Uncategorized
Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records: Final Rules Issued - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
New Meaningful Use rules for electronic health records were just announced by the Secretary for Health and Human Services. The final modifications ease some of the requirements that the healthcare industry found objectionable, while still attempting to retain “the intent and structure of the incentive programs.” For example, under the rules proposed earlier in January, physicians needed to meet 25 requirements in their use of EHRs to earn bonus payments, while hospitals needed 23. The new rules mandate a smaller core group of requirements: 15 for physicians and 14 for hospitals. Providers must also choose 5 additional procedures from a list of 10. Also, the number of electronic prescriptions a doctor is required to make was reduced from 75 percent to 40 percent.
Other rule changes include: the addition of objectives for providing condition-specific patient education resources, and recording advance directives; defining a hospital-based eligible provider (EP) as one who performs substantially all of his or her services in an inpatient hospital setting or emergency room only; and the inclusion of critical access hospitals (CAHs) within the definition of acute care hospital for the purpose of incentive program eligibility under Medicaid.
Further requirements for meaningful use incentive payments will be phased in over a number of years, increasing standards for performance on IT and quality objectives. As much as $27 billion may be spent on incentive payments over the next ten years. Via Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
For more information, a recap of the final Meaningful Use Rules can be found online at the New England Journal of Medicine.
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
HP Targets EHRs - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
HDM Breaking News, July 14, 2010
Hewlett-Packard Co. has launched a new program to support the adoption of electronic health records in hospitals and physician practices.
The HP EHReady program includes a range of HP hardware products bundled with EHR technology, marketing services to promote adoption to physicians, and multiple financing options, according to the Palo Alto, Calif.-based vendor.
Advertisement
HP did not identify vendor partners for the program, but notes it has existing relationships with EHR firms Allscripts, McKesson Corp. and GE Healthcare and is developing more relationships. HP staff will provide installation services, testing, user set up and software configuration for the hardware. Partners will handle EHR software implementation and training.
Other available services under the program include assessments, support, help desk, disaster recovery, and program management. More information is available at hp.com/go/EHReady.
--Joseph Goedert
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
New EMR meaningful use rules praised - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
New government regulations covering meaningful use of electronic medical records are winning kudos from EMR and healthcare providers alike, with few naysayers piping up.
New regulations governing how healthcare providers can prove meaningful use of electronic medical records technology, a hallmark of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, are winning praise from both EMR and healthcare providers.
To tap into the $27 billion being made available over the next decade to promote EMR adoption, healthcare providers must demonstrate meaningful use of an EMR system. Exactly what that entailed, however, wasn’t clear until the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services issued MU regulations Tuesday.
The finalized rules require that providers meet 14 to 15 core requirements and choose five more from a menu of 10 options. Mark Segal, vice president of government and industry affairs for GE Healthcare, toldMassDevice that the new rules accomplish “two very important things.”
“One was that core and menu. The other was that, for a number of the items, they substantially reduced the numerical thresholds,” Segal told us. “For example, they eliminated two items that had been proposed for Stage 1 that were really more revenue-cycle-focused. We think those are very important, electronic eligibility checks and electronic claims submission and we’ve got products that are focused on that, but many EHRs don’t have those as part of their core functionality. Keeping them in would have complicated the rollout of the program.”
Dr. Tom Giannulli is chief medical information officer for Epocrates, which is developing its own EMR offering slated for release some time this fall. Giannulli told us that he’s “very positive” about the new regulations.
“I commend the group under [national HIT coordinator]Dr. David Blumenthal. They did a great job. They really executed well against a really short timeframe and used a lot of common sense,” he said. “From a physician’s perspective, they’ve really metered down the more burdensome requirements and they’ve created this staged approach where a user can use the EMR in a very basic way and solve the meaningful use puzzle for the first two years. Once they’ve had that runway and the chance to get used to the technology, they can become more sophisticated users and solve the meaningful use concerns for Stages 2 and 3.”
