Morning Headlines 11/18/16

Neal Patterson’s Remarks from CHC

Cerner CEO Neal Patterson speaks at the Cerner Health Conference, discussing his ongoing cancer treatment and his new perspective of EHRs as a patient.

Theranos Whistleblower Shook the Company—and His Family

The Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou tells the story of Tyler Shultz, the inside source that broke the Theranos story to the media and government officials.

Obamacare startup faces losses

Tech-savvy insurance startup Oscar Insurance continues to lose money on public exchanges, its primary business. The startup is now exiting a number of exchange markets in efforts to diversity its revenue stream.

CMS launches new online tool to make Quality Payment Program easier for clinicians

CMS releases an API that will give developers access to Quality Payment Program data.

Morning Headlines 11/17/16

Sign-Ups Under Affordable Care Act So Far Seem Not Hurt by Donald Trump’s Win

Healthcare.gov has processed over a million applications during the first 12 days of open enrollment, outpacing last year by 53,000.

Trump May Repeal Obamacare But He Won’t Touch Obama’s Other Major Health Law

According to Forbes, MACRA, which was passed with bipartisan support, will not be targeted for repeal or revisions under a Trump presidency.

Trump’s HHS secretary could be surgeon Rep. Tom Price

Trump is reportedly considering Representative Tom Price (R-GA) for HHS Secretary. Price was an early Trump supporter and has been a longstanding critic of the ACA.

Health Technology And Human Touch Need Not Be At Odds

In a Health Affairs blog, Eric Topol MD discusses the needed balance between technology and presence in the exam room.

Morning Headlines 11/16/16

Report on the Safe Use Of Pick Lists In Ambulatory Care Settings

Citing a high frequency of pick list-related errors, ONC publishes a report on the safe use of medication and patient pick lists in ambulatory EHR with recommendations for vendors, CMIOs, and end users on how to minimize risks.

CareCloud Completes $31.5 Million Series C Funding Round to Further Modernize Healthcare

Ambulatory EHR vendor CareCloud raises an oversubscribed $31.5 million Series C, bringing its total funding to $103 million.

The American Heart Association and Amazon Web Services Launch Cloud-Based Precision Medicine Data Marketplace to Accelerate Scientific Discovery

The American Heart Association announces that it will begin storing data sets from drug companies, research institutes, and universities in the cloud for researchers to analyze in hopes of advancing cardiovascular disease research.

White House Official Warned VA About New Vets.gov Enrollment App; Records Crisis Continues

The VA goes live with a new online healthcare application without getting approval from the agencies lawyers because of legal and technical issues that ultimately led to 65 percent of applications being lost.

Morning Headlines 11/11/16

Siemens plans public listing of healthcare business

Siemens announces plans for an IPO of its $15 billion Siemens Healthineers medical business.

Red Hat mHealth survey shows strong ROI and anticipated growth despite budget headwinds

A Red Hat survey of healthcare organizations finds that 82 percent have a fully implemented mobile strategy, outperforming commercial enterprises. 78 percent of those healthcare organizations also report an ROI on their mobile app investments.

VA to launch online appointment scheduling

The VA will begin offering online appointment scheduling in January 2017, starting first with primary care appointments, and then followed by mental health, optometry, and audiology appointments.

‘The polls clearly got it wrong’: The autopsy will take months

Experts say that understanding how statisticians got the election polling forecasts so wrong will take approximately six months of analysis.

Morning Headlines 11/10/16

Policy experts say quick repeal and replace of ACA unlikely

Health policy experts say that despite GOP control of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, and persistent promises from Congress to repeal or replace, a full repeal of ACA remains unlikely due to the simple fact that millions of Americans would lose their health insurance.

Cerner, HCA stocks dip with ACA uncertainty

On the stock market, healthcare stocks are slipping on uncertainty around a potential ACA repeal. Cerner stock fell 4.6 percent overnight, while HCA’s stock price fell 12.4 percent.

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals Report Year-to-Date and Third Quarter 2016 Financial Results

Kaiser Permanente reports Q3 results: revenue grew to $48.3 billion, resulting in $672 million in operating income, up from $363 million for the same quarter last year.

How some hospitals are replacing pricy EpiPens with a $10 version

In response to increasing EpiPen prices, the University of Utah Health Care system is replacing EpiPen’s within the system with a $10 EpiKit, which will include a vial of epinephrine, two needles, alcohol wipes, two syringes, and instructions.

Morning Headlines 11/9/16

Healthcare company laying off 60 workers in Charlotte

McKesson lays off 60 Charlotte, NC-based employees from its Enterprise Information Solutions (Paragon) business.

Knowing When and How to Use Medical Products

CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt co-authors a JAMA article with two senior FDA officials calling for more diverse clinical trial populations and an increased use of data from EHRs, claims, and registries to support the decision to approve and pay for new drugs.

