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By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press for PBS Newshour WASHINGTON — Insurers aren’t required to encrypt consumers’ data under a 1990s federal law that remains the foundation for health care privacy in the Internet age – an omission that seems striking in light of the major cyberattack against Anthem. Encryption uses mathematical formulas to scramble data,…
While everyone is affected by the proposed cuts, they are particularly painful for smaller hospitals, which have tighter margins and fewer options for dropping services or making up the losses. By John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media The Obama Administration’s 2016 budget axe takes a double whack at critical access hospitals. First, the proposal eliminates critical…
By Jennifer Bresnick for HealthIT Analytics The ICD-10 transition is a large, complex, and complicated task for the healthcare industry, but if one thing is clear about the drawn-out process, it’s that many providers are lagging behind where they should be to meet the October 1, 2015 deadline. Despite a lengthy preparation period and years…
By Erin McCann for Healthcare IT News Once again, rural hospitals rule the list The numbers are frightening: Each year, medical errors kill 400,000 Americans, more people than any other illness aside from cancer and heart disease, a chilling statistic highlighting the urgent work to be done in the realm of patient safety. In an…
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee for Govinfo Security OCR Director Reveals Enforcement Plans for 2015 The unit of the Department of Health and Human Services that enforces HIPAA still has plenty of work to do before it can launch its long-promised next round of HIPAA compliance audits, as planned for this year. The HHS Office for…
by Claire Zillman for Fortune A booming health care profession is helping ease doctors’ frustration with growing digital demands. Three years out of residency, Kevin Hopkins, the medical director of a family health and ambulatory surgery center in Strongsville, Ohio, was buried in emails, phone calls, and patient notes. And as a self-described “poor typist,”…
By Michelle A. Dick and Rachel Momeni for AAPC Employment rates and salaries reflect healthcare business professionals’ rising marketability. AAPC’s 2014 Salary Survey proves that it’s a good time to be working on the business side of healthcare. Employment opportunities continue to rise for members, especially for apprentices. More members are earning higher education degrees than we’ve ever seen.…
By Fred Pennic for HIT Consultant 61 percent of hospital chief financial officers (CFOs) and business managers in “struggling” hospitals expect to be fired by 2016 due to outdated revenue cycle management solutions, according to a recent Black Book report. The report reveals hospital CFOs could potentially lose their jobs because their outdated revenue cycle…
By Robert Lowes for Medscape The pace of quality improvement for America’s hospitals may not be quite as rapid as it once was, but it’s still respectable, judging by the latest list of top performers compiled by the Joint Commission and released on November 13. The number of top-performing hospitals increased from 1099 in 2013…
By Linda Reed, R.N. for Hospital & Health Networks Despite widespread doubt that ICD-10 actually will happen next October, hospital leaders can ill-afford to stand pat. The consequences of doing nothing are severe, says CIO Linda Reed, R.N. “The deadlines are not changing. … Let me repeat that, the deadlines ARE NOT changing.” Karen Trudel,…