Morning Headlines 5/5/16

Email from insider led to Epic Systems’ $940 million legal win

A disgruntled Tata Consultancy employee working at Kaiser Permanente alerted Epic that the company had been illegally downloading trade secrets through Epic’s UserWeb. The employee had reportedly been passed up for a promotion.

IBM Gives Free Storage to ResearchKit Users

IBM announces that it will host ResearchKit apps on its Watson Health hosting platform for free.

Acting Administrator Slavitt Speech at the American Hospital Association’s Annual Membership Meeting

During the AHA Annual Membership Meeting, CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt called on doctors to engage in the rule writing process while MACRA was in its public comment period.

Medical Errors Are the Third Leading Cause of Death: Study

A BMJ study estimates that medical errors kill 250,000 Americans each year, making it the third leading cause of death in the US.

Morning Headlines 5/4/16

IMS Health and Quintiles to Merge

Quintiles, the parent company of Encore Health Resources, will merge with IMS Health, resulting in a company with $7 billion in annual revenue.

Imprivata Announces First Quarter 2016 Financial Results, Revenue Growth of 23%

Imprivata reports Q1 results: revenue climbed 23 percent to $25.6 million, adjusted EPS –$0.21 vs. $-.24.

How a tiny hospital has imperiled Mass. Medicare funds

Hospitals in Massachusetts face a potential ten percent drop in Medicare funding after consultants hired by the state’s only rural hospital, 19-bed Nantucket Cottage Hospital, miscalculate annual wage costs which are used by Medicare as a baseline for all hospitals in the state.

Morning Headlines 5/3/16

CHIME Letter to FDA on Interoperable Medical Devices

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives submits comments to the FDA calling for assurances that medical devices will be interoperable with EHR software.

Not-for-profits dominate top-10 list of hospitals with biggest surpluses

Seven of the 10 hospitals with the largest surplus from patient care services in 2013 were not-for-profits, according to Health Affairs.

Hospital discharge: It’s one of the most dangerous periods for patients

The Wall Street Journal profiles problems that can arise during transitions of care, with a focus on the hospital to home transition.

Morning Headlines 5/2/16

Medical Information Technology, Inc. Form 10-Q

Meditech reports its Q1 results: revenue grew 4.3 percent to $117 million vs. $113 million during the same quarter last year, EPS $0.51 vs. $0.53.

Athenahealth Jonathan S. Bush on Q1 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

During its earnings call, Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush says that the small-hospital market has experienced a borderline collapse of established technologies, resulting in huge unmet demand that will benefit its expansion into inpatient software.

Revealed: Google AI has access to huge haul of NHS patient data

In the UK, an investigative report finds that Google has been given access to 1.6 million patient records, with visit details going back five years.

Morning Headlines 4/29/16

Medicare’s new plan for paying doctors: 10 key takeaways

The Advisory Board Company recap’s yesterday’s MIPS and APM incentive proposed rule.

Leidos Holdings, Inc. Reports First Quarter Fiscal Year 2016 Results

Leidos reports Q1 results: revenue grew five percent to $1.31 billion vs. $1.25 billion in the same quarter last year, adjusted EPS $0.72 vs. $0.67. Executives announced that

Athenahealth, Inc. Q1 Profit Rises 47%

Athenahealth reports Q1 results: revenue climbed 24 percent to $256 million vs. 206 million in the same quarter last year, EPS $0.34 vs. $0.24, beating expectations on both.

FDA rejects antipyschotic drug/device combo

The FDA has rejected Proteus Digital Health’s request to embed smart sensors designed to track medication compliance into Otsuka’s antipsychotic medication Abilify.

Morning Headlines 4/28/16

Moving Toward Improved Care Through Information

CMS publishes details on how physicians will be paid under MACRA’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System, including new standards for using EHRs in a program called Advancing Care Information.

Christie says New York joins New Jersey drug monitor program

New York and New Jersey officials agree to start sharing information from each state’s prescription drug monitoring program.

Adam Landman, MD, MS, MIS, MHS, Named Chief Information Officer at Brigham and Women’s Health Care

Adam Landman, MD is named CIO of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Landman had been serving as the hospital’s CMIO for Health Information Innovation and Integration.

2016 Data Breach Investigation Report

Verizon publishes its annual report on data breaches, finding that insider misuse, miscellaneous human errors, and lost or stolen property generated for the most beaches in healthcare in 2015.

Morning Headlines 4/27/16

Nokia Just Made Its First Big Move Into Digital Health

Nokia acquires Withings, a digital health company that markets Bluetooth connected scales, blood pressure cuffs, and other medical devices, for $192 million.