Walgreen Sues Theranos, Seeks $140 Million in Damages

Once a key strategic customer, Walgreens sues Theranos for breach of contract, seeking $140 million in damages, equal to the amount it invested in the startup.

Adelaide hospitals hampered by nine-hour system outage

In Australia, three major hospitals report that a nine hour network outage prevented clinicians from accessing its Allscripts EHR.

Morning Headlines 11/8/16

2016 Report To Congress on Health IT Progress

ONC submits its HITECH-mandated annual report to Congress. The report predictably focuses on the current state of interoperability and the path to improvement.

HealthCare.gov Site Straining to Keep Up With Enrollees

Since the November 1 start of the 2016/2017 enrollment period, HealthCare.gov has been using virtual waiting rooms to temporarily hold end users during peak enrollment periods so that the site does not crash under the increase in traffic.

Head of NYC’s cash-bleeding public hospital system to step down

NYC Health & Hospitals president Ram Raju, MD will retire at the end of this month, and will be temporarily replaced by Stanley Brezenoff, who ran New York’s health system in the 1980s, until a permanent replacement is named.

Dangerous Infusion Errors Top ECRI Institute’s Annual Health Technology Hazards List

ECRI Institute publishes a list of the top 10 health tech hazards for 2017.

Morning Headlines 11/7/16

Grant Aims to Boost Health IT Safety Initiative

ECRI Institute lands a $3 million grant to fund a 3-year project aimed at improving the design, implementation, and use of EHR and other health IT products.

Data Analytics in Healthcare | 2016

A Peer60 report finds that 90 percent of health systems have a data analytics strategy in place, but that 22 percent rely on a homegrown solution, and another 43 percent use multiple analytics vendors to cobble together actionable intelligence.

Tracker flags up failures to report clinical trials

Researchers create an automated tool that identifies organizations that withhold clinical trial results by comparing completed clinical trials listed in ClinicalTrials.gov with reports in PubMed and then calculating what percent of an organization’s trials have no published results. Sanofi was found to be missing results from 65 percent of their trials, while Mayo Clinic is missing 50 percent of its results.

Remarks by Andy Slavitt: The Need to Partner on Drug Innovation, Access and Cost

In a speech given at a pharma conference, CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt warns that significant drug price increases has become the healthcare issues Americans most want action taken on, noting that in the next few years “these costs will put unsustainable pressure on the Medicare program and action is going to be necessary to address them.”

Morning Headlines 11/4/16

Allscripts announces third quarter 2016 results

Allscripts reports Q3 results: revenue climbs 11 percent to $392 million, adjusted EPS $0.14 vs. $0.13, missing on both.

Cerner (CERN) Q3 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

In its Q3 earnings call, Cerner CFO Marc Naughton explains that revenue and bookings came in below guidance because of lower than expected technology resale and software licensing sales, with technology resale revenue declining 21 percent and software licensing declining 12 percent.

University College London Hospitals set for Epic adventure

In England, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust selects Epic as its next EHR vendor.

HHS announces Phase 1 winners of the Move Health Data Forward Challenge

HHS selects ten teams as the winners of the first phase of its Move Health Data Forward Challenge, which asks developers to use APIs to help patients securely share their health data with providers, family members or other caregivers.

Inside Magic Leap, The Secretive $4.5 Billion Startup Changing Computing Forever

Forbes profiles Magic Leap, a secretive virtual reality startup that has raised $1.4 billion in investments from major firms, including Google, Andreessen Horowitz, and Kleiner Perkins.

Morning Headlines 11/3/16

Cerner (CERN) Q3 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Cerner describes its past quarter in which it failed to meet revenue and earnings expectations — the announcement of which Tuesday sent shares down 7.1 percent Wednesday — saying that the EHR replacement market has slowed as a lack of regulatory mandates has reduced the urgency of prospective customers.

NTT Data Closes Acquisition of Dell Services

NTT Data closes its acquisition of Dell Services, renaming the business NTT Data Services.

NICE Framework Provides Resource for a Strong Cybersecurity Workforce

NIST releases a resource to help employers build and maintain a strong cybersecurity team.

Mount Sinai Health System Launches First Enterprise-Wide Platform to Prescribe Apps to Patients

Mount Sinai Health System develops RxUniverse, which allows physicians to digitally prescribe from a curated list of evidence-based mobile health applications.

Morning Headlines 11/2/16

CMS Finalizes Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System Changes to Better Support Hospitals and Physicians and Improve Patient Care

CMS reduces the reporting period for the 2017 EHR Incentive Program to 90 days.

Cerner Reports Third Quarter 2016 Results

The company misses expectations for both revenue and earnings.

Meditech Form 10-Q

Meditech announces Q3 results in which revenue dropped 7 percent, but EPS jumped from $0.37 to $0.68 mostly due to reduced costs.

Business of the American Medical Association House of Delegates 2016 Interim Meeting

The AMA will consider policies that address information blocking, EHR vendor interfacing fees, and the cost of EHR conversions in its meeting in Orlando November 12-15.

