Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, Value-Based Care, Social Dominate News at HIMSS15

HIMSS 2015 featured The Internet of Things for Health™, the Intelligent Hospital, the Intelligent Medical Home (i-Home™) as well as mobile, cloud, social, analytics, population health and value based care.

Record attendance at HIMSS 2015 in Chicago – over 43,000 people.  Now that HIMSS15 is over, take a look at some of the trends that dominated the headlines, the social buzz and the chatter at after show cocktail parties.

Of course, there were the overarching themes of interoperability, and population health, but there were some key themes that received the most attention. Here are the five areas that stood out:

  1. Value based care and population health mergers and acquisitions
  2. mHealth – HIMSS 2015 mobile health survey and ROI issues as well as HIPAA Privacy and Security.
  3. Emerging technologies focused on referrals, eligibility and personal health engagement / patient engagement.
  4. SMAC – Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud, including ICD-10
  5. While there is work being done to break down the data and process silos in healthcare, much more work needs to be accomplished to realize the promise of these solutions.

The health care industry continues to rely on X12 EDI claims data because it is standardized.  Though clinical data is increasingly structured (‘discrete data’ per Meaningful Use of EHR regulations) it is not standardized as to specific content such as blood pressure (systole and diastole can be expressed as 120 / 80, “blood pressure in normal range” etc). Therefore, it can still be difficult at times to query and manage populations using clinical data.  It’s needed though if we are going to deliver on the promise of value based care and  population health.

Read the full story here in GovHealthIT.

Michael F. Arrigo

Michael is Managing Partner & CEO of No World Borders, a leading healthcare management and IT consulting firm. He serves as an expert witness in Federal and State Court and was recently ruled as an expert by a 9th Circuit Federal Judge. He serves as a patent expert witness on intellectual property disputes, both as a Technical Expert and a Damages expert. His vision for the firm is to continue acquisition of skills and technology that support the intersection of clinical data and administrative health data where the eligibility for medically necessary care is determined. He leads a team that provides litigation consulting as well as advisory regarding medical coding, medical billing, medical bill review and HIPAA Privacy and Security best practices for healthcare clients, Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records. He advises legal teams as an expert witness in HIPAA Privacy and Security, medical coding and billing and usual and customary cost of care, the Affordable Care Act and benefits enrollment, white collar crime, False Claims Act, Anti-Kickback, Stark Law, physician compensation, Insurance bad faith, payor-provider disputes, ERISA plan-third-party administrator disputes, third-party liability, and the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSPA) MMSEA Section 111 reporting. He uses these skills in disputes regarding the valuation of pharmaceuticals and drug costs and in the review and audit of pain management and opioid prescribers under state Standards and the Controlled Substances Act. He consults to venture capital and private equity firms on mHealth, Cloud Computing in Healthcare, and Software as a Service. He advises ERISA self-insured employers on cost of care and regulations. Arrigo was recently retained by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding a significant false claims act investigation. He has provided opinions on over $1 billion in health care claims and due diligence on over $8 billion in healthcare mergers and acquisitions. Education: UC Irvine - Economics and Computer Science, University of Southern California - Business, studies at Stanford Medical School - Biomedical Informatics, studies at Harvard Medical School - Bioethics. Trained in over 10 medical specialties in medical billing and coding. Trained by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and PTAB Judges on patent statutes, rules and case law (as a non-attorney to better advise clients on Technical and Damages aspects of patent construction and claims). Mr. Arrigo has been interviewed quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and National Public Radio, Fortune, KNX 1070 Radio, Kaiser Health News, NBC Television News, The Capitol Forum and other media outlets. See https://www.noworldborders.com/news/ and https://www.noworldborders.com/clients/ for more about the company.