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Happy Holidays and a Special Gift from the CareCloud Family!

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At CareCloud, we embrace the holiday sentiment of togetherness so much there’s no space between the two words in our name. Naturally, being festive is in our DNA as well as within our city culture, as a number of our prior holiday posts have depicted.

We’re also politically correct – we didn’t want to give Christmas more time than New Years, so we put this post up at the halfway mark as a peaceful treatise of sorts, no family court required.

So yes, we’d like to wish you all a happy holiday, especially those with paid time off, who may or may not be reading this post from the comfort of their own sofa, futon, stool, bed, favorite coffee shop love seat, etc.

It’s better than my family’s idea to celebrate all the major December holidays on January 6th as a strictly-timed, one-size-fits-all Day of the Lights that left everyone involved seeking anxiolytics.

Here’s another thing many doctors are anxious about: cloud computing. But we don’t need prescription medication, because we’re starting the new year off right.

Presenting Cashing in on the Cloud: How You Profit from a More Connected Practice, CareCloud’s first webinar of 2013. A free holiday gift to you, again with very apropos timing, seeing as many news sources believe 2013 will truly be the year of cloud computing in health IT.

You’ll learn:

  • Benefits of cloud computing for physicians
  • How new regulations could disrupt older systems
  • How the cloud handles data security

…and much more.

Space is limited. Register now – because you owe yourself a little holiday spoilage.


Free Webinar Explores Why the Cloud Makes Your Life Easier & More

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Cloud computing sounds complicated, but in reality your practice can profit significantly from more connectivity. And that’s what Rosemarie Nelson, renowned MGMA consultant, uncovers in this free, on-demand webinarCashing in on the Cloud: How You Profit from a More Connected Practice.

And how exactly does the cloud make life easier? Well, for starters:

  1. Software as a Service (SaaS) models signify no clunky installations or hardware, no physical software and no in-office upgrades. Everything is done remotely for your convenience.
  2. It eliminates the need to install and run applications. You can access what you need from wherever you have an Internet connection. This will soon be the standard for the healthcare industry.
  3. The cloud simplifies maintenance and support. No need to wait days for an IT professional to visit your office anymore.

So what are you waiting for? Watch this free webinar today!

 

CareCloud and QuantiaMD Announce Groundbreaking Partnership

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It’s hard for us to contain our glee here at CareCloud HQ. Because today, we’re honored to unveil our collaborative deal with QuantiaMD, the industry’s largest online physician community and collaboration platform.

And we’re all incredibly excited.

The partnership, which will allow more than 160,000 Quantia MD physician members to engage on issues ranging from innovative processes to navigating new government reimbursement mandates, was announced at the 31st Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

“QuantiaMD has built a robust platform that leverages the latest in social tools and game mechanics to facilitate meaningful and consistent engagement around critical issues such as practice profitability,” said CareCloud CEO Albert Santalo.

The CareCloud-Quantia MD partnership will begin by gathering insights from more than 5,000 Quantia MD members to uncover key trends in practice performance. The two parties will then use these insights to create unique, interactive content for physicians focused on saving time, growing revenue and improving efficiency.

“It is through this approach that we can drive a dialogue and enact real change in how physicians operate their practices and, ultimately, interact with one another,” said Santalo.

Later, this data will serve as the basis for a contest featured on QuantiaMD, encouraging physicians to share best practice “pearls.” Members will later vote for the most impactful of these best practices.

A group of finalists will then become eligible for a “CareCloud Makeover,” where a winning practice will be equipped with CareCloud’s solutions to improve practice operations.

“Our partnership with CareCloud reflects the belief that we can extend the power of best practice sharing within our community with modern tools to help deliver on medical group needs,” said Eric Schultz, Executive Chairman of QuantiaMD.

He added, “We felt that CareCloud and QuantiaMD shared a commitment to thinking differently about how healthcare industry leaders can transcend their traditional roles to provide more complete solutions.”

 

 

Q&A: Chatting with MGMA Consultant Rosemarie Nelson

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According to a new report by research firm In-Stat, healthcare is becoming the fastest growing vertical in the information technology field, and cloud-based services are leading the way.

Cloud computing represents a contagious mixture of cost advantages, efficiency and flexibility that’s difficult to match. But there’s also plenty of talk about fears and misconceptions.

