We offer a diverse group of article links in this week’s post, including stories about a Boston-area hospital’s plans for substance misuse testing among patients, newly announced Obamacare statistics, and updates to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) Meaningful Use packages.
- The Wall Street Journal shares the results of a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found 60 percent of Americans who purchased insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s online exchanges were previously uninsured. Other research teams—Rand Corp. and McKinsey—suggest the number is closer to 30 percent.
- Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston announced it will earmark $1.4 million annually for substance misuse testing of all its inpatient and emergency department (ED) patients, The Advisory Board Company reports. Other hospitals are adopting similar screening protocols for ED and trauma patients, but MGH is the first to launch a facility-wide program. The initiative is in response to worsening illicit drug and alcohol abuse statistics in the greater Boston area.
- Lux Research expects clinical mobile health devices will surpass consumer counterparts in the near future, thanks to larger revenue streams and increased value-added software streams in the healthcare market. HIT Consultant reports the mobile health market will grow eight-fold from $5.1 billion in 2013 to $41.8 billion by 2023.
- The Advisory Board Company shares a healthcare system’s tip for effectively communicating with diverse patient populations: “facts at a glance” culture sheets.
- EHR Intelligence echoed an announcement by CMS that two updates have been made to its Meaningful Use Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) packages. The updates are actually corrections to the download packages’ sample files for QRDA I and III. Technical specifications in the Meaningful Use program were left unchanged.
Have a wonderful weekend!