The sensitivity of health records and the need to defend against vulnerabilities in public access is nothing new, but as health IT becomes more and more ubiquitous and large-scale data breaches a common occurrence, privacy and security are increasingly top of mind.

While many hospital systems and physician practices have focused on digitizing their data, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has been ha

The sensitivity of health records and the need to defend against vulnerabilities in public access is nothing new, but as health IT becomes more and more ubiquitous and large-scale data breaches a common occurrence, privacy and security are increasingly top of mind.

While many hospital systems and physician practices have focused on digitizing their data, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has been hard at work defining and updating the guidelines for privacy protection that are fast becoming industry standards.

At the start of the New Year, for example, the ONC published its guidelines on Safety Assurance Factors for Electronic Health Record (EHR) Resilience. The SAFER Guides recommend practices that optimize the safety and safe use of EHR’s, including infrastructure guides mapping out contingency planning and clinical process guides on patient identification and clinician communication.

Most recently, the ONC put out a request for public comment by posing questions on their blog that seek input on one specific area of data privacy and how it might be addressed through policy changes.

The issue: What privacy concerns arise when a family member, friend or legal designee is given access to patient information through certified EHR technology? Some of the questions raised by the ONC include:

• Are there policy issues that need further resolution regarding personal representative access to view/download/transmit accounts?
• How do health-care providers confirm that an individual is, in fact, a personal representative?
• How are patients’ friends and family provided with credentialed access to view/download/transmit accounts?
• Is this access “all or nothing,” or are there more granular options? If the latter, how does this get accomplished?

With public feedback, the ONC’s Health IT Policy Committee’s Privacy and Security Tiger Team will be better adept at handling many critical questions around privacy and security. Those interested in keeping tabs on the ONC’s latest thought leadership in this area are encouraged to follow their discussions here:

http://www.healthit.gov/facas/calendar/2014/02/10/policy-privacy-security-tiger-team

What should be the ONC’s next top priority when it comes to privacy protection? Tweet @CNSICorp to let us know! Follow CNSI on Twitter.

Late last month, CNSI participated in the third annual Healthcare Mandate Summit in San Diego, CA.

The conference brought together compliance leaders, pr

Late last month, CNSI participated in the third annual Healthcare Mandate Summit in San Diego, CA.

The conference brought together compliance leaders, program managers, business analysts, and technical representatives from state Medicaid IT programs. The attendees gathered to share insights on industry successes and challenges from last year and to look ahead to the goals and obstacles expected in 2014.

CNSI Senior Vice President Arvinder Singh was on hand at the event to give a presentation on the changing landscape of Medicare Advantage and Managed Medicaid.

As outlined by Singh, Medicaid expansion and a growing Medicaid-eligible population bring many business opportunities and challenges – especially ensuring that project costs are balanced by revenue recovery.

Singh’s presentation detailed the macro industry trends he’s observed as a leader in technical compliance, including the changes that come with new Medicaid eligibility groups, long-term care, and mandatory enrollment.

Each of these trends, Singh noted, will impact operations concerning flexibility in product design and pricing, the administrative complexity for eligibility and enrollment processes, and the need for enhanced outreach and interaction with enrollees.

For instance, Managed Medicaid is shifting to incorporate enhanced data exchange requirements, all with a focus on quality outcome. Singh emphasized that this change forces the industry to view health IT in a new way, moving from a “build to last” to a “designed to change” outlook.

What does that mean, you might ask? Well, for one, a primary focus of designing IT programs of the future should be user experience and information behavior. That is, how do people interpret and conceptualize data, and how can IT programs be made to adapt to those ever evolving trends?

These changes impact every aspect of business and technology operations for health plans. While there are lots of opportunities for growth, those opportunities are often met with challenges and constraints.

In order to adapt, we will need a reset of current IT approaches to enable plans to optimize operations, maximize enrollments and improve the bottom line.

As health IT moves from “build to last” to “designed to change,” in what ways will the health industry be better served? Tweet @CNSICorp to let us know your thoughts! Follow CNSI on Twitter.

When discussing which technological innovations will have the greatest impact on health care, “big data” is among the most popular buzz words.

The potential of big data is great, but turning it into “smart data” is something the industry is still getting acquainted to and is not all that comfortable with yet.

When discussing which technological innovations will have the greatest impact on health care, “big data” is among the most popular buzz words.

The potential of big data is great, but turning it into “smart data” is something the industry is still getting acquainted to and is not all that comfortable with yet. With a little time, we can expect this situation to change.

Further utilization of health care data analytics represents a major resource for health care organizations and government health agencies alike. In fact, one of the most appealing aspects of having access to large swaths of aggregated information is that it can be used to benefit the industry from numerous and diverse perspectives.

At the research and practical care level, for example, culling insights from information collected over time will help determine the most effective ways to treat patients. An important initiative to jump start this area of work was announced this past November with a project involving two private sector companies and a number of government agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the United Kingdom’s National Healthcare Service.