Morning Headlines 11/1/16

Red Cross Blood Service data breach: personal details of 550,000 blood donors leaked

In Australia,the personal information of 550,000 blood donors is exposed after a web developer working for the Red Cross inadvertently leaves an unsecured file with the information into the Internet.

Fall 2016 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades Out Now

The Leapfrog Group publishes its 2016 Hospital Safety Grades, ranking patient safety across 2,600 US hospitals.

Appeals court revives FTC’s bid to block Advocate/NorthShore merger

The FTC wins an appeal to block the merger of Illinois-based Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University Health System.

Morning Headlines 10/31/16

Why McKesson Corporation Shares Fell 23% In A Day

McKesson shares drop 23 percent following a poor Q2 financial report and lowered earnings guidance for 2017.

Athenahealth lays off more than 100 in restructuring effort

Athenahealth eliminates 150 jobs in San Francisco and Atlanta as it consolidates its R&D functions.

Nanaimo MDs offered extra pay to stick with controversial software

In Canada, Nanaimo Regional General Hospital is offering physicians extra money to keep using its recently implemented Cerner system to compensate for “the extra burden the new electronic health record has placed on many physicians during the roll-out phase of IHealth.”

Healthcare IT Trends in the UK — Who’s Winning & Losing | 2016

A Peer60 survey of hospital executives in the UK reveals a high level of concern over physician and nursing staffing shortages.

Morning Headlines 10/28/16

McKesson Reports Fiscal 2017 Second-Quarter Results and Revised Fiscal 2017 Outlook

McKesson reports Q2 results: revenue climbed slightly to $50 billion, EPS $1.35 vs. $2.65, missing expectations for both. The company also lowered guidance, driving share prices down 13 percent in after-hours trading.

Quality Systems, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2017 Second Quarter Results

Quality Systems, parent company to NextGen, reports Q2 results: revenue remained flat at $127.2 million compared to $125.4 million during the same quarter last year, adjusted EPS $0.23 vs. $0.21, beating analyst expectations for both.

Anthem to invest $20 million in 2,000-job IT hub in Midtown’s Bank of America Plaza

Anthem announces that it will build a 2,000 employee software development center in Atlanta, at a cost of $20 million.

Cleveland Clinic Unveils Top 10 Medical Innovations Most Likley To Be Game Changers

Cleveland Clinic includes FHIR in its list of top 10 ten medical innovations that will transform healthcare in 2017.

Morning Headlines 10/26/16

AARP Sues US Over Rules for Wellness Programs

The AARP files a lawsuit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission arguing that regulations over workplace wellness programs violate employee confidentiality and result in a potentially inequitable workplace for older workers.

Third quarter lobbying details

Politico publishes financial details behind healthcare lobbying spending.

McKesson Announces New Release of Paragon Electronic Health Record Solution

McKesson announces the release of Paragon 14.0, which brings enhancements to its pharmacy, lab, and operating room management systems.

Your Patient Is Now Reading Your Note: Opportunities, Problems, and Prospects

The American Journal of Medicine discusses Open Notes, providing documentation tips for participating providers.

Morning Headlines 10/25/16

Catholic Health Initiatives, Dignity Health in Merger Talks

The Wall Street Journal reports that CHI and Dignity Health are in merger talks. The merger would create a 142-hospital health system with $27.8 billion in annual revenue.

VA touts patient satisfaction, but its findings are questionable

In recent years, the VA has argued that its performance should be measured by by patient satisfaction scores, rather than focusing on appointment wait time backlogs, but a new report finds that the VA has no internal tools to compare its own satisfaction scores with non-VA facilities.

Banning Tablets Is Best for Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics updates its recommendations on screen time for children to say that children under the age of 18 months should get zero screen time, and that those between the ages of two and five should be limited to just one hour per day.

Athenahealth, Allscripts websites down amid nationwide hack

The websites of both Athenahealth and Allscripts were compromised during Friday’s cyberattack on Dyn Inc. A spokesperson from Athena clarified that while portions of its site were down, access to its web-based EHR was not impacted.

Morning Headlines 10/24/16

Yesterday’s major outage was brought to you by hacked IoT devices

Friday’s widespread internet outage has been attributed to a botnet made up of unsecure, Internet-connected consumer devices, such as cameras, DVRs, and routers running a DDoS attack against the servers of Dyn Inc., a internet management company that monitors and routes internet traffic.

ASU, Mayo alliance seeks to transform health care

Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University are creating a new curriculum that will address the clinical, legal, and administrative issues involved in care delivery under one curriculum.

athenahealth’s CEO Jonathan Bush on Q3 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

During its earnings call, Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush reports that it added a record 5,092 providers in Q3, but acknowledged that bookings growth hasn’t kept up with expectations due to a drop in Epocrates revenue and elongated sales cycles in the industry.