Health Information Technology Manager Role in the Healthcare System

This essay explores the evolving landscape of healthcare and health insurance systems in the United States, emphasizing the pivotal role of health information technology (HIT). It highlights the impact of electronic health records (EHRs), telehealth services, and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) in shaping modern healthcare. The essay also discusses government initiatives like the Affordable Care Act and HIPAA, along with efforts to promote health interoperability. It focuses on the essential technical skill set for a health information technology manager, including data management, telehealth handling, social media engagement for patient participation, data analysis, and health information exchange (HIE). The rationale behind prioritizing these skills stems from the challenges faced by the healthcare industry, such as inadequate knowledge of health insurance providers and guidance from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The essay further emphasizes the need for trained health-information managers to educate patients about the digitalization of healthcare, particularly those from racial or ethnic minorities and older adults, to improve access to care and reduce financial burdens. It also addresses the importance of telehealth and the role of HIT professionals in training nurses and educating patients to enhance healthcare delivery and reduce unwanted hospitalizations.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Healthcare
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Various activities are helping to shape up the health insurance systems. These
activities include use of the electronic health records (EHRs), the use of the tele-health
service and computerized physicians based order entry (CPOE) (Office of the National
Coordinator for Health Information Technology (Health IT), 2019). Moreover, in order to
increase the access of healthcare under the provision for the health information technology,
the Government of United States of America (USA) has come up with several insurance
policies and health acts namely Affordable Care Act and HIPAA (Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996). The government is also taking active effort in
promoting advance stage health interoperability (Wager, Lee and Glaser (2017).
As a health formation technology manager, in a hospital, the vital technical skill set
that I will seek for a new hire include the skills for the effective management of the digital
data and information related to population health and individual health. The skill sets will
also over proper handling of the telehealth approach and use of the social media in order to
promote or to increase the level of patient participation in self-management strategies. Lastly
I would like to focus on the specific skills set like data analysis and health information
exchange (HIE).
The reason why I am giving preferences to the above-mentioned skill set is based on
my knowledge about new challenges faced by the healthcare industry. According to Wager,
Lee and Glaser (2017), the main challenges faced by the healthcare industries, that create a
barrier towards the comprehensive health utilization include lack of proper knowledge on the
health insurance providers and lack of proper guidance coming from the Center for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS). However, CMs is working effectively in order to bring
change in the healthcare system by proposing regulatory revision to streamline the
management of healthcare by 2016. The changes include broader strategy in order to relive
the regulatory burden, increase the provision for the local leadership and increasing the state

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level flexibility of the state level healthcare for the proper access of the health insurance
(CMS.gov, 2018).. However, these change initiatives though promising but can observe an
outstanding outcome only when a trained health-information manager educates the patients
about the digitalization of healthcare.
In my hospital as well, I have reviewed that the people who mainly hails from the
racial or ethnic minority or are older adults who are residing alone, lack proper knowledge
about the health insurance policies available for them and thus increase the financial
healthcare burden. Krebs and Duncan (2015) highlighted that majority of the people in
United States of America lack proper knowledge behind the health insurance plans. The study
further recommended that use of proper health app and social media campaigns can be prove
to be helpful to increase the cost-effective healthcare utilization among the American
population. Thus, my recruiting plan focused on skills like designing social media campaigns
and social media app. I have also noticed that the patients who are coming to receive care in
my hospital lack knowledge about digitalization of the healthcare or the concept behind the
utilization of telehealth. Santos et al. (2016) stated that lack of proper access and lack of
proper use of the tele-health services lead to increase in cases of unwanted hospitalization and
at the same time, it increases the overall cost of care. So a proper health-informational
technology professionals will train the nurses and will educate the patients about handling
telehealth and thus helping to in the delivery of comprehensive healthcare.

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References
CMS.Gov. (2018). CMS Proposes Changes to Streamline and Strengthen Medicaid and CHIP
Managed Care Regulations. Access date: 10th May 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-proposes-changes-streamline-
and-strengthen-medicaid-and-chip-managed-care-regulations
Krebs, P., & Duncan, D. T. (2015). Health app use among US mobile phone owners: a
national survey. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(4), e101.
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (Health IT). (2019)
Home. Access date: 10th May 2019. Retrieved from:https://www.healthit.gov/
Santos, A. F., Souza, C. S., Abreu, M. P., Costa, C. A., Melo, M. D. C. B., Torres, R. M., ...
& Alves, H. J. (2016). Telehealth in the Amazon Region in Latin America: an
Overview. Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth, 4, e12-
1.
Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health care information systems: a
practical approach for health care management. John Wiley & Sons. Chapter 4 and
Chapter 1