Scott E. Rupp

Scott E. Rupp is a writer and an award-winning journalist focused on healthcare technology. He has worked as a public relations executive for a major electronic health record/practice management vendor, and he currently manages his own agency, millerrupp. In addition to writing for a variety of publications, Scott also offers his insights on healthcare technology and its leaders on his site, Electronic Health Reporter.

Articles by Scott E. Rupp

• Survey: Older patients less likely to have elective procedures as COVID-19 spikes

  Thursday, December 10, 2020

  Older patients continue their aversion to elective procedures during the continued onslaught of COVID-19, according to a survey by analysts at investment firm Needham & Company. The study, conducted in November, featured responses from several hundred people with an average age of 61. Only about a quarter (27%) of them are still willing to choose elective procedures. As economies shutter again — notably California and New York — these numbers are likely to continue until the pandemic is under control or effective vaccines reach critical mass.

• Travel nurse demand skyrockets as COVID-19 persists

  Thursday, December 03, 2020

  Traveling nurses continue to be in high demand as COVID-19 spikes during the last two months of 2020. According to the staffing firms that recruit them for hospitals, high demand and short supply nationwide seem to be the order of the day. The tight supply of nurses available drives prices higher, too, in a real lesson of supply and demand. For example, average pay packages for ICU travel nurses in November were about $2,250 per week. That's about a 28% increase from 2019's average rates, according to recruiting firm NurseFly.

• As hospitals shutter elective surgeries again, patients return to virtual care

  Friday, November 20, 2020

  Hospitals across the United States are once again setting aside elective surgeries as COVID makes another surge across the globe. As this plays out, many hospitals are returning to the early days of the pandemic when such procedures were canceled or postponed to ensure health systems could maintain their resources to reduce the spread of the virus. Elective surgery or an elective procedure is scheduled in advance because it does not involve a medical emergency. Semi-elective surgery must be done to preserve the patient's life but does not need to be performed immediately.

• Experts hope plant-based burgers will reduce the need for factory farms

  Monday, November 16, 2020

  Want fries with that? With that plant burger? That’s soon going to be a question for millions around the world at McDonald’s. The upcoming launch of McDonald’s vegan "McPlant" burger could feed many millions. Some think McDonald’s move to veggie burgers (along with many other chains making similar moves) could reduce dependence on factory farming, specifically beef production. In addition to "beef"-like veggie patties, the chain is testing chicken alternatives. The fast-food chain is behind the curve when it comes to rolling out plant-based products.

• Telehealth is changing healthcare — patients are telling us so

  Wednesday, November 11, 2020

  If 2020 has taught us nothing else, it's that telehealth that is likely here to stay. But why? Convenience is critical to its success, but it can bridge the gap of care between caregivers and patients during the pandemic. It's proving to be a legitimate solution to reaching patients in underserved areas. Telehealth technology is no longer a concept but a tried and mostly trusted solution for care delivery. Since the height of the pandemic, patients' use has fallen, but people still like what it has to offer, and its use seems to be reaching critical mass.

• Study: A substantial number of patients have deferred care during the COVID-19 pandemic

  Thursday, October 29, 2020

  Routine patient care received a devastating blow earlier this year as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged healthcare facilities, countless communities across the country and shut down elective procedures. According to a new study on patient care's impact during the pandemic, almost half of all U.S. employees deferred care because of the pandemic, Willis Towers Watson said. The global advisory firm surveyed a statistically valid 4,898 workers reporting that as many as 44% deferred medical care at some point during the pandemic.

• What is the long-term prognosis for telehealth?

  Monday, October 26, 2020

  During the rush of COVID-19’s onslaught in March and April, health systems attempted to scale up and survive, so they invested in telehealth technology, according to a report from the Center for Connected Medicine and KLAS Research. Despite the meteoric rise of telehealth services during the quarantine, these same health systems are wrestling with how they will make long-term use of the technology when the pandemic winds down. Per the report, health system leaders who adopted telehealth want to improve integration, infrastructure, and security in the years ahead and focus on long-term telehealth decisions.

• CMS again expands telehealth services covered by Medicare

  Monday, October 19, 2020

  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced it is adding 11 new telehealth services that Medicare will reimburse. This is the first addition to the Medicare telehealth services list since May 1, 2020. Per CMS, Medicare will begin paying eligible caregivers who furnish these newly added telehealth services — effective immediately — throughout the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. CMS says additional coverages are part of a push to accelerate telehealth use by removing reimbursement barriers.

• Gallup poll: Farming, agriculture receive highest marks from consumers among all industries

  Thursday, October 08, 2020

  Politicians, media professionals and lawyers could learn a thing or two about brand management from their counterparts in the farming and agricultural industries. It turns out Americans have the most favorable view of the profession, a recent Gallup poll shows. It's the first time those working the fields and farms have received such high marks in more than two decades of Gallup conducting a poll that registers Americans’ views of various business and industry sectors.

• Not ‘The Jetsons,’ but close: Walmart testing drone delivery of COVID-19 testing kits

  Thursday, October 01, 2020

  "Jetsons"-like technology is coming to healthcare, like it or not. Blame COVID-19. If nothing else, the recent news from Walmart, Quest Diagnostics, and DroneUp is pretty exciting. The three are launching a pilot program that provides drone delivery of COVID-19 self-collection kits to single-family homes in North Las Vegas. Sin City brings us many things innovative — Wayne Newton residencies, the annual blockbuster CES technology conference, and now drone-delivered COVID-19 test kits.

• Has telehealth had its day? It depends on who you ask

  Monday, September 28, 2020

  According to some new studies, telehealth use has plummeted from its COVID-19 peak in April and May when the pandemic was in full swing and much of the economy was shuttered. However, some reports suggest that its use continues to soar. Despite the possible carving out of virtual care from the traditional face-to-face models, significant issues remain. Primary among them is reimbursement for virtual services.

• National task force encourages Congress to maintain telehealth support, but many doctors are leery

  Thursday, September 17, 2020

  Few subjects in healthcare have gained more attention than the meteoric rise in the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors of all stripes turned to telehealth to keep their heads above water. Hospitals and health systems, too, implemented the technology in much the same manner: anything to keep revenue coming in and the lights on. However, nearly 60% of physicians interviewed as part of a recent survey said they remain leery about the quality of care they can provide remotely.

• Report: Telehealth vendors are fighting off many more cyberattacks than before COVID-19

  Friday, September 11, 2020

  As telehealth use has skyrocketed throughout COVID-19, so has the number of attacks on these systems by cyber thieves, according to a new report from cybersecurity rating firm SecurityScorecard and dark web research company DarkOwl. Attacks on similar video services, like Zoom, were headline news earlier this year, too, at the height of the economic shutdown caused by the pandemic. As organizations have moved to remote environments or offered services through telecommunications, these technologies have become honeypots to cybercriminals.

• Studies: Hospitals, physicians more trusted for disseminating COVID-19 information than CDC, FDA

  Tuesday, September 08, 2020

  When Americans want information about COVID-19 and a potential vaccine, they are more likely to believe news from their local hospitals than federal agencies, a new study by The Harris Poll says. It recently asked more than 2,000 adults how trustworthy they believe different sources are when attempting to understand where they can get accurate information about developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

• Survey: COVID-19 has limited access to needed care

  Monday, August 31, 2020

  For many individuals — real people with real health conditions — the pandemic has had a profound impact on their lives. People continue to report that the pandemic has led to a reduction in access to medical care. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Research and Development Survey (CDC RANDS) published recently, as many as 40% of people said they had reduced access to medical care because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Artificial intelligence finds a purpose in healthcare because of COVID-19

  Friday, August 21, 2020

  Artificial intelligence is having a bit of a moment in healthcare. Per countless reports, AI is seeing rapid adoption throughout healthcare to identify solutions to protect against the pandemic and gain an advantage against the seemingly unmitigated spread of the virus. Work on the technology is taking place at every level — from startups to tech goliaths and health systems and payers.

• Despite pandemic, health system and payer profits up due to less utilization

  Thursday, August 13, 2020

  Second-quarter headlines reporting the financial windfalls of payer organizations and health systems have been copious recently, despite what experts and analysts predicted would be devastating hits to the ledger because of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Even as many health systems treated only virus cases and most others shut down all elective surgeries, all of the nation's largest for-profit hospital chains saw a rise in profits.

• Trump administration throws additional support behind telehealth

  Thursday, August 06, 2020

  President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Aug. 3 to expand access to telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic, notably in rural areas. The Trump administration also is extending some telehealth services even after the pandemic public health emergency ends. The order is meant to improve connectivity and directs the government to create a joint initiative within 30 days to improve health communication infrastructure and expand rural healthcare services.

• As federal funds for hospitals continue to be used, talks ongoing for more

  Friday, July 24, 2020

  If there's going to be additional federal funding that provides protections to consumers and the U.S. economy, the list of hopeful recipients is getting a little long. Healthcare providers across the country are making their voices heard through their lobbying groups, essentially begging the Senate to include as much as $100 billion more in COVID-19 relief packages. The American Hospital Association, American Nurses Association and American Medical Association are specifically pressing legislators for the cash.

• New bill in the House aims to protect access to telehealth

  Tuesday, July 21, 2020

  The changes to telehealth utilization and payment reform brought on as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic appear set for permanency as House Telehealth Caucus leaders introduced legislation on July 16 that would allow access to such services for Medicare patients. The bipartisan bill would expand telehealth by eliminating restrictions on its use in Medicare, which have been a thorn in the side of the technology’s advancement for decades.

• Study: Women, younger adults more likely to use telehealth services

  Wednesday, July 15, 2020

  According to new research, female patients and younger adults aged 18 to 44 are more likely to choose a telemedicine visit than their male counterparts and patients of other ages. This study was published in JAMA Network Open and was conducted before COVID-19 shut down the world. The outcomes since then appear stilted toward telehealth services for those who've sought care during the pandemic.

• More than 300 healthcare groups encourage Congress to maintain telehealth provisions

  Monday, July 06, 2020

  In a step that's reminiscent of the old adage, "We're mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore," American healthcare organizations and lobbying groups are warning Congress not to cut off current reimbursements for care offered through telehealth capabilities, which have exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter was sent to Congress’ leaders from 340 groups and organizations, including some of the most well-known in the country. These groups are concerned that Congress will roll back telehealth's gains when the public health emergency ends.

• New swine flu, unrelated to COVID-19, may be on its way from China

  Tuesday, June 30, 2020

  As we continue to be overwhelmed by COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, China, near the close of 2019, Chinese researchers have announced that they have identified a new strain of the swine flu that has the potential to become a pandemic. The flu is carried by pigs and can infect humans. A study of the new virus was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• Report: HHS must do more to ensure an adequate number of effectively trained emergency responders

  Tuesday, June 23, 2020

  The nation's ability to respond to natural disasters and pandemics is currently being strained. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for leading the public health and medical response to such emergencies. During the push to battle COVID-19, HHS deployed caregivers enrolled in the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), who are individuals, including doctors and nurses, that usually work outside the federal government and are used intermittently. However, the Government Accountability Office found HHS didn’t follow critical principles of competent strategic workforce planning.

• Why US school districts require more facility management support

  Monday, June 22, 2020

  The career of a facility manager is no cakewalk, and the overwhelming burden placed on these professionals is far greater amidst COVID-19 than before the novel coronavirus' infiltration of the U.S. population. Private and corporate facilities may possess more considerable resources to manage the new burden, and public entities, especially school districts, are in a bind. With summer in full swing after most U.S. schools shuttered in March, district leaders may realize they are woefully underprepared for the facility management tasks ahead.

• Care specialties most affected by COVID-19 revealed

  Tuesday, June 16, 2020

  As COVID-19 continues to ravage the U.S. healthcare system, reaching its viral hands into nearly every specialty, some are reeling more than others, a new study points out. The study, published in mid-June by FAIR Health, estimated the drop in healthcare utilization for nonhospital providers. As expected, elective procedures have cratered. To that end, oral surgery experienced the most significant reduction in usage in March 2020, declining 80% compared to a similar period in 2019. Gastroenterology was the second largest decline, with a 73% drop in March and a 77% decline in April.

• COVID-19 testing costs make a huge impact as payers wrestle with 2021 premium planning

  Friday, June 12, 2020

  As uncertainty continues to surround COVID-19 and its impact on care and health systems, two new thorns are beginning to dig into the conversations about healthcare's future: costs of testing and planning for insurance rates despite the current chaos. According to a report commissioned by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), diagnostic testing for COVID-19 may creep past $25.1 billion annually. Meanwhile, antibody testing costs could touch more than $19 billion.

• Dental offices lead healthcare’s job surge in May’s surprising jobs report

  Tuesday, June 09, 2020

  The U.S. economy witnessed unexpected job growth in May as state and local economies began to reopen from the pandemic shutdown. In particular, medical practices and dental offices were key drivers of this finding that surprised economists. According to the May 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economic report, healthcare — including dentists — added more than 310,000 jobs during the month. Dental offices experienced job rebounds at rates unlike any in the sector.

• As humans search for higher agricultural yields, their waste may flush a stinky situation

  Friday, June 05, 2020

  It's a subject none of us care to discuss even though it's part of our daily lives: human waste. This basic product of human existence has, for thousands of years, been little more than waste to be managed or done away with. Nevertheless, human waste, like its bovine counterpart, may be exceedingly valuable for sustainable agricultural purposes. So say researchers from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan.

• Medical practices are up against it as they struggle to retain patients, cash

  Monday, June 01, 2020

  For some more than others, the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. Still, medical practices remain at the center of battling the virus as they treat patients. They also face personal financial pressures like many of their American counterparts. More than half of clinicians (55%) fear another wave of the virus. They are stressed because of potentially limited access to testing and personal protective equipment, according to a survey of 730 primary care clinicians in 49 states and Washington, D.C.

• As telehealth grows, returning Medicare programs to their original form may be difficult

  Friday, May 29, 2020

  In another spot of telehealth news, it appears that even seniors are taking a shine to the technology. As many as half of them say they are comfortable using telehealth to get the care they desire. According to a new poll by Morning Consult, those who are using it say it’s been a pleasing experience. The survey of more than 1,000 seniors shows that a majority (52%) are enjoying the services provided through the remote-based technology. Only 30% said they're uncomfortable with the technology.

• Survey: As expected, patients fearful of in-person visits are turning to telehealth

  Thursday, May 28, 2020

  COVID-19 has touched almost every area of our lives; healthcare is obviously no different. According to a new survey of U.S. healthcare consumers, 72% of consumers say they have changed their use of traditional healthcare services dramatically because of the pandemic. The survey was conducted and released by the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP) and the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP). According to researchers, these numbers highlight a bigger issue of how providers are going to face an uphill battle convincing their patients to return for in-person care.

• Public restrooms are reopening but may cause more challenges than can be overcome

  Thursday, May 21, 2020

  As the world awakens from its COVID-19-forced economic slumber, one vital and essential service offering remains largely at large. Across the U.S., from California and Iowa to Florida, there is a confusing topic of conversation: To open restrooms, leave them closed, and how to clean them among the clatter of how best to reopen businesses across the country. The chaos of the typical American public restroom could change forever, Fast Company reports.

• Study: Healthcare insurers are missing significant communication opportunities with consumers

  Wednesday, May 20, 2020

  Despite the continual conversations and protests from payers and some health systems claiming their patients can't understand transparency with insurance plans and pricing, health plans have a member communication problem, a new study says. The J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study shows that this communication challenge is growing worse in light of COVID-19. While communication issues may not be mutually exclusive to pricing transparency, it seems there's a much bigger cultural issue.

• Infighting continues over healthcare pricing transparency rule

  Monday, May 18, 2020

  The healthcare price transparency argument continues. The latest battlefront came with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) adding a new element to its policy, saying it plans to collect data on hospital median payer-specific negotiated rates. That information could be used to set Medicare payment rates. Hospitals immediately returned the volley. It’s not a new development that health systems and some payers loathe the idea of making their pricing models and negotiated rates public.

• Increased telehealth use creates calls for its continued expansion among insiders

  Tuesday, May 12, 2020

  Long seen as a pariah of sorts, the practice of telemedicine is here to stay. Blame COVID-19 and social distancing for breaking the outdated resistance. Telemedicine continues to expand because of the pandemic, including the use of telehealth, remote monitoring technologies, and wearables. Experts say that the use of these technologies is now a way of life for patients and will likely replace some in-person care.

• Lost hospital revenue comes into view as elective surgeries resume

  Thursday, May 07, 2020

  The American Hospital Association has released a new report that suggests cratered healthcare finances as a result of COVID-19 have been disproportionally devastating for hospitals and health systems. The report says losses to these organizations will surpass $200 billion during the first four months of the outbreak from March through June 2020. The losses are not directly related to coronavirus itself but are due to the massive ancillary response to curbing the spread of the virus.

• How local, urban farming could help alleviate international food supply chain issues

  Wednesday, May 06, 2020

  Globalization has meant a lot of things: More opportunities for economic advancement, an easier way for pandemics to spread (as we've seen with COVID-19), and the rise in internationally supported food production and consumption in recent decades. Regarding food stocks, cultivation has become more efficient, and diets have diversified. People are eating food that their parents never experienced nor knew previously existed. But this edible bounty is leading to a situation where the majority of the world's population lives in countries now dependent on — partially — imported food.

• CMS continues expanding services in response to COVID-19

  Tuesday, May 05, 2020

  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced several changes pertaining to delivering care to seniors and to "provide flexibility to the healthcare system as America reopens" from the economic shutdown brought on by COVID-19, the agency said in a statement on April 30. The changes are many and include making it easier for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to get tested for COVID-19, the expansion of telehealth services, and the dismissal of rules for how certain groups can be treated and where.

• After a huge drop in practice visits, elective healthcare procedures resume in some areas of the US

  Friday, May 01, 2020

  The following should come as no surprise to anyone whatsoever — outpatient and medical practice visits have cratered since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new study showing this data comes from The Commonwealth Fund, conducted by researchers from Harvard University. Per the study, outpatient visits dropped by 57% between March 1 and March 29. Visits were down 54% as of April 12. Telemedicine visits increased along with the drop in in-person visits, but not enough to offset the decreases.

• Research explores the real health costs of COVID-19

  Wednesday, April 29, 2020

  The costs of COVID-19 treatment are starting to bear out for both patients and health systems, according to researchers. Recent reports suggest a single symptomatic COVID-19 infection would cost at least $3,045 in direct medical costs incurred during the pandemic, Health Affairs says. Based on multiple studied scenarios, researchers said that if up to 80% of the U.S. population gets infected, costs could surpass $650 billion for the U.S health system throughout the pandemic. If 20% get infected, costs could still result in as much as $163.4 billion.

• Steps for maintaining and securing vacant facilities

  Tuesday, April 28, 2020

  As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to lash the United States, the pandemic has continued to force facilities to shut. Nonessential offices are shuttered with workers at home. Schools are mostly closed until next fall, hotels are dark, restaurants shut, and many churches and other gathering places are locked until further notice. The coronavirus shutdown means the time is ripe for a discussion of how to maintain and ensure the security of any closed facility.

• As CMS delays interoperability and transparency rules, study suggests they’re needed now

  Friday, April 24, 2020

  The Trump administration is pausing its previously established deadlines for the healthcare industry to come into compliance with rules prohibiting information blocking and the rule that mandates interoperability. These decisions are the result of health systems currently being overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe. However, interoperability and enhanced information sharing are improving overall healthcare quality, safety, and costs for U.S. patients and providers, a new Surescripts 2019 National Progress Report points out.

• Deforestation, human activity may be more responsible for viruses’ spread than we’d like to admit

  Wednesday, April 22, 2020

  Deforestation across the globe is negatively impacting the world's population and leading to the spread of disease, including coronaviruses. According to a new Stanford study, as large swaths of dense forestland are cleared for farming or other human use, viruses that jump from animals to people, like COVID-19, will likely become more common. Published in Landscape Ecology, the study suggests that deforestation puts people at higher risk of interactions with wild primates — and the viruses they carry — meaning the emergence and spread of infectious animal-to-human diseases.

• Healthcare’s furloughs continue even as parts of the US begin to reopen

  Tuesday, April 21, 2020

  The cratering of the healthcare job market has continued as COVID-19 spreads across the United States. In all sectors, more than 22 million people have filed for unemployment benefits as of April 17, with the virus, for now, wiping out a decade of job gains. The United States has not seen this level of job loss since the Great Depression. Healthcare, long seen as an untouchable career field — safe from the ups and downs of the economy — is among the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.

• Health systems scrambling for federal cash amidst coronavirus pandemic

  Friday, April 17, 2020

  Hospitals, many of which are hamstrung under near-fatal cash shortages brought on by the onslaught of the COVID-19 virus, are slated for another round of federal stimulus funding. The funding from the first round of stimulus money designated to hospitals was aimed at fighting the coronavirus front in some of the nation's most troubling hot spots. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma told reporters on April 15 that cash-strapped hospitals should expect details about a second wave of emergency funding in a matter of days.

• As virus peaks, so does the conversion of temporary hospitals

  Wednesday, April 15, 2020

  Among the daily deluge of coronavirus-related news, a theme among the headlines is the abundance of temporary medical hospitals that continue to be developed. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is leading these efforts, operating under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Convention centers, hotels, and other large-scale gathering areas continue to be evaluated as the virus ravages the nation, from hotspots such as New York City to the county's interior, like Kansas City.

• Could the pandemic mark the end of surprise medical billing?

