For decades, healthcare providers have relied on putting pen to paper when it comes to signing off on prescriptions, discharge orders or even referrals to specialists. For patients, signatures need to be captured for reviewing and confirming care plans or after an office visit is completed. Although many hospitals and practices have made the move to some form of electronic signature solution, not everyone has adopted the technology. Enter COVID-19.
As the pandemic continues to push our nation’s healthcare system to the brink, provider organizations are ramping up efforts to implement digital, contactless consents. That includes the move to paperless workflows, something healthcare has struggled to adopt given the industry’s love-hate relationship with paper.
eSignature technology allows digital documents to be approved and authenticated with a handwritten signature, replacing the traditional ink on paper or “wet signature.” Most importantly, eSignatures eliminate a touchpoint – helping contain the spread of COVID-19 while easing patient fears of contracting the virus during healthcare visits.
In 2000, Congress passed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act; Public Law 106-229) which recognized electronic signatures as valid under U.S. law. When it comes to its use in healthcare, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated eSignatures fulfill the HIPAA Privacy Rule as long as they satisfy the applicable requirements of State contract law.
Beyond expediting signature collection, eSignature technology helps ease patient’s concerns about the safety of visiting the doctor’s while improving medical practice workflows – here’s how:
When you visit the doctor for medical treatment, you usually assume that the physician is qualified to provide the medication or procedures you need to improve your condition. If you receive an inaccurate diagnosis, you can sue the physician for medical malpractice or negligence. Here is some important information to increase your chances of winning your case.
What Is Medical Misdiagnosis?
If you don’t receive an accurate diagnosis for your injury or illness, you have a valid medical malpractice lawsuit. A misdiagnosis is not necessarily considered medical malpractice, which means every hospital or clinical error can result in a valid lawsuit. Keep in mind that even the most qualified lawyers make mistakes from time to time. In order for a medical misdiagnosis to result in a case you can bring to court, you will have to provide proof of delayed treatment, no treatment, or improper medical treatment. If you don’t know which sickness or condition you have, you won’t receive the correct medications or procedures to improve your health, which can have permanent effects on your body and mind.
Over the past several years, we’ve heard a lot of predictions about new and innovative ways artificial intelligence (AI) will dramatically impact healthcare. For example: robot doctors, drug discovery and clinical diagnosis. While there is – and should be – excitement around what innovation may come, we need to look at what technologies exist today, and more importantly, what providers need to deliver higher quality and more coordinated care at a lower cost.
In 2020, we’ve watched a pandemic upend the healthcare industry as ICUs became overwhelmed, clinics had to close their doors and patients avoided care. Physician burnout that was 42% in 2018 is soaring as COVID-19 cases surge and disruptions continue.
With this backdrop, it’s time for us all to agree that the biggest need in healthcare right now is to help providers do their job more effectively and remove burdens that both stand in the way of the delivery of care and lead to that unacceptable rate of burnout.
Medical coding
In 2019, the U.S. is predicted to have spent more than $3 trillion on healthcare, over 95% of which was dispersed through an insurance company, where every dollar must be codified. The current international standard for those codes is ICD-10, which contains more than 70,000 codes for diagnoses. With that many codes, it comes as no shock that estimates for annual medical coding errors are around 30%, with billing errors reaching as high as 80% in many cases.
With such a complex coding system, we are adding to a provider’s administrative burden which, for many, is already at a breaking point. Today, a physician spends an average of 16 minutes on administration, which adds up to several hours every single day.
Widespread access to the internet over a plethora of devices has made it extremely easy to access online information and services. What’s more, an increasing number of businesses, government, and non-government organizations are adopting online platforms to provide services to clients. Counseling and therapy services are not lagging behind, either.
Online therapy services are becoming more popular each day. It brings a lot of convenience to clients seeking help, in addition to lowering treatment costs. For one, it eliminates the need for professional counselors to rent offices and other supporting facilities. For another, it saves the client time and money that would be spent traveling to obtain services. They can also easily create time for appointments within their tight schedules. This article reviews two top online counseling services.
Calmerry: An In-Depth Review
Calmerry enables you to access professional support and guidance on how to enhance your general well-being. Remember, good health is not merely the absence of an illness but also a comprehensive mental, physical, and social wellness state. This company is among the best online therapy services. So if you are battling an emotional or mental challenge, you can check out some of its services. They can offer help in:
Depression management
Coping with mood swings
Enhancing self-esteem
Trauma
Abuse
Grief
How It Works
Knowing how the platform works is crucial for attaining the best quality service as quickly as possible. The website has a simple and straightforward design. First, you need to create an account using your basic contact information only. It only takes a few minutes to complete this process. Better still, you can use a nickname to stay anonymous and maintain your confidentiality.
Next, fill in the availed questionnaire as accurately as possible. Clearly state all the issues you need the online therapist to assist you in solving. After that, give them up to 24 hours to assign the most suitable expert. Do not forget to check out the most suitable rates as per your budget. Once everything is set, you can exchange contact information with the counselor and arrange for video calling or text sessions.
Remember Instagram’s “Ten Year Challenge”? When ‘grammars were posting pictures of themselves from a decade before, next to one from the present day? Now we’re seeing the “2020 Challenge” — and this time, it’s a picture from March next to a present day picture.
That said, it may seem like a gutsy move to make predictions for the healthcare industry after the year we’ve just had, but I’m a gutsy guy, so here goes:
Big tech, Big everything getting into healthcare. Or will they?