Therefore, we sat down with MGMA consultant Rosemarie Nelson to discuss a few healthcare cloud computing basics, including the cloud’s high speed of innovation and the truth behind cloud-based security.

What makes healthcare professionals so afraid of the cloud?

The unknown creates uncertainty and many healthcare professionals are not comfortable not understanding the concept of the cloud.  Providing knowledge to help increase their understanding level through analogies to other types of cloud computing will reduce anxiety around the cloud. For example, my banking and Gmail accounts have been in the cloud for years – all very safe and very effective for me.

Are security concerns surrounding cloud computing in healthcare a myth?

Security concerns are never a myth regarding any kind of computing in healthcare! Unfortunately, there have been many breaches and incidents surrounding on-premise solutions because we tend not to be as diligent when the system is under our roof.  Having an on-premise system sometimes gives us a false sense of control; false because we have not invested sufficiently to secure the system.  That investment can be something as simple as requiring every user to change their password every ninety days.  Cloud solutions may actually require higher levels of security than we are willing to demand of ourselves within our own on-premise solutions.

As more medical practices adopt cloud computing solutions, will it be difficult for them to adapt to the high speed of innovation the cloud facilitates?

Medical practices will welcome the high speed of innovation facilitated by the cloud.  One of the reasons the adoption of EHRs in medical practices has been so slow has been the state of the solutions.  Early offerings lacked functionality and specialty-specific content.  As cloud-based solutions were developed, we watched the iterative process of technology adoption speed up and welcomed the responsiveness a cloud-based solution could offer in terms of listening to customer requirements.

Will mobile apps speed the adoption of cloud computing among physicians?

Mobile solutions are absolutely increasing the speed of cloud computing adoption.  The advent of smartphones and apps to allow us to electronically prescribe has pushed the envelope wide open.  Now, we want to be able to do almost everything on a mobile device that we can do from our offices.

Briefly, how does cloud computing save healthcare professionals time?

Cloud computing allows healthcare professionals anywhere, anytime access to review test results and correspondence on their patients.  It is not unusual in that review to determine if the patient needs another test or prescription.  If the healthcare professional is reviewing a lab result via cloud computing, they can order a follow-up or electronically prescribe a medication right at that point in time.  That means they have eliminated tasks for the next day and can use the additional in-office time to see patients and provide direct care.  The provider saves time and the patient receives more timely access to care.  Access to care is a core component to the Patient-Centered-Medical-Home and that, like the cloud, is the immediate future.

We know you can’t get enough of Rosemarie Nelson discussing the advantage of cloud computing. We can’t either, which is why we presented an exclusive, free webinar featuring Nelson in January! Don’t wait any longer – watch now!

CareCloud Hosts the South Florida Agile Association!

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CareCloud is excited to host the inaugural meeting of the newly formed South Florida Agile Association (SFAA)!  The group was formed to draw together those practicing, or interested in practicing, Agile methods of software delivery. And since we adhere to the Agile Manifesto here at CareCloud, we believe it’s an excellent venue for collaboration and learning.

Our goal? To establish cohesiveness and grow the Agile community in South Florida.

This group is open to just about everyone – from the curious who just want to know what Agile means to the intermediate wanting to sharpen their skills. Of course, there is also a place for the more advanced, who want to share their expertise.

Lastly, feel free to show up hungry, seeing as food and beverages will be provided. See you there!

Details

What: South Florida Agile Association Meeting

Where: 5200 Blue Lagoon Dr,. Ste 150, Miami, Fl  33125

When: Wednesday, January 23rd at 5:30 PM

CareCloud in It for the Long Run at the ING Miami Marathon

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Thousands of runners from across the globe compete in the ING Miami Marathon each year, resulting in tears, smiles, hugs, sacrifice, perseverance, pride and a bunch of other words from motivational posters. And why not? 26.219 miles can induce nausea before you even double knot your Nikes.

CareCloud was represented at the yearly event, which took place Sunday, January 27th. Our inimitable Director of Design and Community, Mike Cuesta, and younger brother/Sales Development Rep Anthony Cuesta, were in full swing, rocking our trademark blue and smiling for supporters’ cameras.

“Hours of mental and physical exhaustion met with crossing the finish line in the heart of Miami made for an incredibly gratifying experience that left me hungry for more,” said Anthony of the race. “Can’t wait to do it again!”

Despite being just two of approximately 25,000 participants at this year’s marathon, many runners confess the experience is highly personal, even meditative. Mike likens a marathon’s emotional demand to working at a startup.