  Tuesday, April 14, 2020

  The White House has said "no" to surprise billing for patients receiving treatment for COVID-19, and hospitals agreeing to accept money as part of the $2 trillion stimulus bill must agree not to engage in the practice. Surprise billing happens when a patient with health insurance is treated at an out-of-network hospital or when an out-of-network doctor assists with the procedure at the hospital. Bills for such services can range from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars.

• Federal surveillance, track-and-trace technology may be on the way for future COVID-19 outbreaks

  Friday, April 10, 2020

  Portions of the U.S. — those areas with the most cases of the virus — are seeing their health systems become overwhelmed. Among the carnage, former top government healthcare officials Scott Gottlieb and Farzad Mostashari are proposing the construction of a national COVID-19 surveillance system. Such a system, they said in a recent policy paper, calls for the implementations of tools and policies "to conduct more effective surveillance, containment, and case management of COVID-19 for the future."

• Americans are concerned they can’t afford coronavirus care

  Wednesday, April 08, 2020

  During the coronavirus crisis, Americans have plenty of fears about the virus and their health and well-being, a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey says. In it, 39% of those who responded also said they are facing financial strife and that they had either lost a job or some income because of the virus. While there are efforts in place to protect citizens financially, patients' fears about being able to afford care because of a lack of financial means may not be unfounded.

• COVID-19 continues to be good for the planet — for now

  Tuesday, April 07, 2020

  With the coronavirus raging, there's little that's not connected to the topic. The environment continues to be a bright spot among the bad news. It's a topic we've covered here before, but social distancing and the near-shutdown of the world's economy are having overwhelmingly positive impacts on the health of the planet. Manufacturing and most pollution-producing industries have ground to a halt due to the spread of the virus. Paul Monks, professor of air pollution at the University of Leicester, called it the "largest-scale experiment ever" regarding the reduction of industrial emissions.

• During pandemic, US hospitals are firing, furloughing and cutting pay

  Friday, April 03, 2020

  While it may seem counterintuitive during the coronavirus pandemic, there are many hospitals across the United States that are furloughing, firing, or cutting pay for employees despite the coming surge of virus cases. The act of doing so is not, unfortunately, limited to a specific few, and is becoming an issue for more hospitals nationwide. These moves have become a necessity for most hospitals as they have cut elective procedures to limit supplies and make the most of their resources to battle COVID-19.

• The coronavirus is devastating rural hospitals

  Thursday, April 02, 2020

  While urban hospitals and health systems are getting racked by an overflow of patients and the need to respond to an overwhelming number of patients currently infected with COVID-19, their rural counterparts are equally or more so overwhelmed, too. In some cases, the impacts on rural hospitals are dramatic. Many of these community-based hospitals will close because the pandemic is preventing them from performing profitable elective surgeries, physical therapy, and lab tests.

• Army Corps of Engineers identifies more than 100 facilities to serve as pop-up hospitals

  Tuesday, March 31, 2020

  During the month of March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) issued over 120 press releases. Compared to the same time a year ago, USACE published just one press release. Most of the Corps of Engineers’ releases announce its involvement in procuring facilities appropriate for providing alternate care for the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, this process involves turning non-healthcare buildings and facilities into hospitals. Such facilities can be used for stable, non-COVID-19 patients to reduce the potential burden on hospitals.

• A healthier environment is an unintended consequence of the coronavirus

  Thursday, March 26, 2020

  One significant positive from the COVID-19 pandemic? As economies are crashing, industries shuttered, and people mandated to shelter in place, the beneficiary of this is the natural environment. The coronavirus is cutting global emissions faster than any previous climate legislation or negotiations. In fact, according to numbers researched by Lauri Myllyvirta at the University of Helsinki's Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, this is all because of the pandemic.

• Coronavirus may delay HHS’ timetable for interoperability rules

  Tuesday, March 24, 2020

  Opponents of the new federal healthcare interoperability rules may have found an ally in the least likely place: The coronavirus. Because of the outbreak of the global pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to determine whether or not to push back the originally publicized timeline of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONC) interoperability rule.

• Survey: Consumers trust healthcare devices less than they once did

  Wednesday, March 18, 2020

  U.S. citizens are showing less interest in digital health solutions, wearables, and mobile health apps, stalling an interest that was previously quite high. The number of consumers without any digital health solutions to manage their health is as high as one-third. Wearable technologies — those that collect health data — has decreased, too, from one-third (33%) in 2018 to less than 20% in 2020, according to a new survey from Accenture.

• As organizations close, tips for facility managers to clear out the coronavirus

  Monday, March 16, 2020

  The Clean Buildings Expo (CBE) and National Facilities Management and Technology (NFMT) Conference and Expo that was to be held this week in Baltimore has been postponed because of the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). There's likely no better time for the information that was slated for the clean-building conference than now. But that's the current state of the world given the pandemic. As governments develop strategies to lead their citizens through these developments, there's an important role to be played by facility managers.

• Telehealth used in an attempt to curb coronavirus

  Wednesday, March 11, 2020

  As the pandemic that is the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) grows, telehealth technology is finding its footing as people become more concerned about their level of exposure to the virus and as health systems expect to be overwhelmed with treating those affected. President Donald Trump recently signed an $8.3 billion package that, in part, allows Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar to waive Medicare telehealth payment restrictions during the coronavirus emergency.

• A facility management guide to virus protection

  Tuesday, March 10, 2020

  The National Safety Council has updated its original statement from Jan. 31 on the coronavirus (COVID-19). The organization works to eliminate preventable deaths at work, in homes, in communities, and on the road through leadership, research, education, and advocacy, so its standing in the facility management world has a strong foundation. In its statement regarding the virus, it is urging employers to assess their risk of exposure and ensure procedures are in place to control transmission effectively. Likewise, workplace illness prevention training is imperative for all employees, the NSC adds.

• Report: Healthcare hacks continue to skyrocket

  Wednesday, March 04, 2020

  Healthcare data breaches continue to be a significant problem for patients and organizations. In 2019, more than 41 million patient records were breached, as per the findings of a report from Protenus and DataBreaches.net. Additionally, based on these reported findings, the number of hacks nearly tripled from the year prior when 15 million patient records were affected by breach incidents. Protenus analyzed data breach incidents disclosed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and/or the media during 2019.

• Single-use plastic bans, taxes are on the rise around the world

  Tuesday, March 03, 2020

  On March 1, New York became the second U.S. state to ban plastic bags. The ban in California, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, has reduced disposable plastic bag usage by as much as 80%. In 2019, Canada did away with single-use plastics and eliminated other plastic pollution. More than 60 other nations are attempting to reduce single-use plastics through bans and taxes, according to the United Nations.

• Why preventive building maintenance is crucial to the health of organizations

  Wednesday, February 26, 2020

  A U.S. Energy Information Administration Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey found that about half of all commercial buildings were constructed before 1980. U.S. schools are older, at more than 40 years old, on average. Building age means maintenance is critical and should not be overlooked. While delayed maintenance may seem a suitable way to save money quickly, neglect can lead to the need for additional repairs and create bigger budget holes in the long run.

• AMA: Digital health tools are more important than ever to physicians

  Tuesday, February 25, 2020

  Physicians have been using more digital health tools since 2016, according to the American Medical Association, which first benchmarked the transformation at that time. According to continued research, the AMA reports that more physicians than ever say they understand the benefits of digital health tools for driving improved efficiency and safety at the point of care. As reported through the survey, the AMA pointed out specific insights in seven categories of digital adoption.

• Health IT regulators to continue push back against ‘bad actors’

  Wednesday, February 19, 2020

  The healthcare hubbub that Epic Systems started in January with an email from its CEO and founder, Judy Faulkner, to several of its hospital and health system clients has continued in February. The tactic did not go unnoticed, and scathing responses were handed down by two of the industry’s leaders and several other industry insiders, including Microsoft, Google and Cerner. Still, more than a month on, the piling on continues. The latest comment is from Donald Rucker, M.D., head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

• Study: Most Americans don’t realize how much diet impacts the planet

  Tuesday, February 18, 2020

  Most Americans — who, by and large, claim to be environmentally conscious — are overlooking some of the most important decisions regarding the health of the environment: What they eat. These conversations are not happening, according to a new study. The environmental impacts of individual diets seem a little too close to home for most, as Inverse reported. While some people say that "Big Oil" is responsible for most of the planet's environmental issues, the fight for protecting the earth may need to focus on factory farming practices and the foods that come from these places.

• HHS responds to arguments against hospital price transparency

  Wednesday, February 12, 2020

  Regarding healthcare pricing transparency, the Trump administration says patients should have the right to know how much care will cost before they receive it. The argument seems to hold water, because in all other transactions where are wallets are concerned, consumers know the price of the products and services before they buy. These are the points continually made by leaders at HHS. These are also the arguments made in a brief filed last week in response to a lawsuit challenging the price transparency rule. HHS also argues that Congress meant for hospital pricing be made public.

• Study: Why wood pallets are better for the environment than plastic

  Tuesday, February 11, 2020

  If you've ever wondered whether wood or plastic shipping pallets are more eco-friendly, the fight is over, and a winner has been declared. Wood is better for the environment. This is according to Penn State researchers, who, after conducting a series of detailed comparisons, say that the shipping pallets made of wood are slightly more environmentally friendly and sustainable than those made of plastic. "Few people realize the significance of this issue — there are about 700 million pallets produced and recycled each year in the United States alone," said Chuck Ray, associate professor of ecosystem science and management.

• Epic Systems wages interoperability war on CMS

  Wednesday, February 05, 2020

  There's a major hubbub going on in healthcare right now regarding interoperability. This includes a campaign from the CEO of an EHR company to health system leaders encouraging them to rally against federal interoperability reform; tech giants telling the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to enforce its rules; and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma suggesting that some healthcare EHR vendors are attempting to protect "short-term profits." Where to start? In this case, we'll begin to break this drama down at the top — with the regulators, CMS.

• What can facility managers learn from coronavirus?

  Tuesday, February 04, 2020

  A seemingly impossible feat of engineering, construction, and facilities management has been accomplished in the face of a global pandemic based in the People's Republic of China. The feat of modern facility creation started in late January when the Chinese government announced it would build a 1,000-bed hospital to house patients battling the Wuhan coronavirus in just six days. The actual construction time was closer to eight days, but the result was the same. The building was created using prefabricated materials to make the process move along quicker.

• Healthcare cybersecurity threats continue with no end in sight

  Thursday, January 30, 2020

  In 2019, healthcare organizations were the fourth most common target for ransomware attacks, according to a report released by Cylance, a BlackBerry company. Healthcare made up 7% of attacks overall, after technology (28%), consumer goods (15%) and manufacturing (11%), but the sophistication of attacks is growing more complex. A year prior, in 2018, Cylance said it saw a decline in overall ransomware attacks and an increase in malicious coin miners.

• Report: Most American drinking water is contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’

  Wednesday, January 29, 2020

  U.S. drinking water is contaminated with man-made "forever chemicals" that are far greater than previously estimated. The forever chemicals are resistant to environmental breakdown and are known as perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), some of which are linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight, and other health problems. The chemicals have been discovered in drinking water at 34 previously unknown locations, according to a report released on Jan. 22 by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

• Study: Americans are concerned about plastic pollution, but not as much as other countries

  Thursday, January 23, 2020

  The U.S. is one of the biggest creators of plastic waste, and consumers are taking more notice than ever. Concerns over plastic pollution and how to combat it with eco-friendly alternatives are also peaking. Piplsay surveyed 31,149 Americans to understand their perception of plastics, waste and plastic recycling — an apt audience since the U.S. produces about 35 million tons of plastic waste each year. Of all that trash, less than 10% is recycled. America also is seen as lagging behind in intent and action regarding recycling.

• ONC outlines plans for health IT during the 2020s

  Tuesday, January 21, 2020

  Federal health IT officials have, for the first time, released a draft strategic plan that outlines their priorities for the first half of the 2020s. The focus appears to be on moving to a more patient-focused form of healthcare, with health data accessible through smartphone apps and application programming interfaces (APIs). Additionally, the plan is designed to help patients manage their health and shop for care, according to the Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

• Study: Private hospital payment rates much higher than Medicare, Medicaid

  Wednesday, January 15, 2020

  Rising healthcare costs be damned; the industry and federal regulators continue to attempt to reign in outlandish prices. But, according to a new study published in the journal Health Affairs, hospital payment rates to private insurance have grown much faster than to Medicare and Medicaid. Researchers reviewed payments for inpatient hospital stays, emergency department visits, and outpatient care from 1996 to 2016, finding private charges rose as much as five times the rate of Medicare during that period.

• Asbestos can be everywhere, so create a remediation plan

  Tuesday, January 14, 2020

  Aging institutional and commercial facilities continue to present trouble for occupants, visitors, administrators, and facilities professionals. They produce a host of liabilities to everyone that enters to work, live, learn, or consume services at a given facility. One of the most prominent recent examples of these risks was a School District of Philadelphia building that was closed after asbestos damage was discovered inside. Asbestos is more than a local or regional problem, of course, and remains a thorn in the side of countless facility managers the world over.

• In a first, UK scientists estimate the economic impact of herbicidal resistance

  Thursday, January 09, 2020

  Scientists from the Zoological Society of London have recently done something significant, if not innovative. These researchers are part of an effort that, for the first time, has placed a number on the damage caused by herbicidal resistance of a major agricultural weed. An estimated 4 million tons of pesticide are applied to crops worldwide each year, the report noted. As of 2019, 253 known herbicide-resistant weeds exist, and estimates of the costs of resistance to agricultural xenobiotics are severely lacking.

• Report: Physician salaries continue to rise, per 2019 figures

  Tuesday, January 07, 2020

  The salaries of America's physicians continued to increase in 2019, according to a new report produced by LocumTenens.com. The most recent annual report shows that the average physician's salary continues trending higher year-over-year since 2015. Overall, the increase in pay since then has been 16.5%, per the report. The current figures are based on feedback from the August 2019 survey. Of those interviewed for the survey, respondents included physicians and advanced practitioners.

• Big agribusiness firms move toward biologicals, away from chemical-based farming

  Wednesday, December 18, 2019

  Is agribusiness going green? Increasingly, the sector appears trained on becoming more natural and sustainable compared to chemical alternatives. The change is driven by consumers demanding non-genetically modified foods and concerns over Big Ag’s role in pollution and chemical waste. These changes are being made possible by innovations and developments with beneficial microorganisms in the soil, including seed coatings of naturally occurring bacteria and fungi that can do the same work as traditional chemicals.

• Healthcare spending up as CMS continues push for hospital price transparency rule

  Monday, December 16, 2019

  U.S. healthcare spending rose 4.6% in 2018 to $3.6 trillion, a rate that's higher than in 2017 but near the same level as 2016. Healthcare spending didn't grow as fast as the nation's gross domestic product, so healthcare's share of the economy fell from 17.9% to 17.7%, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Office of the Actuary. The data, released annually, pointed to the increase brought on by the reinstatement of the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Tax, which was not in effect for 2017.

• Bills requiring baby changing tables in men’s restrooms become more popular

  Thursday, December 12, 2019

  Pieces of legislation mandating that men's public restrooms include a baby changing station continue to gain support. If all goes according to plan in Wisconsin, the state could soon join others in doing so, reports Milwaukee's WTMJ-TV. Two state representatives and a state senator — all men — have introduced the bill requiring the changing tables in any newly built or substantially renovated public building. Massachusetts is looking at a bill, too. Similar bills have passed in Arizona, Utah, California, Illinois, and New Mexico.

• Study review: Depressed physicians more likely to commit medical errors

  Monday, December 09, 2019

  A physician who is depressed is more likely to commit medical errors: This is the primary finding from a review of studies — 11 prior studies that included more than 21,000 physicians — published in JAMA Network Open. Per the findings, physicians with a positive screening for depression were very likely to report medical errors. Further examination found that the association between depressive symptoms in physicians and medical errors is bidirectional.

• Survey: Healthcare communication is stuck in the past

  Monday, November 25, 2019

  Healthcare communication issues are a thing of the present, not the past. Communication remains fragmented, with many healthcare organizations remaining reliant on landline phones, fax machines, and pagers. Furthermore, the adoption of modern communication technology is often happening in silos. These findings are from technology company TigerConnect in its annual State of Healthcare Communications report, a survey of healthcare leaders and patients detailing the pervasive challenges in healthcare communications.

• Preventing antibiotic resistance in the workplace

  Friday, November 22, 2019

  For facilities professionals, the findings of the new Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may have some relevant data for keeping workplaces healthy. Employee health is especially important, given that someone in the United States gets an antibiotic-resistant infection every 11 seconds. The report sets a new national baseline of infections and deaths from antibiotic-resistant germs, and it categorizes the top antibiotic-resistant threats based on the level of concern to human health: urgent, dangerous, or concerning.

• Study: Today’s hurricanes bigger, more destructive than before

  Wednesday, November 20, 2019

  Hurricanes have become more destructive since 1900, says a fresh piece of research from the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. The worst hurricanes are more than three times as frequent now than 100 years ago, the researchers found. The researchers report that they’ve calculated the historical damage figures differently than in the past. Doing so makes a comparison between rural areas and more densely populated areas easier.

• Study: Patients aren’t accessing medical information online

  Tuesday, November 19, 2019

  Patients are not accessing their medical records online, according to recent research published in Health Affairs. Hospitals that are part of a more extensive system saw their patients engage more with online records. That was also the case for teaching and public hospitals, the research says. But the lowest access rates were for people at hospitals receiving the most in disproportionate share hospital payments and those with a high mix of dual-eligible Medicare and Medicaid patients.

• Study: Airplanes have dirty, unsafe water

  Friday, November 15, 2019

  A new study is telling us that airplanes are incredibly disgusting and that travelers need to avoid certain things at all costs. Most importantly, avoid onboard water, except that which is from a sealed water bottle. Don't wash your hands with it, and certainly don't drink it. That’s according to the 2019 Airline Water Study. Developed by DietDetective.com and the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center, the study tested the quality of water on 11 major airlines and 12 regional airlines.

• Payers, providers win latest battle in ongoing hospital pricing war

  Monday, November 11, 2019

  It appears that hospital price transparency proponents have lost a recent battle. Trump administration officials are kicking a political can down the road after push back from hospitals and insurers, who would have had to make previously undisclosed rates public. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it has some 1,400 comments for a proposed rule about the revealing of rates, and the coming rule regarding the topic will include responses to these concerns. So, who wins here? Payers and providers, apparently. Consumers? Not so much.

• A former landfill is Maryland’s first community solar farm

  Thursday, November 07, 2019

  A hole in the ground that recently contained nothing but our post-consumable unmentionables is receiving a new life as an energy production facility in Maryland. In Fort Washington, a landfill has been transformed into the state’s first large-scale community solar farm, NPR affiliate WAMU-FM reports. Conceived in 2017, the transformation is the result of a pilot running through next year, which is designed to "expand accessibility to solar energy for state residents," WAMU-FM says.

• Survey: Patients who experience telehealth services are happy with them

  Tuesday, November 05, 2019

  For those who use telehealth services, the results are quite good, a survey by J.D. Power shows. The satisfaction rate is about 85% — 851 on a 1,000-point scale — while almost half (46%) of all who participated in the survey gave telehealth services a score above 900. The survey included almost 8,300 consumers. In addition to their being happy with the service, they reported that it usually addressed their clinical issues; almost 85% of telehealth users said they resolved their medical problems as a result of their remote teleconsultation.

• Survey: Prior authorization remains a pain for a huge majority in healthcare

  Thursday, October 31, 2019

  A consensus has been reached in healthcare, and the crescendo of hatred for prior authorization is clear. Medical practice professionals are sick of the red tape associated with the practice of getting the OK from an insurer regarding a proposed course of treatment for a perhaps-stricken patient. The opposition's angst for the process is overwhelming. According to a Medical Group Management Association survey, medical practice leaders say they are frustrated with "red tape and reporting requirements." Eighty-six percent say regulatory burdens increased in the past 12 months.

• Study: Groundwater supplies in peril as irrigation, pumping decimate aquifers

  Wednesday, October 30, 2019

  According to a recent study published in the journal Nature, water stored in aquifers underground makes up the vast majority of accessible freshwater on Earth. Its abundance has fueled forays into drier locales, enabling a boom in crop production. People and livestock are not the only things relying on aquifers. While about 70% of all groundwater used worldwide goes to agriculture, surface waterways, including rivers and streams, need groundwater, too. The Nature study shows the water is at an "ecological tipping point" that scientists call the "environmental flow limit."

• Survey: Toilets cleaner than kitchenware, other supplies at UK offices

  Wednesday, October 23, 2019

  According to the findings of a new survey by GCC Facilities Management — a commercial cleaning services company in the United Kingdom — office parks and facilities are downright filthy. The 650-person study found out how often workspaces are cleaned. Regarding cleanliness in general, only about a quarter of the respondents say they have used personal cleaning supplies in the office to maintain cleanliness. Perhaps not surprisingly, only 35% of respondents said their desk is cleaned daily.

• Study: Financial waste in healthcare remains significant

  Tuesday, October 22, 2019

  Despite its reputation for saving things, healthcare can be a pretty wasteful environment. In fact, there’s so much excess that nearly a quarter or more of all the money in the sector gets wasted, a new study suggests. The sum of all waste is estimated to range from $760 billion to $935 billion, according to a recent report in JAMA. There’s a small sliver of good news: Things could be worse. The study authors suggest that the amount of waste was worse, by as much as 5%, in 2011.

