An End to Medical-Billing Secrecy?
Article By Steven Brill From Time Magazine, May 08, 2013 Our hospital bill is about to get a thorough examination. Acting on the suggestion of her top data crunchers at the department’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released an enormous data file on May 8 that [...]
Read moreFather says HIPAA law may have contributed to son’s death
By Ali Gorman, R.N. for Action News 6, Philadelphia, PA PHILADELPHIA – April 2, 2013 (WPVI) — If you have visited any medical center in the past 15 years, you have probably heard of the HIPAA privacy law. One local father is now urging lawmakers to change it. He says it is too strict in [...]
Read more5 Ways To Improve Healthcare Information Exchanges
From article posted on HealthInformation – HealthCare February 19, 2013 Recent comments made by a number of leaders throughout the industry show clear discontentment with the state of health information exchanges. As William Yasnoff, MD, PhD, president of the Health Record Banking Alliance, recently pointed out, the current nationwide network of health information exchanges is [...]
Read moreOnline Consults Increasing, Despite Physicians’ Concerns
From February 11, 2013 article posted in InformationWeek HealthCare by Ken Terry New primary care model gains momentum as payers see cost-cutting potential and consumers demand better service. Online consultations are spreading fast now that payers have figured out how to use them to save money. Last week, Health Affairs published a paper by researchers [...]
Read moreInsurers press doctors to file more claims electronically
From article posted on – The Hill – Healthwatch, February 5, 2013 The number of claims submitted and processed electronically has almost doubled over about the past decade, according to data released Tuesday by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). AHIP said electronic claims rose from 44 percent in 2002 to 94 percent in 2011. But [...]
Read moreHIPAA Changes Could Create New Bureaucratic Burdens
From January 23, 2013 article by Michelle McNickle, Associate Editor of InformationWeek Healthcare Modifications to HIPAA may take the focus off patients and pile on administrative work. Changes coming to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule mean added administrative work, and they could mean additional reporting, said Lisa Sotto, head of Hunton & Williams’ global [...]
Read moreHIPAA Final Rule Raises Fines for Non-Compliance
By Dom Nicastro, HealthLeaders Media, January 22, 201 The HIPAA omnibus final rule released by the Department of Health & Human Services January 17 will cost hospitals some time and money in regulation analysis, training, and policy revision, but shouldn’t break the bank, healthcare leaders and privacy and security experts say. The HIPAA “mega rule,” [...]
Read moreStates Must Play Catch-up on Health Overhaul
Obama win means healthcare reform will move ahead. From article posted on Bloomberg Press -November 7, 2012 President Barack Obama’s re-election means his overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, opposed by most Republicans, will move ahead in all 50 states, with or without the cooperation of their governors. State officials who held off implementing some [...]
Read moreNational Health Information Exchange: Why The Delay?
From November 5, 2012 article on InformationWeek.com Hurricane Sandy took many lives and caused billions of dollars in damage. But so does a healthcare system that still refuses to embrace interoperability. There’s nothing like a common enemy or problem to bring people together. In the days since Hurricane Sandy, we’ve witnessed countless acts of heroism [...]
Read moreSharing data a big complicated step for health care system
From SouthCoast Today article October 21, 2012 To those in fully automated industries, like banking, the state’s roll out of a new health information network last week must seem sadly behind the times. Massachusetts officials declared the Health Information Exchange open for business Tuesday by sending Gov. Deval Patrick’s medical data from a hospital in [...]
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