News 6/10/16

Top News

Practice Fusion settles with the FTC over charges that it misled consumers by asking for reviews of their physicians without adequately disclosing that those reviews would be posted publicly online. The reviews were published in 2012 as part of the company’s efforts to develop a public-facing healthcare provider directory. “Practice Fusion’s actions led consumers to share incredibly sensitive health information without realizing it would be made public,” says FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Jessica Rich. “Companies that collect personal health information must be clear about how they will use it – especially before posting such information publicly on the Internet.” The settlement, which seems to carry no fine, prompted the FTC to publish six privacy pointers, with perhaps the most relevant being, “Disclosures should reach out and grab consumers,” and “Don’t bury key facts in a hard-to-understand privacy policy.”

Reader Comments

From EMR Expert: “Re: Financial trouble in the Middle East. Like many other vendors in various sectors, Cerner, Epic and InterSystems are having tough times collecting their money from existing clients. One of the executives of those companies stated that their Accounts Receivables of the value of more than $15 million is overdue by more than six months. Support contracts are not being renewed and payments for implementation are not honored. It is a catch 22 situation when all their clients were oil rich and now cash strapped governments/government entities.”

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

This week on HIStalk Practice: AMN Healthcare acquires Peak Health Solutions. CancerLinq announces new collaboration and practice sign-up milestones. North Carolina Medicaid reform will include the development of a statewide HIE. South Carolina lawmakers pass telemedicine-friendly legislation. SingleCare partners with American Well. Closed-door meetings in Texas could lead to more telemedicine-friendly legislation. Medfx and Falcon Physician develop software for nephrology practices. FastMed Urgent Care rolls out TouchCare telemedicine services at 57 clinics. Tandigm Health Medical Director Leslie Saltzman, DO shares the hurdles physician groups face when implementing telemedicine tech.

Webinars

June 28 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Your Call Is Very Important.” Sponsored by West Healthcare Practice. Presenters: Cyndy Orrys, contact center director, Henry Ford Health System; Brian Cooper, SVP, West Interactive. The contact center is a key hub of patient engagement and a strategic lever for driving competitive advantage. Cyndy will share how her organization’s call center is using technologies and approaches that create effortless patient experiences in connecting them to the right information or resource. Brian will describe five key characteristics of a modern call center and suggest how to get started.

Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Xerox launches Virtual Health Solutions, a new service line that will offer providers telemedicine consulting, interface design and development, and virtual clinic services.

Connecture, a technology company that builds online health insurance marketplaces, acquires ConnectedHealth, a benefits technology platform that helps employers chose health plans. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Southcoast Health (MA) reports that its $100 million Epic implementation boosted the local economy by $3 million, mainly through hotel room costs, car rentals, gas, and dining. Nearly a third of the health system’s budget for the project went to costs associated with expenses for Epic staff and consultants.

Martin Shkreli jeeringly pleads not guilty to an updated indictment – one that adds a new conspiracy charge to original December allegations that he illegally took stock from a biotechnology firm he launched in 2011 and was fired from three years later. Not surprisingly, the “habitually unavoidable-for-comment Shkreli unloaded as he spoke to customers at a Manhattan Dunkin’ Donuts outlet while live-streaming on Periscope.” In related (and absurd) news, Shkreli blocks presumably reputable reporters from his Twitter stream, and lauds an upcoming satirical musical about his purchase of a $2 million single-copy Wu-Tang Clan album. It will no doubt give Hamilton a run for its money.

Announcements and Implementations

Radiology Associates of Macon (GA) extends its RCM agreement with Zotec Partners.

Meditech develops a sepsis management toolkit for select EHR customers.

St. Vincent’s Medical Center (CT) rolls out telemedicine services from Zipnosis.

The Guam Dept. of Public Health and Social Services partners with Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles to roll out a specialty care telemedicine program for island residents.

Sales

Houston Methodist (TX), Meadows Regional Medical Center (GA), and Shore Medical Center (NJ) sign on for Unified Provider Management software from Phynd Technologies.

People

North Mississippi Medical Center promotes Shannon Fryery to director of telehealth for North Mississippi Health Services.

Callie Shaver (Greenville Regional Hospital) joins Jersey Community Hospital as HIM director.

Ed Mercado joins Crux Quality Solutions as CEO.

