By Jeffrey W. Brown

More than half of patients prefer electronic billing and payment, a recent survey shows, yet healthcare organizations are slow to make the move: Just 20 percent are ready to accept payments other than by check, cash or traditional credit card.

Meanwhile, the cost of paper-based check payments is staggering. Providers spend 8 to 30 minutes more processing manual transactions than electronic transactions, according to the 2016 CAQH Index. Costs increase by $3 per check-based transaction. At more than 3 billion manual transactions a year between payers and providers alone, that’s a significant expense.

One paperless payment option that has the potential to revamp medical billing: virtual card payments.

Virtual card payments are widely used by other industries, with total spend for business-to-business transactions expected to reach $377 billion this year. But while 69 percent of executives expect use of virtual cards to increase over the next three years, more than 40 percent of CFOs admit they don’t know enough about virtual card payments to use them, according to an industry report. [Read more…]

As most other industries have expanded, mining has been left behind in terms of development. With hesitation surrounding new technologies and limited room for error, the health of those in the industry has been under question now for a number of years. Here we are going to look at some of the technology making mining a healthier career option for all those involved as the industry finally looks to be making strides toward the future.

Technological Advancements

In the past mining has been a very difficult career to go into. With a lot of health implications it can be a challenge to complete a job without falling ill. However over the years there have been technological advancements put in place to make the health afflictions that employees face, much less severe. With technology such as a drilling rig and other advanced innovations such as self-driving vehicles, there are efforts being made to help keep employees happy and help to ensure that they are not affected by any of the debris that surrounds them. [Read more…]

By Wilmer Castro

The advancement of technology has created exciting new opportunities for the healthcare industry, and now, more than ever, organizations are seeking to adopt innovative solutions that enable connectivity and streamline clinical workflow. Evidence of this trend can be seen in a 2018 poll by Ernst and Young, which surveyed 195 executives and 152 physicians to understand their perceptions of digital technologies in healthcare. An overwhelming 91 percent of respondents reported they already have or will undergo a digital adoption initiative within the next year.

While it’s clear healthcare organizations are eager to embrace new technologies, the transition to these platforms requires a formal digital adoption program that identifies the specific needs of healthcare staff. Without a human-centric adoption approach in place, the change could be unsuccessful and unprofitable.

Nearly every organization experiences difficulties with adoption, regardless of industry. These issues can range from lack of employee engagement, lack of relevant training and general low awareness due to poor communication from leadership. A digital adoption strategy for this particular audience must consider a few unique factors in order for it to be successful. [Read more…]

By Akhil Docca

The healthcare industry – from hospitals to health insurers – is riding the technology wave. It has sparked the development of cutting-edge solutions to better serve patients and improve operational efficiency. To that end, these enterprises are developing and using technology and solutions like mobile health, electronic medical records, medical imaging, and artificial intelligence. This adoption of technology is driving the industry forward and creating a huge amount of information to process, manage, and store in ways that are both accessible and secure.

Globally, the volume of healthcare data accounted for over 700 exabytes in 2017 and is expected to grow to 2,314 exabytes in 2020. Mobile health alone, including healthcare-centric wearable devices, was a nearly $18 billion market in 2016. Medical imaging, which constitutes between 7.5-10% of total expenditures in healthcare, is seeing an increase in the volume of imaging done and in the file sizes. Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) storage requirements for hospitals are growing at more than 20% per year – to more than 8,900 terabytes in 2011. [Read more…]

By Abbas Dhilawala, CTO of Galen Data

With the myriad of challenges facing healthcare systems, technology is proving to be a huge asset in solving those problems. Cloud connectivity is one such technology becoming an enabler of digital health. Connected medical devices have already been proven to improve clinical efficacy, reduce clinical errors, and provide cost savings to users.

There are plenty of good reasons for medical device companies to make the shift to connectivity, and potential rewards to the company for doing so. Being able to create new services and tap into new markets are just two of those possibilities But one thing medical device manufacturers often lack is the required FDA knowledge, technical expertise, or even internal resources to create these sorts of solutions. Also, building the required connectivity infrastructure, and meeting the regulations can be very costly to the company. Creating a connectivity solution from scratch can add new risks to the project, which not all companies are in a position to take on. [Read more…]

By Mark McGregor

The challenge of business outsourcing may still seem a leap too far for many businesses.  Yet, IT outsourcing continues to generate much interest among companies internationally.  More specifically, many may simply leapfrog to business process outsourcing (BPO) or beyond.

What drove the initial interest?  Perhaps it was the lure of being able to reduce back office costs by around 3%, or being able to contain what, for many, were out-of-control, upward spiraling IT costs.  However, many companies have previously seen outsourcing as a quick way to raise cash- selling off IT assets, and then in effect leasing them back, while reducing their headcount of non-core people at the same time. 

Whatever the driving factor, many lessons have been learned that would-be clients for outsourcing would be wise to study before making the leap into the relatively unknown.  For many the hard lessons are buried deep, and it can be difficult to get beyond the hype.  [Read more…]