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May 27, 2014 News 4 Comments

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An MGMA survey of large (median of 10 FTE physicians), mostly independent physician practices finds that 62 percent are struggling to identify patients whose insurance came from an Affordable Care Act exchange and to verify their eligibility or obtain plan details. Most practices also say that patients who got their insurance via an ACA exchange are more likely to have high deductibles and don’t understand that fact. Half of the practices say they can’t provide services to ACA exchange patients because their practice is out of network.


Reader Comments

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From Trinity: “Re: Meditech READY Certification Status. How many firms will be named to this list? What’s the upside for Meditech clients and the consulting firms?” Certainly READY Is one of the more contrived acronyms ever: rapid adoption, evidence based, advanced workflows, dedicated team, and your success. Apparently it’s an Epic-like certification that allows consulting firms to implement Meditech 6.x. The company says its purpose is to drive a big bang go-live and its implementation team members “will become workflow experts armed with a more global view of how the solutions work together and will be trained to collaborate with one another when the software is delivered to the customer.” The key components are (a) more application consultant time at the client site instead of having the customer travel to Meditech; (b) project leadership and physician training by Navin, Haffty & Associates; (c) delivery of standard system content; and (d) a course for hospital clinical leaders to address process improvement.

From Jockamo: “Re: Meaningful Use Stage 2. The attached document is from the administrator of a multi-specialty group.” The unnamed practice administrator urges everyone to tell CMS that MU Stage 2 is unreasonable via the comment period for the proposed changes. The main concerns: (a) 50 percent of patients must provide email addresses to meet the requirement that they have portal access; (b) orders must be initiated electronically directly by the clinician instead of dictated, written, or verbally issued to a clerical support person; (c) data entry timeliness is unworkable given that patients are to be given an electronic summary of care within one day; (d) summaries of care must be sent or received with each transfer out or in.


HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Listening: Portland-based Heatmiser, which in its five years of existence that ended in 1996 begat Elliot Smith (who died in 2003 at 34.)


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

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Risk scoring vendor Apixio raises $13.5 million in a Series C investment round.

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PatientPay receives a $2.5 million investment from San Francisco-based Mosaik Partners.

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Wisconsin-based payment analytics vendor Aver Informatics raises $8.5 million.

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Cerner’s board approves a $100 million share buy-back, raising the total from the original $213 million repurchase program approved in December 2013.

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Atlanta-based insurance software vendor Ebix acquires “ask a doctor” service vendor Healthcare Magic for $6 million and will roll it into its A.D.A.M. Health division.  


People

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Helayne O’Keiff (IBM) joins Beacon Partners as senior regional director for the South.

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Sean Nolan (Microsoft) will leave the company and his role with HealthVault.

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August Calhoun, PhD (Dell) joins Truven Health Analytics as SVP/GM of the company’s Provider Solutions business.


Announcements and Implementations

AirStrip will incorporate PeriGen’s enhanced context and decision support tools for obstetrics into AirStrip One.


Government and Politics

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From The Onion.

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A Vermont Information Technology Leaders RFP indicates that the company will spend $175,000 on awareness advertising campaigns for the public and for providers as it prepares to launch the Vermont HIE, which is about to exit beta testing. VHIE drew controversy a few weeks ago when it announced that any provider will be able to look at any patient’s information, which the CEO says was done to reduce the number of forms patients would need to sign.


Innovation and Research

An engineer develops a $300 smart spoon that stabilizes up to 70 percent of a person’s hand tremor, allowing people with those conditions to eat without help. More attachments are coming.


Other

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The Columbus, OH newspaper profiles Columbus-based CoverMyMeds and the prior authorization process.

AtlantiCare (NJ) will merge with Geisinger Health System (PA), with both organizations citing value-based care as their motivation. 

