CareThreads

Five Frequently Asked Questions About ICD-10

November 3, 2014

On Oct. 1, 2015, the healthcare diagnostic process will undergo a fundamental shift. Starting that day, the ICD-9 (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition) code sets used to report medical diagnoses and inpatient procedures will be replaced by the ICD-10 code set. Any organizations who fail to comply will be unable to bill for any services provided after that date, which could severely impact their cash flow and their ability to deliver care to the country’s most vulnerable populations. Five…

The Other Half of the Story: ACOs Must Bring Behavioral Health Providers into the Clinical Mix

October 28, 2014

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Care Coordination, EHR Solutions and Operations, Human Services

Accountable Care Organizations, which used to be the wave of the future, are the here and now. As groups of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers come together to coordinate care, it is essential they include behavioral health providers in the mix. According to a recent National Comorbidity Survey, 17 percent of the adult population had comorbid mental and medical conditions within a 12-month period. Patients with comorbidities require a comprehensive treatment plan to truly bend the cost curve. For…

Realized: The Promise of Evidence-Based Practice in Behavioral Health

October 16, 2014

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Human Services

“A systemic approach to analyze published research as the basis of clinical decision making.” That’s how evidence-based medicine was first defined more than two decades ago. And it makes sense doesn’t it? The best treatment philosophies are born of experience – and if we can draw from our collective experience we give ourselves the best chance of improving outcomes. Evidence-based treatment (EBT) in medicine has been embraced for years, but in the behavioral setting we have struggled to implement it…

Don’t go on the Offensive with Your Body’s Defense

October 13, 2014

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Human Services, Post-acute Care

Achoo! As we enter the cold and flu season, take pause. I know it’s annoying to have itchy eyes, a runny nose and a bothersome cough, but I’d like to talk with you about the challenges of overmedicating. Society has broadly sought medication as a silver bullet since the discovery of penicillin and the mass manufacturing of antibiotics. Antibiotics aren’t needed for a benign viral illness yet we continue to prescribe costly medications without clear and obvious justification and in…

Going Beyond 5 Rights to a Person-Centric Model

October 2, 2014

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Care Coordination, EHR Solutions and Operations, Human Services, Interoperability, Post-acute Care

Prescription and over-the-counter medications are milestone medical advances that impact how we treat and prevent illness. Medication therapies for individuals with behavioral health conditions have become much more prevalent and accepted in the past 10 years. Nonetheless, it is primary care physicians that prescribe the majority of behavioral health medications; overall, 67 percent of psychopharmacologic drugs are prescribed by primary care physicians (Rural Health Advisory Committee, 2005).

International Lessons on Interoperability

August 29, 2014

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Interoperability

A recent trip to Sweden reminded me about the similarities between countries. My Stockholm trip was the first of three European cities I visited as part of the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership. This gathering expanded on previous efforts to share best practices in e-health and health information technology for behavioral healthcare. Because Sweden was the host, we heard more about their system than others, but the problems they’re trying to solve are fundamentally the same as in the rest of the participants’ countries.

Boom, Boom – What Healthcare Leaders Can Learn From The Dot Com Era

August 15, 2014

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Human Services, Post-acute Care, Videos

1994 — I was a budding journalist when something called the Information Superhighway began getting considerable mainstream attention. The TV commercial below was running at the time and made the little understood concept more mysteriously inviting.

Safety Enhanced Design Important Part Of MU Stage 2 Certification

July 31, 2014

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Legislative/Policy

A major advantage of a great EHR is it’s potential to increase client safety through preventing and detecting human errors. In Meaningful Use Stage 2 (the ONC 2014 Certified Solution) there is a requirement for Safety Enhanced Design (170.314(g)(3). This requirement focuses on user-centered design processes for eight different areas (listed below). The report is mandatory for a complete EHR certification and is published on the ONC’s website.

Substance Use Treatment in a Digital Era: An Open Letter to the Wall Street Journal and Modern Healthcare

June 30, 2014

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EHR Solutions and Operations, Human Services, Legislative/Policy, Who is Netsmart?

The Modern Healthcare article, “Key Privacy Rule Could Fall to Accountable Care Push” (June 17), touches on important privacy issues but misses the full context. The same is true of “Drug Treatment Swept Up in Push for Medical-Records Sharing” printed in the June 4 edition of the Wall Street Journal. Far from becoming a “casualty of the push to accountable care, patient-centered medical homes and other population-oriented health plans”, the proposed rule changes update 1970s-era 42 CFR Part 2 privacy…

The People Our Clients Serve…They Are Us

June 5, 2014

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Cause Connected, Netsmart in the Community, Partnerships and Collaboration

I was fortunate enough to recently attend a charity event hosted by Henderson Behavioral Health of Broward County and it hit me like a ton of bricks when, midway through the presentations, ten people of various races, creeds, genders, ages, sizes and shapes walked out onto the venue. Members of this group held some of these placards: