John Andrews
Between tight healthcare finances and the swirl of government initiatives, the healthcare IT consulting business has never been better. It seems as if there are more challenges to overcome and higher stakes than ever in today's healthcare climate, causing both providers and payers to line up for help from professional problem solvers.
As if they weren’t preoccupied enough with electronic health records, meaningful use and interoperability, hospital IT staff must also contend with the upcoming switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 coding in October 2013.
Automated care coordination gaining traction in physician, homecare sectors.
Perhaps the biggest problem with antiquated claims processing methods is the wondering: Did the claim go through? Was it complete? Is there a hang-up somewhere? Where exactly is the claim? Will it be paid or will be it be rejected? All of these questions arise when the financial operations staff doesn't have a window into revenue cycle machinations.
Healthcare providers are getting heavily nickeled and dimed on their energy costs without even knowing it, “Green IT” proponents say. And while going “green” may be a high-profile social movement with political overtones, it is actually a concept rooted in pragmatism designed to save money while saving the earth at the same time.
Real data and real results tell the story of the pay-for-performance movement, but market specialists say it starts with the vision of what an organization aspires to be and the priorities it sets.
A significant portion of healthcare activities can be done on a remote basis. By electronically linking patient and provider, chronic disease management, prescription renewals, vital sign monitoring and various other services can be accomplished for a fraction of the cost of a personal office visit.
Voice/speech recognition systems evolving to meet EMR, documentation and coding challenges.
When it comes to equipping itself for data sharing, the healthcare industry is facing a monumental task ahead. Even those wearing rose-colored glasses admit there is a tremendous amount of hard work ahead to make IT systems interoperable and accommodate electronic health records by October 2013.
Computerized physician order entry systems are continuing to evolve in a direction intended to make the workflow process smoother for physicians. In other words, for CPOE, the emphasis is being taken off the “C” and placed on the “P”, system vendors say.