Information Age Health Care: One third of physicians use telemedicine, one fifth are reimbursed

Most healthcare practitioners are either using telemedicine or planning to use it soon, but less than a fifth of them are being paid for those services.

Telemedicine reimbursement is gradually gaining steam. Just this month CMS released a final rulethat will expand the range of telehealth services that can be reimbursed under Medicare starting in 2015. In July a House bill was proposed that would also expand reimbursement by Medicare; it’s currently in committee.

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Ethics and HIT

Challenges...
http://jamia.bmj.com/site/icons/amiajnl8946.pdf

patient safety should trump all other values; corporate concerns about liability and intellectual property ownership may be valid but should not over-ride all other considerations;
transparency and a commitment to patient safety should govern vendor contracts;
institutions are duty-bound to provide ethics education to purchasers and users, and should commit publicly to standards of corporate conduct; and
vendors, system purchasers, and users should encourage and assist in each others’ efforts to adopt best practices.

Meaningful Use (MU) & Nursing

Nurses are central to ensuring Meaningful Use ...

http://www.himss.org/ASP/topics_FocusDynamic.asp?faid=395

Bowles, K. (October, 2010). Achieving Meaningful Use with Information Technology: Telehealth Research. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics (OJNI),14 (3). Available at http://ojni.org/14_3/Bowles.pdf

Bowles, K.,(February, 2011) ONJNI....Achieving Meaningful Use With Decision Support Research http://tinyurl.com/4ol9r6p

CMS & MU:

Meeting the Requirements for Meaningful Use: Attestation Calculator

HIMMS:

Meaningful Use OneSource assists eligible healthcare providers and professionals in understanding Meaningful Use Stage 1 and Stage 2 requirements, timelines, and the proposed rule. Our dynamic and living body of documents and tools fully prepares you to:

Meet Meaningful Use proposed Stage 2 certification criteria and standards
Receive Medicare and Medicaid incentive funding and avoid penalties
Implement Meaningful Use specifications practically and successfully
Get updates on federal and state regulations with content vetted by industry experts!

Information Age Health Care

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One third of physicians use telemedicine, one fifth are reimbursed

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