Morning Headlines 3/19/15

DirectTrust Interoperability Report Suggests Best Practices, Improvements

DirectTrust reports that thus far 35,000 healthcare organizations are connected to the Direct Network, accounting for 23 million Direct exchanges last year.

Healthcare reform: Five trends to watch as the Affordable Care Act turns five

PwC reports on the impact the Affordable Care Act has had on the healthcare industry five years after its passage.

Health Insurance Coverage and The Affordable Care Act

In its own five-year analysis, HHS reports that 16.4 million uninsured adults have gained insurance coverage since the implementation of the ACA.

Morning Headlines 3/18/15

Premera Blue Cross Says Cyberattack Could Affect 11 Million Members

Premera Blue Cross discovers that 11 million of its patient records have been compromised by hackers, with bank account information and clinical data among the exposed information.

High Value Health IT: Policy Reforms for Better Care and Lower Costs

A Brookings Institute report recommends that the Meaningful Use program focus on supporting payment reform, and improving outcomes and interoperability.

Medical Information Technology, Inc. Form 10-K

Meditech reports 2014 annual results: revenue down 11 percent to $517 million. Sales revenue dropped 26 percent, but impact on total revenue was partially offset by a $10 million increase in service revenue.

Health Catalyst Raises $70 Million to Fuel Product Development

Data analytics vendor Health Catalyst raises a $70 million Series D investment round on a $500 million valuation, instantly becoming the next rumored health IT IPO.

Morning Headlines 3/17/15

American Telemedicine Association receives 200 applications for accreditation program

The American Telemedicine Association has received 200 applications for its Accreditation for Online Patient Consultations certification, which certifies that an organization is delivering telehealth services to the ATA’s standard.

Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange Blue Button Initiative Survey Results

A WEDI survey finds that awareness of the Blue Button PHR interoperability initiative among industry stakeholders has decreased overall since 2013, while provider awareness remained flat, and significant increases were measured among government respondents.

Standard for improving emergency information interoperability: the HL7 data elements for emergency department systems

HL7 has completed its review of the updates that the Data Elements for Emergency Departments System (DEERS) with get with HL7 v3. DEERS is a standards-based specification for ED-related HL7 data exchange.

Morning Headlines 3/16/15

Cuomo approves delay in electronic prescriptions

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signs into law a bill that will delay mandatory e-prescribing requirements for doctors in the state, calling the delay a win for patient safety and explaining, “The fact that many software companies are not ready for e-prescribing could have resulted in patients’ inability to fill their prescriptions.”

Missed Connections: A Nurses Survey on Interoperability and Improved Patient Care

West Health publishes a survey of nurses measuring the impact that integrated medical devices would have on patient safety, finding that 90 percent of hospitals report having six or more medical devices that could integrate with an EHR, but that only one-in-three hospitals actually have interfaces in place to exchange data.

HealthKit and Human Subject Research

Apple publishes its standards for developers connecting to its HealthKit API. Storing health data on iCloud and sharing data with third-parties are both banned. Apps are also required to maintain a privacy policy.

Is France’s envied health care system threatened?

In France, doctors are protesting as the country moves from a business model where patient’s pay doctors directly for care, to one that involves insurance companies paying doctors for health services.

Morning Headlines 3/13/15

Thousands Have Already Signed Up for Apple’s ResearchKit

In just 24 hours, Stanford University enrolled 11,000 people in a cardiovascular study through Apple’s recently unveiled medical research API ResearchKit, a feat it says would have taken 50 medical centers a full year to accomplish.

Cerner To Integrate Patient-Generated Data Using Validic Digital Health Platform

Cerner partners with Raleigh, NC-based integration engine Validic to import patient-generated fitness, wellness, and nutritional data into its EHR.

New health identification number for every individual

Ireland announces that it will will move forward with a plan to create a national patient identification number for all citizens.

11 charged in Blue Cross ID theft, fraud

In Michigan, 11 people have been charged with ID theft and fraud after a Blue Cross and Blue Shield employee stole the personal information of 5,000 customers and then shared the information with a team of criminals that fraudulently purchase $742,000 worth of merchandise from Sam’s Club.

