Morning Headlines 9/15/15

Qualcomm buys Capsule Technology to connect home and hospital care

Qualcomm’s healthcare arm acquires Capsule Tech, a data integration firm that helps hospitals capture and analyze data from medical devices. Qualcomm will use the technology to advance its connected home health efforts. Financial terms were undisclosed.

Breach Level Index: 2015 First Half Review

An analysis of data breaches reported during the first half of 2015 finds that the healthcare industry is the most vulnerable to breaches, accounting for 21.1 percent of total reported breaches. Healthcare was also responsible for the largest consumer impacting breach, a cyberattack on Anthem that exposed 80 million patient records.

What do we know about developing patient portals? a systematic literature review

A systematic review published in JAMIA finds that there is no evidence base for developing patient portals that increase patient engagement. Authors conclude the review by recommending future research topics that would address these gaps.

How Data-Wranglers Are Building the Great Library of Genetic Variation

Researchers from Harvard and MIT studying links between genetic variations and diseases have analyzed the genetic data from thousands of patients and have identified around 10 million genetic variants scattered throughout the genome, most of which have never been described before.

Morning Headlines 9/14/15

Do you have a complaint? ONC has a new tool that might help

ONC launches a new EHR complaint form that it will use to “better triage, track, route, and respond to your health IT concerns or challenges.”  Users can file complaints concerning EHR usability, interoperability, safety, and more.

When Family Members Run Foundations, Scrutiny Never Ends

The New York Times profiles the philanthropic organization established by Meditech co-founder Mort Ruderman, and the role his grandson plays managing it.

Health IT Policy Committee

During last week’s Health IT Policy Committee, team members from the Interoperability Task Force presented its report on the barriers facing EHR interoperability, concluding that the market is slowly moving in the right direction, but at an unacceptably slow pace that is being caused by unclear financial incentives for embracing interoperability.

Medical Innovation Bill Passed the House With 344 Votes; Now It’s On Life Support

The 21st Century Cures Act, which passed in the House 344-77 this past July, is facing a tougher time gaining traction in the Senate due to funding issues and its $8.75 billion price tag.

Morning Headlines 9/11/15

Essentials Brief: Telemedicine Study

HIMSS Analytics releases its 2015 Telemedicine Study which surveys health IT executives on current telemedicine projects. The survey measured an uptick in both adoption and awareness of telemedicine products and services and finds that two-way video conferencing systems are the most popular communications systems being used.

Partners Healthcare, Health Catalyst Announce Strategic Collaboration To Improve Patient Care

Partners Healthcare signs a $30 million agreement with Health Catalyst to co-develop and deploy a population health management platform.

IBM Watson Health Announces New Partnerships, New Cloud Services and Global HQ in Cambridge, MA

IBM opens its new Watson Health headquarters in Cambridge, MA while simultaneously announcing a new population health solution that integrates its data analytics tools with Apple’s HealthKit and ResearchKit.

3M to Explore Strategic Alternatives for Its Health Information Systems Business

3M is shopping around its health information systems business, which offers coding software, services, and analytics tools, and expects to make a decision on whether or not to sell by Q2 2016. The business unit booked $730 million in revenue in 2014 and has delivered “greater than 10-percent compounded annual growth over the past three, five and 10 years.”

Morning Headlines 9/10/15

New York health insurer hacked, over 10 mln members possibly affected

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and its affiliate Lifetime Healthcare Companies reports that a cyberattack executed in December 2013 has exposed the demographic and medical claims data of 10.5 million of its customers.

Electronic Health Record Vendor Adherence to Usability Certification Requirements and Testing Standards

A JAMA study evaluates EHR vendor compliance with ONC’s usability and user centered design requirements, finding that many certified vendors are out of compliance but continue to hold their certifications.

GOP scores early win in ObamaCare lawsuit

A federal district judge has approved a House GOP lawsuit against the ACA to move forward. The suit alleges that the White House is using unauthorized funds to pay for components of the healthcare law.

2015 HIMSS Congressional Asks

HIMSS publishes its annual list of congressional asks, including: bolstering support of EHR interoperability, helping organizations combat cyber threats, and approving broad telehealth reimbursement for Medicare beneficiaries.

