Morning Headlines 8/21/15

Inside Illumina’s Plans to Lure Consumers with an App Store for Genomes

Illumina, the worlds largest gene sequencing company, forms Helix, a company that will offer free genome sequencing to consumers, and then will monetize that data by selling portions of the genetic information back  to patients incrementally over time as they need it.

ZocDoc Valued at $1.8 Billion in New Funding Round

ZocDoc raises a $130 million funding round on a $1.8 billion valuation, making it one of the most highly valued venture-backed companies in New York.

Electronic medical records systems work, but not together

The Kansas City Star discusses the nations interoperability problems, asking “Why, then, does a windowless office in Truman Medical Center need to scan 2.9 million pages of paper medical records that started out as electronic ones?”

Morning Headlines 8/20/15

National patient identifier struggles for life

CIO.com covers the renewed public interest in establishing a national patient identifier, detailing several non-government efforts to establish an NPI infrastructure, including CHIME’s partnership with HeroX to back its National Patient ID Challenge with a $1 million prize.

$342B wasted each year due to government healthcare benefits data integration challenges

MeriTalk publishes a study estimating that $342 billion is lost each year due to poor integration between the benefits eligibility systems used by different HHS agencies.

Million Hearts Hypertension Control Challenge 2015

The CDC and HHS launch a competition among providers focused on improving hypertension control by recognizing organizations that demonstrate exceptional hypertension control rates achieved through the use of health IT, integrated team-based care delivery, and effective community outreach programs.

Morning Headlines 8/19/15

4th official leaves amid hospital system’s improper billing probe

NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation CTO Paul Contino becomes the fourth high-ranking IT official to leave since HHC started its now over budget and behind schedule Epic rollout.

U.S. Army Awards Leidos Medical Research Contract

Leidos wins a $900 million contract to support R&D efforts within the US Army’s Medical Research and Material Command.

American software developer to supply patient data system

In Finland, Epic has been selected as the replacement EHR vendor for the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, in a $424 million contract that is budgeted to grow to $635 million in total project costs over 10-years.

How to Know Whether to Believe a Health Study

The New York Times dissects medical research studies, explaining in plain terms how to evaluate often confusing research methodologies and what characteristics to look for in a trustworthy study. The study also weighs the pros and cons of RCTs versus retrospective data analytics studies based on national datasets.  

Morning Headlines 8/18/15

Meaningful use of EHRs by doctors fell in 2014

The number of EPs who successfully attested in 2014 fell 13 percent compared to 2013 rates, with some specialties, like family medicine and internal medicine, seeing decreases as high as 40 percent. Steven Waldren, MD and director of the AAFP’s Alliance for eHealth Innovation, points to the cost of upgrading to a 2014 Edition EHR and Stage 2’s patient engagement requirements as the primary culprits for the drop off.

Why it’s time for the government to be part of the public conversation about health and health care

Susannah Fox outlines the philosophies she will rely on in her new role as HHS CTO.

How the NHS Is Locking Out Britain’s Digital-Health Startups

Bloomberg analyzes the negative impact England’s single-payer market is having on local digital health startups, citing the complex NHS procurement process as a key barrier to entry. UK-based entrepreneurs report that there are more opportunities to grow their companies if they move to the US.

Morning Headlines 8/17/15

Practice Fusion Taps Interim CEO Ahead of Expected IPO

Practice Fusion replaces its founder and CEO Ryan Howard ahead of an expected IPO announcement. New CEO by Tom Langan has only been with the company for a year, and was promoted from his position as chief commercial officer.

Boots, Tesco and Superdrug to get access to NHS medical records

In England, the NHS will begin sending patient summary records to retail pharmacies following a successful 140-pharmacy pilot project that ended this spring.

Top 10 Parkland upgrades: Wi-Fi, new chapel, no fast food

Parkland Hospital (TX) opens its newly constructed hospital, equipped with an interactive patient education system, palm-vein scanners used for patient identification, and a connected ICU that streams 18 points of data from the patient’s monitors to the EHR.

Meet the doctor bringing cheap, 3D printed medical devices to Gaza

Doctors working in the war-torn Gaza strip publish designs to create a 3D-printed stethoscope that costs 30 cents to produce and performs as well as modern commercial alternatives.

