Jennifer Garces de Marcilla
Healthcare Cybersecurity: Securing Your Digital ...

Cyberattacks targeting the supply chain are an increasingly prevalent threat in the healthcare industry, especially as the modern healthcare supply chain contains significant digital elements, such as the patient engagement vendors that provide public-facing digital tools. These third-party apps and patient-facing tools process sensitive patient data and connect with a healthcare organization’s source systems on the supply chain. As such, they are tempting targets for cybercriminals, who can sell this data on the black market or lock it up with ransomware until they are paid.

Healthcare Cybersecurity: Securing Your Digital Supply Chain & Patient-Facing Tech
Jennifer Garces de Marcilla
The Role of mHealth Solutions In Patient ...

Patient education is about more than simply spreading knowledge about the disease. It can also empower patients to better live with their condition and avoid complications–an approach known as therapeutic patient education[¹]

The Role of mHealth Solutions In Patient Education
Guest Post
How to Increase Patient Adoption of Digital ...

Digital technology can do wonders when it comes to streamlining the work of delivering efficient quality care to patients. The use of patient portals, EHRs, mhealth apps, and wearable tech can all empower patients to be more active in their healthcare, get faster treatment, and access preventative care earlier on. But with all the capabilities of modern technology, we find that many patients are slow to adopt digital tools. If this is the case for your healthcare organization, we recommend the following tips to increase adoption.

How to Increase Patient Adoption of Digital Tools
Guest Post
Technology Integration Challenges in Connected ...

Technology has a lot of potential to improve efficiency and health outcomes in the complex practice of healthcare, from time-sensitive interventions in the hospital environment to long-term preventative measures among patient populations. Diagnostics, data management, patient engagement, and personalized medicine all stand to benefit from greater technology integration in a holistic, connected care model. Despite this, there are many hurdles that prevent technology from being adopted as quickly or effectively as it could be. Let’s take a look at the challenges contemporary healthcare organizations face.

Technology Integration Challenges in Connected Care
Guest Post
The 7 Essentials Steps For a Secure Patient ...

Healthcare services are meeting patient demand by becoming increasingly digitized. These digital healthcare services are often developed by third parties and access electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle management (RCM) systems, and other databases that include sensitive and legally protected information. While these electronic services are beneficial to both patients and providers, they create an increasingly complex software supply chain, with more potential vulnerabilities that are being targeted by hackers[¹]. Healthcare providers can find it difficult to manage effective oversight of these supply chains - including the relationships between different software tools, who has access to what data, and where there might be potential weaknesses.

The 7 Essentials Steps For a Secure Patient Portal

Unusual Hospital-FQHC Partnerships Address Payment and Access Issues

Unusual Hospital-FQHC Partnerships Address Payment and Access Issues

Teaching hospitals and FQHCs can partner to alleviate community healthcare provider shortages and reduce training costs.

Innovative healthcare leaders sometimes need to make unorthodox connections. Such is the case with a partnership that some organizations have been part of since the 1970s—a connection between teaching hospitals and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) that offers financial advantages to both.

The Healthcare Landscape through a Financial Lens: What's next for CHCs?

Since the 2016 presidential election, the US healthcare industry has been bracing for some significant changes. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), while certainly not perfect, has helped move the US toward universal health coverage. As part of the Obama Administration's healthcare strategy, Community Health Center (CHC) funding was increased and moved under the ACA. This year’s initial ACA replacement proposal, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), was unable to gain traction in Congress and was withdrawn. While the ACA is still the law of the land, it clearly has a target painted on it. Amidst all of this uncertainty, how can health centers plan and prepare for continued financial stability?

340B FQHC Extended Registration

340B FQHC Extended Registration

The 340B Program will be accepting Health Center Program grantee registrations beyond the standard two-week registration period (April 1-15). Health centers will be able to register a site that has been verified as implemented and the site status is reflected as “active” in EHBs Form 5B through June 9, after which the system will close to prepare for the July 1 start. A similar quarterly registration timeframe will be employed each quarter.

340B Mega Guidance Withdrawn and Sent Back to HHS

340B Mega Guidance Withdrawn and Sent Back to HHS

In a move that should surprise no one, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that the 340B Program Omnibus Guidelines, aka the 340B Mega Guidance, was withdrawn on January 30th. The proposed rule, which was released in draft form in August  2015, was widely expected to be finalized last December. As a unit of OMB, OIRA speaks directly for President Trump's executive branch.  

Health Centers are the Perfect Weapon in the Fight Against Zika

Health Centers are the Perfect Weapon in the Fight Against Zika

I don’t care who you are – You should be scared of Zika. And, by scared, I don’t mean that you should panic. That doesn’t help anyone. But this virus needs to be taken seriously - And I'm not alone here, even public health experts are sounding the alarm. There is still so much that is unknown about it’s transmission and the possible long-term effects for those infected. 

Important News: BPHC has released draft Health Center Program Compliance Manual (the Compliance Manual) for public comment.

Important News: BPHC has released draft Health Center Program Compliance Manual (the Compliance Manual) for public comment.

HRSA just released their draft Health Center Program Compliance Guide.  This guide, which has been a long time in coming, is organized to closely follow the HRSA 19 program requirements. As a draft, this guide is open for comments through November 22, 2016. 

 
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