• Report: Patients want more billing transparency, digital payment options

  Thursday, October 17, 2019

  A new report, the 2019 Healthcare Consumer Study, was commissioned by Cedar to identify trends in the financial experience for patients. Results show one-third (34%) of U.S. healthcare consumers say they have experienced a medical bill going into collections. However, most of these outstanding bills were not the result of astronomical statement amounts. For the most part, Cedar found, these bills in collection were the result of poor billing practices on the part of the practice or healthcare organization — or so patients thought.

• Global goods giant commits to drastically reducing plastic packaging by 2025

  Monday, October 14, 2019

  Global consumer goods giant Unilever has announced an aggressive program to reduce the level of plastic waste it creates through the use of its products. According to a statement by the company, it is making efforts to create a "circular economy" for plastics. These efforts are mostly commitments between the brand and those it serves. Specifically, by 2025, it says it plans to reduce its use of virgin plastic — plastic that has never been used for any other purposes nor has been previously recycled — by half. It will also reduce its use of plastic packaging by more than 100,000 total tons.

• Worldwide antibiotic resistance in farm animals is on the rise

  Wednesday, October 09, 2019

  As worldwide demand grows for products delivered through animal husbandry, the industry has increasingly become more reliant upon antimicrobials to treat and prevent infections for animals raised in crowded conditions. These drugs rapidly increase weight gain for quicker delivery of products to market, thereby improving profitability. The use of antimicrobials has several downstream impacts, including prolific advancement of bacteria resistant to these compounds, which is a severe problem showing increased signs around the world.

• CMS: ACOs are producing savings, physician-based models faring best

  Monday, October 07, 2019

  Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are paying off big time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said, with the programs generating more than $739 million in net savings in 2018. ACOs are designed to lower growth in expenditures and improve care quality. For its part, an ACO agrees to be held accountable for the quality, cost, and experience of care of an assigned Medicare beneficiary population. According to Health Affairs, ACOs that successfully meet quality and savings requirements share a percentage of the achieved savings with Medicare.

• Healthcare groups: ONC should delay data-blocking rules, focus on security

  Wednesday, October 02, 2019

  ​Federal policymakers in healthcare IT are up against it. As many as seven healthcare industry groups are encouraging these rulemakers to begin dealing with data-blocking regulations now, including delaying the publication of a final rule. The groups are raising the flag toward the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to issue another supplemental notice of rulemaking and clarify the language in the rules. The organizations cite confusion regarding ONC's definition and scope of electronic health information and health information networks.

• Research: Hospital faucets often increase spread of infection, bacteria

  Tuesday, October 01, 2019

  There is perhaps no more important place for hand hygiene than in healthcare. In hospitals and healthcare facilities, cleanliness is critical for infection prevention. According to research from the University of Michigan Health System presented at a gathering of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), sinks and other handwashing stations can spread infection and bacteria.

• Study: Air pollution particulates can even harm unborn children

  Thursday, September 26, 2019

  It turns out that air pollution is worse on us than we may have previously known, especially for those not yet born. According to the findings of a new study, pollution can be so pervasive that it can penetrate a pregnant woman's placenta and may threaten the health of a developing fetus. The study reviewed and analyzed high-resolution images taken of placenta tissue retrieved from 28 women who had given birth at East-Limburg Hospital in Genk, Belgium.

• Report: Many US healthcare employees receive no cybersecurity training

  Wednesday, September 25, 2019

  There's a healthcare data security problem in the U.S., and news reports suggest that insiders are not getting the amount of education they need to help keep hospital data safe. Per a new Kaspersky report, a massive number of the healthcare sector’s workforce does not receive the necessary training required to improve awareness of their organization’s policies, regulations, and rules. Nearly a quarter (24%) of U.S. healthcare employees have not received cybersecurity training, "but felt they should have," Health IT Security points out.

• Study: Patients don’t think payers, providers can protect their data

  Tuesday, September 17, 2019

  Providers and payers: Patients don't think you’re able to keep their personal data healthy and safe, even though you’re charged with doing the same for their health. That blunt assessment is from a skeptical public who is growing increasingly weary of seemingly daily news about breaches and hacks. According to a new study by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and POLITICO, only 17% have a "great deal" of faith that their health plan will protect their data. Hospitals are not much further ahead.

• US Geological Survey: Microplastics are raining down on us

  Tuesday, September 10, 2019

  It is raining plastic in nature, says the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Based on the findings from a recent USGS report, better methods for "sampling, identification, and quantification of plastic deposition along with assessment of potential ecological effects are needed." Why? The planet is becoming inundated by microplastics, negatively affecting marine life and posing health risks to populations around the world. Specifically, the report says plastic is "raining" down on the Rocky Mountains.

• Study: Connected devices pose security risks for most health systems

  Monday, September 09, 2019

  Regarding healthcare technology, there are a few notable maxims: things move quickly; there's a lot of money pouring into the sector; and security always is a concern. Case in point: eight out of 10 healthcare organization security leaders admit that they have experienced an internet of things (IoT) cyberattack in the past year. Of these organizations, 30% said the security incident compromised end-user safety. These are the findings of a new study released by security software company Irdeto. The Netherlands-based firm polled 232 healthcare security decision-makers.

• CMS: Hospitals must post rates; hospitals not interested in doing so

  Thursday, September 05, 2019

  In healthcare, it seems that nothing is easy — technology, regulation, privacy, and security. And now, pricing. Efforts are underway to make prices more transparent; this is a tentpole issue for the Trump administration, which wants hospitals to begin posting "shoppable" prices online in 2020. According to reports, some hospitals are facing some challenges for doing so and are trying to figure out how they'll be able to meet the requirement.

• 3 post-natural disaster safety checks for facility managers

  Wednesday, September 04, 2019

  When a natural disaster strikes, there's usually little to do except wait until it's safe to return. Preparing in advance provides facility managers the best outcome to nail down any property needs. But lack of preparation is no excuse for a sudden storm to catch you unawares. Facility managers are in a unique situation when planning for post-storm returns and assessments. While many are on the evacuation path, facility managers are a bit like first responders regarding the health of their buildings. As you inspect your buildings, there are a few things to consider.

• HHS’ fight for drug pricing transparency continues amid unmitigated price increases

  Wednesday, August 28, 2019

  The Department of Health and Human Services recently filed an appeal in hopes of overturning a court decision from June that halted a rule to force drugmakers to list the prices of the drugs they advertise on television. HHS unveiled its plan to require listing the drug prices in direct-to-consumer TV ads last October and finalized the rule in May. The idea meant that pharmaceutical companies would have to include the wholesale acquisition price for a drug in their television ads if the drug cost exceeded $35 for a one-month supply.

• Legal fights come to factory farms as grassroots organizations push back

  Monday, August 26, 2019

  Food & Water Watch, an organization that focuses on creating grassroots movements to protect environmental resources, began legal proceedings against Tyson Foods this summer, claiming that the company focuses on environmental stewardship as a business philosophy. The organization says these claims are counter to how Tyson actually treats the land and water. Additionally, several conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency in July for "overstepping its authority in exempting factory farms from pollution-reporting requirements essential to public safety, environmental health and animal welfare."

• Top senator: Rural health systems must be allowed to evolve, survive through telehealth

  Thursday, August 22, 2019

  Telehealth is getting some additional mainstream backing again in a significant way as one of Washington, D.C.'s leading healthcare voices continues to place his support behind it — Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The reason for his doing so is because of the weakening of the rural healthcare community. These rural health systems face continual financial pressure, and many of them are facing closure. Thus, telehealth can help solve some of the many challenges confronting rural communities in maintaining access to care, Grassley says.

• Creating a sustainable organization through facilities management

  Monday, August 19, 2019

  Sustainability and corporate social responsibility efforts are now significant factors for successful organizations as regulations and consumers drive change. Organizations that don’t take account of their environmental impacts face potential backlash from consumers who are increasingly sustainability minded. While not previously top of mind, environmental and sustainability issues are more central to facilities management than at any point in the past. However, what steps are required to meet these challenges?

• Some communities are putting the brakes on factory farming

  Thursday, August 15, 2019

  Wisconsin's Burnett County Board of Supervisors recently passed a one-year moratorium on large-scale farms with 1,000 or more animal units. The moratorium is inspired by plans from Cumberland LLC, which earlier this year announced plans to build a $20 million farm for up to 26,000 hogs in the town of Trade Lake. Don Taylor, Burnett County board chair, said a committee will examine potential impacts of large-scale farms, known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) or "factory farms." Burnett County represents a microcosm of farming practices throughout the United States.

• 2019: The year of patient health record breaches

  Wednesday, August 14, 2019

  Patient health record breaches are on a big rise this year, doubling last year's figures. About 32 million patient records have already been breached during the first half of 2019, twice as many as the total for all of 2018, according to the 2019 Mid-Year Breach Barometer Report from IT security firm Protenus. Current numbers for the first half of the year also point to the fact that there were 285 total breaches reported between January and June. Surprisingly and shockingly, since 2016, not a day has gone by without a breach.

• As telehealth use grows, so does interest in locum tenens opportunities

  Tuesday, August 06, 2019

  In 2018, the global telemedicine market was valued at more than $38 billion, and by 2025, that number is projected to skyrocket, possibly exceeding $130.5 billion. According to a new report, this growth is powered by a few factors, most notably the growing need to access medical care matched with the introduction of technologies that make it possible for physicians to conduct clinical work remotely. This comes as no surprise to those watching the space.

• Health data groups urge Senate to adopt unique patient identifiers

  Wednesday, July 31, 2019

  Healthcare lobbyists made their way back into the limelight recently when several major groups took to the U.S. Senate to speak passionately about removing the two-decade-old ban on unique national patient identifiers. These health information management leaders told members of Congress that the use of federal funds to adopt such a nationwide identifier would allow collaboration between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the private sector. Additionally, the groups assert that this federal funding is crucial for identification solutions that may reduce medical errors and protect patient privacy.

• Why Wisconsin’s recent survey of mussels is important

  Tuesday, July 30, 2019

  The state of Wisconsin recently did something for the first time in four decades: Conducted a massive statewide survey of native mussels in an attempt to show the benefits of the water-cleaning clams on the state's waterways. Why does this survey matter? Several reasons. Mussels are considered one of the world’s most imperiled animals. 70% of the world’s mussel species are in decline. Mussels are considered "ecosystem engineers" because they modify the aquatic habitat, making it more suitable for themselves and other organisms. A single freshwater mussel can filter gallons of water a day, removing pollutants like mercury and other contaminants.

• Health data breaches continue despite firms’ confidence in their security systems

  Wednesday, July 24, 2019

  Healthcare data is collected continuously, and new uses are found for this data nearly every day. In fact, almost all U.S. healthcare organizations collect, store or share data and sensitive information within technologies and cloud platforms, but less than 40% of these organizations actually encrypt data in such environments. This is according to a new report by French security company Thales and research and analysis firm IDC.

• Are you leaving out an important part of fire safety at your facility?

  Tuesday, July 23, 2019

  Fire and life-safety systems in and throughout a facility — regardless of it being one building or a multibuilding campus — are vital. Every person who sets foot in the facility — employees, students, staff, customers, contractors and visitors — depend on these systems being in place. These systems reduce the impact of a fire and notify occupants to act when conditions are unsafe. They also protect people from areas of the most danger and can help limit the destruction caused by fire. Facility managers wear many hats, but maintaining safety is the most important responsibility they face each day.

• EPA approves bee-killing pesticide use as populations of the insect crater

  Thursday, July 18, 2019

  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June approved the use of a bee-killing pesticide and, more recently, the White House said it would stop collecting data on declining honey bee populations. Those who follow such developments say this move could make tracking the effects of the chemicals on bees impossible. The Department of Agriculture's Honey Bee Colonies report, compiled annually since 2015, had been designed to help scientists and farmers assess the decline of honey bees, which are responsible for pollinating one in every three bites of food taken by humans.

• Trump administration’s drug price transparency rule blocked by federal judge

  Wednesday, July 17, 2019

  A recent Trump administration rule received a blow at the hands of a federal judge in early July 2019. The judge blocked a drug transparency rule that drugmakers have opposed — requiring that prices be listed in any television ads for the drugs. Merck & Co., Eli Lilly, and Amgen, along with the Association of National Advertisers, sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and CMS to block the rule they call unnecessary and unlawful. It was set to take effect July 9.

• Auto-generated email messages from EHRs can contribute to physician burnout

  Wednesday, July 10, 2019

  The time physicians spend on desktop medicine appears to be increasing compared to the amount of time they can spend with patients. The cause of this switch is the obvious current enemy of healthcare: electronic health record (EHR) documentation. In particular, it’s the emails generated by EHRs that are the problem. According to a new study, physicians' EHR inboxes are stuffed with system-generated messages on behalf of the electronic health records they are operating within their organizations, which can lead to job dissatisfaction and even burnout, Health Affairs reported.

• A guide for facilities decision-makers on going solar

  Tuesday, July 09, 2019

  Implementing a solar energy project has many legs and can move in many directions. However, guidance, development of the project, the site, and goals need to be set well before actual work can be done. Planning can help a facility carry out the solar implementation project, but facility managers should also look for innovative ways to aggregate procurements to benefit from economies of scale and to reduce transaction costs. Federal agencies, for example, are moving toward solar power capabilities, as are private organizations. But no matter the agency or sector, interest is there for generating solar plans.

• Trump administration makes another healthcare price transparency push with executive order

  Tuesday, July 02, 2019

  The Trump administration thorn may be officially piercing the side of hospital administrators. As a result of a recent executive order by President Donald Trump, they will be required to make information concerning their negotiated rates with insurers public. Providers and payers will be ordered to give patients estimates for out-of-pocket costs for procedures in advance of the procedure, according to the order. Trump signed the order June 24. The idea is that if people can shop around, market forces may drive down costs.

• Air quality at national parks may be as bad as the US’ largest cities

  Monday, July 01, 2019

  Millions of tourists will soon begin their treks across this great land during their annual summer vacations. Many of these people will find their way into America's national parks. They will come for the physical beauty, the nature, the outdoors, and the fresh air. Or so they think. As it turns out, we’re not breathing in the such clean air in the great outdoors of the National Park System. According to a new report, even our most well-known parks are covered with dangerous levels of pollution; roughly 96% of national parks are struggling with significant air quality issues.

• Unique patient identifier ban lifted in House vote, still faces Senate

  Wednesday, June 26, 2019

  The 20-year ban on the ability of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a unique patient identifier has finally been struck down — in part. A unique patient identifier (or the lack of one) has long been a primary issue for health IT insiders and leaders. The U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of ending the ban June 12. If it becomes law, it would allow federal funds to create the long-sought-after patient identifiers. The bill now moves to the Senate to be taken up for debate.

• Department of Energy: Renewables create massive savings for facilities

  Thursday, June 20, 2019

  For business organizations, renewable energy can be a costly capital investment, but more companies are experiencing the successes of their efforts to reduce the energy used within their buildings and plants. One program created to help facilities leaders explore the opportunity of renewables is the Better Buildings Initiative from the U.S. Department of Energy. According to the agency, the program is meant to work "across industries to provide guidance and to document effective approaches for installing renewable technologies including solar, wind and geothermal." Per the government’s reporting on the issue, many organizations are making headway with solar.

• Study: Teaching hospitals are no more expensive than nonteaching ones

  Wednesday, June 19, 2019

  While the perception may be otherwise, the facts tell us something different: Major teaching hospitals are less expensive compared with nonteaching hospitals over the course of an entire episode of care and the costs incurred at 30 days, researchers found. This the major finding after researchers analyzed 1.2 million Medicare hospitalizations for common medical and surgical conditions. Researchers said that when they expanded the "time window" to 90 days into the episode of care for a surgical procedure and subsequent treatment, spending at major teaching hospitals was actually lower on post-acute care and readmissions than nonteaching hospitals. Initial hospitalizations were more expensive, however.

• HHS’ ONC division wants streamlined prior authorization, better price transparency

  Thursday, June 13, 2019

  The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is having a busy time. In addition to its effort to provide clarity for its interoperability rule, the department announced that it’s looking for ways electronic prior authorization can be improved. Don Rucker, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, said at Academy Health's annual research conference in Washington, D.C., in early June that the current state of prior authorization, including the requirement that providers obtain approval from a patient's insurance before prescribing medication or therapy, is a "non-computerized kabuki of payment" that "needs to get rethought."

• EPA’s Energy Star program gets updates, new building certifications

  Wednesday, June 12, 2019

  There have been several updates to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, including changes to the Star score. The score ranges from one to 100, which is the current national benchmark for energy performance. Per program guidance, facility managers and users enter information about their buildings into Portfolio Manager, the EPA’s online resource management tool that is used to assess the status of the application submitted. Then, using this information, which includes key operational details and actual energy use, Portfolio Manager calculates a score that compares a building’s energy performance to similar buildings nationwide.

• Walmart joins worldwide effort to reduce its plastic consumption

  Thursday, June 06, 2019

  The war on plastic continues. In April, the Oregon Senate approved a limited ban on plastic straws. Its passage would make the state the second after California to enact measures limiting single-use plastic straws. Several individual cities, including Seattle; New York City; and Portland, Oregon, have also implemented their own policies to curb plastic straw usage. Not to be outdone, retail giant Walmart announced a "bold" plastic waste reduction commitment by "leveraging its massive private brand program." In addition to reducing plastic packaging, it is doing away with plastic bags.

• New study: Rural telehealth capabilities are lagging

  Tuesday, June 04, 2019

  Telemedicine is frequently touted as a technology tool that can help improve healthcare access for rural populations, especially in areas with physician shortages. But telemedicine might not be the silver bullet to improve rural healthcare when those same areas have significant infrastructure challenges, new research says. Telemedicine may have trouble even getting implemented in these locales because of "substantially lower broadband penetration rates," a research report published in Annals of Internal Medicine found.

• Tips for developing an active shooter response program

  Wednesday, May 29, 2019

  "Active shooter on premises" are words that instill terror. However, these incidents seem to permeate the American psyche. Even with seemingly endless reports of these attacks on organizations, many leaders do not organize a plan for how to respond should they be faced with such an event. The most likely reason for this is fear. Even preparing to mitigate against such an event is scary. Unfortunately, active shootings are a reality that organizational leaders and facility managers must prepare for. Individuals must be prepared to manage such an event before law enforcement personnel arrive on the scene.

• Pew report: Provider demand for accurate patient matching is high

  Thursday, May 23, 2019

  The Pew Charitable Trusts is concerned with the ability to accurately match patients to their health records. According to healthcare providers surveyed, match rates are "far below the desired level for effective data exchange," said researchers at Pew, which collaborated with eHealth Collaborative on the report. Patient matching is the comparing of data from different health IT systems to verify if data sources match and belong to the same patient. Matching data completes the patient’s health history and medical care record. If data matches, that patient’s records are combined to eliminate duplication and confusion.

• HHS finalizes rule requiring drug prices in TV ads

  Friday, May 17, 2019

  Frustrated viewers of nearly every television program barraged by advertisements of drug commercials that feature all the medicine’s benefits, the litany of potential side effects, etc. — but who receive no pricing information — are getting a little reprieve. Those ads will soon change slightly, according to the Trump administration, which has finalized a rule that will require pharmaceutical companies to disclose the price of their products in television advertising as soon as summer 2019.

• New discovery could solve the world’s ocean plastics problem

  Thursday, May 16, 2019

  A study recently published in Nature seems to suggest that there is "a significant increase in open ocean plastics in recent decades," going back nearly 60 years. The study was based off a 2015 investigation that estimated there were between 4.8 trillion and 12.7 trillion pieces of plastic entering the ocean every year. However, there’s been a potential breakthrough by scientists at Berkeley Lab that may change everything we know about plastic and plastic waste. Published in Nature Chemistry, the Berkeley Lab researchers found a new way to assemble plastic elements and reuse them "into new materials of any color, shape or form."

• Does your organization need a facility manager?

  Monday, May 13, 2019

  An important part of understanding the role facility managers play includes defining when an organization might need to consider adding facility management services. The facility management role is designed to provide maintenance of an organization's buildings and equipment in a way that offers the best value to the building owner and users alike. For those organizational leaders who wonder about adding a facility manager to their operations, there are a few key considerations.

• Despite controversy, HHS releases conscience protection rule for healthcare workers

  Friday, May 10, 2019

  The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights has released a new final rule designed to protect individuals and healthcare entities in HHS-funded programs from discrimination on the basis of their exercise of conscience. It will take effect in approximately two months. The "conscience rights" rule will allow healthcare workers to refuse care based on religious or moral objections and will grant protections to healthcare workers who refuse to provide services such as abortion or transition care for transgender individuals.

• US farm populations continue to decline

  Wednesday, May 01, 2019

  The 2017 Census of Agriculture, released in early April 2019, shows that the amount of total land devoted to agricultural use continues to decline in the U.S. and the number of farms is declining. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), there were 2.04 million farms and ranches in the U.S. in 2017, down more than 3% from 2012. The agency went on to say that the amount of land devoted to agriculture declined by nearly 2% to 900.2 million acres from 914.5 million acres in 2012.

• Consumers share their top healthcare concerns, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch

  Tuesday, April 30, 2019

  Many Americans say they are worried about the future of the Affordable Care Act for people with preexisting conditions, according to the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health Tracking Poll. Almost 70 percent (68%) of respondents said they want to keep preexisting condition protections, and the KFF report suggests that a majority of respondents (54%) want to keep the healthcare law entirely as is, even if insurance plan costs increase. Those who responded said they’re all for price increases as long as their healthcare provisions are met. But who should pay for the possible increases is another thing altogether.

