Morning Headlines 10/10/13

ACO veterans share lessons from the trenches at MGMA

Stephen Nuckolls, CEO of Costal Carolina Health Care, led a discussion on lessons learned from his organizations ACO experience during this weeks MGMA conference. Inga attended the conference and offers her own insights over on HIStalk Practice.

Early detection of heart failure gets the big data treatment in NIH study with Geisinger Health, IBM

Geisinger Health System, IBM, and Sutter Health have been awarded a $2 million NIH grant to study how data analytics might help primary care doctors detect heart failure earlier than is currently possible.

Advice to the Next National Coordinator

Boston,MA-based Beth Israel Deaconess CIO John Halamka, MD offers his advice to the next National Coordinator for Healthcare IT. He remembers Blumenthal’s era as the "regulatory era," and Mostashari’s as the "implementation era." He says the next coordinator will need to "consolidate our gains" during a period that will likely include a significantly smaller budget.

Shinseki wants a budget for the VA

As more and more bills are passed during the government shutdown funding special programs, VA secretary Eric Shinseki has requested funding to continue paying disability benefits beyond their November 1 expiration. 

Morning Headlines 10/9/13

Software, Design Defects Cripple Health-Care Website

The federal government has acknowledged for the first time since the October 1 launch of the federal insurance marketplace healthcare.gov that coding and architecture issues are causing the site’s poor performance. Until Sunday, the administration was maintaining that the site was technically sound, but could not keep up with traffic demands.

Nuance Adds Two Icahn Associates to Board

After months of pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, Nuance names two Icahn delegates to its board: Brett Icahn, Carl Icahn’s son, and David Schechter, a longtime business partner.

PatientKeeper CPOE Rated the Easiest-to-Use CPOE Solution by KLAS Research

KLAS gives PatientKeeper’s CPOE system an ease-of-use score of 8.3 (out of 9), placing it almost a full point above Epic’s second-place score of 7.4.

WellStar launches massive project to merge data, improve access

WellStar Health System, a five-hospital system based in Marietta, GA, is covered by the local news as it begins a $125 million Epic implementation that will integrate its hospitals, urgent care centers, practices, home health agencies, nursing homes, and hospice.

Morning Headlines 10/8/13

David Muntz, former Principal Deputy Director of the Office of the National Coordinator on Health Information Technology (ONC), joins GetWellNetwork

GetWellNetwork confirms that David Muntz, outgoing principal deputy director at ONC, will be joining the company as its new CIO.

Incentive program helps Mass. General’s physicians organization reach quality-improvement goals

The Massachusetts General Physician’s Organization outlines the pay-for-performance program it used to incentivize EHR adoption. As part of a larger quality improvement initiative designed to financially reward behavioral change within the physician community, EHR adoption was quantified by defining specific deliverable goals, such as entering final notes into the system within eight days, and performance was rewarded with a maximum $5,000 a year bonus.

Gravender named CIO at Alameda Health System

Dave Gravender, former VP and CIO at Kaweah Delta Healthcare District, is named CIO at Alameda Health System, the Oakland, CA-based safety net provider operated by Alameda County.

Morning Headlines 10/7/13

Electronic Health Record System (EHRS)- Vendor Demonstration

The DoD announces that it will be holding EHR vendor demonstrations during the week of October 21. In order to secure a spot, vendors must submit an application that asks a variety of questions including: is the system built on an open-source platform, is it MU Stage 1 certified, and does the vendor have at least one HIMSS Stage 7 customer.

CaroMont Health reveals security breach

CaroMont Health (NC) discloses a 1,310 patient security breach stemming from an unencrypted email sent by an employee that included names, dates of birth, diagnoses, last dates of service, medications, and insurance company names.

Sunquest Expands Senior Leadership Team

Sunquest Information Systems announces Jonathan Pierson (formerly MedAssets) will join the company as a VP of implementation, and Keith Laughman (former CEO of MedFusion) will join as the EVP of Community Care Solutions, where he will focus on strategic growth areas for Sunquest including ACOs, and patient centric care.

CareCloud Reports Continued Record Client and Revenue Growth for the Third Quarter 2013

Cloud-based ambulatory EHR and PM vendor CareCloud reports triple-digit growth for the 15th consecutive quarter.

Morning Headlines 10/4/13

Lexmark acquires PACSGEAR for $54M

PACSGEAR, an EHR/PACS integrator that transmits images, videos, and supporting documentation between PACS systems and EHRs, is acquired by Lexmark for $54 million in cash.

