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Monday, April 2, 2012
Spending on security of health data breaches to hit $70B by 2015 - FierceHealthIT
With the cost of healthcare data breaches continuing to rise year after year, it shouldn't come as a surprise that spending on the security of that information is estimated to hit $40 billion this year, and balloon to $70 billion three years from now, according to a recently published report from Princeton, N.J.-based consulting firm The Boyd Company.
Specifically, investments in electronic health records and mobile technology to meet government compliance standards are cited as key to the expected spending splurge. Because of the inevitable increase in medical records sharing, new and improved efforts will be mandatory to keeping health data safe.
The report breaks down current data security costs in the U.S. by city, with New York ($32.6 million), San Francisco ($27.8 million) and Los Angeles ($25.7 million) spending the most annually on such protection.
"In an industry whose cost structures are under constant scrutiny by patients, insurance companies and government agencies, comparative economics are ruling investment and location decisions for new facilities," the authors wrote. "In today's difficult economy, improving the bottom line on the cost side of the ledger is often easier than on the revenue side for many healthcare services companies."
You know, when you think about an EMR purchase, it’s obvious that there’s plenty of technical considerations involved. But the truth is, when it comes down to it, most doctors will never need to know anything about APIs or coding or middleware before they pick out a system. They just want the EMR to work.
The thing is, they’ve already made a big investment in technology before — maybe lots of times — even though they probably know little or nothing about how the gears really mesh. I’m talking about automobile buying, of course. I sort of doubt a single doctor has ever sat through a Webinar on the difference between anti-lock and regular brakes, the advantages of added cargo room or the physics of improved gas mileage. But they still buy cars, don’t they?
No, like everyone else, I’m sure your average doctor takes in commercials, makes a few mental notes as to how the promised benefits fit into their world, digests the information a bit and then goes shopping. At that point, they’re briefed on what features the car has, and tell the salesperson whether that works for them. Ultimately, they buy something that fits their budget, their needs and probably, their self-image too.
Now, an EMR isn’t a fashion statement — while cars most decidedly are — but in other ways, the purchasing process should be similar.
After all, the software they’re choosing should be as utilitarian as an SUV. They should come to the buying process knowing what needs they’re trying to address (in a car, say, the ability to haul big objects, or in an EMR, being able to enter patient notes quickly and clearly). Hopefully, they have a sense of how they’re going to use their EMR on a day-to-day- basis, as they obviously do when they’re car shopping.
And with any luck, they’ll also know what ongoing problems they’re trying to solve, be they managing the flow of laboratory results, making sure they’re reminded to follow up on preventive care, looking at the health of their patient population and so on.
If a practice knows these things, they won’t be blinded by a blizzard of technical terms or worry about whether they’re on version 2.15 of the latest build. They won’t have to spend much time debating over whether a SaaS or client-server solution makes more sense. They’ll just want to get the job done.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to get to that point when a technology comes in looking all scary, complicated and expensive. But as any one who’s ever bought a new car knows, you can always take the damned thing back.
Ran across this great video by the Fox Group. The video runs about 10 minutes and goes into pretty good detail into the operational benefits, financial incentives, and potential pitfalls of migrating a medical practice to an electronic health record system.
Electronic health records are in the spotlight, thanks to the federal economic stimulus package. Many hospitals and physician groups are scrambling to draft strategies to fully implement EHRs in time to qualify for maximum federal incentive payments. Relatively few have rolled out every component of a truly comprehensive EHR.
But Kaiser Permanente is entering the home stretch in what's turned out to be a seven-year drive to implement comprehensive EHRs, personal health records and related systems at all of its hospitals and clinics. The experiences of the Oakland-Calif.-based not-for-profit organization, which owns 431 medical offices and 35 hospitals plus a large health plan, provide valuable insights for others that aren't as far along.
On Thursday, the Health IT Policy Committee's certification and adoption work group recommended that multiple organizations be allowed to provide "HHS certification" for electronic health record systems, Health Data Managementreports.
To receive HHS certification, EHR systems must meet a minimum set of functional criteria and achieve the "meaningful use" objectives of the federal economic stimulus package. Under the stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs will receive Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.
The work group called for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to define HHS certification criteria and separate the process from the influence of certifying organizations.
