Technology

Criminals are stealing patient records to commit medical identity theft. And the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made the situation worse, according to a new report from privacy and information security research firm Ponemon Institute.

Members of the Health IT Policy Committee approved a set of recommendations Tuesday that will bring meaningful use Stage 3 requirements one step closer to federal approval and scale back the initial Stage 3 proposals by 33%.

Edmund J. Pezalla, MD, MPH, national medical director, Aetna Pharmacy Management, says Aetna engages consumers in decision-making in a variety of ways.

Electronic health records are supposed to represent the next great leap in medicine - reducing medical errors and enhancing the physician's diagnostic powers.

Farzad Mostashari, MD, visiting fellow, Brookings Institution, former national coordinator for health information technology (HIT), US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), discusses how data and digitization are driving innovation in healthcare.

Health policy advisors and advocates are shifting their focus to the possibilities of telehealth, which would allow physicians to treat patients virtually. Health experts suggest that this emerging health frontier could be promising, especially for patients who are immobilized or who live in remote locations.

The introduction for Eric J. Topol, MD, who gave the keynote address Saturday at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) in San Diego, California, ended with the usual instruction: Please silence your cell phone.

The federal government's top health official Thursday gave U.S. healthcare innovation a grade of Incomplete.

Session highlights from the Managed Markets Summit in Orlando, FL, February 25-27.

Health information technology (HIT) was the focus of a discussion led by Farzad Mostashari, MD, visiting fellow, Brookings Institution, former national coordinator for HIT, US Department of Health and Human Services. In his Managed Markets Summit 2014 keynote address, Health IT and Reform: The Road to Right Care, Dr Mostashari touched upon the obstacles and shortcomings in our nation's healthcare landscape, and asserted that more prominent usage of HIT would help to alleviate fiscal concerns and affect better outcomes in patient care.

Ed Pezalla, MD, MPH, national medical director for pharmacy policy and strategy, office of the CMO, Aetna, says payers and health plans are preparing for patient-centered care by utilizing digital tools. Everything from virtual people to cost search tools are used to assist employed and general patient populations. Dr Pezalla says many of these tools will also be used in the public and private health insurance exchanges to help people make decisions as they purchase health plans.

Session highlights from the Managed Markets Summit in Orlando, FL, February 25-27.

Farzad Mostashari, MD, visiting fellow, Brookings Institution, former national coordinator for health information technology (HIT), US Department of Health and Human Services, says we need to have payment reform to support the success of HIT.

Federal officials issued the first set of voluntary standards under a new process that will give companies that develop electronic health-record systems more notice about what requirements will be included in the federal rules governing their products.

The likelihood of a positive outcome for a patient across the continuum of care is closely tied to the ability of the patient's health information to follow suit.

Measuring the patient's experience of care will help EMS be perceived as modern healthcare providers.

The technological underpinnings for an accountable care organization (ACO) include all the basic healthcare IT you have heard so much about, including electronic health records (EHRs), electronic medical records (EMRs), and health information exchange (HIE) for transmitting patient data between participating organizations that are not necessarily all on the same EHR.

The CMS is extending the deadline for physicians and other eligible professionals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR incentive program for the 2013 reporting year and is offering some hospitals a second chance at receiving payment-as well as possible relief from the program's 2015 penalties for failing to comply in 2013.

If a recent Black Book survey of payers, hospitals, and physicians turns out to be true, then the number of public health information exchanges (HIEs) is likely to dwindle in the years ahead.

Chris Belmont, vice president and chief information officer, MD Anderson Cancer Center, says the right timing and the right context are essential to effective health data management.

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology is getting out of the business of testing and certifying electronic health-record systems after nearly a decade as the first and still most-commonly used provider of those services in the U.S.

Office visits are likely to decrease as both physician and patient rely more on digital tools, study concludes.

Physicians' effective use of electronic health records will play a critical role in the development of payment and delivery reforms, the country's new health information technology (IT) czar said in her first public comments.

While some health systems, hospitals, and physician practices will choose to avoid forming an accountable care organization or adopting any other ACO-like model, they are still likely to face challenges around care coordination and collaboration as a result of consolidation in the healthcare industry.

We continue to see progress in improving the nation's healthcare system, and a key tool to helping achieve that goal is the increased use of electronic health records by the nation's doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers.