Financial/Revenue Cycle Management

The medical school was hit by an opportunistic malware attack on June 1, and the encrypted data was "important to some of the academic work we pursue as a university serving the public good," officials said.

Data from 50,000 healthcare providers suggests that ambulatory practice visits have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

Providers without the resources of larger health systems can still make virtual care available to patients.

Research conducted last year by consulting company Roland Berger predicts that the German digital health market volume will grow exponentially in coming years. The sector could well be worth €38 billion by 2025, said Julia Pietsch, digital health expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI). GTAI is the economic development agency for the Federal Republic of Germany that recently hosted a webinar, 'International Market Insights: Germany – Digital Care Act, Market Trends & Opportunities', that also included Julia Hagen, director of regulation and politics at the German Ministry of Health’s health innovation hub.  Legislative changes made in the recent Digital Care Act have made digital health applications (so-called DIGAs) an enticing market, Pietsch added. Several experts also pointed out that with the largest elderly population in Europe and the second largest in the world – and high numbers of people with chronic and multiple diseases needing home and/or inpatient care – Germany has needed creative health tech solutions. FAST TRACK TO MARKET The Digital Care Act establishes “a completely new framework” that enables doctors to prescribe medical apps and other applications, paid for by public health insurance, said Hagen, while It also fast tracked applications into standard care. Doctors in Germany are set to prescribe the first digital health applications, Hagen explained, with patients likely to benefit as early as this August or September. Apps may also be prescribed to patients when they are discharged from hospital. Hagen also mentioned an innovation fund set up in Germany in 2016 to support new and innovative methods of care and care research projects not yet part of standard or statutory care. The initiative, she said, was due to be extended until 2024, with €200 million available per year. “Health insurance companies can support need-based and patient-oriented development of digital innovation,” explained Pietsch, underscoring the business opportunities entailed for health tech innovators. EASIER ACCESS TO RESEARCH DATA The new legislation, Pietsch added, meant not only that every insured member in Germany would have access to an electronic health record by 2021 (a high proportion of the population since Germany has mandatory health insurance), but that teleconsultations would also be encouraged. Moreover, researchers would have better access to patient data. “With the Act, public health insurance companies will have to send anonymised member demographics and health data to a central database, and research organisations and universities can then request that data for research purposes,” Pietsch said. Find out more in the full recording of the webinar, available here.

Cerner announced Monday that it has inked new contracts with seven new hospitals for its cloud-based CommunityWorks EHR, which is designed for community and critical access hospitals. WHY IT MATTERS The company says the technology is well-suited for the unique needs of these small hospitals as they grapple with geographic isolation, workforce shortages and tight resources during the coronavirus pandemic. Macon Community Hospital, which in March earned the distinction as Cerner's first-ever "virtual go-live," rolling out CommunityWorks with online assistance to help staff avoid exposure to COVID-19, is one of the seven new clients. The others are: Clay County Medical Center, a critical access hospital located in Clay Center, Kansas, will upgrade with Cerner throughout its main hospital and four related clinics, with an eye on interoperability and patient and physician experience. Coulee Medical Center, a Trauma Level Four CAH in Grand Coulee, Washington, will install CommunityWorks at its main hospital and a pair of rural clinics. Odessa Memorial Healthcare Center, based in Odessa, Washington, will roll out the EHR across its 25-bed acute care facility and outpatient clinic to support providers and nurses as they work to streamline operations and improve patient care. Opelousas General Health System, in Opelousas, Louisiana, is a Cerner client since 2016, but will switch to CommunityWorks to help its two acute and 150 outpatient facilities streamline IT operations. Pike County Memorial Hospital, a CAH with four clinics in Louisiana and Missouri, has earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval for Hospital Accreditation multiple times. United Memorial Medical Center, based in the Houston area, will deploy CommunityWorks across its four hospitals and four clinics in order to enable an integrated health record across its facilities. THE LARGER TREND In a recent interview with Healthcare IT News, Thomas Kidd, CEO of Macon Community Hospital, explained how Cerner's CommunityWorks met its unique needs – and how the cloud-based system was able to be implemented virtually during the pandemic. "Our previous vendor lacked the integration across our hospital that we were looking for," said Kidd. “We were not able to gather the data out of our system that we wanted to in order to guide patient care and report on. We also had trouble with our previous vendor’s billing system and decided we needed a change. "With our contract with the previous vendor running out near the beginning of the pandemic," he explained. "We needed to quickly implement a new system that would solve the challenges we had with the previous. This was even more crucial in anticipation of COVID-19. We needed to make sure we had the right system as quickly as possible. "Considering social distancing and safety precautions related to COVID-19, our options were to delay our implementation or work to complete the process virtually," said Kidd. "We had confidence that Cerner, our IT staff and department leaders would rise to the challenge, getting our system up and running and clinicians ready to use it." ON THE RECORD "The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of having access to the right information at the right time in order to support providers as they work to save lives," said Mitchell Clark, president of Cerner CommunityWorks, in a statement. "The flexibility and scalability of this delivery model allows for use across community hospitals of varying sizes, making Cerner a right-fit for these clients and many others across the country. "We are very pleased to be working with these clients and look forward to providing the technology and solutions needed to drive increased efficiency and better outcomes for our clients in times of crisis and beyond," he added. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media

Healthcare IT News lines up five RCM experts in this special report to discuss best practices for optimizing this key financial technology.

The collaboration with Health Care Service Corporation, billed as Epic's first such project with a payer organization, will help health plans more easily review data for managing claims and prior authorization.

The bipartisan HEALTH Act would make permanent Medicare payments for telehealth services at federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics.

The group tells CMS and Congress that two-dozen "cumbersome" regulations, many related to telehealth, that were waived or relaxed in response to COVID-19 should stay that way.

Ryan Smith will take over as vice president and chief information officer following the retirement of Intermountain's longtime CIO Marc Probst.