PWeR, Inc.

21Aug, 2015

Physicians are not the only ones looking to replace EHRs…

By: Charity Darby | Tags: EHR, EMR, informatics, MU-1, MU-2

In addition to physicians’ looking to replace their EHR system, so are community hospitals! Recently, I read a report that highlighted small medical practices are not the only ones with anxiety over technology in healthcare. It seems that more than “half of all community hospitals” in the U.S. are unhappy their current EHR system. Further, the report also notes a survey of over 250 hospitals, or about 5% of all the total hospitals in the U.S., nearly 20% of the respondents are “actively looking” to replace their current EHR vendor. […]
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13Aug, 2015

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Patients and Doctors, the Paradox

By: Charity Darby | Tags: COPD, cost, Diabetic, Doctors, EHR, EMR, medical data, Medical Director, patients, PWeR, Wellness, WSJ

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) caused me to push my other blogs to the back burner. The article resonated so strongly with me as it reminded me of my experience trying to help my father manage his healthcare. He passed at the age of 74 just five years ago. The WSJ article titled, “When Patients Manage Doctors” had the subtitle of, “People with multiple chronic conditions often must take charge of managing their own care.” The article had some great statistics and some good, basic advice; […]
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6Aug, 2015

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U.S. Healthcare Cost Back on Up Swing… on way to $5.4 Trillion (USD)

By: Charity Darby | Tags: ACA, CMS, EHR, EMR, GDP, Inflation, insurance, Mandates, Medicaid, Medicare, Regulations, Spending, U.S. Healthcare, Wellness

Since 2009 healthcare cost appeared to be changing their mid-range trend line. Some, including the President of the United States, have tried to connect that “drop” in the cost of healthcare to the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA and sometime referred to as “ObamaCare”); however, most know that ACA did literally nothing to control cost, or did very little to reform how we pay for healthcare. In fact, some could say, and I have said that the ACA will actually add to long-term healthcare cost, and […]
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31Jul, 2015

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Healthcare in the age of Uber, eBay and Facebook.

By: Charity Darby | Tags: Ebay, EMR, Facebook, healthcare, Integration, Medicare, Social Media, technology, Uber

Today is an amazing time to be involved in most industries. This week I read articles in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that separately discussed the taxi and transportation revolution brought on by Uber, Inc., and the transformation traditional media companies are making to quickly adapt to on-line advertising. It has been fascinating to watch Uber’s “application” of driven on-demand, morph the transportation business. Many cities, counties, states and even governments have challenged Uber because their “technology” is disruptive to the status quo; yet the outcomes have nearly always favored […]
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20Jul, 2015

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Major Announcement on ICD-10 from AMA and CMS

By: Charity Darby | Tags: CMS, Congress, ICD-10, ICD-9, implementation, Small Providers

On July 6, 2015 the American Medical Association and The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new initiative to “help physicians get ready ahead of the October 1 deadline for conversion from the ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes.” In response to requests from the provider community, CMS is releasing additional guidance that will allow for flexibility in the claims auditing and quality reporting process as the medical community gains experience using the new ICD- 10 code set.” The key part of the announcement is though is that the […]
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8Jul, 2015

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The King v. Burwell Decision

By: Charity Darby | Tags: 21st Century, ACA, Congress and President, EHR, King v. Burwell, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) v. Sebelius, SCOTUS

I would not be the student of healthcare if I didn’t comment on the second most historic decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. I will admit, I was not that surprised by the King v. Burwell decision as I was the decision prior, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) v. Sebelius1. In my personal opinion, that was the big case where the majority effectively determined that the “penalty” was not a penalty but rather a “tax,” and under the […]
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29Jun, 2015

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Mega Health Insurance Mergers – Good Or Bad?

By: Charity Darby | Tags: ACA, Aetna, AMA, Anthem, Cigna, hospitals, Humana, MAP, NYSE, payers, PPM, providers, Sherman Trust Anti-Trust Act

The media recently announced at least two proposed mega-mergers by large insurance companies however, no offer has been accepted at this time. Cigna Corporation had received an offer from Anthem, Inc. for, at the last count, $47.5 billion (USD). Aetna, Inc. is also reportedly close to tendering an offer to buy Humana, Inc. Additionally, there is talk on the Street that UnitedHealth Group, Inc. made a takeover approach to Aetna. If completed, I believe the first two deal deals would have a direct impact on patients, providers and maybe even […]
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22Jun, 2015

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What industry today produces more paper check transactions than it did in 2000?

By: Charity Darby | Tags: clearinghouse, healthcare, medical records, ObamaCare, transactions

Trivia Question: What industry today produces more paper check transactions than it did in 2000? I know this because it’s coming from me however, most, if not everyone will know that the answer to the question is healthcare. Yes, healthcare in the United States of America! The country that invented the personal computer, credit card, cellular phone, telephone, internet and automatic clearing house payment (ACH) is creating more paper than ever.. let me repeat, than ever! Recently, BloombergBusiness published a story with the headline: Why America’s $2.9 Trillion Medical Industry Still […]
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15Jun, 2015

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Final Rules for ACOs-Act 2

By: Charity Darby | Tags: ACO, benchmarking, CMS, EHR, EMR, HHS, U.S Department of Health and Human Services

Today the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the Final Rule for The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) on the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) in an effort to encourage more participation of accountable care organizations (ACOs) in risk-based models. The CMS press release noted: The final rule issued today improves the program over the proposed rule in a number of areas, including but not limited to: • Creates a new Track 3, based on some of the successful features of the Pioneer ACO Model, which […]
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5Jun, 2015

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Back to the Future on ICD-10?

By: Charity Darby | Tags: CMS, HHS, ICD-10, ICD-11, ICD-9, Medicaid, Medicare, WHO

A year ago, we were all on ICD-10 watch at this time. Odd makers were all taking sides as to what would happen with the deadline of October 1, 2014 to submit on ICD-10 billing codes to Medicare and Medicaid (the largest single payer of medical care in the United States). Insurance companies and hospitals were all rushing to meet the deadline to have Congress intervene and push off a full year. Today the watch is the same, and maybe with the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) issue resolved, (see […]
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