Maryland law will allow state to put stimulus cash toward electronic health records
Maryland law will allow state to put stimulus cash toward electronic health records
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will sign legislation Tuesday that provides incentives for health care organizations to implement electronic health records.
House Bill 706 allows the state to make use of federal stimulus dollars available for electronic health records and coordinate those efforts with the state’s own plan to create a state wide health information exchange.
As reported here and onEHRtv.com, The Department of Health And Human Services recently announced new guidelines for controlling and reporting security breaches of Electronic Medical Records. Now, just weeks after HHS’ announcement, Virginia has revealed that the EMRs of 8 million patients may have been compromised.
Yesterday, an FBI Official confirmed that they are investigating a $10 million ransom demand by a hacker or hackers, who say they have stolen nearly 8.3 million patient records from a Virginia government Web site that tracks prescription drug abuse. The breach involves the Virginia State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program’s website, www.pmp.dhp.virginia.gov/. Virginia’s governor said state police are also cooperating in the investigation. In a statement the governor said that the breach of patient EMR data is a serious crime, and is being treated as such.As of this writing the Website is still down. [Read the complete article on the EHRScope Blog]
Although Windows may be the norm, there is still a need and desire to have an EMR system for Mac. The Macintosh is a robust and powerful system which requires little to no regular maintenance...surely not a whole IT staff (depending on the size of the facility).
Below is a list of Mac-based EMR's. I haven't noted the CCHIT status because I wanted to make note of something. There is a growing debate about CCHIT and the potential for abuse of "power". Yes, there needs to be a standard but how flexible should that standard be in order to make it possible for older EMR's, which have been around for years, to stay alive? The CCHIT standards could force EMR programmers to bloat their software which would add signicant cost, which would then be passed onto the end user.
Here is a list of EMR systems available for the Macintosh. Enjoy! -macpractice.com -springcharts.com/SCforMacOS.html -comchart.com -powermed.com -liferecord.com
EHRs Being Used to Track H1 N1 May 4, 2009 From EHR Scope Blog
Last week I created a post that discussed how EHRs could be used to help track and suppress an infectious disease outbreak such as the Swine Flu. Today I can report on how it is actually being done!
Minnesota based Quinnian Health, announced it has partnered with Dallas’s TelaDoc Medical Services to provide remote consultations, and access to its Qhealth Platform.The announcement comes as the WHO has officially declared H1 N1, or Swine Flu as Pandemic. [Continue Reading]
I've posted surveys on LinkedIn about using the terminology EHR/EMR several times and got so many odd responses that made finding this post really enjoyable. Below is a great blog post from the EHR Scope Blog.
PHRs, EHRs, EMRs –Digesting the Alphabet Soup
April 17, 2009
PHR, EHR, EMR , can all make HIT a bit confusing PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick). Certainly everyone agrees what the letters in the three acronyms stand for – Personal Health Record, Electronic Health Record, and Electronic Medical Record. Yet the terms are often misunderstood and misused – even within the industry.
The two most often used interchangeably, albeit incorrectly are EMR and EHR. To the layperson and even to healthcare professionals it may sound like there is very little difference between an Electronic Health Record and an Electronic Medical Record, but there are clearly defined distinctions, depending of course on who is doing the defining.
Obama's national health records system will be costly, daunting
I've been posting quite a bit about the new administration's e-health records push. While the initial cost is steep ($10 billion per year for the next five years) it would end up creating jobs while saving the nation about $300 billion per year by cutting down on duplication, false claims, errors and more.
Here is a great article by Lucas Mearian from ComputerWorld.
January 20, 2009 (Computerworld) President Barack Obama has said that a national electronic health records system will be a priority in his first term, not just for streamlining workflow at hospitals and physician offices but to cut costs and improve the quality of health care.
And while he has pledged to invest $10 billion a year over the next five years on the effort, the price tag for such a system could be closer to $100 billion over the next 10 years, according to experts. They also note that sticking to his five-year timetable could prove to be daunting. READ MORE>>
The popularity of tablet computers seems to be growing. What we've found is that users like to have a place to dock, charge and store their device.
When we see a certain model is popular, we create a workstation solution. We have several specific models we've designed for the Motion C5. 20" Tablet Station36" Tablet Station.
Are you using a tablet? If so, what kind are you using? Your comments are greatly appreciated.