Morning Headlines 8/14/15

Premier, Inc. acquires healthcare analytics leader Healthcare Insights

Premier acquires Health Insights for $65 million, a data analytics vendor focused on budgeting, forecasting, and cost analytics.

Outcome-Oriented Metrics and Goals Needed to Gauge DOD’s and VA’s Progress in Achieving Interoperability

A GAO report finds that the DoD and VA are making progress toward interoperability, but cautions that work will not be finished until sometime after 2018.

Healthcare IT: Zombie start-ups and vulture capital

Accenture publishes a report predicting that half of all funded digital health startups will fail within their first two years of launching, contributing to a culture of vulture capitalism in which larger, more established businesses cherry pick technology and talent from failed startups.

Teladoc Announces Second Quarter 2015 Results

Teladoc announces Q2 results: revenue up 78 percent to $18.3 million, EPS –$7.20 vs. -$2.15.

Morning Headlines 8/13/15

Health IT Policy Committee Meeting Data Update

According to new data published at yesterday’s HITPC meeting, electronic information sharing is improving among US hospitals and practices. 76 percent of hospitals are exchanging information with outside provider organizations, up from 41 percent in 2008.

94M records stolen so far this year

Driven by massive data breaches at Anthem, UCLA Health, and others, hackers have stolen the personal medical information of 94 million patients thus far in 2015.

Mostashari’s Aledade to form new ACOs in 7 states

Farzad Mostashari, MD Former national coordinator for health IT and current startup CEO, is in the process of registering new ACOs across seven states.

Google’s Life Sciences division to build a miniature glucose tracker

Google X Labs partners with DexCom to co-develop a miniaturized, disposable continuous glucose monitor. DexCom will pay Google $100 million plus royalties for the rights to exclusively distribute the new CGM.

Morning Headlines 8/12/15

Newport Health Solutions, North Shore-LIJ Sign Letter of Intent to Pursue Joint Venture to Further Develop “Health Connect” Network Technology in NY

North Shore-LIJ Health System (NY) and population health vendor Newport Health Solutions have signed a joint venture agreement to deploy and further develop Newport’s platform across the North Shore-LIJ system, and then collaboratively market the platform commercially.

Health minister says he read riot act to IT leaders over megaproject problems; IBM out, Cerner in

In Canada, British Columbia’s health minister Terry Lake reports that IBM has been fired from the province’s 10-year, $640 million integrated EHR project, and that Cerner has been named as the replacement vendor.

Castlight Health Announces Second Quarter 2015 Results

Castlight Health reports Q2 results: revenue increased 76 percent to $18.5 million but the company still closed out the quarter with an adjusted net loss of $17.6 million and adjusted EPS –$0.19 vs. –$0.21.

UNC Health Care on pace to double budgeted operating income

UNC Health Care reports that it is closing out its fiscal year with $120 million in operating income, 142 percent higher than the $50 million it had forecasted. The health system gives partial credit for the financial turnaround to its now complete Epic implementation, which it says has had a positive impact on its overall financial performance.

Morning Headlines 8/11/15

Booz Allen Hamilton tapped as lead HealthCare.gov contractor, but CMS can’t quit Optum yet

Booz Allen Hamilton will replace Optum as the next lead contractor to maintain Healthcare.gov, winning a five-year contract worth $202 million. Optum will continue on in its role as quality tester while protests from losing bidders for that segment of work are resolved.

How Identity Theft Sticks You With Hospital Bills

The Wall Street Journal correlates increased health data breaches and instances of medical identity theft with the rapid adoption of EHRs across the country in a story that presents both empirical and anecdotal evidence of the cost that poor IT security compliance has on the people who are victims of medical identity theft.

Health IT Policy Committee and Health IT Standards Committee; Call for Applications

ONC is soliciting applications to fill a variety of volunteer positions on its HITPC and HITSC panels. Selected applicants will serve on the panels for three years.

President Obama Hosts the First-Ever White House Demo Day

The Obama Administration hosts the first-ever White House Demo Day, highlighting entrepreneurs working in a variety of industries, including a number of healthcare startups.

Morning Headlines 8/10/15

Statement on FCC Decision to Allow Unlicensed Devices in Dedicated Health Care Spectrum

AHA sends a letter to the FCC criticizing a recent decision to open up new frequency bands for use by unlicensed devices because those frequencies had previously been reserved for use by patient monitoring devices.

