Archive for category: Guest Blog Posts

The Internet of Things has made healthcare more accessible, affordable, and convenient for patients and providers alike. It’s also helped to ensure health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic. However, telehealth appointments and electronic records don’t come without their fair share of risks. 

Criminal attacks and security breaches within the healthcare industry have skyrocketed within the past decade. Patients want assurance that their data is safe, which is why it’s so essential to handle insurance information securely. 

Educate Staff

Many people fear automated intelligence and its role in securing and organizing patient information. However, it’s people that pose the greatest security risk. Simple human error, negligence, and misconduct can result in dangerous and expensive consequences like data breaches and erasures. Ongoing security awareness and anti-phishing training are essential to minimize these incidents and protect sensitive information.  

Restrict Access 

Health care providers must also implement a range of protective mechanisms to make data access more difficult for hackers and workers. Install a firewall to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing your network and retrieving information. Privacy controls that require multiple types of user authentication can also ensure only authorized professionals can view patient information. Use passwords, physical keys, or even biometrics to screen users, verify identification and heighten security. 

Implement Usage Controls

Additionally, providers should monitor who accesses data and keep a detailed record of when and where they use the network. Implementing usage controls will discourage and anticipate risky or malicious activity that could compromise patients’ personal security. You can also use these controls to block web uploads, unauthorized email sends, or print sensitive information. This way, the information stays within your network and doesn’t end up in the wrong hands. 

Encrypt Data

There were more than 3,705 healthcare data breaches between 2009 and 2020, which means more than 81% of the U.S. population has been affected. Unfortunately, more incidents occur every year, resulting in the loss, theft, exposure, and impermissible disclosure of millions of health records. That’s why it’s so important to encrypt data. Make it more difficult – or impossible – for attackers to decipher patient information with this one simple precaution. They won’t be able to read details, even if they gain access. 

Secure Mobile Devices

Many patients enjoy the benefits of talking to their doctors through mobile devices like phones and tablets instead of driving to a doctor’s office. However, sharing information virtually always increases the risk of an attack or data breach, so health care providers must take precautions. Secure mobile devices by enforcing the use of strong passwords and encrypting application data. It’s also vital to have users install mobile security software before accessing personal information or attending virtual appointments. 

Conduct Backups

Cyberattacks, natural disasters, and other calamities can compromise data availability, making it impossible for you and your patients to access. Sometimes, these incidents can even encrypt or completely erase information, which doesn’t bode well for anyone. That’s why frequent backups are so critical. Store data off-site so if someone or something compromises your network, you still have accessible information elsewhere. You can also enable remote deletion of data stored on mobile devices in case of theft or a similar emergency.

Scan for Vulnerabilities

Security loopholes and vulnerabilities in wireless networks offer an easy entry point for hackers. Therefore, it’s essential to conduct regular risk assessments to predict and identify potential threats. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act made it mandatory for healthcare entities to routinely analyze their risks as part of their regular processes. This stipulation ensures that health care providers take proactive and preventive measures to maintain continuous, reasonable, and appropriate security protections for patients.

Take a Multifaceted Approach

The best practices for cybersecurity involve a multifaceted, sophisticated approach. Monitor, log, authenticate and back up data regularly. Educate staff and patients to maximize security measures and reassure users. If you do all the above and take preventive action, you can mitigate breaches and keep more clients’ information safe.

On the other hand, hospitals and health systems are also protecting patient information using various methods. Many forward-thinking healthcare providers are utilizing RightPatient, a touchless biometric patient identification platform that locks medical records with patient photos. Patients only need to look at the camera for registration and, during subsequent visits, verification – RightPatient does the rest. When fraudsters attempt to pass off as the patients, RightPatient red-flags them during the verification process, preventing medical identity theft and protecting patient information even if there is a data breach. 

Every day, the healthcare systems from all around the world have to suffer and lose many resources, especially now since COVID-19 is suppressing it even more. Doctors might sometimes give a wrong diagnosis, treatment plans are also delayed or patients are given a false positive test for different diseases. Many resources are allocated for the healthcare department in order to ensure that patients are given a diagnosis and also the right treatment plan. It might also happen that the patient’s body cannot handle a certain medicine that doctors are not aware of and that can be even worse for the patient.