That said, there are some unaddressed issues remaining, Giannulli noted, including usability standards.
“The usability standards for these products need to be looked at, because most of the EMRs that are out there are unusable in the production environment. They have to be struggled with in order to be productive and often don’t fulfill the requirements of going through a real-time [patient] encounter,” he explained. “They have to be done after the fact and add additional time to the encounter flow. In reality, if they’re designed correctly they can be operated in real time and actually enhance the efficiency of the doctor.”
Poor or non-existent infrastructure is another problem, Giannulli said, citing the immunization reporting requirement.
“There are these registries for immunizations. Those registries are state-region-by-state-region controlled. A lot of states don’t even have registries and some states, like California, have four registries. The interface used to report data to these registries is not standardized, so even though there’s a spec that says you have to submit to a state registry, that may be impossible or near-impossible based on that infrastructure. There are a lot of connectivity and interoperability assumptions built into the guidelines that are going to be really hard to implement until the infrastructure gets to a state where it’s more streamlined,” he said. “I would really appreciate it if the government spent some of that $27 billion to create a hub that every EMR could talk to to facilitate immunization or other types of data submission. If I’m a nationwide system and I want to satisfy every state or regional user’s immunization registry requirement, I’d have to build something like 80 different interfaces. They really need to step up their game and say, ‘Look, we understand there are these roadblocks and there isn’t a lot of infrastructure. We’re going to patch that infrastructure by spending a little bit of this money and building these kind of interfaces.’”
John Hallock, director of corporate communications for Athenahealth Inc. (NSDQ:ATHN), called his company “neutral” on the new rules.
“The consensus is that many of the criteria were lessened, certainly around [computerized physician order entry] and other key issues hospitals had regarding their legacy IT systems. Stage 1 of the HITECH Act, 2011 and 2012, will be relatively mild. Stage 2 has not been defined,” Hallock told us. “Part of the HITECH Act stipulates much stricter parameters around security and privacy of patient data and the onus is not on the vendors, it’s on the hospitals and doctors. It remains to be seen how all that plays out.”
Last September, Athenahealth took the bold step ofguaranteeing doctors and hospitals their share of the stimulus cash if they sign up for the company’s EMR offering. Earlier this month the companywon preliminary certification for its web-based EMR product from the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology.
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Feds Want Docs Off Paper Records - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
The Obama administration on Tuesday rolled out an ambitious five-year plan for moving doctors and hospitals to computerized medical records, promising greater safety for patients and lower costs.
Starting next year, doctors' offices and hospitals can get federal money to help defray the costs of the systems, which can run to millions of dollars for hospitals. Providers who don't comply by 2015 will face cuts in Medicare payments.
Federal incentive payments for doctors and hospitals to buy computerized systems could reach $27 billion over 10 years, and that's only a fraction of what technology vendors stand to take in. It's hoped the investment will streamline the delivery of medical care, yielding long-run savings.
Patients get the benefit of systems that can warn doctors before they make a mistake — prescribing a drug that could cause a severe reaction, for example. And there's also the convenience of being able to access records online.
The move by the Health and Human Services Department came with the release of two regulations hundreds of pages long. The main one described how doctors and hospitals can qualify for federal money by acquiring systems that meet certain "meaningful use" standards. A companion rule outlined how the systems will be certified.
Initial reaction from key interest groups was guarded. As lawyers pored over the text of the regulations, the American Medical Association said it was withholding judgment. The American Hospital Association said it is concerned about serveral aspects.
Federal officials said they tried to address doctors' complaints that the initial draft of the rule asked them to do too much, too quickly. More than half of family doctors practice in groups of four or fewer. A majority of small and medium offices have opted not to adopt electronic records because of costs and unresolved questions, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
David Kibbe, an adviser to the group, said that may start to change. "This is pretty good news," he said. "It will almost certainly translate into more physicians becoming participants in the electronic health records incentive program."
