Healthcare IT News - November 2008 - (Page 10)

10 Healthcare IT News ■ November 2008 www.HealthcareITNews.com i to be a hospital administrator these days, a CIO or nurse. There are so many challenges that seem daunting. There is the prospect of converting diagnostic and billing codes from ICD-9 to ICD-10. There are the Federal Trade Commission’s “red flag” rules that require certain entities, hospitals likely to be included, to develop a plan for preventing identity theft. Hospitals must also be ready for Medicare audits. The RAC (Recovery Audit Contractor) program could t Must be tough Tough times call for stepping up At the American Health Information Management Association convention in Seattle last month, CEO Linda Kloss and several of the association’s officers showed their readiness for rolling up their sleeves and taking on a job that is likely to be tough, messy, costly – and ultimately a boon for healthcare. Data is critical for operating a working healthcare Bernie monegain, editor system, but it has to be good data. “Without the change that supports more and better data, we won’t realize the value of the investment in the electronic health record,” said Kloss. Jill Dennis, AHIMA’s senior vice president, told me AHIMA had tackled large projects before. “We can do this,” she said. AHIMA has a MY TWO CENTS “Just as money isn’t enough to solve every problem, it alone can’t do it either. mean a big payback to the government, Even if the accounting is in order, it will take extraordinary time and effort to prove it. Hospitals are also wrestling with preventing hospital-acquired infections. No one wants patients at risk, yet they are. There are multiple other patient safety concerns to be addressed in this fast-paced environment. Many hospitals, large and small, are working at automating their business and clinical systems and connecting with other hospitals and physician practices in their community and region so they can share information. Underlying all of these challenges is an unprecedented economic crisis. With any of these challenges, it’s obvious that information technology can play a critical role. Many hospitals are implementing technology aimed at helping them prevent the spread of infection. But just as money is not enough to solve every problem, IT alone can’t do it either. When it comes to infection, it turns out that the best way to prevent it is for all staff, clinicans and patients to wash their hands. It’s a small thing to do that can make a big difference. plan for helping hospitals and others begin the transition now. At the Center for Connected Health symposium last month in Boston, Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, founder and director of the center, issued a call to action. In tough economic times, there’s a tendency to hunker down, to stick to the status quo, Kvedar told his audience of healthcare providers and administrators – many of them movers and shakers. Don’t do it, Kvedar essentially told them. “My plea to all of you is to continue to innovate,” he said. “Each one of us now has to start looking to where we’re going to add unique value. All players need to sharpen their focus as the future unfolds. The challenge and the excitement is to pick an area where you can add exceptional value.” We can’t say it better than that. These are exigent times. It’s no time to stand down. It’s time to step up with innovation, confidence and courage. ■ www.HealthcareITNews.com Published in partnership with 71 Pineland Drive, Suite 203 New Gloucester, ME 04260 T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Neil Rouda neil.rouda@medtechpublishing.com MedTech Publishing Company PUBLISHER EDITORIAL Jack Beaudoin, Editorial Director jack.beaudoin@medtechpublishing.com Patty Enrado, Contributing Editor patty.enrado@medtechpublishing.com Diana Manos, Senior Editor diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com Molly Merrill, Associate Editor molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com Bernie Monegain, Editor bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor eric.wicklund@medtechpublishing.com Nancy Vitucci, nvitucci@himss.org For advertising contacts, see page 44 or visit http://www.healthcareitnews.com Karen Diekmann, Production Manager karen.diekmann@medtechpublishing.com EDITOR, HIMSS INSIDER EDITORIAL STAFF More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: MoNeGaIN 1108 ● ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MARKETING Danielle Hartley, Director, Marketing and Business Development danielle.hartley@medtechpublishing.com Nicole Carter, Manager, Audience Development nicole.carter@medtechpublishing.com Jenna Perez, Coordinator, Marketing/Circulation jenna.perez@medtechpublishing.com READER SERVICES T (978) 671-0449 Email: cs-hitn@e-circ.net F (978)671-0460 Online: www.myHITN.com P.O. Box 9369, Lowell, MA 01853 The YGS Group T (717) 399-1900, ext. 139 HITN@theygsgroup.com Information Refinery, 800-529-2600, dfoster@inforefinery.com John Glaser, vice president, CIO, Partners HealthCare, Boston Denni McColm, CIO, Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Bolivar, Mo. Jane Olds, COO, Louisiana Health Network, New Orleans Wes Rishel, vice president, Gartner, Inc. William Spooner, senior vice president, CIO, Sharp Healthcare, San Diego Paul Tang, vice president, CMIO, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, California Steven Waldren, director, Center for Health IT, American Academy of Family Physicians LIST RENTALS REPRINTS CUSTOMER SERVICE lack of It not cause Forcing doctors to efor high practice cost prescribe not needed RE: IT adoption remains low as costs outpace revenue for physicians (10-23-08) Find it hard to believe that anyone in the trenches believes that the rising costs of practice can be attributed to the lack of IT deployment in small practices. I would like to see a study that shows that EHR deployment in a small practice actually reduces costs. At best, it improves billing. Experience from other industries suggests that it takes most of a decade for IT to have much effect on productivity because entire business models and practices need to change. I have met several physicians from small practices who would love to install EHRs but cannot afford the marked drop in revenue along with the increase in cost. i – Justin Starren, MD, PhD Biomedical Informatics Marshfield Clinic goVernMent Could have required ALL the patient safety software to be used on the existing electronic prescription system. This plan to force doctors to e-prescribe from their offices is not needed to put error-catching software in place. Safety is not the goal of this effort. The REAL goals are: 1) Make sensitive prescription records vastly more valuable in the secondary data mining market by requiring doctors to add diagnoses to every prescription. ■ CCHIT already requires that all future EHRs they certify must be able to add diagnoses to prescriptions. ■ The government CLEARLY aims to support the prescription data mining industry with this move. They do not address the need to end prescription data mining at all. ■ All the software to catch conflicts and he t MAILBOX errors could have been added to the existing electronic system 10 years ago had the aim been catching errors. ■ Interesting to note – the AMA has voted four times for a policy position to prevent diagnoses from being added to prescriptions. 2) Get a toehold for health IT into all doctors’ offices via a mandate that requires e-prescribing. ■ The idea is to start to force doctors to use EHRs – which in turn will lead to fulfilling the government’s aim of being able to datamine the EHRs of all 300 million Americans. ■ CCHIT and ONC require all future EHRs to be open for data mining for “population health” uses and fraud and abuse audits, to be conducted by the insurance plans! Insurers then get total access to the nation’s electronic records. Who is to say if while they are in our EHRs whether or not they search for evidence of pre-existing illnesses in order to deny payment of claims? leTTerS see page 11 EDITORIAL BOARD Neil Rouda Jack Beaudoin, John D. Payne PRESIDENT Neil Rouda VICE PRESIDENTS VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne 2005 JESSE NEAL AWARD WINNER http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10288 http://www.healthcareitnews.com http://www.myHITN.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - November 2008

Healthcare IT News - November 2008 Contents $700M Strong PHR Power Stepping It Up Geo IT EMRs Go Rural HiMSS Insider: Making a Difference Home for the Blues Merge Amnesty Management Solutions: Outsourcing Appeal Clinical Toolkit: Enterprise PACS

Healthcare IT News - November 2008

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