General

BREAKING: CMS Finalizes 90-Day MU Reporting Period, Pushes Back Stage 3 Mandate

By Rajiv Leventhal for healthcare informatics The agency released a final rule that also allows healthcare providers to use 2014 Edition CEHRT for another year, as hospitals will now have until 2019 to meet MU Stage 3 measures and objectives The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a final rule that affirms…

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Cyberattack on Medical Software Shows Industry Vulnerability

By John Lauerman and Jeran Wittenstein, with assistance by Joshua Fineman and Saritha Rai for Bloomberg Technology Many doctors still can’t use a transcription service made by Nuance Communications Inc. three weeks after the company was hit by a powerful, debilitating computer attack. Hospital systems including Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center…

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The Bill for Treating a Gunshot Wound: $21,000 for the First 35 Minutes

By Jennifer Smith Richards, Annie Sweeney and Jason Meisner, Contact Reporters for Chicago Tribune The charges started racking up the moment Annette Johnson arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to her left forearm. Doctors sliced open Johnson’s arm and installed a $500 metal plate to shore up her shattered ulna, securing it with numerous bone screws…

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Amazon Is Showing Interest in Health Care, and It’s Making Industry Players ‘Nervous,’ Says Investor

By Christina Farr for CNBC Amazon is sending all kinds of signals that it’s interested in the health-care industry. CNBC reported in May that the company was on the hunt for a general manager to lead a new pharmacy unit. Since then, it has brought on a slew of health experts to bolster its cloud offering, Amazon Web Services,…

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Q&A: ‘A Woman Has to Put in Twice as Much Effort as a Man’

By Rachel Z. Arndt for Modern Healthcare Dr. Halee Fischer-Wright has been a chief medical officer at a large health system, owned her own medical practice and worked as a consultant. Now, as CEO of the Medical Group Management Association, she leads the nation’s largest association for medical practice administrators and executives. Fischer-Wright started her career…

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Almost 80 Percent of Clinicians Still Use Hospital-Issued Pagers

By Heather Landi for Healthcare Informatics A study examining the communication technologies used by hospital-based clinicians found that close to 80 percent (79.8 percent) of clinicians continue to use hospital-provided pagers and 49 percent of those clinicians report they receive patient care-related messages most commonly by pager. Communication technologies have expanded significantly to include standard text…

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CDI in the Outpatient Setting: Finding the ‘Hidden Gems’ of Opportunity for Improvement

By Kay Merriweather, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, COC, CHDA, CDIP; Leslie Slater, RHIA, CCDS, CIC, CRC; and Michele Bohley, RHIA, CCS for AHIMA “If it’s not documented, it wasn’t done.” This is one of the first axioms health information management (HIM) professionals learn. HIM professionals have witnessed the evolution of quality documentation, with patient education becoming…

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Ransomware Cyber Attacks: How to Prepare & Respond

By Christine Bucci for BRITTON GALLAGHER Hackers are wielding their power across Europe by unleashing a rash of ransomware cyber attacks on companies, with the most severe hitting the Ukraine. Ransomware is a type of malware that holds your computer and data files hostage until the ransom pays the demanded amount. In the most recent European…

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Survey: Hospital, Office Physicians Say EHRs Hinder Patient Interaction, in Different Ways

By Heather Landi for Healthcare Informatics While it’s no secret that physicians have complaints about electronic health records (EHRs) and the impact on patient interactions, one survey has found that hospital-based physicians and office-based physicians have slightly different concerns about how maintaining electronic records impacts clinical encounters. An analysis by researchers at Brown University and…

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