Part 1: The Sony Pictures Hack The recent hack of Anthem, the second largest health insurance provider in the U.S., has once again made the topic of cybersecurity painfully relevant to those who work in the healthcare industry. Initial estimates revealed that as many as 80 million Anthem customers had large portions of their records comprised (possibly more). While Anthem insists that no medical or credit card data was stolen, these records still contained a wealth of personal information (all worth a fortune on any of the darknet black market data exchanges)—customer names, dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses, places of employment, and even income data was stolen in the cyberattack. Not only were customer records compromised, but those of Anthem employees as well. Even their CEO, Joseph Swedish, had his personal information stolen during the breach. Anthem has not yet officially disclosed exactly how the hack occurred, except to say that it was a “very sophisticated cyberattack.”

In today's world, doing something faster doesn't always yield great results. For instance, you can order fast food in no time, but you may end up getting an average sandwich with very little nutritional value. But the complete opposite is true when it comes to electronic medical records. Nextech EMR software can help your practice get things done faster, while providing even more accurate patient care. Here are a few ways that EMR can improve your practice:

Between scheduling patient appointments, building a strong brand identity in your local market and ensuring that all the administrative odds and ends are taken care of on a daily basis, running a medical practice can be extremely hard work. Throughout this process, however, it's important to remember that one of the most inhibiting factors can be the poor scheduling habits that medical professionals fall into. More specifically, we should always be reevaluating the ways we go about organizing and managing our practice to find the optimal series of actions that keep our business running smoothly. If you find that things have become a bit cumbersome or slow around your office, consider these three tips for bettering your practice management techniques:

Electronic medical records are a necessity in the health care industry, as they're simple to access and keep patient information safe and secure at all times. The fact that these records are mobile means physicians can use their iPads to update patient charts with current and accurate information. Here are just a few ways that mobile tools can benefit your practice:

This past December, shortly before adjourning for 2014, Congress passed an “Omnibus” federal funding bill—the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015. Slipped into the bill was a provision to further delay the implementation of ICD-10. Various lobbies and special interest groups, on both sides of the ICD-10 debate, had already been hitting Congress with a barrage of letters (arguing their opposing points of view) during the latter months of 2014. Opponents of ICD-10 had hoped to use the appropriations bill to further delay the final implementation by as long as two years. Supporters of ICD-10, however, argued that another delay would be both unnecessary and costly.

As patients assume increasing responsibility for personal healthcare costs, determining eligibility has become essential to patient satisfaction—and to protecting the practice’s revenue cycle. When patients who are accustomed to incurring only minor co-pays receive bills that are far greater than expected, those who can’t pay or resist payment can represent very difficult collections. This can be especially problematic for specialty practices that have different co-pays from primary care providers or services that may require referral or preauthorization for coverage.

Have you implemented certified EMR/EHR technology in your specialty practice? The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) required reimbursement penalties for all Medicare eligible healthcare providers who do not comply with Meaningful Use.

Most specialty practices set aside ample time for software systems training when implementing new technologies. It’s typically all-hands-on-deck for vendor training during EMR implementation, and many host topic-specific training sessions to support meeting Stage 2 requirements for practices that pursue meaningful use. In addition, most practices that bill any insurance companies are currently focused on training in preparation for the ICD-10 transition. But what about the long stretches in between milestones?