June 2020

3 most common primary care billing codes haven’t changed in recent months

Morgan Haefner for Becker’s Hospital Review From January to April, the three most common primary care services didn’t change, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Fair Health, a healthcare cost data organization. Here are the three most common primary care billing codes, and their ranking, for January through April 2020: Office outpatient visit, 15 minutes…

Read More3 most common primary care billing codes haven’t changed in recent months

10 best children’s hospitals, ranked by US News

By Morgan Haefner for Becker’s Hospital Review U.S. News & World Report named Boston Children’s Hospital the best hospital in the nation for its 2020-21 pediatric rankings. To create the 2020-21 list, U.S. News & World Report gathered clinical survey data from nearly 200 medical centers. Patient safety, infection prevention and nurse staffing are among the measures U.S. News evaluates. The…

Read More10 best children’s hospitals, ranked by US News

Dolbey Fusion Narrate receives the highest user score for front-end speech recognition for EMRs in new KLAS 2020 report.

Dolbey is a leading provider of cloud- and premise-based speech recognition solutions for healthcare, with two premier speech recognition products – Fusion Narrate® powered by nVoq™ and Fusion SpeechEMR® powered by SpeechMagic™. In the Speech Recognition: Front-End EMR Segment Highlight report, Fusion Narrate received the highest overall score. KLAS Research is a healthcare information technology…

Read MoreDolbey Fusion Narrate receives the highest user score for front-end speech recognition for EMRs in new KLAS 2020 report.

How Harvard radiologists rapidly adopted a new reporting structure for possible COVID-19 patients

Marty Stempniak for Radiology Business When a patient with possible COVID-19 presents at the radiology department, it can trigger a number of urgent steps that include isolation, testing, strict cleaning protocols and the use of scarce personal protective equipment. Wanting to provide physicians with a clear process to report and launch these next steps, Harvard…

Read MoreHow Harvard radiologists rapidly adopted a new reporting structure for possible COVID-19 patients

Nearly 40% of Americans misused cleaning products trying to kill COVID-19, CDC finds

By Anuja Vaidya for Becker’s Hospital Review About 39 percent of Americans report misusing cleaning supplies to prevent coronavirus transmission, including using bleach on food, a new survey shows. The survey, conducted by the CDC, polled 502 U.S. adults in May. Thirty-nine percent of respondents reported intentionally engaging in at least one high-risk practice not recommended…

Read MoreNearly 40% of Americans misused cleaning products trying to kill COVID-19, CDC finds

Healthcare sector added 312K jobs in May, but hospitals left out

By Hailey Mensik for Healthcare Dive UPDATE: June 8, 2020: The Bureau of Labor Statistics included a footnote in the jobs report noting that the overall unemployment rate is likely about three percentage points higher than reported because of a classification error it is working to correct. The error has to do with how people…

Read MoreHealthcare sector added 312K jobs in May, but hospitals left out

CMS releases FY 2021 ICD-10-PCS code set and official guidelines

By Revenue Cycle Advisor CMS recently released the fiscal year (FY) 2021 ICD-10-PCS code set, which includes 544 new codes for Fragmentations of the veins and arteries, Drainages of the pelvic cavity, and Imaging of various organs. It also released the FY 2021 ICD-10-PCS Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting. The new ICD-10-PCS code set take effect…

Read MoreCMS releases FY 2021 ICD-10-PCS code set and official guidelines

Who profits from our medical records?

By Paul W. Glimcher, Ph.D. for Medical Economics Medical records, which most patients think are private and protected, are in reality lucrative commodities in a multi-billion-dollar industry. As hospitals and health networks assemble these records, they routinely strip away names and other identifiers and sell millions of HIPAA-compliant files to massive aggregator corporations. Aggregators in…

Read MoreWho profits from our medical records?

10 states with biggest health improvements amid pandemic

By Mackenzie Bean for Becker’s Hospital Review Hawaii residents have seen the biggest improvement in their health amid the pandemic of all U.S. states, according to an analysis from Wallethub. The personal finance website compared the 50 states and District of Columbia across 11 relevant metrics involving COVID-19 death, testing and transmission rates. Rankings are based on…

Read More10 states with biggest health improvements amid pandemic