News

The American Medical Association has invested $15 million to become founding partner of Health2047, a high-tech incubator that will explore innovative solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing the nation's 1.1 million physicians and their patients.

To make it easier for people to gain access to their personal health information, the U.S. Department Health and Human Services had posted some clarifications about individuals' right under HIPAA privacy rules. “Unfortunately, based on recent studies and our own enforcement experience, far too often individuals face obstacles to accessing their health information, even from entities required to comply with the HIPAA Privacy Rule,” Jocelyn Samuels, HHS director of the Office for Civil Rights wrote. “This must change.”  HHS explained that the “Privacy Rule requires HIPAA covered entities (health plans and most health care providers) to provide individuals, upon request, with access to the protected health information about them in one or more ‘designated record sets’ maintained by or for the covered entity,” HHS said. ”This includes the right to inspect or obtain a copy, or both, of the PHI, as well as to direct the covered entity to transmit a copy to a designated person or entity of the individual’s choice.”  [Also: HHS to change HIPAA rule on gun background checks] What’s more, that right exists for as long as the provider or a business associate maintains the PHI and regardless if they do so on paper or via electronic health records. HHS defines a ‘designated record set as medical and billing records as well as enrollment, payment or claims information as well as other data “used to make decisions about any individuals,” the agency said. “The term ‘record’ means any item, collection or grouping of information that includes PHI and is maintained, collected, used or disseminated by or for a covered entity,” HHS said. The evolution in healthcare toward rapid, secure exchange of Electronic Health Records data along with targeted treatments via the precision medicine model of patient-engaged research has made it more important for individuals to quickly access to their health information. However, this process has been slow developing, Samuels said. To that end, HHS published a fact sheet and the first in a series of Frequently Asked Questions to clarify. The initial FAQ addresses the scope of information covered by HIPAA’s access right, the limited exceptions to this right, the form and format in which information is provided, the requirement to provide access to individuals in a timely manner, and the intersection of HIPAA’s right of access with the requirements for patient access under the HITECH Act’s Electronic Health Record Incentive Program. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] Samuels said HHS will develop additional guidance and other tools to help individuals understand and exercise their right to access their health information. Other consumer access tools are being developed by the Office for Civil Rights, working with the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Samuels added. Twitter: @HealthITNews

Partners HealthCare announced on Monday that it has contracted with QPID Health, whose analytics tools will be integrated with Partners’ Epic-based eCare EHR and other legacy systems to help clinicians make more informed care decisions. Over the next two years, QPID will be rolled out across all 10 Partners' hospitals and associated physician organizations. "Partners HealthCare has made a significant investment in our Epic electronic health record," Jim Noga, CIO, Partners HealthCare System, said in a statement. "QPID's software will be fully integrated with Partners eCare and help ensure that we optimize our investment." [See also: 5 benefits of natural language understanding for healthcare.] QPID Health's “clinical reasoning” tools use natural language processing and machine learning to turn data from EHRs into actionable information, helping to streamline quality reporting, clinical registry submissions and utilization management, according to the company. Massachusetts General Hospital, a Partners co-founder, began using QPID software about 10 years ago. The positive return on investment, reduction of unnecessary cancellations, patient safety increases and CMS bonuses and penalty avoidances drove Partners' decision to integrate all systems with QPID, officials said. "Effectively using patient data for quality reporting and optimal patient outcomes is increasingly important as we move towards value-based care," said Timothy Ferris, MD, vice president of population health at Partners said in a statement. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] QPID "will help to ensure appropriate use of high-cost, high-volume surgical procedures," he added. "This agreement will help provide our physicians with the specific patient information that they need to attest to use of evidence-based guidelines. Not only is this the right thing to do for patients, it also reduces costs where we share risk with government and commercial payers," Ferris said. Twitter: @JessiefDavis

When Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, California launched an initiative to boost its Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores, the team combined leadership engagement, a comprehensive and ongoing staff education plan, and deployed new bedside technology.

