SysTest employees participated in Denver’s Social Mob 4 Good

SysTest employees participated in Denver’s Social Mob 4 Good – http://bit.ly/bBMXSq #ireport

Dancing under umbrellas, members of the Denver community came together to raise awareness for Work Options for Women, contributing to the Social Mob 4 Good movement that spread across the nation on June 4. 

The Mission of Work Options for Women is to help impoverished women gain the skills and confidence they need to work their way out of poverty and become gainfully and permanently employed in the food service industry. For more information: www.workoptions.org.

SysTest Labs Applauds the ONC for its Leadership

Friday, June 04, 2010

Earlier this month, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Heath IT announced an award of $220 million in economic stimulus funds.  The Charlotte Business Journal, covering the news release in an article on Friday, May 14, noted that an estimated 1,100 jobs, paying an average of $70,000, are expected to be created through the grant funding.

While these new jobs clearly support the intent of the economic stimulus program, the grant process surely represents a greater good.  These awards, known as Beacon Community grants, were made to 15 community consortiums serving as incubators in demonstrating how meaningful use of electronic health records can improve both the quality and efficiency of healthcare in the U.S.  Lessons learned will, no doubt, prove instructive to many other communities and health organizations across the United States.

SysTest Labs, a software quality assurance firm, has been involved with digital processing of health information for the past five years and knows firsthand the benefits information technology to the healthcare industry.  We applaud the ONC for its leadership, not only in making these grants available to community trailblazers, but in promoting the rapid adoption of electronic health records nationally.

 Glenn Truglio, President, SysTest Labs

Relaxation of “meaningful use” requirements a step in the right direction

This week, the Health IT Policy Committee approved recommendations from its ‘meaningful use” work group calling for the relaxation of the standards that health care providers must meet to demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR).  (Demonstration of the standards is required to receive federal reimbursement for implementing EHR systems).
The initial federal proposals called for health care providers to perform 25 different measures to demonstrate meaningful use, including care coordination; patient engagement; privacy and security; public health; and quality and safety.  Within each priority category are additional measures, and the previous policy was “all or nothing”.  The new approved recommendations allow for health care providers to defer up to five measures from 2011 to 2013.
The adoption of these recommendations will allow health care providers to continue making progress on their EHR implementations while complying with most of the meaningful use standards – a definite step in the right direction as we continue to make progress on the national EHR initiative.

Larry Gray, Director Health IT, SysTest Labs.

Federal Government Role in Health IT Adoption

The federal government’s role in promoting widespread health IT should not be permanent, Vish Sankaran, Director of the Federal Health Architecture Program, stated at the recent Healthcare Stimulus Exchange Roadshow.  Sankaran said that the government’s role should be to “raise the bar, and tip the market” to work with the private sector.  There was consensus at the Roadshow that the use of the open-source software, CONNECT, would be important for public-private collaboration on health IT.  CONNECT was created as a platform to allow federal agencies and private systems to link nationally.  It was also acknowledged that several short-term challenges remain for widespread health IT adoption, including:  (1) financial constraints, (2) lack of technical expertise, and (3) lack of infrastructure.

Larry Gray, Director Health IT, SysTest Labs.

Federal Budget Includes Increases for Health IT.

President Obama announced the new federal budget proposal this week.  In addition to the ARRA funding for EHR implementation implemented last year, the new annual proposal includes $110 million for EHR implementation for doctors and hospitals, $290 million for community health centers, and $79 million for rural health care.  While these numbers appear small compared to the initial stimulus bill, it demonstrates the administration’s continued support for the health care system to be electronic.  The federal budget proposal assumes some form of health care reform will be approved this year.

EHR. What to choose? How to train? What is the plan?

As evidenced by the voluminous requests for assistance from states, health care organizations, and physician groups, enthusiasm to plan and implement EHR systems remains strong.  While hospitals have a shorter list of certified systems to select from, physicians groups have a tougher task.  The number of certified systems to choose from is over 40, a process for identifying necessary content vis-à-vis outcomes and meaningful use standards is complicated and still unsettled, and the actual contract negotiations for purchasing these systems is time consuming.  Having said that, the issue emerging for most physician groups is training.  How to develop, implement and ensure staff are well trained in the effective use of an EHR system is becoming a major success factor.  Physician groups should thoroughly review the training approach and timeline; putting proper resources, measurement and accountability into the overall training plan.

Healthcare reform bill. What to do next?

With the announcement from Speaker Pelosi that the House does not have the votes to pass the Senate version of the health care reform bill, the major question in the Congress is what to do next?  It is clear that there is agreement by both parties on several issues (health savings accounts, pre-existing condition limitations, increasing lifetime maximums, and selling insurance across state lines) that could be passed with bi-partisan support.  As we continue to focus on improving the health care system with improved technology, electronic health record systems, quality indicators and outcomes management, a revised health care reform bill focus on common issues would support this overall effort.

Health Care Reform and Tomorrow’s Special Senate Election in Massachusetts

National attention on the topic of health care reform could not be greater.  Tomorrow’s special Senate election in Massachusetts may impact the current federal health care bill if the Republican candidate defeats the Democrat – the result would be that the Senate would lose their 60 vote super majority.  For the Health IT companies, it’s important to remember that funding for electronic health record (EHR) implementation is not dependent on this legislation.  This funding comes from the ARRA stimulus package and will remain in place.  So, hospitals and physician groups should continue their planning, selection and implementation of EHR systems.  (More coming on the status of the “meaningful use” certification progress in the next blog.)

The pace for evaluating and implementing EHR/EMR systems on a national level continues its increase.

The pace for evaluating and implementing EHR/EMR systems on a national level continues its increase. Most of the activity is seen in large hospitals, and large physician groups who have the financial capacity and resources to pursue new systems.  At last count, 43% of all physicians are using an electronic medical record at some level, with the majority of medium to small physician groups trying to time their evaluation and purchase process in the face of an undefined future reimbursement schedule and the evolving “meaningful use” standards.  We need to encourage these physician groups to continue their planning and evaluation process and be ready to participate in the state and regional health information exchanges.

Financing the Purchase of IT Systems – Why Not?

The Health IT market in the U.S. is expected to grow 11% annually through 2013.  While healthcare organizations continue to worry about reimbursement reductions, labor costs, bad debt expense, and long-term inflation, they remain positive about their plans to upgrade and purchase new systems. On the one hand this positive attitude is driven by new, lower cost solutions in Health IT, including open-source software, software as a service, and cloud computing.  On the other hand, the ability to finance these expenses is being supported by several organizations including IBM and GE Capital.  This financing allows hospital and physicians to implement their new systems, demonstrate meaningful use, and repay the loans once they have received the federal stimulus payout.  Why not?