Money for electronic records was included in the 2009 economic stimulus bill.
Administration officials said they lowered the number of initial, "core" capabilities that the systems have to demonstrate in order for providers to get federal money, and allowed a longer period of time to achieve others.
They also lowered several additional requirements. Only 40 percent of medications will have to be electronically prescribed, as opposed to 75 percent as the government initially proposed.
The result "strikes the balance that was needed," said Steven Findlay, a policy expert with Consumers Union. "They give doctors the financial support to promote electronic records adoption without undue burdens. But they also hold doctors accountable for actually improving care and the health status of their patients."
The top government official overseeing the transition program says that reflects what happened to him in a previous stage of his career, when as a middle-age primary care doctor he was forced to learn to use electronic medical records.
David Blumenthal, now national coordinator for electronic health records, said the computer once saved him from prescribing a drug to a patient who was allergic to the medication. On many other occasions, he was able to avoid ordering duplicative tests, because earlier results stored in the system told him what he needed to know.
"I watched it make my care better before my eyes," said Blumenthal, formerly a prominent Boston area physician and Harvard professor.
Doctors' offices can receive as much as $44,000 through Medicare and $63,750 through Medicaid for installing computer systems that meet federal standards. Hospitals can receive millions.
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Texting, Apps Could Keep People Healthy - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
WASHINGTON --
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images
What if my blood sugar's too high today? Is it time for my blood pressure pill? With nagging text messages or more customized two-way interactions, researchers are trying to harness the power of cell phones to help fight chronic diseases.
"I call it medical minutes," says Dr. Richard Katz of George Washington University Hospital in the nation's capital.
He's testing whether inner-city diabetics, an especially hard-to-treat population, might better control their blood sugar - and thus save Medicaid dollars - by tracking their disease using Internet-connected cell phones, provided with reduced monthly rates as long as they regularly comply.
Consider Tyrone Harvey, 43, who learned he had diabetes seven years ago only after getting so sick he was hospitalized for a week, and who has struggled to lower his blood sugar ever since. In May, through a study Katz began with nearby Howard University Hospital's diabetes clinic, Harvey received a Web-based personal health record that he clicks onto using his cell phone, to record his daily blood sugar measurements.
If Harvey enters a reading higher or lower than preset danger thresholds, a text message automatically pings a warning, telling him what to do. And at checkups, doctors will use the personal health record, created by Indiana-based NoMoreClipboard.com, to track all his fluctuations and decide what next steps to advise.
"Hopefully you're paying more attention to your numbers, too," says Howard's Dr. Gail Nunlee-Bland, whose clinic uses an electronic health record - your official medical history - that can automatically link to NoMoreClipboard's consumer version and update it with things like medication changes.
The trend is called mobile health or, to use tech-speak, mHealth. If you're a savvy smartphone user, you've probably seen lots of apps that claim to help your health or fitness goals - using your phone like a pedometer or an alarm clock to signal when it's time to take your medicine.
Katz and other researchers are going a step further, scientifically testing whether more personalized cell phone-based programs can link patients' own care with their doctors' disease-management efforts in ways that might provide lasting health improvement.
"Mobile phones provide that opportunity for persons to get the feedback they need when they need it," explains Charlene Quinn, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland medical school, who is testing a competing cell phone diabetes system from Baltimore-based Welldoc Inc.
After all, most of the population now carries a cell phone. Accessing the Internet with them is on the rise, too - nearly 40 percent of cell callers do, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported last week - allowing more sophisticated digital health contact.
On the other hand, older adults are less likely to use smartphones. So are people who are sicker, with multiple chronic diseases, says Dr. Joseph Kvedar, director of the Center for Connected Health, a division of Boston's Partners Healthcare.
