Page 16 - HME Business, August 2017

Software Interoperability’s Inroads
in HME
HME software companies are helping providers to increasingly enjoy the benefits of healthcare interoperability.
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By Joseph Duffy
ealthcare interoperability — the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data and use the information that has been exchanged
— has been a general healthcare practice for many years. For the HME industry, interoperability is a fairly new development, but according to Nick Knowlton, vice president of business development for Brightree LLC, the HME industry is catching up.
“Tremendous progress has been made the past few years with regard
to interoperability in the HME segment of the healthcare market,” he
says. “We are still in the early stages of referral management with physi­ cian practices and hospitals, but there are many examples of vendors and providers working together to automate clinical information moving to and from HME providers using their software systems.
“We are now working with some of the largest [Electronic Healthcare Record] vendors in the country to automate the transmission of patient information at the time an HME order is placed,” he continues. “The physi­
cians are working in their native workflows and this was unheard of just a few years ago. This will become expected functionality in HME software over the next few years. Additionally, great progress has been made to connect HME providers in other areas, such as patient compliance, patient resupply, delivery notifications and outcomes.”
Part of the progress stems from the HME industry beginning to recog­ nize the need for interoperability in various areas, such as compliance data being accessible in an electronic format, says Kimberly Commito, director of product management for Mediware Information Systems.
“The need for CPAP compliance data to support proper and timely reim­ bursement is imperative,” she says. “Many software platforms now offer integration with devices that can easily download this data and even trigger billing events to streamline the reimbursement process for charges related to this type of therapy. In addition, referral data that is standard, such as demographics and medical information, can be easily accessed electroni­ cally in a number of ways and again, many software platforms now offer the
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