Are we ready to do ICD-10?

Penny Osmon Bahr, CHC, CPC, CPC-I, PCS, 

Director of Healthcare Solutions at Avastone 

Health Solutions

With multiple delays in implementing ICD-10, and the rock solid, “no-more-delays,” go-live date of Oct. 1 fast approaching, PARCA eNews checked in with Penny Osmon Bahr, director of Healthcare Solutions at Avastone Health Solutions, an integrated hardware, software and healthcare operations consulting firm. Osmon Bahr is an executive health care operations expert with over 18 years of industry experience with an emphasis in Medicare compliance, coding and billing, HIPAA privacy and security, quality measurement and health information management. Osmon Bahr is professionally respected for her broad industry knowledge, leadership, and her ability to convey complex information to all stakeholders, making her a sought-after guest speaker at conferences. She most recently presented a case study of a successful ICD-10 implementation at HiMSS 2015. She is a Professional Medical Coding Curriculum Instructor, certified in Healthcare Compliance through the Health Care Compliance Association and an AAPC-trained ICD-10 instructor. Osmon Bahr is a member of the Wisconsin ICD-10 partnership steering team and sits on the HIMSS national ICD-10 task force. She also is a member of the Medical Group Management Association.

Leadership Survey Reveals Top Priorities for Healthcare Leaders

PARCA eNews – April 13, 2015 – The results of the annual HIMSS leadership survey of more than 300 participants, examined key trending issues impacting the business of healthcare including patient considerations, security concerns, insurance models and policy mandates. 

The results showed: 

Big Data takes shape with IBM’s HIMSS 2015 announcement

PARCA eNews – April 22, 2015 – The nebulous vision of big data in healthcare became a bit clearer at HiMSS 2015 with IBM’s announcement of Watson Health.

Watson is IBM’s supercomputer that has been looking for a purpose for several years following its famous stint as a game show contestant on Jeopardy. With Watson Health, IBM is staking out a claim on a huge parcel of the cloud. With partners Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and Apple, together with

HiMSS survey shows push to mobile health IT continues

HiMSS News – Today, at the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, HIMSS released the results of the 2015 HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey. This year’s study, of more than 200 healthcare provider employees, found that nearly 90 percent of respondents are utilizing mobile devices within their organizations to engage patients in their healthcare. The report also showed that respondents believe that mHealth technologies are beginning to drive cost savings and improve the quality of care delivered.

Apple Announces ResearchKit for medical researchers

PARCA eNews – April 14, 2015 – Apple® today announced ResearchKit™, a software framework designed for medical and health research that helps doctors, scientists and other researchers gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using mobile devices.

Where has all the PACS innovation gone?

PACS issues

PARCA eNews – April 13, 2015 – Since 2005, there has been little innovation in medical image storage and communications systems, according to Catherine Tucker, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

In a study of the medical IT sector, Tucker contends that the reason, is a broken US patent system that allows people and companies to patent ideas without ever actually having to create a new product.