Healthcare Reform with a Public Option would Decrease
Hospital Margins, according to 2009 Survey
StatCom
Seventy-four percent of U.S. healthcare executives believe the
U.S. healthcare system is in crisis and they are concerned
healthcare reform legislation may negatively impact the quality of
care and hospitals' profit margins, according to the findings of
the 2009 National Survey on the Impact of Technology in Healthcare
Reform. Eighty-six percent of healthcare executives say improving
productivity and efficiency was their primary strategy to
accommodate future patient demand on the healthcare system. The
survey also showed that 69 percent of executives plan to invest in
improving their technology during 2010.
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RAC Changes Could Leave Providers
Susceptible
James Carroll, Health Leaders Media
With Recovery Audit Contractor HealthDataInsights looking
specifically at underpayments, providers should be aware of these
underpayment issues-such as DRG validation-amputations and DRG
validation-burns. Understanding these issues will put providers in
a better situation going forward.
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CCR or CCD, At Least There Is Now a Health Record
Standard
Dana Blankenhorn, ZDnet.com
Now there is good news, from the HL7 blog. The two groups working
on this stuff, HL7 and the ASTM, have agreed on a technical
standard. The good people at HL7 want me to know this is called a
Continuity of Care Document (CCD). CCR or CCD, you can call it
genofsky if you like. The point is we now have structured XML
standards resulting in an interoperable system for delivering a
standardized document to patients. It's all now mapped into HL7's
Clinical Document Architecture, making it relatively simple for
vendors to implement.
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Meaningful Use Criteria 'Too High and Too
Many'
Patty Enrado, HealthIT News
Executives from Catholic Healthcare West, Intermountain Healthcare
and Kaiser Permanente said they are meeting some of the newly
proposed "meaningful use" criteria but still fall short for certain
measures. The health care networks also discussed the steps they
will need to take to bring their health IT systems up to speed with
the new requirements.
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Healthcare Leadership, Policymakers Should Listen to
Nurses, Says Gallup Survey
Janice Simmons, Health Leaders Media
A new Gallup Survey of opinion leaders from across the country
found that most believe nurses should have greater influence in
many healthcare areas-from reducing medical errors to improving
efficiency and reducing costs-but that significant barriers
continue to block them from fully achieving those goals. The
survey, called "Nursing Leadership from Bedside to Boardroom:
Opinion Leaders' Perceptions," was conducted on behalf of the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and released at a briefing.
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Seven Health Reform Provisions That Could Take Effect
This Year
Joe Cantlupe, Health Leaders Media
Although the House and Senate negotiators are still hammering out
their plans for healthcare reform, lawmakers and healthcare
stakeholders are playing a numbers game: carefully eyeing when
specific projects are to be implemented and gauging how they can
meet the deadlines. As far as healthcare leaders are concerned,
meeting some of the timelines-especially for 2010-may be, in the
words of one, "challenging."
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KLAS: EMR Software Will Help Providers Meet Meaningful
Use Standards
CMIO
Ambulatory EMR software will enable approximately 85 percent of
healthcare providers to meet the Health IT Policy Committee's
proposed 2011 meaningful use standards, according to a report
issued by KLAS, a healthcare market research firm.
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Five Strategies that Prove Healthcare is Still a Growth
Industry
Health Leaders Media
Political rhetoric surrounding how much healthcare costs, how much
waste exists in the system, and how to cut reimbursement has
dominated headlines for the past year, ever since President Obama
made healthcare reform a prime focus of his presidential term.
Regardless of how it's eventually done, the truth is that
reimbursements are going to ratchet down and shrink-or at best,
growth will slow dramatically. But smart leaders know the future of
healthcare reimbursement isn't a zero-sum game, and you don't have
to resign yourself or your organization to tepid growth.
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Pilot Projects Can Show Promise, But Often Come up
Short
Joe Cantlupe, Health Leaders Media
Although the health reform bills showcase the potential of pilot
and demonstration projects as cost-cutters for the system, experts
are cautious about implementing them. A study by the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services, which analyzed several
demonstration projects, urges officials to carry out the programs
with caution, saying the demands for data and other information are
challenging. A key problem is the lack of a national data
system.
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Survey: Hositals Only 50% Compliant with EHR
Requirements
CMIO
U.S. hospitals are only halfway to qualifying for Department of
Health and Human Services' (HHS) draft rules, which could equate to
EHR incentive payments for up-to-date hospitals, according to a
survey released this week by IT company Computer Sciences' (CSC)
Healthcare Group. The survey revealed broad gaps between government
expectations and the healthcare industry's ability to meet those
expectations.
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Inpatient Trends - Thompson Reuters Fact
File
Health Leaders Media
Hospital stays represent a significant challenge for healthcare
leaders. While roughly one full day has been trimmed from the
average length of stay since the early 1990s, the number of
discharges has grown, as has the cost per discharge.
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Health IT Tools Facilitate Post-Earthquake Health Care
Delivery in Haiti
Bernie Monegain, HealthIT News
Partners in Health's use of health IT has played a key role in
delivering health care to Haiti residents after recent earthquakes.
The group uses satellite-based Internet communication tools,
electronic health records and a Web-based medication supply
management tool.
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Video of the Month - If Air Travel Worked Like
Healthcare
YouTube --
Click to view
CIOs Can Turn to EMPI Solutions To Avoid Patient
Identity Crisis
Kate Huvane Gamble, Healthcare Informatics
As hospitals move into paperless environments, they also become
increasingly vulnerable to patient identification-related errors.
To address this problem, CIOs should look to leverage enterprise
master patient index solutions. "With a true EMPI, data is
available electronically and serves as the master record for all
the activity of a patient within the hospital," said Kerry Kerlin,
executive vice president at Bethel Park, Pa.-based
Stoltenberg
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Words of Wisdom on Getting Advice from Outside
Industries
Gienna Shaw, Health Leaders Media
What's the best investment an innovative healthcare organization
can make? The CEO of a mid-sized hospital gave me a great answer to
that question in an interview this week: "Plane tickets." Preparing
for a big change at his organization, he flew as far as Rome to
gather information from organizations that had undertaken a similar
venture.
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Executives Plan To Go Slow In 2010
The Wall Street Journal
CEOs are upbeat about the state of the economy, according to a
survey, but say their companies won't immediately return to
business as normal. After riding out the recession by making steep
cuts, many executives now say they face tricky decisions about when
and how to resume hiring and to make deferred capital investments.
"You need to know when to apply the gas pedal," says management
consultant Paul Laudicina.
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Five Steps to Restore Your Employees'
Morale
Industry Week
To innovate outside your company's traditional areas of expertise,
try forming a strategic partnership with a company in a
noncompeting industry, writes George Young. Executives from
companies such as Coca-Cola and Unilever explain how they spurred
growth by creating partnerships with other companies, creating
common goals and establishing trust to increase
collaboration.
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