Morning Headlines 6/4/13

Mass EHR mandate draws criticism, impact remains unclear

A change introduced with the Massachusetts health reform law comes under fire for requiring physicians to demonstrate proficiency in the use of CPOE, e-prescribing, and EHRs as a standard of eligibility for medical licensure in the state.

Secure health data helping patients, doctors improve care and health

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius kicks off Health Datapalooza IV by announcing that CMS will release new data sets that include outpatient procedure data, Medicare spending and utilization data, and de-identified data on Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions. HHS also announced a $25,000 challenge encouraging developers to design "an innovative app or tool using Medicare data that primary care providers can use to help manage patient care."

HIE Participation Doesn’t Create Test Savings, Study Says

A new study published in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association concludes that the deployment of a health information exchange is unlikely to produce significant cost savings through reduced testing rates, contradicting the study’s hypothesis that duplicate tests would be reduced if physicians were given access to the results.

MMRGlobal Retains Counsel in Australia and Issues Patent Update

Patient portal vendor and patent troll MMRGlobal retains legal representation in Australia and will pursue discussions with the Australian government and the National E-Health Transition Authority over potential patent infringement issues after NEHTA spent nearly $1 billion designing and implementing a national patient portal.