Morning Headlines 9/30/13

Intermountain and Cerner Announce Strategic Partnership

Intermountain Healthcare will implement Cerner’s EHR and revenue cycle solutions across all of its hospitals and clinics. Financial details were not disclosed, but the multi-year strategic partnership goes far beyond the traditional vendor-health system agreement. Cerner Executive Vice President Jeff Townsend and a dedicated team will relocate to Salt Lake City to work side by side with Intermountain stakeholders.

Staff at one of Britain’s worst hospitals told to use Facebook and Twitter on wards in bizarre bid by bosses to improve communication

Following public criticism and increased federal oversight for having unusually high mortality rates, administrators at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust decide the time is right to reverse their ban on at-work use of Facebook and Twitter. In an internal email, administrators outline a broad corrective action plan, including a list of "quick wins," one of which promises open access to social media for staff moving forward.

Obamacare Coders Working Down To The Wire To Fix Online Glitches

Programmers are working around the clock to address functional deficiencies within the infrastructure that will support state health insurance exchanges when they go live on October 1. The exchanges, a central piece of the Affordable Care Act, were designed to provide uninsured consumers a place to shop for health insurance and to introduce consumer demand dynamics to the health insurance market.

KKR to buy Panasonic’s healthcare unit in $1.67 billion deal

Panasonic sells its healthcare unit to US-based private equity firm KKR for $1.6 billion. Panasonic’s healthcare division primarily sells glucometers and a version of the ToughBook designed for use in clinical settings.