Becker's Hospital Review

61 HEALTH IT delays, like American Medical Association President Steven Stack, MD. On one hand, there is concern over how ICD-10 will impact small physician practices. On the other, the lack of ICD-10 implementation thus far may have prevented healthcare providers in the U.S. from responding to national health threats as effi- ciently as possible. In July 2015, CMS released additional ICD-10 guidelines in partnership with the AMA that allow for greater flexibility in claims auditing and quality reporting to help providers transition to the new cod- ing and billing sets. ese changes include allowing providers a one-year transition period wherein pro- viders' Medicare claims will not be denied or audited solely based on the specificity of diagnoses codes as long as they still come from the appropriate family of codes. Similarly, physicians will not face penalties for the Physician Quality Reporting System based on the specificity of diagnoses codes as long as the code is from the correct ICD-10 family. 9. EHR-related lawsuits skyrocket. An analysis from e Doctors Company, the nation's largest phy- sician-owned medical malpractice insurer, found the number of EHR-related lawsuits doubled from 2013 to 2014. EHR-related cases include faulty or flawed system factors such as failure to ensure EHR security, lack of EHR alert/alarm/decision support, insufficient scope/ area for documentation, system failure, electronic systems/technology failure or lack of integration/in- compatible systems. In a select sample of lawsuits between 2007 and 2013, approximately 1 percent of lawsuits were related to EHRs. While seemingly low, the number is decep- tive, as lawsuits oen take up to five years to close. In that same time frame, the number of cases also grew as hospitals and health systems were increasingly us- ing information systems, according to Politico. What's more, as use of EHRs continues to pick up, the healthcare industry can likely expect the number of related lawsuits to grow. e reasons for EHR-related lawsuits comprise both human and computer error. Physicians or med- ical staff with access to a record may enter informa- tion incorrectly due to time constraints or improper system training, or a system's design can prompt error-prone entries. e federal government may eventually need to entertain the idea of a fund to be used to pay the vic- tims of injuries in which EHR errors are implicated, Michael Victoroff, MD, told Politico. 10. Hospitals and health systems shift IT pri- orities. Following the mandatory implementation of EHRs brought about by the HITECH Act of 2009, the focus for many hospitals and health systems has shi- ed from siing through vendors to select a system for implementation to optimizing the systems they now have in place. Although EHRs were rapidly adopted in small practices and large healthcare organizations across the country, the standards and requirements to make them interoperable and highly efficient are still lacking overall. is priority change toward making those systems function at as close to peak performance as possible has opened the floodgates for startups and estab- lished industry giants alike to offer add-on programs, soware expansions and tech-based solutions in the hopes of improving workflow and outcomes. Provid- ers are seeking these technologies not only to better connect care teams and enable secure information sharing, but to contend with the low levels of clini- cian satisfaction with EHRs reflected in surverys and statistics. rough its Health IT Dashboard, the ONC has provided a resource that offers strategies and tips for EHR optimization. At the Becker's Hospital Review CIO/Health IT + Revenue Cycle Management Sum- mit in Chicago on July 21, a panel of experts includ- ing vendor and hospital CIOs and CMOs discussed how for many systems, add-on programs are an increasingly popular strategy as they work to increase continuity in their EHRs.

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