Posts Tagged: data archiving

Solutions for Home Health Data Archiving

Posted by & filed under Healthcare.

home health data archiving

Home health services have traditionally been narrow and costly. Payors and the industry were not keen to pay for or invest in it. Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly, everyone realized the value of home health. With a fast acceleration and adoption, which is unlikely to cool post-COVID, it puts operators in a new position of having many more patient records. This strain on applications indicates the need for home health data archiving solutions. 

The Perspective on Home Health Is Changing

In November of 2020, a survey of health plan executives revealed 97% believe more care at home is better for organizations and patients. They realize that the model works since the pandemic forced adoption. It also seems to be reducing the total cost of care, a critical metric for payers. 

Federal and state regulators are also warming up to the broader use of home health. CMS issued a hospital-at-home waiver in late 2020. It granted hospitals “unprecedented” flexibility in the delivery of care at home. 

Additionally, the home health benefit under Medicare, which has been very rigid, is evolving. The value of these services is more visible, and they provide versatility. 

An Aging Population Keeps Home Health Growing

As the population ages, the need for home health will expand. Currently, around 25% of home health patients are over 85. However, only 10.9% of Medicare members are over that age. With the Medicare population growing older and living longer, the demand for home health will only swell. The consequence for home health providers is a tsunami of patient data. 

Home Health Data Archiving Delivers Solutions

Home health data archiving is a strategic solution for providers. It removes older files from your applications while still providing access. Such a system also meets medical record retention mandates and HIPAA compliance standards. 

A web-based system also means your clinicians can log into it from anywhere. This functionality could be useful during visits to look up patient history. If you currently still have a legacy system holding old files, an archiving platform eliminates the need for it. You can officially retire it and reduce costs associated with keeping it up. 

Explore Home Health Data Archiving with InfoWerks

We’re leaders in healthcare record archiving. Our simple, intuitive application, ViewMaster, offers lots of features at an affordable price. See how it works today by requesting a demo. 

InfoWerks: Expert Healthcare Data Movers

Posted by & filed under Healthcare.

data movers

Healthcare data, it’s complicated. It’s also the engine of modern care delivery. Providers depend on access to the data, regardless of where it lives. Systems need to share it, and it has lots of regulatory demands around it. With so many challenges, healthcare organizations seek out experts like InfoWerks. We are professional data movers specializing in data conversions, archiving, and sharing. 

Here’s what we can offer the healthcare ecosystem.

Data Conversion Pioneers

Our roots are in data conversions, and our founders performed the first one for a pharmacy way back in the 1990s. Before that time, if you wanted to move to a new system, the conversion was manual. Now, over two decades later, we continue to perfect this process, ensuring accuracy and compliance. 

We can work with any platform and have the expertise to overcome hurdles such as field matching. Our team of in-house programmers and analysts has conducted thousands of conversions. Our objective is to make it as stress- and pain-free as possible.  

Data Archiving: Retain Records, Ditch Legacy Systems

The next solution we created was data archiving. We found that many organizations didn’t want to convert all their data to a new system. They also didn’t want to leave a legacy system running, as it’s risky and expensive. This need in the industry influenced us to create ViewMaster.

ViewMaster is a centralized, web-based platform that lives in the cloud. It’s HIPAA-compliant and offers accessibility to old records. It meets record retention mandates and has features to create audit reports in a few clicks. This cost-effective solution helps you say goodbye to clunky, hard-to-use legacy systems.

Data Sharing: Breaking Down Interoperability Barriers

Moving PHI data can put a lot of stress on IT teams. However, it’s often a necessity to ensure that two systems can talk and exchange. Without data feeding between the two, those applications may be useless. Scaling such operations can be difficult, as well. 

To alleviate some of the pain points of healthcare organizations, we can facilitate easy data sharing. It’s a better, secure way to transfer your PHI. 

Data Movers to Ensure Accessibility, Portability, and Interoperability 

As adept data movers, we’ve yet to encounter a project that was impossible. Our technical and business folks are able to work out plans for the most complex data problems. We welcome a challenge and have the capabilities and experience to move your data wherever it needs to go.

Contact us today to chat about your healthcare data management needs. 

Are Your Dental Records Secure?

Posted by & filed under Dental.

dental records

Hacks and breaches are one of the biggest concerns regarding healthcare records. They are extremely attractive to threat actors since they contain PHI. While most of the headlines in healthcare IT news talk about hospitals and payors experiencing security incidents, dental records incur the same risk. They include the same data that can end up for sale on the dark web. 

The question for every practice to ask is, “Are my dental records secure?”

Cyber Attack Exposes Over One Million Dental Patient Records

In 2020, Dental Care Alliance, a dental support business with 320 affiliates, announced it was the victim of an attack. The breach lasted for almost a month before detection, compromising over one million records. It was the second-largest breach of 2020.

Such a hack isn’t uncommon or unexpected. Last year, the healthcare industry saw spikes in cyber-attacks, with the pandemic being a factor. 

The Complexities of Healthcare Cybersecurity and Risks

Cybersecurity in healthcare continues to be more complex as hackers become more sophisticated. However, the industry has some internal challenges to work out around data security and protection. Certain practices can increase risk, of which you may not be aware. Those include:

  • Keeping legacy systems running that are no longer supported.
  • Failing to update patches on software platforms in a timely manner.
  • Lack of employee training around cybersecurity.
  • Inability to create standard protocols around data sharing or interoperability. 
  • Not backing up patient files to ensure redundancy and business continuity. 

The Impact of a Cyber-Attack on a Dental Practice

If your practice was the victim of an attack, what would be the consequences? First, you could face fines or other reprimands for HIPAA non-compliance. If the breach wasn’t related to your reasonable care of the data, there are still other impacts, including:

  • Loss of data, including deletion or encryption in a ransomware attack.
  • Reputational harm, as you’ll have to notify patients. 
  • Financial costs, including paying for credit monitoring for patients, lost productivity, patients leaving, and audits.

Dealing with all these things can be a nightmare, so the best way to avoid them is to be as proactive as possible about data security. 

Steps to Avoid Risk

Your network, applications, and databases should adhere to all cybersecurity and HIPAA best practices. That includes things like firewalls, monitoring, penetration testing, and employee training on things like phishing. 

Beyond these tenets, there are some additional data management areas to consider. 

Legacy Archiving

Maintaining a legacy system is dangerous when it’s no longer supported. It could be an easy entrance into your network for hackers. Decommission legacy systems and archive those dental records in a web-based, secure platform. 

Data Backup 

The data your archive and that within current applications need a backup. For your archive, make sure you choose a partner that includes a redundant backup. 

Standardize Sharing

Do internal systems need to share certain information? If any of it is PHI, then it requires special care. This activity may be too complex for your IT team or MSP (managed service provider). Data sharing can be simple, but protocols and experienced professionals are imperative.

Keep Your Dental Records Secure

If you’re looking for support for data archiving, backup, or sharing, we can help. We’re experts in moving data for healthcare. Contact us today to learn more.