Online Health Care Degrees & Courses

In 2004, the health care industry provided 13.5 million jobs in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An online health care degree can land you in one of these excellent careers, which range from direct patient care to administration. Careers in health care include x-ray technician, nurse, dietitian, office manager, supervisor, and more.Earning a health care degree online is becoming easier as the number accredited programs are increasing and more health care organizations are in need of educated workers.

Quick Facts: Health Care

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  8 out of the 20 occupations projected to grow fastest in the U.S. are in health care.


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  Average Length of Training Program: 2 to 6 years online


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  Top Health Care Career Paths: Nurse, dental hygienist, therapist, medial record technician, home health aide


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  Typical Courses You Will Take: Biology, Anatomy, Physiology


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  Average Income of Private Industry Health Services Employees: $27,485.12
  
  

  Health Care Boom

  
  
  According to the BLS, the health care industry will employ more workers than any other industry between 2004 and 2014. The aging of the baby boomers will spark an increase in health care establishments in the U.S., which will create a need for new workers. Specifically, by 2014, 3.6 million more health care jobs will be created.
  
  

  Choosing Your Health Care Career Path

  
  
  Do you enjoy interacting directly with customers or would you rather work behind the scenes? Do you prefer a holistic or traditional approach to health care? Would you like to work in a predictable or more fast-paced environment? There are careers in health care for just about any preference. These include social work, medical transcription, chiropractics, nursing, dental hygiene, emergency medical paramedics, and many others. In addition, the degrees needed for any of these careers can be studied through online programs.
  
  

  Earning Your Health Care Degree

  
  
  Finding health care programs is easy, once you decide what you would like to study. Even if you already have a career and now want to move into the health care industry, earning your degree is possible through the many accredited online programs available. You can earn a certificate, Associate's, Bachelors, Master's, or even a Doctorate online.
  
  

NYC system sues over massive data breach

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. filed a lawsuit against a data storage and transport vendor after the December theft of electronic files that contained personal or health information for about 1.7 million patients and hospital or contract employees.

The 14-hospital system said the breach involved patients, staff and vendors at Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital and two health centers during a 20-year period. In letters last week, the city-owned system began to alert patients to the theft and offered free credit monitoring and fraud resolution for one year. The system notified three nationwide consumer reporting agencies of the theft.

In a news release, the system said the files were stolen after a driver for GRM Management Information Services left the company's van unlocked. A spokeswoman for GRM did not respond to a request for comment at deadline.

The data storage company dismissed the driver and notified police. The system has notified New York's attorney general, the state Office of Cyber Security and the Consumer Protection Board. The system also alerted HHS.

The New York system said it has sued the vendor to recover the costs of notification and other related damages. The system also canceled the vendor's contract.

Obama budget trims Medicare, Medicaid

In his budget for fiscal 2012, President Barack Obama has proposed $79.9 billion in discretionary spending for HHS, which represents a slight increase from the $79.8 billion discretionary budget authority approved in 2010. Given that none of the full-year appropriations bills for 2011 was enacted, the programs and activities in the president's budget released Monday are operating under a continuing resolution, which results in a comparison with 2010 figures in most cases, but not all.

The president's plan calls for a total of $485.8 billion for Medicare in 2012, which breaks down to $468.5 billion in existing law and a legislative proposal for another $17.3 billion. This compares with $489.3 billion for fiscal 2011.

The budget calls for $279 billion to Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, compared with $285.4 billion in 2011. That breaks down to $279.3 billion in existing law and a legislative proposal to cut $297 million from Medicaid. The administration said it will focus Medicaid's programs more on lower-cost home and community-based alternatives, rather than institutional settings.

Obama's plan reiterated the president's proposal for a five-year freeze on all discretionary spending outside of security, which he said will save more than $400 billion over the next decade. This is not an across-the-board cut, but rather an overall freeze with investments in certain areas for long-term growth and job creation, Obama said in a message that accompanied his $3.7 trillion budget for 2012. Savings will be achieved through reductions in the community services block grants and home energy assistance, according to the administration, which also said the budget supports the administration's priorities, such as implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, biomedical research and Head Start.