AI and Machine Learning are offering opportunities for the healthcare industry

Computers and algorithms can search huge amounts of data, much faster than the human body can, in order to find the right diagnosis, make a treatment plan, and improve the overall healthcare system and safety for their data. Healthcare is now a key industry for the big companies, using their AI and machine learning for certain healthcare projects. Many organizations are already involved in creating tools that will help the healthcare industry, even two big companies, such as IBM and Microsoft. 

Besides the fact that diagnosis, treatment, and tests will be more accurate than ever, the overall costs for the medicine and pharmaceutical industries can be reduced by up to 100 billion dollars every year. Although AI and machine learning might not be capable to find the diagnosis of a patient by themselves, the doctors can use the data provided to ensure the right diagnosis was given to the patient. 

An algorithm will perform better when it has exposure to data. The healthcare system is like a paradise for an algorithm since it contains a tremendous number of databases and information. Right now, all this data is going to waste because the storage systems are so different one from another and there are many privacy concerns involved. 

AI is responsible for Diagnosis

A good amount of work for disease identification and diagnosis is done by the AI. What the AI mainly does is this: vital information, such as lung function, blood pressure, glucose level, etc. is being analyzed by the AI and the results are being compared to the normal levels. By comparing millions of data every second, the AI is capable of finding and identifying the right disease within seconds. 

Heart diseases are one of the main problems that algorithms are trying to diagnose and prevent. The AI is now able to determine the risk factor of a person to develop heart disease by looking at its age, blood pressure, and other aspects, but it can’t make the analysis for the medication that person might be on or the condition of the other biological systems. The main focus now is to realistically make the AI predict who is at risk of developing heart disease and when this might happen, as a study by Stephen Weng suggests. 

Machines are also trained to read CT scans and interpret information from other imaging diagnostic tests. This procedure is still in a trial phase, but it can also act as an assistant for the radiologist or it can indicate an abnormality that the radiologist was not able to detect.

How AI and Machine Learning helps Respiratory Medicine

Since AI is working with huge sets of complex data, it is very useful for respiratory medicine, especially for lung illnesses that develop as a result of toxic exposure, lung cancer, restrictive lung diseases, fibrotic lung disease, and other conditions. The diagnostic criteria might sometimes overlap, which is a reason why doctors should pay attention to the results of the AI and make adjustments accordingly, if necessary. 

The AI can also compare different results of a CT scan for the lungs of a patient or it can compare with the results of other patients. This way, the AI is more effective and can easily find the information about a patient that suffered from the same condition really quickly. Once they have the right diagnosis, they can find the treatment plan and monitor the overall results and improvements of the patient.

Monitoring Drug Response

AI and machine learning can gather information from different platforms, as there was an experiment where social media was put to work and connect people that suffer from cancer in order to ensure different treatment options. AI did a very good job and sorted the information from Twitter and Facebook comparing the different answers from the participants. The pharmaceutical industry is now trying to determine what treatment works better for a patient based on their genealogical tree and biology. 

Monitoring Health Epidemics

The algorithms are used to perform regular checks on news reports, social media, and government websites in order to find an outbreak. There was one case when a computer algorithm was able to detect an Ebola outbreak more than one week faster than the World Health Organisation did. 

This is just the beginning of AI and machine learning to perform at their best for the healthcare industry. It might be a long shot for the algorithms to be able to diagnose a patient by themselves, but as they are gathering more and more data, there is a possibility that in the near future they will be able to develop a full diagnosis and treatment plan without aid from a specialist.

Today, psychotherapy and medication are the go-to interventions for a wide range of mental health issues, ranging from depression, post-traumatic stress, and anxiety, to full-blown disorders such as substance use disorder (SUD) and personality disorders.

Even with massive advances in the current understanding of how the brain works and how clinicians can assist patients with recovery, mental health issues remain challenging to treat. This is mainly because of the social baggage associated with mental health and the difficulty of maintaining a proper therapeutic regime over the extremely long recovery times needed for most psychiatric issues.

However, better technology and a deeper understanding of neuroscience have significantly improved the odds of psychiatric patients undergoing recovery. Below are some tech-forward ways it is already being done that are likely to make their way into the mainstream soon enough. If you’re in North Texas, check out these resources for inpatient drug rehabs in Dallas.