Morning Headlines 3/12/15

Next Generation ACO Model

CMS introduces a new ACO program that it is calling the Next Generation ACO Model, that will allow providers to assume a higher level of risk than either the Pioneer ACO or Shared Savings Program, and will generate a larger financial return for providers that successful manage those risks.

Medical Device ID Effort Hits Snag

FDA efforts to create a medical device ID numbering system have received political pushback from CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner, who says that adding a medical device ID number on claims forms would require significant work from her department and would result in significant unanticipated costs.

Louisiana HIE launches patient portal

Louisiana’s state health information exchange will rollout a state-wide patient portal, providing patients with a centralized portal with medical information from all care settings.

Antelope Valley Hospital: ED did not shut down following EHR outage

Antelope Valley Hospital (CA) is challenging claims made by a local nurses union after the group claimed that unplanned EHR downtime forced the hospital to close its ED. The hospital acknowledged redirecting some patients to other hospitals during the downtime, but reports that it still treated 900 ED patients during the event.

Morning Headlines 3/11/15

Initial Assessment of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

The GAO audits the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, concluding that the organization’s $271 million on PCORnet research network will struggle to support researchers because EHR vendors do not subscribe to an industry standard data model and therefore the organization will need to hire additional staff to support data migration and mapping.

Epic’s Faulkner funding major charitable foundation

Epic CEO Judy Faulkner tells Modern Healthcare that she will create a charitable foundation that will fund not-for-profit organizations working in and out of healthcare. “Nearly every share of stock that I own will be put in there,” she says.

EHR implementation terminated

Erasmus MC and UMC Groningen, two Netherlands academic medical centers, cancel their Siemens implementation citing concerns about the future of Soarian EMR after the Cerner acquisition.

Morning Headlines 3/10/15

Apple ResearchKit Turns iPhones Into Medical Diagnostic Devices

Apple unveils Research Kit, an open source API designed to connect medical researchers with research study participants to improve communication and streamline data capture. Five projects are already live on the framework, including a breast cancer research project from Dana Farber, a diabetes project from Massachusetts General Hospital, and a Parkinson’s disease diagnostic tool from the University of Rochester.

2015 Healthcare Tech Purchasing

A Peer60 report finds that 60 percent of hospitals plan to invest in health IT-related projects in 2015, with most hospitals focusing on ICD-10, population health, and patient engagement tools.

Oregon’s exchange closing after a history of tech woes

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signs a law formally disbanding the state’s failed health insurance exchange platform, Cover Oregon.

CHIME and AMDIS Sign Management Services Agreement, Appoint New Executive Vice President Of Medical Informatics and Patient Safety For CHIME

CHIME and AMDIS announce a new partnership under which CHIME will provide operational, administrative, and staff support to AMIDS and AMDIS will act as the primary physician informatics advisor to CHIME. A similar arrangement was announced between the organizations in June.

Morning Headlines 3/9/15

St. Mary’s: Patient information compromised in Email hack

St. Mary’s Medical Center (IN) is informing 4,400 patients that their personal information was compromised when hackers gained access employee email accounts in January. The exposed information included names, date of birth, gender, date of service, insurance information, health information, and Social Security numbers.

Clayton County’s Southern Regional Medical Center Lays Out Long-Term Plans For Hospital’s Financial Success

Southern Regional Medical Center (GA) lays off 80 employees after implementing a productivity benchmarking system that shows how other hospitals around the nation of a comparable size and case mix are staffing their own departments.

On the Case at Mount Sinai, It’s Dr. Data

The New York Times profiles Jeffrey Hammerbacher, a 32-year old Harvard trained data analytics expert that started out in finance before moving to Facebook to build their data analytics team, and is now a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai working with computational biologists to apply data analytics in medicine.

Morning Headlines 3/6/15

Where Is HITECH’s $35 Billion Dollar Investment Going?

Five Republican senators co-author a Health Affairs piece questioning what value EHRs and the governments $35 billion HITECH investment have returned to taxpayers.