While the agencies will share non-personal information from their databases, the private sector will design programs that will use that data to do everything from appraise mental health treatments to study demographic health habits. As these programs are refined, the systems can eventually be utilized by hospitals or other types of medical organizations to improve their efficiency and quality of care.

Meanwhile at the state and federal agency level, big data analytics are being used to help make sense of the massive amounts of health information available. Among the best examples are CNSI’s eCAMS HealthBeat, which is essentially a dashboard that visualizes and analyzes sets of data using a state-of-the-art forecasting engine to output analysis. That analysis can be used to assist health officials to identify red flags where and when they exist and make real-time informed decisions on a variety of issues they might face.

In some regards, when it comes to big data, we are already there.

What area of the health care industry has the most to gain by utilizing big data? Tweet @CNSICorp to let us know! Follow CNSI on Twitter.

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicked off on January 7^th with nearly 3,000 exhibitors and more than 150,000 attendees.

While the conference is an annual hit with technology buffs interested in the latest from driverless cars to <a href="http://ces.cnet

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicked off on January 7^th with nearly 3,000 exhibitors and more than 150,000 attendees.

While the conference is an annual hit with technology buffs interested in the latest from driverless cars to throwable camera balls, this year’s event put a greater spotlight on health care than ever before.

As a part of CES, the Digital Health Summit, a sub-conference spanning two days, celebrated its fifth year with sessions on the “digital health manifesto” and how “digital health saved my life.”

The show reported a 40 percent growth in digital health exhibitors when compared with last year, a statistic that can largely be attributed to two key trends_ health and wellness becoming increasingly consumer-oriented as a younger and more health-conscious generation enters the market; and Baby Boomers slowly catching on to the ways that technology can make managing health care a whole lot simpler.

Among the big trends that were of interest included the uses of tele-health systems that allow for seamless experiences between devices while providing a greater ability to monitor one’s health. That focus came with good reason, as rising health care costs and the newly enacted Affordable Care Act both push preventative care as an avenue for creating a more efficient marketplace.

Tele-health plays a critical role here because remote care will allow individuals to connect with their physicians more often without so much as having to leave their living rooms, thereby cutting down on unnecessary doctor visits and hospital stays.

Dr. Joseph Kvedar, of the Center for Connected Health at Partners HealthCare in Boston, echoed those same sentiments during his CES panel titled, “Point-of-Care, Everywhere.” The session discussed the need for tools designed for the on-the-go individual and stressed that “from tele-health systems to seamless experiences between devices, focusing on meeting patients and consumers exactly where they are is becoming increasingly critical for success.”

As depicted in this CNSI infographic, surveys show that people are increasingly interested in switching to physicians who offer electronic access to medical records, a strong showing of potential.

For Kvedar, the key is making digital health tools as addictive as people find their smartphones so that they want to check in on their well-being throughout the day, much like an individual might on Facebook. Highlighting social connections and making the user experience more personal, as Kvedar notes, may just be the right trick.

Can social media help motivate people to engage with their health through technology? Tweet @CNSICorp to let us know! Follow CNSI on Twitter.

Forbes is calling it the “Industry to Watch In 2014,” and with good reason.

Forbes is calling it the “Industry to Watch In 2014,” and with good reason. Although innovation in the healthcare industry has often been a step behind, things are shaping up and healthcare technology is set to take off in the new year and beyond.

In his recent Forbes column, Ilya Pozin writes that ongoing trends could very well create the “perfect storm for entrepreneurship, positioning healthcare tech as a very interesting industry to watch in 2014.”

Among those trends is the impact of the HITECH Act, which will encourage electronic medical record adoption while providing further protection and control of personal information. Combined with the increase in Affordable Care Organizations, the HITECH Act will force doctors to utilize technology solutions to get necessary information and data on their patients.

Meanwhile, a research study by Frost & Sullivan reports that mobile health (mHealth) technologies and cloud computing are also two key sector innovations to watch in 2014.

As smartphones become ubiquitous, so will access to critical health data via mobile applications. Additionally, health care providers should view cloud computing as an increasingly attractive option in lowering costs and improving patient care.

For healthcare organizations that have been late adopters of innovative and cost-effective technologies, now is the time to take a second look. Increased efficiency and costs savings impact the bottom line and allow for greater levels of care. As for patients, many of these advances allow for a more convenient health care experience, and that’s priceless.

What major health care tech trends are you excited about for the year ahead? Tweet @CNSICorp to let us know! Follow CNSI on  Twitter.

Earlier this month, industry executives and stakeholders from across the mobile health spectrum gathered outside Washington, D.C.

Earlier this month, industry executives and stakeholders from across the mobile health spectrum gathered outside Washington, D.C. for the 5^th annual mHealth Summit.