Biometric Identity Protection

The American Opioid Crisis has been the cause of a lot of identity fraud in the healthcare system, as people with drug use problems and drug suppliers turn to identity theft as a way to illicitly obtain prescription medications, particularly opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants. Many of these drugs see widespread use in healthcare, particularly in mental health, which means fraud raises the cost and availability of critical drugs.

Biometric patient identification can prevent medical identity theft in such cases and eliminate this type of fraud. However, in the future, it will hopefully improve outcomes for more psychiatric patients who need lifesaving medication.

Telecounseling

Consulting with a counselor or psychiatrist regularly is an important part not just of the initial recovery period, but also for aftercare. However, having regular consultations is not easy for many patients for several reasons.

First, the stigma against mental illness remains strong, and this is especially true where personality disorders or substance use is involved. This stigma often makes it very difficult for psychiatric patients to seek the help they need, even if they know it’s necessary.  

Others simply cannot spare the extra mental effort needed to meet with a therapist due to the nature of their condition. Still, others do not have access to mental health services due to their location or some other reason.

Teleconsultations and telecounseling are, thankfully, far more accessible than ever before, with the availability of these services being greatly boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While there are practical limitations in what could be done through remote meetings with mental health experts, these sessions can help fill a vital need in aftercare that has been present for decades.

A.I. Therapists

Of course, even if you could get access to a therapist who does online consultations, there are probably times that you won’t be able to get immediate access to them. Thankfully, advanced AI and specialized apps can now offer constant support whenever human therapists or support groups couldn’t be present.

Though not a one-for-one substitute for a qualified human therapist, advanced artificial intelligence offer instant support for an individual that needs immediate attention, allowing it to plug one of the most persistent holes in mental health aftercare.

Real-time Vital Signs Monitoring

Stress and anxiety can influence negative behaviors like overeating or drug and alcohol use. However, the presence of these is not always obvious to the individual undergoing it. Thankfully, stress and anxiety exhibit physical symptoms that can be easily detected.

Some individuals with mental health issues related to stress are already using commercially available wearable devices like Fitbits or Apple Watches to monitor signs of stress. There are also specialized devices that could send data directly to one’s physician so that specific patterns and stressors can be more accurately identified. 

These devices allow people with stress issues to take a more active role in maintaining their mental health, which in turn can aid in building more sustainable, mentally healthier lifestyles over time.

Healthcare Gamification

Gamification, the process of turning otherwise mundane activities into games, has attracted a lot of interest in mental healthcare, particularly where substance use disorders are involved. 

Motivational Interviewing is a form of gamification that allows recovering individuals to maintain an interest in their healthcare. This can be done through apps that gamify the process or simply through parlor prizes awarded at therapy or consultation sessions. Some mental health centers are even experimenting with cash prizes or rebates as a reward for attending sessions.

Remarkably, the value of the prize is not as important for reinforcing behavior as the stimulation the brain gets when presented with a reward. This means that relatively simple gaming apps specifically designed to aid self-care may soon be a standard part of recovery treatments for many mental health patients, improving their long-term outcomes at a minimal cost.

Should You Go For Tech-based Treatments?

While it could be a huge help for specific cases, technology is only one part of the equation that helps improve patient outcomes. If you are interested in more tech-centric solutions for your mental health, be sure to talk to a clinician who is up-to-date on your preferred type of care. This will ensure the best possible results and should help you achieve your desired wellness goals.

Healthcare providers are adopting strategies to protect their patients from financial hardships and improve the bottom line. Moreover, the latest economical havoc is adding additional pressure to the US healthcare industry. Every financial outlook of a medical facility is affected by this storm. It is now more important than ever before to fortify cash flow and revenue cycles. 

The major impact is the increasing financial responsibility of the patients from the insurer’s end. This is reshaping how the medical facilities struggle to keep going and collecting revenues after shifting towards healthcare consumerism. It is crucial to manage this shift and ensure the successful collection of patient financial responsibility. 

Meanwhile, according to the Federal Reserve’s report about the US households’ economic well-being, approximately forty percent of patients aren’t able to meet the 400$ emergency with credit, savings, or cash. For ensuring the strong financial health of a healthcare business it is necessary to have a well-managed or efficient revenue cycle management. 

