Healthcare execs see EMR data as their most valuable asset

More than three-quarters of healthcare executives surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers say that information contained in EMRs could become their most valuable asset over the next five years as “secondary use” of EMR data takes off. But this won’t happen until technology improves, more standards get harmonized and, most importantly, the healthcare industry resolves lingering privacy concerns, according to a PwC survey released early this morning.

With billions of dollars in federal health IT stimulus funds set to flow into healthcare in the next few years, secondary use of electronic health data will “grow exponentially,” PwC says, citing a finding that 65 percent of healthcare executives expect their data-mining activity to spike within two years. About 90 percent of respondents believe that secondary use of EMR data will help their organizations make significant improvement to the quality of care.

There may be some legal barriers to overcome, however, before healthcare organizations can unleash the full power of patient-specific healthcare data. Also of concern to healthcare executives are privacy implications of data mining and the bad PR that could result from unauthorized use. This study literally just hit the wires, but we can’t wait to hear Dr. Deborah Peel’s thoughts on this last point.

Electronic Health Record Systems Will Require 'Some Form of Oversight,' Government Advisor Says

As more healthcare providers move to implement electronic health records by 2011, the technologies for storing and managing these vast data sets will need to be regulated, an advisor to the federal government said at a conference here this week.

“There is some form of oversight necessary,” John Glaser, senior advisor of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said at a colloquium on personalized medicine hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He acknowledged that a regulatory process would be necessary to handle the limitations of EHR systems and managing malfunction issues.

Glaser noted that ONC met with FDA this week to discuss regulation of EHR-related technologies. “Is it a formal device or not? I don’t know,” Glaser said, adding that he wasn’t sure whether regulation of EHR systems would necessarily fall under FDA oversight.

“However, to a large extent human aptitude plays a huge part in how well the software works,” said Glaser, who is also the chief information officer of Partners HealthCare System.

EHRs have been proposed as a key component of personalized healthcare, and Glaser noted at the meeting that they could be a powerful tool for picking up post-marketing drug risk information and relative risk data. At the meeting, other officials from government and academia outlined several efforts to use EHR systems to look for genes associated with disease predisposition and drug response

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, a private organization, conducts one-day testing of EHR systems. But currently no federal oversight of EHR systems exists.

Earlier this year, an article titled “Finding a Cure: The Case for Regulation and Oversight of Electronic Health Record Systems,” published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, advocated for federal oversight of EHR systems. Although the authors did not feel that oversight responsibilities should necessarily rest at the FDA, they recommended that EHR systems should be monitored for as long as they are operational so technical problems are detected and the system is continually improved.

The regulatory oversight for EHR systems is a looming question as hordes of healthcare providers will be moving to electronic record systems in the next five years, urged by the promise of federal funding. The stimulus package offers incentives to hospitals and physicians for the “meaningful” implementation of electronic health records. Glaser is helping the federal government implement its programs.

Physicians who accept Medicare and use EMRs can receive up to $44,000 over a five-year period between 2011 and 2016. Doctors who see more than 30 percent of patients receiving Medicaid benefits are eligible for up to $64,000 beginning in 2011 if they adopt the technology.

Furthermore, there are penalties proposed for non-adopters. Healthcare providers who have not shown “meaningful use” of a certified EHR system by 2014 can see a decrease of up to 1 percent in the Medicare fee schedule for 2015. The Medicare fee payment reductions will continue for every year of non-compliance. The deduction rate can go up to a maximum of 5 percent if total EHR adoption is under 75 percent of eligible providers by 2018.

In a recent study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, and George Washington University found that less than 2 percent of hospitals had implemented comprehensive EHRs; and less than 8 percent had basic EHRs in place.

EMR vs. EHR

According to this report: The National Alliance for Health Information Technology Report to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on Defining Key Health Information Technology Terms, there is a distinction between EMR (electronic medical record) and EHR (electronic health record). I don’t think that most people will argue that PHR (personal health record) is its own entity. However, there’s a debate out there as to whether EMR should be interchangeable with EHR.

Although EMR and EHR are very familiar terms, there are some distinct differences between these two terms. Let me bold those differences:

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

An electronic record of health-related information on an individual that can be created, gathered, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff within one health care organization.

Electronic Health Record (EHR)

An electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff across more than one health care organization.

OK, for the sake of completeness, I’ll throw in this definition as well:

Secondary use of EMR data seen reducing costs, improving quality

One of the biggest untapped benefits of electronic medical record adoption is the secondary uses of the data that are being collected, concludes a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The study, “Transforming Healthcare through Secondary Use of Health Data,” found that practices and hospitals have seen aggregated data from their electronic medical records identify patterns that have allowed them to improve outcomes, reduce errors and increase revenue opportunities.

But the number of institutions using the aggregated, or secondary, data in this way is very small, though it is expected to grow in the next two years.