Providers Demand More Than Just Regulatory Reporting From Quality Management Systems

A new KLAS report evaluates quality management systems, which customers say should be doing more than just automating regulatory reports. The expectation is that quality management solutions will drive operational and financial improvements across the organization, leading to better outcomes. Xerox Healthcare comes out on top in the survey.

Google Glass in hospitals? Royal Philips, Accenture think so

Philips showcases a new Google Glass app that displays data from its surgical solution so that surgeons can review real-time patient data intraoperatively on a hands-free form factor.

HIMSS Analytics Releases 2013 Inpatient Revenue Cycle Management Study

A recent HIMSS Analytics survey about inpatient RCM solutions finds systems used for pre-certification, address validation, and bill estimation are lagging and likely to be replaced. Advisory Board, Emdeon, Experian, RelayHealth, and Recondo are among the vendors with the highest mind share.

Morning Headlines 10/3/13

As Demand Stays High, Officials Try to Address Problems in Exchanges

Federal and state health insurance exchanges are struggling with numerous glitches and unexpected traffic volumes. The federal HIE, Healthcare.gov, crashed Tuesday after receiving one million visitors before 7am. The federal site is back up, but is still plagued with glitches and long delays.

Epocrates Bugs + Drugs App: Big Data for Better Care

Epocrates launches its first new app since being acquired by AthenaHealth. The app uses infectious disease information pulled from Athena’s 40 million de-identified patient charts to provide physicians with real-time information on which antibiotics are working best to kill different organisms in their communities.

VA warns disability claims progress ‘at risk’

The VA issues a warning that gains made to reduce the disability claims backlogs will be lost during the government shutdown due to an inability to pay claims processors overtime. The overtime program was established in May and has resulted in a 30 percent drop in outstanding claims.

Introducing the Box + Dignity Health Patient Education App Challenge

This week during the Health 2.0 conference, cloud-based file sharing vendor Box announces a $100,000 innovation challenge soliciting app designs that will help extending the patient education process into the post-acute environment.

Morning Headlines 10/2/13

Q&A: Mostashari Reflects as He Prepares to Exit ONC

Health Leaders publishes the second part of its interview with Farzad Mostashari, MD.

Fourth Annual Xerox Survey Shows Slow Progress in Patient Knowledge of Electronic Health Records

A recent Xerox survey of 2,000 US adults finds that 83 percent have concerns with EHRs, and that less than one-third want their medical records to be digital.

Tenet Healthcare Completes Acquisition Of Vanguard Health Systems

Dallas,TX-based Tenet Healthcare completes its acquisition of Vanguard, bringing Tenet’s organization to 77 acute care facilities and 173 outpatient facilities.

Baylor Health Care, Scott & White finalize merger

Baylor Health Care System completes its merger with Scott & White Healthcare. The merger creates a 43-hospital, 500-clinic health system, the largest not-for-profit system in Texas.

Innovative Healthcare Company Acquires Substantially All Assets of Healthrageous

Partners Healthcare spinoff Healthrageous closes shop after four years and $15 million spent trying to monetizing a health portal marketed to health systems, payers, employers, and pharmaceutical companies.

Morning Headlines 10/1/13

Evolent Health gets $100M to ‘change the way we care for patients

San Francisco-based Evolent Health raises a massive $100 million series B investment round for a suite of population health and risk management tools being designed to help health systems transition from fee-for-service to ACO reimbursement models. The investment round was led by The Advisory Board Company. Advisory Board Vice Chairman of the Board Frank Williams will serve as CEO of Evolent Health.

Siemens Aiming for 15,000 Jobs Cuts

Newly minted Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser (former Siemens CFO) announces that the company will cut 15,000 jobs in an effort to reduce overhead costs after missed profit targets led to the former CEO being dismissed. The healthcare division will be spared because it completed a restructuring last year that has served as the model for the rest of the company.

Contingency Staffing Plan for Operations in the Absence of Enacted Annual Appropriations

Until Congress succeeds in passing a federal spending bill, HHS will transition 52 percent of its staff to furlough. All but four of ONC’s 184 full time employees will be sent home, while those that stay on will oversee the orderly suspension of activity.

Surveys find even the uninsured are unaware of HIX openings

As health insurance exchanges go live, a recent survey of the uninsured reveals that 75 percent are unaware that the exchanges are about to open.