The event brought together leaders from the government, non-profit, private, and academic sectors to “advance collaboration in the use of wireless technology to improve health outcomes, reduce costs, and create a new paradigm in health care delivery both in the United States and abroad.”

Among the key takeaways from the four-day event_ healthcare companies are increasingly becoming technology companies. Data, whether it concerns market research on patient care, the number of Medicaid applicants in a given state, or the sharing of critical personal health information over a mobile application, needs to be harnessed through the latest technologies in order to bear the greatest impact.

In that regard, mHealth and eHealth, or any other shorthand version combining the latest digital applications with health management, are increasingly being referred to as just plain old ‘health.’

That is a good thing. The more we recognize that technology is a tool that builds solutions for healthcare management, the quicker we can integrate those solutions into the larger health systems that facilitate our individual care.

This year’s summit was billed as the “largest mobile health event in the world,” and it raised some of the most interesting possibilities to date of the future of health care delivery. As generations that are native to the digital era continue to move on to leading roles in healthcare industries, it becomes more and more likely that one day soon physicians will provide digital prescriptions via a mobile application or non-urgent doctor appointments will be held over webcams. What else is yet to be conceived?

How do you see mobile applications transforming the health care space? Tweet @CNSICorp to let us know! Follow CNSI on Twitter.

At CNSI, we are committed to developing cutting-edge technologies that provide solutions and build efficiencies for state and federal governments.

At CNSI, we are committed to developing cutting-edge technologies that provide solutions and build efficiencies for state and federal governments. For each health related project we are a part of, our goals remain the same_ better care, better health, and lower costs.

In that regard, 2013 proved a banner year with the implementation of the first ever cloud computing platform for Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS).

As a concept, cloud computing describes a large network of computing systems that can run a program or application simultaneously and that are served by virtual hardware. Since the virtual hardware doesn’t physically exist, programs that run on them can be edited or updated as necessary from any location.

What’s more, by utilizing virtual servers cloud computing allows for an increase in capacity and capabilities without necessarily having to invest in additional infrastructure.

When applied to health care, cloud computing not only increases the efficiency of managing government programs such as Medicaid, but reduces cost.It also enables innovation associated with those programs on a scale that is just beginning to show its total value.

According to CDW’s 2013 State of the Cloud report, 88 percent of healthcare organizations that utilize cloud computing have reduced IT costs by an average of 20 percent. However, through 2012 just 35 percent of health care organizations were implementing cloud computing services.

This year, CNSI announced a partnership with Michigan and Illinois to implement a completely automated real-time and cloud enabled MMIS, referred to as Medicaid as a Service (MaaS).

Maas meets security requirements including authentication, authorization, availability, identity management, integrity, and incidence response while dramatically reducing costs for both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and for each state involved.

For Michigan and Illinois, the cloud is expected to bring Medicaid management and implementation costs down by 40 percent.

With those kinds of savings, state governments can better serve their populace and allocate additional resources to communities in need. The end result_ better care, better health and lower costs.

What other ways can cloud computing advance health care? Tweet @CNSICorp to let us know! Follow CNSI on Twitter.

Over the past few months the role of information technology in the health care industry has been especially topical.

And while the HealthCare.gov website’s continued refinement has been the public face of health care in America, what is less discussed is the diverse benefits that health IT brings to our everyday well-being and to the economics of health care management.

On a large scale, advancements in

Over the past few months the role of information technology in the health care industry has been especially topical.

And while the HealthCare.gov website’s continued refinement has been the public face of health care in America, what is less discussed is the diverse benefits that health IT brings to our everyday well-being and to the economics of health care management.

On a large scale, advancements in health IT allow individual states to leverage immense sets of data to increase administrative efficiency, decrease paperwork and instances of fraud, and get a better understanding of the communities they serve. In doing so, costs are being driven down while quality of care rises.

Somewhat surprisingly, widespread health IT is not all that new. In 1972, a law was enacted to incorporate state mechanized claims processing and information retrieval systems so that state governments were better able to service and handle information regarding Medicaid recipients.

Today, modernized Medicaid Management Information Systems are used to save the state and federal governments millions of dollars in management fees by utilizing cloud computing technologies and advanced analysis models that help health officials identify and meet public needs.

Meanwhile, IT is bringing convenience to an individual level that is changing the way we each interpret and interact with our health. Whether it is running, yoga, your calorie intake or cooking tips, there is an abundance of mobile apps that aid in tracking your overall health and fitness.

In 2014, the expansion of the Blue Button, a joint project by several government agencies, will allow even more individuals to have greater access to their health information. The Blue Button makes health information available online and through some mobile apps, so that users can use one common portal to find health providers and plans while also compiling key information on their health history.

As advancements in the scope and use of IT continues, we can expect greater efficiencies in how health care is managed by the public and private sectors as well as in the ways we interact with our own health.

How does IT help you manage your health? Tweet @CNSICorp to let us know! Follow CNSI on Twitter.