The Obama budget would delay a 25% cut to physicians' Medicare payment rates for two more years—until the end of 2013—through “specific health savings,” although those were not specified.

The American Hospital Association questioned the plan's impact on Medicaid. “While we are pleased that the president's budget does not include any new major reductions in payments for hospitals services to Medicare beneficiaries, we are deeply disappointed that today's budget reduces Medicaid, which funds services to our most vulnerable patients such as the poor and disabled,” according to Richard Umbdenstock, AHA president and CEO.

Meanwhile, funding for the National Institutes of Health would increase to $31.8 billion from $30.8 billion, in part to foster new collaborations among government, academia, and industry that accelerate the development of medical treatments. The Food and Drug Administration would see an increase to $2.7 billion from $2.6 billion. Funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would decrease to $5.9 billion from $6.4 billion, while HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration would drop to $6.8 billion from $7.5 billion. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would shrink by $44 million to $3.38 billion.

Efforts to control healthcare fraud and abuse would jump to $581 million from $311 million, while the administration would require state Medicaid agencies to track and monitor prescription drug billing, prescribing, and utilization patterns for indications of fraud.

The administrative budget for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology would increase to $57 million from $42 million.

Civil rights office seeks review of privacy rule

The Office for Civil Rights at HHS has sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review a new privacy rule covering an expanded requirement that healthcare providers track and be able to report to patients any disclosures of their medical records.

Patients have long had limited rights under the privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 to demand that providers and other “covered entities” provide them with an accounting of disclosures of their personally identifiable medical information.

Patients have long had limited rights under the privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 to demand that providers and other “covered entities” provide them with an accounting of disclosures of their personally identifiable medical information.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, however, expanded patients' privacy rights and closed a HIPAA exemption that covered entities were not required to audit and account for disclosures for treatment, payment and a broad, catch-all category known as other “healthcare operations,” if the covered entity uses an electronic health-record system. The ARRA eliminated that exemption and the new rule before the OMB provides language to implement the rule change. Patients can demand an accounting of disclosures going back three years from the date the demand is made. The accounting requirement also applies to business associates of covered entities.

In a May 3, 2010, request for public comment on the disclosure rules (PDF), the Office for Civil Rights at HHS noted that the new rule would require covered entities who have acquired an EHR after Jan. 1, 2009, to comply with the new accounting requirement by Jan. 1, 2011, unless the OCR extends the deadline, which is allowed but only no later than 2013.

Tort Reform Needs To Be Done At Federal Level

There are many aspects of healthcare as it relates to physicians that are federally regulated. This started with the Flexner Report in 1910. Look at the FDA and the license for physicians to prescribe controlled substances.

Medical boards across the nation now cooperate by reporting to the National Practitioner Data Bank so bad doctors cannot hop from one state to the next. Without liability reform, the maldistribution of doctors will be exacerbated with more doctors going to states with reform and non-economic damages caps. The states cannot and will not take care of this themselves. That is why federal reform is required.

Alan Ertle, M.D.
Bellevue, Wash.

Physicians to buy out partner to save hospital

In spite of a provision in the healthcare reform law seen as a death knell to physician investment in hospitals, a group of Detroit-area doctors has upped its stake to save a struggling hospital in Pontiac, Mich.

A purchase agreement has been signed that has physicians buying out the 35% ownership stake Flint, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care Corp. had in Doctors' Hospital of Michigan, a 106-bed institution formerly known as North Oakland Medical Center.

McLaren had invested about $5 million in the facility since November 2008, according to a hospital news release, and some of the physician shareholders paid McLaren around $3 million to buy out its ownership share.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prohibits the percentage of physician ownership to increase from the level it was when the law was passed last March, which would appear to put the legality of the deal in question. But attorney Michael Lampert, a Boston-based associate in the healthcare group of law firm Ropes & Gray, noted how the hospital's news release stated that the “a portion of DHM's physician ownership” bought out McLaren.

In its preamble to the final rule amending Stark regulations on self referral, published in the Nov. 24, 2010, Federal Register, the CMS stated nonpracticing and nonreferring physicians do not need to be counted as part of the percentage of a facility's physician ownership. The wording of the release, Lampert said, “suggests that not all of the (physician) owners are acquiring an increased share.”

