May 24, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
Idaho State University (ISU) has agreed to pay $400,000 to the Department of Health Human Services (HHS) to settle alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. The settlement involves the breach of unsecured electronic protected health information (ePHI) of approximately 17,500 patients at ISU’s Pocatello Family Medicine Clinic.
May 23, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
article
Healthcare organizations trying to reduce the rate of medical errors often overlook a common but important factor within their systems—communication between physicians, nurses, and clinical care staff. To help fix this issue that could end up being very costly—both financially and clinically—New York City-based Mount Sinai Medical Center has adopted an enterprise-grade care-coordination mobile app designed to improve communication between clinicians.
May 21, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
blog
Although HIPAA allows patients to view and amend their medical records, most never have and don’t realize that they can. Doctors have concerns regarding this, but a recent year-long pilot showed that patients value access to their notes. Thus, the age-old question remains, should patients read their doctors' notes?
May 14, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
article
With its connections to payers, providers, and vendors, Nashville, Tenn.-based Emdeon understands how to deliver solutions that best impact the flow of information for all parties to increase efficiency and maximize profitability. A company whose industry reputation has long been as a clearinghouse for medical claims, Emdeon has recently expanded its boundaries as the market continues to evolve.
May 9, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
The New York-based Mount Sinai Medical Center has adopted an enterprise-grade mobile care-coordination mobile app which employs a special HIPAA-secure group text messaging system that improves communication between team members who coordinate care of patients with complex medical conditions.
April 25, 2013 John DeGaspari
blog
The findings of a comprehensive data breach report released by Verizon this week suggests that no industry is immune to cybercrime, and that the experiences of other affected industries can provide lessons for healthcare providers to safeguard their data.
April 10, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
In response to heightened awareness and concerns about cyber threats, attacks and incidents, the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) announced today new guidance for healthcare organizations wanting to assess the state of their cybersecurity preparedness. The guidance identifies an appropriate subset of controls within the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) that are most directly related to detecting and thwarting cyber-related breaches and allows organizations to assess against the cyber-specific controls and receive a snapshot of their cyber capabilities and readiness.
March 12, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
Nashville-based Emdeon, Inc. and Atigeo, Bellevue, Wash., a data analytics company, announced an agreement at last week’s HIMSS13 conference to collaborate on the development of new software solutions. The companies will explore the use of intelligent analytics layered on top of petabytes of healthcare data to improve health outcomes.
March 4, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
article
Three core healthcare IT issues—meaningful use, interoperability, and consumer exchange—dominated discussions during the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) Town Hall on March 4 at HIMSS 13 in New Orleans.
March 4, 2013 John DeGaspari
blog
At a pre-conference session on meaningful use on Sunday, Mac McMillan, chairman and CEO of CynergisTek, Inc., Austin, Texas, advised provider organizations to be prepared for privacy and security audits associated with meaningful use attestation.
February 26, 2013 Gabriel Perna
article
In this Healthcare Informatics podcast, Associate Editor Gabriel Perna speaks with Rob Faix, a principal at the Naperville, Ill.-based consulting firm, Impact Advisors. Faix discusses the healthcare data breach problem, and why this issue is increasingly coming to light.
February 25, 2013 John DeGaspari
blog
What criteria should a relatively small physician practice use in making a decision to move its computer operations to the cloud? I recently had a conversation with Michael Wolff, M.D., who heads up Southwest Spine and Sports, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based practice with six physicians in three locations.