Anthem Refuses Full IT Security Audit

Anthem has been refusing to let the Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general perform "standard vulnerability scans and configuration compliance tests" since 2013, before the recent cyber attack on its network that compromised 80 million medical records. The insurer still won’t allow the IG’s office to conduct its tests, citing a corporate policy that bars outside agencies from accessing its network.

FDA launches drug shortages mobile app

The FDA has launched a mobile app, its first, that identifies current drug shortages, resolved shortages, and recent discontinuations. It is available for both iOS and Android devices.

Morning Headlines 3/5/15

The Next Marketing Frontier: Your Medical Records

The Wall Street Journal covers freeware-EHR vendor Practice Fusion and its decision to embed big pharma-funded vaccine reminders into its EHR. Practice Fusion CEO Ryan Howard explains “For every project we do that drives forth public health or gives data away, we need to make sure it’s balanced out by a monetizable exercise.”

100 medical societies warn about possible ICD-10 problems

The American Medical Association and 99 other professional associations are calling on CMS to improve its ICD-10 transition plan following recent end-to-end tests that resulted in 19 percent of submitted claims being kicked back, almost all due to errors made by the submitting organization.

Supreme Court justices split in key challenge to Obamacare subsidies

The Supreme Court hears arguments on King v Burwell, a case that could undermine the Affordable Care Act by stripping subsidies from any consumer that purchased health insurance through Healthcare.gov. Defendants of the ACA argue that withholding subsidies from states that did not launch an insurance exchange would be tantamount to the federal government applying illegal ”coercive pressure” on states.

Despite The Spread Of Health Information Exchange, There Is Little Evidence Of Its Impact On Cost, Use, And Quality Of Care

Health Affairs publishes a literature review of 27 studies finds little evidence that health information exchanges reduce costs or improve outcomes.

Morning Headlines 3/4/15

Truven Health Analytics prepares for IPO

Reuters reports that Truven Health Analytics is preparing for an IPO that will value the company at $3 billion. Truven was acquired by Veritas Capital Fund Management in 2012 for $1.25 billion.

Review of Alleged Misuse of VA Funds To Develop the Health Care Claims Processing System

The OIG investigates the VA Chief Business Office, concluding that it violated appropriations laws when it spent $92 million on a new IT system from a fund that was only authorized to cover medical, construction, supply, and research costs.

Free of Ebola but not fear

Nina Pham, the Texas Health Resources nurse that contracted Ebola while treating a patient last fall, is suing her former employer, claiming that a lack of training, established policies, and proper equipment led to her exposure.

What Are the Best Hospitals? Rankings Disagree

The Wall Street Journal compares four hospital ranking sites (US News & World Report, Consumer Reports, Leapfrog Group, and Healthgrades) and finds that there is virtually no consensus among the lists. 27 percent of the hospitals listed among the nation’s best were rated among the nation’s worst on one of the other lists.

Morning Headlines 3/3/15

CMS announces release of 2015 Impact Assessment of Quality Measures Report

CMS publishes a report measuring progress made on quality measures since 2006, finding that improvements have been made in 95 percent of the 119 publicly reported performance measures reviewed.

NantHealth and Allscripts Join Forces to Develop Precision Solutions at Point of Care in This Era of Genomic Medicine

Allscripts and NantHealth will partner to develop genome-based clinical decision support features within Allscripts’ EHR that will help oncologists create  personalized cancer treatment plans.

VA boosts telehealth budget for 2016

The VA has requested $1.2 billion for telehealth services in its 2016 budget request, up $126 million over last year.

AMA continues push for MU changes

AMA applauds CMS’s decision to extend the MU attestation deadline for eligible providers, but complains that even with the extension the program is too rigid and still needs to be overhauled.

Morning Headlines 3/2/15

Oracle sues Oregon officials in healthcare website dispute

Oracle escalates its legal battles with Oregon over the failed insurance exchange it was hired to develop by filing personal lawsuits against five Oregon campaign advisors to the state’s former governor, saying that they worked behind the scenes to kill the site for political reasons.