• JAMA: Growing rural ED use putting strain on safety-net hospitals

  Wednesday, April 24, 2019

  Safety-net hospitals in the nation’s rural areas are strained and busier than their counterparts in urban areas, a new JAMA study reveals. This problem is further exacerbated by fewer physicians serving patients in these areas and generally worse health for rural residents. Rural hospitals also are constrained financially with "operating margins often too narrow to invest in upgrades to optimize care delivery." According to the JAMA study authors, emergency department use patterns provide a lens into the status of healthcare delivery in the communities they serve.

• Maintaining your facility’s carpet

  Monday, April 22, 2019

  Commercial and municipal properties experience more than their fair share of foot traffic, which means dirt, soiled stains and the possibility of an environment that’s not attractive nor appealing to visitors, customers and employees. Carpet, unfortunately, is often, overlooked as much as it’s walked over. Facility managers are in a unique role in which to take control over the cleanliness of accoutrements of the office environment, carpet included. And while doing so is not overly complicated or burdensome, carpet maintenance may require a little professional guidance.

• ED visits rise, along with their costs for everyone

  Friday, April 12, 2019

  Emergency department visits increased by nearly 10 million patients in 2016 compared to 2015 data, according to a recent report the from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The total of 145.6 million visits is the highest number reported. Even with the total number of visits increasing, patients who used the ED for regular care decreased. Per the report, the percentage of emergency patients with nonurgent medical symptoms dropped from 5.5% to 4.3%.

• First-of-its-kind report lays foundation for world food sustainability

  Thursday, April 11, 2019

  ​The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet and Health released its scientific review in early 2019, publishing the world's first scientific targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production. It provides "targets that join civil society, public health and environmental conservation’s various goals toward health and sustainability." The purpose of the report is to provide a framework for the "urgent actions" needed from consumers, policymakers, businesses and government agencies to transform the food system. Leading scientists in nutrition and public health laid out global guidelines for a universal, healthy diet.

• Telehealth use up dramatically nationwide

  Monday, April 08, 2019

  Telehealth use rose by more than 50% from 2016 to 2017, according to a new white paper by Fair Health. For the annually released paper, data was collected from the company's records of 28 billion commercial insurance claims, which showed that telehealth utilization grew nearly twice as fast in urban areas vs. rural over that span. Nationally, urgent-care centers increased their use of telehealth by at least 14%, followed by retail clinics at 7% and ambulatory surgery centers at 6%. Emergency department utilization of telehealth declined, though, by 2%. However, utilization in this setting was still the most used.

• Facilities managers and spring cleaning: The time is now

  Thursday, March 28, 2019

  There's something about the spring that motivates us to clean. The end of the internal hibernation of winter is no different for facilities managers. As the days get longer and warmer, there's no better time than now to evaluate the building you manage to ensure it survived the brutality of winter and is ready for the coming dog days of summer. For those professionals who have been in the facility management game for a bit, the following information likely is routine. For newcomers, there's no better time than the changing of the season than to make spring cleaning and maintenance routine.

• Healthcare groups: Payers are lagging with prior authorization reform

  Friday, March 22, 2019

  Prior authorization requirements over the past half-decade have increased and an overwhelming number of physicians say that the practice of seeking them interferes with continuity of care. In fact, more than 85 percent of the physicians asked said the practice impacts them, according to a new survey from the American Medical Association. The survey connected with 1,000 physicians, which found that more than "two-thirds said it's difficult for them to determine whether a prescription or service needs prior authorization."

• America may need to rethink how it handles recycling

  Thursday, March 21, 2019

  Years of educational programs and campaigns to drive awareness about recycling in the U.S. may be headed for the trash. As it turns out, the waste produced by consumption is overwhelming to the point that recycled materials no longer have a marketplace. According to The Atlantic, much of the recycled material is ending up in the trash. Where was the recycled trash going? China. Tons and tons of it were sent over on ships, with the materials remade into shoes and bags and new plastic products. But that’s changed.

• Study: Clinicians using workarounds when operating EHRs

  Wednesday, March 13, 2019

  The majority of U.S. hospitals have implemented electronic health records (EHRs). While the benefits of EHRs have been widely touted, little is known about their effects on inpatient care, including how well they meet workflow needs and support care. Despite the proliferation of the technology, there appears to be a high degree of variance in the ways care teams use EHRs during morning rounds. There are a high number of workarounds clinicians employ at critical points of care. Additionally, the EHRs are not used for information sharing and frequently impede intra-care team communication. These points are the results from a new study published by PLOS.org.

• EV sales reach record numbers, electricity providers move to meet demand

  Friday, March 08, 2019

  U.S.-based sales of electric vehicles increased more than 72 percent in 2018 from the previous year, with the class of autos moving more than 354,000 such vehicles. Tesla was the strongest performer. Sales of the manufacturer's three battery-powered models were reported Jan. 3, totaling more than 191,000 vehicles in 2018. In other encouraging news for the EV market, the Edison Electric Institute and the Institute for Electric Innovation said that the transition to electric vehicles is well underway. Electricity companies are working to move the EV infrastructure system forward to meet demand.

• Physician burnout may have peaked, but it remains a healthcare crisis

  Tuesday, March 05, 2019

  From reported record highs in 2014, physician burnout levels have fallen. Despite nearly 45 percent of physicians reporting burnout in 2017, those numbers were highest in 2014 when more than 54 percent of U.S. physicians reported they suffered from the malaise. This is according to a new study published in Mayo Clinical Proceedings and conducted jointly with the American Medical Association. Another recent report — from the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — says doctors struggle with the "unyielding demands of electronic health record systems and ever-growing regulatory burdens."

• New research shows rural hospitals remain in dire straits

  Thursday, February 28, 2019

  Since 2010, 95 rural hospitals have closed in 26 states as rural populations continue to crater compared to their urban counterparts. Rural hospitals are economic engines for the small communities they serve, and there are more than 60 million people who are cared for by these organizations. Thus, the loss of these hospitals is a crisis on two fronts: people are losing much-needed access to care and they are losing high-quality and high-paying jobs not likely found or replicated in the area. According to a new study, the economic effects of a lost hospital are immediate.

• Insects are dying en masse, endangering ecosystems

  Tuesday, February 26, 2019

  If you've noticed a few less bugs buzzing about, that’s something to be concerned about, scientists warn. The number of insects in the world appears to be on the decline. Alongside this reduction in the world's bugs, there has never been much real long-term awareness of the decline. But, warning signs have been around for years about plummeting insect populations worldwide, scientists say. The declining numbers are so much so now that the levels are seen as potentially "catastrophic" and have not been well-understood until now. In other words, this is a very big deal for all of us.

• During flu season, facility managers should make extensive preparations

  Monday, February 25, 2019

  For weeks now, the flu season has been upon us, with 41 influenza-associated pediatric deaths occurring during the 2018-19 season so far, as reported recently by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Despite these deaths, research seems to indicate that Americans are conscious of the flu's potential impact on their health and are taking preventive measures to combat it. As many as 75 percent of people say they are more vigilant about their hand hygiene in response to virus outbreaks. On this note, they wash their hands more frequently and even more thoroughly and longer, according to a national survey conducted by Bradley Corporation. However, despite the vigilance of employees, employers should prepare for the flu season, too.

• Study: Protecting the world’s inland waterways requires more participation

  Thursday, February 21, 2019

  Inland waterways are getting trashed. But there's good news in the days of darkening water, according to a new report that claims at least 15 percent of the world's inland surface water areas are covered by protected areas. The global target for such protected spaces is 17 percent as set out in Aichi Target 11 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). There's a big caveat, though. These protected spaces are not distributed evenly across the globe, a study from the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) says.

• HHS proposes rule to improve interoperability of electronic health information

  Wednesday, February 20, 2019

  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced its proposed new rules during the first day of the annual Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference to "support seamless and secure access, exchange and use of electronic health information." According to the release supporting the announcements, the rules, issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), are designed to increase "choice and competition" while "fostering innovation that promotes patient access to and control over their health information."

• HIMSS releases report forecasting healthcare trends for 2019

  Tuesday, February 19, 2019

  In late January, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) announced the availability of a new report, "2019 Healthcare Trends Forecast: The Beginning of a Consumer-Driven Reformation." The paper features commentary and analysis from leaders across HIMSS, Healthbox, Health 2.0 and PCHAlliance, each of whom have a bird's-eye view of industry trends and the levers of change. The report is organized around four key trends: digital health implications and applications, consumer impact, financial and demographic challenges, and issues of data governance and policy.

• CVS Health to give $100 million to take on the social determinants of health

  Friday, February 08, 2019

  Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, conditions in these various environments and settings have been referred to as "place." In addition to the more material attributes of "place," the patterns of social engagement and sense of security and well-being are also affected by where people live. Following on this impact, and CVS Health's $69 billion acquisition of Aetna, the company announced that it will give $100 million over the next five years to improve community health.

• Most states pushing for efficiency standards, net-zero buildings

  Monday, February 04, 2019

  U.S. states are investing more in their energy efficiency efforts to deliver increased power savings even as the federal government is freeing the reigns of some of its environmental rules, according to the 2018 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard. Per the report, the 12th annual version, dispatched by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), there are clear leaders nationally — Massachusetts and California — as well as most-improved states — like New Jersey. Some states lost ground from previous reports, and others are lagging behind, including North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming.

• Medicare payments come in short for practices that rely on them

  Thursday, January 31, 2019

  Medical practices that live and die on the gyrations of Medicare payments might find themselves near death’s door in 2019 if feedback is any sign of their viability and longevity. Medicare reimbursements simply may not be cutting it for as many as two-thirds of practices that receive the federal payments. Per responses, Medicare payment rates for 2019 will not cover the basic cost of their delivering care to patients, an MGMA Stat poll points out.

• Study: Oral-B Glide dental floss may contain harmful chemical

  Tuesday, January 29, 2019

  Potentially harmful chemicals often used for their water and grease resistance, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), may be harmful to our health and in common household items, including Oral-B Glide dental floss, according to a peer-reviewed study. The floss might lead to higher levels of toxic PFAS chemicals in people’s bodies. Perhaps somewhat shockingly, the researchers say they found higher levels of PFHxS (perfluorohexanesulfonic acid), a type of PFAS, in women who flossed with Oral-B Glide compared to those who didn't. The study was designed to explain how these chemicals enter the human body.

• Study: Mobile health apps used by millions but effectiveness is lacking

  Wednesday, January 23, 2019

  There's an app for seemingly everything to help us live better healthier lives, but it seems the outcomes of these apps show little evidence of positive prognoses. Perhaps the best way to describe these digital health tools is that they have a big hat but no cattle. According to a study published by Health Affairs, even though the developers of the technologies study their effectiveness, these studies "rarely used randomized controlled trials, depended on small study populations and generally focused on healthier individuals."

• Facility management staffing levels appear to be rising

  Tuesday, January 22, 2019

  According to a new study released by FacilitiesNet, more facility managers have reported increases in capital and operating expense budgets in the last year, and there have been more increases in staffing than reported decreases. The data was gathered by Building Operating Management. The information came from facility managers representing a number of different building types, including corporate offices; colleges and universities; government, with breakdowns for federal, municipal, and state buildings; hospitality; K-12 schools; leased space; and healthcare facilities.

• Why the drop in the monarch butterfly population is important for humans

  Thursday, January 17, 2019

  The Western monarch butterfly population in California declined 86 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit group that conducts an annual survey of the species in the Western United States. Even more stark for the species is that it has dropped a shocking 97 percent since the 1980s, the agency reports. The decline is "potentially catastrophic" told biologist Emma Pelton, who oversees the Xerces Society survey, to The New York Times.

• Women in healthcare underrepresented in leadership roles, earn less than men

  Wednesday, January 16, 2019

  A new report by Oliver Wyman says that women may take three to five years longer than men to reach CEO-level positions across different types of industries despite their making up to 80 percent of buying and usage decisions in healthcare. For healthcare specifically, women are absent from the C-suite, making up only about 30 percent of senior leadership and just 13 percent of CEOs. These meager numbers don’t match the number of women in the workforce, however, who represent as much as 65 percent of it.

• Healthcare hiring outpaces almost every other sector in 2018

  Wednesday, January 09, 2019

  The job market ended last year on a high note with more than 312,000 reported jobs added for the final month of the year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported earlier this month, even while the overall unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent. The healthcare sector had a very strong year, having experienced the creation of more than 346,000 new jobs. Annually, that’s up from 284,000 jobs in 2017, a 22 percent rise year-over-year. Ambulatory centers added 219,000 jobs while hospitals added 107,000 jobs.

• For many hospitals, the fax machine is still the dominant information sharing tech

  Monday, January 07, 2019

  The fax machine has not gone anywhere in medicine. This so-called "ancient relic" is still operational and is considered a simple, yet powerful tool for those in healthcare, despite the other more modern modalities of exchanging information. According to newly released federal data, almost three-quarters of nonfederal acute care hospitals routinely use faxes to receive summary of care records from providers outside their system, according to the data released by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT.

• Alphabet subsidiary Makani is developing a wind-generating kite

  Friday, January 04, 2019

  "Go fly a kite" may soon have real-world positive outcomes rather than the derogatory statement it has been for years. If Google parent company Alphabet has its way, kites might be the future of the sustainable energy effort as one of its subsidiaries, Makani, is developing a concept known as an "energy kite." The kite looks more like a biplane with dual wings and a number of turbines that resemble propellers. The current version of the kite could generate up to 600 kilowatts of energy, which could power 300 homes.

• How the ‘pest of the year’ affects facility managers

  Thursday, January 03, 2019

  The Terminix International Company, one of the largest pest control companies in the world, operating in 47 U.S. states and 22 countries around the world, recently published the results of its second annual study/report that takes a "look back at the pest trends of the last year." For the two years of the report’s existence, the company has said bed bugs are the “Pest of the Year.” The rationality for the decision is based on a truly 21st century metric — online search results.

• Study: Caregivers aren’t putting patient-reported symptoms into EHRs

  Wednesday, January 02, 2019

  When it comes to getting more good news into the electronic health record case file, the following story is not among them if the source and the research are to be believed. The following might also fall at the feet of providers, who may be at the heart of this hairy tale. Per the findings of a recent study published in the December issue of the peer-reviewed journal Quality of Life Research, primary care physicians "do not routinely put patient-reported symptoms regarding sleep, pain, anxiety, depression and low energy or fatigue into electronic health record systems."

• Global CO2 emissions on the rise again after brief drop

  Wednesday, December 19, 2018

  Global fossil fuel emissions appear to be rising again, for a second year in a row, because of growing energy use. These are the findings of new estimates from the Global Carbon Project, an initiative led by Stanford University scientist Rob Jackson. The Global Carbon Project's report, "Global Energy Growth Is Outpacing De-carbonization," appeared Dec. 5 in the peer-reviewed Environmental Research Letters, with additional data published in Earth System Science Data.

• VA, T-Mobile partner as government expands its telehealth efforts

  Tuesday, December 18, 2018

  Mobile phone service provider T-Mobile has announced plans to provide 70,000 lines of wireless service to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in an effort to ensure that every VA location has a connection for telehealth services to veterans. According to a release issued by the company, military veterans drive "an average of 25 to 50 miles for healthcare visits today." Through its partnership, the VA healthcare system is attempting to create better, more efficient connections between patients and their provider.

• CMS: US healthcare spending slows in nearly every corner of the market

  Thursday, December 13, 2018

  Healthcare spending slowed in 2017 for the second consecutive year in the United States, with a limited growth rate of 3.9 percent — almost one percentage point lower than in 2016 — according to new statistics released by the federal government this month. Healthcare’s share of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) is 17.9 percent with total spending emerging at $3.5 trillion — the equivalent of $10,739 per person — but growing slower than the overall GDP. Why the slowing growth?

• Study: Well-being and technology are driving workplace productivity

  Tuesday, December 11, 2018

  Employee well-being is dependent on several factors, it seems, including workplace productivity, job satisfaction and employee retention. These factors are tied to employee physical health and financial well-being, according to a new survey, entitled "Working Well: A Global Survey of Workforce Wellbeing Strategies." According to the survey, 40 percent of the organizational leaders interviewed said they believe they have created a culture of well-being in 2018 compared to only 33 percent in 2016. Of those who have not achieved such a result, 81 percent said they "aspire to achieve a culture of wellbeing."

• US groundwater sparser than previously thought, technology may help

  Thursday, December 06, 2018

  Many rural areas in the U.S. may be in danger of a groundwater shortage. Additionally, digging deeper for water in the form of new, deeper wells may not be a good long-term solution to compensate for increasing demands on groundwater because there is potential for contamination of deep freshwater and brackish water in areas where the oil and gas industry injects wastewaters into or in close proximity to aquifers. A new study may shed some light on use of underground freshwater and brackish water in some of the most prominent sedimentary basins across the U.S.

• Study identifies top areas of concern for healthcare IT executives

  Wednesday, December 05, 2018

  The Center for Connected Medicine partnered with the Health Management Academy for a survey featuring responses from executives of leading health systems on their health information technology priorities. It explores five advanced health information technologies set to impact healthcare, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, consumer-facing technology, predictive analytics and virtual care. The research examines implementation, impacts and challenges in each of these areas and explores anomalies.

• Startup introduces blockchain-based property transaction platform

  Wednesday, November 28, 2018

  A Philadelphia-based startup, Kognition, has launched what it has dubbed as the "world’s first open network and open economy for smart property" to create a real-time stream of opportunities to generate revenue, reduce risk, optimize performance and drive ROI. The blockchain-based effort is called Koin. Koin is designed to facilitate a "synergistic" relationship between smart property owners, traders, builders and vendors to optimize value for each party.

• Primary care physician visits drop among patients with employer plans

  Tuesday, November 27, 2018

  People with an employer-sponsored health plan tend to visit their primary care physician (PCPs) less than those people without, but those with work-sponsored insurance are more commonly seeing nurse practitioners and physician assistants than earlier this decade, according to a new Health Care Cost Institute report. Per the report, researchers said they found an 18 percent decrease in PCP office visits between 2012 and 2016; however, there was a correlating 14 percent increase in office visits for all providers. All of this new data suggests that non-PCPs are seeing more patients than their PCP counterparts for their care.

• Errors by scientists bring some doubt to results of recent ocean warming study

  Wednesday, November 21, 2018

  Scientists say they made some miscalculations in a report that claimed oceans have been absorbing more heat than experts originally thought. In a note added to the report, authors said while there are errors, it doesn't "invalidate the study's methodology or the new insights into ocean biogeochemistry on which it is based." According to the original report published by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, for each of the past 25 years, oceans have absorbed an amount of heat energy that is 150 times the energy humans produce as electricity.

• Better broadband needed for telehealth access in rural areas

  Monday, November 19, 2018

  Rural Americans are going online for a variety of health-related services, but better availability of broadband internet is necessary to meet future telehealth demand, a new U.S. Department of Agriculture report suggests. Telehealth is rising in popularity for rural areas because of doctor shortages, hospital closings and lack of reliable transportation options. "It allows people to be more engaged in their own health while facilitating care of minor ailments and monitoring of chronic conditions," researchers said.

• Study: Push for smart-building transitions seems obvious based on the benefits

  Wednesday, November 14, 2018

  A recent study seems to suggest that converting to smart building technology allows organizations to cut energy costs, meet air quality regulations and provide the best environments for occupants, visitors and staff. So says Siemens Financial Services, which estimates that the potential for "self-financing" smart-building conversion may cross 13 countries in three sectors: commercial buildings; government buildings; and hospitals. In other words, there’s plenty of potential for innovation.

• Study: Poor hospital work environments put patients at risk

  Tuesday, November 13, 2018

  Patients are at risk because of poor hospital work environments, which need to be improved. So says a new Health Affairs study. We’ll let that sink in. Hospital work environments are a danger to patients. Researchers said they analyzed nurse and patient appraisals at 535 hospitals in four states between 2005 and 2016 — a fairly exhaustive study — to determine whether the work environment had improved and the extent to which those changes affected patient safety.

• Pilot study: Microplastics found in human stool samples, tap water

  Wednesday, November 07, 2018

  The war against microplastics continues to wage. Researchers now say they are finding the small, invisible plastic particles in human waste. Microplastics were found in stool samples of every participant from a small pilot study. According to researchers from the Environment Agency Austria and the Medical University of Vienna, the microstudy followed eight healthy volunteers from several different countries.

• Healthcare mergers, transactions down by volume, but still very active

  Tuesday, November 06, 2018

  Even if the stock market seems to be tipping into bear territory, healthcare investors may still be in the full gallop of a bull economy. According to new reporting by PwC, the third quarter of 2018 continued the streak of at least 200 deals each quarter since the end of 2015. Pleasantly, or surprisingly, there have been at least 250 quarterly deals since Q3 of 2017. Despite the glowing report, it’s not all roses in healthcare for investors. The quarter saw the fewest number of deals in a quarter since Q1 2017 and there were declines in value compared to both the previous year and quarter.

• Facility managers struggle to see ROI of building management technology

  Tuesday, October 30, 2018

  More than 100 energy and facilities executives were interviewed recently to gauge how their firms are using technology and the challenges they face in realizing value. The research showed some in-depth insights from multiple industry sectors, but the responses came primarily from large enterprises with more than $500 million in annual revenue. The focus was on the direction of their facilities management strategies, what technologies they are deploying to optimize energy and facilities processes, and the top barriers to realizing expected value from these deployments.