McLaren acquired its ownership stake for $2 million and loaned the hospital $3.5 million in the form of a promissory note. The medical center had entered into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008 after missing a Jan. 15 payment to bondholders that year. At the time, according to a Standard & Poor's report, the medical center had $35.8 million in bond debt, a $13.4 million operating loss in 2007, and only 18 days of cash on hand.

As part of last week's deal, Clarence Sevillian, a McLaren employee, stepped down from his post as hospital president and CEO on Feb. 8, and the CFO Michael DeRubeis has been named acting CEO.

“The shareholders worked very hard to make this deal happen and to save 600 plus jobs,” Dr. Yatinder Singhal, chairman of the Oakland Physicians Medical Center board of directors, said in the release. “Our business relationship with McLaren did not work out, but we appreciate all they have done to help us start up Doctors Hospital and keep it a viable healthcare provider.”

Neither Singhal nor Sevillian was available for further comment.

Health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recover record $4 billion; new Affordable Care Act tools will help fight fraud

Joint DOJ & HHS  efforts result in largest sum ever recovered in single year; new rules under the Affordable Care Act will keep fraudulent providers and suppliers out of Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and avoid payments of fraudulent claims

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli today announced a new report showing that the government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered more than $4 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010.  This is the highest annual amount ever recovered from people who attempted to defraud seniors and taxpayers.  In addition, HHS today announced new rules authorized by the Affordable Care Act that will help the department work proactively to prevent and fight fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

These findings, released today, in the annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program (HCFAC) report, are a result of President Obama making the elimination of fraud, waste, and abuse a top priority in his administration.  The success of this joint Department of Justice (DOJ) and HHS effort would not have been possible without the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), created in 2009 to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs and to crack down on the fraud perpetrators who are abusing the system and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars.  These efforts to reduce fraud will continue to improve with the new tools and resources provided by the Affordable Care Act, including the new rules announced today.

“President Obama has made it very clear that fraud and abuse of taxpayers’ dollars are unacceptable.  And for too long, our fraud prevention efforts have focused on chasing after taxpayer dollars after they have already been paid out,” said Sebelius.  “Thanks to the President’s leadership and the new tools provided by the Affordable Care Act, we can focus on stopping fraud before it happens.”

“Our aggressive pursuit of health care fraud has resulted in the largest recovery of taxpayer dollars in the history of the Justice Department,” said Perrelli. “These actions are in large part because of the great work being led by the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team. Through this initiative, we are working in partnership with government, law enforcement and industry leaders, and the public to protect taxpayer dollars, control health care costs, and ensure the strength and integrity of our most essential health care programs.”

Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Report

More than $4 billion stolen from federal health care programs was recovered and returned to the Medicare Health Insurance Trust Fund, the Treasury, and others in FY 2010.  This is an unprecedented achievement for the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program (HCFAC), a joint effort of the two departments to coordinate federal, state, and local law enforcement activities to fight health care fraud and abuse.

The Affordable Care Act provides additional tools and resources to help fight fraud that will help boost these efforts, including an additional $350 million for HCFAC activities.  The administration is already using tools authorized by the Affordable Care Act, including enhanced screenings and enrollment requirements, increased data sharing across government, expanded overpayment recovery efforts, and greater oversight of private insurance abuses.

HHS and DOJ have enhanced their coordination through HEAT and have expanded Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams since 2009. HHS and DOJ hosted a series of regional fraud prevention summits around the country, and sent letters to state attorneys general urging them to work with HHS and federal, state and local law enforcement officials to mount a substantial outreach campaign to educate seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries about how to prevent scams and fraud.  During FY 2010, HEAT and the Medicare Fraud Strike Force expanded local partnerships and helped educate Medicare beneficiaries about how to protect themselves against fraud.

