HIT Industry
HIMSS 2025
HIMSS 2025 was a great success for Lantana. We were thrilled to partner with other FHIRBall members in the exhibit hall again this year. The FHIR Business Alliance (FHIRBall) is a global partnership of organizations using the HL7® FHIR® standard to drive major changes in health IT. FHIRBall’s purpose is to expand FHIR knowledge, spread…
Read MoreMaternal Health Day of Action: Getting the Information Needed to Drive Change
Women in the United States die before, during, and after childbirth at a higher rate than any other developed nation in the world—a sobering fact highlighted by Vice President Kamala Harris on December 7, 2021 for the first-ever Maternal Health Call to Action Summit. In her opening remarks, Harris stated we know Black and Native…
Read MoreEarth Day 2021: Lantana Partners with My Green Doctor
U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week: Using the NHSN AUR Module to Support Antibiotic Stewardship
My First HL7
HL7 Working Group Meetings (WGM) – #HL7WGM in my social media-oriented mind– are bustling, busy, eventful gatherings held three times a year that draw standards-minded people from around the world. I experienced my first HL7 WGM January in San Antonio, and from my short amount of time in the health IT (HIT) industry and little experience with standards in general, you could say I was overwhelmed but learned a ton.
Read MoreReduce Provider Burden by Rethinking the eCQM Development Process
I’ve looked at the feds, I’ve looked at the vendors,I’ve tried to find the keyto 50 million burdens. (with apologies to The Who) The electronic health record promised a transformation in the quality and accessibility of health information. It also promised relief from tedious paper-based documentation chores. The results, so far, are sobering. The transformative benefits…
Read MoreHas the Clock Run Out on Electronic Claims Attachments?
With the shift towards value-based care, payers still need access to clinical information for reimbursement decisions as well as for cost and quality metrics and standardizing enough of the clinical record to satisfy the anticipated attachments reg would be an excellent next step in that direction.
Read MorePatient-Generated Health Data and EHR Integration
The PGHD Revolution With the rise in popularity of mobile health apps and wearable technology, the volume of patient-generated health data (PGHD) is rapidly outpacing providers’ ability to incorporate it into care. In fact, almost half of U.S. smart phone owners report using a mobile health tracking app. These new technologies create data that health…
Read MoreElectronic Attachments Tell a Comprehensive Health Story
Anticipated HHS regulations are expected to provide standards for electronic documents used as attachments to support reimbursement-related transactions. On February 5, I was joined by Mary Lynn Bushman, Sr. EDI Analyst at National Government Services, Inc., in presenting a HIMSS Health Story Project webinar on the attachment standards: their usage, the business case for…
Read MoreReporting Into the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR) Module
Hospitals report and analyze AUR data via the AUR Module. The AUR Module covers two reporting options, one for antimicrobial use (AU) and one for antimicrobial resistance (AR). Facilities can participate in one (just AU or just AR) or both (AU and AR) at any given time.
Read MoreCDA in the Wild: Conclusion (Installment #8)
Clinical Documents were never meant to hold 10 pounds of coded data. CDA is a 5-pound bag, containing the actual words, either written directly by a clinician or spoken and transcribed, with the minimal coding necessary for the use case.
Read MoreWhat is AUR and Why Do We Care?
AUR is more than an airport code for a commune in southern France (Aurillac, if you are curious). AUR is an important facet of public health. Using the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance (AUR) reporting module, hospitals can report and analyze antimicrobial use and/or resistance data.
Read MoreWhy Payers Should Play with FHIR
This blog introduces participants working on clinical data exchange and value-based care to HL7’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard and Connectathon, an event that tests FHIR’s interoperability mettle. Since Connectathon 1 in 2012, the buzz around FHIR has grown exponentially. Word on the street is HL7 has trouble finding hotel conference rooms large enough to fit all attendees! HL7 will host Connectathon 14 in January 2017 in San Antonio.
Read MoreWhy Payers Should Play with FHIR – Part 2
This is Part 2 of the Why Payers Should Play With FHIR. To read part 1 click here. HL7 holds Connectathons on the Saturday and Sunday before the working group meeting. Plan to arrive the evening before to settle in. Attendees can register as observers or participants. Review the Connectathon 14 wiki page before arriving.…
Read MoreCDA in the Wild: Timing is Everything (Installment #7)
Will time be cruel to CDA? Some think so, we think it is still alive and kicking. The hard part of CDA has always been its HL7 V3 heritage, and it is HL7 V3, not CDA that needs to join the dinosaurs, buried in shale and crushed into carbon.
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Conversations from the SideFrontlines: Get Ready for CQL to Change the Game
The Clinical Quality Language is a new expression language that defines logic for quality artifacts. With its introduction into eCQMs, the industry has taken the first step towards a harmonized standards landscape.
Read MoreOffering an Open Source Terminology Tool
I have been working with Robin Williams, RN, and Zabrina Gonzaga, RN, two of our clinical analysts, to update the value sets used by Camara, our clinical document editor. Our main goal is incorporating more realistic terms, so clinicians can create clinical documents using familiar terminology. Months ago, when Lantana created the Camara…
Read MoreWhat Eligible Clinicians Need to Know About Proposed Changes to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA)
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 changed the way Medicare rewards clinicians for providing quality care. CMS released a proposed rule in April 2016 to carry out key provisions of MACRA and implement two payment paths available to “eligible clinicians” (EC) as part of the proposed “Quality Payment Program”: (1) the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System and (2) the Alternative Payment Model Incentive. The proposed “Quality Payment Program” replaces the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for paying eligible clinicians based on value and quality of care, which aligns with CMS’s goal to replace Fee-for-Service (FFS) volume-based payment with a value-based system.
Read MoreDoes Risk-Adjustment for Sociodemographic Status (SDS) Have an Impact on Hospital Performance?
Ongoing research examines the impact of applying sociodemographic status (SDS) risk-adjustment to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) quality reporting programs. The main driver for investigation is a community assertion that SDS risk-adjustment is necessary to accurately gauge the quality of care given to patients of diverse backgrounds. Contrary to popular belief, recent research produced evidence that SDS risk-adjustment has little to no impact on hospital performance ratings.
Read MoreCDA in the Wild: Coded Data Issues (Installment #6)
This week, I have left the bush behind and retreated to the comfort of my office. I am attempting to decode the works of the famous biologist Brice Schneuer, who spent the later part of his career dedicated to Wild CDA research. Although he published many authoritative works on the species, Schneuer jealously…
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