Document Scanning Blog

CMS Proposed Stage 2 Meaningful Use Rule Announced

admin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:53:51 +0000

CMS Proposed Stage 2 Meaningful Use Rule Announced

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have announced Proposed Stage Two final rules for meaningful use of electronic health records. The new proposed final rules for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Electronic Medical Records stimulus incentive payments will impact on core features and menu options of the EMR applications.

The proposed rule for Meaningful Use Stage 2 can be downloaded here Changes to meaningful use Stage 1 will not take effect in 2013, rather most would be optional until 2014. However, Medicaid provisions will become mandatory immediately after publication of the final rule.

TonidoPlug2 NAS Cloud Server Review

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:12:49 +0000

TonidoPlug2 NAS Cloud Server Review

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

TonidoPlug2 NAS Cloud Server has been selling like hot cake and is currently out of stock in many stores. Its popularity alone should tell you that this is a perfect home server. Not only is it pocket friendly but it also consumes low power and is small and thus, does not require huge installation space. It allows you to access your data (music, audio, applications, files and all media) from anywhere. It comes with a US style socket adapter and therefore, if one is outside the US, they will need an additional adapter to adapt the socket adapter to their socket type. It has pre-installed Tonido software (Thots, Explorer, WebsharePro and Search) furthermore additional software is downloadable from the Tonido App store. This magnificent cloud server has its hardware built and operating on Linux Operating System.

It has an incredible feature where it converts an external USB hard drive into a NAS storage accessible from Macintosh, Windows or Linux computers when it is connected. It saves on power consumption (4 times lesser than the previous version of TonidoPlug v1) due to its Marvell Armada 310 chipset offering 800 MHz level performance at only 1.2 watt.

No need to worry about wires thanks to its built-in SATA 2.5” enclosure with Wi-Fi b/g/n. this enclosure enables one to have a stand alone NAS. This makes is very easy to set up as you not have to worry about any criss-crossing wires and you are not limited as to the number of devices that you can attach to it.

It is similar to a USB external hard drive with a 512 MB NAND flash and 512 MB DDR3 RAM therefore very portable, versatile, incredibly fast and powerful. High-end NAS systems do not even come close to these specifications.

It streams music and/or video to any networked equipment that is UPnP/DLNA certified including TV sets, PlayStation3 or Xbox 360.

It offers free lifetime personalized cloud 2 GB sync with file synchronization for the reason that it does not use the Public Cloud. You can therefore share your music, photos, files, etc without uploading.

You can do many things from anywhere with this server including but not limited to:

Listening to your MP3s
download Torrents , files to your USB drive
download your searched files
upload files and folders from Windows by dragging and dropping them to your TonidoPlug2
you may capture and store web snippets as you please
keep a personal blog
you can make your SATA HDD or USB drive a network attached storage accessible from Macintosh, Windows or Linux operating systems
You can access your toninoPlug2 from anywhere using your won URL. How convenient is that

Permitted Disclosure and Uses of Information Under HIPAA Privacy Rule

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:29:54 +0000

Permitted Disclosure and Uses of Information Under HIPAA Privacy Rule

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

Health Care or Medical providers who fall under the group of ‘covered entities’ have the permission, but not the requirement, under HIPAA Privacy Rule, to disclose and use Protected Health Information (PHI) without the authorization of the individual concerned, under a given set of circumstances. These are listed here below:

Payment, Treatment and Health Care Operations:
This basically refers to the covered entity disclosing PHI for its own, internal purposes of payment, treatment and health care operations that the individual might be in need of.
Incidental Disclosure and Use:
So long as the information being disclosed is limited to the ‘minimum necessary’ as per the HIPAA Privacy Rule, and the covered entity applies reasonable safeguards in its disclosure and use of PHI, HIPAA Privacy Rule does not require that every risk of an incidental use be eliminated.
Disclosure to the individual

This is the individual to whom the record refer to.
Disclosure for the Interest and Benefit of the Public

For more information on Permitted Disclosure and Uses of Information Under HIPAA Privacy Rule