Morning Headlines 9/9/15

Recent patent infringement cases filed in the Eastern District of Texas

Preservation Wellness Technologies, LLC sues Allscripts, Athenahealth, Epic, and NextGen for patent infringement on its patent which generically describes a patient portal that “employs a server on which the health care records of participating patients are stored” and where “patients can review their own records via Internet and can edit them.”

Cerner Announces Share Repurchase Program

Cerner’s board of directors has approved a stock repurchase program authorizing the purchase of $245 million of its common stock, representing an estimated 1.2 percent of its outstanding shares. The stock will be repurchased in blocks over an undisclosed period of time.

Trends in Clinical Lab & Digital Pathology | 2015

Peer60 publishes analysis on the Clinical Lab and Pathology market, finding that Meditech (25 percent) and Cerner (22 percent) are the segment’s market share leaders, while replacement vendor mind share is closely split between Epic (33 percent) and Cerner (30 percent). 51 percent of respondents report that they are planning to move away from their current vendor.

PointClickCare Gears Up for IPO

Long-term care software vendor PointClickCare files its IPO with the SEC at an initial valuation of $100 million.

Morning Headlines 9/8/15

What Are a Hospital’s Costs? Utah System Is Trying to Learn

The New York Times covers efforts by the University of Utah Health Care to use data analytics to calculate the cost of the care per minute in each care area, as well as across various procedures and conditions. The team has already cut $200,000 per year in unnecessary lab tests and reduced costs associated with bypass surgeries by 30 percent.

Care.data on hold again

In England, the NHS’s electronic patient data sharing program Care.data has been suspended just ahead of its pilot program launch. Concerns over the wording used on the patient consent and opt out form was the reason for the delay.

Kentucky receives nearly $1m a year for next four years to combat prescription drug abuse, heroin

The CDC issues a four-year, $4 million grant to Kentucky to help it integrate its prescription drug monitoring program with EHRs being used by hospitals in the state.

Morning Headlines 9/7/15

Banner scrapping $115M UA Health records system

A local Tucson paper reports that Banner Health will replace the University of Arizona Health Network’s $115 million Epic platform with Cerner by early 2018.

Medicaid ICD-10 workarounds in California, three other states worry providers

Medicaid programs in California, Louisiana, Maryland, and Montana have been granted permission from CMS to continue using ICD-9 codes after the October 1 switchover because their systems are not fully capable of supporting ICD-10. The state offices will convert submitted ICD-10 codes into ICD-9 codes and then use those codes to calculate payments.

New service to manage cyber security threats in health and care

England will create a national cyber security center to support the NHS and other healthcare organizations, providing “expert advice and guidance on cyber security threats and best practice.”  The new service will be launch in phases between January and autumn 2016.

Electronic Health Record Incentive Program-Stage 3 and Modifications to Meaningful Use in 2015 through 2017

ONC has submitted the Meaningful Use Stage 3 Final Rule to the OMB for review ahead of its public release.

Morning Headlines 9/4/15

Salesforce Health Cloud: Putting Patients at the Center of Their Care

Salesforce announces the launch of its new Health Cloud platform, a CRM platform optimized to help healthcare organizations manage patient relationships.

athenahealth and Epic Are Only Vendors with Growth and No Losses in Acute Care EMR Market Share

A new KLAS report finds that Epic, Cerner, and Athenahealth are the only vendors that were able to expand their acute EHR market share in 2014. While only two vendors, Epic and Athena, recorded no customer losses through the year.

Veterans Health Administration: Review of Alleged Mismanagement at the Health Eligibility Center

The VA OIG publishes a report concluding that more than 300,000 of the VA’s 889,000 pending healthcare applications were for patients that have died, while an additional 50,000 applications were either erroneously deleted or otherwise left unprocessed for more than three years. The errors are being attributed to substandard IT processes.

NIH grants seek best ways to combine genomic information and EHRs

The NIH awards $35 million in funding to 10 organizations working to integrate genetics data into EHR systems. Recipients include Mayo Clinic, Geisinger Health System, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, among others.

Morning Headlines 9/3/15

Electronic health record product certifications terminated

ONC strips Platinum Health Information System’s SkyCare 4.2 EHR of its MU certification after it failed to participate in routine surveillance requests. Prior to the decision, only one other vendor, EHRMagic, has ever had their certification revoked.