Government and Politics

The VA fires three more administrators within the Phoenix VA Health Care System. Lance Robinson, assistant director at the Carl Hayden VA Medical Center; Brad Curry, chief of health administration service; and Darren Deering, DO the hospital’s chief of staff; were all terminated for “negligent performance of duties and failure to provide effective oversight.” The terminations come more than two years after the exposure of the cover up of a huge backlog in medical appointments that severely impacted veteran care.

The House passes the Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act, excluding ambulatory surgical centers from Meaningful Use and MIPS penalties.

Innovation and Research

Cerner launches a one-year pilot study that will help determine whether patient’s genetic data can play a motivating role in promoting behavior change.

A Health Affairs study correlates the use of prescription drug monitoring programs with a 30 percent reduction in the rate of prescribing Schedule II opioids, a change that continued in the second and third years following the launch of the program.

A small Health Catalyst survey of hospital executives finds that 62 percent have between zero and 10 percent of their care tied to the value-based contracts CMS hopes to have hospitals converted to by 2018. Just 3 percent meet the CMS goal of 50 percent value-based reimbursement today, and only 23 percent expect to meet it by 2019.

Technology

Avizia adds the patient-facing MyCare app to its AviziaOne telemedicine and secure messaging solution.

Experian Health’s Coverage Discovery uncompensated-care alert tool can now integrate with Epic’s EHR.

Influence Health develops new digital presence management technologies that include directory listings, reputation, and online provider review ratings tools.

Other

Jennifer Lawrence signs on to play Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in an Adam McKay-directed drama about the now-infamous blood-testing startup.

A mother in Australia uses Siri to call emergency services when she discovers that her sleeping baby had stopped breathing. While the digital assistant may have contributed to saving the girl’s life, it likely had more to do with the mom’s administration of CPR, given that the ambulance took 20 minutes to arrive.

Sponsor Updates

• Impact Advisors achieves top overall performance score in the KLAS Healthcare IT Advisory Report.
• InterSystems and PDR will exhibit at AHIP June 15-17 in Las Vegas.
• LiveProcess will exhibit at the SC Hospital Association Hospital Preparedness Summit June 8 in Columbia, SC.
• MedData will exhibit at the Southern Coastal Emergency Medicine Conference June 10-11 in Kiawah Island, SC.
• Medecision signs on as a founding member of the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative.
• Navicure will exhibit at the Arizona NextGen UGM June 10 in Phoenix.
• Nordic and Stella Technology will exhibit at the HIMSS New York State meeting June 16 in the Bronx.
• Millward Brown names NTT Data to its 2016 Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands.
• Obix Perinatal Data System will exhibit at the 2016 AWHONN National Convention June 11-15 in Grapevine, TX.
• Experian Health will exhibit at the Georgia Society for Managed Care meeting June 12-14 in Jekyll Island.
• PatientMatters will exhibit at the Ohio Hospital Association Annual Meeting June 13-15 in Columbus.
• The SSI Group will exhibit at the Gulf States ASC Conference June 15-16 in New Orleans.
• Catalyze achieves a second HITRUST CSF Certification.

Blog Posts

• Population Health: Is It Really Working? (Medicity)
• Is It Worth The Effort to Create a Customized Data Breach Response? (ID Experts)
• Maximizing SEO During Your Hospital’s Website Redesign (Influence Health)
• “The Right Side of Healthcare” with David McClellan (Ingenious Med)
• Use Reporting to Diagnose Your Collection Strengths and Weaknesses (InstaMed)
• Pharma Lifecycle Plagued with Integration and Data Management Challenges (Part III – Clinical) (Liaison Technologies)
• Preventing Patient Data Mismatches When Deploying Image Exchange Enterprise Wide (LifeImage)
• Clarity Through Consoles (Netsmart)
• The Future State of Healthcare (Orion Health)
• A Guide to Processing Payments in Your Sleep (Patientco)
• System interoperability in healthcare IT: Why is it important? (Lexmark)
• We Can do Better (PeriGen)
• Recent Regulations Continue Promotion of E-Prescribing (Point-of-Care Partners)
• Modernizing Healthcare Communications (Spok)
• RAC Audits Are Like Most Healthcare Issues: Prevention is Key (Streamline Health)
• Recap of MUSE International in Orlando, Florida! (Summit Healthcare)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jennifer, Dr. Jayne, Lt. Dan.
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