Recently I gave a keynote address about the characteristics of the modern IT leader - call it my top 10 list of behaviors and tactics. As a pre-amble, I offered an environmental scan of the regulatory and business challenges we're likely to face over the next five years.
Editor's Note: This blog post is reproduced from Hayes Management Consulting's Healthcare Leaders blog series.
All IT leaders have weathered the impact of the Meaningful Use program, ICD-10 implementation, HIPAA Omnibus Rule and Affordable Care Act. Over the past few weeks, the Sustainable Growth Rate fix, the 21st Century Cures Act, and the Burgess Bill have added even more complexity to IT tactical planning. Here's my advice.
Meaningful Use is waning as a program and will be a less important driver of IT planning for the next several years. The Sustainable Growth Rate fix incorporated the Meaningful Use program into a group of merit-based incentive payments, eliminating the penalties for missing Meaningful Use milestones. Given reduced economic incentives and penalties, many providers and hospitals may choose not to participate in the merit-based payments available.
ICD-10 will go live October 1, 2015 and most organizations have already finished their needed upgrades. There will still be training and cleanup after go live, but the IT work is largely done.
The HIPAA Omnibus Rule and increased auditing by the Office of the Inspector General will require a continuous focus on security, but much of the foundation has already been laid as part of earlier audits required by Meaningful Use.
That leaves the Affordable Care Act as the biggest unfinished project for many healthcare organizations and one that will have a profound effect on IT. Click here to continue reading >>