Poor IT security practices continue to plague the healthcare industry. Last year, a Ponemon Study found that poor security practices cost the healthcare industry $6 billion annually and that the HITECH Act has not resulted in changes to the approach taken to manage protected healthcare information. When an industry is under scrutiny for out-of-control escalating costs and the government has intervened with substantial amounts of incentive dollars to address issues, organizations must take a proactive approach to resolve issues.
Of course, it can be difficult to not hone in on a specific goal, but this is not the time to take a “this-or-that” stance to meeting government mandates. No organization can afford to focus on Meaningful Use and minimize efforts for the 4010/5010 conversion and ICD-10 implementation. The prudent thing to do is step-back and examine your options – take a “this-and-that” perspective to juggling the changes.
A “this-and-that” perspective is necessary because 4010/5010, ICD-10 and Meaningful Use are all connected and require security and privacy is maintained. Since it is impossible to be in compliance with ICD-10 without having converted to 5010 transaction codes, organizations must fully embrace each of these building blocks.
It is one of those rare cases where we can only speculate about the future changes that will spur from 4010/5010, ICD-10 and Meaningful Use, but we do know that security is not only a necessary component of the changes, but also a broadening area of focus that includes portals to securely communicate with patients, care for patients online, move information throughout an organization and ways to better embrace social media within healthcare.
Portal enhancements are taking place within all areas of the healthcare industry.
