HIPPA NEWS & WHITE PAPERS

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:34:34 +0000

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded a $200 million contract to HP Enterprise Services for software applications related to Medicare Part B claims processing and the delivery of services to beneficiaries.

The Medicare Part B Shared System Maintainer contract is for one base year with seven one-year renewal options. CMS carriers and Medicare administrative contractors use Medicare's Multi-Carrier System (MCS) to process approximately 750 million Medicare Part B claims annually.

Bernie Monegain

Health IT workforce will require higher skill set

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:53:04 +0000

As trends in technology change the employment landscape, training and certifying IT workers will require a higher skill set, said Terry Erdle, senior vice president, skills certification, of CompTIA in remarks he delivered at Breakaway 2010, the premier event for IT companies in North America. For healthcare IT workers, for instance, this may mean having a broader knowledge of areas such as security.

Molly Merrill

California launches nation's largest telehealth network

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:43:09 +0000

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra joined a diverse group of statewide healthcare and technology agencies Tuesday at the UC Davis Cancer Center in Sacramento to launch the California Telehealth Network (CTN), which is set to be the largest in the nation.

Molly Merrill

EHR market projected to double by 2012

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:02:13 +0000

The U.S. ambulatory EHR market, which was at $1.3 billion in 2009, is forecast to reach $2.6 billion in 2012, according to new analysis from research firm Frost & Sullivan.

The rate of electronic health record adoption among U.S. physicians expects to increase over the next two to five years due to a combination of changes caused by healthcare reform and financial subsidies from the HITECH program, the report notes.

Bernie Monegain

Study: Texting improves medication adherence in teens with diabetes

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:56:54 +0000

A small pilot study at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, found that sending text reminders to adolescent diabetes patients about their insulin treatments improved treatment adherence and blood glucose levels.

According to a 2010 report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month.

Molly Merrill

ER wait times reduced 22 percent with advanced EHRs

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:17:52 +0000

The patients at hospitals with the most advanced type of electronic medical records are likely to spend 22.4 percent less time in the emergency room than at other hospitals, a new study from the W.P.Carey School of Business at Arizona State University shows.

Diana Manos

Registry adds value to regional data exchange

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:58:55 +0000

CareSpark, a nonprofit regional health information organization (RHIO) serving Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, is proving the value of health information exchanges through several projects that rely on its provider registry.

Patty Enrado

Deloitte: Mobile PHRs 'game-changing' for self-care

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:26:26 +0000

The convergence of personal health records and mobile communication devices may offer the right tool to engage consumers to use technology for self-care, taking cost out of the healthcare system, according to a new Deloitte Issue Brief from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

Bernie Monegain

Ingenix Consulting starts new technology practice

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:40:08 +0000

Ingenix Consulting has announced the launch of its Strategic Technology Solutions practice. The new service aims to help healthcare executives create health IT investment and implementation strategies that enable their organizations to improve patient outcomes, enhance organizational performance and prepare for fundamental shifts occurring in healthcare nationwide.

Mike Miliard

Ingenix to acquire Axolotl

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:24:49 +0000

The Ingenix buying spree marches on. In its third major acquisition in less than a month – after its purchase of Picis and Executive Health Resources – the firm, which is the health IT division of UnitedHealth Group, announced on Monday that it is adding San Jose, Calif-based Axolotl to the fold.

Mike Miliard

Branch Office Networking Services - VPN / SSL

SCIMedical has solutions to fit your remote access needs. We can provide hardware procurement, network planning and implementation for the following common scenarios.

External Billing Service Access - Enable your billing service provider to directly & securely access to your office's practice management software from the remote billing service location. Banish the paper trail with a secure remote access networking solution.

Provider working in multiple offices - SCIMedical understands that providers often split their time between two or more medical offices. Synchronizing the scheduling process and other Practice management tasks is simplified when all remote locations can share the same Practice Management software / database. SCIMedical has networking solutions that provide the answer.

All our branch office solutions use industry standard encryption to protect your data as it passes through the internet. Our remote access solutions use an industry standard secure socket layer (SSL) to ensure HIPPA compliance. We can also set up secure VPN channels (Virtual Private Networks) between geographically distant offices. VPN channels enable all the windows networking capabilities available on your local area network (LAN) to be extended to your remote site. Both sites behave as one cohesive workgroup greatly simplifying file & resource sharing.

External Billing Service Access

See below for a sample topology commonly used to allow access to your Practice Management system by an external Billing service provider (using Terminal Services & Windows Server 2008). Note, only one server is required. All desktop workstations, both local and remote, consists of low cost network terminals (thin-clients) - available here at prices starting at $200. Remote printing to either location is possible.

Provider working in multiple offices

The topology detailed below illustrates a topology typically used when a provider, working 2 locations, needs to share the same PM/EMR server. This topology uses Microsoft Terminal Services & Windows Server 2008. All desktop workstations, both local and remote, consists of low cost network terminals (thin-clients) - available here at prices starting at $200. Remote printing to either location is possible.