Kvedar notes that nearly any phone can handle simpler text-messaging programs. Among the biggest offered to date is the free text4baby, where government-vetted health tips timed to pregnant women's due dates are texted weekly to about 50,000 participants so far.
Do these kinds of technologies work? There's some short-term evidence, although no one knows if people stick with it once the novelty wears off:
-In a study of 70 Boston residents to improve cancer-preventing use of sunscreen, Kvedar found daily texts with reminders hooked to the weather forecast for six weeks increased sunscreen use by 40 percent.
-Researchers at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center found episodes of rejection dropped when they texted take-your-medicine reminders to 41 pediatric liver transplant recipients or their caregivers, adding another text nag to the parent if teen patients didn't quickly respond that they'd taken their dose.
-The University of California, San Diego, went a step further, designing a text-message program to encourage weight loss where participants texted back answers to such questions as "Did you buy fresh raw vegetables to snack on this week?" Answering allowed more customized texted diet tips. In a pilot study of 75 people, text-message recipients lost about four more pounds in four months than those given printed dieting advice.
-The Internet-based approach offers even more two-way interaction. This fall, Quinn will report results of a 260-patient study using a range of Welldoc phone features, including more real-time monitoring of the blood sugar fluctuations users enter. A small Welldoc pilot study found users' average blood sugar dropped over three months.
"What systems work best with patients has yet to be figured out," says George Washington's Katz, who is testing a version of that program, too - and worries not just about affordability when his study is over but whether interest will wane. "Otherwise, they find it's a nice toy to start with, and forget about it."
----------
For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Best I.T. Practices for Small Medical Practices - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
By Chris Sullivan
Many small and midsize healthcare providers are interested in the advantages offered by information technology, but find it difficult to move forward with actual deployment. Some fear they don’t have the in-house expertise to implement and manage the technology on an ongoing basis. Others believe they do not have the time or money to make such projects happen. But small healthcare offices can significantly grow their practice, ease workflow and improve the patient experience by adopting solutions, like electronic medical records or a server designed specifically for small businesses.
To overcome the challenges faced by practices, technology vendors and physicians are continuously working together to develop new and innovative solutions that meet these needs. These solutions are cost-effective, often take advantage of existing technologies, and are designed specifically with smaller healthcare practices in mind. However, the implementation of technology can seem daunting and costly to the practices that lack the staff and financial resources of large healthcare institutes. Thus, adoption suffers and healthcare remains far behind other industries in the adoption of technology.
The reality is that every practice has different needs that can be easily met through information technology, whether implementing a sound infrastructure in order to grow the practice, adding remote capabilities so employees can access patient files while away from the office, or electronically storing files to save room and reduce costs.
And, while some practices are early adopters of tablet PCs and enjoy a paperless office, and others use just a basic PC, there are many areas of technology investment small practices can look at, regardless of their current implementations.
IT Infrastructure
Before small practices — or any size practice, for that matter — can think about effectively growing their business or investing in sophisticated technologies such as an electronic medical record, they need to ensure they have the most appropriate IT infrastructure in place. For most small practices, a server solution, flexible enough to accommodate growth yet developed with a small practice in mind, will provide the infrastructure needed.
The emphasis on future growth here is important. As technology is ever-evolving, to stay competitive practices must implement a base solution that can support system upgrades and software add-ons in the future.
In fact, many small practices today are turning toward these all-in-one server solutions that not only provide the basis for a flexible infrastructure capable of handling future growth, but also address other key business needs, such as going paperless, security and government compliance. For example, a Maryland-based physical therapy clinic was able to increase productivity by 40 percent, open a satellite office, and increase the number of patients seen by 30 percent – simply by deploying a single server solution.
Going Paperless
Paper-based processes are one of the biggest productivity wasters in healthcare. A significant amount of time is lost in manually scheduling appointments, handwriting patient notes, filing charts, faxing documents to hospitals and insurance companies, and ensuring patient files are adequately protected to prevent HIPAA violations. Further, the costs spent on paper as well as the space needed to store rows of filing cabinets can be significant.