Morning Headlines 9/30/13

Intermountain and Cerner Announce Strategic Partnership

Intermountain Healthcare will implement Cerner’s EHR and revenue cycle solutions across all of its hospitals and clinics. Financial details were not disclosed, but the multi-year strategic partnership goes far beyond the traditional vendor-health system agreement. Cerner Executive Vice President Jeff Townsend and a dedicated team will relocate to Salt Lake City to work side by side with Intermountain stakeholders.

Staff at one of Britain’s worst hospitals told to use Facebook and Twitter on wards in bizarre bid by bosses to improve communication

Following public criticism and increased federal oversight for having unusually high mortality rates, administrators at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust decide the time is right to reverse their ban on at-work use of Facebook and Twitter. In an internal email, administrators outline a broad corrective action plan, including a list of "quick wins," one of which promises open access to social media for staff moving forward.

Obamacare Coders Working Down To The Wire To Fix Online Glitches

Programmers are working around the clock to address functional deficiencies within the infrastructure that will support state health insurance exchanges when they go live on October 1. The exchanges, a central piece of the Affordable Care Act, were designed to provide uninsured consumers a place to shop for health insurance and to introduce consumer demand dynamics to the health insurance market.

KKR to buy Panasonic’s healthcare unit in $1.67 billion deal

Panasonic sells its healthcare unit to US-based private equity firm KKR for $1.6 billion. Panasonic’s healthcare division primarily sells glucometers and a version of the ToughBook designed for use in clinical settings.

Morning Headlines 9/27/13

Jacob Reider Named Acting National Coordinator for ONC, David Muntz Resigns

ONC Principal Deputy National Coordinator David Muntz, who many predicted would take over when Farzad Mostashari departs, has tendered his resignation. Chief Medical Officer Jacob Reider, MD has been named acting national coordinator while HHS seeks a permanent replacement.

HIMSS 2014 Keynote Speakers   

HIMSS announces that former Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton will take the stage as a 2014 keynote speaker, following her husband’s performance last year.

Regions Hospital, Red Cross partner to reduce unnecessary blood transfusions

Regions Hospital (MN) reduces its use of red blood cells by 14 percent after implementing a clinical decision support tool within its CPOE system. The decision support tool alerts physicians at the point of order if a patient’s most recent hemoglobin values do not substantiate a transfusion, and also cautions against administering more than one unit of blood at a time.

Premier shares jump after IPO raises $760M

Group purchasing organization Premier raised $760 million during its IPO Thursday, with shares closing 13.5 percent up from their $27 initial price.

Morning Headlines 9/26/13

Fewer certified EHRs for Stage 2 may pose problems for hospitals, doc

Modern Healthcare reports that only 79 EHR vendors have certified Stage 2 EHRs, far less than what was available in Stage 1 prompting additional calls for a delay October 1 start to the stage 2 reporting period.

Nondefense Discretionary Science 2013 Survey: Unlimited Potential, Vanishing Opportunity

A recent report published by 16 science foundations, primarily representing the life sciences field, finds that one-in-five researchers have considered moving overseas due to the lack of federal research funding available in the US since the sequester.

Children’s National and Cerner Collaborate in First Pediatric Health Information Technology Institute in the Country

Cerner enters into a seven-year agreement with Children’s National Health System to form The Bear Institute, a research organization that will focus on developing health IT innovations that lead to improvements in evidence-based pediatric care delivery.

Morning Headlines 9/25/13

GOP senators seek one-year delay of EHR requirements

17 Republican Senators have sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking for a one-year delay in MU Stage 2, arguing that "this time pressure has raised questions about whether such a short period for Stage 2 is in the best long-term interest of the program. In order to achieve interoperability, it is critical that Stage 2 be as successful as possible."

Free Electronic Health Record Provider Practice Fusion Raises $70 Million In Oversubscribed Series D Funding

EHR freeware vendor Practice Fusion raises a $70 million series D investment round on a $700 million valuation. The company has found a revenue stream through monetization of its de-identified patient data. Pharmaceutical companies are primary customers and pay for weekly updates on aggregate prescribing trends.

eClinicalWorks and Epic Work Collaboratively to Make EHRs Interoperable

eClinicalWorks announces a partnership with Epic that will bring bi-directional interoperability between the two EHR systems. The interface enables cross-platform medical record matching, and then enables the exchange of problem lists, allergies, medications, discharge summaries and Continuity of Care Documents.

