ADVANCE Perspective: HIM : Health News

Mammography and the Right to Choose

Lisa Algeo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:59:00 GMT

(Editor's note: This is a guest blog written by Valerie M. Chapman, RN, MSN, a pediatric nurse for 25 years. She is a 3-year breast cancer survivor and lives in Medford, NJ, with her husband and two children.) I am a wife, a mother of two awesome kids,...(read more)

Mammography Screenings Changing?

Lisa Algeo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:25:00 GMT

(Editor's note: This is a guest blog by Lorettajo A. Kapinos, an ED nurse at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA.) Last month was Breast Cancer Awareness month and I blogged about my experience with a false positive mammogram. Ironically, this...(read more)

PHRs Go Overseas

Cheryl McEvoy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:26:00 GMT

If you've been following Jay's blog, " XY Files in and MT World ," recently, you know there have been some frightening reports of medical records being sold overseas. It's enough to make you hunker down in the States and demand your records stay local....(read more)

Documenting H1N1

Cheryl McEvoy — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:44:00 GMT

For the past 2 months, I've been collecting entries for our 2009 HIM Team of the Year contest , and it can be...inundating. (Not that I wouldn't love to see a dozen more entries!) A copy for each judge, plus one for our files-it's a whole bunch of printing...(read more)

(Mis)information Overload

Lisa Algeo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:27:00 GMT

(Editor's note: The following is a guest blog from Mark McGraw, staffer on ADVANCE for Health Information Executives ) Earlier this week, Bob Mitchell, our managing editor here at ADVANCE , posted a blog chastising the behavior of some overzealous attendees...(read more)

Health Care Reform: What Women Need

Lisa Algeo — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:50:00 GMT

Guest commentary by Sabrina Corlette, director of health policy programs for the National Partnership for Women & Families In the halls of Congress, in the media, in the coffee shops and restaurants of Washington, D.C. -- health care reform is dominating...(read more)

HIPAA be damned?

Lynn Jusinski — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:05:00 GMT

[Editor's note: This is a guest blog by ADVANCE for Nurses editor Lyn A.E. McCafferty, who contributes to the "ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses " blog featured on the ADVANCE for Nurses Web site.] If you think the fictional Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe are bad...(read more)

Doctors Face Patient Scrutiny

Cheryl McEvoy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:42:00 GMT

For the past few weeks, I've had Michael Jackson's "Somebody's Watching Me" stuck in my head. I blame Geico for making it the theme song for its ubiquitous ad campaign. (Seriously, that bug-eyed bundle of money is everywhere .) But today, the ditty popped...(read more)

HHS Defines "Meaningful Use"

Cheryl McEvoy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:59:00 GMT

The $19 billion question has been answered--sort of. Earlier today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced its preliminary definition of "meaningful use," a requirement providers must meet to earn EHR incentive payments. Released by the...(read more)

Not Exactly a Ringing Endorsement for EHRs

Lynn Jusinski — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:31:00 GMT

An emergency department (ED) in a facility in Western Sydney, Australia, banned the use of its EHR, going back to paper and pen, after struggling with downtime on the system. While a North South Wales (NSW) opposition health spokeswoman claimed that government...(read more)

Enthusiasm Abounds at AAPC!

Lynn Jusinski — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:12:00 GMT

It's the second day at the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) conference in Las Vegas, and the attendees are currently chowing down on breakfast. Yesterday's welcome session was high energy and humorous. AAPC directors took on roles in a skit...(read more)

New National Coordinator for HIT Named

Lynn Jusinski — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:49:00 GMT

David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, is the Obama administration's pick as the new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. According to a Department of Health and Human Service press release , Dr. Blumenthal has his work cut out for him. "Dr. Blumenthal...(read more)

A Standard Problem

Cheryl McEvoy — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:59:00 GMT

Everyone has an opinion about what will make nationwide EHR adoption. But the one thing most agree upon is the need for standards. A number of organizations and government entities have already vowed to develop a common language or designated format for...(read more)

Another Form to Fill Out

Lynn Jusinski — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:59:00 GMT

How do you, as HIM professionals, shop for doctors? Being in the health care field, HIM professionals have a unique view of how they should be treated as patients and the care they can expect to receive. Jacque Taylor, AHDI-F, one of our Top 10 in HIM, told her story of how she shopped for a new family doc in my interview with her. You can listen to the excerpt here. Basically, Taylor, a medical transcription educator, said the doctor she ultimately chose was the only one who allowed her to meet his MT.

Many patients might not be that savvy. With many Web sites popping up to rate doctors, patients can go online and review their physicians much the same way they'd review that new Nicholas Sparks book they just garnered on Amazon.com. Likewise, patients seeking out a new doc might turn to those sites and those reviews to get a feel for how the doctor treats his or her patients--medically and personally.

Some of those sites, however, might be getting a bit of a behind-the-scenes makeover, according to an Associated Press article. In some doctors' offices, patients sign waivers that prevent them from posting reviews online. Neurosurgeon Jeffrey Segal started Medical Justice, which provides physicians with a waiver they can have patients sign that says the patient will not review the doctor on the Internet. An attorney questioned for the AP article said he wasn't sure the waivers would hold up in court, but still, the waivers might be enough to dissuade patients from reviewing their doctors online. Nearly 2,000 doctors use the waivers from Medical Justice.

While the reviews on the sites, like most things on the Internet (hello Wikipedia!) should be taken with a dose of caution, they might at times also give a peek into how well or how poorly a physician is doing. Would you go to a physician for the first time if you saw a review that called him or her "the worst doctor very high strung never on time not caring" (sic), as someone referred to one of my hometown docs on RateMDs.com?

And then there's the waiver issue. On a first visit to a doctor, patients are already presented with a mile-high stack of papers to fill out. What would your reaction be if you were presented with this type of a waiver at your next medical appointment? Do the waivers impinge on a patient's right to free speech or are physicians simply trying to protect themselves from the one crotchety patient who catches them on a bad day and has a high-speed Internet connection and a penchant for flaming?

HITECH Alters HIPAA

Lynn Jusinski — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:29:00 GMT

By now, most of us have heard a few of the details in the economic stimulus package signed by the president Feb. 17. You'll have $13 extra stuffed in your paychecks each week starting April Fool's Day, and money will go toward green initiatives. Did you know that the stimulus will also affect HIPAA?

The Wisconsin Technology Network offers up a nice rundown of how the HITECH Act will alter the provisions of HIPAA. We're working on an article for an upcoming issue on the stimulus package's affect on the HIT/HIM realm, but the above site provides an early peek into how HIPAA will be impacted. Of note, patients affected by carelessness with protected health information will receive a percentage of the penalties.

Another notable change is that business associates will be subject to civil and criminal liability under HIPAA. I wrote about the role of business associates in HIPAA in this article. Hopefully, these new additions to HIPAA will help prevent cases like the one involving Lubna Baloch from happening in the future.