Microchips and medicine
Technology companies based in the Hudson Valley and tech users in the health-care industry are doing innovative things even if no one has yet uttered: “Take two aspirin and log on in the morning.”
That was the message of Howard Reis, senior account manager at DataNet Communications, based in Newburgh, at a breakfast focusing on the impact of technology in health care. The event was held June 27 at the Mid-Hudson Technology Development Center, located in the former IBM plant in Lake Katrine.
Reis, who hosted the event, noted that many hospitals in the region are consolidating, creating a need for more bandwidth between applications. But data connections, which is what his company provides, are just part of the story. Three presenters ”“ a user of health care technology and two providers ”“ demonstrated the various ways technology is leading to significant efficiencies.
Kathryn Reed, executive director at the Catskill Hudson Area Health Education Center, was representing her husband, a physician who set up a private practice six months ago and decided to implement a paperless records system. It consists of three components: a Web-based practice management systems for billing, scheduling and other administrative tasks; Web-based electronic medical records; and patient Internet access to portions of their health-care record.
The ability of the system to collect, manage, and analyze various types of data has been invaluable. Within six months, Reed said her husband had demonstrated cost savings through reduced personnel and a reduction in shelving for paper records. Furthermore, “the organization of the chart is consistent,” she said, making it easier to read. The system also eliminates the loss of reports and documents.
Prescription orders are in real time; reminders for checkups are generated automatically; and existing paper records can easily be folded into the electronic records through scanning. The physician”™s office also was able to comply better with the numerous regulations of health maintenance organizations and other third-party insurers.Â
Because the system can be accessed from any computer, it can accommodate multiple users at once and be used remotely. Different types of appointments are color coded, so the doctor can see at once which have priority. It also includes features like a pop-up alert if a patient is allergic to a prescribed drug.
The only downside, Reed said, was that her husband “never leaves work behind.”
An audience member noted that the different EMR systems don”™t speak well to each other, a problem that Reis said was being addressed by the EMR Institute, which is trying to develop compatible standards. The cost of transferring paper records into an electronic format can also be considerable, which wasn”™t an issue for Reed”™s husband, who started his practice fresh.
A new PDA
John Holland, president of LifeLink Monitoring, based down the hall, spoke about his company”™s niche: remote monitoring of patients from their homes. He said that most health problems are related to chronic care, which is normally provided by the patient. Problem is, patients have no training and are often neglectful about taking their meds and monitoring their vital signs. Technology, however, now allows this to be done remotely, sometimes in fairly simple ways: a phone or TV can be turned into a remote Physician”™s Desk Assistant.
Telemonitoring is one of the services his company provides. A simple interface, utilizing a hub plugged into a wall phone, allows remote doctors and nurses to monitor a patient”™s blood pressure, glucose sugar levels, heart rate and other functions. The hub is linked to various types of monitors, and with the push of a button the data are sent to a wireless device that uploads the readings to a server, which then conveys the data to a Web site accessed by health-care providers. Information can be sent back to the patient via voice prompts communicated through the phone.
“Patients comply because they are in control,” he said. At the same time, “the knowledge that somebody is monitoring them is a huge motivator.”
He said Always There, a nonprofit providing health care services to home providers, was using the LifeLink Monitoring system.
John Sheehan, president and CEO of Precision Care Software, said his company developed a solution for the number-one challenge confronting health-care providers, the Medicaid billing process. Precision Care creates and sells Web-based EMRs for community-based health-care providers whose residents or patients are Medicaid billable.
The process of billing Medicaid is mired in red tape. It involves justifying the need for Medicaid, documenting the treatment, and providing a progress report; and it is subject to state, county and federal regulations. If the provider is audited, all billings have to be matched up with paperwork in order to be justified. Audits are stressful and widely feared, since if a sizable number of billings can”™t be justified, the provider is liable for hefty fines and possibly even a jail sentence.
“It”™s a huge problem,” Sheehan said, and it”™s not going to get any better. He said a pet project of Gov. Spitzer is cracking down on Medicaid fraud, with financial incentives being dangled as incentive for fraud catchers.
Precision Care Softcare tracks all the complexities of the billing process and ensures providers are keeping proper records. It creates a verifiable electronic trail that removes anxiety about a possible audit.
So far, the software is being used by 60 providers in New York state and a handful in Pennsylvania. The company plans to expand nationally and has identified the typical provider as a county ARC with an average budget of $25 million, 820 patients and 250 staff members. Customers pay for the product with a monthly service fee.
The biggest challenge, Sheehan said, is “getting staff to use the product. If they work in direct care, they may not care about keeping records. We have to show them the advantages, such as automatic reminders when tasks need to get done. We have to show them how it makes their jobs easier.”
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