Morning Headlines 4/4/13

Former VA CIO Baker heads to Agilex

Recently resigned Roger Baker, CIO of the VA, has found a new home at Agilex, a government contracting firm specializing in software development, cloud computing, and mobility.

JAMA: Current EHRs Lack Large-Scale Data Capabilities

A recent viewpoint article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that as data-heavy sciences like genomics, epigenomics, and proteomics advance, health systems will be forced to look beyond the storage capacity of their EHRs to keep up with data storage needs.

Intermountain Healthcare pays $25.5 million to settle claims allegations

23-facility health system Intermountain Health has agreed to pay $25.5 million to settle claims that it violated the Stark statute after admitting that over a decade, it illegally paid bonuses more than 200 of its referring physicians.

ONC HIE workgroup offers interoperability suggestion

ONC’s Health Information Exchange workgroup met today to discuss possible policy solutions for promoting interoperability.

Veterans Affairs Backlog Files Stacked So High, They Posed Safety Risk to Staff

A recent PBS story on the now nationally followed VA claims backlog describes a Winston-Salem, NC office that had folders stacked so high that they posed a safety risk to employees and further delayed the approval process because needed folders were often stored layers deep in claims piles. The weight of the paper eventually created a structural problem when inspectors realized that the sheer weight of the combined folders exceeded the load-bearing capacity of the building itself.