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There’s a fundamental change underway in the healthcare system, which is shifting away from a traditional fee-for-service model toward a more accountable, patient-centered model of care. Accountable care organizations (ACO) are popping up across the country with what’s being referred to as a Triple Aim: better care for individuals, better health for populations, and lower per capita costs. In a recent Online Tech Tuesdays at Two webinar session, attorneys Tatiana Melnik and Carrie Nixon extensively defined and discussed the ACO model (what is it, why we are moving in that direction, where the patient fits into the model, and some early success stories), the role technology plays in its emergence, and ways to minimize and mitigate legal risks in the framework. Melnik specializes in IT legal issues with a specific emphasis on HIPAA, HITECH, and the world of healthcare and cloud computing. Nixon is president of Accountable Care Law & Policy and a founding member of Healthcare Solutions Connection, a network of expert consultants providing solutions for the healthcare industry. “We’re moving to the ACO model because really, the current system is unsustainable,” said Melnik “Baby Boomers are aging and are straining a system that is already having a difficult…
If you’ve ever been to a HIMSS show, you know it’s one of the most important healthcare organizations ever made. It’s brimming with healthcare information management hot button topics and innovative ideas. It’s working collectively to optimize patient outcomes and care through technology and policy changes that will keep people safe and healthy. It’s comprised of the field’s leading experts and advocates, and is continually making positive change in the healthcare industry. Which is why we’re so excited to go to the Northern Ohio HIMSS Summer Conference. It will be on June 6th at the new Global Center for Health Innovation in Cleveland. The theme is, “The Winds of Change: The Impacts of Information Technology on the Economy of Healthcare & Patient Outcomes”. From the Northern Ohio HIMSS site, here’s an idea of what you’ll get if you join us for the show: “We are in the center of a substantial change in Healthcare, with Information Technology playing a major role. This conference explores how components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (e.g. eHealth Initiatives, the shift from the Fee-For-Service model, Health Information Exchanges, and the Health Insurance Market Place) impact Operations, Revenue Cycle and Knowledge Management of…
For the upcoming IMN Data Center East Conference, I’ve been invited to speak on the panel called “Staying Ahead of the Curve on Services” about managed services for data center operators. From my experience, two of the highest value managed services a data center operator can provide are backup and managed security services. I wrote about backup services in a previous post, so this one is about considerations for offering security services around cloud computing and colocation. Hosted security as a managed service requires a much larger investment than backup services. Significant dedication and resources are required to achieve a solid security posture that coordinates a company’s people, processes, and technologies, but greatly increases value for clients. Some technologies are easy security entry points. Antivirus, patch management, SSL certificates and managed firewall are good places to start. In my opinion, these services are table stakes to play in the cloud computing market and many colocation clients have come to expect the same set of options as managed services. Offering an expanded set of services for strong security is a much harder business decision. The investment to deliver expanded security services such as two-factor authentication, log monitoring and review, file integrity…
On May 22nd, industry experts from around the Columbus area will converge to speak at the Data Connectors Columbus Tech Security Conference. This will be held in the Quest Conference Centers in Columbus. The focus of the Data Connectors event circuit is information security. Within these events, topics range from VoIP and LAN security to wireless security and securing USB drives. Below is a sampling from the agenda in Columbus: The Evolution of Endpoint Security: Detecting and Responding to Malware Across the entire Kill Chain Brian Orr, CISSP, GISP, Systems Engineer, Bit9 Over the past decade, the volume of malware produced and potentially infecting organization, has multiplied by orders of magnitude. The scope of the threat, in conjunction with little to no innovation by traditional security vendors has left organizations like yours vulnerable. The time is NOW to expand security infrastructures to include detection and response capabilities that allow you to fully scope, contain, and remediate each threat in real-time on your endpoints and servers. Join Bit9 to discuss the emergence of endpoint malware and the new class of security solutions that can detect threats early and across more points on the kill chain. Anatomy of the Target Stores Breach:…
At the end of May, I’m speaking on a panel at IMN’s Data Center East Conference in New York City. The panel is titled “Staying Ahead of the Curve on Services (for data center operators)” and will focus its message on market demand for managed services that deliver high value for colocation and cloud computing users. I define high value as an essential service that a service provider can deliver at a lower cost and with higher quality than their clients can build or buy on their own. For example, many colocation providers offer “rack & stack” service to rack and wire servers in colocation racks. “Rack & stack” is a good example of a “win-win” service. It is typically far more cost effective for the full-time staff at the data center to rack and wire new servers in the rack than for a client to drive to the data center to do it themselves. “Rack & stack” services give both the service provider and the client a “win.” The service provider uses their full-time staff that has expertise wiring thousands of servers with a process and documentation that delivers a high quality experience. The service provider can deliver the…