MyMedicalRecords Files Patent Infringement Complaint Against EHR and PHR Vendor Allscripts

MMRGlobal has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Allscripts seeking monetary damages as well as a permanent injunction over the patient portal that Allscripts acquired from Jardogs earlier this year. The company also has a lawsuit filed directly with what remains of Jardogs.

KLAS report examines EMRs in the 1–10 physician practice segment

The small practice EHR replacement market is picking up. Cloud-based solutions like athenaHealth and Practice Fusion are picking up new customers, while GE, Allscripts, Vitera, and McKesson are seeing the bulk of the customer loss.

Morning Headlines 9/24/13

Greenway Medical Technologies and Vitera Healthcare Solutions to Combine

Vitera Healthcare Solution’s parent company Vista Equity Partners announces a $644 million buyout of Greenway Medical Systems. The new, combined organization will continue on under the Greenway name, marketing product from both companies.

Keeping Up with Progress in Mobile Medical Apps

The FDA has issued its final guidelines for mobile health app developers, leaving much of the market unregulated and focusing on apps that act as, or interface with, an actual medical device.

National vision for digitizing health records has failed as each province does its own thing

In Canada, the Canada Health Infoway, a faltering $2.1 billion national EHR program, is profiled in an article that blames province-level control, rather than national-level control, as the primary reason for failure.

Morning Headlines 9/23/13

Pricing Glitch Afflicts Rollout of Online Health Exchanges

Less than two weeks before the October 1 launch of ACA-mandated health insurance exchanges, the government is still working through significant technical issues within the infrastructure. If not corrected by the October 1 go-live, the issues could affect consumers across the 36 states that are relying on the federal infrastructure to support its exchange.

U.S. FDA issues final rule on medical device identifier codes

The FDA issued a long-awaited rule on Friday requiring companies to include codes on medical devices that will allow regulators to track the products, monitor them for safety, and expedite recalls.

HAMC going digital

20-bed Heart of America Medical Center’s (ND) migration from Healthland to Epic is covered by the local paper. HAMC’s go-live is scheduled for November 1.

Morning Headlines 9/20/13

Epic Systems shows off its new Deep Space auditorium as customers gather for annual meeting

Epic unveils its 11,000 person, five-story underground auditorium named Deep Space at this year’s Epic UGM conference. The conference drew more than 15,000 attendees.

$1 billion e-health system rejected by doctors as ‘shambolic’

Australia’s $1 billion patient-centered health records system contains only 5,427 records after 15 months. Doctors reportedly have less than a 0.5 percent chance of finding clinically relevant information about their patients on the new system. Health Minister Peter Dutton, who was sworn in on Wednesday, has pledged to undertake a "comprehensive assessment."

Provider Resources

CMS publishes an ICD-10 implementation guide designed to help providers prepare for the upcoming transition.

Healthbox selects first class of health tech entrepreneurs

Health IT startup accelerator Healthbox has announced the first class of startups that will attend the new Nashville program this fall.

Morning Headlines 9/19/13

open.epic

Epic announces a new API that will allow developers of health and wellness apps, medical devices, and activity trackers to push health data directly into the Epic EHR, where clinicians will be able to use it as part of clinical decision-making.

Hospital Readiness to Meet Meaningful Use Stage 2

Sixty-eight percent of hospitals have already purchased MU Stage 2 certified (2014 Edition) EHRs, according to a recent HIMSS Analytics report.

HMC returns $1.5 million to feds

Habersham Medical Center (GA) will return its $1.5 million Meaningful Use incentive payment after its governing body, the Hospital Authority of Habersham County, found that it had not actually meet all of the requirements.

CGI wins $48.7M contract to implement electronic medical record system

CGI signs a $48 million contract with the New York State Office of Mental Health to implement and optimize VistA across all of its facilities.

All connected — Duke Health completes EHR transformation

Duke University Health System is now live with Epic across its entire system, including Duke University Hospital and 233 outpatient facilities.

Morning Headlines 9/18/13

The Forbes 400 Richest People in America

Judy Faulkner ranks #243 on Forbes 400 richest people in America. Cerner CEO Neal Patterson comes in at #352.

Government Seeking Inclusion of ‘Social and Behavioral’ Data in Health Records

CMS is looking into adding of social and behavioral data elements as mandatory structured data elements of Meaningful Use Stage 3. The National Academy of Sciences is studying how best to add social and behavioral data within EHRs.

New Telemedicine Bill Floated in the House

The US House of Representatives is considering a proposal that would help clear some of the current barriers to telemedicine by enabling doctors to treat Medicare patients over video across state lines.