HIT Market

Self-service technology is readily available to healthcare providers of all sizes. Much of it is modular so you can implement it incrementally. You can build patient loyalty through reducing wait times by using the convenience of self-service registration, check in, and empowering patients to schedule their own appointments. There are many other benefits, too. For instance, you can significantly reduce denials, automate co-payments, lower your administrative costs, with more to come. Are you ready?

McKesson, an Atlanta-based provider of various health IT products, has announced that it is giving away $1 million worth of EHR software to physicians who provide charity care to underserved and needy patients. The initiative will have McKesson give its web-based EHR to 100 physicians for a free 26-month license, which the company says typically costs $399 per month.

Healthcare Informatics is extending the deadline healthcare teams can be nominated for its annual IT Innovators Award from Nov. 15 to Nov. 21. The award honors those at the forefront of healthcare IT innovation, looking at leaders at providers across the country who moving forward boldly to create the healthcare of the future, strategically leveraging information technology to improve care quality, patient safety, efficiency, and data exchange.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently announced the first class of the HHS External Innovation Fellows, which aims to bring together outside entrepreneurs with internal innovators from the agency in an effort to improve healthcare delivery.

According to a new report from the Plymouth Meeting, Penn.-based non-profit research organization, ECRI Institute, three of the top 10 health technology hazards for the upcoming year are IT-related. Authors of the 24-page report, Top 10 Health Technology Hazards list for 2013, say in the health IT field “interplay between complexity and effectiveness and potential harm is most evident.”