“Running a marathon is just like working at a startup – it’s an emotional roller coaster ride and what really matters is how well you deal with the moments in which every fiber in your body is telling you to stop and that you can’t go forward anymore,” said the older Cuesta. “It’s precisely at those moments that you learn to dig deep and push yourself and others further than you previously thought was possible.”

And like any film-worthy startup story, there’s also the desire for a happy ending, an indicator that your hard work has paid off. Mike’s take on the marathon: ”Then you get to celebrate with a beer at the end!”

Cheers, guys!

 

CareCloud ‘Hearts’ American Heart Month

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Valentine’s Day (or weekend, depending on how you get down) is officially behind us, so it’s time to learn how to care for your own heart before you look too closely at your bank statement.

February just happens to be American Heart Month, an initiative pushed by the American Heart Association to increase awareness of heart disease and educate the population on maintaining a heathy heart.

Heart disease is the leading killer of both men and women in the United States, claiming over 600,000 deaths a year. And since many precipitating factors are byproducts of lifestyle choices, the AHA this year is promoting its Life’s Simple Seven – seven tips to keeping your heart in good shape.

1. Stop smoking

2. Get active

3. Shed excess weight

4. Eat healthier

5. Manage blood pressure

6. Control cholesterol

7. Reduce blood sugar

On that note, CareCloud would like to give a shout out to the many cardiologists we work with via our products. We appreciate your efforts and expertise. We all have out work cut out for us, so know we’re always willing to lend a helping hand!

CareCloud Does the Harlem Shake

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In an effort to catch the tail end of a viral trend before it fizzles out, CareCloud has offered its version of the Harlem Shake craze and only hopes to do Baauer’s original track justice.

Yeah, we did it. Enjoy.


CareCloud CTO Speaks at Event for Miami’s Nascent Tech Scene

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The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Committee hosted it’s 2nd annual Miami’s Got Tech event last Thursday at 600 Brickell, one of the neighborhood’s newer behemoths that impresses with fresh, Miami-school architecture and its recently minted LEED Platinum status.

Hosted by GMCC Technology Committee chairman Ralph MacNamara, the event showcased emerging tech talent from some of Florida International University and Miami-Dade College’s brightest students. And of course, we were honored to have our very own CTO, John Walsh, deliver the night’s keynote, where he touched upon his personal love affair with technology since the start-up bug bit him 13 years ago.

Walsh also touched upon how impressed he was with CareCloud’s culture prior to leaving his post at Constant Contact, and stressed to attendees the need to build upon CareCloud’s example in South Florida, particularly when it comes to growing the area’s programmer community.

(Oh, and, yeah, if you were lucky enough to attend the event, you’d know we’re hiring. Know Ruby? Want to know where else you can fit in? Check out our Careers page.)

After Walsh’s speech came the student fair, where six young innovators networked, exhibited their apps and participated in a contest sponsored by FIU’s Pino Entrepreneurship School. Frank Hernandez took home the $500 grand prize for MTG Doctor, an app to diagnose the strength of your deck in the ever-popular Magic the Gathering card-based adventure game.

CareCloud’s own Lead Front-End Engineer, Joe Yeung, and Community Project Manager, Andrew Stevens, joined Jorge Rey and MacNamara with Kaufman, Rossin & Co. as judges for the event.

Oh, yeah, btw, one more time – we’re hiring

CareCloud in Boston: Innovation District Gears Up for Health IT’s Popular New Kid

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It’s official. CareCloud unveiled its Waterfront stronghold on Tuesday morning in a non-traditional ribbon-cutting that featured our CEO Albert Santalo and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston.

The event is the culmination of months of preparation, and has even seen its fair share of news, such as this fellow Miamian’s Boston.com article. We’ve even asked members of the Miami team who were present at the ceremony to bring us back a little cold weather, just to get into the spirit.

Boasting exposed brick and floor-to-ceiling windows, the refurbished loft-style factory space will be headed by CTO John Walsh, and comprised of senior members of the Marketing, Sales and Engineering teams. CareCloud expects 35-40 people working out of the South Boston base by December.

“I love the city,” said Santalo in an article for the Boston Globe. “I love the talent you can find here.”

