The following is an excerpt from an article originally published on Healthcare IT News. It was written by Jessica Davis. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There’s a looming ransomware strain on the horizon, and it combines two malware strains into one for greater impact. Aptly-named Satana, Italian for devil or Satan, is an aggressive form of ransomware that wreaks havoc in two steps, according to the blog of internet security company Malwarebytes.

How do you stand out in the crowd? If a person has just moved into your city and is looking for a new doctor without a referral, how easily would your medical practice come to his or her attention? Consider that a potential patient will likely go online and search for terms such as “doctor” or your specialty along with the name of a city or county to find a local healthcare provider. Besides doing some basic research, patients will be paying attention to what they see on various social media platforms.

Controlling expenses is becoming a priority at your medical practice, and you now have a mandate to examine your labor requirements in an era of cloud computing. If you have been relying on local servers to host your electronic health record software, your setup will naturally need people on staff to maintain the hardware, software,and network integrity. Depending on the size and scope of your organization, you may need your systems up and running 24/7, which adds to labor costs even more for your mission-critical software setup.

When practice administrators and independent physicians compare medical software, it's imperative to ask the right questions in order to find a best-fit solution. Naturally, every fiscally responsible decision-maker wants to know about costs, however, digging deeper into the functionality and features of any software upgrade will save precious time and money during the implementation process, and ensure long-term success.

The following is an excerpt from an article originally published on Healthcare IT News. It was written by Bill Siwicki. Nearly 8 in 10 physicians in a new survey said they prefer fee-for-service over risk-bearing, value-based care under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.

Even small changes in practice workflow bring great benefits for practice support teams. Managing more patients with fewer resources is possible when you exploit each resource to full capacity.

Viruses, worms, malicious code, bad script. Business owners have a lot to deal with today as cyber-criminals try to sneak into your network to disrupt your daily operations. And, then, there is ransomware. As the name implies, ransomware is a string of code that attempts to take your data hostage and block your access until you pay ransom. The typical attack is similar to a "snatch and run" scenario, except that rather than siphoning off your data, cyber-invaders use a quick attack strategy that encrypts your data so you can´t access it. The primary goal is to build a fortress around your assets faster than you can identify a breach.

Tackling out of control denied claims volume is beneficial for practices of all sizes – from the single family doctor to large multi-specialty groups. Lower your practice's denial rate with these three tips.

Telemedicine Program Reinventing Traditional Medicine With Twenty-first Century Technology If your organization is considering implementing a telemedicine program but you currently have limited experience with telehealth systems, it’s prudent to become familiar with industry best practices before you begin.

Legacy electronic health record (EHR) software was engineered to facilitate building comprehensive patient records, primarily collecting clinical data. Electronic patient files compiled during the 1960's, 70's and 80's were definitely more complete, accurate and legible, but not necessarily easier to share. In the early 1990's as the size and price of computer equipment plummeted, more practice managers embraced the digital patient records concept and adoption rates soared.