Patty Enrado

As a Medicare Advantage health plan, Arcadian Health Plan (AHP) was not meeting its 3 percent abandonment rate on service calls, as mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Integrating claims systems with practice management and electronic medical record systems has been floated around the industry for a few years.

The Obama administration’s validation that it would extend to Oct. 1, 2013, the deadline for conversion of the healthcare coding system from ICD-9 to ICD-10, may give a false sense of relief, industry observers say.

When the federal government gets involved, speed to market is not the first thing that comes to mind. The Federal Health Architecture (FHA), however, appears to be a game changer.

Kaiser Permanente is preparing to expand an IT pilot, while other IT initiatives are being piloted in limited production or tested at its R&D facility.

When the federal government gets involved, speed to market is not the first thing that comes to mind. The Federal Health Architecture (FHA), however, is a game changer.

At a time of layoffs across the country, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota (BCBSND) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska (BCBSNE) launched CoreLink Administrative Solutions, a healthcare IT company, in January.

The Cherokee Indian Hospital in North Carolina and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services each implemented healthcare IT to improve population health outcomes in their communities and the work processes to support that improvement.

The 20th Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey highlighted a firm commitment to healthcare IT, despite financial concerns impacting hospital CIOs' decision-making plans.

In his Monday morning keynote, George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, discussed how his organization has been using healthcare IT to provide 24/7 comprehensive data about a patient to physicians and to "make the right thing easy to do."