CareCloud’s ethos centers on smart growth, and so the 27 Wormwood St. outpost fits into Menino’s ongoing plans for South Boston’s Innovation District, which aims to transform 1000 acres of waterfront property into an urban environment that, according to CityofBoston.gov, “fosters innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship.”

With the move, CareCloud becomes the newest health IT force in the neighborhood, setting up shop alongside established industry rivals in one of the nation’s health tech capitals.

This only adds to the buzz and traction garnered by the young, cloud-based team, whose applications were likened to “Facebook for the iPhone” by Avondale Partners’s Richard Close in a VentureBeat article last month.

Can’t get enough? Check out any of the links above, or even this article on Healthcare IT News – posted just minutes before this post was finalized!

CareCloud Sponsors FHI’s Practice Formation/Re-Formation Roundtable

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What happens when you take the Medical Director for one of South Florida’s larger medical centers, a resident supervisor at a community hospital, the CEO of HealthNet, one of Florida’s first board certified health lawyers and a member of CareCloud’s best and brightest?

A jam-packed roundtable teeming with quotables and profound insight hosted by Florida Health Industry/FHIcommunications on Tuesday morning at Aventura’s Imperial Club. The event, titled “Practice Formation/Reformation 2014,” featured prominent players of the South Florida healthcare circuit waxing poetic on the future of private practice.

Sponsored by CareCloud and moderated by Director of Client Solutions Brian Foster, the group discussed what options smaller practices have in light of increased regulation, as well as the pros and cons of joining larger medical groups or accountable care organizations.

“It’s to the small practice’s advantage to join a large group,” started Lanny Pauley, COO of Neuroscience Consultants. “That way, you can have a place at the table and share what you have and what you’ve done.”

Healthcare lawyer Sandra Greenblatt built upon the view, claiming it may make sense for some doctors to “throw [their] practices into a group and get equity.” Later, Greenblatt outlined additional reasons for doctors to consolidate, including more data about costs, professional management and fear of government regulations, e.g., the ICD-10 transition and the Stark law, which restricts physician referrals of designated health services for Medicare and Medicaid patients if the physician has a financial relationship with that entity.

Another option, said Greenblatt, could be switching your practice over to a concierge model.

On the topic of ACOs, the very vocal HealthNet CEO Richard Lucibella defined the organization as “a loose association of like-minded practices” that provides a “pool of expertise for moving your practice into the future.”

According to Lucibella, physicians turning their heads away from ACOs are normally fee-for-service physicians perpetuating a “70s era care concept,” and they’d rather not give up control of their practices.

On the issue of retaining control, Antonio Wong, MD, Medical Director for Doctors Plus Medical Center, explained that “in business, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.”

According to Wong, physicians are a step away from going bankrupt at any point, and it’s imperative they understand that whether they remain small or join a larger group, medicine cannot be a one-size-fits-all kind of practice.

On that note, it didn’t take long for the panelists to expose a troubling conflict between the urge to consolidate and the need for quality imposed by government regulatory measures.

“There should actually be more responsibility for outcomes,” said Ira Agatstein, MD, Resident Supervisor at Larkin Community Hospital. “Reimbursements could be tied to these measures.”

Agatstein alluded to an interesting point, noting the language used between the “quality people,” or regulatory agencies, and the “clinical people,” or the practicing healthcare community, has not been streamlined. And this lack of communication puts into question the issue of productivity.

Foster, steering the conversation to its climax, took a second to define productivity, asking the panelists if joining an ACO would fix the communication issue Agatstein brought up.

In response, Lucibella made the most colorful point of the morning: “Say you’re a short order cook at a small restaurant and your small restaurant was acquired by Denny’s. Will Denny’s make you more productive? No. Rearranging your kitchen will make you more productive.” 

To further illustrate this, Lucibella alluded to what the healthcare community often forgets in light of strenuous regulations and value-based care models – practices need to go back to the basics of business, meaning it’s all about creating and maintaining patients.

What do you think? Will joining an ACO make your practice more productive? Check out some food for thought by Brian Foster.

Critical Conversations in Health Care: An ACA Primer for Employers

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CareCloud was proud to be in attendance on Friday as the South Florida Business Journal and PNC Bank teamed up to deliver Critical Conversations in Health Care, a panel discussion on 2010′s Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Moderated by Kevin Gale, Editor-in-Chief of the SFBJ, panelists gave tips on how companies can prepare for the ACA, including how to accommodate for their staffs and the related taxes that may affect them if employees join health insurance exchanges (HIX) in lieu of an employee plan.