Proposed Sanctions – Conditions Not Met Immediate Jeopardy

CMS publishes the letter it sent to Theranos last month in response to the company’s plan to correct problems found at its California lab, noting that the company’s responses “show a lack of understanding of the CLIA requirements.”

Verisk Analytics, Inc., Signs Definitive Agreement to Sell Its Healthcare Services Business to Veritas Capital for $820 Million

Veritas Capital acquires the health service business of Verisk Analytics for $820 million.

Morning Headlines 4/26/16

What We Mean When We Talk About EvGen Part I: Laying the Foundation for a National System for Evidence Generation

In a blog post, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD calls for greater interoperability and connectivity in healthcare IT in order to help researchers create a national system for evidence generation.

Customizing transitional care for N.C. Medicaid patients

Community Care of North Carolina, which coordinates care for 1.4 million Medicaid beneficiaries in the state, has developed an algorithm-based population health program that has significantly reduced hospitalizations and readmissions for patients with multiple chronic medical conditions.

Augmedix nabs $17M to ‘rehumanize’ doctor/patient relations using Google Glass

Google Glass startup Augmedix raises a $17 million investment round from Catholic Health Initiatives, Dignity Health, Sutter Health, TriHealth Inc., and a fifth anonymous investor. Augmedix is building an app that allows scribes to remotely monitor patient encounters, documenting the visit note and navigating the EHR on behalf of the provider.

Medicare’s New Physician Payment System

Health Affairs discusses the new physician payment system put in place with the passage of MACRA.

Morning Headlines 4/25/16

Lockheed Martin cuts 200 jobs in merger with Leidos

Lockheed Martin lays off 200 from its IT workforce in preparation for its $5 billion IT services merger with Leidos.

Testing electronic health records in the “production” environment: an essential step in the journey to a safe and effective health care system

A JAMIA article calls for testing EHR updates in both the test and production environment used by clinicians.

Vail Valley hospital says former therapist took patient records

Vail Valley Medical Center (CO) will inform 3,118 patients that their records were compromised after a former physical therapist copied their records prior to moving to a new job.

Morning Headlines 4/22/16

An Act To Prevent Opiate Abuse by Strengthening the Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Program

Maine will require all narcotics prescriptions to be transmitted electronically after June 1, 2018. Providers will also be required to check the state’s drug monitoring database prior to writing new prescriptions.

Rejecting employees’ pleas, EmblemHealth CEO sets major IT layoff

New York insurer EmblemHealth will lay off 250 IT and operations employees after contracting with Cognizant to modernize the company’s IT systems.

Hospital’s dispute with software provider puts patients at risk

A local TV station reports that patients at Parrish Medical Center (FL) are at risk after McKesson blocked the hospital from updating the drug formulary in its Horizon system. The hospital is in the process of suing McKesson over the implementation, which it says included unfinished software, missed deadlines, and monetary disputes.

Centra Selects Cerner’s Enterprise-Wide IT System

Five-hospital health system Centra (VA) contracts with Cerner to replace EHRs in use at each of its hospitals and 50 ambulatory and long-term care facilities.

Morning Headlines 4/21/16

Report to Congress April 2016

In a MACRA-mandated report to Congress, ONC evaluates the feasibility of establishing an EHR comparison tool to support providers evaluating health IT products.

2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index

IBM publishes its 2016 Cyber Security Intelligence report cites healthcare as the most targeted industry for cyber attacks in 2015.

US to Delay Release of New Hospital Ratings

CMS announces that it will hold off on publishing quality ratings for hospitals until July amid questions from health providers and Congress over the methodology behind the ratings, “We are concerned that the star rating system may be misleading to consumers due to flaws in the measures that underpin the ratings,” states an April 11 letter signed by 60 senators.

Here’s Why This Genetics Biotech’s Stock Plunged Today

Gene sequencer manufacturer Illumina’s shares dropped 23 percent Tuesday after reporting preliminary Q1 revenue of $572 million, missing its forecasted $596 million, and lowering its projected 2016 growth from 16 percent to 12 percent.

Morning Headlines 4/20/16

Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by US

Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation to determine whether Theranos misled investors about the state of its technology and operations.

Major Health Insurer Bailing On Most Obamacare Exchanges

UnitedHealth Group pulls its plans from ACA exchanges, citing $1 billion in losses from the markets over the past two years.

