Industry best practices and implementation guides
Any healthcare organization dealing with the country’s opioid crisis, understands the gravity of the situation. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 115 people in the U.S. die from opioid overdose a day. Those casualties are impacting the country in many ways. There’s the cost, which is rising every day.
Ben Henson
In the wake of a second massive cyber attack and personal information breach by another Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance company, healthcare organizations all over the country are scrambling to put systems in place to make sure that the do not fall victim to the same fate. The first security breach 6 weeks ago by Anthem Blue Cross has compromised the personal information of over 80 million of current and former customers and employees from as far back as 2004 – including the records of Anthem CEO and president, Joseph Swedish.
Healthcare is starting to wake up. More than ever there is an eye toward long-term strategy instead of the typical approach to fix the immediate need with something tactical but not sustainable. This pandemic has caused our industry to think a bit differently, inspiring many to look for improved processes, especially within the world of digital care coordination.
Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is the second most common cardiac surgical procedure performed in the United States. Unfortunately, this surgery is associated with a high number of unplanned hospital readmissions. According to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, the average readmission rate after CABG surgery is 15.1% and, they note, some hospitals may have significantly higher unplanned readmission rates.
Ben Henson
It might seem like a pointless question - smartphones vs. pagers? Glance down at all the apps and features on your phone. You’ll have 100 reasons why it’s preferable to a little black box that only transmits limited numeric combinations. So why do clinicians across the world still rely on this outdated technology?
Today, Suki, the voice-enabled digital clinical assistant, and QliqSOFT, a leader in patient engagement and virtual care solutions, announced a strategic partnership to empower providers to deliver high-quality, seamless telemedicine. Together, QliqSOFT’s intuitive telemedicine platform will enable providers to offer high-quality virtual visits, while Suki allows them to focus on patients and complete clinical documentation accurately and efficiently. As more and more care shifts to virtual settings during the Covid-19 pandemic, integrating these two solutions will optimize telemedicine workflows for both provider and patient.
Ben Henson
PTSD Awareness Day is annually held on June 27th, working to help those living with the condition while raising awareness with the general public.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) defines what a hospital readmission is. “An admission to an acute care hospital within 30 days of discharge from the same or another acute care hospital.” They have created several programs to deal with the problem of readmissions. In an effort to reduce the number of patients returning to the hospital, they have lowered reimbursements to the hospital for medicare and medicaid patients.
In a story covered on about HIPAA Breach in Healthcare IT News this week, the HHS Office for Civil Rights settled with two organizations for just under a combined $2 million this week after it was discovered that both had PHI-containing unencrypted laptops stolen.
Krishna Kurapati
As many CIOs or Compliance Officers can attest, it’s impossible to attend a healthcare privacy or security conference these days without running into Leon Rodriguez. Rodriguez, the Director of OCR/HHS, gives the same presentation at these events time and again, and, without fail, draws the highest attendance of any particular event session. While Rodriguez holds himself well at the podium, attendees are not exactly lining up in the standing room only section of the banquet hall to see public speaking virtuosity. No, they are there for the terrifying subject matter: the HIPAA Audit Program.
Krishna Kurapati
In Part 1 of this series, we examined the purpose and general background of the HIPAA Audit Program. In this second part of the series, we will take an in-depth look into the HIPAA Audit findings to see what issues are tripping up providers the most. Remember: while the pilot phase of the program was intended to be educational, OCR has stated that future violations can and will be accompanied by sanctions, up to and including civil monetary penalties.
Krishna Kurapati
In Part 2 of this three-part series, we took a deep look into the preliminary HIPAA Audit findings and observed the most common infractions identified by OCR. Specifically, security gaps accounted for the majority of results, with the lack of risk assessments and inadequate mobile device security being two of the most cited weaknesses. Fortunately for those selected in the 2012 pilot phase of the audits, OCR was primarily focused on using the exercise to educate covered entities of serious HIPAA issues.
Krishna KurapatiStay informed with the latest articles and insights on best practices.