• Health systems expect EHR vendors to assist with opioid management

  Monday, October 29, 2018

  Electronic health records have promised health systems a lot of things — efficiency, data collation and improved revenue cycles — and even still the majority of health systems say they expect their EHR vendors to assist them in addressing the ever-deadly opioid crisis. This is according to a new KLAS report. While the firm interviewed just a scant 117 clinical and managerial executives from healthcare organizations of various sizes, the point of the researchers’ conversations was to determine how providers track opioid use among patients and implement safer prescribing practices to avoid deadly overdoses and other issues.

• Insects are dying out. That’s a very bad thing

  Wednesday, October 24, 2018

  Insects, like them or not, are in trouble around the world. This is the word from a few small, long-term studies that are showing significant declines in invertebrate populations. Why is this significant? For several reasons, but specifically, the loss of insects and arthropods could hamper rainforests' food webs, causing plant species to go extinct without pollinators. The latest report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that the problem extends to the Americas.

• New nursing survey shows trends in employment, compensation

  Tuesday, October 23, 2018

  Medscape recently released the results of its RN/LPN Compensation Report for 2018, featuring the feedback of 10,282 nurses who reflected upon their salaries and pay from 2017. Based on the findings, the hospital continues to be the primary employer for RNs (52 percent), with 39 percent in inpatient settings and 13 percent in hospital-based outpatient settings. Earnings continue to be attractive for those in the field. Full-time registered nurses (RNs) earned $81,000, while licensed practical nurses (LPNs) earned about half that at $46,000.

• Digital health tech has a bright future, but is slow to burn

  Friday, October 19, 2018

  Digital health solution technologies are the thing of dreams for physicians and patients, who expect digital technologies will "reshape healthcare" in the future, but we’re not yet to the point where intent and adoption can meet, according to the preliminary results from a new Ernst & Young (EY) global survey. EY surveyed 6,000 consumers and 500 physicians in Australia, England and the Netherlands to gauge their support for and use of digital health tools. The technology is being billed as capable of improving outcomes and even enhancing communication between physicians and their patients.

• Simple changes we can expect to see in workplace environments

  Thursday, October 18, 2018

  The death of the cubicle may have been long-predicted, but it seems its demise is getting closer. The workspace continues to change, and rather than cubing employees, efforts are being made to make work environments more open, livelier and more technologically savvy. Traditional workspaces, if not dying, are evolving dramatically, driven by the wants and desires of younger employees — millennials and Generation Z — who are dramatically influencing office design. What else are we going to see in the near term in regard to office design?

• Death rates rise, environmental challenges grow at large US pig farms

  Friday, October 12, 2018

  Death rates for female pigs (sows) in the U.S. are rising fast and alerts are up throughout the farming industry. The mortality rate rose from 5.8 percent to 10.2 percent on farms owning more than 125 sows between 2013 and 2016, according to The Guardian. The numbers have been linked to a rise in prolapse, which can be fatal. In response, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians has created a sow prolapse working group to investigate.

• Study: Medicare outpatients sicker, have lower incomes than patients treated by physicians’ offices

  Wednesday, October 10, 2018

  Medicare patients who receive care in a hospital outpatient department are likely poorer and have more severe, chronic conditions than Medicare patients treated in independent physician offices, a study by the American Hospital Association (AHA) found. The findings of this study seem to show why proposals under consideration by Congress to reimburse hospitals the same amount as physicians’ offices "could threaten access to care for the most vulnerable patients and communities," the AHA said in a statement.

• Study: Activity-based workplace design on the rise

  Monday, October 08, 2018

  A recent survey of more 100 corporate real estate and facilities executives found that 70 percent of respondents said that they expect to incorporate "activity-based workplace design" into their businesses, and most of those interviewed also said they anticipate a reduction in square footage per employee. These are among some of the findings pointed out in a recent report by CBRE, "Managing Global Corporate Real Estate and Facilities."

• Survey: Many physicians unhappy with their hospital employer

  Friday, September 28, 2018

  A new survey with a whopping 9,000 physicians tells us that more than 30 percent (32 percent) of those surveyed said they do not see Medicaid patients, or limit the number they do see. Almost 90 percent (88 percent) of physicians said some, many or all of their patients are impacted by social determinants of health. The survey was conducted by the Physicians Foundation and also showed that 78 percent of those physicians experience burnout — which is becoming a highly covered topic of late — and 46 percent said relations between themselves and hospitals are "somewhat" or "mostly negative."

• Mosquitoes are eating people and plastic, bringing materials up the food chain

  Wednesday, September 26, 2018

  As humans, we often think of mosquitos as blood-sucking parasites that do nothing but buffet lunch on us, cause us pain and irritant to our skins, and leave us itching and sometimes bloody when we squash them between our hands. But, the little flying blood buzzards are more than that, including plastic-ingesting insects that are polluting their own bodies while they gnaw on the man-made material and bring it up the food chain. Authors of a paper — published in The Royal Society journal Biology Letters — found that when a mosquito larva eats microplastic, that plastic can remain in the insect's body into adulthood. So, the microplastic can then be transferred to whatever might eat that mosquito, including birds.

• Per-employee healthcare costs to rise in 2019, but not as much as this year

  Friday, September 21, 2018

  As expected, employee health plan costs are likely to rise again, even if only marginally, by an estimated 4.1 percent in 2019, according to new research by the Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans. The rise is actually slightly less than that of 2018, which has grown by as much as 4.2 percent. Mercer says the rise this year has fallen significantly from highs of 6.5 percent in years' past. While past years' increases have been substantial, the rises in premiums also were accompanied by common employer cost-control tactics.

• US’ largest nonprofit integrated healthcare system to be carbon neutral by 2020

  Wednesday, September 19, 2018

  Kaiser Permanente, the largest U.S. nonprofit integrated healthcare system, is putting plans in place to be carbon neutral by 2020 as part of a larger environmental initiative. The healthcare company is walking the walk in regard to its mission to provide the best care outcomes, as recent reports suggest that the healthcare industry accounted significantly to carbon dioxide generation that could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths if not otherwise addressed.

• Changes ahead for facility managers as more is demanded of the workplace

  Tuesday, September 18, 2018

  In the near future, major changes are coming to what workers will demand of their organizations and how they are able to interact with their work environments. These changes are being fueled by demographics, use of technology and social changes, which are shifting people's expectations of the workplace, a new report issued by real estate adviser CBRE says. The report, which identifies the major trends in facility management, says that people want to "choose where and when" they work.

• Medicare ACOs saved $1.1 billion last year, adding to good news

  Monday, September 10, 2018

  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is offering new data that shows the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) saved $314 million for Medicare after bonuses paid to accountable care organizations (ACOs) in 2017. ACOs saved $1.1 billion total and CMS shared $780 million in savings with providers. There were 472 MSSP ACOs in 2017, and 60 percent saved money while 34 percent earned shared savings. The results come just after CMS said its Next Generation ACO saved Medicare about $62 million and maintained quality of care for 2016.

• California marches toward 100 percent renewable energy by 2045

  Thursday, September 06, 2018

  California is racing toward a 100 percent renewable energy mandate with passage of SB 100 by the state’s Assembly, which will require — if ratified into law — the state to receive 50 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2026; 60 percent by 2030, and 100 percent by 2045. Eligible renewables specified in the state's Renewables Portfolio Standard include solar, wind, geothermal and some hydroelectric generation. The current law requires the state to get 50 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030.

• The importance of door maintenance: Tips and notes

  Thursday, August 30, 2018

  In and out, all day long, nearly every day of the year. Doors. You may take the barriers that keep the outside out and the inside in for granted. But your facility’s doors are nothing to overlook. Kind of like the roof above, they keep your buildings protected, safe and secure, and the unsavory elements — both weather and humans — out. Proper maintenance is a must, but in many cases these most mobile pieces of your building probably only get attention if something isn't right.

• Hospital execs prepare to raise salaries to fight staff shortages

  Wednesday, August 29, 2018

  Hospitals and health systems are continuing to experience shortages of physicians, nurses and even mental health providers, which may be a challenge in regard to reducing labor costs, per Navigant analysis conducted by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). Because of potential shortages of these positions, hospitals are projecting higher labor budgets for the coming year, and these same hospital leaders anticipate needing to offer increased compensation to fill these roles.

• Study: Human waste could be resource-rich fertilizer for global agriculture

  Monday, August 27, 2018

  Well, if this isn’t a load of … then nothing is. But, that’s what we’re talking about: human waste. While the subject is often taboo, human waste actually is full of nutrients that can be recycled into products to promote agricultural sustainability and better economic independence for some developing countries. Used properly, our own waste may be nothing more than the animal manure that makes the foods we grow so abundant, and our gardens so strong and attractive.

• Electronic transactions may save Medicaid $4.8 billion annually

  Thursday, August 23, 2018

  A new Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH CORE) report states that Medicaid could save more than $4.8 billion annually if they moved to fully electronic transactions. The California-based nonprofit also said more than half of Medicaid enrollees are in plans without electronic prior authorization. Only 44 percent of Medicaid recipients are in plans with automated claims processes. State agencies and health plans covering these enrollees have achieved some level of CORE Certification compared to 78 percent for commercial health plans and 75 percent for Medicare Advantage plans.

• Even with insurance, many female consumers shocked by the costs of their medical bills

  Wednesday, August 22, 2018

  Women are feeling significantly worse than men about several key healthcare issues, according to a new Bankrate.com report. For example, in a new study issued by the website, 25 percent of women said they or a family member living in their household avoided going to the doctor over the past year — even though they needed medical attention — because they thought it would be too expensive. Only 18 percent of men said the same. Additionally, between the two sexes, 47 percent of women who paid a medical bill in the past year said "it was more expensive than they expected." Thirty-five percent of men echoed that sentiment.

• Researchers: Food systems must be overhauled, but obstacles are many

  Monday, August 20, 2018

  Agriculture and food policies must be more than just the supply of food, and decision-makers in the industry must "make a paradigm shift to align policies about climate, agriculture and food with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." So says a group of international researchers who have penned a new review article in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development, the official journal of the French Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA).

• The benefits of a white roof

  Friday, August 17, 2018

  Is your organization too cool for a cool white roof? Probably not, but there’s a pretty good chance such an office amenity is one of the furthest things from your mind. It’s never too late for a look at the top of your organization’s home base to do the world a little good, though. If management is looking for innovations to bring more sustainability to the organization, a little white paint may go a long way.

• Americans aren’t worried about health data security, despite breaches

  Wednesday, August 15, 2018

  Americans are far less concerned about the security of their health data than breaches of financial information, a recent SCOUT Rare Insights survey shows. Accordingly, only about half (49 percent) of adults said they are "extremely" or "very concerned" about security of lab results, diagnoses and other health information, compared with 69 percent who had that level of concern about the safety of their financial data. All of these precious jewels come to light as hackers and cyber thieves continue to make a push for health data and push upon organizations' data security concerns.

• Everything-as-a-service subscriptions are everywhere

  Tuesday, August 14, 2018

  It seems everything is available "as-a-service" in our current age. We can subscribe to lighting, software, cars, offices and much more. As-a-service subscriptions are on the rise primarily because technology is now capable of supporting a variety services, solutions and the ability to perform tasks from a range of locales with few barriers, and because individuals and businesses want what they want when they want it. Additionally, such services are agile and require little more than a monthly fee and little commitment on the user’s behalf.

• Ride-sharing programs may reduce patient no-show appointments

  Friday, August 10, 2018

  Lyft and tech company Hitch Health recently released the findings of a yearlong, nonemergency medical transportation pilot that took place in Minneapolis at the Hennepin Healthcare internal medicine clinic. The result of the pilot seems to show a great deal of promise, as the outcomes of the survey showed that "targeted patients who have missed appointments in the past" reduced no-shows by 27 percent. Missed appointments cost the healthcare industry an estimated $150 billion a year.

• Study: Doctors interrupt their patients after just 11 seconds

  Tuesday, August 07, 2018

  ​"Nah, nah, nah (fingers in ears, shaking their head) … I can’t hear you!" It seems like a scene from the movie "Office Space" or some ‘80s flick in which the teacher tunes out the more verbose taped-glasses student. This is a fanciful and, perhaps, overly simplified version of the truth, but a new study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine finds that doctors only spend 11 seconds on average listening to patients before interrupting them.

• Lead contamination in schools’ drinking water worse than previously thought

  Monday, August 06, 2018

  Lead contamination in U.S. schools is more pervasive than previously thought, new water testing results from 20 states say. The data was published in an interactive map by Environment America and U.S. PIRG in June. The map shows several other states where more than half of schools tested found some level of lead. These confirmed cases of contamination are likely only the tip of the iceberg, Environment America said in a statement.

• Organizations work to bolster cybersecurity, but employees’ devices are part of the problem

  Thursday, August 02, 2018

  Per a new study from Infoblox Inc., there appears to be a significant threat posed by shadow devices on enterprise networks. The report, titled "What Is Lurking On Your Network: Exposing the Threat of Shadow Devices," showed that enterprise networks across the U.S., U.K. and Germany have thousands of shadow personal devices, including laptops, Kindles, mobile phones and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as digital assistants and smart kitchen appliances, all connecting to their network.

• Answers to pressing roof maintenance questions

  Wednesday, July 25, 2018

  For those in the position of building management and maintenance, they’ve got twice the responsibility in one area of their lives that most of us do not: they’ve got to keep two roofs over their heads. In the industrial or commercial setting, the roof — one of the most important aspects of commercial building management — can often get overlooked. In most commercial settings, the roof is one of the biggest investments made on a building and, likewise, it must be maintained beyond most other aspects.

• Study: Stormwater ponds not a significant source of greenhouse gases

  Friday, July 13, 2018

  Stormwater ponds are ubiquitous throughout the world, found around the properties of office buildings, airports, apartment complexes and other facilities. They collect runoff water from roads, roofs, lawns and parking lots and are designed to filter out pollutants before the water is released into local streams or rivers. Given their prolific pock marking of countless urban landscapes, scientists are now suggesting that they are not a significant source of climate-warming nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, a new Duke University-led study finds.

• Hospital hiring makes big jump, but overall healthcare numbers still lower than May

  Thursday, July 12, 2018

  Healthcare saw another increase in the number of jobs added in June, and hospitals in particular experienced a plethora of new blood joining their ranks, up 71 percent from the previous month. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' newest jobs report, healthcare has added 309,000 jobs in the last 12 months. Hospitals hired 10,600 new professionals last month. Overall, the U.S. healthcare sector added 25,200 jobs in June, which was actually lower than the 28,900 jobs it added in May.

• Protection tips as the heart of mosquito season arrives

  Friday, July 06, 2018

  If part of your job is to manage pests like mosquitoes, Orkin offers some advice for doing so. Per its annual report on the top 50 mosquito cities in the U.S., the pest control company says to eliminate mosquito-friendly conditions on the exteriors of residences and buildings, in landscaped areas and around campuses. Any object that has the potential to hold water should be removed or cleaned out frequently, as mosquitoes can breed in just an inch of standing water.

• Feds to dish out more money to fight opioid abuse

  Thursday, July 05, 2018

  Federal health officials are preparing to allocate nearly $1 billion to support states in their efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) said it is accepting applications from states and territories to secure a portion of an allotted $930 million in state opioid response grants for opioid prevention and treatment initiatives. SAMHSA will award up to 59 grants. States and the District of Columbia can receive a minimum of $4 million.

• New report: Some Medicare money won’t last past next decade

  Friday, June 29, 2018

  Medicare spending was 15 percent of total federal spending in 2017, and is projected to rise to 18 percent by 2028. Based on the latest projections, the Medicare Hospital Insurance (Part A) trust fund is projected to be depleted in 2026, three years earlier than the 2017 projection, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) points out in its new report, "The Facts on Medicare Spending and Financing."

• Study: Nanomaterials may create algae outbreaks, kill off waterways

  Thursday, June 28, 2018

  We’ve been here before. Nanoparticles getting into the environment and fouling things up. This time, though, we’re not talking about plastic, but something potentially more dangerous: chemicals. According to a new study by Duke University, during the last decade, there has been a surge in the use of tiny substances — nanomaterials — in agrochemicals like pesticides and fungicides. However, when combined with nutrient runoff from fertilized cropland and manure-filled pastures, these nanopesticides could also mean more "toxic algae outbreaks for nearby streams, lakes and wetlands."

• New report shows reimbursement increases for brand-name drugs in Medicare Part D

  Friday, June 22, 2018

  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released a much-publicized report that shows that from 2011 to 2015, total reimbursement for brand-name drugs in Medicare Part D increased 77 percent even though there was an actually decrease in utilization for these drugs. Per the report, overall, Part D paid $382 billion for all brand-name drugs for the period mentioned. The total number of prescriptions for brand-name drugs decreased 17 percent, from 229 million in 2011 to 191 million in 2015.

• What is lighting-as-a-service, and why does it matter?

  Thursday, June 21, 2018

  Lighting-as-a-service (LaaS) is a service delivery model that allows lighting services to be charged on a subscription basis rather than via a one-time payment or the traditional manner of a facility or organization manually keeping up with equipment and paying the monthly bill. The business model has become more common in commercial installations of LED lights, with the primary aim of reducing installation costs.

• More big brands join the war on plastic

  Tuesday, June 19, 2018

  The effort against single-use plastic straws has officially become more than a skirmish and is now an all-out war, as several more major brands have decided to do away with them in their businesses. SeaWorld Entertainment, in an effort to protect the environment, has removed all single-use straws and plastic bags from the company’s 12 theme parks. The Orlando-based company made the announcement June 8. SeaWorld, while leading in this effort, is not alone.

• Research shows that physicians could be better served by EHRs

  Friday, June 15, 2018

  Sixty-three percent of physicians say electronic health records (EHRs) have led to improved patient care, and 66 percent are at least somewhat satisfied with their current systems. However, a large portion see room for improvement, translating to 59 percent who think EHRs need a complete overhaul; 40 percent who think there are more challenges with EHRs than benefits; and only 18 percent saying they are "very satisfied" with their current systems, a new report by Stanford Medicine points out.

• HHS delays 340B program rule — again

  Wednesday, June 13, 2018

  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has pushed back a decision on the 340B Drug Pricing Program to July 2, 2019. If the proposed rule goes through, it would impose civil monetary penalties for drug manufacturers that knowingly and intentionally overcharge hospitals for outpatient drugs. According to the HHS' Health Resources & Services Administration, the 340B program enables covered entities to stretch scarce federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services.

• Preparing your business for hurricane season

  Monday, June 11, 2018

  Perhaps the following bit of guidance only applies to approximately one-third of the United States, but with another storm season upon us, one can never be too prepared. The 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season began on June 1, and with deadly subtropical storm Alberto having moved through the Gulf Coast and the Midwest already, and an extremely deadly storm season only a year behind us, preparation now could save lives and facilities.

• Nanoplastics consumed by marine life may be harmful to aquatic food chain

  Tuesday, June 05, 2018

  According to a new study by researchers from the National University of Singapore, plastic nanoparticles — extremely small plastic particles measuring less than 1 micrometer in size, the length of a typical bacterium — could pollute food chains and eventually affect human health. The research found that these particles are easily ingested by marine organisms, with a risk of being transferred up the food chain, threatening food safety and posing health risks. This news adds to the ever-growing problem of plastic pollution in the oceans.

• Physicians unhappy with EHRs may have unhappy patients, too

  Friday, June 01, 2018

  Physicians unhappy with an EHR system could pass that sentiment on to their patients — in the form of lower patient satisfaction scores, so says a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. That makes complete sense, of course. How many times have you expressed discontent about some object or form of technology only to see those same sentiments reflected in the attitudes of your spouse or partner, children or co-workers?

• Waterless and low-flow toilets save more water than money

  Thursday, May 31, 2018

  Waterless urinals and low-flow toilets are an increasingly pervasive investment being made by facilities managers and building owners throughout the world, mostly because they help save water. However, there are arguments about the amount of money they save. The waterless units really do operate without water, but when making the case for their investment, the best argument might be a green one — as in the environment and not cash — as a corporate responsibility effort.

• Senators seek greater funding for FCC’s rural telemedicine efforts

  Thursday, May 24, 2018

  The Washington machine is churning, and it wants more money from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the Rural Health Care Program. More than $400 million is earmarked for the effort now, but 31 U.S. senators want the FCC to increase that annual cap to bolster funding for rural communities to support telemedicine. Advocates of telemedicine are likely over the moon at the possibility of even more federal support for the effort.

• Cybersecurity survey shows businesses are still in trouble

  Tuesday, May 22, 2018

  A new IT survey shows that 81 percent of organizations said they experienced an increase in cybersecurity challenges in the past year, with respondents telling US Signal that of these, 40 percent of respondents experienced at least one security incident in that time period, while 13 percent did not know if they had. In the age of the security breach, such a high number should actually be closer to zero, but the "Health of the Nation" survey suggests that organizations are not only experiencing breaches, but they are doing so at an alarming rate.

• Renewable energy jobs are growing worldwide

  Thursday, May 17, 2018

  The renewable energy sector created more than 500,000 new jobs globally in 2017, with the total number of people employed in renewables surpassing 10 million for the first time. Per the International Renewable Energy Agency’s report, "Renewable Energy and Jobs," jobs in the sector increased 5.3 percent in 2017, for a total of 10.3 million people employed worldwide. China, Brazil, the United States, India, Germany and Japan have remained the world’s largest renewable energy employers, per the report, representing more than 70 percent of all of the sector’s jobs.

