Morning Headlines 8/19/16

Kansas Signs $215M Contract For New Medicaid Computer System

HP Enterprises signs a $215 million deal with the state of Kansas to upgrade its Medicaid computer system and integrate the new system with Cerner’s HealtheEDW software, which will allow the state to manage care with near-real time patient data.

Exchanges do work for some health plans. Ask Kaiser.

Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson says that the health system will continue to offer insurance plans on public exchanges, despite an increase in other payers exiting the markets.

Sebastopol medtech firm spawns legal wrangles, sends robot on Sonoma West hospital rounds

The former CFO of Sonoma West Medical Center files a wrongful termination suit against his former employer, alleging that he was fired for raising concerns over the safety of the hospital’s EHR, software not in use at any other US hospitals, but one made by a startup vendor with investors on Sonoma West Medical Center’s board of directors. The hospitals former CNO filed a similar suit earlier this year.

Evolutionary Pressures on the Electronic Health Record

A JAMA article argues that EHRs have not “kept pace with technology widely used to track, synthesize, and visualize information in many other domains of modern life.”