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The VA hospital in Denver reports that two laptops containing respiratory testing information on 239 patients have been stolen from its pulmonary lab.

in England, NHS says the operating cost of its new e-Referral service will be 80 percent less than that of the $600 million Choose and Book system it replaces.

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Also in England, the government opens bids for its Integrated Digital Care Technology Fund, which will provide up to $400 million in matching funds over the next three years to projects that create open source data sharing tools.


Sponsor Updates

  • Technology leasing provider Winthrop Resources achieves its second “Peer Reviewed by HFMA” designation.
  • The e-MDs 2014 user conference is scheduled for June 5-7 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin, TX.
  • TriZetto (Gateway EDI) offers four things to prepare for ICD-10 after attending WEDI’s ICD-10 Summit.
  • Glytec receives FDA approval to add pediatric insulin dosing to its Glucommander.
  • Greenway Health is recognized by Black Book Rankings as a Top EHR Vendor for ambulatory settings.
  • Culbert Healthcare Solutions offers proactive steps in transition to value-based physician compensation.
  • Liaison Technologies adds template-based mapping to its Contivo Data Integration Suite.
  • Capsule’s Karen Lund discusses the importance of nurses understanding the ‘big picture.”
  • Beacon Partners discusses the good and bad aspects of the recently proposed CMS rule that would defer MU Stage 2 until 2015.
  • Phoebe Putney Health System is live on the Summit Healthcare Summit Care Exchange platform communicating with RelayHealth.
  • CoverMyMeds’ CEO Matt Scantland shares the processes behind the company’s success with a local publication.
  • McKesson will be the headline sponsor for the 5th Annual Health IT Leadership Summit November 20 in Atlanta.
  • Newark Community Health Centers (NJ) will implement Forward Health Group’s PopulationManager for its seven clinics.

Contacts

Mr. H, Inga, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis, Lorre.

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Currently there are "4 comments" on this Article:

  1. Let’s call the MEDITECH Ready for what it is. Like JJ Wild, Dell, etc. MEDITECH will feed business to these firms as long as they kiss the ring of the MEDITECH way. Clients that are forced to use these firms because of what it says in their contract with MEDITECH are not necessarily getting the best resources in the industry to assist them.

    Hafftey has run his business on this promise for years. There are other firms out there that do excellent implementation and advisry work for MEDITECH clients. They were not invited to the Ready dance because of why? When MEDITECH gets tired of handing out this Ready business, what will any of these firms do next?

    Epic, Siemens and Cerner have been open to all consulting firms assisting their clients, and that is why they will eat MEDITECH lunch ie clients in the coming years. My advice to MEDITECH is that they open the their closed minds. Also, just to say it here first, Canada is NEXT for Epic, and MEDITECH will start to lose market share in the coming months.

  2. In response to HealthITPundit,

    Although we were the first certified READY consulting partner, there are others now approved. So, while we are often recommended, we are not required. However we have been selected in the majority of READY projects since competition has been introduced and believe we have earned their selections.

    Also, I take exception to the criticism of my staff, They are amongst the best in the Healthcare I T industry. This isn’t just my opinion but that our clients. In the 2013 Year-End Best in KLAS, we were tied for second amongst all consulting companies in the entire industry. (Go to page 10 of their report). We believe that we work in the best interests of our clients and to the degree we can support their relationship with their core vendor, we believe this serves our clients interests.

    While you may be critical of us or MEDITECH, please get your facts correct before you criticize us or anyone else.

    John Haffty
    President
    Navin, Haffty & Associates

  3. Dear John ( I am not breaking up with you)

    You did not answer any of the questions.

    Is it not in the MT contract that the client must use a READY certified firm?
    Why is there only 4/5 Ready certified firms. There are many others who have been ignored by MT for the certification
    KLAS – so if you get 10 “A” sample size (out of 1200 clients) for a score with KLAS that means what
    As a preferred firm of MT with contract language that says use the READY certified, do you consider yourself an independent firm

    Thanks for the clarification.







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