In FY 2010, the total number of cities with Strike Force prosecution teams was increased to seven, all of which have teams of investigators and prosecutors dedicated to fighting fraud.  The Strike Force teams use advanced data analysis techniques to identify high-billing levels in health care fraud hot spots so that interagency teams can target emerging or migrating schemes along with chronic fraud by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers.  Strike Force enforcement accomplishments in all seven cities during FY 2010 include:

• 140 indictments involving charges filed against 284 defendants who collectively billed the Medicare program more than $590 million;


• 217 guilty pleas negotiated and 19 jury trials litigated, winning guilty verdicts against 23 defendants; and


• Imprisonment for 146 defendants sentenced during the fiscal year, averaging more than 40 months of incarceration.

Including Strike Force matters, federal prosecutors opened 1,116 criminal health care fraud investigations as of the end of FY 2010, and filed criminal charges in 488 cases involving 931 defendants.  A total of 726 defendants were convicted for health care fraud-related crimes during the year.

In addition to these criminal enforcement successes, 2010 was a record year for recoveries obtained in civil health care matters brought under the False Claims Act—more than $2.5 billion, which is the largest in the history of the Department of Justice.

The HCFAC annual report can be found here, oig.hhs.gov/publications/hcfac.asp.  For more information on the joint DOJ-HHS Strike Force activities, visit: http://www.StopMedicareFraud.gov/.

New Affordable Care Act Rules to Fight Fraud
Today, HHS also announced new rules authorized by the Affordable Care Act which will help stop health care fraud.  The provisions of the Affordable Care Act implemented through this final rule include new provider screening and enforcement measures to help keep bad actors out of Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP.  The final rule also contains important authority to suspend payments when a credible allegation of fraud is being investigated.
“Thanks to the new law, CMS now has additional resources to help detect fraud and stop criminals from getting into the system in the first place," CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, M.D. said.  “The Affordable Care Act’s new authorities allow us to develop sophisticated, new systems of monitoring and oversight to not only help us crack down on fraudulent activity scamming these programs, but also help us to prevent the loss of taxpayer dollars across the board for millions of American health care consumers.”

Specifically, the final rule:

• Creates a rigorous screening process for providers and suppliers enrolling Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP to keep fraudulent providers out of those programs.  Types of providers and suppliers that have been identified in the past as posing a higher risk of fraud, for example durable medical equipment suppliers, will be subject to a more thorough screening process.


• Requires new enrollment process for Medicaid and CHIP providers.  Under the Affordable Care Act, States will have to screen providers who order and refer to Medicaid beneficiaries to determine if they have a history of defrauding government.  Providers that have been kicked out of Medicare or another State’s Medicaid or CHIP will be barred from all Medicaid and CHIP programs.


• Temporarily stops enrollment of new providers and suppliers.  Medicare and state agencies will be on the look out for trends that may indicate health care fraud – including using advanced predictive modeling software, such as that used to detect credit card fraud.  If a trend is identified in a category of providers or geographic area, the program can temporarily stop enrollment as long as that will not impact access to care for patients.


• Temporarily stops payments to providers and suppliers in cases of suspected fraud.  Under the new rules, if there has been a credible fraud allegation, payments can be suspended while an action or investigation is underway.

A copy of the regulation is on display today at the Federal Register and may be downloaded from the following link: www.ofr.gov/inspection.aspx. Several days after the regulation is published, the preceding link will be deactivated and the published version of the regulation will be available on the National Archives website at www.archives.gov/federal-register/news.html.  CMS will continue to take public comments on limited areas of this final rule for 60 days.

More information can be found at www.HealthCare.gov, a web portal made available by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  A fact sheet on the new rules is available at www.HealthCare.gov/news/factsheets.

Source: Human and Health Services

OIG’s List of Most-Wanted Health Care Fugitives

Check out OIG’s first-ever list of most-wanted health care fugitives.
These 10 individuals have allegedly defrauded taxpayers of more than $124 million. For OIG, tracking more than 170 health care fugitives is a challenge, but you can help. If you have a tip about a featured most-wanted fugitive, send the information our way!

Click to Read More....

Fellow doctors laud Blumenthal

After Dr. David Blumenthal's announcement that he will step down this spring as national coordinator for health information technology to return to Harvard University, several of Blumenthal's fellow physicians in the medical-informatics community praised him for his accomplishments and expressed optimism that his legacy will continue.

