Morning Headlines 1/17/14

Streamline Health Signs Definitive Agreement To Acquire Unibased Systems Architecture, Inc.

Streamline Health Solutions, which offers a variety of health information management and revenue cycle solutions, will acquire the St. Louis-based Unibased Systems Architecture, vendor of the ForSite2020 enterprise scheduling and surgery systems. Terms were not disclosed.

ONC Releases SAFER Guides

ONC releases the Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) Guides, which include checklists and recommended practices to help providers assess and optimize the safety and safe use of EHRs.

Doctors sue NC over Medicaid billing system

Several North Carolina doctors sue the state and its software vendors and consultants for Medicaid payment delays caused by its $484 million NC Tracks system that was rolled out on July 1. The doctors, who have stopped accepting new Medicaid patients, said in the lawsuit, “The proof of CSC’s wrongdoing was the disastrous state of the software upon go-live.” The system has been criticized by the state auditor, but the Department of Health and Human Services says it outperforms its 35-year-old predecessor and issues are being addressed.

U.S. Hospitals Show EMR Growth Opportunities for Patient Portals, Clinical Data Warehousing and Radiology Barcoding Applications

A HIMSS Analytics report shows that among applications that support its EMR Adoption Model, those with the most five-year promise due to first-time purchases are patient portals, clinical data warehouses, and radiology barcoding applications. It also predicts high replacement sales of laboratory barcoding systems, pharmacy management systems, and radiology and laboratory department solutions.