Quotation marks, words of skepticism and evidentials in clinical notes reflect professional doubt of patient-reported symptoms and are more likely to be found in Black patients' EHR notes than in white patients', indicating subtle bias, according to a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Female patients' clinical notes were no more likely than males' records to contain evidentials or judgment words, but they were more likely to contain quotation marks, researchers found.

Health information management professionals must ensure social determinants of health are being captured and coded correctly in support of value-based and shared-risk payment models, writes registered health information administrator Margaret Foley, an associate professor at Temple University. ICD-10-CM guideline updates facilitated the use of Z codes for SDOH, but they are not sufficient to capture the range of external factors that impair health, and HIM professionals should help improve internal guidelines, Foley writes.

Public skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines is declining, and a $1.5 billion federal campaign aims to further increase confidence and acceptance. Health literacy affects individual vaccination decisions, and improving health literacy involves both educating and listening, as well as access to information, says physician Ryan Bosch, who co-founded the health analytics firm Socially Determined.

The health technology startup Juli is beta testing an app that collects health data from EHRs, questionnaires, the environment and devices like smartwatches and scales, analyzes the data using artificial intelligence, and displays the data on a dashboard. Bettina Hein, the founder and former CEO of software firm Pixability, founded Juli when she started using a sleep monitoring headband and learned how access to data can boost health and well-being.

The CMS has proposed a rule that would increase Medicare payments to skilled nursing facilities by about 1%, or $444 million, for fiscal 2022. The agency also proposed increasing payments by 2.2% for rehabilitation facilities and 2.3% for inpatient psychiatric facilities.

The CDC has declared racism a "serious public health threat" that has "had a profound and negative impact on communities of color," according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. The CDC launched a new section about racism and health on its website, and the agency plans to use COVID-19 funding to invest in communities of color and other populations that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Varian and Google Cloud are working together to boost cancer radiation therapy by building an artificial intelligence-based diagnostic platform. "We have committed ourselves to intelligent cancer care, which seeks to automate routine or repetitive tasks in the radiation oncology workflow through the use of smart algorithms, machine learning and AI," said Corey Zankowski, senior VP of Varian's technology and innovation office.

IBM vowed its Watson artificial intelligence platform would revolutionize health care and forged high-profile partnerships, but the platform did not live up to the hype, and a decade later, Watson Health is for sale. AI can and has improved health care, but failing to plan for natural resistance among physicians is a path to failure, writes physician John Frownfelter, chief medical officer at Jvion.

Join us at the 2021 Advocacy Summit, May 17-18, for the opportunity to advocate directly to lawmakers for federal legislative issues important to patients and health care. Registration is $99 for members. Up to 12 CEUs are available for this event. Register today.

Properly translating clinical diagnoses into usable data is at the heart of clinical documentation integrity. CDI well done ultimately helps to manage risk for both patients and physicians. These new AHIMA courses feature inpatient- and outpatient-focused lessons that offer a practical way to level set your team's experience. Learn more.

New E/M code descriptions and guidelines for outpatient services took effect Jan. 1, 2021. In this course, we cover the new guidelines, including term definitions, and how to choose a level of service based upon medical decision making or time. Learn more.