• Physicians want integrated EHR data for better patient care

  Wednesday, May 16, 2018

  The seemingly never-ending debate about the benefits of electronic health records and their use in practice is heating up again after a new report suggested that more than half of 300 recently interviewed U.S. physicians are "very or extremely satisfied" with their access to patient information. Per the Surescripts’ Physician Perspectives on Access to Patient Data report, physicians said they feel the best part of EHR use is accessibility.

• Study shows reducing water use cuts greenhouse gases

  Thursday, May 10, 2018

  A new study by the University of California, Davis suggests that the reduction in water consumption in California resulted in a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In 2015, California implemented water-saving regulations, requiring a 25 percent across-the-board cut in consumption. The result of that mandated reduction was a savings of 525 million gallons of water during that one-year period. Good news, but what’s the relation between a drought and a reduction in water use cutting greenhouse gases?

• Straws are at front lines of plastic reduction war

  Thursday, May 03, 2018

  The U.K. Parliament is taking steps to ban all sales of single-use plastics, including plastic straws and Q-tips, as early as next year. Prime Minister Theresa May announced the ban, noting that plastic waste is one of the greatest environmental challenges the country faces. The ban is part of a larger effort by the U.K. to eliminate avoidable plastic waste as part of a 25-year environmental plan, designed to help to clean up England's rivers, beaches and oceans from plastic, which is often ingested by marine life.

• More data breaches discovered as healthcare stays in the crosshairs

  Tuesday, May 01, 2018

  It seems as though this song and dance never gets old; the same tune just keeps playing and playing. The chorus, in healthcare, continues to say the same thing — hackers are after health information and the number of incidents is increasing. According to a ​new analysis by Symantec, almost 40 percent of the hacker group Orangeworm's victims are organizations operating in healthcare. Of those, 17 percent of victims are based in the U.S., which is fairly significant.

• Small practices less likely to fully utilize their EHRs

  Friday, April 27, 2018

  A recent Black Book Research report has shown that almost 90 percent of practices with six or fewer practitioners are not properly using advanced electronic health record (EHR) features like electronic messaging, clinical decision support, interoperability, data sharing and even patient engagement processes. The Black Book survey is no small sample set, either, with almost 19,000 EHR users surveyed for the report.

• IoT revolutionizing water management systems

  Wednesday, April 25, 2018

  The internet of things (IoT) is playing a substantial role for every entity, organization and individual, and the real benefits are still coming to light. While the term was introduced in 1999, the concept took hold in the middle of the current decade. Research firm Gartner estimated 6.4 billion internet-connected things were in use worldwide just two years ago — and expects three times that many in use by the start of the next decade.

• Enzyme that eats plastic could change the world

  Thursday, April 19, 2018

  ​Scientists have discovered a "naturally occurring enzyme" that can digest some of mankind's most common plastics known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the strong plastic typically used in bottles that takes hundreds of years to break down in the environment.

• If digital health investments are on a bubble, there is no evidence

  Wednesday, April 18, 2018

  Digital health funding for 2018 is on pace for a significant year, the oracle of such data, Rock Health, has pointed out. This comes after a stellar 2017, which the firm has named "the biggest year in venture funding."

• As EHR use expands, Mayo Clinic to reduce transcription staff

  Tuesday, April 17, 2018

  Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic is offering "voluntary separation packages" to at least 400 medical transcriptionists, according to the Post-Bulletin. Even though the health system is not using the terms "layoffs" or "job cuts," most medical transcriptionists "believe this is beginning of the end for their department."

• EPA resources for managing and reducing waste

  Monday, April 16, 2018

  ​The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers a guide to reducing waste for commercial building facility managers. For those in the profession, the guide might be old news, but for rookies and veterans alike it serves as a good educational tool for those who manage office buildings, schools, stores, hotels, restaurants and other commercial and institutional buildings.

• Great Pacific Garbage Patch now twice the size of Texas

  Wednesday, April 04, 2018

  ​The Great Pacific Garbage Patch that so many of us have heard about in recent years is much bigger than previously thought. In fact it's estimated to be more than twice the size of Texas and at least three times the size of France. The garbage patch is a "floating" island that surpasses more than 600,000 square miles, ​according to a study published in Scientific Reports.

• Poll: 4 of 5 Americans want lower drug costs

  Tuesday, April 03, 2018

  ​Americans appear to think the pharmaceutical industry has the most "muscle" when it comes to policymaking. So says the Kaiser Family Foundation, which notes that more than 70 percent of U.S. citizens think the drug industry has too much influence in the nation's capital with lawmakers.

• Hospitals struggling to fill job openings

  Thursday, March 29, 2018

  Regardless of location and size, hospitals across the U.S. face a serious talent shortage, management staffing firm Leaders for Today warns in its report, "The Candidates Don't Exist." The hospital industry has seen signs of a shortage of nurses, physicians and leadership for some time.

• Lighting as a service on the rise in facilities worldwide, for good reason

  Tuesday, March 27, 2018

  ​Lighting as a service (LaaS) solutions in commercial buildings might not be a new development, but the market is growing. Revenue forecasts are expected to rise exponentially throughout a good portion of the next decade as the landscape matures and competition heats up.

• Study: Largest cities need evaporated water to survive

  Thursday, March 22, 2018

  Colorado State University has published a new study that shows exactly how urban centers are able to substantiate some of the water for their populations. As it turns out, the water comes from the areas directly surrounding such cities — the very places that most of these population centers draw their people, the rural countryside.

• Managers beware: Your employees are probably tired and anxious

  Wednesday, March 21, 2018

  ​In a recent study ​published by Robert Half on the stresses of American workers, the primary outcome suggests that we are all very tired, and it's taking a toll on our performance on the job. Most of the literal lost sleep comes from work-related anxiety, according to a simple poll by global staffing firm Accountemps.

• EHRs not lowering costs for healthcare organizations

  Tuesday, March 20, 2018

  ​Electronic health records were advertised as efficiency machines, capable of reducing paperwork, improving the care efficiency and perhaps even improving outcomes. But, to a large degree, the technology has done no such thing.

• Will Cigna’s purchase of Express Scripts reduce drug costs?

  Monday, March 19, 2018

  ​For those following the big business carousel in healthcare, Cigna is certainly on their radar. In May of 2017, the behemoth insurer announced it was abandoning plans to merge with another behemoth, Anthem. But Cigna is bouncing back, announcing this month that it would purchase Express Scripts

• Practice Fusion’s changes show all good things must end

  Wednesday, March 07, 2018

  Can you hear that? It's the sound of thousands of medical practice administrators collectively sighing and thinking that all good things must come to an end. At the same time, a small group of executives are probably wondering whether they should have cashed in their chips sooner.

• Study: Education can change behaviors that lead to ocean pollution

  Monday, March 05, 2018

  Any beach in the world can tell you a devastating story, showing just how much of an effect humankind has had on the world and the environment. Strewn with plastic bottles, light bulbs, flip-flops, scraps of fishing net and timber, the scene is the same because of the nomadic trash.

• Tax overhaul likely to benefit for-profit hospitals — nonprofits, not so much

  Thursday, March 01, 2018

  The recent Republican tax overhaul has generated millions in bonuses for corporations all across the U.S, and is creating new jobs by these companies looking to reinvest on American soil. When it comes to the healthcare industry, for-profit hospitals are expected to reap major rewards, according to a new report by Moody's Investor Service.

• Where is LEED having the most impact in the US?

  Thursday, March 01, 2018

  The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently released its annual list of the Top 10 States for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the world's most widely used green building rating system. The list ranks states in terms of certified square feet per resident in the previous year, and it highlights the latest developments throughout the U.S. that are making significant strides in sustainable design, construction and transformation.

• AI on the rise in healthcare

  Thursday, February 22, 2018

  The global artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare market was valued at $714.4 million in 2016, but this train is cruising at a speed faster than nearly every other technology and is projected to grow at a rate of more than 35 percent through 2025.

• Researchers: ‘Immediate action’ needed to hit global temperature targets

  Thursday, February 22, 2018

  ​The Universities of Southampton and Liverpool, and the Australian National University in Canberra are offering new research that suggests that if "immediate action" is not taken, Earth's global average temperature could rise 1.5 degrees C above the period before the Industrial Revolution within the next 17 to 18 years, and 2 degrees C in 35 to 41 years if the carbon emission rate remains at its present-day value.

• Efficiency of buildings increase, with a focus on facility managers

  Wednesday, February 21, 2018

  In 2010, the U.S. building sector generated 45 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the country — that's right, nearly half of all carbon emissions came from the places Americans live, shop and work in every day. Much of this is because of the fact that residential and commercial buildings use 75 percent of all electricity produced in the U.S., for lighting, pumping, heating and cooling.

• Healthcare data breaches slowed in 2017

  Wednesday, February 14, 2018

  ​Healthcare data breaches continued to rise in 2017, but the number of affected patient records declined 80 percent, a new report suggests. According to the ​Protenus Breach Barometer, 2017 may have simply been an off year for malicious actors, who may be regrouping for more attacks in 2018.

• Plastic waste causing disease in ocean coral

  Wednesday, February 07, 2018

  Coral reefs are under attack — not by water, fish or underwater creatures, but by man and his inventions. According to a new report by Science Magazine, our plastic creations are causing some of the world's most important natural underwater life structures to become infected.

• Facilities managers earn higher salaries than national median

  Friday, February 02, 2018

  For those working in facilities management, the following salary news is nothing new, but it never hurts to better understand your place in the market and how you stack up to your colleagues. According to new data compiled by FacilitiesNet, the median salary for all titles within facilities management in the field is $85,000, according to survey respondents. Median salaries, raises and bonuses showed significant differences in different regions of the country, the site reported.

• Will Apple’s updated Health app catch on?

  Thursday, February 01, 2018

  In a tech world almost owned by Apple, the powerhouse firm recently announced what most have long suspected: It is staking a piece of its future on healthcare, and this move likely will have a ripple on patient health. Apple's newest Health app upgrade marks a major investment for the firm, and other vendors in the space are likely taking notice.

• Healthcare megadeals led the way in 2017 — and there’s more to come

  Tuesday, January 30, 2018

  Turns out the first year of the Donald Trump administration was an active year for U.S. health services deals, with deal volume decreasing slightly from 2016, but deal value increasing significantly. Even without 2017's largest transaction — CVS buying Aetna for $69 billion, which accounted for almost 44 percent of total deal value — the total would have been 40 percent greater than 2016 levels. Those are epic numbers.

• Report: Need for ambulances is expected to surge

  Wednesday, January 24, 2018

  The need for ambulances is not a topic often covered, but it might just be worth taking notice. Pardon the pun, but the future of this industry segment suggests that it's going to be a healthy one. The value of the global ambulance service market was estimated to be worth about $22.5 billion in 2016, but that number is expected to balloon at an annual growth rate of 9.1 percent over the next 10 years.

• EPA changes: Simply simplifying or causing potential for harm?

  Tuesday, January 23, 2018

  ​The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been undergoing an effort to streamline its safety review process for new chemicals, ​NBC News reported recently. But some former EPA officials and industry advocates are worried the changes will harm the public.

• Cleveland Clinic setting the bar for green facilities

  Wednesday, January 17, 2018

  ​For more than a decade, the famed Cleveland Clinic has undertaken a systemwide sustainability drive to make the health system green and reduce its carbon footprint. Health Facilities Management magazine points out that the effort includes energy- and water-reducing strategies, energy-efficient facility design, environmentally-friendly purchasing and an aggressive recycling effort.

• HHS: Draft framework is ‘significant step’ toward interoperability

  Wednesday, January 17, 2018

  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the draft Trusted Exchange Framework on Jan. 5. In a news release, HHS says the framework will be a "significant step toward achieving interoperability," which is a requirement of the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016.

• Connected and mobile devices putting a strain on the environment

  Wednesday, January 10, 2018

  The always-on, internet-of-everything age of productivity in which we live actually has a down side (other than our constantly being connected to a device). These electronics cause a lot of emissions to be produced and might eventually stress the planet's power grid.

• CMS grants Mississippi 10-year Medicaid waiver

  Friday, January 05, 2018

  ​Mississippi officials got exactly what they wanted for Christmas from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS): a 10-year extension of a Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration waiver. This means the state can continue providing family-planning services for people with income of up to 194 percent of the federal poverty level.

• How well are governments preparing for the AI revolution?

  Thursday, January 04, 2018

  ​Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving us forward in ways not yet even imagined, but some simple truths seem to be coming to light. First, AI is here to stay. Second, it will replace humans in some jobs and will likely impact the management of our facilities. Third, efforts for its development continue despite warnings that it could create a machine uprising.

• Telehealth gets a boost from McCain VA bill

  Monday, December 18, 2017

  A bill introduced by two Republican senators earlier this month designed to modernize the Department of Veterans Affairs includes a provision that would allow physicians to practice telehealth across state lines without restrictions.

• Seema Verma: ‘It’s good to move away from paper’

  Monday, December 11, 2017

  Electronic health records need a makeover, and the way they are used must change — so says Seema Verma, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

• Power plants are no longer the biggest polluter in the US

  Friday, December 08, 2017

  There's a new king of pollution in the U.S., and data suggests we might all be to blame. For the first time in 40 years, power plants have been usurped as the biggest source of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution. What's on top now? The transportation sector: cars, trucks, planes, trains and boats.

• MIT researchers convert emissions into fuel

  Tuesday, December 05, 2017

  Scientists may have discovered a means by which they can transform emissions back into fuel, essentially using waste discharge to power our transportation needs, possibly in the not-too-distant future. The findings of the research were ​published in the journal ChemSusChem.

• Should older doctors be required to use technology?

  Friday, December 01, 2017

  ​Dr. Anna Konopka, an 84-year-old doctor from rural New London, New Hampshire, is facing a heartbreaking situation in a changed world. Konopka voluntarily surrendered her medical license in October after the state medical board threatened to suspend it. The reason: She's a throwback to a bygone era.

• How will La Niña impact your facility this winter?

  Wednesday, November 29, 2017

  La Niña has arrived for the second straight winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). La Niña is a cooling pattern of the sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean, and it can have a big effect on North America.

• Survey: Healthcare jobs remain plentiful and pay well

  Monday, November 20, 2017

  According to a 2017-2018 salary guide by Health eCareers, responses collected from nearly 20,000 healthcare job seekers collected between March 16 through June 8 suggest a downslide in annual pay for health IT professionals, but salaries otherwise for those in healthcare are still high. And these findings bode well for those in the healthcare field.

• How a single offshore wind farm could power the globe

  Wednesday, November 15, 2017

  Civilization has come so far in the last 200 years — from the Industrial Revolution to the rise in mass transportation, space travel to global flights and instant exchange of information via the world wide web — but there are still advancements that are beyond our reach.

• AHA: Too many regulations in healthcare

  Thursday, November 09, 2017

  There are too many regulations hampering health systems in the U.S., according to the American Hospital Association (AHA). If nothing else, the hospital lobbying group is going to make enough noise so that every key player — up to and including President Donald Trump — hears the cries and takes action.

• Healthcare expected to create 4 million jobs in next decade

  Wednesday, November 01, 2017

  Healthcare has had a tremendous year for job growth. Last year was strong, too, and so was 2015. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were about 11.7 million healthcare jobs in the U.S. in May 2014. Within two years, that number had jumped to 12.4 million through May 2016.

• VA proposed rule would expand healthcare access through telehealth

  Monday, October 30, 2017

  President Donald Trump ​announced in August that new efforts were required to better use technology to improve healthcare for veterans and greatly expand their access to care, especially for mental healthcare and suicide prevention.

• ACOs taking on more risk, but hope it’s worth the reward

  Wednesday, October 25, 2017

  ​In the short time that accountable care organizations (ACOs) have formally been a part of the healthcare landscape, they have grown to cover more than 32 million patients across every state.

• UnitedHealthcare survey reveals limited health literacy

  Wednesday, October 18, 2017

  ​According to a new survey, a significant number of Americans comparison shop for healthcare services, but limited health literacy may keep them from understanding what they're shopping for. Wait, there's more: Apparently, these same folks don't have positive thoughts when it comes to technology and healthcare either.

• Health system interoperability shows meager advances

  Tuesday, October 17, 2017

  Given the tremendous amount of push toward interoperability in the healthcare setting — especially systems that are trying to communicate with others — there has been a lot of conversation about effort, but the results seem a bit harder to find.

• Why wearables still aren’t catching on

  Tuesday, October 10, 2017

  Is this news really any surprise? Wearables, the "healthcare" devices that might be past their prime in the consumer market — even if they are still relevant — are just not catching on. New research suggests that people with more life satisfaction also are more likely to stick with the use of their wearable devices and the wellness programs these devices seem to promote. The new study, published in NEJM Catalyst, also looked at why other people give up.

• Report: Telehealth cuts costs and boosts patient satisfaction

  Thursday, October 05, 2017

  When reciting facts and reporting the news, there's one thing that's for sure: Specificity is a great thing, and the more specific the better. So, we point to a new study today that leads us to a very specific point of fact.

• Medical groups worry new EHR rules could harm patients

  Wednesday, October 04, 2017

  ​The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT recently signaled that it is pulling back on electronic health record (EHR) certification attestation requirements to remove a great many of the burdens on users and developers in an effort to advance interoperability.

• Healthcare industry continues to shine in job creation

  Monday, September 25, 2017

  With all the drama surrounding the politics of ​repealing the Affordable Care Act, the good news for the healthcare economy is that it continues to add jobs. The sector creating another 20,000 in August on top of the 39,000 or so in July.

• Few hospitals meet patient expectations

  Wednesday, September 06, 2017

  ​Patients' healthcare expectations are on the rise, but hospitals and health systems don't seem to be keeping up, according to a new report from Kaufman Hall & Associates. According to data, using the Healthcare Consumerism Index, only 8 percent of respondents to a national survey are applying customer expectation practices successfully. In other words, health systems are not giving patients what they want.

• How doctors get paid is changing — but how do they feel about it?

  Wednesday, August 30, 2017

  ​For those in healthcare, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization ACT of 2015 (MACRA) is upon us, and the ideological payment shift in healthcare that has garnered "tremendous bipartisan support in both the House and Senate" is changing how caregivers get paid.

• Siemens medical imaging devices become cybersecurity scapegoats

  Thursday, August 24, 2017

  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that some of the Siemens medical imaging devices that run Windows 7 software are vulnerable to cyberattack. If hacked, these specific Siemens devices allow for the ability to "remotely execute arbitrary code," DHS says.

• Are healthcare’s social needs offerings improving lives?

  Thursday, August 17, 2017

  ​A new survey of 300 hospitals and health systems, conducted by Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, claims to show how factors outside the healthcare system affect patients' long-term well-being and what healthcare organizations can do to address these challenges.

• eClinicalWorks’ image takes a hit after $155 million DoJ settlement

  Friday, August 04, 2017

  ​It should come as no surprise to anyone following the health IT sector that electronic health records vendor eClinicalWorks is currently in the midst of its own Delta Airlines moment.

• Amazon Health might soon become a reality

  Wednesday, August 02, 2017

  In what has become healthcare's worst-kept secret, Amazon has started a secret lab to pursue healthcare opportunities with a focus on such efforts as electronic medical records and even telemedicine, according to a recent report by CNBC. Thus, in a world where Amazon seems to own everything, it now appears that the firm wants to try to take over one of the nation's largest economic drivers — healthcare.

• OIG set to begin in-depth meaningful use audits

  Tuesday, August 01, 2017

  ​Based on an announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, the organization plans to review its incentive payments made to hospitals for adopting electronic health records. This means HHS is going to scrutinize meaningful use payments paid to health systems to see if it paid any funds inappropriately.

• EHRs may not improve revenue or hospital operations

  Friday, July 28, 2017

  There are certainly benefits to using electronic health records, including the possibility of improving clinical outcomes. We don't need a study or survey to tell us this, though there is one. If we to dig into some data, we find the best return on investment of the technology is the use of EHR data (24 percent) and increasing operational efficiencies (10 percent), ​according to a recent study — I told you there was one — that gathered feedback from leading healthcare professionals.

• Value-based care driving the future of healthcare

  Monday, July 10, 2017

  ​The pricing of healthcare is creating pressure for those who innovate and drive both the science and new business models of it. Accordingly, such pressures may have the ability to transform the industry, research by Lazard's Global Healthcare Leaders Study points out. The question is, will the pressure lead to coal or diamonds?

• Does copying and pasting into EHRs impact the level of care?

  Friday, June 30, 2017

  Do healthcare workers copy and paste into electronic health records? You bet. Apparently, it's a fairly widespread practice. However, providers might be increasing the risk to patients by simply entering repetitive and inaccurate EHR clinical data into physician notes, according to a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

• Report highlights ways to improve cybersecurity in healthcare

  Wednesday, June 28, 2017

  ​The Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force, established by the Department of Health and Human Services in March 2016 per the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, recently del​ivered its findings to Congress. The "Report on Improving Cybersecurity in the Health Care Industry" includes defining steps to help improve cybersecurity practices throughout healthcare industry.

• Insurer exits leave holes in the marketplace as uncertainty spreads

  Friday, June 16, 2017

  Anthem health insurance plans will not be serving Ohio residents through the Affordable Care Act in 2018, the company recently announced. As a result, 10,500 Ohioans will lose their plans. According to reports, residents in 20 mostly rural counties will be without an option for buying individual coverage on the exchange unless another insurer decides to offer plans there in the coming months. The news might be tough to take for citizens in these rural areas, which already traditionally lack proper access to care.