Health apps: Unlimited promise or ‘like having a really bad doctor’

The LA Times highlights the persistently poor clinical quality of consumer-focused medical apps, citing concerns over diabetes management apps that do not instruct users to call 911 when their sugar levels are dangerously low, or apps for people with depression that do not recommend calling a suicide hotline when users report feeling unsafe or suicidal.

Movie stars have their uses: medical science isn’t one of them

The Guardian discusses the role movie stars have in forming public health opinions after Robert De Niro lobbied to have a discredited movie about the risks associated with vaccinations included in the Tribeca Film Festival.

Morning Headlines 4/19/16

Theranos Chief Elizabeth Holmes Is ‘Devastated’ Over Lab Deficiencies

Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes responds to federal calls for her ban from the blood testing industry, saying she is “devastated that we did not catch and fix these issues faster.”

CMS drops two-midnight rule’s inpatient payment cuts

CMS will stop imposing inpatient payment cuts to hospitals under the two-midnight rule.

Celebrating the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act’s First Birthday

Acting CMS administrator Andy Slavitt discusses the impact MACRA is expected to have on healthcare reform on the one-year anniversary of its passage.

Why Medical Devices Aren’t Safer

The New York Times argues for more robust tracking of implantable medical devices.

Morning Headlines 4/18/16

Epic Systems wins $940 mln U.S. jury verdict in Tata trade secret case

Epic wins its trade secret lawsuit against Indian IT firm Tata Consultancies. A judge awarded Epic $240 million in compensatory damages and $700 million in punitive damages after concluding that Tata employees illegally accessed Epic’s customer website and accessed proprietary information.

VA teases plans for new ‘state-of-the-art’ digital health platform

VA CIO LaVerne Council says she will unveil plans for a “new digital health platform” to replace VistA.

Nova Scotia spends $39M on electronic medical records push

After spending $39 million in incentive payments to encourage EHR adoption, Nova Scotia continues to rely on faxes to communicate between facilities.

Kansas City TIF Commission approves financing agreement for huge Cerner redevelopment

Kansas City approves a reimbursement plan to repay Cerner $1.75 billion of the $4.45 billion it is spending to build its new campus.

Morning Headlines 4/15/16

Missing clinical and behavioral health data in a large electronic health record (EHR) system

A JAMIA study comparing clinical data from an EHR with data from insurance claims finds that EHR data is incomplete, missing information on care delivered outside of the organization.

athenahealth Announces Acquisition of Arsenal Health, formerly known as Smart Scheduling, Inc

Athenahealth acquires former More Disruption Please startup Arsenal Health, a company building schedule optimization solutions.

Economic Outlook: Spring 2016 C-Suite Survey

A small survey of health executives finds that only 38 percent of organizations are successfully accessing ambulatory data from non-employed physicians, while 84 percent of respondents report that health IT will continue to be the area where most significant capital investments are made.

Morning Headlines 4/14/16

Intermountain, U. Utah to open cybersecurity center with 3 others

Intermountain Healthcare will partner with the University of Utah and several other organizations to create a joint security center focused on thwarting cybersecurity attacks.

Regulators Propose Banning Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes for at Least Two Years

Federal regulators have proposed banning Elizabeth Holmes from the blood-testing business for two years after her company failed to correct serious problems discovered at its California lab.

Restoring cortical control of functional movement in a human with quadriplegia

A study published in Nature describes a neuroprosthetic breakthrough called electronic “neural bypass” that has restored a quadriplegic man’s ability to move his hand.

State Junks $179 Million Medi-Cal IT System, Will Start From Scratch

California announces a $179 million settlement with Xerox stemming from a failed computer modernization of its Med-Cal claims processing system.

Morning Headlines 4/13/16

Vermont first to coordinate health care delivery with disruptive information sharing technology

Vermont will implement PatientPing state-wide, a care coordination service that alerts providers when their patient is being treated at any other facility in the state.

Kaiser Permanente launches ‘research bank’

Kaiser Permanente has launched a new research tool that will allow its 675,000 members to submit their genetic, environmental, and general health data to a database that will be used by researchers to study how genetic and environmental factors affect health.

Lawsuit: TGH nurses told woman’s family that she is HIV positive

A woman is suing Tampa General Hospital (FL) after a nurse inadvertently disclosed her HIV status in front of family members. The nurse was coordinating with transplant team personnel over a Vocera speakerphone.

GE Ventures and Mayo Clinic Launch Company to Scale and Digitize Cell and Gene Therapies

GE Ventures and Mayo Clinic launch Vitruvian Networks, a company that will market software and manufacturing services to cell and gene therapy producers.