Latest California Healthline Stories
It Pays To Adopt Electronic Health Records
Providers throughout California are about to get a significant amount of help in establishing their electronic health record systems, according to Raul Ramirez, chief of the state’s Office of Health IT.
“Our hope is to launch the incentive program on April 1,” he said. “We’ve been in contact with CMS (federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), and we expect feedback any time now.”
If the launch goes as planned, providers could start seeing incentive payments starting in May, Ramirez said.
Keeping California in Front of the Telehealth Curve
A new report suggests ways legislators and policymakers can create a welcoming policy environment for telehealth. Although the report is tailored for California, officials at the Center for Connected Health Policy say it can serve as a model for other states.
California at Edge of Telehealth Revolution?
The Center for Connected Health Policy’s working group for the Telehealth Model Statute was charged with developing a plan for helping to take telehealth out of the realm of futuristic dreaming and into the present. A report released this week lays the groundwork for how the new technology can become ubiquitous in California.
The first steps are to remove state restrictions on using telehealth in medical practices and to incorporate telehealth concepts in the laws and policies of health care reform, according to Sandra Shewry, president and CEO of the Center for Connected Health Policy.
“We wanted to think through, what are the big ideas that would create the ideal policy environment for telehealth,” Shewry said. “And that’s what’s in this report.”
Two Health IT Groups Join Forces
It seems like a natural fit. Cal eConnect was formed to promote and coordinate electronic health record use in California, and the California E-Prescribing Consortium (CaleRx) is trying to get providers to electronically connect with pharmacists.
Those two processes are inextricably linked, keeping EHRs and prescribing electronically. It’s all in the name of reshaping the health care delivery system, and providing better care at a lower cost.
Yesterday was the first time the two groups officially established an ongoing collaboration, in a joint workgroup meeting. How exactly that collaboration will develop is still being discussed, but everyone seemed to agree on one thing: It’s a good idea to join forces.
Small, Rural Company Center Stage in Data Exchange
Redwood MedNet, a small company in rural Mendocino County, is about to launch California’s first contribution to the national Direct Project for electronic health information exchange. The company’s also working on a statewide immunization reporting system.
Telehealth Network Inches Nearer to Reality
With 25 medical sites plugged into the system and the secure central connection about to be finalized, California is set to begin one of the largest telehealth operations in the nation.
Providers Set To Reap Cash from IT Incentive Program
California has a new interim coordinator for health information technology. Linette Scott stepped in for Jonah Frohlich, who resigned as deputy secretary of health IT at the California Health and Human Services Agency to take a job in the San Francisco law office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.
Scott presided over her first stakeholder meeting last week at an opportune time. CMS had just opened up registration for financial incentives for electronic health record implementation.
“This effort is much broader than just an IT project,” Scott said. “This is a way to improve health of all Californians.”
Telemedicine in California Becoming Tele-Reality
Telemedicine may seem futuristic, but it’s not. Not anymore.
“The good news is, at CTN [the California Telehealth Network], we have actually activated sites,” CTN Executive Director Eric Brown said. “Which is huge. This is really huge for us.”
Brown said approximately 25 sites have activated their connections since Dec. 1, and that’s just the run-up to a much bigger launch.
‘Baby Cams’ Link Parents, Newborns in Intensive Care
Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital is one of the first in Northern California to use new technology to link parents with their newborns in the intensive care unit when they can’t be there to hold them in person.
California Up for Big Federal IT Grant for Exchange
The feds want to give a bushelful of health care grant dollars to California, and state officials definitely want to accept. The question is, can they meet the Dec. 23 application deadline?