HIPAA Security Training Ensures Your Workplace is HIPAA Compliant

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:26:52 +0000

HIPAA Security Training Ensures Your Workplace is HIPAA Compliant

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

The most talked-about trend in the healthcare industry is the increasing rate at which organizations are seeking better data security solutions for protecting their patient health information (PHI). This urgency is understandable since for establishing HIPAA Security Compliance, securing PHI against any breach or unauthorized access is critical. Not doing so leads to severe financial and legal penalties apart from being uprooted from the healthcare stimulus package. Organizations can ensure better HIPAA security compliance if they ensure that every personnel at the workplace understand HIPAA, i.e. is at least familiar with HIPAA basics. For this, hospitals and private physician offices can enroll for basic, Online HIPAA Security Training. Employees that are handling defined roles that severely impact the manner in which PHI is handled and protected, such as storing PHI across the system and transaction processing, should be provided advanced HIPAA security training. It is vital that the criticality of HIPAA compliance is explained to business associates/vendors working with a healthcare facility. Thus, organizations need to promote the cause of Basic HIPAA Security Training to such covered entities too. The starter HIPAA training courses are quite easy to complete, being provided online in easy-to-understand English. Trainees completing such training are essentially HIPAA trained professionals who can ensure HIPAA compliance across the entire organization. Covered entities should also understand the role of Data Encryption. To maintain PHI integrity as per HIPAA’s benchmarks, organizations require greater protection against hacking and unsecured sharing of patient data. Encryption can resolve such issues apart from ensuring safer sharing of PHI across web-enabled gadgets, mobile devices and protecting it from other, technical threats.

HIPAA Certification

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:21:00 +0000

HIPAA Certification

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

Healthcare organizations are increasingly seeking HIPAA training for their employees. These are business entities handling patient health information (or medical data) in some capacity. Businesses have realized that following HIPAA benchmarks for sharing, saving, indexing or recording patient data is no longer an option. HIPAA guidelines are enacted via the federal government and endorsed across all states. Not following these benchmarks for protecting/securing patient data can lead to serious penalties—both legal and financial. Thus, healthcare businesses and their associates have realized the criticality of being HIPAA-compliant.

The federal or state governments don’t provide any centralized training for helping businesses achieve HIPAA compliance. The only way to ensure that a workplace is functioning in coherence with HIPAA guidelines is to seek HIPAA training offered by private authorities. These courses are often referred to as HIPAA Certification Courses or HIPAA Compliance courses. They are aimed at ensuring that all employees in a healthcare workplace are familiar with the basics of HIPAA, maintaining HIPAA compatibility and the penalties for violation of HIPAA standards. Upon successful completion of this training, trainees become certified, HIPAA Professionals.

Besides conventional healthcare professionals like nurses, medical technicians and doctors, those handling administrative, managerial and other duties too should be familiar with HIPAA basics. This is why HIPAA Certification is offered at various levels via the online format.

While HIPAA Compliance Certifications emphasize upon Privacy & Security Rule, HIPAA Security Specialist and Administrator courses are meant for selective employees, i.e. those handling typical roles in the healthcare environment like Security Compliance or Administration.

Document Scanning Software

admin — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:21:50 +0000

Document Scanning Software

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

Using a Document Scanning Software has become an undeniable part of managing modern day workplaces. This is essentially because nearly every business has understood the need to move on to the platform of digitalized documentation. This means that all paper documents should be scanned to ensure that they can be saved and used in a user-friendly, digitalized format. The conversion of paper-based documents into the digital format is done via document scanning machines which in turn depend upon various types of Document Scanning Software. These software help to control various aspects of scanning documents such as creation of tools/applications for easier searching, allocation of scanned documents to various departments or personnel and establishing greater safety of scanned data.

Some of the common features found in the Document Scanning Software being offered as freeware or those being retailed include:

Provision of inserting notifications that underline liabilities of accessing critical, scanned data
Ensuring that the software functions according to Digital Records Management policies and scanned data benchmarks via automated software updates
Use of OCR or Optical Character Recognition for turning physical documents into text files that are easier-to-scan
Automated routing of documents to different departments within the same office
Reduce dependency on photocopies or duplication of documents since scanned copies can be easily shared
Keep trace of document activities such as degree of sharing, no. of accesses within a week or any editable changes made to the original document

Using such software, organizations can even establish Optional Web access. This means that the scanned documents can be shared via the web-based document management system from faraway locations, i.e. once the necessary access is granted. Many of the software in this niche provide added features such as providing a day-to-day reporting on the status or functional performance of the hardware tools (equipment) being used as a part of the scanning. This is vital since the bigger scanning machines being retailed today often present some very hard-to-follow maintenance requirements that are not practical. Thus, a regular update about an internal problem that can impair the quality of scanned images or documents is always welcome.