Robust revenue cycles ensure accuracy from submitting and reviewing claims to conducting charge capturing or performing medical credentialing. So, medical professionals can enhance cash flow, improve financial performance, and reduce costly reimbursement delays. 

Address Revenue Cycle Inefficiencies

Insurance Eligibility Verification

Guiding patients from the first visit helps them to comprehend the charges module of their visits. Once you verify eligibility in advance it will help you to notify your clients about their financial responsibility and allow facilities to precisely charge for visits. Patients are likewise prepared to pay for the administrations they get when they are already informed about their estimates before their appointments. 

On the other hand, insurance regulations change swiftly and confuse patients. It is very crucial to check the eligibility first so that the consumers get the data they require and understand their benefits. At this point, this will protect the patients from seeing large surprise medical bills. Moreover, it also saves the facilities in the case when policies/laws do not cover specific processes and when the insurance of patients has lapsed(no longer valid). 

Many medical practices are still utilizing manual methods to verify eligibility. This procedure no doubt will lead to human errors and obviously, it is hectic or time-consuming too. Taking professional support from a trusted medical billing company will allow you to automate this step. 

Digital methods will save you money and time. In this way, you don’t have to give your entire attention to insurance verification and can focus better on your patients. 

Different Payment Options 

Client convenience becomes a significant thing when payment expectations begin to rise in health care. Consumers expect the same experience which they have already experienced in various industries. So, it becomes more important now to provide them with distinctive payment choices across multiple platforms. 

Patients can enhance their healthcare experience with capabilities such as flexible payment options, simplified medical bills, and self-service portals. This enables them to fully pay their financial responsibility which grows in time and improves their financial experience efficiently. 

A recent study shows that half of the consumers who were taking healthcare services they required stopped seeking care due to out-of-pocket costs. In addition, one in eight said that consequently, their medical situation has become even worse. 

DCHS analysis says that those practices will have higher profitability when having higher scores of patient-reported experience. Therefore, the key to enabling consumers to get quality care and a good experience is to utilize convenient payment methods or implement modern technology. 

Furthermore, automation eases your work and enables patients to utilize mobile pay functions, set up payment plans, etc. This way, medical practitioners can protect themselves from the bad debt as well. 

Underpayments & Rejections 

Claim rejections and underpayments oftentimes occur when practitioners follow inconsistent procedures. Healthcare providers must utilize advanced approaches to address issues like rejections related to medical necessity, insurance eligibility, untimely filing, authorizations, medical denials – ensuring positive patient identification can help with that. It is highly essential to adjust workflows, track success, and monitor improvements accordingly once all the procedures are in place.  

Moreover, chances of errors increase when manual methods are utilized. Based on the specific factors consider using smart solutions that can flag encounters. Integrating an efficient practice management system can help you focus on acquiring the maximum revenue by saving your administrative time. The Healthcare sector as a whole is spending 315$ B yearly on medical billing/coding, claims processing, bad debt, and payments. 

With the help of specialized technology, you become able to see operational insights, analytics, and actionable data that in the past was not designed to deliver via traditionally siloed systems.  

Skilled RCM experts of a top-notch medical billing company can work with a medical practitioner to pinpoint areas and concerns that hold the practice to boost its profitability. They help you adopt best practices and cutting-edge technologies to boost revenue or cash flow.

Upfront Payment Estimate 

It is an important step to prepare consumers about their financial responsibility and make them aware of fees associated with their visit by providing them estimates before seeking care. To be very honest, only 27% of the professionals use digital upfront payment estimates. It signifies that the rest of them may use manual methods or not do anything. 

Medical facilities should provide a precise estimation of the out-of-pocket costs for the particular procedures that factor in relevant data. Besides, the estimation must comprise the data about co-insurance, co-pays, and deductibles. 

Consumers wouldn’t be able to make better decisions about their payment choices without this critical information. Being aware signifies that clients will and can act as consumers. 

Utilizing a payment estimator will help you ensure that the consumer information is updated and accurate. At this point, your administrative staff would be able to save time and provide the data to the patients while decreasing the manual workflow. 

