In the interview, Rick describes this challenge as follows, “Today, IT leaders are facing data conversion challenges from clinical and electronic health record (EHR) system replacements.   This clinical data is all stored in a digital format but not all of it is stored discretely or with the same logic.  The challenge, then, is in trying to convert or map this data from one EHR infrastructure to another so that providers are able to access full data integrity at the point of care when critical clinical decision making is required.”

Rick notes that in contrast to attempting to convert data from a legacy system, “data archiving is the process of taking data from a legacy system and normalizing it in a relational database structure.  A user interface or presentation layer is then applied so the data is searchable as discrete elements and viewed in a format that is representative of how the data was stored in the former application.  This process allows for full data integrity at a reasonable price point.”

For more information on Harmony Healthcare IT’s Health Data Archiver product, visit the product website at www.healthdataarchiver.com.  To download a copy of the executive interview with Rick Adams, go to http://www.healthdataarchiver.com/legacydata/

]]> http://blog.harmonyhit.com/2013/04/24/healthcare-legacy-data-management-archiver/feed/ http://blog.harmonyhit.com/2013/04/22/healthcare-legacy-data-management-interview-series/ http://blog.harmonyhit.com/2013/04/22/healthcare-legacy-data-management-interview-series/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:28:30 +0000 radams http://blog.harmonyhit.com/?p=822 Legacy data management and health data archiving are some of the topics covered in a recent interview by Harmony Healthcare IT’s Managing Partner, Rick Adams. In this wide ranging interview, Rick answers questions on how health data archiving has evolved over the years as well as where it is headed.

When asked about the evolution of health data archiving, Rick states “Historically, data was printed out from a legacy system and placed in filing cabinets or the data was scanned and saved to a network drive.  About five or six years ago, this was still a fairly common way to create what you might call an archive.  Another commonly used approach was to task a legacy system user with generating static electronic reports for each patient account in PDF format.  This PDF approach was somewhat more “patient centric” in that there was a searchable index to retrieve all the data on a patient, although a search simply returned a set of documents. The problem with any of these approaches, particularly the filing cabinet approach, was the challenge in quickly retrieving specific sets of information in response to a legal inquiry, an audit, or a patient request.”

In describing what he envisions as future trends, Rick notes that “There are a few healthcare industry drivers that are creating a greater need for archiving today.  First, small practices are replacing legacy financial systems with fully-integrated EHRs.  Secondly, larger practices are replacing their old EHRs with newer EHRs.  Finally, consolidation throughout the healthcare system and federal incentive for the development of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) is causing larger physician groups and hospitals to acquire independent practices – thus, replacing and displacing even more systems.  …This means that we definitely see a space for data archiving as an alternative to data conversion for some time to come.”

Download a copy of this executive leadership interview regarding healthcare legacy data management.

According to findings released 3/18/13 from the 8th annual Physician Retention Survey from Cejka Search and the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), physician turnover rates are at an all-time high.  As physicians depart or retire from a practice, the need to archive electronic protected health information (ePHI) of patients rises.

The report finds physician turnover reaching the highest rate since the first year data was collected in 2005.  Medical groups reported an average turnover rate of 6.8%, up from 6.5% in 2011 and 5.9% in 2009 at the depth of the recession.

Medical groups do not expect turnover relief in the next twelve months.  Retirement among an aging physician workforce was cited as one reason. 36% of reporting groups expect the pace of retirements to increase in the coming year.  A second statistic cited is a rise in physician turnover from those who have recently joined a small group practice.  The average turnover rate for physicians in their second to third year of practice in a small group is 20.8%.

Need for Data Archives on the Rise

So, what happens to the patient data of a retiring or departing physician? When physicians leave a practice, there are steps to be taken to ensure proper and continued access to historical medical records. One such step may include a written custodianship agreement. A custodial agreement identifies who will retain medical records and the retention period for which they will be kept. A second step may entail an electronic health data archive.  A health data archive can ensure the security, integrity and confidentiality of the records to comply with state and HIPAA regulations.