Among the panelists was Jeffrey Kramer, CPA at Goldstein Schechter Koch, who outlined two of the act’s most pressing tax measures: the Individual Shared Responsibility Tax Provision, through which a hypothetical family of four would gives up 4% of their $50k/year income by 2016 if they have not purchased insurance, and the Employer Shared Responsibility Provision, where companies dish out penalty fees if they don’t provide sufficient insurance options to employees.

“There is no huge rush to make changes now,” said Kramer. “But in time, as these HIX’s become active, change will come. Educating consumers is a huge part of it.”

On the other side of the coin, Senior VP of PNC Bank’s Healthcare Division, Ralph Swanson, outlined many of the pressures affecting physicians with the coming of the ACA, which will be responsible for a sweeping 32 million uninsured Americans by 2016.

“Government payers are cutting reimbursement to insane growth, partly through reduced reimbursement rates to providers,” said Swanson. “Providers are automating as much as possible, allowing them to manage the whole episode of cares to improve outcomes.”

Jim Repp, Senior VP of AvMed Health Plans, followed up with more technology-related factors that drive up the cost of practicing medicine. Essentially, Repp believes hardware is at odds with health IT, and ways to consolidate both sides of medical technology need to find a middle ground.

“Health IT is creating efficiency and transparency,” said Repp. “But physician medical technology drives prices up. [The medical community] needs to do a better job at deciding the solutions producing better quality of care.”

Repp also touched upon consolidation of private practices of medical groups resulting from the ACA. Horizontal consolidation, Repp revealed, would narrow choices and limit number of medical facilities, which could drive care rates up by 30-50% for patients.

Conversely, vertical consolidation would entail that hospital systems integrate primary and specialty care practices, which could result in a one-stop model where patient stand to benefit.

Maureen Shea, CFO of Right Management Florida/Caribbean, nodded as Repp wrapped up his statement, adding that “liability insurance goes down when consolidating.” Given the audience’s affirmations, this approach pleased attendees.

In the end, however, it was staunch ACA opponent Stephen Spiegel, the Cold Stone Creamery franchiser who remained quiet for most of the panel, uttered the most memorable words of the event:

“This Obama healthcare act, it’s like the Bible – everyone has their interpretation.”

As the impetus behind the day’s ‘critical conversation,’ this was indeed a rather appropriate finale.

For information on how the ACA will affect medical practices in the future and other trends affecting physicians, check out the Practice Profitability Index.

Barriers to Meaningful Use Podcast Series: Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE)

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August is a hot month and we happen to be located in Miami, where many of us prefer to spend weekdays indoors during the summer months under the protection of centralized air conditioning. At CareCloud HQ, we take these opportunities to wonk out a little and get nerdy about the subjects we love.

Therefore, we’ve chosen to debut our “Barriers to Meaningful Use” podcast series this month. This first installment discusses some of the misconceptions and difficulties surrounding computerized physician order entry (CPOE), an oft-controversial core measure that provokes grief at its fair share of medical practices.

So without further ado, we leave you with Mike Pepe, CareCloud’s in-house Meaningful Use expert and EHR implementation specialist. Enjoy and stay tuned next week for an even more helpful talk on clinical summaries!

For more from Pepe, ensure you’re signed up for his upcoming webinar on the relationships between patient portals and Meaningful Use attestation. This is extremely useful information, so mark your calendars!

Barriers to Meaningful Use Podcast Series: Clinical Summaries

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Still August, still spending lots of time indoors, still getting wonky over at CareCloud. Witness the second in our “Barriers to Meaningful Use” podcast series

This second installment discusses some of the misconceptions and difficulties surrounding clinical summaries, an oft-controversial core measure that provokes confusion and a number of very important questions at its fair share of medical practices.

We leave you then with our host, Mike Pepe, CareCloud’s in-house Meaningful Use expert and EHR implementation specialist. Enjoy and stay tuned next week for an even more insightful Meaningful Use chat!

For more from Pepe, ensure you’re signed up for his upcoming webinar on the relationships between patient portals and Meaningful Use attestation. Mark your calendars – you won’t want to miss this one!

 

 

 

3 Central Benefits of Cloud-Based Practice Management for Beginners

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Cloud-based practice management systems in healthcare make sense. Not only do you benefit from automatic upgrades, faster loading speeds and remote access to your data, practice management systems that run on the cloud make your practice more efficient. And of course, efficiency inevitably leads to a boost in profits.