• Study: Patients of older physicians die more often

  Monday, June 05, 2017

  The older the physician, the more likely it is that his or her patient will die. That's the shocking claim from a new study in the BMJ. In a nutshell, patients treated by older physicians had a higher mortality rate than patients cared for by those who were younger. Patients of physicians under the age of 40 had a 10.8 percent mortality rate, which increased to 11.1 percent for patients with doctors in their 40s, 11.3 percent for physicians in their 50s and 12.1 percent for docs 60 and older.

• IPOs fall in 2017, but healthcare remains strong

  Friday, June 02, 2017

  Healthcare reform is causing unease in the industry, as health officials wonder what exactly will change. So says a report in Market Watch, which cites the number of healthcare initial public offerings (IPOs) at their lowest level since 2012. The "uncertain nature of healthcare under the Trump administration" is the likely cause, the report says, but it could be a number of factors well beyond the current administration — even tied to the fact that the Affordable Care Act is facing troubles. Perceived risk is another factor, apparently.

• WannaCry might make healthcare leaders do just that

  Tuesday, May 16, 2017

  One of the world's largest-ever cyberattacks is making people "WannaCry" — which is also the given name of this most impressive bad actor. This new ransomware attack — also dubbed WannaCrypt, WanaCrypt0r 2.0 and Wanna Decryptor — has so far affected more than 250,000 computer systems in more than 150 countries across the globe, hampering public services, government, commercial businesses and health systems.

• There’s no such thing as a free lunch

  Thursday, May 11, 2017

  A new JAMA study found that physicians received $2.4 billion in industry-related payments in 2015. The authors also note that many in healthcare don't recognize a "subconscious bias" related to such interactions with products repped by industry sales associates, and that creates a great deal of tension between the industry's financial relationships and its primary mission.

• Report: Healthcare jobs on the rise again

  Tuesday, May 09, 2017

  In a bit of a surprise, ​the U.S. jobs report for April showed a huge jump from the previous month — 211,000 non-farm jobs added last month, compared to 79,000 in March. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the number of jobs predicted was pegged at about 185,000.

• ACA insurers need low claim volumes to survive exchanges

  Wednesday, May 03, 2017

  The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation reports that just 7 percent of the U.S. population get their insurance on the private market — actually a fairly small segment of the population. Though the Affordable Care Act has provided millions of people with health insurance, some insurers have experienced substantial losses and have removed themselves from the exchanges — news most Americans are familiar with. Of course, the stability of the market and willingness of insurers to continue to participate is essential to the ACA's success, if it has any sort of future in the Donald Trump era.

• Annual physician compensation report reveals some highs, some lows

  Friday, April 21, 2017

  ​Medscape recently released its physician compensation report for 2017, a comprehensive s​urvey that is widely used or cited by more than 400,000 physicians in the industry, the organization says. This is the report's seventh year, and it features hours worked, time spent with patients and what physicians say is their most rewarding and challenging aspects of their work.

• ACA uncertainty fuels slowdown in healthcare hiring

  Monday, April 17, 2017

  After the astronomical rise in U.S. job growth in February, the same can't be said for the following month, March. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 235,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.7 percent in the first full month of President Donald Trump's term, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported at the time. By the same measurement, the U.S. economy only added 98,000 jobs in March, deeply disappointing analysts who predicted as many 180,000 new hirings.

• Digital startup health investments still robust

  Wednesday, April 12, 2017

  ​No matter how you slice it, 2017's startup deals are going well. In one analysis, more than $1 billion in deals have been done; even better, there may have been upwards of $2.5 billion already spent. Rock Health stats show the previous, StartUp Health shows the latter.

• Why is Blue Cross Blue Shield investing in Higi?

  Tuesday, April 04, 2017

  ​Recent news of insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield's investment in healthcare company Higi may have sparked some questions — particularly, what exactly is Higi? Founded in 2012 by Michael Ferro, Higi owns and operates more than 11,000 self-screening health kiosks in retailers nationwide, Crain's Chicago Business reports. In 2014, Higi signed a deal with national drugstore chain Rite Aid to become its sole provider of health stations where customers can check their weight, pulse, body mass index and blood pressure.

• Mobile apps for ambulatory surgery follow-up show promising signs

  Friday, March 31, 2017

  Mobile apps in healthcare may finally be taking hold and finding some relevance in the sector, at least in one specific area — breast reconstruction. Specifically, the journal JAMA Surgery reports that access to a mobile app allowed ambulatory breast reconstruction patients to submit photos to their physicians and report information to physicians, resulting in fewer post-surgery follow-up appointments.

• Healthcare jobs aplenty, but not all will make you rich

  Thursday, March 23, 2017

  Do you work in healthcare, or want to? You're on the path to seeing the money, Glassdoor reports. Here are the specifics: Physicians make the most of any profession in the U.S. The median base salary was $187,876, with 7,770 job openings for 2017. But there are others in healthcare who are close behind: pharmacy managers earn $149,064 median base salary; pharmacists average $125,847; physician assistants average $112,529 and nurse practitioners $104,144.

• Teladoc: Telemedicine bellwether or bust?

  Thursday, March 16, 2017

  If Teladoc's 2016 annual report is telling of telemedicine's overall health then we've got ourselves a mixed bag. While the organization saw significant gains in revenue and use, it also saw a huge addition of debt.

• More informatics experience means more money for nurses

  Wednesday, March 08, 2017

  One of the great things about the HIMSS Annual Conference and Expo is the amount of research and revelations to come from the organization each February or so. For those who track the day-to-day happenings of healthcare, HIMSS provides a cornucopia of information and an Easter basket full of goodies in regard to data that’s ready for consumption. New research from HIMSS' analytics arm shows a bit more insight into the working world of caregivers throughout the world’s health systems.

• Patient engagement on the rise: Is this just a nice story to tell?

  Wednesday, March 01, 2017

  CDW Healthcare's 2017 Patient Engagement Perspectives Study builds on last year's research to explore the drivers, challenges and influences for patient engagement. The results show providers are motivated to find new ways to promote effective patient engagement — and both patients and providers are taking action, or at least would like to do so.

• Remote patient monitoring expected to explode, but at what cost?

  Tuesday, February 21, 2017

  Like most aspects of healthcare, mobile technology seems to be soaring up, up and away, like one of our favorite superheroes. No birds, no planes, just the projected rise of connected medical devices — the use of which is supposed to sharply increase in the next half-decade, according to a new report.

• How often are patient symptoms left off EHRs?

  Thursday, February 16, 2017

  Not everything patients tell their physicians may be making its way into their electronic health records. According to a recent study of eye clinic patients in JAMA Ophthalmology, researchers found "inconsistencies between patient self-report on an eye symptom questionnaire (ESQ) and documentation in the EMR." Issues such as blurry vision, pain and discomfort often did not match what was supposed to have been in the patients' records. In fact, most of the practice's patients said that information they presented to the clinic did not get reported in their file.

• The moonshot money: Investors pour into healthcare

  Friday, February 10, 2017

  The "moonshot" movement is the goal of finding a cure for cancer, conceived by former Vice President Joe Biden in a speech at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center in January 2016 following the loss of his son to brain cancer. The concept has remained popular since, and as such, the year of 2016 was defined by it.

• Report: Healthcare M&A deals down in 2016

  Thursday, January 26, 2017

  Are healthcare mergers and acquisitions slowing down as we begin 2017? According to PricewaterhouseCooper's Health Research Institute, the US healthcare sector measured 939 deals in 2016 down from 952 in 2015 — a slight decrease of about 1.4 percent down from 2015.

• Manual business transactions costing healthcare billions

  Monday, January 23, 2017

  The move to digital record keeping has helped the healthcare industry reduce costs by improving efficiency. However, there's still a good deal of money to be saved with even more adoption of electronic business transactions in healthcare, according to the 2016 Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) Index.

• Survey: Interoperability essential in value‑based care

  Friday, January 13, 2017

  The eHealth Initiative recently published the results of its December 2016 survey on the "current state of progress toward achieving true interoperability" with the aim of highlighting the value of up-to-date technology and innovation in the healthcare industry. Using the eHealth 2020 Roadmap as a guiding point of reference, the survey assesses the industry's current status on interoperability, data access and privacy, patient and provider technology adoption, and data analytics.

• Healthcare should expect more cyberattacks in 2017

  Friday, January 06, 2017

  There's likely good money to be made for gamblers by betting on there continuing to be a plethora of cybersecurity attacks in the year ahead. Some of them are going to be in healthcare; most are not. No matter the industry sector, the fact is we can expect a rise in attacks in 2017.

• Telehealth will continue to steal headlines in 2017

  Tuesday, December 13, 2016

  As we get ready to close out 2016, it's a pretty safe bet that telehealth is going to be an even bigger headline grab in 2017 than it has been this year. Let's take a look at why. Earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed a bill called the 21st Century Cures Act. The bill — which is awaiting Senate approval — is actually intended to make the FDA drug review process more efficient, but it also includes parts dedicated to the use of telehealth services.

• Physician exchange of electronic data rises, but still a ways to go

  Friday, December 09, 2016

  The National Center for Health Statistics (a division of the CDC) recently published a data brief on variations in physician office health data exchange by state in 2015. The brief is filled with interesting data, much of which is instructive and eye-opening.

• Just how profitable is the healthcare industry?

  Wednesday, December 07, 2016

  "Show me the money" is a statement made famous by the somewhat-long-in-the-tooth '90s movie classic, "Jerry Maguire." Today, the statement is known for its directness in proving whether a business or industry is success. Typically, anyone who is able to utter such a phrase is "worthy" of the proverbial funds, as we were taught in the film.

• Report: Physicians give EHRs a poor prognosis

  Thursday, December 01, 2016

  Just a couple years ago, electronic health record business was booming, so much so that the federal incentive-based reimbursement plan became what might now be considered the second wave of the cash-for-clunkers program. But today is a tough time to be in the EHR business.

• Good news for those with nursing careers

  Monday, November 14, 2016

  It's survey season again, and we're being met with a harvest of new data that — for the most part — shines the sunlight on the healthcare industry and gives all a little something extra to talk about. I'm passionate about such information, partly because I believe it's like salt to an often stale plate of daily healthcare headlines.

• Holy MACRA! Healthcare payment regulation is landscape changing

  Friday, November 11, 2016

  The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) is one of the most newsworthy items grabbing healthcare headlines in recent weeks and for good reason. According the 24-page executive summary of the regulation, MACRA repeals the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) and replaces it with a new approach to payment called the Quality Payment Program, which rewards the delivery of high-quality patient care.

• Dyn attack proves the best medicine is prevention

  Monday, October 31, 2016

  ​Like it or not, healthcare is more mainstream than many like to believe, and with that comes its own set of problems because of this visibility. This is especially true when those nefarious actors continue to target the sector like every other.

• EHRs still need to improve, but physicians seem happier

  Tuesday, October 18, 2016

  Another day in healthcare and another survey. The latest one by Deloitte aims to understand physicians' attitudes toward electronic health records and perceptions about the current market trends impacting medicine and future state of the practice of medicine.

• Why are we so accepting of healthcare ransomware attacks?

  Wednesday, October 12, 2016

  We're so accepting, as a culture. Because of the age in which we live, one such issue we seem to have openly accepted is ransomware's ever-increasing influence over healthcare. We seem to have resigned ourselves to the fact that these attacks by cybercriminals on our data are simply a mainstream inconvenience of the modern day.

• No surprise: People hate reviewing health plan info

  Wednesday, October 05, 2016

  Health insurance and all it involves — especially the selecting of a plan and the subsequent purchase of chosen plan — appear to be quite intimidating, United Healthcare suggests. So, while there may be more tools to compare plans, and more plans available, consumers continue to struggle when selecting said plan.

• Problems continue for EHRs, but whose problems are they?

  Friday, September 30, 2016

  Electronic health records have been one of healthcare's most innovative or divisive — depending on your personal point of view — technologies since the start of the modern, technological age. They take up more of doctors' and practice administrators' time, create more technical trials, regulation and reporting, and they may lead to physician burnout, according to a recent report by US News & World Report. Specifically, electronic health records "have helped fuel a national epidemic of burnout among doctors."

• EHRs reduce face time with patients, but this is not the solution

  Monday, September 19, 2016

  Well, this is rich, isn't it? Jonathan Bush of athenahealth says EHRs "slow doctors down and distract them from meaningful face time caring for patients." One of the nation's most-well known CEOs of an electronic health record company, Bush wrote this an op-ed for STAT, citing the results of a new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

• Teladoc teleheath drama continues to play out in court

  Wednesday, September 14, 2016

  ​Teladoc's antitrust lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board (TMB) is still in its early stage, but a brief filed recently in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals shows many support the company's legal efforts, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and competitors.

• HIPAA turns 20: A look back at its impact

  Wednesday, August 31, 2016

  In August 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton. Twenty years later, with Clinton's wife possibly on the verge of a presidency of her own, HIPAA still remains a pivotal point of policy and contention throughout the lexicon of the American healthcare system.

• Salesforce joins telehealth marketplace to capitalize on sector’s growth

  Friday, August 26, 2016

  Telehealth is big right now. Seems like everyone is getting in the game to collect some of the sector's growing revenue — including organizations not known for being in the healthcare space. As such, Salesforce, a company better known for helping organizations manage their customer relationships, is now a provider of telehealth services. Earlier this month, the company announced its new telehealth solution for Salesforce Health Cloud, which enables "two-way video chat that gives patients the ability to connect face-to-face with their care teams from any mobile device" — the stereotypical telehealth solution.

• Patient portal use by different audience leads to differing outcomes

  Thursday, August 18, 2016

  ​Two different headlines are painting two different pictures of patient portals and their use. One headline tells us the technology, part of electronic health records, leads to positive patient engagement. Another headline tells us patient portal use differs among patients of varying socioeconomic statuses.

• Leadership changes at ONC as Obama administration nears end

  Monday, August 15, 2016

  Dr. Karen DeSalvo, who until Friday served as the national coordinator for health information technology, has left the position. She is being replaced by Vindell Washington, M.D., who had been serving as the principal deputy national coordinator at ONC.

• Use of health IT and online services remains low with seniors

  Thursday, August 11, 2016

  The news is in, and research suggests what we may have already known. Individuals 65 years and older do not use the internet for their healthcare searches, and the number adopting digital health tools remains low, ​according to a research letter published in the Journal of the Medical Association.

• CMS changes meaningful use reporting period for 2016 to 90 days

  Monday, August 01, 2016

  ​Here’s looking at you, CMS. This hat is tipped for you. So must be the sentiment across thousands of healthcare organizations when in early July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that the meaningful use reporting period should be reduced from one year to just 90 days in 2016 for returning participants in the incentive program. "This increases flexibility and lowers the reporting burden for hospital providers," the organization said in a statement posted on its website.

• Ready or not, MACRA is coming

  Thursday, July 28, 2016

  From meaningful use to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), the headlines in healthcare for the foreseeable future will surround the latest payment carrot-and-stick regulations. Like meaningful use, which is now regular vernacular in healthcare, the potentially disruptive MACRA will soon be just as popular of an expression for those in every aspect of the care protocols. Right now, not so much.

• As final rule on MACRA nears, some call for delayed rollout

  Thursday, July 21, 2016

  The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) was designed to change the way healthcare is paid for. True to government form, it is about a 1,000-page rule drafted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that is meant to provide the working guidelines of its implementation.

• Study: Workarounds quite common with EHRs

  Friday, July 08, 2016

  Physicians using electronic health records often still resort to the paper workarounds, according to a study published recently in Applied Clinical Informatics. While electronic health records (EHRs) have potential to facilitate reliable communication and followup of test results, limitations with functionality remain.

• EHRs not always designed to share end‑of‑life directives easily

  Tuesday, June 28, 2016

  An end-of-life directive is one of the most sensitive, emotional decisions ever made by a patient. Even when documented, not all are followed, however. Sometimes, patient end-of-life preferences are not pursued because providers and caregivers can't find the patient's instructions in the electronic health records, according to a Minneapolis StarTribune article.

• Telehealth gets ethical

  Thursday, June 23, 2016

  Telehealth efforts continue to gain traction as more health systems explore ways to implement the strategies to meet patients and move more people to out-patient care. With the growth have come the vendors, the technology and the regulation. Now comes a set of ethics guidelines from the American Medical Association.

• Will CHIME’s new best practice office improve cybersecurity?

  Monday, June 13, 2016

  Does it matter that the College of Healthcare Information Executives (CHIME) is trying to combat cybersecurity threats? Is it really the organization that should be tackling this issue? Apparently, its leadership thinks so. Late last month, the organization released a statement announcing the creation of the CHIME Cybersecurity Center and Program Office. The center aims to lead efforts to improve information sharing, develop and spread best practices and "encourage greater collaboration across the industry and with federal agencies."

• Healthcare IoT market heats up to improve patient care

  Thursday, June 09, 2016

  Anyone following the world of health IT continues to come across the seemingly never-ending alphabet soup of innovation and investment — HITECH, HIPAA, BYOD and even one of the most popular today: IoT. The Internet of Things, a concept of connected performance for everything from televisions and coffeemakers to refrigerators and condoms, IoT continues to gain an ever more impressive foothold into the world of healthcare.

• Why the upcoming nursing shortage is so unhealthy

  Tuesday, May 31, 2016

  Georgetown University researchers say that a nursing shortage, a constant point of contention for at least the last decade, will see a lack of more than 190,000 nurses in less than four years. They predict that the shortage will be a result of several factors, including an aging population, the number of nurses who are nearing retirement and a shortage of nursing faculty to train new nurses. Here's why this is important.

• Report: Health data breaches are surging with no end in sight

  Thursday, May 26, 2016

  Attacks on our health data continue — that's no secret — but where these breaches come from is still a matter of question. Whether they come from within or without, the number of these breaches remains consistently high.

• Rip-and-replace EHRs are often no better than the originals

  Tuesday, May 17, 2016

  ​Just the facts, please. And the facts show those organizations that have ripped and replaced their electronic health records have gained little in the way of productivity or satisfaction for doing so. Thus says a new report from Florida-based research firm Black Book.

• ATA to Congress: Expand telemedicine to rural communities

  Tuesday, May 10, 2016

  If you haven't yet settled into the telemedicine drama playing out in the American healthcare landscape, you may be missing a bit of a good show. This latest prognostication by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) is not game-changing, but it is enough of a play for fans to take notice, and to signal we're far from settled on where this movement will ultimately come to some finality.

• AHIMA toolkit makes patient portal conversation relevant again

  Friday, April 29, 2016

  In news we have not heard of in some time (at least publicly), patient portals are back in the headlines. This is primarily because the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has released a new patient portal toolkit for health information management professionals. The toolkit provides guidance on related topics, the latest regulatory requirements, opportunities and challenges, for their use.

• As VA pushes for interoperability, national health IT conversation continues

  Monday, April 25, 2016

  Well, that didn't take long. The U.S. Senate approved a bill last week that would give the Department of Veterans Affairs $83 billion for fiscal year 2017, with added money slated for interoperability of its electronic health record and telemedicine efforts.

• Ransomware attacks on hospitals signal a major shift in hacking

  Wednesday, April 20, 2016

  ​We have crossed the mainstream threshold of an entirely new attack on the information collected by hospitals and healthcare facilities: ransomware attacks. There is currently no bigger buzzword in the health security sector than that — "ransomware."

• Wearables market on the rise, but hurdles remain

  Tuesday, April 12, 2016

  This wearables wave has to decide whether it's coming or going. No matter your position on whatever side of the fence, news continues to pour in that tells a tale of a robust market for the industry. Much data suggests much is going on in the space. For example, ​according to a new report, worldwide shipments of wearable devices are expected to reach whopping 110 million by the end of 2016 — a 38 percent growth over last year.

• Interoperability now a requirement for continued VistA updates

  Friday, April 01, 2016

  Here we go again. Things are starting to get serious with interoperability. So much so that leaders within the U.S. Congress are taking notice and placing their feet in the sand over the issue. Perhaps they, too, are getting a little fed up with the whole issue like the rest of us.

• AHIMA reignites push for national patient identifier

  Tuesday, March 29, 2016

  Contention continues to rise around the issue of the national patient identifier. Despite years of wrangling with the reasons for and against implementing such a system, there has been no shortage of attention drawn to the issue. Countless organizations have fanned its flames.

• Healthcare payment reform on the march

  Tuesday, March 22, 2016

  Controlling healthcare spending might start with the data generated through healthcare claims. So far, collecting that data in the claims has been called a headache, but harnessing it may be the key to developing alternative payment models.

• HIMSS: Clinical IT executives important for healthcare

  Thursday, March 17, 2016

  The presence of a clinical IT executive in a healthcare provider organization may have a notable impact on the organization's orientation toward health IT, the 27th annual installment of the HIMSS Leadership Survey points out.

• Report: Telehealth services reimburse less than office visits

  Thursday, March 10, 2016

  ​The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) has released six policy briefs assessing the impact of a range of national and state policies on healthcare costs and utilization, and the findings seem to span the entire range of the healthcare spectrum. There is one finding, though, that seems to stand out among the others: The entire reimbursement for telehealth services is nearly 40 percent lower than nontelehealth care.

• Survey: Seniors willing to embrace technology to improve health

  Tuesday, March 01, 2016

  Older Americans are not unaware when it comes to the potential impacts of technology on their health. In fact, they actually believe technology has a strong case to make for improving their lives. And if they'd had to do it over again, many would have taken better care of themselves the first time around.

• What’s the key to halting healthcare hacking?

  Friday, February 26, 2016

  ​Healthcare records for 1 in 3 Americans were breached in 2015, with records of nearly 112 million people affected by hackers, compared with only about 1.8 million individuals in 2014. That's the finding of cybersecurity vendor Bitglass, as reported recently by Health Data Management, following the analysis of breach disclosures maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services and required by HIPAA.