Given the increasing physician turnover rates, the need for electronic health data archives is on the rise. When searching for a solution, departing physicians should consider the following product attributes:

• FEATURE: a secure, browser-based application that adheres to HIPAA security requirements
• BENEFIT: anywhere, anytime access to data

• FEATURE: normalized, relational database storage of both discrete data elements and images
• BENEFIT: searchable patient information with reporting capabilities across the patient population

• FEATURE: a scalable, long-term storage repository with an intuitive user interface
• BENEFIT: secures decades worth of data for years to come in an easy-to-use format which requires little to no training

For more information about health data archiving, visit www.healthdataarchiver.com or contact Harmony Healthcare IT, health data archiver specialists.

Source for Physician Retention Survey findings: The WallStreet Journal

Harmony Healthcare IT is a health IT firm that happens to supports thousands of providers using the Vitera Medical Manager practice management system.  Often times, these medical practices require data extraction services so they can send direct mail packages to patients.  We’ve helped complete several such projects this year.  We can provide both the data extraction as well as the printing, stuffing and stamping of the postal mail package.

If you’re in need of a data extraction from Medical Manager for this or any other reason, contact Harmony Healthcare IT.

The Medical Manager(r) is a registered trademark of Vitera Healthcare Solutions, LLC. Harmony Healthcare IT is not affiliated with Vitera.

What is a Hosted Medical Manager Server Solution?

As an alternative to purchasing, housing and maintaining a server at your medical practice, you can now utilize a dedicated server from us. The server will be configured to meet your system computing needs, however, it will reside in our data center and be accessed by your users securely over the Internet.

Why Use a Hosted Medical Manager Server Solution?

One of the main reasons to choose hosting is to avoid a large expense when it’s time to replace your server. Hosting allows you to spread the up-front cost of the server out over time through a fixed monthly fee.

Another benefit is that both server administration and security becomes our responsibility. We become your offsite IT team, ensuring the proper care and taking of the hardware and taking on the responsibility of data backup and disaster recovery.

Getting Started

Talk to one of our technicians to learn just how easy it is to migrate to a Hosted Medical Manager Server Solution. Call Harmony Healthcare IT to learn more about hosting, Medical Manager Support and alternative revenue cycle management solutions at 800.781.1044.  You can also join our growing online community of Medical Manager users.

Harmony Healthcare IT provides technology support for healthcare organizations.

Join us for a webinar created especially for former users of The Medical Manager software. The event will take place on Tues., 11/12/12 at 11am EST. At this free, online session you will learn about securing historical patient data and/or paper medical charts to meet state medical record retention regulations.

• What information to store and how
• State mandates for storing patient data
• Next-steps for proper shutdown of your Medical Manager system
• How to include paper charts in the archive

The webinar lasts 20 minutes (plus questions and answers). Register today by calling a medical data archiving specialist at 800-781-1044

The Medical Manager(r) is a registered trademark of Vitera Healthcare Solutions, LLC. Harmony Healthcare IT is not affiliated with Vitera.

What’s more, 85% of those surveyed indicate satisfaction with the system’s operation in their day-to-day workflow.  We’re very pleased with this number.

While not all of the physicians surveyed reported meeting meaningful use requirements, the majority of them did indicate an uptick in quality of patient care as a result of EHR use.  

For additional information about the survey results go here and then contact Harmony Healthcare IT to get started with your EHR evaluation and selection process.

Securely Archiving PHI

A product called Health Data Archiver securely stores decades-worth of data from retired healthcare application or from scanned paper charts.  First, the full practice management database — not just demographics or balance forward financials — is extracted.  Next, copies of the any old paper charts are optionally scanned.  Finally, all data and images are indexed and made searchable by patient identifier, name, social security number and data source.

