In today's podcast, we are discussing a number of regulatory rules and updates that have taken place in 2024 and how they will impact your practice.

We discuss the most recent regulatory actions proposed by CMS (Centers for Medicaire and Medicaid services)and ONC (Office of the National Coordinator for Health information Technology).  These actions are in support of continuing to advance interoperability. 

There is clear momentum towards more comprehensive healthcare interoperability.  Regulartory entities have developed technical and operational policy standards and frameworks that have enabled the foundation for a National Clinical Exchange. This is the basis for how all healthcare ecosystem participants should develop, operate and use the network. 

We also review the HTI 1 and HTI 2 (health data, technology, and Interoperability)  rules – 1 a rule and 2 a proposal but both are designed to improve interoperability.   

Last, we discuss TEFCA  as a version 2 was released in 2024. TEFCA (trusted exchange framework and common agreement) is a commons set of principles is designed to enable nationwide exchange of electronic exchange of medical records across disparate health information networks (HINS).

If you are new to interoperability and you are looking for a crash course on how these rules impact our practice, this is a great podcast to listen to you. If you are aware of interoperability and simply looking for a credible update on how these rules impact your practice, please listen to this most recent update. 

One thing we are certain of, waiting to be a part of electronic healthcare interoperability is not an option for any healthcare practice.

Learn more about what solutions exist in the market and what you can do about it. 

Most practices spend a significant amount of time and effort reviewing external clinical information to determine what, how much to use and in what format.  How this is being done today probably uses a lot of older technology and is very manual.

A good chart preparation process can save practices time and money and provide physicians with the vital clinical information needed for optimal clinical decision making.

The availability of electronic clinical data from medical practices and facilities is here – from practices and facilities of all sizes nationwide. Implement this as soon as possible – take advantage of having this information in electronic form so that it’s easier to work with.

There is a solution to automating chart prep for practices once a practice has identified the right infromation they need to include in the chart prep process.  Listen to this podcast to learn more about these best practices. 

Since the early days of EMRs – the pre-Meaningful Use days, EMRs have come a long way in providing functionality for practices to connect to the outside world to extend their business processes and go beyond their practice walls.  But we still have a ways to go – especially when trying to connect to providers, health organizations, labs and other entities where there is no affiliation in some way, as for example, beyond the networks of providers who do not use the same EMR or don’t connect to the same HIE.

Imagine consistently logging into a secure web site and finding a list of your patients for all upcoming appointments and seeing their clinical information being immediately available ready for you to review with tools that make it easy to find the information you need to export back to your EMR.  The tedious faxing, scanning, printing, and calling is replaced with a process that is finished in minutes - even seconds – saving staff precious time and helping your physicians have the critical clinical data needed for optimal clinical decision making. 

Lets discuss where interoperability is today in 2024 and how your practice can drastically improve the process of managing medical records this year and into the future! 

What makes healthcare unique and complex is that it involves both internal consitutents and external stakeholders, multiple processes and a number of technology dependencies. 

This podcast is for practice administrators and healthcare providers who are looking to make improvements to their clinical operational processes. We must start with understanding what our vision is for our practice and then contemplate how these operational improvements will support that vision. Your vision provides a north star for the critical decisions your practice is making on behalf of the patients that you serve. 

It is critical we examine our internal processes and workflows (both processes and people) that support how the practice is run. Making internal process changes may support your vision but it is important to understand the change management involved when those changes is made.  LIsten in for more details on the expert opinion of Ken Bradley, Chief Health Innovation Officer for more detail. 

Interoperability is a critical component of value-based care models and frankly, good care. Practices will need to recognize that interoperability workflows need to accomodate both fax and electronic record exchange. It is important to have workflows and tools that can support our current process and future processes when it comes to managing medical records. 

With interoperability at the forefront of our healthcare system, it’s imperative decision-makers seize the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other physicians. At the end of the day, the main directive is to provide the best patient care experience possible and for that to happen, early and complete access to clinical data is an essential component.

Vivlio Health is a software solution bridging the gap between systems and medical facilities, so healthcare can continue to thrive. We believe interoperability is a critical factor in accomplishing positive health outcomes, improving workplace efficiency, and saving clinics large sums of healthcare dollars.  For the complimentary ebook with this podcast, please email us at [email protected] 

Clinical health information exchanges were created to be used for the bi-directional exchange of clinical information about mutual patients; this means that if you take something from the clinical exchange, so that other future treating providers can see a comprehensive clinical history about the patient, you are required to give something back.  When all providers do this, over time, patient information will become more and more comprehensive and consistently available to all treating physicians.  Over time, this expectation will become more routine but practices are still learning to adopt to the HIE expectations. Listen to our Chief Health Innovation Officer speak to the importance of electronic medical record ecosystem and what is required to participate in today's medical records exchange. 

Our Chief Health Innovation Officer, Ken Bradley hosts Dr. Chad Levitt for our most recent podcast. 

A board-certified radiation oncologist and Atlanta-native, Dr. Chad Levitt completed his doctorate and residency at Emory University’s School of Medicine. Dr. Levitt has served as clinical director of oncology practices and departments previously in Colorado, Florida, and Georgia. He is the founder of Radiotherapy Associates of Forsyth as well as ONCare Specialty Consultants.

With over 20 years of experience in the treatment of cancer, Dr. Levitt has, over the years, been at the forefront of radiation treatment techniques, innovations and practices. He is a national speaker and has published clinical studies in multiple peer reviewed oncology journals. He has served on national advisory boards and working groups throughout his career as well as having been the practice liaison and PI for RTOG and USOncology clinical research trials.

On this podcast, we discuss the importance of patient data; its availability, readability and thoroughness in treating a patient through the lens of an oncologist. 

The need for treating physicians to have a complete clinical understanding, which includes the need for a complete clinical history of each patient hasn't changed, but the process of how that clinical history is found and exchanged is beginning to change. With the new 21st Century Cures Act, the ground rules are taking shape and regulation that prohibits not-sharing is in place. However, we're at the very beginning of a long - and likely lengthy - journey to 100% digital exchange.

In the meantime, providers, health systems and clinicians must  treat patients in need of treatment and can't wait. So here we are in the middle of another change - or transition - in healthcare. It's likely that many applaud this change as needed and necessary, but the transition requires knowing how to handle things as they are today, while preparing and taking advantage of digital exchange when it's available as it's available. The process to automating your medical record workflows should start now with the understanding that the journey for a 100% digital solution will take time. 

Our healthcare system is plagued by a number of rising issues, including inefficient management of medical records. What can you as a clinician do? Find out.

While difficult, health systems and practices must nevertheless find ways to improve so they can provide high-quality treatment to patients and provide solutions that enable staff to do the accurate and efficient job they want to do.  And all of this must be done while keeping an eye on cost and revenue objectives. The first step is to create a plan, and the critically important second step is to implement that plan.

Find out more how Ken recommends we navigate these challenges regardless of practice size and type.