Introduction The medical professionals and the patient are facing the introduction of new technologies in the healthcare in order to increase the access in healthcare, decrease the costs and improve the quality of the services provided. These technologies are changing and challenging the traditional health care. (Chaudhry B. et al., 2006). Implementing these technologies introduced new opportunities for transformation of the patient’s role. The patients become more informed and more autonomous, responsible and active in their own care. (Nagel G., 2005) Aetna Medicaid follows the trends in the healthcare technology. One of the ways to adapt to the changing health care system, that the company chose, is to introduce a secure web portal to providers and patients. (Aetna Medicaid, 2014b) According to Ms. Rhiannon Yandell, Information Systems and Data Analysis Manager of Aetna Better Health of Illinois, the portal is an Aetna Medicaid owned and developed application. The subsidiaries of Aetna Medicaid, like Aetna Better Health of Illinois, share the application and the databases, but they use different environments. Aetna Medicaid IT department is responsible for the building and maintenance of the application. The application allows the providers to communicate directly with the health plans. More specifically, the users are able to verify the current eligibility of the members, search providers by name, specialty and location, check the billing status and submit authorization requests online. Furthermore, the providers can be informed online about the status and the payment of a claim. On the other hand, the application gives the opportunity to the patients to connect with their providers and case management staff secur... ... middle of paper ... ...f Aetna Inc. The company will be included to the visionaries in terms of technology adopters. (Chasm Institute, 2014) The company is motivated to increase the quality of the services provided with every technological mean. The development department is responsible to introduce new ideas and increase the efficiency of the existing toll by supporting the rest of the department, as Ms. Yandell mentioned. On the other hand, she continued, the company has some of the pragmatists’ characteristics, since it negotiates with third parties in order to obtain the best application for the needs of its employees and customers. Furthermore, the substantial increase in employees in the Information Management and Data Analysis department of the health plan in the short period of two years, seems very promising in terms of expansion of IT use in Aetna Better Health of Illinois.
IASIS Healthcare is a leading healthcare provider of acute care hospitals throughout the southwest. The company offers 16 acute care hospitals, one behavioral hospital, 132 physician medical offices, outpatient surgical clinics and imaging centers (Murphy). In 2015, IASIS united with the Phoenix Suns basketball team to bring a start of the art multi medical clinic to the Phoenix, Arizona (Phoenix Suns). Their goal of the partnership is to become the health service provider of choice and to increase access to those health services to communities in need. IASIS has also invested millions in the information and clinical technology system. The company’s system wide electronic health record would allow providers online access to clinical information, reducing medication errors by scanning, computerized charting for nurses and a medical imaging
The health information networks factor into the enhancement of the patient-centered management system, in that they help with the implementation of the Electronic health record. The HITECH Act for example allocated “18 billion through the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement systems as incentives for hospitals and physicians who are meaningful users of EHR systems”(About the HITECH, n.d.). This is a beneficial way to promote the use of electronic health records and have them become universally utilized across the nation. NHIN is also an excellent network that is more widespread and contains policies as well as standards that help with the safe trade of data. NHIN is the biggest network that all other health information networks hope to achieve. The NHIN is a contributor to the expansion of the EHR and it also further improves the patient-centered management system by having the policies they have. These policies assist with keeping the information in the system safe and also helping many different entities to become a part of its use. Some of the entities involved are the Center for Disease Control and prevention, Social Security Administration, Department of Defense and Kaiser Permanente among others. Both CHIN and RHINO implement the use of electronic health record, which makes it more widespread,
According to the author, nursing practice needs to stay current with technological advances while keeping its identity as a patient focused profession. Nurses use technology to improve care from a patient?s perspective, both in quality of care and cost. At the same time, nurses must learn to balance technological knowledge with personal skills, thus providing optimum clinical care while maintaining a person-focused relationship with the patient.
Healthcare professionals associated with medical billing and coding know the progress the technology has made so far. In the last few decades, medical billing and coding has switched from being a paper-based system to a computerized format. Under HIPAA laws, medical practitioners had to develop new software in order to send out electronic bills. With the advent of electronic medical records (EMR), with one touch of a button, doctors, Nurse Practitioners and PAs can gain access to all the care a patient has ever received from every healthcare facility the patients visited previously and can figure out possible illnesses. This enables statistical documentation of the population as a whole as well. EMR can also make the healthcare system more transparent and allow integration with reimbursement data. As the healthcare system changes, this will prevent unnecessary costs and make it easier to get the reimbursements needed to treat a patient.
“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an incentive, the government began issuing payments to those providers who “meaningfully use certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.” (hhs.gov) There are three stages that providers must progress through in order to receive theses financial incentives. Stage one is the initial stage and is met with the creation and implementation of the HER in the business. Stage two “increases health information exchange between providers.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) Stage three will be the continuation and expansion of the “meaningful use objectives.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) The hospital, where I work, initiated the HER mandate many years ago. In this paper, I will discuss the progression and the challenges that my hospital encountered while implementing the EHR mandate.