Telemedicine was the finger in the dyke at the beginning of pandemic panic, with healthcare providers grabbing whatever came to hand — encouraged by relaxed HIPAA regulations — to keep the dam from breaking. But as the dust settles, telemedicine is emerging as the commodity that it is, and value-add services are going to be the differentiating factors in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Offerings like remote patient monitoring and asynchronous communication, initially considered as “nice-to-haves,” are becoming standard offerings as healthcare providers see their value for continuous care beyond COVID.
People are, generally, quite good at being in tune with their health and knowing when they are sick and/or might need to see a doctor. This is not so much the case when it comes to dental health, as people will tend to ignore issues and wait until they see their dentist for a regular checkup.
This is dangerous and a mistake because ignoring dental health issues can lead to larger problems and could even impact your overall health as the two are very closely linked. With this in mind, here are a few symptoms and signs that you may need to see a dental health professional.
Lost Or Loose Teeth
A lost tooth or loose teeth should never be ignored, and you should see a dentist as soon as possible as they may be able to save the tooth. Additionally, loose teeth or teeth that fall out is a sign of advanced gum disease, so it is important to see a dental health professional for treatment.
In October 2020 a joint advisory by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI noted there is a “credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat” affecting U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers. A main part of this threat features ransomware attacks, where hackers take control of data and systems to extract ransoms.
The alert detailed the actions of a Russian-speaking group called Ryuk and a type of trojan known as Trickbot. Even more alarming, many healthcare providers might already be infected with malware, with hackers waiting for an opportune time to launch an attack and cripple the organization’s operations.
To prevent successful ransomware attacks, hospital IT and management teams need to implement multi-pronged strategies focusing on training, technology solutions, and other best practices. See below for a few actionable tips to include in your plan.
Preventing Intrusions with Training
A fall 2020 phishing attack against the University of Missouri Health Center exposed data for more than 14,000 patients. The health center noted two employee email accounts were hacked, which led to data access to Social Security numbers, clinical information, and other patient-specific data. The breach underscores the threat of staff members as the most prevalent conduit for hackers. Preventing such instances takes diligent training that helps workers understand the various threats and how they should adjust their behaviors accordingly. This is critically important.
Hackers also attack healthcare providers to take advantage of overworked nurses, doctors, and other clinical staff. COVID-19 places enormous strain on these workers, and they may not make the best IT-related decisions when they’re functioning on limited sleep and enormous stress.
Preventing the “human element” that leads to ransomware attacks requires diligent training. Here are some key tips for employees:
Show staff members examples of phishing schemes. Use visuals to show them emails that might look authentic at first glance but deserve closer inspection. For example, phishing emails might include links with misspelled addresses and may not look professional, however recent phishing emails look very authentic, and hackers are getting much better at fooling people. Many recent hacking schemes use COVID-19 content to grab people’s interest.
Discuss some of the most prevalent tricks hackers use to fool people, such as adding an urgent tone to messages or imploring them to take an unusual action, or even something as simple as “click here”.
Encourage staff to confirm messages with their superiors or outside trusted resources. So instead of relying on a “Breakthrough Message from the CDC”, they should visit the official CDC site for assurance.
Remind staff members it’s always acceptable to alert IT about suspicious messages. Get them to err on the side of caution, while also giving them the access they need to work effectively.
Talk about vishing and smishing schemes, which come through the phone, tablet, or through SMS messaging. Email-based phishing has been around for a while, so hackers are using new pathways like vishing and smishing to persuade your employees to give them access.
Manage Remote Workers
The number of at-home healthcare workers is exploding due to COVID-19, as administrative and billing roles are easily handled through online platforms. And, with the rise in telemedicine, more practitioners are setting up HIPPA-compliant communications tools from home.
By Howard Bright, vice president of patient engagement, RevSpring.
Howard Bright
“Life keeps throwing me stones and I keep finding the diamonds.” – Ana Claudia Antunes
I appreciate that philosophy because it applies to so many situations, including the federal price transparency regulation that goes into effect on January 1, 2021. Many providers are dreading the new rule and all that complying with it will require (it’s hardly a secret that the industry has actively resisted the ruling). But a careful look can reveal “diamonds”— major competitive advantages, improved revenue collection and even increased patient loyalty—for hospitals that see and seize the opportunities.
Skeptical?
It’s understandable considering the problems that many providers have experienced with price estimation tools in the past. To be clear, the ruling does not require hospitals to provide explicit price estimates. What it does mandate is the following:
“Make standard charges public in two files displayed prominently on the Internet and updated at least annually.”
One of those files must be “machine readable” (J-SON, XML, CSV) and include all “items and services.” The other must be a “consumer-friendly shoppable services file,” that uses plain language, descriptions and codes covering 70 CMS-specified items and services and an additional 230 hospital-specified items and services.
While that might sound relatively straightforward, most hospital administrators and revenue management leaders know that the devil, frequently, hides in the details. And when viewed through the lens of the patient, those details could prove to be tremendously overwhelming. Making the mandated information easy to access and patient specific—and even providing an interactive price shopping tool that gives patients simple ways to act—is where the competitive advantage lies for savvy hospitals and hospital systems.
In other words, don’t view the ruling simply as an onerous data requirement but, rather, as a communications and patient engagement opportunity. By providing data that is clear, concise, consistent, and easy for human beings to understand, not only will you meet a true consumer need you will set your hospital apart from competitors.
Most will probably do the bare minimum by publishing their insurance negotiated rates as the mandate requires and others will risk the consequences of non-compliance. In a recent webinar I provided on this topic, 36 percent of attendees said they were “still investigating options for how to comply with the ruling” and a shocking (at least to me) 8 percent said they had “not started yet.”
Over the past several years, we’ve heard a lot of predictions about new and innovative ways artificial intelligence (AI) will dramatically impact healthcare. For example: 