There are different solutions that practices can turn to in order to meet paperless goals. Some practices are able to go paperless as they upgrade their IT infrastructure with a server solution, or others achieve the paperless route through electronic medical records.
The physical therapy practice mentioned above actually reduced its paper spend by 75 percent and got rid of its fax machines – employees now fax PDF documents directly from their computers.
Security and Privacy of Information
Government mandates, such as HIPAA, are important factors set in place to ensure patient safety, satisfaction and privacy are met. They require confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronically protected health information, and are inherently important to patient safety.
Therefore, as practices look to adopt new technologies, it’s critical to ensure that the technology not only fits in with the practice’s privacy and security strategy, but also that it helps ease the process.
Many practices find that as they go paperless, their ability to meet stringent government guidelines and safely store patient information is drastically improved. At the most basic level, going paperless allows practices to protect patient information from everyone — even cleaning services and construction crews that are sometimes working late at night and in the office alone.
Some solutions even offer enforced network updates and server protection features, such as automatic tracking of staff members who have accessed a patient’s record, to ensure an extra layer of security exists, and automatic updates that make it easier to manage and protect data.
Mobility
Providing accurate, high quality care is critical. Practitioners need to be confident in their diagnoses, treatments and assessments, but they also need to be efficient. Running mobile applications designed specifically for healthcare professionals can both improve care and enhance productivity by helping physicians stay on top of e-mails and appointments while on-the-go, quickly research drugs and trials and even interpret lab test results.
In fact, one physician practice that specializes in wound care and treatment was able to reduce the number of hospitalizations by 90 percent after it implemented a mobile treatment program that allows for better collection and management of care data. And by providing employees with mobile phone devices, the clinic estimates it saves more than $1,000 annually per clinical staff member.
Additionally, going mobile provides an opportunity for the care provider to stay relevant – and ultimately competitive – in today’s digital world. The Millennial Generation has been raised with text messaging, instant messaging, e-mailing and social networking, and expects to use these forms of communication in most circumstances. These days, it’s almost easier for patients when providers can create automated text messages that remind them to take their medications or prompt them to remember upcoming appointments.
Mobile functionality can also help practice members effectively share information by ensuring real-time communication via talk, text message and e-mail.
Virtual Communications
Virtual communications can increase effective communication not only between staff members, but also between the patient and physician. For practices that have or are opening remote locations, virtual communications cut down on travel costs and time. For instance, staff members often need to join meetings or training sessions in other offices to ensure that practices are running efficiently and effectively and to get updates on new medical developments, but travel for these meetings can be expensive and difficult to fit in between patients. By using virtual communications, physicians and staff members can join meetings remotely via conference calls, desktop sharing and video chats. Furthermore, for those who can’t join virtual meetings in real time, meetings can be recorded and viewed later, leaving more time to spend with patients.
Virtual communication between the physician and patient essentially means that they don’t have to be in the same location. Physicians can assess patients while out of town, right in the comfort of the patient’s own home. These virtual visits can be especially beneficial to check in on a patient’s post-treatment care regimes, leading to improved care and reduced acute-care costs, increased revenue for the practice, and patient satisfaction and retention.
Remote Access
Whether mobile or via the Web – many practices are also starting to look into offering employees remote access so that they can access patient files while on the road or from home. Some feel that physicians will be encouraged to take on more patients during the day if they know they can work on documents at home, while others look to provide remote access to increase employee work-life balance.
What’s Next?
As time progresses, more and more small providers will be looking for new and innovative technology solutions that will help them stay relevant and competitive. Whatever the right course of action is for your healthcare practice, just remember that technology doesn’t have to be intimidating. In fact, not only does it help better meet the requirements set forth by the government, technology can save money, increase efficiency and improve the overall patient experience at the point of care.
