The Biggest Challenge of the Affordable Healthcare Act, Says RISARC CEO Richard Stephenson, Is Managing and Using the Digital Data Flow
Burbank, California (PRWEB) March 21, 2014 -- Richard Stephenson, Founder and CEO of RISARC, a leading national high-technology and revenue recovery consulting firm to the health care industry, is challenging the industry to make quick and effective use of the digital data flows that the Affordable Health Care Act has encouraged.
Saving lives
Says Stephenson: “A study of just 333 hospitals done last year showed that sharing outcomes data and expertise through digital exchanges saved 92,000 lives and $9.1 billion over the term of the four and one half year review. And that’s just the beginning. The rapidly expanding aggregation of U.S. medical and treatment data – referred to as ‘big data’ that comes as providers and insurers digitize their records and harmonize their electronic exchange protocols can further transform health and healthcare. But only if the data is shared and effectively analyzed.”
That study team, funded by the Premier Healthcare Alliance, a group purchasing organization for not-for-profit hospitals, predicted that hospitals nationwide could save nearly 1 million lives and nearly $100 million over five years as they learn to understand and analysis this information bonanza.
Cost-control revolution
Added Stephenson: “Hidden in this data is an efficiency cost-control revolution who’s real roots go back at least a decade when pharmaceutical companies began doggedly aggregating years of research into digital medical databases and using the information to analyze results. Since that digital beginning, payors and providers have dramatically expanded digital patient records, incentivized to do so by Federal regulations.”
According to RISARC CEO, these and other stakeholders are aggregating their files and finding much broader uses for these stores of electronic health record information– the latest and largest being the Affordable Health Care Act participants.
Coordination, assessment and capability
Says Stephenson: “This is just Act One. The medical practices dealing with shortcomings in their EHR software are also struggling to properly digitize their patient records. As these challenges are worked through and resolved more will come on board. The next step is to transfer this vast and growing body of knowledge into action.”
Stephenson also encourages the expansion of analyst teams available to providers and insurers alike so that the local and institutional data is properly exploited to isolate and address administrative and clinical functions and improve performance in areas beyond ACA implementation, to include coordination of care, performance assessments and the capability of existing staff.
Said Stephenson: “Vendors or staff-based specialists will soon be providing real-time analytics services to tackle most of this new data as it comes in, developing the quality metrics need to effect population management and improve patient care, chronic disease management, hospital administration and supply chain efficiencies.”
Channeling the flow
Added Stephenson: “Fast-moving flows of new digital data in health care can be a blessing or seem to be an uncontrolled flood. A new generation of data engineers and analysts are beginning to channel and process this information into predictive analytics that lead to insight and long-term improvements for our industry and its stakeholders.”
About RISARC
RISARC is a leading national high-technology and revenue recovery consulting firm to the health care industry. RISARC, founded in 1990, has recovered over $1 billion for its clients. The company offers the RMSe-bubble™ for secure electronic document exchange and the signature RISARC 360° single-source solution that combines health care revenue cycle expertise with innovative cloud-based, cost-saving technology to help clients optimize existing resources, meet business objectives and reach financial goals. RISARC is a pioneer in health care technology solutions and is a certified Health Information Handler for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, esMD project. The RMSe-bubble provides the industry’s best secure, HIPAA-compliant environment for electronic record and document exchange and has been endorsed and accepted by providers, commercial insurance carriers and government agencies across the United States.
Please visit us at http://www.risarc.com for additional information.
MEDIA CONTACT
Marshal Gordon
mgordon(at)risarconline(dot)com
(818) 953-3020
Marshal Gordon, Risarc, http://www.risarc.com, +1 818-953-3020, [email protected]
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