Spark the change. First for you, and then for others. Embrace tech advancement that provides realistic financial reporting to providers, workflow automation to the staff, and real-time accurate data access to consumers.

The world is currently facing the most significant healthcare challenge, which is the pandemic of COVID-19. It has caused millions of deaths worldwide and created chaos in the healthcare sector. The biggest challenge for the healthcare industry was to make people aware of how to maintain social distancing to keep themselves and their loved ones safe from this deadly coronavirus. Apart from the pandemic of COVID-19, there are other healthcare challenges that the healthcare industry needs to consider. 

Only healthcare organizations are not responsible for helping people in crises. People are also responsible for having the proper knowledge and awareness to take good care of themselves. You should adopt a healthy lifestyle to stay away from health issues. It will also ease off the burden from the healthcare institutes. Every day different health epidemics are affecting people all around the globe. From mental health issues to obesity, there are other root causes of public health issues. Let’s explore the most significant public health issues of 2021. 

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic seems to go nowhere because the virus starts spreading again whenever the situation becomes stable. Just like in 2020, in 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic will be one of the most significant public health issues. This deadly and infamous virus has put the entire world in an emergency state – changing reality for all of us.

In such crises, healthcare experts with good knowledge and qualifications can deal with such situations efficiently.

Moreover, there are several innovative solutions that can help healthcare providers deal with such emergencies. One such solution is RightPatient – a touchless biometric patient identification platform that ensures patient safety, reduces infection control issues, and even prevents medical identity theft. Patients are identified easily without any physical contact – helping ensure both hygiene and accurate patient information usage.

If you are currently working in the healthcare sector, you should also seek high-level education to strengthen your academic profile. 

If it is difficult for you to pursue further education with a full-time job, you may opt for distance learning opportunities on the internet. In this case, you can go for a virtual program like a master’s in public health online to help you harness the required knowledge and skills. It will prepare you to deal with global health issues like the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare organizations guide wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, using sanitizers, and other measures. Many medical experts and nurses have come out of retirement to serve people in this pandemic.

Drugs Abuse

Substance abuse has always been one of the significant health concerns for the relevant authorities and organizations. Before the pandemic, drug abuse was one of the top public health issues. It has been reported that due to the pandemic, drugs usage has increased in homes by 18%. Drugs addicts mostly have poor immune systems, which make them vulnerable to getting infected by a coronavirus. So, you can see how public health issues are connected. 

Fortunately, there’s a ray of hope, as rehabilitation centers currently offer the best treatments for the addicted. Those dealing with substance abuse are admitted to rehabilitation centers for treatment, where they are kept in isolation and cannot access any substance. 

Mental Health Issues 

Mental health issues were already a significant concern worldwide for healthcare organizations. But COVID-19 has further increased mental health issues among people. The anxiety and stress of quarantine and remote work have affected people’s mental health from all age groups. Restrictions on family gatherings have also caused stress among people. The rate of depression increases continuously among people, which is an alarming sign for the healthcare industry. 

According to a statistical study, around 70% of teenagers are dealing with mental health issues worldwide. Another research revealed that 60% of youth are not getting the necessary health treatment they need. With the rise in mental health issues, the demand for mental health workers and public health will increase too.

Heart Diseases 

Health issues related to the heart are one of the leading causes of death all around the world. Cardiovascular diseases are growing exponentially, and the influence of COVID-19 will increase it more. It means that heart health is going to be the top concern of public health workers and physicians. There are different causes of heart diseases like stress, improper food, smoking, or it could be due to your genetics. 

HIV

Unfortunately, even now, HIV/AIDS causes millions of deaths each year. There is still no vaccine or medication that can help patients to recover from HIV. It remains a challenge for the healthcare sector and the most significant public health issue. People also lack basic knowledge of HIV that what they have to do to prevent this deadly disease. According to a study, over 70 million have HIV infection, and 33 million have died due to it. Another study showed that there are around 38 million currently living with HIV. These are alarming figures and still create a big challenge for the healthcare industry.

Healthcare organizations have to take sound measures to deal with the most significant public health issues this year. They have to harness the latest technology and guide people to protect themselves from diseases and viruses. Once people have the proper knowledge, they will take correct preventive measures to attain good health. With the advancement in healthcare, hopefully, these challenges will be resolved soon.