Accountable Care requires clear visibility into longitudinal patient data across multiple providers, but interoperability introduces legal and security risks that must be carefully navigated if organizations hope to become trusted, data sharing entities. In this complex environment, collaborative knowledge sharing is just what the doctor is ordering to improve outcomes while reducing costs. When attorneys Tatiana Melnik and Carrie Nixon met for coffee at HIMSS in Orlando, each realized the combination of their respective fortes would be beneficial to the other’s clients in the bigger picture of accomplishing meaningful use. Now it’s your turn to reap the benefits of that alliance when they co-present the latest edition of Online Tech’s ‘Tuesdays at 2’ webinar, PHI in the ACO: Risk Management, Mitigation, and Data Collection Issues. Melnik, a frequent contributor to the Online Tech webinar series, concentrates her practice on healthcare data privacy, security and regulatory compliance. Nixon focuses on healthcare law and policy issues relating to the Affordable Care Act reforms. She launched Healthcare Solutions Connection, a network of consultants providing integrated service solutions for the healthcare industry. At 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, Melnik and Nixon will share lessons learned from early adopters, role of patient health and…
Well hello, Indy! Earlier today, Online Tech announced it has acquired a data center in downtown Indianapolis and will outfit it with the company’s full product line of secure, compliant cloud and colocation services. The Indianapolis Data Center, located roughly an Andrew Luck hail mary pass from Lucas Field, is the company’s fifth data center and its first outside of Michigan. At Online Tech, co-CEOs Yan Ness and Mike Klein stress the importance of “win-win” situations between the company and its clients and business partners. In this case, expanding our footprint is a “win-win-win” situation … for our current Michigan data center clients, our future Indiana data center clients and Online Tech. For current clients, the 44,000 square foot Indianapolis data center is ideal for providing disaster recovery services—not only because of the quality and security of the facility, but because of its geographic distance from our Michigan data centers. With more than 300 miles in between, we will be able to support clients that need disaster recovery services across state lines and want significant geographic separation between sites. In Indianapolis, Klein feels the city’s large population of healthcare companies and growing community of financial, retail, e-commerce and software businesses…
One of the best networking and strategy sharing events in the midwest is happening in just a few short days. On May 14th, hundreds of senior IT executives are going to meet at the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth for the Midwest Technology Leaders conference. The theme this year is The Next Decade of Innovation, Disruption, and Consumerization. This is the 10th anniversary of the Midwest Technology Leaders event, and promises to be a particularly engaging and helpful with about 25 speakers and a networking reception that runs into the evening. This show touches on the whole gamut of IT related topics, including: Driving Customer Centric Innovation Driving Growth and Business Value Capitalizing on the Growth of Data Facing the Challenge of ever Increasing Risk with IT Security Design and Deliver the Transparent Enterprise Building a High Performing Team in a Complex Workforce Environment Conquering the War on Talent Various Hot Topics on the Minds of todays top CIO’s, via new CIO Rapidfires Healthcare’s Changing Landscape Creates Challenges for CIOs As a truly for executives, by executives event, MTL has worked hard to get leaders in the industry to speak at this event. Here are just a few of…
In contrast to the unseasonably cold weather Columbus, Ohio, has experienced of late, this week’s InfoSec Summit kicked off in bright purple ‘Aloha’ style with Jim Manico’s recommendations for improving web application security. Only one other attendee could match his shirt color, but none were equal to the energy with which Jim highlighted some serious software security concerns. No, this wasn’t a dig on the software developers who face an incredibly daunting tempest of deadlines, budget constraints and requirements as part of their daily existence. This was a heartfelt plea to security professionals to provide clear and specific security requirements as part of the pre-design documentation. If we do anything less than proactive, constructive communication about security with application developers, we’ll never slow down the freight train of increasing cybersecurity threats. The description of Manico’s session explained “we cannot ‘firewall’ or ‘patch’ our way to secure websites. In the past, security professionals thought network security practices and corporate policies were enough. Today, however, these methods are outdated and ineffective to protect application, as attacks on prominent, well-protected websites are occurring every day. No company or industry is immune. Programmers need to learn to build websites and other applications differently.” Manico…
Co-CEO Yan Ness has a saying that Online Tech is “in the business of helping our clients sleep at night.” Primarily, he’s speaking of organizations not losing sleep worrying about compliance and data security. But at the C-suite level, more and more, protecting data privacy also means protecting careers. On Monday, Target president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel resigned after 35 years with the company. According to a statement from the company’s board of directors, Steinhafel “held himself personally accountable” for the massive data breach Target experienced late last year. Target CIO Beth Jacob also resigned following the breach, which compromised up to 110 million customer records and cost the company $17 million in breach-related expenses and a significant blow to its reputation. An Associated Press story claims Steinhafel is the first CEO of a major corporation to lose his job because of a data breach, “showing how responsibility for computer security now reaches right to the top.” Research released on the day of Steinhafel’s resignation offers a glimpse into the severity of data breaches for companies: The Ponemon Institute’s annual Cost of Data Breach Study indicates U.S. companies that suffered a data breach in 2013 lost an average of $5.4…