The objective of the MCEG is to provide channels to exchange information between managed care/health plan information systems executives and to provide opportunity for personal networking. MCEG provides a forum to develop policy which relates to the use of information technology and healthcare. MCEG provides feedback to vendor sponsors and other vendors on the trends and types of technology needed to ensure that their products and strategies meet their customer’s present and future managed care needs. Additionally, their objective is to “educate executives on clinical and administrative trends in health care, new and emerging technologies, and other pertinent information to assist in achieving the key goals of cost containment, effective service and high quality health care.” (Why We Matter, 2011)
The delivery of health care has always been influenced by technological developments and innovations. This is particularly true in modern health care professionals where they are obsessed with technology and rush to apply them. One of the most recent applications of ICT – Information and computer technology- is telehealth. Telehealth is the use of communication, diagnostic and information technology to provide health care when patients and providers are geographically separated [2], Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store -and-forward imaging, streaming media, terrestrial and wireless communications. Telehealth could be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone or as sophisticated as doing robotic surgery between facilities at different ends of the globe.
The Creative Destruction of Medicine is a book written by Eric Topol, who is a M.D. He is one of the most top citied researchers in medicine and was named Modern Healthcare’s #1 Most Influential Physician Executive in Healthcare in 2012 (Topol, 2012). This book explains how the future of medicine will change dramatically from what it what was then and how it is now. The book is split into three different parts. Part I is “Setting the Foundation” where it explains where the technology began and how it has changed in the modern day. Part II is “Capturing the Data” explains the different ways that modern day technology can show what is wrong with a patient easier and more convenient than ever before. Part III is “The Impact of Homo Digitus” here
Encompassed within the boundaries of this research paper, I will outline the rationale of constructing and implementing a publicly accessible patient portal for a healthcare organization. I will examine the utility, purpose and the technology requirements. Furthermore I will identify key employee involvement and the project tasks to make it operational and conclude with the highly probable benefits that the organization can expect to profit from its use. Despite all of the challenges presented in this paper, the benefits of this project has the potential to provide the organization a substantial return on investment (ROI) as highlighted by Heath Bell when he articulated, “portals are expected to be a key conduit for engaging patients in their care and getting them important health care information as quickly as possible” (Bell. 2012)
It has taken on growing importance as health care facilities pursuing for larger investments to incorporate different systems aim at enhancing the hospital experience, medical outcomes, and clinical fiscal efficiency, as well as organize a facility for meaningful health care reforms (Barbazza, Langins, Kluge, & Tello, 2015). Health care organizations are restructuring the medical personnel structure to resolve the need for more organizational involvement, electronic medical groups, and the function of the health care physicians in a more relevant manner. They are also modernizing how they need to coordinate medical services more efficiently across the field of health care: critical, ambulatory, proficient nursing, and home care (De Vreese, Leys, Fontaine, & Dendoncker, 2016). Moreover, organizations are determining the fiscal outcomes of transferring from encounter-based structure to a performance- or capitation-based payment framework. Integrated delivery network is a physician-centered set of activities that stimulates the continuity of medical care as well as organizational and complex hospital management. Key elements comprise an incorporated technology framework that encourages the continuity of health care and permits all stakeholders to access to medicinal history of patients and other critical information (Barbee & Antle,
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, is a law designed “to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve access to long-term care services and coverage, to simplify the administration of health insurance, and for other purposes.”1 HIPAA mandates that covered entities must employ technological means to ensure the privacy of sensitive information. This white paper intends to study the requirements put forth by HIPAA by examining what is technically necessary for them to be implemented, the technological feasibility of this, and what commercial, off-the-shelf systems are currently available to implement these requirements.
290). Throughout numerous healthcare organizations, e-Health techniques are regarded as vital to the delivery of quality, patient-centred health care. The e -technology can improve patient-physician relationships, to guide aimed questions for greater understanding of health conditions and better management of the health disorders. As per The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services e-Health initiatives will help the health care industry deliver higher quality care and reduce costs. Among the limitations and shortcomings of E-health are the chances of impersonality, e-Health applications might not be user-friendly and commonly available. Patients also need to develop confidence in E-health. Concerns about privacy and security of information have slowed the development of this initiative (McGonigle & Garver Mastrian, 2015, p. 290). It is critical to assure the security of health-related medical records. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is the main Federal laws that protects patient’s health information. The Law requires the organizations that manage health information to have policies and safeguards to protect health information saved on paper or
“An electronic application through which individuals can access, manage and share their health information, and that of others for whom they are authorized, in a private, secure, and confidential environment”
Fortunately, the Affordable Care Act of 2014 encompassed the integration of health information system (HIS). That is, the health data assimilated and analyzed framed to identify what determines the price, quantity, and expenditures in health care. Closely linked is health insurance, thus, HIS technology monitors, track and, reports third-party discrepancies according to transactions between health care organizations and the
...re by these advance and more advanced technology will allow patients to be more aware of the health care delivery and involved. In five years there will be more advancement in health care and as health care advances so will the technology used to delivery it.