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The Web app automates the review of administrative, technical, and physical safeguards as defined by HIPAA and HITECH.

Information security and system management provider Symantec deepened its reach into the healthcare sector on Wednesday when it unveiled the Allscripts Privacy & Security Risk Assessment, a tool that automates the paper-based process of assessing a medical practice’s privacy and security risks.
According to Symantec, the Allscripts Privacy & Security Risk Assessment is a Web-based application that provides physicians with a single place to complete the review of administrative, technical, and physical safeguards as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Doug Havas, vice president of Symantec Healthcare, said in a statement the company understands the unique needs of the healthcare industry as it grapples with the task of protecting patient information.
Havas also said the application makes it easier for physicians to demonstrate that they meet the security requirements of HIPAA and helps them qualify for substantial incentive payments from Medicare or Medicaid.

“The solution also represents a critical step in identifying pain points and mitigating risks so practices can maximize their data security,” Havas said.
Physicians applying for Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) incentive programs must demonstrate that their practices meet the security requirements under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Meaningful Use Stage 1 criteria. And they must conduct a privacy and security risk analysis under HIPAA guidelines.
“Right now, physician practices can either perform the HIPAA risk assessment themselves or hire an onsite consultant to do the analysis,” said Lee Shapiro, president of Allscripts. “By working with Symantec, we can now greatly simplify the risk assessment process for those practices that are looking for an alternative to doing it on their own.”
Another objective for offering the tool is to help physician practices that are financially constrained to conduct a privacy and security assessment of their health information systems without buying new hardware.
To make it user friendly, clinicians are not required to download files and the application produces comprehensive reports immediately upon the practice completing the assessment. The assessment includes identifying potential gaps and providing recommendations for complying with HIPAA rules and HITECH. Vendor and application independent, it can be used with any EHR.
“A critical evaluation that would normally take significant time and resources has been simplified into an easy, user-friendly, step-by-step process,” Alexander Laham, corporate compliance and privacy officer at Springfield Medical Care Systems, said in a statement. “We will certainly be using this tool on a regular basis, not just once a year, to gauge our improvement over time and help ensure that our systems are secure and compliant.”
Developed by Symantec and currently available exclusively through Allscripts, the Allscripts Privacy & Security Risk Assessment offers several features including:
– One-stop and one place to complete HIPAA-defined assessment of administrative, technical, and physical safeguards.
– Automated reporting and gap analysis with recommendations for improvements.
– A subscription-based model that accommodates the needs and financial parameters of single providers, multiple locations, and enterprise customers.
– Annual collection and verification of assessment data.
– Automatic assessment and audit log.
– Graphical and administrative views of assessment results.
– Documentation that a privacy and security risk assessment has been performed in accordance with HITECH and HIPAA.

Humana helps subsidize physicians interested in implementing Allscripts’ EHR system.

URL: http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/231000647

A recent partnership between Humana and Allscripts Health Care Solutions to provide eligible physician practices with incentives for implementing Allscripts’ EHR technology will help remove barriers for physicians who are looking to implement such a system.
Nearly one year ago, Humana partnered with Athenahealth in a similar initiative that encourages eligible physicians to join its Medical Home EHR Rewards Program. Under that agreement, Humana subsidizes physicians’ implementation costs when they purchase athenaClinicals, an integrated practice management and EHR system. While this program has yielded some success, Humana executives saw the need to build relationships with other EHR vendors to speed up the adoption of EHRs while providing physician support.
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According to Tim O’Rourke, vice president of health care provider engagement at Humana, his company continues to receive positive feedback in response to the strategic alliance and offering through Athenahealth, but he said more needed to be done.

“While the feedback is positive, we also recognize that our broad network of physicians and providers has their own distinctive need for specific functionality and/or a user interface within an EHR system, so expanding our relationships to include Allscripts and potentially other EHR vendors will allow Humana a greater opportunity to further our support to more of our network physicians and providers,” O’Rourke said in an interview.

Through its partnership with Allscripts, which was announced this month, Humana will provide financial assistance to selected physicians for adoption of the Allscripts EHR as part of Humana’s Medical Home EHR Rewards Program.

O’Rourke said that Humana is working with Allscripts to evaluate and identify eligible physician practice candidates. He also noted that through the Alliance, Humana will subsidize a portion of the implementation or upgrade cost of specific Allscripts products.

“This will allow these users expanded functionality and integration of additional data to further support advanced clinical decision making to improve outcomes, enhance care coordination to lower cost, and help improve the quality of life for our members and physicians’ patients, O’Rourke said.

The Humana Medical Home EHR Rewards Program is designed for primary care physicians to recognize and encourage improved care coordination and promote more complete patient-centered care that is further supported through technology adoption and use. Through the program, Humana will provide the EHR subsidy, designate practices as a Humana Medical Home, and make additional financial rewards available to the practice by lowering cost and improving outcomes.

Under the Medical Home EHR Rewards Program, physician encounters are measured in conjunction with nationally recognized Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) quality measures, which are designed to improve the overall efficiency of the health care delivery system, while also evaluating other measures such as generic-drug dispensing rate, mail-order usage, readmission rate, and health-risk-assessment completion.