Over the past two years, Dr. Paul Tang worked with Blumenthal as closely as anyone not on the ONC's staff. Tang served as vice chairman of the Health IT Policy Committee under Blumenthal's chairmanship. The advisory panel was established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to guide the ONC on health IT policy matters. When not serving as a federal adviser, Tang works as vice president and chief medical information officer at the Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Foundation.In an e-mail late Thursday, Tang described Blumenthal as "a superb national coordinator who accomplished an enormous amount in his two-year tenure." Blumenthal's "wise, even-handed guidance," he added, was essential in promoting a healthcare IT transformation for the country.

Dr. Peter Basch, medical director for electronic health records and health IT policy at MedStar Health, Columbia, Md., and a member of three Health IT Policy Committee work groups, said Blumenthal's prior use of electronic health-record systems in his medical practice served him well in his ONC job.

"Really, from the beginning—he was chosen as a non-IT person leading the IT strategy—I felt comfortable," Basch said. "Someone who has practiced medicine using IT was the right person. David has focused on making it real and meaningful and was not distracted by what I'd call the flashing lights."

Dr. William Bria III, chief medical information officer at the Shriners Hospitals for Children, Tampa, and president of the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems, noted the challenges Blumenthal and the ONC have faced in just the last two months.

A handful of developments in the federal health IT world—a report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that was somewhat critical of the ONC's sense of direction with the federal IT program, the introduction in the U.S. House of federal legislation that could strip unexpended funds from the electronic health-record system incentive program and some general grumblings about meaningful-use requirements—represent a "nibbling at the edges" of the government's health IT initiative, Bria said. And in light of those, Bria said he would have preferred "a completely stable platform of individuals and leadership at least going into the rest of this year."

Still, he said: "Do I think the things are so fragile that his leaving will have a major impact? I don't think so. He's built enough of a team and enough of a legacy, there has been enough support, including from our organization, to get this done. I remain very happy and hopeful. I think America is on a threshold of a major transformation of improving its healthcare environment."

The U.S. is "heading in the right path" in health IT in no small part thanks to Blumenthal's leadership, he said. "Certainly, whoever is following David will have large shoes to fill, but will find it easier to keep on the right path," Basch said. "There is a tremendous team now in place at ONC. Granted, there is a lot going on, but there are a lot of people with the same mission to keep that going."

EHR Adoption

The biggest challenge to adopt technology to provide patient care.

By: Atif G. Memon
Healthcare IT Consultant

Adopting a technology is never been so easy for any of the industry. With the advancement of today’s world 2010 played a vital role. US healthcare market made a remarkable achievement while making lots of problems for those who are not aware with this technology. In this regards, I made a survey “EMR VS EHR”, in order to gain the knowledge from healthcare providers and IT professionals. I was amazed that instead of such a huge advancement in the market, there is no any proper reason to adopt EMR technology. Some of the providers want EMR because of the incentives; some of them want to avoid any penalty by the Government. On the other hand EMR vendors are making such technology which is based on complicated system, making lots of problems for those caregivers who are already unaware about this system. In last months of 2010, there were conducted lots of seminars, webinars and conferences to understand the use of EMR but it never been into the right direction. While being into the market, I always use to find a solution and try to make ideas that how to make providers to facilitate in adoption of EMR, while they understand it to use. An EMR should be a self-dependent, that don’t need any further EMR Experts to use it. EMR should also be used as a secure asset of patient information that should only be shared between Caregiver and patient. I would prefer that if Healthcare IT Professionals works to minimize the complexity of EMR rather than making a hybrid solution, which would be easier to adopt for the providers. This will not only be helpful for the Industry but also for Caregivers to adopt this Technology.

Statistics

According to research at Navinet, Inc. Statistics is given below for Barriers to EMR Adoption.

                                                                2009                       2010

We do not need it                                21%                       27%

Cost                                                        41%                       49%

It cannot integrate into our             7%                         13%

existing system

Our workflow does not support      9%                        20%

EMR implementation

Do not see ROI for our office         16%                       26%

Our Physician is not ready to         N/A                         46%

pursue