“Almost every constituent in the [health care] industry that has to make a decision around what type of health care to deliver and when could use this kind of data and the information that aggregating it can produce,” said Dan Garrett, health IT practice leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The report found that among those organizations already using some form of secondary data, 59% have seen quality improvements, 42% have achieved cost savings, 36% have seen patient/member satisfaction improve, and 29% have increased revenue. The biggest users of secondary data are hospitals and physicians, while health plans are the farthest behind.

The survey found that although 95% of physicians are not opposed to using secondary data, many are sensitive to how it should be used. Patients also are concerned.

“We all know we need to use this data, but they also know we can’t risk security,” Garrett said.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report came from an e-mail survey conducted in June of 732 health care executives, 482 physicians, 136 payers and 114 pharmacy/life sciences organizations.

Medical Billing Services: How it is Useful to Medical Company

Medical treatment of Business has changed significantly in recent years. It presents many administrative difficulties during the preparation of the insurance policy and procedures dealing with complicated claim forms. To avoid these complications, doctors seek help from outside. Hire and advise their representatives, attend seminars insurance company and provide them with periodic financial reports this process is known as medical billing outsourcing.

An efficient and precise medical billing service is of prime importance for the smooth functioning of any medical service provider. A comprehensive medical billing service will in turn secure speedy reimbursements for clients. Medical billing is the process of submitting and following up on claims to insurance companies in order to receive payment. It is useful for medical healthcare providers. Medical billing services also supports on-demand invoicing, batch claims processing and interactive electronic claims Submission and remission.

Medical professionals and medical companies, whether they are Small companies or big organizations, are benefited from medical billing services. This billing can be considered as a communication between Medicare providers and insurance companies.

One can get following benefits by using medical billing services:

Medical Data Entry – patient demographics, details like place date type of service, and referring physician, CPT and ICD Codes, and Modifiers are keyed into the billing system

Medical Claims Billing – electronic and paper

Appeals – make appeals for denials and incorrect payments

Payment Posting and Reconciliation Medical Claims Management Collections Management

Accessibility – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Medical billing business involves many other important services such as handling all patient billing inquiries, submitting reports to the doctor, posting payments, mailing patient’s statements and following-up all unpaid insurance claims.

Medical billing services assist physicians in saving money through payroll Generation, equipment reduction, eliminating shipping costs, and support software. Outsourcing to a Professional medical billing company is free from management problems. A number of leading outsourcing medical billing services companies offer medical billing assistance for medical billing needs. The company uses the database free of compensation, and established practice, and other Online.

Opinion: Electronic medical records improve quality of care

Patients in the Kaiser Permanente San Jose Hospital are seeing something new when a physician or nurse visits their rooms. The doctors and nurses themselves aren’t different; they continue to provide their patients with superior care and service.

But a piece of equipment they bring with them — a wheeled cart with a computer screen on top — is a significant difference, and it’s an example of what will help dramatically improve health care in America.

The cart-borne computer is wirelessly connected to a huge database containing the medical history of our members, as well as the latest recommended treatments for a wide range of medical conditions. The database contains all outpatient and inpatient visit information, diagnostic images such as X-rays and mammograms, allergies, specialists’ notes, lab tests and prescriptions. And it is all part of KP HealthConnect, the largest nongovernmental electronic medical record (EMR) system in the United States.

Electronic medical records are a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s health reform effort, and as part of his effort to stimulate the economy, he has dedicated some $19 billion to make EMRs a national reality.

Why? Electronic medical records improve the quality of care. A fully functional EMR system gives physicians, nurses and technicians a patient’s comprehensive medical history at the point of care, whether it’s in the doctor’s office, the emergency room or in a skilled nursing facility. It is also remotely accessible for specialists and others who are on call, allowing them to make informed decisions that expedite patient care.

EMRs have the potential to increase efficiency and contain costs by reducing duplication and improving patient safety, and they do this by harnessing the incredible power of computers — their ability to calculate, to network, to automatically check facts and to provide targeted research results — and applying that power to medical care.

In health care systems with fully implemented electronic medical records, physicians and nurses no longer need to spend valuable time looking through several files for paper records that are often incomplete.

Now, for example, emergency department physicians with a fully functional EMR system can see a patient’s previous hospitalizations, medications and diagnoses when that patient shows up complaining of chest pains. That means treatment can begin more quickly and success is more likely.

Medication is safer, too: Prescriptions written by physicians using the EMR system are spell-checked and legible, and the computer automatically combs the patient’s history for potentially dangerous drug interactions and alerts the doctor.

In the hospital, medications are bar-coded and scanned at bedside to help ensure the right patient is getting the right drug in the right dose at the right time.

Of course, EMRs should not be a one-way street. In integrated health care systems, patients can use their home computers to increase convenience by making appointments online, ordering prescription refills that are delivered to their home, viewing their lab results through secure Web pages, and e-mailing their physicians — all at no additional cost.

Last year, thanks to these online tools tied to EMRs, Kaiser Permanente members had 6 million e-visits without using a gallon of gas.

Notes jotted on paper and placed in multiple files where doctors rarely see them are a remnant of a fragmented, inefficient model of medical care. In the 21st century, Americans expect — and deserve — more.