Maximizing your use of a cloud-based practice management system for your practice’s health IT isn’t as easy as it sounds, however. A system won’t magically do it for you – it’s up to you and your staff to adopt new methods and techniques if you want to see results.

Training Your Staff

First and foremost, we cannot stress how important it is to properly train your staff on the features, processes and uses of your new practice management system. Make use of any training resources available. Not to mention, most vendors like CareCloud even help their customers with videos, articles and help guides to aid you with training.

“The more engaged the physician is, the better the practice will run,” said Jessica Cousins, Manager of Client Education at CareCloud. “In an ideal world, the physician hires a staff that is fully competent and completely trustworthy.”

In order to help your staff more competent, physicians should also emphasize the use of inter-practice and intra-office communications within the system. So it helps that cloud-based messaging is secure, efficient and allows employees to maximize their time.

The Cloud Allows for Customization

Comprehensive, cloud-based practice management solutions help you manage your practice workflow and billing seamlessly with a customized dashboard that allows you to spend less time compiling reports and more time caring for patients. Vendors like CareCloud even integrate with their own electronic health record system for a more complete experience.

“We’re collecting faster, more accurately,” said Dr. Lawrence Berger, a Miami-based cardiologist who switched to Central, our cloud-based PM system, last year.

Most cloud-based PM dashboards cater to your needs For instance, we recommend you set up tabs that will guide your staff through the entire patient encounter— starting at appointments and ending with payments.

Real-time customizable reports can provide you with valuable insight that measures performance in a practical and simple way, thereby encouraging you to make informed management decisions.

Manage Your Practice Remotely

Suppose you’re at home, having dinner. Your spouse will likely give you grief for having to put out a fire at your practice in the middle of a conversation about a recent Netflix series, correct? With cloud-based software, you have the luxury of logging on securely from home, so you can handle a work emergency whether you’re watching the NBA Finals or sipping on a Starbucks latte.

Furthermore, your system lives on remote servers, which means you shouldn’t have to worry about upgrading your software at your office. That’s your vendor’s job. Waiting for an IT professional or hardware delivery is time consuming, which means you’re seeing less patients and, in turn, less profits.

If you’d like to find out why our web-based EHR system is the way to go, please contact us at 1-877-342-7517 or hello@carecloud.com.

A version of this article was originally published on our sister site, Power Your Practice. Click here to read the original story.


Q&A: MGMA Consultant Rosemarie Nelson Previews Upcoming Webinar

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It’s easy to get caught up in features you’re not sure about and jargon you don’t understand when you’re in the market for an electronic health record. But you know you need a system, and buying the right one will benefit you.

That’s where CareCloud comes in. We’ll be hosting a webinar titled “7 Must-Have Features of an Effective EHR Solution” featuring esteemed MGMA Consultant Rosemarie Nelson, who will focus on the functionality an EHR needs to make your practice’s workflow more efficient.

Nelson was kind enough to sit with CareCloud for a quick, pre-webinar Q&A. Consider this the perfect webinar primer. Enjoy!

What are some of the things that make EHRs user-unfriendly?
Cluttered screens and nested screens make users feel like they are struggling to get to the information they need or to complete the task at hand. We all interact daily with web browsers and that has created an intuitive ability to navigate applications similarly designed but unfortunately many EHRs have not re-designed themselves to take advantage of that “native” intuition users have developed.

What are some of the biggest concerns physicians have regarding EHRs?
“Too many clicks,” is something I hear all too often.

Are there any red flags medical practices should look out for when meeting with EHR vendors?
If the vendor says, “yes, it can do that” but does not show you how the system actually performs, push for a demonstration. If the functionality is important to your daily workflow, you need to see it in action. Visit a reference site to see the functionality in a real-life practice setting.

What is frustrating medical practices about EHRs nowadays?
Old technology! Not every EHR supports mobile devices and recent studies have found that physicians are using smartphones and tablets predominantly, so why wouldn’t we let them access their EHR on their mobile device?!

How important is it for patients to like a practice’s EHR?
Excellent customer service is what patients want and what is important. If the practice’s EHR can help the staff address patient phone calls in real time, if the practice’s EHR can fulfill the patient’s needs during the encounter, if the practice’s EHR includes a patient portal that patients want to use because it is comprehensive and services their needs, the patients will be patients for life!