Execs hope deal will turn system developed for UPMC into one that could be adapted for other health systems and hospitals.

To help clinicians understand when palliative care orders might be most appropriate, Ascension Health is participating in an National Institutes of Health-funded study run by University of Pennsylvania researchers to evaluate electronic health record-prompted automation of palliative care consult orders in the acute care setting.

Brian Yeaman, MD, founder and president of Norman, Oklahoma-based Yeaman and Associates and Yeaman Signature Health Clinic has been named the recipient of the 2015 HIMSS Physician IT Leadership Award for his work in meaningful use and health information exchange. Yeaman previously served as chief medical information officer at Norman Regional Health System for 10 years, where he guided both inpatient and outpatient EHR implementations and Stage 1 and 2 meaningful use attestation. Watch the full video. Yeaman is also a leader in health information exchange. As chief administrative officer for Coordinated Care Oklahoma, his service area includes about 4 million patients with data received from facilities in five states. HIMSS called it “a model for sustainable HIE conducted under private funding and governance.” "I'm thankful for the opportunity to practice medicine as well as serve on the front lines of defining a new healthcare,” Yeaman said in a statement. “I feel that we are still early in our journey of realizing the potential we have to improve care delivery with interoperability and health IT across the board.” Yeaman will be honored at the HIMSS16 Awards Gala on, Thursday, March 3 at the 2016 HIMSS Conference & Exhibition. Learn more about HIMSS16 and the Physicians' IT Symposium. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN

Picture archiving and communication systems may be one of the most tried-and-true technologies at work in clinical settings today, but there's still big room for growth, according to the 2015 Imaging Technology Study just published by HIMSS Analytics.

A staggering 73 percent of health information management professionals work on mitigating duplicates at least weekly at their organizations, according to a recent AHIMA survey. The survey confirmed the importance of information governance policies within an organization to address accurate matching patient information needs. The results also indicated the importance of quality assurance initiatives to improve care quality. “Accurately matching the right information with the right patient is crucial to reducing potential patient safety risks,” said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, in a statement. “At the very foundation of patient care is the ability to accurately match a patient with his or her health information.” AHIMA surveyed 815 members using 12 different EHRs and assessed their experience with patient matching and linking patient records. Less than half of respondents said there's a quality assurance step during the registration or post-registration process. There's also a lack of resources to adequately correct duplicate records. [Also: AHIMA takes on patient identifier] Forty-three percent of respondents said they measure data quality in relationship to patient matching, while less than half have a quality assurance step in the registration or post-registration process. Although  55 percent of respondents had communication policies for duplicate patient records, there is  a lack of standardization in regards to how the rate of duplicates are calculated. And less than half of respondents understood how duplicate rates were factored in their organization. “Reliable and accurate calculation of the duplicate rate is foundational to developing trusted data, reducing potential patient safety risks and measuring return on investments for strategic healthcare initiatives,” the survey authors said. Fifty-seven percent of respondents work possible duplicates regularly, while most respondents said data integrity issues require consistent management and timely cleanup. Patient matching initiatives are crucial for the success of patient-centric care, health information exchange, population health, analytics and financial goals, the report said. Respondents reported five major daily challenges with master patient index or enterprise master patient index management: registration staff turnover; record matching/patient search terminology and or algorithms; a lack of resources to fix duplicates; and inadequate governance, policy or support. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] “We cannot sit around and wait for others to correct this problem,” the survey authors said. “Improving patient matching efforts is a challenge we can meet,” Gordon said. “The healthcare community must come together to embrace it so that accurate patient information is available when and where it is needed.” The authors said the survey was a critical step in future patient matching planning and collaboration with healthcare experts to develop solutions. AHIMA plans to use data from the survey to shape future advocacy efforts. Twitter: @JessiefDavis

Biotech firm will purchase a number of Flatiron’s life science offerings and the companies.