Healthcare Organization ICD-10 Readiness Survey: Key Survey Findings and Action Items

An August 2015 Navicure survey of practice billers, administrators, and executives finds that 15 percent of respondents have not started planning for their ICD-10 transition yet, while an additional 14 percent report that they are not on track to meet the deadline.

Radiation oncology practice settles with HHS over data breach

Cancer Care Group, a oncology practice in Indiana, will pay $750,000 to settle a 55,000 patient data breach with the OCR.

Morning Headlines 9/2/15

MEA|NEA Acquires The White Stone Group

MEA|NEA, a health information exchange platform vendor, acquires The White Stone Group whose HIPAA-compliant communications platform will be integrated into MEA|NEA’s existing platform to create a single communication and data sharing solution designed to connect patients, providers, payers, and health plans.

New technology allows Cincinnati VA to give care across US

The Cincinnati VA Medical Center’s Tele-ICU program is profiled by a local paper after expanding its initial capacity of overseeing 72 beds, to its current role overseeing 213-beds in VA Medical Centers across the US.

Cincinnati hospital slashes ICU costs in GE software test

Jewish Hospital (OH) reduces its ICU length of stay by 28 percent and cuts costs by $9,000 per patient by incorporating nutrition-monitoring software by GE.

Fresh from new product launch, Medfusion raises $3M capital infusion

Patient portal vendor Medfusion raises $3 million in fresh funding after introducing a new “patient encounter journey” feature to its platform that allows patients to pre-register for appointments and submit co-pays online.

Morning Headlines 9/1/15

CMS continues ICD-10 education, names “ombudsman”

CMS names Williams Rogers, MD as the ICD-10 ombudsman. Rogers currently leads the Physician Regulatory Issues Team for CMS.

Vermont becomes final state to legalize e-prescribing of controlled substances

Five years after the DEA legalized e-prescribing of Schedule II through V drugs, Vermont becomes the 50th state to change its prescribing regulations and adopt e-prescribing of controlled substances.

Sanofi To Collaborate With Google Life Sciences To Improve Diabetes Health Outcomes

Google’s Life Sciences unit announces yet another diabetes-related business partnership, this time with the world’s leading insulin manufacturer, Sanofi. The team will co-develop Web-enabled insulin injectors and glucometers.

DoD Announces Award of New Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Hub in Silicon Valley

The DoD will partner with private industry and academia to fund a new Silicon Valley-based innovation center focused on developing “flexible hybrid electronics,” including advanced sensors for use in new wearable devices and health monitoring technologies.

Morning Headlines 8/31/15

Mutual self-interest leads to antitrust concerns

Paul Levy, the former CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, publishes a blog calling for an anti-trust investigation into Epic as Partners goes live and pressures affiliated practices to do the same.

Epic traffic jams on tap

A local paper warns Madison residents of the upcoming traffic nightmare that Epic’s UGM conference will bring this week.

A Mouthguard That Could Measure Concussions

Former Arizona State University rugby player Anthony Gonzalez invents a mouth guard that measures impact force and combines that data with the users age, gender, and medical history to predict the likelihood of a concussion.

Morning Headlines 8/28/15

ICD-10 Medicare FFS End-to-End Testing: July 20 through 24, 2015

CMS publishes the latest results from ICD-10 end-to-end testing: 87 percent of submitted claims were accepted, while the remaining rejected claims were attributed to submission errors. There were zero rejected claims associated with CMS systems issues.

Insurers Win Big Health-Rate Increases

Despite assurances from the White House that insurance premiums would remain stable, several states have approved 2016 premium hikes running as high as 36 percent to cover the cost of insuring a higher mix of sick ACA patients than initially anticipated.

A Blood Test and App May Help Identify Patients at Risk of Suicide

Researchers at the University of Indiana School of Medicine and the Indianapolis VA Medical Center have created an app-based mental health survey that, when combined with recent blood test results, can predict a patient’s likeliness to experience suicidal ideation within the next year with a 92 percent accuracy rate.

