- Coalition comes out swinging against ICD-10 safe harbor (healthcareitnews.com)
Could lead to fraud and abuse, incomplete documentation, industry group argues. More than one ICD-10 bill has been introduced in Congress recently aiming to create a "safe harbor" for physician claims denial post-switchover. But the Coalition for ICD-10 has put forth six reasons why such a plan would have "far-reaching, negative consequences."
- CEOs, cyberattacks and accountability (fiercehealthpayer.com)
Should Anthem's Swedish be out of a job? Should Joseph Swedish, the CEO who was at the helm of health insurer Anthem when it suffered a historic data breach, be fired? The fact that he and other senior execs are still on board shows a lack of accountability.....
- Games for Health joins with PCHA, HIMSS (healthcareitnews.com)
Mobile apps and games becoming critical 'adjunct to clinical care management'. The Personal Connected Health Alliance and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society are partnering with the Games for Health Project to help increase the role of personal health technology in care delivery, convening clinical leaders and innovators with gamers and game developers.
- Prevent Rx drug abuse: Lock up those meds (drugtopics.modernmedicine.com)
As a third-year pharmacy student doing a public health rotation with Pharmacy Planning Services, Inc. and the Marin County Pharmacists Association, I was assigned a trial project: to determine whether making lockboxes for prescription medications available in pharmacies would deter use of drugs by those for whom they were not intended.
- Providers deploy mobile technology to enhance chronic care management (fiercemobilehealthcare.com)
A Florida hospital physician group is launching an mHealth platform to enhance care and treatment for Medicare patients.... they will employ a mobile chronic management platform, by Smartlink Mobile Systems, focused on helping providers meet Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' requirements for chronic care management.
- Federal health insurance exchange data at risk? (fiercehealthpayer.com)
Experts, politicians warn of privacy threats to MIDAS warehouse of Healthcare.gov consumer information. The alarming frequency of data breaches among health insurers has led some to wonder whether a massive data warehouse of Healthcare.gov customers' personal information is vulnerable to a cyberattack.
- Aledade, Which Helps Doctors Run Small Practices In The Age Of Obamacare, Raises $30 Million (forbes.com)
Mostashari, ......he founded Aledade to help doctor practices, as small as one, band together in so-called accountable care organizations. The shift from fee for service to payment based on keeping patients healthy and out of the hospital demands a level of technological and financial sophistication that small practices can rarely afford.
- Seattle-Based Genomics Company Develops Disruptive Gene Sequencing Technology (forbes.com)
Stratos Genomics Inc, ... announced today the successful demonstration of nanopore sequencing with their proprietary expandable nucleotides (X-NTP™) utilizing a novel single molecule detection method. ….“It can enable low cost, rapid, more accurate and targeted and whole genome sequencing, dropping the price into a range that is accessible by essentially everyone,”.....
- Most Americans Say Drug Costs Are ‘Unreasonable,’ Although They Can Still Afford To Buy Them (khn.org)
Nearly three in four Americans say the costs of prescription drugs are "unreasonable" — and most blame drugmakers for those prices, according to a poll released Tuesday. The survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 74 percent of those taking prescription drugs find the costs unreasonable, as do 72 percent of those not taking such drugs.
- Healthcare to enter ‘third wave of digital’ (healthcareitnews.com)
In the 1990s, it was the Internet. In the early 2000s, it was about mobility. Now, it's the era of "living services." ..... healthcare organizations – will be soon providing a "new wave of transformative digital services."And the one area where this wave will appear first? It's the healthcare industry, officials point out. Think quantified self-health tracking devices. Think wearables and mobile health platforms that are helping consumers manage myriad chronic diseases and wellness.