Healthcare IT News For VARs — September 12, 2014
By Megan Williams, contributing writer
In the news this week, Healthcare.gov was reported hacked. Also, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announce end-to-end testing dates, and electronic health records (EHRs) are costing doctors precious time.
Healthcare.gov Hacked
The Wall Street Journal reports that a hacker broke into a part of the HealthCare.gov enrollment website in July and uploaded malicious software. Federal officials found no reason to believe that consumer personal data were taken or viewed. It appears the hacker gained access to a server used to test code only. The server, however, was connected to more sensitive parts of the website, so a more serious breach would have been possible (though difficult). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports that the attack appears to the first successful intrusion into the website, where millions of Americans have purchased insurance.
ICD-10 Could Worsen Patient Safety Reporting
According to Healthcare DIVE, The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association has published a study concluding that the transition to ICD-10 has had a negative effect on patient safety reporting because of code mapping issues. The study out of the University of Illinois at Chicago examined 23 different types of patient safety indicators and compared them between the ICD-9 and 10 code sets. Of the 23, only 3 had straightforward equivalents from version 9 to 10, 15 resulted in convoluted mapping, and five used under ICD-9 had no equivalents in version 10.
CMS Announces End-To-End Testing Dates
CMS recently announced the dates for end-to-end testing in preparation for ICD-10 implementation. The scheduled weeks are
- Nov 17-21, 2014
- March 2-6, 2015
- June 1-5, 2015
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the electronic data interchange (EDI) support desk will be available, at a minimum, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., local contractor time.
Physicians Lose 48 Minutes Per Day Due To EHRs, According To Survey
The American College of Physicians and the National Institutes of Health conducted a survey of more than 400 physicians and physician trainees across a range of practices, and found that the vast majority were dissatisfied with the impact that EHR technology had on their daily workflow. Almost 90 percent reported that at least one data management function was slower after EHR implementation, and a third added that finding and reviewing data took longer with an EHR than without. Read more at EHR Intelligence.
American Statistical Association Discusses Leveraging Big Data
The ASA released a paper, “Discovery With Data: Leveraging Statistics With Computer Science To Transform Science And Society” that discusses the statistical components of scientific challenges of areas affected by Big Data. The healthcare industry is a primary focus of their research. The paper discusses the use of Big Data to create customized patient plans, make public health decisions, and change the face of healthcare research overall. The full paper is available here at AmStat.org.
Healthcare IT Talking Points
InformationWeek discusses the complex question of who exactly owns the data in EHRs. The article notes that the data doesn’t necessarily belong to the patient, and argues that consumers don’t own their health records any more than they do retail, financial, or government information.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Healthcare IT Resource Center.