Industry Insight

Report Details How Telehealth Can Advance Women’s Health Care Access and Equity

The National Partnership for Women & Families released a report on telehealth and women’s health care access in advance of the US House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health’s recent hearing on the future of telehealth.

The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically accelerated the use of telehealth. As we emerge from the pandemic—which has exacerbated health care inequities and disproportionately harmed Black, Indigenous, and other people of color—we must use this opportunity to build systems that meet those communities‘ needs. The National Partnership for Women & Families is committed to developing and deploying telehealth models that improve health outcomes and equity. The value and limitations of telehealth for women and families of diverse backgrounds must be clearly understood to ensure that telehealth delivers on its promise.

Providers are currently using telehealth to address crucial aspects of women’s health care: contraception, abortion care, maternal health, and mental health.

Expanding telehealth could also facilitate women’s roles as the primary caregivers and health care managers for their family members.

The report, “Delivering on the Promise of Telehealth: How to Advance Health Care Access and Equity for Women,” explores the challenges that structural inequality poses to telehealth and best practices to address them.

— Source: The National Partnership for Women & Families

Purchase of Nuance’s HIM and EHR Services Completed

DeliverHealth Solutions—a global provider of professional and advanced tech-enabled services launched in November 2020 to simplify EHR, provider documentation, revenue cycle, and patient engagement complexities for health systems—announces completion of its acquisition of the HIM and EHR Go-Live Services businesses from Nuance Communications.

Led by a team of veteran HIT experts and supported by Assured Healthcare Partners and Aeries Technology Group, DeliverHealth enters the market as an experienced partner of physician groups, hospitals, and health systems.

DeliverHealth offers three unique marketplace advantages: continuity of senior leadership, access to exceptional technology, and a proven scalable technology-enabled service organization across a marquee client base. These strengths enable the company to build on its existing workflow technology and HIM and EHR expertise for providers and patients.

“Our leadership team and more than 2,000 skilled employees have worked together for years to improve physician and patient satisfaction while boosting the bottom line as health care systems evolve and accelerate their digital transitions,” says DeliverHealth CEO Michael Clark. “Over the last year, in particular, medical practices and hospitals have been scrambling to recover, adapt, and grow. That means increased complexity in their responsibilities.

“The daily tasks of health care teams can feel overwhelming, and too often burnout is decimating staffs,” Clark adds. “Our job at DeliverHealth is to simplify the complexities, remove technology barriers to prioritize patients over technology, and act as an extension of health care providers so they have more time to focus on patient care.”

More information is available at nuance.com and deliverhealth.com.

— Source: DeliverHealth Solutions

AHIMA International Working to Develop Coders in Saudi Arabia

AHIMA International is pleased to announce King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has joined AHIMA International’s Organizational Member program.

The Organizational Member program is based around a three-year commitment between AHIMA International and a health care provider, health care service organization, or government/nonprofit agency that wants to achieve excellence in the health care core competencies of clinical documentation, medical coding, health data analytics, informatics, and/or privacy and security.

The Faculty of Applied Studies at KAU has chosen to become an AHIMA International Organizational Member focusing on the core competency of medical coding. AHIMA International’s team will train and assist instructors at KAU as they help develop the next generation of medical coders.

“KAU recognizes the importance of quality health care information, and we are proud they selected AHIMA International to help them achieve excellence,” says AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CAE. “We are excited to welcome KAU to our Organizational Member program. Like AHIMA, they understand that health information is human information.”

Harris and Professor Abdulrahman Obaid Al-Youbi, PhD, the president of KAU, signed an agreement in a virtual ceremony on January 19 that made KAU the latest entity to join AHIMA International’s Organizational Member program.

“King Abdulaziz University is always shooting forward to establish deep roots in all fields,” Professor Al-Youbi says. “I would like to thank the AHIMA International team for their kind acceptance to train and assist instructors at KAU to help develop the next generation of medical coders.”

To learn how the AHIMA International’s Organizational Member program can help your organization, email internationalinfo@ahima.org and visit AHIMA.org.

— Source: AHIMA