Practice Technology

Registration for the Medicare electronic health record (EHR) incentive program and, in some states, the Medicare EHR incentive program, is now available.

The American Medical Association (AMA) and 103 state and specialty medical societies urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to revise the Medicare e-prescribing penalty policy in a letter sent to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. This policy, which would penalize physicians next year if they don?t use e-prescribing in the first 6 months of this year, will hurt efforts to implement widespread health information technology (IT) adoption among physician practices and cause them to take on needless financial and administrative burdens, according to the organizations.

Research firm KLAS has released its 2010 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services report, which includes the annual rankings of healthcare information technology vendors. The rankings are based on more than 17,000 interviews conducted yearly with healthcare providers.

Personalized electronic messages to patients overdue for screenings and mailings targeted to patients with expired orders for colonoscopies may increase colorectal cancer screening rates over the short term, according to two reports posted online that will be published in the April 11 print issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Technology needs to change so that information can be accessed quickly, easily, and safely if the Patient-Centered Medical Home?Neighbor (PCMH?N) model is going to be successful, writes Christine A. Sinsky, MD, a general internist, in the January 3 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. Her editorial was in response to a position paper released by the American College of Physicians (ACP) in October.

One of the many technological advances in healthcare is the electronic health record. However, paper-based records are still the preferred method of recording, storing and retrieving patient information in many hospitals and doctors' offices.

The author offers some tips to keep exam rooms and bank accounts full in light of today's foreclosures, layoffs and lost insurance from patients.

The online directory for physicians who accept Medicare has expanded to distinguish which doctors reported quality data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and will soon indicate which doctors prescribe electronically.

Hospitals with basic electronic health records demonstrated a significantly greater increase in quality of care for patients being treated for heart failure, but similar gains were not found in hospitals that upgraded to advanced electronic health records, according to RAND Corp.

Letters discuss ACOs, decision-making, and electronic health records.

The cost of inefficient healthcare claims processes, payment, and reconciliation is estimated to be between $21 billion and $210 billion, eating up to 10% to 14% of physician practice revenue, according to the American Medical Association.

Letters discuss social networking and practicing solo.

Individual choice and control over personal health information were favored by the majority of Americans participating in an online survey of more than 2,000 adults performed by Patient Privacy Rights and with Zogby International. The survey sought views on privacy, access to health information, and health information technology.

Healthcare reform will require physicians and hospitals to engage in information-sharing via collaborations such as health information exchanges (HIEs) and accountable care organizations (ACOs). Results of a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report, however, found that both groups must overcome issues with one other to be successful.

Have a beef about your practice?s implementation or use of an electronic health record (EHR) system? You can report it at EHRevent.org, a new site launched by the not-for-profit iHealth Alliance in collaboration with federal agencies and PDR Network.

About 90% of healthcare providers who have purchased electronic health records (EHR) systems are not on track to meet their 'meaningful use' implementation goals, according to the 2011 Black Book Rankings user survey.

A fully automated cell phone-based telemonitoring system that involves patients in their care significantly improved blood pressure control among patients who had diabetes and uncontrolled systolic hypertension, according to a study by Alexander G. Logan, MD, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues.

If you have a small or medium-sized practice, look for a toolkit in January from the federal agency for Healthcare Research and Quality designed to help you analyze workflow and redesign your practice before, during, and after you implement healthcare information technology (IT).

Be aware of the strengths and limitations of social networking sites such as Facebook when discussing sources of medical information with patients who have chronic diseases. That?s the advice from researchers at Harvard University and Brigham and Women?s Hospital who studied online communities related to diabetes and reported their findings recently in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Smartphone use will reach 1.4 billion in 5 years, according to research by research2guidance, and 500 million of those users will use healthcare-related applications.

Patients most likely to be "e-empowered" are those with pain-related or mental health conditions, according to the 10th Cybercitizen Health U.S. study by Manhattan Research.

An electronic message sent to doctors the moment they order a blood test for elderly patients reduces the unnecessary use of a test for which results often are false-positive for the elderly, according to research published in the November edition of American Journal of Managed Care.

The consequences of incomplete information at the point-of-care can be inconvenience, inefficiency, increased costss, and adverse, even life-threatening outcomes for patients.

Letters discuss maintaining hobbies and use of electronic health records.

Socioeconomic factors such as income and education levels, although strongly associated with broadband Internet use, are not the sole determinants of use, according to ?Digital Nation II,? a new report issued by the Department of Commerce?s Economics and Statistics Administration and National Telecommunications and Information Administration.