The Health Data Archival Process

When to Archive

• When replacing an existing billing or EHR system with a new one
• When joining a hospital group and transitioning to their system
• When shutting down a practice due to relocation or retirement

Protect Your Investment and Your Cash Flow.
As the government encourages physicians to adopt electronic health records (EHR), many users are evaluating their options to replace Medical Manager with fully-integrated solutions like Intergy, NextGen or Allscripts. This isn’t necessary.  There are plenty of equally-good and affordable  ”plug-in” EHR solutions that will interface to and work alongside Medical Manager, allowing you to protect that original investment. And, by choosing to keep your financial system and not re-train your billing staff, you reduce the risk of cash flow disruption in the system transition.  Call Harmony Healthcare IT to learn about your EHR options for Medical Manager.

Receive up to $44K in EHR Incentive Funding.
When it comes to EHR, you probably have a pretty good idea whether your doctor intends to take advantage of the government’s ‘meaningful use’ incentive program or not.  If there IS an intention of implementing an EHR, why not take action while the $44k in incentive funding is available to you?  Join Harmony Healthcare IT’s webinar on Tue., 6/19/12 at 11am EST to learn what it takes to qualify for the $44k in incentives using your Medical Manager system.

Cut Medical Manager Support Costs by 20%.
You are not locked-in to receiving system support from Vitera Healthcare Solutions only.  There are a number of firms, like Harmony, that have supported Medical Manager for years.  Get the quick response times, quality service and go-forward guidance that you should expect from your health IT vendor — just like you did in the “old days” before support went corporate. Call Harmony Healthcare IT to learn how to cut your annual Medical Manager support costs by up to 20%.

Enhance Billing with Faster Payments.
Emdeon Business Services is not the only claims clearinghouse available to you.  There are other online innovators that turn dozens of steps into an easy click — eliminating administrative burden so you get paid faster from both payers and patients. Call Harmony Healthcare IT to learn how you can increase your cash flow with an easy on-boarding process to change clearinghouses.

Harmony Healthcare IT’s user community of satisfied users is growing at www.medicalmanagerusers.com.

Why wait any longer?  Give us a call TODAY so we can elaborate on how to get more for less from your Medical Manager system.

The Medical Manager is a registered trademark ofVItera Healthcare Solutions.  Harmony is not affiliated with Vitera.

As of July 1, 2012, non compliance with 5010 standards will be subject to enforcement action under the existing HIPAA transaction and code set enforcement process.

For information regarding these updated standards, please contact a representative at Harmony Healthcare IT, or, visit the Versions 5010 and D.0 & 3.0 page on the CMS website.

Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE), a business partner of Harmony Healthcare IT’s, was recently rated by KLAS as one of the nation’s top SaaS-based EMR providers in the healthcare IT industry. KLAS, one of the best-known and most widely respected healthcare research firms, reported that MIE earned an overall performance score of 83.8 points – tied for the third highest of all vendor products surveyed nationwide – relating to EMR response time, customer support and ease of use.

In preparing its just-released report - “SaaS EMR 2012: Is It For You?” - KLAS spoke with nearly 300 healthcare providers that are currently using a SaaS EMR to better understand which vendors offer the most comprehensive solutions. Providers identified four key areas that differentiated the vendors: EMR response time, customer support, product quality and bang for the buck. The report says, “The SaaS EMR deployment model is becoming more popular for providers who want minimal up-front cost and the burden of maintenance lifted from them. Luckily for providers, there are plenty of good [vendors that]… are consistently delivering intuitive, fast-moving solutions that offer high-ranking support and high-value per dollar spent.”

The KLAS report also notes that 100 percent of MIE’s customers have WebChart as part of their long-term healthcare IT plans. According to the report, MIE ranked among the highest in EMR response time, support and ease of use. One MIE customer said, “WebChart EMR is easy to use. Its functionality is very user friendly… [It] is very straightforward. I can navigate easily and locate all I need.”

MIE offers a Minimally Invasive™ suite of products that are easy to use, flexible and cost effective. MIE solutions are in use today by over 2,500 clinics and hospitals throughout the U.S. and by corporate employee health clinics in 17 countries around the world in 6 languages. MIE also provides advanced solutions for chronic disease management, personal health records and complete wellness modules.

