Many people say that your ‘health is your wealth’ and this is very sound advice indeed. It doesn’t matter how much money that you have in the bank and how successful that your company is if you don’t have sound health behind you. If you are suffering from any physical or mental health issues then it affects your whole life and the lives of the people that love you as well.
Over the past two to three years, we have learned that many of us are not taking proper care of our health and we are not doing the required 30 minutes of physical exercise every single day. It has led to bad health outcomes with the number of people experiencing obesity and diabetes rising every single year.
We tend to rely on the public health system to take care of us when we need it the most and yet we are met with long waiting times and it could take months to even get to see your doctor at all. This is why many people are opting for private health cover because they want to take real steps to take care of their overall health and they want to be able to get assistance almost immediately and with the bare minimum of fuss. If you have been contemplating taking out some kind of private health cover and you need some benefits to justify this expense then please read on.
Quicker access when you need it – As was mentioned briefly before, there is a significant waiting list in the public health sector and so if you are sick and you need an appointment, some treatment or even surgery then having private health cover in place will allow this to happen quickly and you get to jump the queue. If you are waiting for a procedure and you are in quite a lot of pain then it is imperative that you get this sorted out as quickly as possible.
The whole family is covered – It is likely that you want to take out health cover for yourself but also for your loved ones as well and that’s the beauty about taking out private health cover because you get a significant reduction in price when you compare it to taken out private individual health cover.
You get access to private hospitals – You do not want to be staying in hospital for any longer than you have to and why you are there, it is important to be as comfortable as possible. You will get to stay in a private room in a private hospital or you can opt for a private room in a public hospital. Either way, you will ever room all to yourself and lots of room for your family to visit whenever they want.
As well as the above, private health cover allows you to get access to some specialised drugs that are not available in the public health system as well as some treatments as well.
The penetration of new technologies in a variety of industries has led to the emergence of numerous trends that have significantly affected and modified some processes in the pharmaceutical industry.
The use of artificial intelligence in pharmaceutical product design and production is the most significant of them. Future drug development will greatly benefit from the usage of AI. Although the extent of this technology’s potential is still being explored, industry transformations with AI are in development.
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies are being used significantly in healthcare and society at large. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize a wide range of patient care aspects as well as internal business processes in organizations that provide finance and distribute medications.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that AI is capable of performing crucial healthcare tasks, such as disease diagnosis, on par with or even better than humans. Today, algorithms are already better than radiologists at spotting harmful cancers and assisting with the creation of cohorts for costly clinical studies.
Artificial Intelligence And Pharma Industries
To help bring safe, dependable medications to market, the pharmaceutical industry has long depended on cutting-edge equipment and technologies.
Digital technology has helped the pharmaceutical business produce medicine quickly when developing a workable vaccine in a short amount of time is difficult, particularly during the pandemic.
In a report by verdict, 70% of the businesses believed that AI would be crucial to their survival and growth. This is especially true for pharmaceutical companies, which depend on AI to develop new drugs quickly and efficiently.
Healthcare leadership is a dynamic and growing field. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates this field will grow at a staggering 28%, much higher than other professions. Professionals in this field are responsible for healthcare organizations’ overall management and operation. Healthcare leaders typically have a broad range of responsibilities, including financial management, human resources management, information and patient technology management, and patient care services such as quality assurance.
A healthcare leadership online program can help you gain the skills and knowledge you need to succeed in this field. Here are some benefits of pursuing an online health leadership program so you can develop your skills fast and easily.
Learn Emotional Intelligence
One of the most important skills for healthcare leaders is emotional intelligence. This skill is essential for dealing with patients, staff, and other stakeholders. Emotional intelligence is so important that studies show it contributes to 80% of personal success. With emotional intelligence, you’ll be able to better understand and manage emotions. You’ll also be better equipped to handle difficult situations and build relationships.
An online healthcare leadership program will help you develop your emotional intelligence skills. You’ll learn how to understand better and manage emotions. You’ll also learn how to build relationships and deal with difficult situations, which is critical when working in a healthcare setting.
If we could go back in time three years and take a look around, it would be easy to point out all of the circumstances that have shifted, grown in importance, or become obsolete over the course of that time. In retrospect, we can see the changes that have taken place and how they were amplified by the onset of the pandemic. No country, city, occupation, or person has escaped this global metamorphosis.
In our, dare we say, almost post-Covid world, some of these changes are discussed every day – the stock market, the price of gasoline and home heating oil and more. Other topics have been acknowledged, covered in the mass media, and then left to it. The Great Resignation and the ongoing difficulty in hiring qualified personnel in many sectors of the economy is now old news.
