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21Aug, 2015
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Physicians are not the only ones looking to replace EHRs…

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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

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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)

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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.

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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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15Jun, 2015
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Final Rules for ACOs-Act 2

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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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29May, 2015
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“EMR 1.0” ?

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Part One Recently USA Today published an article on electronic health records & electronic medical records (EHRs/EMRs ). The article mentioned that the U.S. government is relaxing some of the tougher rules and requirements for hospitals using EHRs/EMRs. What grabbed my attention first was the mention of “The problem is we’re in the EHR 1.0 stage. They’re not good yet.” I will add more comments later however, their admission that EHR 1.0 was at a very, very early stage in the overall development. Let’s take a few steps back to […]
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15May, 2015
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U.S. Electronic Health Records Industry To Continue Growing To End Of The Decade And Beyond

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Kolomara Information, a leading publisher of market research in medical markets, recently published a report entitled EMR 2015: The Market for Electronic Medical Records . In the public information released, the researchers expect that the Electronic Health Record (EHR) market will continue to grow past Meaningful Use (MU) with the incentive funding running out over the next few years. The report projects annual market growth of seven to eight percent during the next five years, with good competition and stable growth despite the absence of incentives boosting the market. From […]
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15May, 2015
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Is Expanding Telehealth Next On The Horizon?

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Just a few weeks ago the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, held a 2 hour hearing on “Advancing Telehealth Through Connectivity.” Stakeholders testified to lawmakers that telehealth is helping to achieve financial and care-related benefits, but still many barriers remain to widespread appeal and use. In summary, industry experts from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), informed the Senators that the use of telemedicine has both increased the quality of care by improving outcomes and, has reduced the cost of healthcare. This will provide a […]
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