For more information about how MIE’s WebChart EMR can interface to your Medical Manager(r) system, contact a representative at Harmony Healthcare IT.

The Medical Manager is a registered trademark of Vitera Healthcare Solutions.  Harmony Healthcare IT is not affiliated with Vitera.

These secure remote backup services compress, encrypt, and periodically transmit data from your practice management and/or EHR system to a virtual data vault for safe-keeping.  The vault is maintained at an offsite data center that is equipped with powerful and redundant systems.

Benefits to Data Vaulting for Medical Practices:

• Speed of transmission. With the increasing volumes of patient data, electronic data vaulting is faster and more reliable than tape as only block-level changes are stored after the initial full backup is conducted.
• Ease and speed of recovery. Your protected patient health information is stored both locally and at an offsite data center.  If needed in the case of system failure, we can readily access the data to get your practice back up and running smoothly.
• Security. Encryption technology is used that can safely move data without using a lot of network bandwidth.  Data is readily available and can be restored on-demand.
• Cost-effectiveness. Electronic data vaulting replaces the hardware, software and tapes associated with tape backup systems.  It also compresses data at approximately a 50% rate, reducing overall storage costs.

Streamline your backup routine. Harmony Healthcare IT can educate you on this newer technology.  Contact us at 800-781-1044 to learn more.

Harmony Healthcare IT offers an analytics product that gives you access to more data from your current applications, including Medical Manager and a number of EHR systems.

Our simple-to-use interface combines ad hoc analysis, reporting capabilities, presentation services, graphing, and everything else needed to analyze practice trends, develop universal metrics, measure long-term changes or gather operational decision-support data.

Best of all, our “wizard” feature makes it simple for anyone to use the product the way they want to – with little to no need to call upon technical resources for help.

Contact us to learn more about how to gain greater business and clinical insights by using this analytics tool.

The Medical Manager(r) is a registered trademark of Vitera Healthcare Solutions, LLC.  Harmony Healthcare IT is not affiliated with Vitera.

Small medical offices with one or two physicians in the practice are the fastest-growing segment for adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) software, according to the latest results of an ongoing study by SK&A, A Cegedim Company, a leading provider of healthcare information solutions and research.

SK&A’s recently updated “Physician Office Usage of Electronic Health Records Software” report reveals, for the first time, that solo and small practices are outpacing larger groups in EHR adoption. For the second half of 2011, the adoption rate for single-doctor offices jumped 6 percentage points, from 30.8 percent to 36.9 percent, while the adoption rate for offices with 6 to 10 doctors jumped only 2 percentage points, from 63 percent to 65 percent.

“Smaller practices are no longer lagging in EHR adoption,” said Dave Escalante, Vice President and General Manager of SK&A & OneKey. “The federal government’s offer of reimbursements of up to $64,000 to physicians who show meaningful use and its funding of regional IT training programs for medical workers are beginning to pay off in the adoption cycle. Moreover, vendors of EHR technology and their partners are continuing to promote aggressively to the small-office market, which they see as the next frontier of sales opportunities.”

SK&A’s report, which was based on an ongoing telephone survey of 240,281 U.S. medical sites, showed an overall EHR adoption rate of 45.6 percent, up from 40.4 percent from the prior period. Other trends include:

Site ownership also plays a role in EHR adoption. Medical practices owned by hospitals or health systems have a higher adoption rate. Additional findings of the study include EHR adoption rates and growth by software application, region and state.

Another ongoing survey by SK&A, titled “EHR Adoption in Medical Offices: Looking Forward,” provides deeper insights for EHR installation and intent; including timeframes for adoption, buying factors, primary decision makers and awareness of government incentives. Key findings in this survey of 50,822 U.S. medical sites include:

SK&A has assumed the leading role in measuring medical office adoption rates of EHR through its comprehensive telephone survey methodology. SK&A continues its multiyear contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to track adoption rates and planned usage.