Chris Sullivan is National Director of Health Provider Solutions, U.S. Health and Life Sciences, for Microsoft.
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Meaningful Use - July 19, 2010
The nation's healthcare system is undergoing a transformation in an effort to improve quality, safety and efficiency of care from the upgrade to ICD-10 to information exchanges of EHR technology. The Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs are designed to support providers in this period of transition, but the impact of this historic change on both providers and patients will stretch far beyond the duration of these programs.
The Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs provide a financial reward for the meaningful use of qualified, certified EHRs to achieve health and efficiency goals. By implementing and meaningfully using an EHR system, providers will reap benefits beyond financial incentives - like reduction in errors, availability of records and data, reminders and alerts, clinical decision support and e-Prescribing/refill automation.
To qualify for incentive payments, meaningful use requirements must be met in the following ways:
•Medicare EHR incentive program - Eligible professionals and hospitals must successfully demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology every year they participate in the program.
•Medicaid EHR incentive program - Eligible professionals and hospitals may qualify for incentive payments for the adoption, implementation, upgrade or the demonstration of meaningful use in their first year of participation. They must successfully demonstrate meaningful use for the remaining years they participate in the program.
The Definition of Meaningful Use Requirements
The requirements of meaningful use to qualify for incentive payments was released on July 13, 2010. The final rule definitively outlines all the specifics of Stage 1 meaningful use and clinical quality measure reporting to receive the incentive payments in 2011 and 2012.
The Recovery Act specifies three main components of Meaningful Use:
•The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner (e.g.: e-Prescribing);
•The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of health care; and
•The use of certified EHR technology to submit clinical quality and other measures.
The definition of meaningful use harmonizes criteria across CMS programs as much as possible and coordinate with existing CMS quality initiatives. It also closely links to the certification standards criteria in development by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and provides a platform for a staged implementation over time.
Specifics of Stage 1 Meaningful Use (2011 and 2012)
Meaningful use includes both a core set and a menu set of objectives that are specific for eligible professionals and hospitals. For Eligible Professionals, there are a total of 25 meaningful use objectives. 20 of the objectives must be completed to qualify for an incentive payment. 15 are core objectives that are required, and the remaining 5 objectives may be chosen from the list of 10 menu set objectives. For Hospitals, there are a total of 24 meaningful use objectives. 14 are core objectives that are required, and the remaining 5 objectives may be chosen from the list of 10 menu set objectives.
The definition of meaningful use includes submission of quality measures. See the link titled "Meaningful Use Clinical Quality Measures" in the Links Inside CMS section below to learn more about these specifications for eligible professionals and hospitals. More information on the final rule and fact sheets regarding meaningful use are available below.
To realize improved health care quality, efficiency and patient safety, the criteria for meaningful use will be staged in three steps over the course of the next five years. Stage 1 sets the baseline for electronic data capture and information sharing. Stage 2 (est. 2013) and State 3 (est. 2015) will continue to expand on this baseline and be developed through future rule making.
San Diego health system connects with Allscripts - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
Sharp HealthCare has selected the Allscripts Community Record, provided in partnership with health IT company dbMotion, to deliver connectivity across its San Diego-based health system.
Using Allscripts’ technology, Sharp's caregivers and those in affiliated physician practices will share access to one unified patient record, according to Chicago-based Allscripts.
Sharp has deployed the Allscripts EHR for all of its employed physicians. The EHR, automating clinical processes and connecting providers to each other, forms the basis of the Allscripts Community Record, the company stated. Sharp also utilizes the Allscripts Care Management tool in all of its hospitals, and the provider's five post-acute facilities use the Allscripts Referral Management program to capture electronic patient referrals from Care Management, Allscripts added.
