Healthcare IT News - December 2008 - (Page 35)

www.HealthcareITNews.com payERS December 2008 ■ Healthcare IT News 35 S.C. HIE leverages data South Carolina HIE allows physicians to view clinical data for 6 million beneficiaries. Martin said. South Carolina’s data warehouse has become a “tremendous asset” for health information exchange, said David Patterson, chief of Health and Demographics for the South Carolina Office of Research and Statistics. South Carolina was able to deliver on the HIE proof By PaTTy ENrado, Contributing Editor of concept by combining its data inteCOLUMBIA, SC – Launched in July, the South Carolina gration capability and claims history Health Information Exchange, or SCHIEx, is enabling and CareEvolution’s clinical use cases physicians to view clinical data, including 10 years of and technology. Medicaid claims data for more than 6 million South CareEvolution deployed its model, Carolinians. RHIO HeadStart, which fosters techThe rollout is focused on 90 community clinics and nology acceleration in a pilot to demrural health centers, which provide a safety net for the Vik Kheterpal, onstrate value to stakeholders, said uninsured and the underserved. MD Kheterpal. “It’s easier to get more “South Carolina is an area of technology and resource have-nots,” said participation, more people on board when you can Vik Kheterpal, MD, principal of demonstrate functionality and technological accomplishment in a pilot,” he said. CareEvolution, the SCHIEx’s federated servicestate’s technology the economic oriented architecture is built on partner. environment is Microsoft technology, including By using a “thin” Melody Martin expected to dRIVE SQL Server and .NET. electronic medical up the number of “We feel we’ve got great assets in record and data collection tool, clisupport of solutions for HIEs and nicians will be able to capture cliniSouth Carolina’s RHIOs,” said Chris Sullivan, director cal outcomes and track the populamedicaid patients. of Microsoft’s U.S. Health Provider tion in an effective fashion, he said. Industry Solutions. The downward-spiraling ecoPatterson’s future vision of SCHIEx is removing nomic environment is expected to drive up the number of South Carolina’s Medicaid patients, which is already state borders and pushing health information interat 800,000, to as high as 25 percent of the population, exchange with states such as North Carolina and said Melody Martin, project manager for the South Georgia. “The idea is to make information available anywhere for the highest quality healthcare,” Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The department is sponsoring the pilot with expec- he said. ■ tations of success in driving down the cost of care More at HealthcareITNews.com and improving the health of its Medicaid members, ●Connect: Hie 1208 e E-BUSINESS Continued from page 34 EMRs, AmeriHealth’s provider roster also includes smaller providers who don’t have EMRs. “This fills in some of the gaps in paperbased medical records and will improve the health and wellness of our members,” Miller said. “As part of doing business, it’s a requirement for health plans to have a robust provider portal,” said Catherine Weston, vice presi- port the whole population, particularly their Medicaid patients, said Peggy Dennis, director of provider advocacy at NaviMedix. “We can share clinical information with the pro“this fills in some of vider to improve care for the gaps in paper-based the chronically ill, lower medical records and will cost and increase adherence improve the health and to government standards,” she said. wellness of our NaviNet plays a signifimembers.” cant role when providers – Joseph Miller don’t have EMRs, said Lynne Dunbrack, program from administrative to clinical manager at Health Industry Insights. ■ services, she said. NaviMedix is enabling its More at HealthcareITNews.com NaviNet user community to sup- ●Connect: e-buSiNeSS 1208 e dent of account management at NaviMedix. An emerging trend is the expansion of provider communications Medicare. Leavitt said he is pleased his home state of Utah is one of two participants in the pilot. The PHRs will be controlled by the beneficiary and will contain data entered by the beneficiary and his or her healthcare provider. Medicare will also transfer up to two years of the beneficiary’s claims data, if requested to do so by the beneficiary. “We encourage beneficiaries to consider whether a PHR is right for them,” said Kerry Weems, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid.” We plan to evaluate beneficiaries’ satisfaction, issues or concerns about PHRs, and whether PHRs seem to improve the health and associated costs for caring for beneficiaries as part of this pilot.” CMS’ contractor, Noridian Administrative Services, led what Weems called an “intensely competitive selection process” for selecting the four participating PHR companies. ■ More at SpeechMagic provides a speech recognition-based technology platform that enables physicians to capture actionable, reliable information and act upon it. Easy access and instant sharing of patient information and medical knowledge help improve patient safety and treatment. PHr Continued from page 34 NoMoreClipboard.com and PassportMD. “This pilot is a major step forward for Medicare,” Leavitt said at a news conference last month in Phoenix. Leavitt called in from Washington where he had been presiding over a meeting of the American Health Information Community.” It will provide information and tools that will empower consumers to manage their health better,” he said. “Importantly, the pilot provides beneficiaries with a choice of products to meet their individual needs.” Leavitt said the companies offer participants a range of product options, from ones that are free to those that provide concierge services, as well as a diverse set of connections to healthcare providers, pharmacies and other sources of health information. Called Medicare PHR Choice, the program, which was announced in August, will make available personal health records to beneficiaries with Original www.speechmagic.com HealthcareITNews.com e ● Connect: PHiliPS 1208 e ● Connect: PHr 1208 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10500 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10491 http://www.NoMoreClipboard.com http://www.speechmagic.com http://www.speechmagic.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10494 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=10565

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

Healthcare IT News - December 2008 Contents AHIC 2.0 Debuts See How It Works Monitored to Health Right Decisions Neurologist Needed HiMSS Insider: Four to the Board Heartened Generation Next Clinical Toolkit: Inpatient EMRs Management Solutions: Asset Tracking

Healthcare IT News - December 2008

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