What are EHR trends you foresee? Are EHRs moving in a particular direction in the coming years (e.g., features, design, storage, functionality, etc.)?
The cloud is beyond “trend”. Physicians and practice managers are seeing other services delivered via the cloud and recognize the benefits cloud-computing delivers. Mobile technology untethers healthcare and enables the practice of care anywhere.

Physicians can view test results in real-time regardless of their physical location. Remote service improves access for patients and remote monitoring engages patients in their healthcare. The trend is toward population health management and using the information we’ve gathered in EHRs to improve outcomes and reduce overall cost of care.

What should EHRs offer to help practices bridge the gap between desktop and mobile?
Full functionality! Too often an EHR vendor will tout a mobile solution but in reality it is a limited version that may only allow viewing of some of the patient’s data or may only allow e-prescribing. We’ve always sold remote access as a key benefit to the EHR implementation, but if a full desktop version is the only way to get full functionality, we aren’t mobile in today’s technology environment.

Don’t forget to sign up for next week’s FREE webinar – “7 Must-Have Features of an Effective EHR Solution.” Enjoy!

Healthcare Analytics Tips for Business-Minded Doctors

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The promise of data is huge – enormous clinical and financial rewards, less work, quantifying patient health habits and some form of IBM’s revered Watson supercomputer in every practice.

The 2012 U.S. Hospital Health Data Analytics Market report revealed that 50% of U.S. hospitals are expected to have implemented health data analytics tools by 2016, which represents an annual compound growth rate of 37.9%. In an ever-changing healthcare sector, it’s not wise for the private practice to be left behind.

Still, the industry faces serious technical and strategic challenges. Health data is diverse, complicated and unstructured across a range of criteria, making it very difficult for, say, a small practice doctor to penetrate – especially if he/she has limited experience operating in the tech sphere.

Below are some healthcare analytics tips for more business-minded physicians, no prior experience required.

Choose the right system for reporting. If you’re going to use analytics to better organize your business, don’t choose an inefficient one that’ll further complicate matters. A recent KLAS report titled Business Intelligence: Making Cents of Performance outlines some helpful features that providers searching for (or currently using) analytics tools should keep in mind. These include:

  • Quick implementation
  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Customizable to suit unique organizational needs
  • Ability to develop personalized dashboards for users
  • Flexibility to accommodate other parties like pharmacies, health plans, government entities, financial institutions, etc.

Integrate analytics with training. Practices should teach analytics to new hires, from staff members to doctors. This will help every member of the office understand how analytics data helps both patients and the execution of his/her daily tasks, to the point where seeing through data goggles becomes second nature.

Use dashboards for doctors at your practice to visualize data. As analytics move platforms closer to real-time processing and reporting – at the point of care, even – your practice should focus on updating processes and developing capabilities to enable analytics tool use, namely on the topic of real-time clinical decision support.

Use Google Analytics for online marketing efforts. Make sure your Google configuration is up to date and set up metrics goals for your website, e.g., conversion on opt-in forms, and engagement in the form of time on site and page depth.

Spot barriers to analytics adoption. According to an IBM study, titled “The Value of Analytics in Healthcare,” many healthcare executives have a difficult time differentiating bad and good data.

If this is not the case, other common barriers include lack of data-driven culture, lack of connecting the power of analytics to business improvement tactics, lack of management bandwidth or a perception that costs outweigh benefits.

Adopt an EHR that provides business data. Some people are huge fans of 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioners combos. While this is a more a serious investment, purchasing an EHR system with a built-in analytics platform may be the right choice for practices that don’t have the time or budget to seek solo solutions.

Humanize the data. While this may seem obvious, making the data accessible and friendly to humans – who will, after all, be employing, analyzing and making full use of it – is essential. In this case, usability may be the most crucial element of an effective analytics system because you and your staff simply will not use a tool that makes their jobs more difficult.

Check out how CareCloud Central can help you better analyze practice benchmarks.

Does Meaningful Use Stage 2 Also Result in Patient Engagement Limitations?

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It’s clear that Stage 2 Meaningful Use is set to transform patient engagement, but will it limit the way physicians interact with their patients?

