Healthcare IT News - September 2008 - (Page 8) Healthcare IT News ■ September 2008 industry news www.HealthcareITNews.com Medicaid to spend $380B on It, consulting firm estimates By BernIe MonegaIn, Editor reSTON, VA - State Medicaid programs are poised to spend as much as $380 billion on information technology in the coming year, according to a new report from business consulting firm INPUT. Contracts are expiring for as many as 21 state Medicaid Management Information Systems over the next five years, INPUT reports, and that puts vendors in a good position to sell new technology. The $380 billion represents nearly 22 percent of all state spending. The findings were released in a recent INPUT Industry Insights Report, “Vendors Seeking Health IT Opportunities will Find Them in State Medicaid Systems.” “State MMIS systems are primitive health information exchanges,” said Kristina Mulholland, analyst for healthcare and social services at INPUT. “Since there has been a lack of major progress with private efforts in this area, the states and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will have to continue making the investments here. We’ve already seen this with CMS’ Medicaid Transformation Grants.” INPUT expects the management information systems to become the center of gravity for supporting state healthcare IT and e-health efforts. The Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) and the Medicaid Maturity Model (MMM) are also guiding the modernization of MMIS systems toward a flexible, quality-based orientation, according to INPUT. However, these transformative tools and standards are only in their early stages. “Vendors should not worry that the train has left the station,” Mulholland said. “We’re talking about a process that will run 10 years or more. But, numerous states will be seeking to issue proposals for preliminary systems planning services over the next year or two, so now is the time for vendors to begin making their names known in this space.” ■ More at HealthcareITnews.com e Connect: MeDICaID 0908 ● ICD-10 Continued from page 3 e ● Connect: MeDINoteS 0908 Twenty people need this bed, so why is it still empty? Because someone didn’t tell someone else the patient left. Meanwhile, patients are crammed in waiting rooms. The OR is backed up. Your surgeons are upset. The backlog costs time, money and goodwill. The answer? Automated patient flow management from TeleTracking Technologies, the leader in capacity management solutions. Let us show you how we can break patient log jams and help you manage patient flow instead of letting it manage you. For more on how that works, go to www.teletracking.com or call 800-331-3603. © 2008 KLAS Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved. Management Association is excited to hear the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to adopt ICD-10 classification upgrades,” she said. “We regard this as a significant step forward in the march toward the use of classification systems that reflect 21st century medical knowledge within a foreseeable timeframe. AHIMA is also hopeful that CMS can digest the responses to the proposed rule and promptly issue final rules in order for the healthcare industry to, at long last, get ICD-10 implementation rolling.” HHS has also proposed adopting the updated X12 standard, Version 5010, and the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs standard, Version D.0, for electronic transactions such as healthcare claims. Version William F. 5010 is essential to use of the Jessee, MD ICD-10 codes. “We agree strongly with the recommendation from the “ implementation government’s of the 5010 own advisory b o d y , t h e transactions N a t i o n a l standards is a Committee prerequisite to o n V i t a l icd-10. the two and Health should not be S t a t i s t i c s , that impleimplemented m e n t a t i o n simultaneously.” of the 5010 William F. Jessee, MD transactions standards is a prerequisite to ICD-10. The two should not be implemented simultaneously,” Jessee said. CMS should wait at least three years after the conversion to 5010 before moving the healthcare industry to ICD-10, he said. MGMA believes that CMS has not recognized the magnitude of this effort for each sector of the healthcare industry and the costs that medical groups will face to implement it, Jessee added. Recent research by the MGMA Legislative and Executive Advocacy Response Network (LEARN) indicated that 95 percent of respondents in medical practices would have to purchase software upgrades for their practice management systems or buy all new software; 63.5 percent concluded that they would have to purchase code-selection software. ■ More at HealthcareITnews.com e Connect: ICD-10 0908 2007 Category Leader Bed Management e ● Connect: teletraCkINg 0908 Proven concept. Proven Value. Proven Results. ● Workflow Automation for Healthcare™ How would a switch to ICD-10 by oct. 1, 2011, affect your organization? send your comments to editor Bernie Monegain at bernie.monegain@ medtechpublishing.com. http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9879 http://www.medinotes.com http://www.medinotes.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=9933 http://www.teletracking.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.teletracking.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9866 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=9934
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