAP Technical Analyst

ERP, CRM, BI/OLAP Tools: SAP ERP 4.6C, SAP CRM 4.0, SAP Net Weaver 4.0, SAP BW 3.5, 3.1, [...]

MD Compensation and Benchmarking Tools

MGMA and ValueSource Release Software
Staff Reporters
Free online compensation and productivity benchmarking tools for physician practices are now available from ValueSource Software and the Medical Group Management Association [MGMA].
Dashboards in the Cloud
The two web-based [internet computing] dashboards enable physicians and group practices to enter a few easy-to-find variables about physician compensation, and production and costs, [...]

Medication Errors Persist

Bar Coding Not a Proven Technology
Staff Reporters
Bar coding has not yet been proven to reduce medication errors, and often the shortcuts that caregivers develop undermine its effectiveness, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association [JAMIA].
Hospital Settings
In hospitals that use bar codes, each patient gets a unique [...]

Perceptions of Electronic Health Records

New Awareness Study
Staff Writers
Kaiser Permanente, through independent market research company StrategyOne, conducted a nationwide survey between May 8-11, 2008 to gauge the awareness and perceptions of electronic health records.
Survey Findings:

38 percent have used their insurance company’s online tools to learn more about their care, up from 29 percent in 2007.

47 percent had a [...]

AEM Report on Drug History Errors

Annals of Emergency Medicine Drug-Report
Staff Writers 
Medication histories for trauma patients were inaccurate for a rural population due to communication lapses, according to a new study published on June 9 2008, by the Annals of Emergency Medicine [AEM].
The Report
Researchers studied 234 trauma patients in a rural setting, the majority of whom were moderately injured. Medication lists [...]

Ending Governmental Barriers to e-Prescribing

AMA’s - HOD Wants End to Governmental e-Prescribing Barriers
Staff Writers
According to Modern Healthcare [June, 2008] the American Medical Association’s-House of Delegates [HODs] adopted a resolution calling for an end to government-imposed barriers to e-prescribing. 
The Resolution
The resolution called for the removal of all federal Medicare and state Medicaid requirements mandating the use of paper prescription forms for certain [...]

Electronic Patients

Revolutionizing Healthcare
Staff Reporters
Included among our most popular Executive-Post topics are: medical practice valuations, Wal-Mart, DNPs, business and medical marketing plan, investments, asset returns, medical ethics, the financial services industry and various op-ed posts.
We believe however, there will soon be another very popular post, with comments on how e-patients will revolutionize healthcare!
Revolutionize Healthcare
According to Susannah [...]

Nurses in e-Charge

Trends in Clinical Information Systems Technology 
Staff Reporters
Recently, iMBA Inc www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com and the Executive-Post participated in a Healthcare Informatics survey on nursing clinical information systems [CIS].
The top five CIS functions were:

Electronic documentation

PACS

EMR/EHRs

Automated alerts

Cross-continuum patient records

Assessment
The following link has a summary of white-paper results from that survey
http://survey.opinionresearch.com/surveys/J35584NOV2007/First_Look.pdf
Conclusion
You thoughts and comments are appreciated.
Related Information Sources:
Practice [...]

Military Speech Recognition Technology

HIT in Military Medicine
Staff Reporters
Did you know that physicians are using speech recognition tools to enhance patient electronic Medical Records [eMR] in the military?
Assessment
It’s true! According to Information Week, and by 2011, the Defense Department expects its integrated, interoperable electronic medical records system to be in place at 500+ military medical facilities worldwide.
More info [...]

HIT Congressional News

New CBO Report
Staff Reporters
Official congressional analysts just dealt a blow to the prospects of broad legislation to boost health information technology, by taking a skeptical view of the savings that would likely result.
Yet, iMBA Inc www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com - a sponsor of the Executive Post - took the opposite posture this past summer with release of [...]

Patients Desperately Seeking EMRs

A New P4P Twist?
Staff Reporters
The Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS] recently received more than 30 applications from communities seeking to participate in a Medicare pilot program that uses electronic health records [EHRs]; according to CQ HealthBeat reports.
Pilot Program
Under the new experimental pilot program, DHHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [...]

External HIT Data Storage

Enter Cloud Computing
By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™
After a long time in development, Google publicly launched its free, Web 2.0 collaborative, online personal health records platform on Monday. It joins the likes of RevolutionHealth and Dossia. The operation first made headlines when Google announced it at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society [HIMSS] meeting [...]

Value-Driven [IT] Healthcare

Leavitt Pitches Financial Transparency
Staff Reporters
According to Diana Manor, Senior Editor for Healthcare Finance News, the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] Secretary Michael Leavitt was reported to say that he has no intention of slacking off in efforts to drive transparency into the US healthcare system, despite the winding down of the Bush Administration.  
World Health [...]

