For 2013, healthcare spending in the United States was estimated at about $3 trillion and is projected to grow to $5 trillion by 2020. Those numbers are mind-bogglingly large. By comparison, the annual U.S. GDP was about $16 trillion in 2013. Healthcare represents about 18% of the total. Only China, Japan, and Germany have a […]
The Affordable Care Act has brought a number of changes to the American healthcare landscape, the most well-known of which is the health insurance mandate, the result of which will theoretically increase the number of Americans with health insurance coverage. Here at Health Monitoring Systems, we are closely monitoring the effects of the ACA on […]
St. Patrick’s Day marks the veneration of the island’s patron saint. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation, and throughout Ireland it has become a day of parades, family feasts, and celebrations of Irish cultural heritage.
Now that we’ve sprung forward, health care professionals are readying themselves for the yearly increase in seasonal asthma visits. While spring allergens related to pollen do lead to increased ED visits for exacerbation of asthma symptoms, the highest spikes in asthma-related ED visits usually occur each year in the fall, beginning in September.
The year 2014 is bringing a lot of changes for the health care industry, including the ICD-10 compliance date. ICD is the classification used to code and classify diseases. The ICD has been revised periodically to incorporate changes in the medical field. To date, there have been 10 revisions of the ICD. On October 1st, […]
It has just been announced that Dr. Andrew Walsh of HMS will be giving a poster presentation on his abstract, Visualizing Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Emergency Department Utilization during a Polar Vortex at the 2014 CSTE Annual Conference in Nashville, TN.
One of the great mysteries of the recent healthcare reform movement is why “HIE” has been used as the acronym for both Health Insurance Exchanges and Health Information Exchanges. As the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges continue to garner media coverage, the original HIEs—health information exchanges—continue to struggle.
In recent years the range and availability of ambulatory care service providers has continued to grow. These include urgent care centers, mini clinics, and so-called “Doc in a box” providers. While the emergence of these services benefits consumers on many levels, it also creates a potentially serious “donut hole” in regional syndromic surveillance. A proliferation […]
In light of the recent Medicaid changes regarding hospital readmissions within a 30 day time period, HMS is working to create a tool which will allow facilities to track readmissions. Beginning on October 1, 2012, section 3025 of the Affordable Care Act added section 1886(q) to the Social Security Act establishing the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). The […]
This winter’s “polar vortex” has led to discussions about everything from the devastating effects sub-zero temperatures can have on homeless populations, to the difficulties it’s caused marathon runners in training, and the dangers extreme cold can pose to pets. Here at HMS, we saw several state public health departments use EpiCenter to implement a cold weather […]