New introductions in this niche include software that can track the number of document scanners functioning in the standing alone mode or those that are being used in the MFC or Multi Function Mode. Many of the newer software also provide monitoring features, i.e. a select group of networked users are instantly informed about the newly newly-scanned documents and the bar coded identity of the same is saved. The more progressive document scanning software also have automatic tagging features and are capable of decoding if a document doesn’t fit the parameters set for different document folders. Most software solutions here can handle different scan stations located across the organization, i.e. using the same domain or even the office LAN isn’t always necessary. It has been seen that the freeware offered in this niche doesn’t present many customization options and is often non-intuitive. However, vendors specializing in providing Document Scanning Software can provide more comprehensive and personalized solutions.

EMR Meaningful Use Deadline Proposal to Extend

admin — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:30:07 +0000

EMR Meaningful Use Deadline Proposal to Extend

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

The working group members of the Health Information Technology Policy Committee have sent across a recommendation in the form of a 12-draft, seeking an extra one year for introducing Stage 2 meaningful use deadline criteria changes. Please note that federal healthcare incentives are already being distributed as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009, i.e. among those who have been able to establish ‘meaningful use’ of electronic patient health records. Here, the benchmarks for establishing meaningful use are referred to as Stage 1.

This extension in complying with EMR Stage 2 Meaningful Use criteria has been sought for only those healthcare entities, i.e. professionals and organizations, which are already complying with the Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements. In this draft, the work group has supported the need to upgrade the criteria set as a part of Meaningful Use to ensure that the federal incentives are extended to the most deserving of entities only.

However, the work group has recommended that bringing forth such changes as per the original schedule could prove very discomforting for those who have taken the initiative to upgrade their patient information systems as per the federal recommendations. The draft’s content also indicates that healthcare organizations & professionals who failed to understand urgency of upgrading their healthcare settings to Stage 1 benchmarks, including those who plan do so in 2012, won’t get the proposed advantage and would need to implement Stage 2 Meaningful Use Criteria changes by 2014. The decision on this recommendation would be taken by the Health IT Policy Committee that is scheduled to meet in Washington where the work group’s proposal can be rejected, amended or approved.

Epic MyChart PHR EMR Software

admin — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 04:27:11 +0000

Epic MyChart PHR EMR Software

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

Ever wished to gain access to your medical records even when you are miles away from your doctor? With everything going paperless and mobile, accessibility and availability of information is always a must. People who are on the go need to have medical information they require available in an instant. But acquiring medical records can take hours and even days when you schedule an appointment with your physician. Furthermore, remembering everything from prescriptions, medical appointments, and medical history seems a very tough effort. What we need is a tool designed to address these issues and to make life easier.

Epic MyChart Integrated PHR is an online application meant to give patients’ access to their electronic medical records (EMR) beyond the corners of a medical institution. It works like an organizer that stores related medical information allowing patients to create a simplified view of the information they need. A simple inquiry on a prescription can be done through MyChart saving patients precious hours from queuing for their turn in the hospital. Epic MyChart features can be accessed from any computer with the required internet browser installed and an internet connection. Registered users can gain access to the application virtually anywhere in the globe.

Since MyChart is linked to an institution’s medical facilities, it can be used to establish a virtual connection between patients and their doctors. Through the facility, patients can view test results or schedule an appointment with their physician. Other features of the application include: request for a prescription, view upcoming and historical appointments, view preventive care measures, request for prescription renewal, and view family caregiver.

Adding to the convenience brought by the application, patients can send secured messages to their doctors and even pay their bills online. However, despite being virtually connected to a physician, patients are not encouraged to use the facility to remedy immediate need for a doctor in emergency cases.

