For many, the end of a year brings cause for remembrance and reflection. I, on the other hand, tend to look forward in anticipation of new possibilities on the horizon.
At Health Management Technology, we have made plans to continue to be the industry’s “source for healthcare information and systems solutions.” This is no simple task given that the healthcare industry is undergoing so many fundamental changes as it transitions from a volume-based business to a value-based one. To ensure that we provide our audience with the most impactful editorial content, we have decided to place special emphasis upon six core areas in 2015. While we will be reporting on numerous issues outside the scope of these topics, we will delve deeply into the following subjects:
Analytics – To harness the enigma that is Big Data, healthcare executives need opportunities to read success stories where organizations develop analytics competencies equating to actionable insights, establishing future plans, improving outcomes and reducing time and cost.
Claims and coding – October marks the latest deadline requiring the implementation of ICD-10. Outside this mandate, we believe claims and coding will dominate many facets of day-to-day healthcare administrators’ actions and planning, including testing procedures, clinical documentation improvement and reimbursements.
Electronic medical record (EMR)/electronic health record (EHR) – EMRs/EHRs are becoming integral, yet highly debated, components of healthcare. Will they become easily usable – and meaningfully usable?
Decision support – With the aim of providing timely information, usually at the point of care, decision support utilizes sophisticated systems and tools to take over certain administrative tasks, create notifications of prospective problems and provide data and suggestions for clinicians and patients to consider. In terms of post-care, decision support is also becoming a key factor in addressing population health.
Revenue cycle management (RCM) – Securing payments and managing claims processes are critical functions to any healthcare organization. It is vital that these organizations appraise the emerging technologies and systems that track the entire lifecycle of its claims and supply chain processes so that inefficiencies can be easily addressed and, in turn, allow for a predictable revenue stream.
Population health – The populations of whole communities, condition cohorts and even entire nations are being examined by not only clinicians, but also public and private policymakers to determine care decisions and even preventative measures. Population health can extend the reach of healthcare far outside the walls of hospitals and doctors’ offices, bringing outreach, monitoring and care directly into patient homes.
I hope you are just as excited as we are to investigate how organizations are wrestling with these issues, because 2015 will be a watershed year for healthcare. I invite you to join us for this great ride. And if you have another topic you’d like to see covered, drop me a line.