When it comes to healthcare, the continuing struggle to maintain sufficient levels of staffing became difficult at the onset of the pandemic and, maybe not surprisingly, has become increasingly challenging over the years since. It’s not old news if you work in a hospital and there aren’t enough nurses to adequately cover a shift. This ongoing scenario puts patients at risk and accelerates the timeline for employee burnout.
There are several factors at when it comes to the current glut of positions in the healthcare sector. There’s the need for livable, equitable wages for healthcare staff, the population of practitioners that travel for high wages but are never in one place too long, there’s even the tsunami of need that may frighten off some. In the midst of the situation, there are strategies that can make the search easier. Here are a few practical tips and tactics to help attract healthcare staff.
Advertise for a position with intention
The more specific the job description, the better the leads will be that come from it. There is a school of thought that if a job description contains too many specific requirements and details, that the number of applicants will be reduced. That’s a good thing. Keep job descriptions tight and relevant and know that only those that can do the job will apply. This saves time sifting through resumes and interviewing people who aren’t qualified for the job in the first place.
Software can help
Software that is tailor made to assist with the onboarding process is available and waiting to be utilized. Technology can assess qualifications and streamline the screening of candidates. Some offerings utilize artificial intelligence and can sift through data to help home in on those potential employees that are in alignment with the organization’s needs and goals. Investment in the right tech can provide immense business benefit in the long run.
Shannon Flynn is a freelance blogger who covers education technologies, cybersecurity and IoT topics. You can follow Shannon on Muck Rack or Medium to read more of her articles.
HIPAA-compliant uses of SMS messaging may not be as common as people think. HIPAA regulations include strict guidelines on how health care providers can use text and messaging. Some uses are perfectly fine, while others require precautions to protect patient data on all fronts.
Here’s a look at HIPAA-compliant SMS messaging and an overview of the guidelines messaging and health care providers should know about.
HIPAA-Compliant SMS Messaging
SMS messaging is a highly useful form of communication, but it can be a bit complicated in health care. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, is a set of laws and regulations designed to protect patients’ data and personal information, including via text messaging.
HIPAA regulations do not prohibit the use of SMS messaging. However, health care providers must follow the rules to ensure compliance.
These regulations rule out standard text messaging for communication about patient health information (PHI). There are some HIPAA-compliant uses of SMS messaging that any health care provider can use, though.
1. Announcements and Resources
General announcements and health resources are OK to send patients over text, just as long as they don’t contain any PHI. For example, a hospital could text patients an announcement about an upcoming flu shot clinic. Similarly, providers could use SMS messaging to send resources on current health concerns, such as symptoms of a new COVID-19 variant.
2. Promotions for New Services
Health care providers can also use standard SMS messaging to send patients announcements and promotions about new services they offer. For example, a local hospital could notify patients about cancer screening services or a mental health support group.
There are many benefits to using SMS messaging for health care marketing, such as improved communication and greater convenience for patients and providers alike. As long as these messages don’t contain PHI, they’re a great way to keep people in the loop about all the services they can access.
MDaudit is strengthening its commitment to revenue integrity with several changes that build upon its presence in the revenue cycle management (RCM) market. Among the changes made by the healthcare technology company, which harnesses the power of analytics to allow the nation’s premier healthcare organizations to retain revenue and reduce risk, are recent predictive and artificial intelligence (AI) tools and an expansion of its leadership team.
“MDaudit is committed to ensuring our customers have access to a full suite of cloud-based, AI-powered tools and highly experienced personnel to support them on their journey to revenue integrity,” said Peter Butler, president and CEO, MDaudit. “Our newly released 2022 MDaudit Annual Benchmark Report points to several reasons why the move to technology- and data-driven revenue integrity is so important to healthcare organizations at a time when revenue retention is as critical as revenue growth.”
The report, released in early November, highlights that the role of billing compliance needs to be increasingly data-driven and cross-functional, as well as serving as a business partner to other teams – coding, revenue integrity, finance, pharmacy, and clinical – to meet changing and more complex risks. The analysis also found that properly coding and billing professional and hospital claims can retain 15%-25% of overall revenue, while proper billing and coding of procedures, drug utilization, and modifiers on professional outpatient claims can result in significant revenue opportunities.
Out of 1 million claims with an average 77% accuracy, 230,000 undercoded claims with the wrong CPT/HCPCS codes ($24 per claim) would result in $5.5 million in additional revenue.
Out of 100,000 claims with an average 90% accuracy, 10,000 claims with missed or wrong DRG codes ($2,900 per claim) would result in $29 million in additional revenue.
Regarding technology, MDaudit recently launched the MDaudit Revenue Integrity Suite, which reimagines claim denial mitigation to identify and prevent the 20% of high-value hospital charges that drive 80% of denials impact. It also released an enhanced External Audit Workflow, which simplifies and automates time-consuming and inefficient manual processes for tracking third-party audit requests and introduced electronic submission of medical documentation (esMD).
