Entries by Mizan Rahman

CMS cuts payments to 800 hospitals for patient safety incidents – is yours next?

Patient safety incidents should be taken seriously by all hospitals. Unfortunately, CMS is penalizing 800 of them for having the highest rates of patient injuries and infections. The agency will trim these hospitals’ Medicare payments in the fiscal year 2019. The HAC Reduction Program is a Medicare pay-for-performance program that supports CMS’s long-standing effort to […]

HIMSS 2019 – Interoperability Showcase; What Is the Foundation of Interoperability?

On the last day before leaving, I decided to stop by the interoperability pavilion at HIMSS – this was one of the busiest and well-presented parts of the show. The section, showcased by the VA (US Veteran Administration), was very extravagant – you usually see such displays from any of the federal government agencies only […]

Making the most of patient wait times

The U.S. healthcare system has long suffered from the problem of excessive patient waiting times. In 2015, 32% of visits to the ED resulted in patient wait times of up to an hour. Obtaining an initial outpatient appointment with a physician can take a month or more. The fact is that waiting times can be […]

How Can You Protect Your Investment in a Population Health Solution?

Healthcare in the U.S. is going to see a paradigm shift in the next five years that will move it from a fee-for-service (FFS) payment model towards a value-based model. Simply said, those who produce better results and improve patient quality of care at lower costs will reap higher dividends. This shift will require better […]

Value-Based Care: A Patient-Centered Approach Requires Knowing Your Patient

Aspirin, penicillin, monoclonal antibodies, interventional cardiology, and genome editing have undoubtedly revolutionized medicine. However, while all of these have been breakthroughs in the field of medicine, not much has changed in the way that doctors do their jobs. Patients visit their doctors, the doctors diagnose, they recommend tests, they prescribe drugs, and they are compensated […]

Data Personalization in Healthcare

Personalization in healthcare – everyone talks about personalized medicine, how about data personalization? One size does not fit all. Thus, medicine is seeing a shift from a standard model of care to a personalized model of care. The emergence of cloud computing, wearables, machine learning, and continuous progress in data management has made the delivery […]

Leaders of healthcare gather in Chicago for Becker’s Hospital Review Conference

Just as the cooler weather finally emerges in hot & sunny Silicon Valley, I was summoned to attend the Becker’s Health IT and Revenue Cycle Conference in the windy city of Chicago. Downtown Chicago is definitely one of the most beautiful destinations – I was excited. Mike (the co-founder) found a great apartment with the […]

Prevent Patient Record Mix-Ups Before It’s Too Late

It’s no secret that patient identification is a challenge, but unfortunately, a frightening number of “wrong patient, right procedure” mix-ups still occur every day in hospitals and health systems around the country. For example, an article published on bostonglobe.com highlighted a case at UMass Memorial Medical Center where a patient was mistakenly diagnosed with cancer […]

Thrive: What Did I Take Away From The HFMA Northern California Spring Conference

I was staying in Silicon Valley for a few weeks when I realized my visit overlapped with the HFMA Northern California Chapter’s spring conference. I decided to join Mike and meet some interesting individuals, fluent in the language of healthcare, of course. Words cannot express how valuable that decision proved to be. The weekend began […]