DONT BID IF YOU CANT DO IT BY 5PM TODAY! I WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY APOLOGY! MY PROFESSOR WILL NOT ACCEPT THAT EITHER. FIND ATTACHED THE CLASSMATES REPLIES!. YOU MUST ANSWER TO CLASSMATES ADDRESSING THE
TO TUTOR, IDENTIFY ONE STRENGTH AND ONE WEAKNESS OF EACH CLASSMATES. EACH! DON’T GIVE A WEAK REPKY! IT HAS TO BE SUBSTANTIAL.
CLASSMATE 1 BY JENNIFER TRIMBLE:
Health IT governance has a very unique and demanding role in the health care system. According to Nelson & Staggers (2018), the role of health IT governance is to uphold the the health care system’s priorities and to distribute resources, such as personnel or funding, to assist in Health IT growth according to those priorities. “Health IT governance should also be accountable to track and monitor the benefits of these investments” (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 493). For successful Health IT governance there are three elements that must be addressed. The stakeholders must establish clear institutional priorities, making sure that the energies of health IT are lined up with those institutional priorities. Lastly, the element of establishing processes to allow for this governance (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).
The ACA, Affordable Care Act was a law, signed in 2010 that was an attempt by our government to provide health insurance to the uninsured and to place a demand on health systems to provide quality and accountable health care at a minimal cost. Under the Affordable Care Act several billions of dollars were designated to health care information technology. According Graham, Lee, and McDonald (2014), “The ACA and the regulations promulgated under the law also significantly changed Medicaid eligibility rules, prompting many states to modernize legacy Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS) in order to implement the new requirements” (para 1). Part of the ACA’s purpose is to battle health care fraud; subsequently, states and health care systems began requesting requests for proposals (RFPs) for a variety of health care IT solutions, from requesting an array of case management tools to “provider enrollment initiatives” (Graham, Lee, McDonald, 2014, para 1), to meet those initiatives.
As requirements are designated by the Affordable Care Act it becomes the responsibility of the health care system to integrate those requirements into the institutional priorities. The use of electronic health records (EHRs) and health information technology (HIT) are platforms that are utilized to attain and document the targets of many of the ACAs goals within a healthcare system (Sevell, 2010). For example, the ACA focuses on improving care value, in turn the health system should have this as an institutional priority. As mentioned before your IT governance then would align itself up with these priorities which then would guide Health IT programs to create projects that would reflect these priorities (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).
Another type of benchmark one might see set by the Affordable Care Act is an emphasis on medication safety. In turn “substantial consideration must be given to how the health IT governance takes into account and coordinates with existing governance structures outside health IT” (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 495). Major pharmacy groups outside the health system may now have to be consulted by health IT within a health system to attain data that will assist the health system in meeting those ACA benchmarks of medication safety.
Health IT governance is important to meeting the demands of the ACA. But the governance is limited to the institutional priorities. So to have success with this governance the health care system must have clearly defined strategies and priorities. The IT programs them must be aligned with those strategies and priorities and lastly, IT governance must be complemented with processes that provide guidance on:
How new projects are proposed to meet ACA regulations,
Providing activities to plan impending investments to meet ACA regulation,
Assessing and selecting future projects,
Establishing funding for these projects and
Overseeing the investments for good return (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).
The Word of God says in Luke 16:10 (ESV), “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” Within health care systems we are responsible and accountable for people’s monies and their health. The Affordable Care Act is tool that is used that requires accountability for what kind of health care a person receives and the cost they receive it. The Health IT governance is a conduit to ensure that health care systems are accountable for such things. It is up to the stakeholders and the high-level leadership to project this so that IT governance can align itself accordingly.
Graham, D., Lee, N., & McDonald, K. (2014). Risk allocation in state Health Care IT contracting under the ACA. Public Contract Law Journal, 43(2). Retrieved from http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/1505364172?accountid=12085
Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics: An interprofessional approach (2nd ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Sevell, R. (2010, May 10). PPACA emphasizes use of Health Information Technology. Retrieved August 7, 2018, from https://www.foley.com/ppaca-emphasizes-use-of-health-information-technology-05-13-2010/
CLASSMATE 2 BY JENNIFER HARRIS
ePatient, Social Networking, and Personal Health Record
Case Study Discussion Board Forum 3 (Module 6)
According to Nelson & Staggers (2018), health IT governance is defined as the process of establishing an overarching structure for health IT in organizations, including establishing goals and objectives; creating policies, standards, and services, and developing mechanisms and processes for the oversight, enforcement, and coordination of the policies, standards, and services (p. 633). The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was established in 2010, as a way to provide health care for all citizens at an affordable rate, reduce health care spending, and improve the quality of care received with or without any pre-existing conditions. Given the rapidly changing healthcare environment, it will be critical for healthcare organizations to develop a health IT governance structure that allows priorities and direction to be rapidly adapted to these changes (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 497).
Today health IT governance is being used to ensure that the requirements of the ACA are being met, implemented, monitored, and maintained in a number of ways. Often times, it is the leadership of an organization who requests for health IT governance resources to be implemented. Health information technology plays a vital role with helping to meet the expectations of the ACA and the redesign of the health care system and will continue to play a vital role in the future advancement of the ACA. The role of health IT governance is to help clarify priorities, allocate resources and, if necessary, approve the funding to support the expansion of available health IT resources (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 493).
One of the ACA’s main goals was to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare, with health IT governance there have been many attempts to successfully achieve this particular goal: when the ACA was passed health care organizations began to be held at a new level of standards when it comes to providing care. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) promotes the continuing development of electronic health records (EHRs) to decrease costs and improve the quality of healthcare (Fontenot, 2013, p. 72). When it comes to implementing an EHR system, it is essential for the governance structure to coordinate with stakeholders to make the best health IT decision for the organization. For instance, providers and pharmacists are obvious key stakeholders for EHR governance structures, while financial analysts are clearly needed for business intelligence initiatives (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 495).
In particular, effective health IT governance will be critical for healthcare organizations to survive and thrive as healthcare payments shift from a pay-for-volume to a pay-for-value paradigm (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 492). Health governance IT is used to monitor and maintain the implantation of the ACA by guaranteeing a wide variety of incentives, such as reimbursement to providers for the value of care that patients receive instead of the number of services provided. To effectively respond to these changes, organizations have had to commit significant capital to health IT while requiring ever more sophisticated data analyses to refine clinical care delivery processes and improve outcomes (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p. 494).
Health IT governance can also be used to track fraud within health organizations, which in fact was a major concern for the healthcare industry before the implantation of the ACA. Carpenter, Edgar, & Dang (2011) stated the following:
The new legislation includes many antifraud and program integrity initiatives, including new transparency requirements, provider screening and enrollment requirements, amendments to federal antifraud tools, waste prevention that is specific to pharmacies, new ways to review post-payment claims, and increased penalties for offenders (para 2).
The bible verse that best relates “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.” Luke 16:17 (NIV).
References
Carpenter, Laura A., BPharm, JD, LLM, Edgar, Z., & Dang, C. (2011). Pharmacy waste, fraud, and abuse in health care reform. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 51(2), e3-e16. doi:10.1331/JAPhA.2011.10168
Fontenot, S. F. (2013). The affordable care act and electronic health care records. Physician Executive, 39(6), 72. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/1492870601/fulltextPDF/628A2186D8BF4C18PQ/1?accountid=12085
Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics: An interprofessional approach (2nd Ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
www.biblegateway.com (2018). Luke 16:17 (NIV) Retrieved from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+16&version=NIV
