Mike Miliard
The term may carry with it wispy and ephemeral connotations, but cloud data storage is regulated by the same ironclad security and compliance rules as traditional server storage.
Florida is famous for its sunshine, but it's infamous for its Medicaid fraud. With the fourth largest program in the country, covering more than 2.1 million people, the state loses as much as $3.2 billion in fraudulent claims each year.
Hudson Health Plan, a Medicaid managed care organization based in Tarrytown, N.Y., is poised to roll out new software that will mine its voluminous stores of patient data to ensure that members who are in need of extra attention are directed to the nurses and case managers they need.
Capital BlueCross, of Harrisburg, Pa. has announced a three-year renewal agreement with McLean, Va-based Prematics, Inc. for their electronic prescribing service. More than 1,000 practitioners who provide care for a million patients across central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley use the service.
"Investing in heath information technology is a top priority for health plans," says Robert Zirkelbach, press secretary of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) whose Institute 2010 conference takes place Wednesday, June 9 to Friday, June 11 in Las Vegas.
Outdated hospital communications systems -- based on blaring PAs and multiple, often incompatible mobile devices -- are causing confusion, reducing efficiency, wasting money, and helping contribute to serious staffing shortages.
Being a small, rural hospital poses a special set of challenges. But the innovative ways in which these under-resourced organizations manage to meet their needs present new opportunities for vendors.
"When we deal with procurement and IT people in healthcare companies, we tend to hear the same message time and time again: 'Every dollar we spend on IT equipment we'd rather spend somewhere else.'"
More and more EMR vendors are offering confused and wary providers an offer they might find difficult to refuse: a money-back guarantee.
The Kansas Health Policy Authority (KHPA) has extended a $119 million two-year technology services contract with HP Enterprise Services. The extension, which includes two one-year options, will allow the state to meet its budget without eliminating staff or reducing customer service.