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions’ (MDRX) CEO Paul Black on Q4 2014 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Allscripts CEO Paul Black acknowledges that the company is disappointed in its year-long revenue, citing lower patient portal sales and overall client fatigue driven by MU as primary reasons for sluggish sales.

Banner merger with UA Health Network effective tonight

Banner and the University of Arizona Health Network complete their merger. No decision has been made over whether UA will be allowed to keep their brand new $100 million Epic system, which experienced go-live delays and cost over-runs, or if they will be migrated onto Banner’s Cerner system.

Letter: Re: Rideout computer problems

A patient’s spouse writes an open letter calling out Rideout Health (CA) CEO Robert Chason for publically claiming that a recent EHR system failure did not result in patient harm. In the letter, a spouse states that his wife was treated at Rideout during the unplanned downtime and was sent home because test results indicating that she had a minor heart attack did not make it back to her cardiologist until two weeks after she was discharged. Hospital representatives contacted her to schedule additional tests and told her that the delay was caused by the EHR system crash.   

Morning Headlines 2/27/15

Merge Reports Fourth Quarter Financial Results and Announces the Acquisition of DR Systems, Inc.

Merge reports Q4 earnings: revenue remained flat at $53 million, EPS $0.02 vs. $0.00, missing analyst’s expectations for both. The company also announced that it has acquired medical imaging vendor DR Systems for $70 million.

The 11 Best U.S. Companies for Students to Get Summer Internships

Epic takes seventh place on the 11 best US companies to intern for, down from their fifth-place finish last year.

ICD-10 Medicare FFS End-to-End Testing: January 26 through February 3, 2015

CMS reports that it accepted 81 percent of the ICD-10 test claims that were submitted during end-to-end testing earlier this month.

Taxpayers have spent more than $1 billion on a digital health record that doctors won’t use

In Australia, the nation’s $800 million Personally Controlled e-Health Record project is still sitting unused three-years after its launch. Just 10 percent of the general public has a medical record on the system.

Morning Headlines 2/26/15

CMS Pushes MU Attestation, PQRS Reporting Deadlines to March 20

CMS has announced that both the Meaningful Use attestation and PQRS reporting deadline for eligible providers has been extended to March 20.

Pentagon Narrows Down List Of Contenders For Multibillion-Dollar Health Records Contract

The DHMSM EHR procurement has moved to its final stage and the list of vendors has been narrowed to three finalists: CSC/HP/Allscripts, IBM/Epic, and Leidos/Accenture/Cerner. Sadly, the VA’s VistA platform, proposed by PwC, was eliminated.

Anthem: Hacked Database Included 78.8 Million People

Anthem reports that 78 million records were exposed during its recent cyber attack, including up to 19 million non-Anthem customers, and 14 million “incomplete” records. The newly released data also breaks down records breaches by state.

FBI Is Close to Finding Hackers in Anthem Health-Care Data Theft

In other Anthem news, the FBI reports that it is close to identifying the group responsible for the attack, with signs pointing to a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group.

Morning Headlines 2/25/15

Cerner offers select associates voluntary departure program

Following its acquisition of Siemens, Cerner is encouraging some employees to consider “voluntary departure,” despite the company’s plans of hiring 16,000 new employees over the next 10 years.

Navicure Survey Reveals ICD-10 Optimism despite Minimal Preparation

An ICD-10 readiness survey finds that 81 percent of practices feel they will be ready when the ICD-10 transition goes into effect, but that only 67 percent believe the transition will happen on October 1, 2015, without further delays.

Marketing chief Sona Chawla says Walgreens is both on and in your corner.

The Hub interviews Walgreen’s chief marketing officer Sona Chawla, who says “I think of our customers as shoppers, unless they want to be patients. When they are in our clinics and they are sick, they want to be patients and we recognize them as patients. But no one is in a constant state of being a patient, and we have to be very sensitive to that because we offer a wide range of trip missions. So, when they are coming in to shop for lipstick, they are shoppers. That’s how they want to be recognized, and that’s how we recognize them.”