HHS updates mHealth, HIX info
Mobile health and health insurance exchanges were in the health IT news this week.
An e-consultation pilot project found that using email improves access to specialist advice compared with the traditional referral-consultation process. Of the 406 e-consultations submitted by 59 primary care providers to 16 specialty services, the specialist provided an answer without requiring further information in 89 percent of the cases. About 90 percent of the cases took less than 15 minutes for the specialist to complete.
The service was perceived as highly beneficial to providers and patients in more than 90 percent of the cases, according to the study. In 43 percent of submitted cases, a traditional referral originally contemplated was entirely avoided.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health & Human Servicesis making available 33 free health mobile apps geared to both consumers and healthcare professionals. The apps cover a range of functions including smoking cessation, educating EMS professionals and educators on field triage, aiding physicians in identifying appropriate patient-specific preventive services, tracking influenza-like illness activity and accessing a national directory of health hotlines.
As we get closer to the date health insurance exchanges are required to open for business, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a final rule setting standards for health plans operating in state health insurance exchanges. A controversial one-hour notification rule for privacy and security incidents was dropped in the rule, but only because “the one-hour incident response timeline has been included in all the data sharing agreements required under the Affordable Care Act…”
CMS also issued a list of 10 facts healthcare providers "need to know" about the online health insurance exchanges coming next month, including open enrollment is from Oct. 1 to March 31, 2014, any U.S. citizen or national who is not currently incarcerated is eligible to buy insurance through the exchanges, and discrimination on the basis of gender or pre-existing condition is not allowed within the exchange marketplace.
Is your organization ready for insurance exchanges? Please share your experience.
Beth Walsh
Clinical Innovation + Technology editor
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.