Eric Mychart Features – Security, Privacy and Protection…

When speaking of the internet, one of the top concerns for almost all of us is security. Epic MyChart is designed to enforce enhanced security features leaving no doubt of having one’s information compromised. Basic protections used in MyChart includes username and password for every account, and hosting the application on a secured server running on a secured channel over the internet. Adding to the security features of the application, account activation is also required to verify the authenticity of the membership.

Registered users can only access their own record unless someone shares their account credentials. However, parents can gain access to other records under the family when the account is set with parental privileges.

Understanding Proposed Repeal of ARRA EMR Stimulus Package

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:16:34 +0000

Understanding Proposed Repeal of ARRA EMR Stimulus Package

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

The proposed H.R. 408 Spending Reduction Act of 2011 was recently introduced and SEC. 301. of the same proposes a rather dismal scenario for healthcare providers and related, business entities who yet haven’t upgraded themselves to the HIPPA-compliant EMR format of storing/sharing Patient Healthcare Information. This Act proposes withdrawal of unspent EMR stimulus funds. This means that all unobligated balances of EHR stimulus money introduced as a part of division A of ARRA-American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), should be withdrawn.

SEC. 302 of this Act emphasizes upon the repeal of many provisions that were presented as a part of the EMR stimulus package. This means that all Recovery Act stimulus benefits offered through subtitles B & C of Title II & III respectively (Division B of ARRA 2009) will be withdrawn.

If this Act is enacted, the results can be rather devastating. For starters, healthcare providers that haven’t adopted EMR software would become immediately lose any chance of ever receiving EMR stimulus benefits. Secondly, healthcare providers Medicare/Medicaid health services are under a greater threat-this is because the concept of ‘meaningful use’ that forms the basis of receiving EMR incentive programs is covered under Title IV of Subtitle B. Thus, nearly $27 billion of unspent stimulus incentives can be repealed!

Why does this make ‘little sense’? This proposal was presented in the 112th Congress (2011-2012) H.R. 408. IH SEC. 301 but HITECH Act doesn’t form a part of tax provisions that are covered under ARRA. Further, H.R. 408 appears to handle HITECH Act in a rather limited (partial) manner, i.e. it focuses only upon the repeal of unspent authorized funding but doesn’t mention anything about how HITECH Act benchmarks, set as a part of Privacy Rule & Security Rule, will be adopted on a nationwide basis. There is no mention of how easier formats for HIPAA-compliant EMR software will be created in a more cost-effective manner.

Free Nuance PDF Reader Converts PDF to Word

admin — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:29:19 +0000

Free Nuance PDF Reader Converts PDF to Word

Post from: Document Scanning Blog

Nuance Free PDF Reader software is a new development in the PDF reader niche. It is much more advanced than other PDF Readers as it includes some exceptionally good features. This PDF Reader is different from all other leading products available. The features and qualities of Nuance PDF that makes it different from other free readers are:

Unlike other free PDF readers, nuance PDF enables you to fill out PDF forms along with saving them. The Nuance PDF reader is suitable for forms like survey reports, purchase orders and expense reports, forms used in the tax departments and many other applications and forms.
The use of Nuance PDF Reader also ensures privacy and compatibility with the Adobe Acrobat. This PDF reader can be installed without JavaScript and thus protects your data from hackers who can use JavaScript to access personal information.
Another advantage of using Nuance PDF reader lies in its quality of using less disk space. A normal Adobe Reader uses disk space somewhere around 200MB or more but Nuance PDF Reader uses only 50 MB of the disk space and also offers more advanced characteristics than the free Adobe Reader.
The feature that makes it different from so many free PDF readers is its ability to annotate PDF files. Nuance PDF Reader offers many annotation tools and thus helps us to share PDF files better. Nuance PDF reader enables us to highpoint the useful information, underline, and cross-out.
Nuance PDF reader also provides cloud based conversion services to convert PDF files into different formats like Word and Excel. The conversion process needs no other software to be installed. This conversion feature is provided online by the use of the OCR tools in the Nuance PDF Reader.
Microsoft Share Point integration to access and open files stored in a Share Point repository, or to save edited files directly back to Share Point.

All these features make the Nuance PDF reader far better than the other normal Readers