5 Pain Points Driving OKC Home Healthcare Technology Solutions

5 Pain Points Driving OKC Home Healthcare Technology Solutions

The healthcare industry has been front and center for several years now as an industry that is continuously in transformation. Driven mainly by healthcare reform and the Affordable Care Act, the industry has been required to adapt to drastically altered regulations, processes, and the way service is being provided to patients.5-Pain-Points-Driving-OKC-Home-Healthcare-Technology-Solutions

With newly identified pain points, home healthcare technology solutions have been developed in Oklahoma City and are continuously evolving to keep up with industry changes.

Medical Coding

The transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 coding is a massive change in how medical coding is done. The challenges lie in the fact that there is no clear mapping from ICD-9 to ICD-10.

The original process is in a 5 digit format that does not expand uniformly to the new standards which adds 2 extra digits. Some diagnoses remain the same, but the majority needs to be re-written.

Furthering this headache of a transition is the fact that there are now more than 5 times as many code sets to learn and program. Implementing technology to meet these new coding criteria can be a very large undertaking.

Electronic Health Records

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) designates the use of electronic health records (EHRs) for healthcare providers. Uploading and maintaining patient health information via electronic format will better assist both patients and healthcare professionals in accessing vital medical records.

Unfortunately, the implementation process, including home healthcare technology solutions, can be extremely lengthy. All stored physical records must be converted into electronic format, data security needs to be implemented, access processes must be created, and employee training must be provided.

It is believed that over $22 billion will be spent by the end of 2015 on technology and associated EHR implementation costs.

Healthcare Reform

The ACA itself remains a concern for many healthcare organizations as it is fundamentally changing the face of healthcare. The concept of moving away from a fee-for-service to a reimbursement model that rewards top patient outcomes, causes providers to feel more pressure than ever before.

Now, providers must compete with each other, not just for a patient-base but for quality of care to be compensated. In some instances, this creates a declining reimbursement rate for facilities that are required to implement home healthcare technology solutions to comply with HIPAA regulations.

Data Security

Protecting patient and medical information from unauthorized access and theft, among other things, is a requirement of the HIPAA Security Rule. With identity theft on the rise and an increase in mobile device usage, securing medical information can be a challenge.

Innovative technology solutions are surfacing in the marketplace regularly to provide better data security services to healthcare providers.

Big Data

As healthcare organizations grow and more and more data is collected, challenges begin to arise.

  • Is the massive amount of captured data meeting regulatory compliance?
  • Is it in a format that can be reported on in a meaningful way?
  • How can the accuracy of the captured data be validated?
  • Can the data be pulled quickly?

Questions like these pose a challenge as to what technologies should be implemented and meet the specific criteria and flexibility that each provider desires. To respond to these big data concerns, nearly 97% of all healthcare providers are currently or have plans to leverage cloud solutions.

Bottom Line

Healthcare reform and the Affordable Care Act are main drivers in industry change for home healthcare technology solutions. With new regulations to adhere too, more complex coding and reimbursement models, and challenging data security measures, there are many obstacles in the way.

Fortunately, technology solutions have been developed and are still evolving to comply with these changes. Cloud computing, EHR platforms, and HIPAA compliance software all provide valuable solutions to keeping up with the changing marketplace.

What other pain points do you see for home healthcare technology solutions? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.

And to follow up on the tips introduced in this article, be sure to download your free Information Technology Guide for Oklahoma City Home Health Care Organizations.

 


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