For a copy of SK&A’s “Physician Office Usage of Electronic Health Records Software” report or its one-page “EHR Adoption in Medical Offices: Looking Forward” sample report, please contact SK&A Director of Marketing Jack Schember at 800-752-5478, ext. 1259.

This webinar is for office managers who want to ensure that patients show up — or at least provide adequate cancellation notice – to protect revenue. In this session, we will

• discuss how to determine your current patient no-show rates using reports from The Medical Manager
• review our formula for calculating your potential loss of revenue from no-show appointments
• review the role that a patient reminder system can play in reducing lost revenue from no-show appointments
• demonstrate an affordable solution for appointment reminders that interfaces with The Medical Manager
• discuss other patient communication strategies for creating efficiencies and driving higher patient satisfaction rates

Register at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/454361858

Medical Manager is a registered trademark of Vitera Healthcare Solutions. Harmony Healthcare IT is not affiliated with Vitera Healthcare Solutions.

This session is for office managers who want to implement an EHR that works with their Medical Manager practice management software. We will cover the basics of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs established through the HITECH Act of 2009. We will provide an overview of what it will take for your practice to achieve “meaningful use.” We will show you a web-based EHR solution that works right alongside your existing Medical Manager system. The session will be highly interactive so you get the information you need.

Register at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/312941506

Medical Manager is a registered trademark of Vitera Healthcare Solutions. Harmony Healthcare IT is not affiliated with Vitera Healthcare Solutions.

Still need to become 5010 compliant?  Contact Harmony Healthcare IT for assistance.

Highest Ranking Functional Strength of Product Features
“The highest-performing clearinghouse vendor in this study, ZirMed continues to deliver an excellent-quality product coupled with outstanding service levels,” said Mark Wagner author of the report.  “ZirMed customers rated the functional strength of their denials management, online editing, normalized payer reporting, and claims tracking/status software the highest of any vendor in this study.”

High Ranking of Customer Satisfaction
ZirMed solutions received the highest or tied for the highest score in 10 of 15 measured categories, including overall satisfaction.  Such a broad base of performance ratings is the same as last year’s clearinghouse report, where ZirMed also led the field in two-thirds of measured categories.  Significantly, this year’s report marks the second year in a row where 100% interviewed clients said that they would repurchase their ZirMed solutions.

Why is the KLAS Research so Valuable?
“What makes KLAS research so valuable is that it reflects the opinions of actual users, not academic researchers,” said Tom Butts, CEO of ZirMed.  “Whether its regulatory or economic pressures, today’s provider organizations are under more pressure than ever to be effective and efficient, not just clinically but also administratively,” Butts continued. “Our solutions give our clients the financial viability and stability.  The fact that 100% of interviewed clients said they would repurchase ZirMed solutions for the second year in a row, gives testament to the value we provide.”

ZirMed Streamlines and Improves the Revenue Cycle
ZirMed’s Web-based solutions streamline and improve major aspects of the revenue cycle, including patient eligibility verification; claims submission and management; electronic remittances; patient statements (both online and offline); payment processing and business analytics.  When deployed by healthcare provider organizations, the ZirMed solutions help clients collect more revenue, more quickly, and do so in an efficient technology-enabled manner.

To learn more about ZirMed, contact the medical office technbology experts at Harmony Healthcare IT.

Following a 60-day comment period after the proposals are published to the federal register, the final rule is scheduled for release this summer.

The Stage 2 Meaningful Use proposed regulations stress greater interoperability among systems and health information exchange. This will allow providers to share information across organizational boundaries and disparate electronic health records.  Other areas of focus include patient engagement, patient safety and application design.

The page contains information about the core and optional clinical quality measures and how to report on them.  Clinical Quality Measures, also known as CQMs, are a mechanism for assessing observations, treatment, processes, experience, and/or outcomes of patient care.  CQMs are required as part of meaningful use requirements for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

If you have questions about CQMs, meaningful use reporting, or just EHR in general, be sure to contact Harmony Healthcare IT to get your answers.