While Stage 2 rules intend to emphasize the physician-patient relationship, some insist the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) could do a little more. An online petition on Change.org, for instance, urged the ONC to further bolster their patient engagement requirements, stating:

“Nothing would result in improving the health of the population (and decrease healthcare costs) more than having greater involvement/engagement by individuals in the healthcare process.”

Nevertheless, some would argue that current Meaningful Use rules result in patient engagement limitations. We’ve cited a few Meaningful Use patient engagement inconsistencies below.

Will Enough Patients Use Secure Messaging?
For instance, although doctors are required under Meaningful Use Stage 2 rules to use secure messaging to communicate with patients on relevant health information, there are still patients who don’t have access to the Internet or face too steep a learning curve to do so successfully.

Not to mention, while providers can engage in secure messaging among colleagues, how can they guarantee that the required 10% of their patients meet the same security requirement? How can doctors even entice these patients to do so?

Patient Education Challenges
Hurdles in the way educational patient materials are transmitted can also affect members of the patient population, particularly those who aren’t computer savvy or read at too low a level to understand literature on their symptomatology.

Conversely, only requiring that doctors provide 50% of their patient population with their health information is another patient engagement limitation. Every patient should, in theory, have access to his or her own personal health data.

Patient Demographics Limitations
First question: should recording disability status be optional or mandatory? While doctors do not have to include it now under MU patient engagement requirements – and providing this option retroactively could result in a burden for EHR vendors – recording of disability can help providers improve care coordination in a large number of scenarios.

On another note, not noting sexual orientation on the patient record can be detrimental to one’s patient population. According to a 2011 report published by the Institute of Medicine, collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity through EHRs would help address health issues among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations. The same study recommended this become a MU requirement as well.

However, this kind of sensitive information is fraught with difficulty. For instance, defining disability status invites the influence of various gray areas, while collecting sensitive data regarding sexual preference seems rather difficult, especially when considering the challenges providers have faced under Stage 1 MU rules requiring the reporting of ethnicity for over 50% of their patients.

If you want more information on the relationship between Stage 2 Meaningful Use and patient engagement, check out CareCloud’s on-demand webinar featuring in-house Meaningful Use specialist, Mike Pepe!

How One Urology Practice Manages 30,000 Patients with CareCloud Central

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Sheila Stokley, practice administrator at Bay Urology in Mobile, AL.

By some measures, Bay Urology is considered a small practice. Their staff boasts a close-knit group composed of two doctors, five nurses, two physician’s assistants, five clerical employees and a practice administrator, most of which have worked together for nearly a decade.

However, the Mobile, AL practice is housed in the same complex as Providence Hospital, and as a result contains over 30,000 patients in their database. In order to handle this capacity, Bay Urology requires a smart, fast, user-friendly practice management system.

Unhappy with their previous solution, Bay Urology made the switch to CareCloud Central in October 2010. They have since seen a decrease in administrative burdens, which has freed up more time for patients and increased profits.

“There’s a whole process that goes into getting paid,” said practice administrator Sheila Stokley. “If you don’t have the insurance set up right and you don’t have notes and comments and things along the way, you’re going to get denials. It’s the little things that can make or break your practice, and it’s those things CareCloud Central has helped us with.”

To read more about what Central did for Bay Urology, check out this independent case study by Software Advice, a trusted resource for practice management software buyers.

Want to learn more about CareCloud Central? Sign up our product webinar today!

CMS Pushes Meaningful Use Stage 3 Back to 2017

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is giving providers another year to show they’ve met the Stage 2 criteria of the Meaningful Use EHR Incentive Program, an initiative meant to encourage the adoption of electronic health records. Accordingly, the start of Stage 3 will also be pushed back a year.

Under the updates proposed on Friday, Stage 2 will be extended through 2016, and Stage 3 won’t begin until at least fiscal year 2017 for hospitals, and January of the same year for physicians and other eligible providers that have by then completed at least two years at Stage 2.

So what does this mean for Meaningful Use in the coming years?

The change only affects 2016 Meaningful Use requirements. Since the CMS announcement doesn’t affect the 2014 requirements for participating in Meaningful Use, payment penalties in 2015 also remain unaffected.

The delay will allow the CMS and the ONC to help providers meet patient engagement, interoperability and information exchange demands required under Stage 2, which are proving to be among the most challenging for physicians.

For information on what CareCloud can do to help your Meaningful Use reporting and attestation process, check out CareCloud Charts. For more information on Meaningful Use, click here

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