Last updated on July 16, 2010 at 11:40 am EST
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
How a Paper Shredder Can Help You Comply With HIPAA and FACTA Rules - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
July 18, 2010
cliff
No comments When CC Sabathia Jersey you think about paper shredders and the protection they can provide, what comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you’re worried about an identity thief making off with your credit card information, Social Security number, and so forth. But if you run a business, you need to consider someone else’s privacy: your customer’s. Unfortunately, it’s way too easy for your customers to be the victim of some usurious Chase Utley Jersey behavior, but as luck would have it, there are federal laws that are designed to prevent that from happening.
Two of these laws are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) and as business owner, it’s up to you to follow these laws to protect your customers’ information. Naturally, this requires some effort on your part and part of that entails using a paper shredder to destroy sensitive information. Read on to learn more about HIPAA and FACTA and discover how a paper shredder can help your business and your customers – and keep you out of legal hot water.
Any business that deals with health-related information must comply with HIPAA regulations which demand that you protect the personal medical information of patients. That means every doctor’s office, nursing home, mental health professional, hospital, and health insurance provider must shred documents when they are no longer needed. This is because HIPAA is designed to protect the privacy of patients and, as a worker in the healthcare industry, you and your office must ensure that your patients’ rights are protected.
Throwing away medical charts, test results, therapy session notes, and the like is a blatant violation of HIPAA and sending your information to an expensive paper shredding service is only asking for trouble. By using such a service, there’s no way you can be sure your patients’ information and privacy are protected, and you could find yourself headed to court if the information falls into the wrong hands. You can avoid this scenario by having a high-quality, industrial-grade paper shredder on-site. Owning a shredder will enable you to ensure the the security of your office’s private medical Brad Lidge Jersey information, avoid the possibly of legal problems, and save money.
Identity Jackie Robinson Jersey theft is one of the country’s biggest crime problems – according to the Federal Trade Commission, occurrences of the crime went up by 21% in 2008. Luckily, FACTA nfl jerseys Miami Dolphins was enacted to help protect sensitive consumer and worker information and prevent innocent people from being the victims of fraudsters, dumpster divers, and other lowlifes. FACTA is another law that requires the destruction of documents that contain private data. In fact, FACTA specifically has a disposal rule that mandates that every company that possesses consumer or employee information (i.e. credit reports, performance reviews, etc.) must dispose of such information properly. A paper shredder is but one way to comply with this rule. And unlike HIPAA, FACTA affects every business in America, such as mom-and-pop stores, big corporations, universities, and so on. You have a legal obligation to protect your employees and customers from fraud – owning a paper shredder can help you meet that obligation.
Although complying with HIPAA and FACTA regulations might seem like a pain, investing in a paper shredder for your business can help you easily meet your legal obligations. Your customers and patients will thank you and you won’t find yourself in front of a judge. So do the right thing: get a paper shredder and follow the law!
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
CMS will announce meaningful use final rule tomorrow - July 13, 2010
Orlando Florida --
By Mary Mosquera
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to announce on July 13 its final rule on the definition and requirements for demonstrating meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs), giving providers certainty about what they have to do to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentives under the HITECH Act.
The announcement follows a period of public comment after the proposed rule was published in January.
At the same time, the Office of the National Health IT Coordinator will issue its final rule for standards and certification of EHRs, according to the Health and Human Services Department. ONC also published its interim final rule on standards and certification in January.
With the standards and certification requirements finalized, vendors can be sure that they equip their EHR products with the features necessary for providers to be capable of meeting meaningful use.
In its proposed meaningful use rule, CMS required 25 measures for providers and 23 for hospitals to show they were using EHRs to improve healthcare outcomes in order to qualify for payments. CMS has grouped measure by healthcare priorities, including quality and safety, patient engagement, care coordination, public health, and privacy and security.
CMS will set meaningful use criteria over three stages between now and 2013, setting the bar progressively higher for providers to improve patient outcomes. This first stage of criteria described in the final rule focuses on collecting data electronically, sharing information with other providers and patients, and reporting quality measures to CMS, according to agency officials.
----------
For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
