Is your personal data secure?
May 18, 2012
Do you think that your information is secure? It may not be as safe as you think it is. The director of Utah’s Department of Technology Services just resigned after a major data breach exposed social security numbers of Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries.
The data breach prompted the governor of Utah to issue a personal apology, noting that nobody should have to be concerned about whether or not the government is going to protect them and their personal data.
Utah’s Department of Technology Services Is not working with a contractor to evaluate the security of their information systems and is evaluating their response to those affected by the security breach. This is costing the state money and time, not to mention that it could cost a lot more for those whose social security numbers were accessed. This is yet another example of why you should take data security very seriously. Getting your security on track from the get go can save you money, protect the identity of your clients or patients, and prevent a major PR crisis.
Should Medical Practices Use Social Media?
March 23, 2012
The Proactive staff had a great time at the VMGMA Spring conference at The Homestead. As always, we enjoyed visiting with our customers and other medical professionals in a more relaxed setting. One of the speakers did two sessions about social media which raised many interesting questions. Is Facebook always a good idea? While the room seemed divided on this, the expert opinion was that Facebook is almost always a good thing, particularly for practices like pediatrics and obgyn’s where there is the obvious cute factor. For other types of practices, it can be more mission driven and informational. To avoid any HIPAA violations, never respond to a post of a patient in a way that verifies that they are even a patient there, and never disclose any information about them and the practice no matter how benign it may seem. Otherwise, use it as a tool to make your doctors and your practice more familiar and warm with pictures, advice, contests etc!
Proactive Info Heads to VMGMA
March 14, 2012
We are so excited about the upcoming Virginia Medical Group Management Association (VMGMA) show at The Homestead in Hot Springs, VA, next week and are busy packing up our booth and making our preparations. Please stop by our booth and visit with us. We cant wait to visit with old friends and make new ones!
Proactive Information is Moving!
February 29, 2012
We have some exciting news to share! To better serve our customers, we are moving to a new location. Thanks to our loyal customer’s referrals we have outgrown our current office space and have strategically picked our new home with our client’s needs in mind.
Our new location offers:
- Ample parking.
- Easy access to all major interstates.
- Plenty of room for future growth.
- A more centralized location for faster access to our customers.
Our move will be seamless to our customers, and our phone numbers will stay the same. Effective March 15th, our new address will be:
504 West Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23220
Come visit us at our new location!
CDC Releases Statistics on EHR Incentive Programs
February 8, 2012
If you are wondering how quickly medical practices are jumping on the Electronic Health Records bandwagon, it may be faster than you think. The CDC released statistics in a recent report that shows approximately 52% of office-based physicians intend to take advantage of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. And, the number of physicians who have adopted EHR has doubled between 2008 and 2011. This must illustrate that that there is a general feeling of acceptance in the medical community that the time is right to go to an EHR system and hopefully recoup some of those expenses along the way.
These incentive payments can go up to $44,000 under the Medicare Program and up to $63,750 under the Medicaid Program. Couple the incentives with the fact that having EHR can lower long term costs and improve the quality of service your patients receive, then you can see that there are few reasons not to do it.
Over the past few years, the percentage of physicians who have adopted basic electronic health records, and the percentage of primary care doctors who are using this technology, have increased significantly. If you’re in Richmond, Proactive Information Management can help you become a part of the growing percentage, so that your office doesn’t fall behind the curve. We’ll even talk you through the incentive payments to see if you qualify.
Richmond Medical Group Management Association Hosts Luncheon
January 13, 2012
Proactive Information Management enjoyed an awesome day at The Richmond Medical Group Management Associations monthly luncheon on January 12. The event was crammed with critical information on topics such as Meaningful Use, ePrescriping, HIPAA 5010, and ICD-10, to name a few. The speaker was Robert Tennant, Senior Policy Advisor for the MGMA, who kept us engaged with his knowledge and great sense of humor! I think the group would agree–it was a very valuable two hours.
During the luncheon, Tennant shared a website that helps boil down HIPAA privacy and security issues for small practices. We hope you can find this site to be a particularly helpful resource: http://www.mgma.com/privacytoolkit/
Zinsser Plastic Surgery is Proactive’s Newest Customer
January 6, 2012
We would like to welcome Proactive Information Management’s newest customer – Zinsser Plastic Surgery. We are looking forward to serving their healthcare IT needs and working with their awesome staff.
Zinsser Plastic Surgery offers cosmetic medical care that includes a variety of treatments. They perform both nonsurgical beauty treatments and surgical procedures that can improve your appearance and maintain and meet your cosmetic ideals throughout each decade of your life.
Dr. Zinsser is highly qualified and well-experienced in working with patients to help them meet their goals, whether they are choosing a simple non-invasive cosmetic treatment or something more drastic. He and his friendly and knowledgeable staff will put you at ease. We hope you all will enjoy getting to know him as much as we have!
Breaking News on the ICD-10 Code
December 21, 2011
If you work in the healthcare field, you probably already know that many physicians and practices are busy scrambling to ready themselves for the January 1, 2012 compliance date for the transition to HIPAA 5010. The Medical Group Management Association is working to extend the January 1st deadline by calling for an additional six months for the healthcare industry to transition to the new version. The extra time would mean that health plans would continue to accept HIPAA 4010 transactions and 5010 transactions that lack all required data. The Association’s research shows that much of the industry remains unprepared for the transition.
If you are a healthcare practice, what has your experience been with the transition? Do you need a six month extension?
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