The number and cost of requirements associated with the Affordable Care Act go far past health insurance. Mike Bell, head of Humboldt General Hospital's information technology department, said the latest computer upgrades at HGH are being driven by federal standards tied to the ACA.
"Meaningful use" standards require, among other things, hospitals set up a patient portal computer program that allows patients Internet access to their medical records, including their doctor's notes from the latest office visit, hospital discharge instructions and patient education documents.
The patient portal makes it possible for patients to email their doctor's office.
ACA requires electronic transfer of X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and lab standards. Lab and medication records must also be available online and ACA wants doctors' orders for medications and tests from radiology and the lab transferred electronically.
Hospitals are required to have computer tracking proof of their compliance to standards required by the ACA, from emergency room treatment time frames to HIPPA compliance.
Failure to meet the standards will affect Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, but that's not all - there are government fines for failure to comply.
Bell said the standards are grouped under a mandate to provide "meaningful care." The standards cover a wide range of health care issues. As an example of that range, Bell said the hospital is required to educate at least 50 percent of the people who come through the door as to the dangers of smoking - and there are penalties for hospitals who have too many patient re-admissions.
The new servers will have to handle provisions for upgraded security since the on-line information ACA requires includes some of the most sensitive personal information anyone has. Bell said auditors come in and look at the systems to assure the additional security measure are sufficient.
The cost for a total of five additional servers needed for enough data storage to meet the ACA requirements is $300,000. Bell said, "Our current system is only five years old, but storage isn't large enough." He told hospital board members he would not have had to get the new equipment if not for the "meaningful use" standards required by ACA.
Additional personnel may be the next IT department cost brought about by ACA. Bell said, "There are three of us in the department and we're running all day long."
In addition to the hardware and software HGH purchased, the system upgrades come with a monthly maintenance agreement. Bell said the good part of the monthly maintenance agreement is, "If a part fails, we're guaranteed overnight replacement."
Bell said the computer system has a self-diagnostic component that will actually identify most problems before patients or staff are even aware of them. The computer will contact IBM with what is wrong and where the glitch is located and IBM will be the ones to notify HGH there's a problem and how it will be repaired.
There is a significant monthly cost equal to a percentage of the total computer upgrade for the maintenance agreement.[[In-content Ad]]
