Around the world social networking is slowly becoming a new avenue for improving care management, engaging patients, and communicating with other doctors, a Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) report finds. Countries where social media in healthcare are moving fastest are the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, while The United States and Austria are in the mid-range of adoption, and Australia, Switzerland, and Germany are described as low adopters. Research show that large hospitals have been identifies as early adopters, with 42% facilities that have over 400 beds using social media. Most reported having a presence on Twitter (65%), Facebook (54%), and YouTube (50%), and a third (33%) indicated having a corporate blog.... [More]

The healthcare conference season is upon us once again, and what better way to kick off this year’s convention marathon than with one of the biggest and the best: HIMSS12. On Feb. 20-24, 2012, 32,000+ health IT professionals will gather at the Venetian Sands Expo Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada to discuss the latest trends in healthcare technology.

We all know that conferences can be overwhelming, especially for those who come unprepared. To survive HIMSS here are some convention essentials to help get you through.... [More]

When healthcare organizations, providers, and patients exchange documents and information today, they are likely sending paper through the mail or by fax. This can leave important personal health information (PHI) unprotected and can diminish the integrity of a document putting both the sender and receiver at risk.

To remedy this problem, the Direct Project has been introduced. The Direct Project is a component of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), a health information infrastructure that will connect providers, consumers, and others involved in supporting healthcare. NHIN is an integral part of a national strategy to have an interconnected health system through the use of technology.... [More]

Over the past decade healthcare providers, payers, and patients have all fronted a crusade to reduce the cost of providing and receiving medical care while increasing quality standards. This movement has led to more patients being monitored within the home through the use of telehealth technologies. Telehealth is the delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technologies.... [More]

Thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the healthcare industry can expect to see a significant expansion of the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program, and not just in Medicare.

When most healthcare professionals hear the word audit, they think Medicare—and for the most part they are correct. Medicare audits are certainly here to stay after the RAC program recovered over $1 billion in improper payments over the course of a three year demonstration. The Recovery Audit Contractor Program became permanent and nationwide in 2006 as a result of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. Four RAC auditing centers were established across the country, each one responsible for conducting data analyses from the Medicare Common Working File (CWF), analyzing claims by reviewing medical records based on coding errors, and identifying and correcting improper payments... [More]

With all of the acronyms floating around within the healthcare field, it can be hard to decipher what they all mean. Most of the time the terms Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Health Record (EHR) are used as one in the same. But in reality, these two similar abbreviations mean quite different things. Let me clarify..... [More]

 

President Obama has proclaimed this week to be National Health Information Technology Week — a week devoted to educating and encouraging patients and providers to adopt new technologies into their day-to-day practices. Over the past few years, advancements in health information technology have vastly improved the overall quality of our healthcare system by reducing costs, decreasing errors, and expanding the availability of affordable care. By speeding up the exchange of information we are able to reduce the rates of infectious and choric diseases and in turn enhance the quality of life for millions throughout the country.... [More]