February 13, 2013 John DeGaspari
article
With the advent of policy-driven changes under healthcare reform, the traditional revenue cycle management practices based on encounter-based billing activities are being swept aside. With that inevitability, provider organizations are considering how to best realign their accounts receivable processes to maximize those revenues that are pegged to data-driven quality outcomes in patient care.
February 13, 2013 Mark Hagland
news
In his first State of the Union address of his second term, President Barack Obama on Feb. 12 directly addressed some of the challenges and opportunities facing the federal Medicare program in the coming years, citing value-based purchasing in particular as an important change to the U.S. healthcare system, as well as proposing changes in pharmaceutical policy and in Medicare rules for wealthy seniors.
February 6, 2013 Mark Hagland
blog
When Carolyn Clancy, M.D., announced on Jan. 31 that she was leaving the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which she had headed for almost exactly 10 years (she became that agency’s director on Feb. 5, 2003, after previously working at the agency as director of its Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research), it signaled the end of an era.
February 3, 2013 Mark Hagland
article
Jane Brock, M.D., the chief medical officer of the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care, that state's Medicare quality improvement organization, discusses recent research-driven learnings around what makes for successful forays into improving care transitions-and the IT leveraging that will need to take place in communities nationwide.
January 29, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), expressing concern that hospitals will not be able to put forth complete, accurate quality data via their EHRs. The comments were in response to a request for information (RFI) on hospital and vendor readiness for the submission of electronic quality data, as part of the CMS’ Inpatient Quality Data Reporting (IQR) program.
January 15, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
According to a study from researchers at New York-based Weill Cornell Medical College, the accuracy of clinical quality measures (CQMs) from electronic health records (EHRs) can vary widely. The researchers of the study say electronic reporting can both underestimate and overestimate quality.
January 13, 2013 Mark Hagland
article
As the vast UPMC health system in Pittsburgh moves forward on its big-data journey, senior vice president and CIO Dan Drawbaugh shares his perspectives on that journey exclusively with HCI’s Mark Hagland. Among the top learnings so far: the level of collaboration between and among senior clinician, administrative, and IT leaders required to achieve big-data breakthroughs will be exceptional.
January 8, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
A Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute study shows that fewer than one in five healthcare providers meet Medicare Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) requirements. Those that meet PQRS thresholds now receive a 0.5 percent Medicare bonus payment. In 2015, bonuses will be replaced by penalties for providers who do not meet PQRS requirements. As it stands, more than 80 percent of providers nationwide would face these penalties.
January 3, 2013 John DeGaspari
blog
A large number of physicians are coming under scrutiny on physician-review websites. One problem, though, is that many of those sites rely on few patient reviews. In fact, according to a study of 500 urologists by Loyola University Medical Center, ratings are based on scores of only 2.4 patients on average.
January 3, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
According to a request for information (RFI) document released recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is reaching out to providers, EHR vendors, and other interested parties on electronically reporting patient-level data under the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program starting in 2014.
January 2, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
Medical centers that elect to keep psychiatric files private and separate from the rest of a person's medical record may be doing their patients a disservice, a Johns Hopkins study concludes.
December 27, 2012 Mark Hagland
news
A new study is casting a harsh light on so-called “never events” in the surgical sphere, finding that such adverse events, which can include leaving a sponge inside a patient or operating on the wrong side of the body, led to malpractice litigation in more than 4,000 instances every year, and cost healthcare professionals at least $1.3 billion in malpractice payouts between 1990 and 2010.