Medicare Part D Electronic Prescribing

New Four Part Standards
Staff Writers
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS] finally published regulations which establish Part D electronic prescribing standards for four types of information: 

formulary and benefits,

medication history,

fill status notification, and

identification of individual health care providers.

All Need Not Comply
Drug prescribers, dispensers and plan sponsors are not required to implement [...]

Retail Medical Clinics and IT

Competitive HIT Issues Emerging by Default
By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™
Publisher-in-Chief 
Health entities of the Physician Practice Management Corporation [PPMC] era might be termed the originators of corporate medicine despite contentious legal policies and prohibitions. Since then, there have been other modifications to the business model, as those PPMCs left for dead by the year 1999 [...]

About Dossia.org

Power to the Patients
By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™
Publisher-in-Chief
A common rallying cry of the turbulent sixties was “power to the people”. It embodied the zeitgeist of a generation that never seemed content until the democratizing electronic era emerged. In the healthcare space however, power still seems to rest in control of a select few; [...]

Modern Hospital IT Systems

Overview of System Architectures
By Dr. Richard J. Mata; MS, CIS, CMP™ (Hon)
Hospitals can use a variety of configurations for Health Information System [HIS] implementation depending on business needs and budgetary constraints. Staffing needed for these systems can range from a few full-time equivalents (FTEs) per 100 beds for very basic off-site processing systems to 15 [...]

Office Based EMR Cost Report

A Preliminary BC/BS Cost-Benefit Analysis
Staff Reporters 
 
BlueCross-BlueShield of Massachusetts recently announced that it will not require physicians to install or use electronic medical records [EMRs] to participate in its new bonus program. The health plan came to the conclusion that the financial benefits of office-based electronic medical records systems are just not worth the cost to [...]

Using Fraud Detection Software to Review Medical Claims

MDs May be Slow HIT Adopters - CMS and Insurers are Not!
Staff Writers 
 
Did you know that Medicare and private health plans increasingly have been “mining” medical claims data for potential fraud – for some time now – and with the help of sophisticated computer technology? 
Yes, it seems true – and such IT may be needed [...]

Physicians Expanding HIT Expenditures for 2008

A New Study from the Gantry Group
Staff Reporters
 
According to a new study from the Gantry Group, physicians and medical providers will be spending more money on health information technology tools and applications this year. And, their statistics suggest that healthcare providers are allocating forty percent or more of their current technology budget to clinical technology, [...]

Medicare Mandating Electronic Prescriptions

Proposed Legislation for 2011
Staff Writers

In one of their final acts for 2007, the American Medical News just reported that US House of Representatives and Senate lawmakers introduced new legislation mandating e-prescribing for Medicare participating providers, beginning in 2011. The bill, if enacted, would fine physicians who continued writing paper prescriptions after January 1, 2011.
Paradoxically, it [...]

Maine Overturns Medical Data Restrictions

Prescription Information Dissemination OK’d
Associated Press, December 24, 2007 
A federal judge in Maine recently overturned a new state law that restricts access by medical data companies to doctors’ prescription information.  
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock concluded that the law, which was scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, would prohibit “the transfer of truthful commercial information” and “violate [...]

EMRs and Patient Safety

Exploring the Shibboleths
Staff Writers 

A new study by University of Alberta and the Canadian Health System suggests that while Electronic Medical Records [EMRs] might provide a patient safety boost, not much is known about the full benefits of this technology.  
Despite assumptions that EMRs improve clinical workflow and medical care quality, there’s little evidence-based research to document [...]

CMS to Purchase Software for Docs

Doctors to be Paid for EMR Adoption
Staff Reporters 

The CMS recently reported that it wants 1,200 small physician practices to participate in a new government pilot project that will give higher Medicare payments to doctors who adopt electronic medical records.
The agency has not determined how it will choose the practices or its incentive payments.  
The AMA emphasized [...]

A New EMR Consortium

Boost for EMR Security?
Staff Writers
 
Nine companies in the health care industry have banded together to create a set of security standards to better protect the information in electronic medical records [EMRs].  
The companies, including HCA, Humana and Highmark Inc., have committed to use the security practices which they will develop along with Health Information Trust Alliance [...]

HIT and Virtual Medical Visits?

Compensation for e-mail - A New Payment Model for Doctors?
Staff Writers
 
It’s been a long wait, but we have recently learned that - ever so slowly - some health plans are beginning to pay doctors for ‘virtual visits’ with patients.
 
Vendors like McKesson-owned RelayHealth, Epic Systems and Web portal vendor Medfusion have offered the technology for some [...]

NPI Numbers

The Impending NPI Deadline
 
Most of us know that until now, hospitals and other healthcare organizations had until May 23, 2008 to implement the National Provider Identifier (NPI) scheme for Medicare claims; but we were apparantly wrong! 
CMS said today that hospitals must get their NPI in place for submitting Medicare fee-for-service claims by January 1, 2008. If [...]