Healthcare and IT in focus again
These times are tough for everyone considering the state of the world’s economy. But this is also an exciting time because of all the focus on healthcare and IT.
Be it HIPAA 5010 conversions, or ICD10 or Obama’s plans for Healthcare and focus on improving the state of Health IT. The focus on IT as a means to improve the quality of care and efficiency, reduce the cost of care and errors has never been so much. Obama’s plan to invest in Health IT as well as transforming the current healthcare system to reduce the number of uninsured is not only going to improve the general level of health of the population, but also going to create a lot of new jobs. This in turn will help recover the economy from the current crisis situation.
The HIPAA 5010 and ICD10 conversions are not very straight forward or easy to implement. They are complex and will require the existing systems in Providers, Payers, PBMs, labs, clearing houses and software vendors to change their systems to adapt to the new regulations and code sets. Interoperability between the various platforms that exist today will also be a very big challenge. Even though most of these changes are seen by many as regulatory changes which are non discretionary in nature, one should not forget the business benefits these changes are going to bring in the long term. The ability to have all the medical information in an electronic form and to capture details that are not captured today will open the windows to a lot of possibilities and innovations. A lot of human errors can be avoided, a lot of unnecessary spend can be eliminated. If executed smartly and efficiently, Health IT can improve the healthcare system tremendously.
Comments
Hi Shinju,
Nice & concise view points on healthcare IT.
My two cents on the same line. I believe Health IT is going to be a major force in the recovery of the current economic crisis. Strong innovations have always helped economies come out of deep crisis. This time Health IT will play a lead role with the recovery.
Innovations in Healthcare IT like HIPAA 5010 and ICD 10, advanced analytics based wellness approaches will not only ensure better member population health but also provide a competitive edge to the organizations in the form of efficient cost structure and higher productivity. As Organizations continuously move to a smarter, efficient and cost effective healthcare system – interoperability, collaboration and efficient information exchange among all the stakeholders i.e. payers-providers-employers-members would be crucial. Health IT would play a significant role in ensuring this.
Posted by: Debasis Patnaik | June 23, 2009 7:18 AM
well the technology will help in many ways no doubt ,but critical point of human intervention is always will play the final role.It is like in cricket where we have the support of technology ..replay etc but like an lbw decision which will finally rest with the judgment of the umpire even though HAWKEYE might say the ball missed the stamp/hit the stamp.
As long as human beings are not committed and dedicate , no amount of technology will succeed and one may end up incurring expenses on technology upgrading etc .
we must first improve / strengthen the roots and the take care of the branches .
rgds
raghavan
Posted by: raghavan | October 8, 2009 5:02 AM
Under NABH guidelines of the Government of India, all hospitals in India have been directed to adopt Information Technology Systems and Processes. Only then the hospitals can treat patients under insurance (mediclaim) and also treat government employees under CGHS. It is obvious that Information Technology will quicken the following processes in hospitals:
* Billing
* Dispensation of medicines
* Avoiding medical errors
* Issuing discharge summary for patients
* Issue of prescriptions for patients
* Giving appointments online for patients
* Review of appointments
* Transparency in rates charged by the hospital
* Enabling patients to take treatment under insurance
Posted by: KV Suryanarayanan | October 10, 2009 9:03 AM