The Rundown | Week of 5.29.2017

Est. Reading Time: 2 Minutes

Healthcare is a rapidly evolving industry – it’s difficult to read up on everything that matters to you. But the success of your practice can depend on how knowledgeable you are about changes in the healthcare landscape. Privia has compiled a weekly list of important articles we are reading on healthcare industry trends, clinical best practices and legislative updates for your convenience. Here are some of the important articles and blogs on healthcare that stood out this week:

>> “According to Lord, EHRs contain a wealth of exploitable information which attracts hackers. “Your EHR contains all of your demographic information – names, historical information of where you live, where you worked, the names and ages of your relatives, financial information like credit cards and bank numbers” he explains. If that isn’t scary enough, there’s also data about your past medical history, including every doctor’s visit you’ve made and diagnosis you’ve received. “The medical record is the most comprehensive record about the identity of a person that exists today,” Lord emphasizes.”

>>BONUS: Here are 7 ways to protect your practice from cyber attacks

>> Here’s what the CBO reported on the cost and coverage impact of the House Republicans’ bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.(All projections are in comparison to current law).

1. Reduce the cumulative federal deficit by $119 billion by 2026; the prior version of the AHCA would have cut the deficit by $150 billion.”

>> “The Department of Justice’s increased focus on investigating alleged fraud in the Medicare Advantage program is likely to change the way insurers do business, according to lawyers who specialize in False Claims Act suits.The Justice Department in recent weeks has filed complaints in two Medicare Advantage fraud suits against UnitedHealth Group. The federal government and whistle-blowers allege the insurer presented false claims to the Medicare program and received at least $1 billion in unjustified payments stemming from inflated patient risk scores.

>> “While EHR is common parlance nowadays, that was not always the case. With EMR usage waning for a large portion of the healthcare industry, an understanding of the EMR/EHR difference demonstrates how far the industry has come — and the progress still needed to be made.”

>> “The key to transforming lives through precision health, experts at the conference said, is the integration of diverse kinds of data sets, including sequencing and imaging data, gene expression data and also behavioral data, such as that from fitness trackers. Finding ways to combine and explore such cross-disciplinary data sets will be key to the focus on prevention, they said.”

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