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  • Information exchanges bring new risks to hospitals

    States such as Maine, New York, Texas, Florida, California, and Michigan are setting up health information exchanges (HIEs), which are computer networks connecting disparate medical practices to help doctors share patient files online. Other states soon will follow. But have you considered the potential risks associated with these new avenues of data sharing?
  • EHRs may reduce claims by improving safety, quality

    Malpractice claims dipped dramatically among Massachusetts physicians after they began using electronic health records (EHRs), according to new research, although its not clear whether the record-keeping was connected to the decline in claims.
  • Guidelines offer steps for disclosure

    New guidelines available from the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) codify the many issues to discuss and decisions to make when a healthcare facility is considering disclosure of a serious clinical adverse event (SCAE).
  • Patient questions are getting tougher

    Will my insurance cover this visit?" is something patients often ask registrars in the emergency department at Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch, CA. However, the answer isn't as simple as it seems.
  • Patients are price shopping: They'll want more than just `guesstimates'

    A patient wasn't happy with the answer she received after asking registrars at Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills, MI, the cost of a high-dollar procedure, and she insisted that she could get it performed for half of the price quoted.
  • Is insurance valid? Process is high-tech

    Not long ago, a registrar would assume a patient was providing accurate information, only to find out the claim was denied due to incorrect insurance, reports Michelle M. Mohrbach, CHAM, manager of patient access and central scheduling at Blanchard Valley Health System in Findlay, OH.
  • Denials cut from $200K to $50K

    Because the findings were unclear on an abdominal and pelvic sonogram performed for a patient at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, TX, the radiologist performed a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis with contrast, but this additional test hadn't been authorized by the payer.
  • Can you text patient about appointments?

    Many patients are accustomed to receiving text messages from friends, retailers, and workplaces, and they probably expect to be able to receive texts from you.
  • Access descriptions are likely outdated

    Until recently, members of the patient access staff at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, NY, were assigned a generic "customer service representative" title that didn't reflect what they actually did.
  • AHRQ plan would solicit error reports in hospitals

    Under the plan proposed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), patients and their relatives would report medical errors and near misses through a web site and in telephone interviews.