Behavioral Health News and Resources for Healthcare

Behavioral Health EHR Adoption Shows Promise in Survey

February 24, 2015 - In today’s healthcare sector, implementing EHR systems has become a way of life. It is nearly impossible for a medical office to avoid EHR adoption, said Jennifer D’Angelo, Chair of the new HIMSS Long Term Care and Behavioral Health Task Force and Vice President of Information Services for Christian Health Care Center. “From an interoperability standpoint, and from a reimbursement...

Bill Promoting Behavioral Health EHR Incentives Passes House

June 13, 2018 by Kate Monica

The House of Representatives recently passed 25 bills aimed at combating the opioid crisis, including one piece of legislation that establishes a demonstration program to test federal incentive payments for behavioral health EHR adoption. “Individually,...

MI Health Information Exchange Joins Opioid Research Project

May 16, 2018 by Kate Monica

Michigan health information exchange (HIE) Great Lakes Health Connect (GLHC) will assist in a University of Michigan project centered on researching the scope and impact of the opioid crisis. Editor's note: A previous version of this article...

Bill Allowing Behavioral Health EHR Incentives Passes Senate

May 09, 2018 by Elizabeth Snell

The bi-partisan Improving Access to Behavioral Health Information Technology Act (S.1732) was passed by the Senate earlier today, allowing CMS to offer incentives to providers that implement behavioral health EHRs. Introduced by Senator Sheldon...

Collaboration Can Aid EHR Use, Adoption in Behavioral Health Space

April 27, 2018 by Elizabeth Snell

Perceived ease of EHR use and perceived usefulness of the technology itself are driving factors toward EHR adoption with physicians in behavioral health, according to a recent study. However, there is still resistance to EHR adoption within behavioral...

NC Hospital to Swap Cerner System for Epic EHR Replacement

April 26, 2018 by Kate Monica

Cape Fear Valley Health in North Carolina recently announced a decision to launch an Epic EHR replacement project to swap out its Cerner EHR system. The new Epic system will provide a single, unified EHR platform for all hospitals and clinics...

Medsphere EHR Moves to Amazon to Cut EHR Implementation Costs

March 08, 2018 by Kate Monica

Medsphere has moved its CareVue EHR system offering to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to ease the financial strain of EHR implementation for community hospitals by eliminating the need for local data centers. By making its EHR system more easily available...

Health Data Exchange, Interoperability Major HIMSS18 Focal Points

February 27, 2018 by Kyle Murphy, PhD

With 40,000 attendees set to descend on Las Vegas, the 2018 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition will bring together the nation’s leading healthcare and health IT minds to tackle the nation’s top challenges, two of which are health...

Patient EHR Data Contained in CT HIE to Aid in Suicide Prevention

February 20, 2018 by Kate Monica

Connecticut’s state health information exchange (HIE) — CTHealthLink — will assist in an effort to leverage patient EHR data for improved suicide prevention, according to ShoreLine Times. The HIE will provide centralized patient...

OR Behavioral Health Center Adopts Carequality Using Netsmart EHR

February 08, 2018 by Kate Monica

LifeWorks Northwest (LifeWorks NW) in Oregon will adopt the Carequality interoperability framework through its Netsmart EHR network in an effort to improve health data exchange between other acute and community care providers. The behavioral...

ONC Chief Keen on Moving Health IT Innovation Beyond the EHR

December 07, 2017 by Kyle Murphy, PhD

Healthcare interoperability and health IT usability were front and center at the 2017 ONC Annual Meeting in the nation’s capital and indicative on a change that took hold within the federal agency in recent years following its successful...

The Importance of Efficient EHR Use in Behavioral Healthcare

October 24, 2017 by Kate Monica

While healthcare industry stakeholders agree on the benefits of EHR use and health data exchange among hospitals and primary care facilities, EHR use in behavioral health settings is still uncommon and lagging behind. One behavioral and...

Behavioral Health System Invests Millions in Epic Implementation

October 16, 2017 by Kate Monica

Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services recently approved a multi-million dollar investment in an Epic implementation at all of its facilities. The organization did not disclose the official amount of the deal. The Pine Rest Board of Directors...

NQF Promotes Use of Quality Measures to Improve Health Equity

September 28, 2017 by Kate Monica

The National Quality Forum (NQF) released a roadmap outlining ways to use care quality measures to improve health equity nationwide. “The health equity roadmap gives the nation a blueprint to eliminate healthcare disparities,” said...

Healthcare’s Growing Focus on Behavioral Health Data Exchange

August 24, 2017 by Kate Monica

EHR adoption and health data exchange have steadily increased across most care settings as a result of the EHR Incentive Programs. While the benefits of exchanging patient medication histories, visit summaries, and medical condition information...

ONC-REACHNet Collaborate to Use FHIR for Patient EHR Consent

August 24, 2017 by Kate Monica

ONC is collaborating with the Research Action for Health Network (REACHNet) on a pilot program to create an electronic patient consent form for more efficient patient EHR exchange. The goal of the collaborative effort will be to develop...

MeHI $193K Awards to CEHRT Vendors Target Behavioral Health

August 22, 2017 by Kyle Murphy, PhD

Four certified EHR technology (CEHRT) vendors are the recipients of a combined $193,000 from the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) at MassTech to support behavioral health data reporting across the state. The four CEHRT vendors — eHana,...

Evidence Supports Push for Social Determinants in EHR Data

August 21, 2017 by Kate Monica

Healthcare organizations today are expanding their ideas of what influences a patient’s health beyond orange pill bottles and family history. Increasingly, physicians are adamant about the underlying influence of social determinants of...

New SHIEC Member Supports Behavioral Health Data Exchange

August 02, 2017 by Kate Monica

The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) recently extended membership to Reliance eHealth Collaborative to expand the initiative’s support of behavioral health data exchange. The health information exchange is a community-based...

California Looks to Support Behavioral Health Data Exchange

July 17, 2017 by Kyle Murphy, PhD

The California Health & Human Services Agency’s Office of Health Information Integrity includes a litany of use cases in the recently published State Health Information Guidance to illustrate numerous instance where sharing protect...

Calculating the Cost of Behavioral Health Data Exchange

January 23, 2017 by Kate Monica

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a final rule to ease health data exchange of certain behavioral health information and touches on the health IT implications for sharing these records electronically. Dubbed the Confidentiality...

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