• Report: 33 percent of rural hospitals could close for lack of funds

  Friday, February 12, 2016

  ​The rural healthcare landscape continues to occupy many minds as concerns over care of the folks who occupy these spaces is becoming increasingly difficult. ​According to a new report from iVantage Health Analytics, 673 rural hospitals across 42 states are vulnerable to closure. This is on top of the more than 60 rural hospitals that have closed since 2010, ​Becker's Hospital Review reports. The iVantage report compiles hospital strength index that is based on data about financial stability, patients and quality indicators.

• Analyst: Health IT budgets up as industry moves beyond EHR phase

  Monday, February 08, 2016

  Forty percent of healthcare providers' IT budgets are growing, but only 25 percent of providers with growing budgets attribute the growth to electronic health records. Providers are beginning to see ways to optimize the business for accountable care, adding analytics and care management, and moving away from massive enterprise EHR projects, according to a new IDC Health Insights report examining the results of the 2015-2016 Healthcare Provider Technology Spend Survey.

• Patients remain concerned about safety of information in EHRs

  Monday, February 01, 2016

  Pew Research surveys show that we Americans are still quite sensitive about our personal health information and we worry about how this information might be used in ways that negatively impact our ability to secure insurance, access credit or find jobs. However, the convenience of accessing one's health records or interacting with one's physician online has a relatively strong public appeal.

• HIMSS: EHRs lead to efficiencies, and other insights

  Monday, January 25, 2016

  The results of the 2016 HIMSS Health Information Technology (IT) Value survey show that 88 percent of organizations with advanced electronic health record (EHR) environments identified at least one positive outcome from their use of an EHR.

• Duplicate records, lack of matching patients remains an issue

  Wednesday, January 13, 2016

  ​There's a big problem with duplicate patient records across the U.S., according to the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). The organization says the majority of health information management professionals routinely work to mitigate duplicate patient records with the patients they encounter.

• CMS hopes to expand RAC program to Medicare Advantage

  Wednesday, January 06, 2016

  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a request for information that provides a blueprint for the proposed expansion of the oft-contentious recovery audit contract program. Under the plan, the recovery auditors would expand audits of Medicare Advantage Plans to monitor the insurer that may try to sneak in higher payments.

• Stable or not, ACA repeal efforts continue

  Friday, December 11, 2015

  In another round of political posturing against the often-contentious Affordable Care Act, the Senate voted 52-47 last week to pass legislation that would repeal large swaths of the healthcare law. The bill, called Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015, won House approval in October.

• Senate bill would expand Medicare coverage for telehealth

  Monday, December 07, 2015

  Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) have introduced a new bill to expand access to healthcare — especially in rural and underserved areas that would allow Medicare to cover additional telehealth services. The bill, known as the Telehealth Innovation and Improvement Act, would allow Medicare to expand its coverage of telehealth services, changing what the Senators call a "poor industry standard" that discourages innovation and restricts access to specialized services.

• Rural telehealth gets another boost from the USDA

  Tuesday, December 01, 2015

  The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expanding its Rural Development Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program — a surprising place for health IT innovation. The program, which began in 2009, will pump another $23.4 million in additional funding for 75 new projects in 31 states, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in the announcement.

• Walgreens expands telehealth services to 25 states

  Monday, November 23, 2015

  After a successful launch in five states, Walgreens recently announced it is collaborating with MDLIVE to expand its mobile app to offer MDLIVE's telehealth services to users in 20 additional states. According to a statement issued by the company, the expansion means an updated telehealth experience within the Walgreens app and better functionality and integration with MDLIVE.

• Study: Rural hospitals lag in EHR progression

  Friday, November 20, 2015

  ​The federal EHR incentive plan has paid dividends in getting health systems to adopt electronic health records, but small hospitals still lag behind, even after nearly five years. These are ​the findings from a new study featuring nationwide data collected from 2008-2014.

• Home infusion therapy market to expand exponentially by 2020

  Friday, November 13, 2015

  ​Seems everything related to the home healthcare market currently is hugely popular, and the trend continues. A perfect example is the home infusion market, of all things. What exactly is the home infusion market? The simple answer is that home infusion therapy refers to intravenous at-home administration of medicines into the patient's body through a needle and catheter.

• Interoperability still lacking, but patients want more

  Thursday, November 05, 2015

  ​​According to a new report by SoftwareAdvice, patient consumers are acutely aware of health information exchange and interoperability, and of whether their physicians are connected and able to share data freely across the healthcare spectrum to provide the best in care.

• Report: Interoperability does not affect EHR buying decision

  Tuesday, October 27, 2015

  Healthcare research firm KLAS reports that healthcare providers remain strongly concerned about interoperability of technology from various vendors and "strongly encourage better coordination among vendors, timely location of patient records and greatly improved parsing capabilities as three of the most needed improvements for interoperability of electronic medical records."

• Legislation Introduced to ‘improve’ health IT systems

  Monday, October 19, 2015

  Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have introduced bipartisan legislation to "strengthen accountability and improve transparency" in health information technology systems. The Transparent Ratings on Usability and Security to Transform Information Technology (TRUST IT) Act of 2015 is written to "ensure that certified health IT systems are performing as promised in the field," according to a statement issued by Cassidy's office.

• Funding for digital health companies on the rise

  Monday, October 12, 2015

  ​Rock Health, a health IT startup incubator, has announced that digital health venture funding through three quarters of 2015 has outpaced the same time period from last year with funding reaching $3.3 billion, representing 30 percent "trailing twelve month" (TTM) growth.

• ONC publishes new strategic plan as blueprint for future

  Tuesday, October 06, 2015

  The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has released its Federal Health IT Strategic Plan for 2015-2020. The plan details how the federal government intends to apply the effective use of information and technology to "help the nation achieve high-quality care, lower costs, a healthy population and engaged individuals."

• Survey: EHRs have positive impact on healthcare, and most like them

  Monday, September 28, 2015

  ​Capterra, a company that essentially helps software buyers connect to software sellers, has published ​the results of a recent survey designed to better understand the needs of medical software buyers and vendors. The survey attempts to provide an integrated picture of just how people are finding, buying and using electronic health record (EHR) software.

• Survey paints positive view of telemedicine market

  Tuesday, September 22, 2015

  HIMSS Analytics recently published a new report, "​Essentials Brief: Telemedicine Study" — a survey of health IT executives that finds an increase in the adoption of telemedicine solutions and services, from 54.5 percent in 2014 to 57.7 percent in 2015. Small, but sizable. FierceHealthIT reports that the Web-based study included responses from nearly 270 executives, IT professionals, clinicians, department heads and ambulatory physicians.

• Survey shows providers are happier with older EHRs

  Monday, September 14, 2015

  If there's one thing to rely on in healthcare, it's that there's always some new research or a survey to drive the national conversation and point out the moving trends heading our way. One of the most prolific research firms in the industry is Black Book Rankings, which publishes reports each year based on its research.

• CVS Health expands its telehealth services for customers

  Tuesday, September 08, 2015

  CVS Health recently announced that it will work with three "leading" telehealth companies to expand patients' access to doctors, who will be able to provide consultations remotely via the Internet or on the phone. As part of the deal, the three companies — American Well, Teladoc and Doctor On Demand — ​will soon begin receiving customers from CVS pharmacies in six states, and they will refer their own customers to 150 CVS walk-in clinics.

• Report: Telehealth will have strong impact on home health by 2020

  Tuesday, September 01, 2015

  More news on the telehealth front as a report from Tractica suggests the global market for the home health technology market will see strong growth for the remainder of the decade. According to the market intelligence agency, telehealth will have an "impact on nearly every aspect of the healthcare ecosystem."

• Do physicians really hate their EHRs?

  Monday, August 24, 2015

  ​Physicians hate their EHRs. Research shows there's no love lost between doctors and the technology. The love affair is over, if there ever was one. According to a recent study, just 34 percent of physicians said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their EHR system in 2014, down from 62 percent in 2010.

• Report: Top technology trends across the realm of healthcare

  Monday, August 17, 2015

  In its summer 2015 Health Tech Report, CDW profiles the 10 most current and pressing trends of which those in healthcare should take notice. The list is expansive and somewhat obvious in areas, but provides insight into the changing landscape of the current healthcare technology sector — which is no stranger to constant movement.

• Healthcare industry to CMS: Finalize the meaningful use rule

  Monday, August 10, 2015

  ​A group of 18 industry stakeholders are urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to finalize the rule that sets meaningful use requirements for 2015 through 2017. This follows actions taken in May when some of the nation's leading professional organization executives in healthcare submitted formal comments on the proposed changes to the EHR Incentive Program.

• The impact of health IT on workflow

  Monday, August 03, 2015

  ​A new report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality examines the enhanced understanding of the causal relationship between health information technology implementation and various ambulatory care workflow aspects. The report was conducted across six ambulatory care practices from across the United States, and reviewed health systems that had implemented different health IT products or systems.

• Massive growth continues in mHealth market

  Monday, July 27, 2015

  ​The mHealth market continues to see sizable gains, with its current valuation at more than $10.5 billion, according to a new report by Allied Market Research. The sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33.5 percent from this year through 2020. According to the recent report, blood pressure monitors have the largest share of the global mHealth device market, followed by blood glucose monitors and cardiac monitors.

• Despite ONC’s guidance, most providers have no health IT roadmap

  Tuesday, July 21, 2015

  Most healthcare providers are aware of the important role of digital health in enhancing healthcare efficiency. Yet more than half of healthcare providers still do not have a health IT roadmap — despite ​the proposed roadmap released in January by the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

• Survey: Telemedicine use on the rise

  Tuesday, July 14, 2015

  The latest telehealth report — one of many in a recent string — suggests the market is finally maturing. "Telehealth Index: 2015 Physician Survey" found strong support exists for video-based telemedicine, more so than telephone or email communications. The survey by American Well and QuantiaMD spoke with more than 2,000 primary doctors.

• Doctors: EHRs have not improved productivity

  Monday, July 06, 2015

  The Physicians Alliance of America has found that EHRs increase physicians' administrative burdens and decrease their productivity. The PAA survey of 250 pediatric, family medicine and internal medicine physicians aimed to substantiate anecdotal evidence that EHRs were adversely affecting physicians' business and workflow.

• Tablets and portals may not be a hit, but wearables show promise

  Wednesday, July 01, 2015

  ​It seems patient engagement efforts may require more work if the latest survey holds true. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, giving patients access to portals and tablets "does not have a great impact on their understanding of their care and treatment."

• Sen. Lamar Alexander identifying strategies for better EHR program

  Monday, June 22, 2015

  Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has been busy, and remains so. Earlier this month, he announced that he would conduct a series of hearings intended to solve problems with the federal government’s six-year-old, $30 billion program meant to encourage adoption of electronic health records at medical offices and hospitals. The hearings come after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services claimed in December 2014 that a quarter of a million physicians had not been able to comply with the program’s second phase and have begun losing 1 percent of their Medicare payments.

• Study: Digital health solutions may save US health system $100 billion

  Wednesday, June 17, 2015

  Accenture, in a new report, estimates that FDA-approved digital health solutions — an Internet-connected device or software created for detection or treatment of a medical indication — may have saved up to $6 billion in cost savings last year, primarily driven by medication adherence, behavior modifications and fewer emergency room visits.

• Small practices rank cloud-based EHRs best in user satisfaction

  Monday, June 08, 2015

  ​Cloud-based electronic health record firms are tops in physician satisfaction rankings for small and solo practices, research firm Black Book Rankings reports. According to the firm's research, nearly 70 percent of small and single-physician practices are confident in Web-based EHR systems as usability gets better and connectivity issues improve.

• VA suffers cybersecurity problems

  Friday, May 29, 2015

  From problems with managing its case load to actually falsifying documents related to patient care, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't seem to be taking security seriously, ​Federal News Radio reports. The VA failed its Federal Information Security Management Act Audit for Fiscal Year 2014, but the news agency has reported that the VA is in the wake of taking action to fix its cybersecurity vulnerabilities and deficiencies.

• Senators press for more interoperability

  Tuesday, May 26, 2015

  ​Earlier this month, National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo told senators that health IT is "foundational" to President Barack Obama's Precision Medicine initiative and discussed ways to improve data sharing. According to Health Data Management in February, Obama asked Congress for $215 million in funding for a personalized medicine initiative that centers around the creation of a massive database containing the genetic data of at least 1 million volunteer participants.

• DeSalvo has healthcare community’s support in moving on

  Friday, May 15, 2015

  ​As has been widely reported, Dr. Karen DeSalvo, the former New Orleans Health Commissioner and current head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has been nominated to become the assistant secretary of health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• Survey: Many providers want ICD‑10 to just go away

  Tuesday, May 12, 2015

  ICD-10 has been regularly stealing healthcare headlines for about two years and intermittently for years prior. Before that, the news centered around electronic health records, 5010 and meaningful use, of course. As an industry we’ve moved beyond each of those, except for the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), a medical classification list by the World Health Organization (WHO).

• How to avoid health system staff turnover and employee poaching

  Friday, May 01, 2015

  ​Staffing shortages and turnover problems have become two of healthcare's biggest problems. Not only is finding quality talent a problem, keeping it is, causing concerns for hiring managers and recruiters in the current healthcare economy. Experts offer a few tips for retaining staff.

• CommonWell continues to expand with strong signs of interoperability

  Tuesday, April 28, 2015

  The big movement that is the CommonWell Health Alliance continues to make waves as it attempts to reach further into the healthcare stratosphere. CommonWell recently announced that its five founding member organizations — athenahealth, Cerner, CPSI, Greenway Health and McKesson — will actively deploy CommonWell's services to healthcare provider sites nationwide throughout 2015.

• Doctors: We need to delay ICD-10 again

  Monday, April 20, 2015

  ​This whole ICD-10 delay thing continues to bear some fruit, and there's still quite a bit of steam behind the effort. With rumors swirling that congressional leaders are finally ready to take action this year, many providers may not be sharing the joy, nor are they looking to celebrate.

• CommonWell Health Alliance continues to grow its EHR domain

  Friday, April 10, 2015

  CommonWell Health Alliance is beginning to gain a little traction more than two years since it was announced as a concept. Earlier this month, the organization announced that it had added five new members, "enhancing the association's nationwide footprint, share of the EHR marketplace and diversity across the care continuum."

• Millennials, Gen Xers leading change in healthcare over seniors, boomers

  Tuesday, April 07, 2015

  Millennials and Gen Xers are a population segment harboring and bringing about advances in healthcare technology. They are also altering the delivery of healthcare and insurance, according to new research offered up by PNC Healthcare.

• Experts: 2015 is the year of the healthcare breach

  Monday, March 30, 2015

  Breaches, breaches everywhere. It seems there's no shortage of news about security breaches and their effect on healthcare. In an effort to better paint the picture of breaches in healthcare, Software Advice recently published research focusing on how recent HIPAA breaches, like the cyberattacks at ​Anthem and Premera Blue Cross, have impacted U.S. patients' trust, treatment and retention.

• Providers plan to pursue Medicare’s chronic care management program

  Monday, March 23, 2015

  ​Kryptiq, a Beaverton, Ore.-based developer of population health management technology, conducted a benchmark survey to gauge providers' pursuit of the newly available payments in light of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services starting to reimburse providers last Jan. 1.

• Doctors continue to hate their jobs — Is the ACA to blame?

  Monday, March 16, 2015

  ​In news that we likely all knew (or had an inkling of), physicians are less happy than they have been or could be, a new survey suggests. There are a number of reasons for the lack of job satisfaction, including bureaucracy and a greater focus on technology and data entry, but the data reflected here — in a recent survey from the healthcare solutions group Geneia — is nothing new. Headlines have been gathering for some time that suggest similar results.

• Survey: HHS regulations are squeezing health IT professionals

  Monday, March 09, 2015

  ​​New research suggests that the regulatory demands imposed by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) are likely having a negative impact on health IT professionals. As many as 60 percent of polled healthcare IT professionals feel that government regulations are leading to the decline of their industry.

• IT leaders feel ill-equipped to handle escalating cyberattacks

  Friday, February 27, 2015

  Because of the increasing frequency and severity of cyberattacks against organizations, a majority of information technology experts are suggesting they do not feel confident in their leadership's ability to leverage intelligence that can predict a cybervulnerability, and effectively combat any potential threats.

• Viable health information exchange not likely until 2017

  Monday, February 23, 2015

  The results of a new survey by Black Book show broad insight into the "tentative" progress that health information exchange (HIE) and true interoperability have made. After polling nearly 2,000 health plan members and patients, 800 independent and employed physicians, 700 hospital executives, 1,200 insurers and 500 health information technology vendor staffers in a span of eight months, Black Book analysts have boiled down their findings thusly: "Persistent unpredictability describes the current state of operative HIEs."

• No crosswalk from ICD-9, but ICD-10 is on track for October

  Friday, February 13, 2015

  ​The "delay ICD-10" proponents have found themselves another piece of ammunition to use in their war against transitioning from the current ICD-9 coding system. The latest development in the never-ending fight against replacing the decades-old version is a new study from Vanderbilt University that suggests that mapping codes between ICD-9 and ICD-10 could be a problem.

• CMS plans to shorten meaningful use Stage 2 to 90 days

  Monday, February 09, 2015

  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services buckled, or so it seems. After much conjecture, gesturing and soapbox shouting from healthcare leaders, it looks like the reporting period for sending data collected in the electronic health record as part of meaningful use Stage 2 will be shortened from 365 days to 90. According to SearchHealthIT, "The time and money required to attest for a 365-day reporting period gave heartburn to many hospitals and physicians."

• Survey: Patient engagement continues to face challenges

  Friday, January 30, 2015

  In the true age of patient engagement — a topic much talked about the last two years, but one now seemingly having gained real traction — providers continue to admit that they are having trouble with meeting the mandates established for them by meaningful use stage 2 requirements.

• Millennials are reshaping healthcare

  Monday, January 26, 2015

  Global consumer collaboration consultancy Communispace recently released a report called, "Healthcare without Borders: How Millennials are Reshaping Health and Wellness," which examines millennial healthcare values and how they will impact businesses across the industry. The report focuses on several areas of millennials' lives, including technology. Millennials are far more likely than other generations to rely on mobile and online tools to monitor and maintain their health, the report states.

• Flex-IT Act reintroduced to shorten meaningful use, again

  Thursday, January 15, 2015

  The Flexibility in Health IT Reporting (Flex-IT) Act of 2015, a reiteration of a bill introduced in Congress in 2014, has been introduced by Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) and Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.). According to the statement released by the members of Congress who drafted the bill, H.R. 270 would ensure that healthcare providers receive the flexibility "they need to successfully comply with HHS's meaningful use program."

• Venture capital dollars pouring into digital health industry

  Monday, January 12, 2015

  Venture funding played a large part in advancing the work of digital health companies in 2014, accounting for a record-breaking $4.1 billion in investments, according to startup accelerator Rock Health. The level of investment surpassed the total of the three previous years combined and representing 125 percent year-over-year growth from 2013.

• Practices are up against it with HIPAA compliance and audits

  Monday, December 15, 2014

  NueMD, a provider of cloud-based management software for small medical practices, finds that there are a lot of healthcare organizations up against it when it comes to complying with the beefed up regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

• ONC data shows money is a major motivator for EHR adoption

  Thursday, December 11, 2014

  According to a data brief released recently by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, financial incentives and potential penalties are key motivators for physicians adopting electronic health records since 2009.

• CMS extension could spell trouble for meaningful use program

  Tuesday, December 02, 2014

  ​The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has extended the meaningful use attestation period by another month to Dec. 31 of this year. The deadline had been Nov. 30. The extension is for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals to attest to meaningful use for the Medicare EHR program reporting period 2014.

• Survey: Cost trumps health for many Americans

  Monday, November 24, 2014

  As "Obamacare" is entering its second year of implementation, and open enrollment is currently upon us, Healthline — a provider of intelligent health information and technology solutions — has released the results from a new survey showcasing consumer's thoughts about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and health insurance.

• Use of cloud, mobility and big data growing, but security is a concern

  Tuesday, November 18, 2014

  Findings from Dell's first Global Technology Adoption Index have uncovered a plethora of data that provides a number of key insights into how organizations are approaching security, cloud, mobility and big data to drive their businesses. The results include responses from more than 2,000 global organizations who overwhelmingly say that security is the biggest concern in IT solutions.

• New EHR vendors and technology needed for continued innovation

  Friday, November 14, 2014

  In the span of the last five years, use and implementation of electronic health records in the U.S. has dramatically accelerated because of federal mandates and financial incentives directly related the meaningful use program. Because of these efforts, as well as time and resources invested by healthcare providers, electronic health records are more popular than at any point in the past and are now "the heart of health IT," according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.

• Research: American doctors are ‘drowning in paperwork’

  Monday, November 10, 2014

  According to a new study, U.S. doctors spend nearly 17 percent of their working lives on nonpatient-related paperwork — time that might otherwise be spent caring for patients. The findings also suggest that the more time doctors spend on such tasks, the unhappier they are about having chosen medicine as a career.

• Nurses to administrators: We’re not happy about EHRs

  Wednesday, October 22, 2014

  ​Nurses are not happy about having to use electronic health records (EHRs), a new report suggests. Apparently, 92 percent of nursing staff are dissatisfied with the systems — an all-time high, according to the Q3 2014 Black Book EHR Loyalty survey. The primary reasons cited for their dissatisfaction with EHRs included the levels of disruption in productivity and the impact to their daily workflows.