Administrative Investigation Improper Use of Web-based Collaboration Technology Office of Information and Technology

The VA OIG finds that VA employees, including its former CIO, had been inappropriately using Yammer, an online messaging and file-sharing system without formal VA approval or monitoring.

Morning Headlines 8/27/15

CVS Health to Partner with Direct-to-Consumer Telehealth Providers to Increase Access to Physician Care

CVS announces that it will partner with three national telehealth vendors, American Well, Teladoc, and Doctor on Demand to offer remote visits to patients and to connect its MinuteClinic providers with specialists available for real-time consults.

Fusing Randomized Trials With Big Data: The Key to Self-learning Health Care Systems?

A JAMA article proposes that randomized control trials be fully embedded in EHRs, including functionality to support identifying trial participants, facilitating enrollment, and randomly assigning a treatment.

Recommendations for a National Medical Device Evaluation System

An FDA workgroup tasked with evaluating the agencies approach to post-market surveillance of medical devices publishes a final report recommending that a national, integrated network of registries be established, wherein each registry would be tasked with gathering post-market data about a certain device.

Medicare ACOs Provide Improved Care While Slowing Cost Growth in 2014

CMS publishes ACO performance data for 2014: total Shared Savings Program savings remained flat at $804 million, while Pioneer ACO savings climbed 24 percent to $120 million.

Morning Headlines 8/26/15

Medical Appointment Scheduling System (MASS)

The VA awards Lockheed Martin-owned contractor Systems Made Simple and its software supplier Epic a seven-year contract worth as much as $624 million if all contract options are exercised.

Banner aims to cut costs from UAHN as earnings lag

Banner Health will convert its newly acquired University of Arizona Health Network from its existing Epic systems to Banner’s Cerner platform. UAHN implemented Epic in 2013 at a cost of $115 million.

Pacific Northwest Health Care Organizations Join CommonWell Health Alliance

Five Cerner customers in the Pacific Northwest will begin exchanging health records with local AthenaHealth and Greenway practices through the CommonWell Health Alliance.

Practice Fusion Surpasses 600th Partnership Deal Becoming the Most Integrated Cloud-Based EHR Platform

Practice Fusion announces that it will integrate lab results from Theranos and imaging results from RadNet into its freeware EHR.

Morning Headlines 8/25/15

Inovalon to Acquire Avalere to Drive Strategic Expansion Into Pharma/Life Sciences

Inovalon, a healthcare-focused data analytics vendor, will acquire Avalere Health, a data-focused consulting firm, for $140 million in cash and restricted stocks.

VA’s Backlog of Disability Claims Falls to 8-Year Low

The VA announced this week that its disability claims backlog has dropped 84 percent to 98,000, its lowest point since record-keeping began in 2007.

100 Most Influential People in Healthcare – 2015

Modern Healthcare unveils 2015’s Most Influential People in Healthcare list, which includes: Epic’s Judy Faulkner (#31),  ONC’s Karen DeSalvo, MD (#35), McKesson’s John Hammergren (#73), and Cerner’s Neal Patterson (#99).

July 2015 EHR Incentive Program

CMS publishes the July 2015 Meaningful Use update: 306,000 EPs and 4,400 EHs have attested to MU Stage 1, while 56,000 EPs and 1,500 EHs have attested for Stage 2. $31.3 billion has been paid out to date.

Morning Headlines 8/24/15

Mercy Health expands strategic partnership with Premier to advance population health management

23-hospital health system Mercy Health (OH) announces that it will implement Premier’s integrated pharmacy and care management program in an effort to further improve its population health management initiative.

Docinfo Tool Provides Consumers Physician Licensure, Disciplinary Data

The Federation of State Medical Boards launches an online search tool that presents consumers with licensure and disciplinary information on providers.

FY16 Strategic Planning

John Halamka, MD and CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center posts a blog outlining the strategic objectives facing health IT in 2016. On BYOD and the use of apps in care delivery, he says “The difference between the $2 app and the $2 billion dollar EHR is that the $2 app is easier to use, more convenient and possibly even more useful.”

Google to launch life sciences company

Google co-founder Sergy Brin announces that the life sciences team within Google’s X Lab will spin off to form its own stand-alone business unit within Google’s newly created parent company, Alphabet. The new company will be led by renowned biologist and now CEO Andrew Conrad, PhD.