Morning Headlines 5/5/14
Blue Cross Blue Shield of ND reports $72.9 million loss
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota releases its 2013 year-end report. Within the report, BCBS-ND discloses that its bottom line dropped $72 million, compared to 2012. Its subsidiary Noridian Healthcare Solutions took a $51 million loss after being fired as the lead contractor on Maryland’s health insurance exchange. BCBS-ND took an additional $25 million loss when the newly implemented EHRs being rolled out by local providers caused billing delays and a claims backlog that BCBS significantly underestimated the value of, and did not budget for.
CPSI Announces First Quarter 2014 Results
CPSI announces Q1 results: revenue up five percent to $52.1 million, driving net income up 11 percent to $7.7 million. EPS $0.69 vs $0.63 last year, missing analysts forecasts by a wide margin. Stock prices ended down 4.6 percent at the end of the trading day Friday.
How scribes made Allina an extra $205,000
After Cardiologists with Allina Health started using scribes to handle EHR related data entry, the health system noticed a significant jump in patient volumes. Cardiologists using scribes were generating $205,740 in additional revenue per 65 clinic hours. Scribes also helped reduce doctor burnout.
Weird that Google can acknowledge its crowdsourced medical advice was wrong, but escape penalties for doing it wantonly at scale.