Technology

Google Health is ailing?and the end is near. But electronic health records may be breathing life into the mobile personal health record market. Those technologies increase patient engagement, which is a benefit in both the Patient Centered Medical Home and Accountable Care Organization models of care delivery.

If you aren?t e-prescribing today, you?re facing a 1% cut in Medicare Part B payments next year and a 1.5% penalty in 2013?but there?s still time to squeeze in the required 10 e-scripts before June 30 if you act quickly. With days to go before the deadline, use these tips to implement what you have or choose an e-prescribing program you can start using right away.

When patients request copies of their electronic health records from your practice, the clock starts ticking. This Q&A gives you the new information on the minimum information required and how quickly you must provide it. Also find out why you soon may have to inform patients when their health information is viewed.

Location, location, location doesn?t just apply to real estate; it also is a factor in how Medicare calculates payments to your practice. But how accurate and consistent is that process? Not very, according to a recent Institute of Medicine Report. Find out what the IOM recommended and what they?re proposing to improve accuracy.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wants to publicize data about the care you?re providing as a primary care physician so that consumers and business could compare your cost and quality to other providers. The claims data would be derived from both Medicare and private sector insurers. Find out more while there?s still time to influence the final rule.

Project ECHO uses telemedicine technology and care-based learning, enabling specialists at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center in Albuquerque to partner with primary care clinicians in underserved areas to deliver specialty care to patients with chronic diseases.

A decade ago, a risk management consultant in Washington State predicted that "within the next few years all clinicians will be routinely using email as a communications tool in patient care."

Understand whether meaningful use and e-prescribing incentives are based only on Medicare Part B patients.

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mailed the first Medicare checks to physicians who had attested that they had achieved meaningful use of their electronic health records (EHRs). What effect will these payments have on you and your colleagues? Will everyone rush out to buy EHRs now or will they let this opportunity pass them by? Read on to find out.

Researchers involved with a study published in a recent Archives of Internal Medicine hypothesized that you could improve colorectal screening rates among your patients by sending reminder messages and personalized risk assessments via their personal health records (PHRs). The results didn?t turn out quite the way they had thought.

You and your peers increasingly are relying on smartphones and tablet computers to check email, research medications and conditions, and complete online surveys, according to new research by online research company Knowledge Networks using its Physicians Consulting Network.

Good news if you use an electronic health record (EHR) system?and a tip on how best to use it, courtesy of the Sage Healthcare Insights survey: Patients feel more comfortable with physicians who use an EHR system, and they believe that the information contained in the medical record is more accurate when they physically see the information being entered electronically.

A newly published study by Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) researchers may lead to electronic health record (EHR) system improvements that facilitate your ability to follow up on your patients? abnormal test results?if vendors heed the findings.

Your physician colleagues in Michigan may be able to offer insights into American Medical Association subsidiary Amagine Inc.?s health information technology (IT) platform, Amagine, which now is available to physicians nationwide.

Remember this name--Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM--because you?re going to be seeing and hearing it a lot. He is the new person leading the federal government?s efforts to encourage the adoption of health information technology and health information exchange in the practices of you and your peers as well as by other health system entities.

Are you part of the 80% of ambulatory providers who have purchased an electronic health record and are confident they will qualify for meaningful use this year? Take a closer look to be sure.

Need help adopting electronic health records and achieving meaningful use? You can look to the 3,000 people who will be the first graduates of the Community College Consortia to Educate Health Information Technology Professionals by the end of the summer. More than 2,200 of these graduates are expected to complete their training in April.

Collaboration and information-sharing between you and your fellow health professionals have the greatest near-term potential for facilitating large-scale health sector innovation, according to findings from a global health leader survey on national health sector innovation.

When you're on Facebook or Twitter or using other social media, remember to be honest, respect privacy, and uphold the reputation of the medical profession.

Just in time to help you meet Medicare's June 30 deadline for starting to e-prescribe or face a 1% reduction in your 2012 payments, a newly updated guide to eprescribing is available with a plethora of useful information.

Demonstrate benefits of EHRs to reluctant physicians.

On April 18, primary care practices around the country began attesting to meaningful use of an electronic health record system in hopes of earning $44,000 over five years from the CMS.

Understand what to look for in a license agreement with an electronic health record vendor.

Know what to ask when interviewing someone for tech support.

If you've adopted electronic health records (EHRs), you can now take the next step toward receiving Medicare's EHR incentive payments.

A majority of medical groups stated that critical software upgrades to comply with new patient privacy standards have not been made and testing with health plans has not been scheduled.

Is your practice using social media? Twenty percent of your patients may be doing so, and social media may be a way that you can reach them?and others.

Your patients belonging to a racial or ethnic minority, and those with the lowest annual incomes, may be less likely than others to adopt personal health records (PHRs), according to the results of research, titled ?The digital divide in adoption and use of a [PHR],? published in the March 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Where does your group stand in transitioning to the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Version 5010 electronic standards? If you?re like the majority of respondents to a recent Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) survey, it?s facing significant challenges in this effort.

A well-designed automated patient identification and outreach program can motivate those who have gaps in care to have their treatment needs addressed, according to a peer-reviewed paper published in Population Health Management.