Together, they are powerful tools for healthcare organizations committed to achieving revenue integrity and boosting their bottom lines. The company is also on track to deliver additional tools in 2023 with a greater focus on esMD, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities, and other key functionality to support revenue integrity. One of the large West Coast-based health system that deployed the MDaudit Revenue Integrity Suite had already retained more $2 million in revenues in the first six months after deployment
Finally, MDaudit strengthened its internal leadership team by creating new functional roles in customer service and security to support its commitment to helping healthcare organizations achieve a healthy bottom line. Raj Joshi was promoted to Chief Information and Security Officer, Jaenna Babajane to Vice President of Customer Experience, and Nisheet Goenka to Vice President of Engineering
“MDaudit is well-positioned in the revenue integrity market and able to protect any data our customers entrust to our care,” said MDaudit COO Ritesh Ramesh. “These organizational moves allow MDaudit to continue to deliver the agile and secure cloud-based software that empowers our customers to protect and grow revenues, drive profitability, and maintain operational efficiency in today’s tumultuous financial landscape.”
An essential part of being a healthcare provider, in any capacity, is understanding population health management. This discipline offers a window into the health of a selected population and helps providers understand how a particular demographic is influenced through key indicators such as geography, genetics, medical history, and socioeconomic factors.
In addition to narrowing the focus on specific clinical issues, applying population health strategies can help to address inequities and improve health outcomes.
Putting population health strategies into practice is faced with numerous inherent systemic challenges.
Monitoring and tracking chronic illness rates and outcomes over large and diverse populations
Processing multiple data points simultaneously from multiple source points
Identifying high-risk patients, risk stratification, and grouping by specific, clinical conditions, co-morbidities, or predictive risk models
Additionally, looming over the entire healthcare industry is the growing physician shortage and the fact that hospital employment is expected to decrease by almost 96,000 employees in about two years.
Digital solutions are emerging as a much-needed approach to maximize the utilization of available resources, meet the growing need to meet patients in a virtual setting, and streamline demanding workflow. They can streamline implementation and enable quicker, easier outreach to targeted populations. They can enable improved patient care and community outreach. Digital solutions can also support data integration and interoperability for a more complete view of the patient, can assist with targeted patient outreach, and can allow results and outcomes to be monitored and tracked.
Benefitting patients, providers, and the community
Regardless of how a healthcare organization addresses population health strategies, at its core, it involves collaboration between leaders in healthcare and the community. Factors that make up the complete picture of individual and population health span health behaviors, for example, tobacco use, diet and exercise, and alcohol and drug use as well as access to care and quality of care.
Organizations need be able to prioritize, process, and integrate a multitude of data sources, data sources to provide better transparency into the population’s health history and health journey. This transparency helps better manage networks, risks, opportunities, and strategies to improve health efficiently.
Effective population health strategies will allow for better patient management and care by enhancing communication with the patient, coordinating care, lowering health and other risks, and processing and aggregating data. The end goal for population health is to enhance the outcomes and quality of care while managing costs. Digital solutions and technologies are emerging as valuable tools to make this a reality.
Now an integral part of our daily lives, digital technology connects every aspect of our world. Innovation, especially in the digital ecosystem, is occurring rapidly. Nevertheless, there is an immense opportunity to improve various populations’ well-being through digital health solutions.
The healthcare industry has always been a tough nut to crack. With a large number of patients, each with their own set of symptoms, conditions, and complications, it’s no surprise that doctors and therapists are often unable to provide the best care they can.
AI has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry by providing therapists with an easy way to treat their patients and provide them with the best possible care. Most importantly, AI can help therapists deliver better care by identifying gaps in treatment plans and recommending changes that will lead to better outcomes for patients.
Till 2021, roughly20% of healthcare organizations around the world had embraced AI in their healthcare infrastructure. This percentage is expected to grow as more entities come to understand how AI can help them better serve their patients and improve outcomes.
AI Helps Therapists Give Their Patients More Personalized Care
AI helps therapists give their patients more personalized care by providing them with the tools to better capture and understand their patient’s needs.
Therapists use AI to help them collect data about their patients and their progress so that they can understand how well their treatment plans are working. This information is especially helpful for therapists who work in group settings, where they might not have time to carefully monitor each patient’s progress on a day-to-day basis.
AI also helps therapists give their patients more personalized care by providing them with the tools they need to be able to see things from the perspective of other people. For example, if one of your friends has just been diagnosed with depression, AI can help you think about how you would respond if he or she came to you for advice about how best to manage it.