“As we progress towards a value-based system of health, this initiative with Humana will deliver the real-time information that physicians and other caregivers need to make the best decisions for their patients,” Glen Tullman, chief executive officer of Allscripts, said in a statement. “Allscripts believes that the key to better health care is turning information into insights that physicians use to improve both the quality and cost-effectiveness of care.”

Humana already delivers health information and clinical messaging about its members through the Availity Health Information Network. This information is available to physicians online via the Availity CareProfile, a longitudinal patient record that includes care provided by multiple treating physicians and facilities. Going forward, CareProfile information will be integrated with participating EHR vendor systems and presented at the point of care, to integrate with the physician workflow.

“Availity actually serves as our ‘front door’ for our relationships with Athenahealth and Allscripts. It helps create a basic level of standardization and provides a more coordinated means for receipt and delivery of data and information,” O’Rourke said.

Just as there are anecdotes about the liabilities of EMRs, there are stories about the benefits. In McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, healthcare providers are talking positively about the implementation of EMRs.

A physician at his McAllen clinic said EMRs saved time and money, and more importantly helped deliver timely patient care when the FDA recalled a prescription painkiller in November 2010. Staff was able to segment the group of its patients who were taking the drug and notify them of the recall. That kind of benefit is priceless.

A spokesperson for an EMR vendor whose systems are in place in the area pointed to an increase between 8 and 14 percent in billing because healthcare providers were able to accurately and efficiently track how they were caring for the patient. I’m not saying that I don’t believe the spokesperson, but it would have been nice to hear it straight from the healthcare providers who can say, yes, revenues went up because of accurate billing.

At a time when many physician offices are wary of losing productivity and precious revenue during the implementation and learning phases, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – in this case, hearing about the uptick in the ability to charge – would be helpful.

Local providers are also excited about being able to take care of their patients wherever they are with EMRs enabling them to access patient data in real time. In the Rio Grande Valley, where patients can be migrant workers or snow birds who are escaping harsh winters elsewhere, this capability is critical to delivering efficient care.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services last week boasted that the % of doctors who had basic electronic health records doubled between 2008 and 2011. That’s certainly a good sign. So is the increase in the percentage of physicians who say they plan to show Meaningful Use. More than half of doctors now say they aim to attest to Meaningful Use, vs. 41 percent in 2010.

But it’s way too early to break out the champagne. To start with, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which conducted the physician EHR survey, dropped the category of “fully functional” EHRs that it had used in previous years. It’s now looking only at how many doctors have basic systems and how many say they have any “EMR/EHR” system at all. (That’s so vague that it’s virtually meaningless.)

Why the comprehensive EHR category was eliminated is anyone’s guess; but it’s a good bet that the CDC did it to make the numbers look better.

In any case, here’s how CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics defined a basic EHR in its paper on the 2011 survey: “A system that has all of the following functionalities: patient history and demographics, patient problem list, physician clinical notes, comprehensive list of patient’s medications and allergies, computerized orders for prescriptions, and ability to view laboratory and imaging results electronically.”
Read more: http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/cdc-data-ehr-adoption-overlooks-inconvenient-facts/2011-12-04?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1fmfOKF75

Rumors about electronic medical records continue to persist, but here we try to separate the myths from the facts.

1. EMRs are bad for “bedside manner.” Does a computer ruin the interaction between patients and doctors? The opposite is true, according to a 2010 Government Accountability Office report. The study found that EMRs help doctors have more information about the patient and contribute to better communication. A good EMR allows a doctor to spend more time with a patient and less with paperwork. Plus, patients can get real-time access to their own health records online through the doctor’s EMR system.
2. You can’t teach old doctors new tricks. Although there is an initial learning curve during the EMR adoption process, an easy-to-use EMR can significantly improve workflows once an EMR is fully implemented. Older physicians often lead the charge for an EMR transition in order to prepare their practice for sale when they retire. Tools such as dictation software and customizable templates can help win over even the most technology-adverse docs.
3. Only hospitals use EMRs. While EMRs are more common in large medical facilities such as hospitals, health technology is starting to sweep into smaller private practices. Private practice physicians deliver more than 80 percent of all care provided for uninsured patients and serve as the front-lines for primary care in the U.S. – so getting them to use technology that improves the quality of care is especially important.
4. Having my data stored in an EMR is a security risk. Federal HIPAA regulations are very strict about who can see inside your chart and give your EMR records protection beyond what’s possible with paper charts. In order to open an electronic chart, a medical professional needs strict login permissions. The EMR system tracks each time your records are accessed and backs up data in a safe and secure way so that records are always available to you and your doctors when needed. Plus, Web-based EMR systems protect from disasters, floods, building fires, and tornadoes that could easily destroy paper records.
5. EMRs are expensive. The final myth is actually true a lot of the time. Legacy EMR vendors still charge small medical practices $100,000 or more for software, with additional money spent on hardware and IT maintenance. However, new affordable EMR technology is emerging that is making it easier for small practices to join the technology transformation.