Usefulness of Pharmacy Claims for Medication Reconciliation in Primary Care

A comparison between pharmacy claims data and EHR medication lists finds discrepancies between the two data sources 77 percent of the time. Researchers conclude that embedding pharmacy claims data into medication reconciliation workflows within EHRs could help increase medication list accuracy.

MedicineBall is the new Moneyball. WikiLeaks meets the #data scalpel

Healthloop founder Jordan Shlain, MD comments on the recent ProPublica surgeon scorecard publication, saying “the outcomes data feedback loop is in effect; forcing the house of medicine to take a data perspective on its future.”

Texas Health Resources Names New Chief Information Officer

Texas Health Resources names Joey Sudomir as its new CIO. Sudomir has held the position as acting CIO since April, when his predecessor Ed Marx, CHIME’s 2013 CIO of the Year, departed  to join the Advisory Board Company.

Morning Headlines 8/7/15

Watson to Gain Ability to “See” with Planned $1B Acquisition of Merge Healthcare

IBM announces plans to acquire Merge Healthcare for $1 billion, with the goal of integrating Merge’s imaging services with IBM’s Watson initiative so that Watson customers could review diagnostic images with analytical assistance.

Karen DeSalvo nomination moves to the Senate floor

The Senate HELP Committee unanimously approves Karen DeSalvo, MD’s nomination for assistant secretary of HHS, a position she has filled in an interim capacity since last fall. Her nomination will now move to the Senate floor for consideration.

US hospitals urge DOJ antitrust probe of Anthem-Cigna deal

In a letter to the Department of Justice, AHA lobbies for a review of the proposed Anthem-Cigna merger, citing concerns that the shrinking payer market will inevitably reduce competition and drive up insurance costs.

Computer algorithm could aid in early detection of life-threatening sepsis

Researchers from Johns Hopkins have developed a new algorithm that detects early sepsis with an 85 percent accuracy, and without increasing false positives over current methods.

Morning Headlines 8/6/15

Primary Care Providers’ Views of Recent Trends in Health Care Delivery and Payment

Survey results from The Commonwealth Fund and The Kaiser Family Foundation measuring primary care provider attitudes toward payment and care delivery reform finds that while views on health IT are generally positive, patient-centered medical homes and ACOs are met with mixed feelings, and the use of quality metrics to assess performance and rationalize financial penalties generates negative feelings.

Yelp’s Consumer Protection Initiative: ProPublica Partnership Brings Medical Info to Yelp

Yelp partners with ProPublica to begin embedding a subset of health care statistics into its listings pages for hospitals, nursing homes, and dialysis clinics.

SEC gives green light to new CEO pay ratio rule

Five years after its initial passage, the SEC has approved a highly-contested regulatory requirement included in the Dodd-Frank Act that requires publically traded companies to report the ratio of CEO compensation to median employee compensation, effective January 1, 2017.

AG Zoeller urges credit freeze in wake of data breach affecting 1.5 million Hoosiers

Cloud-based EHR vendor Medical Informatics Engineering updates an earlier disclosure to clarify that as many as 3.9 million patient records were potentially exposed during a May 2015 cybersecurity breach.

Morning Headlines 8/5/15

Cerner profit falls as operating costs surge

Cerner reports Q2 results: revenue increased 32 percent to $1.13 billion, adjusted EPS $0.52 vs. $0.40, missing analyst estimates for revenue and reporting a 53 percent increase in operating expenses.

Allscripts earnings rise on bookings growth

Allscripts reports Q2 results: revenue was flat at $352 million vs $351 million for Q2 2014, adjusted EPS $0.12 vs. $0.09. Bookings for the quarter increased 11 percent to $260 million, but the company still posted a net loss of $3.2 million.

MEDITECH United States SEC Form 10-Q

Meditech reports Q2 results: revenue falls 16 percent to $117 million, EPS of $0.46 vs. $0.63. Service revenue increased five percent to $80 million, while sales revenue dropped 42 percent to $37 million for the quarter.

Papworth says no to Epic

In England, Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust rescinds its Epic selection following recently reported problems with the Epic install at Cambridge University Hospitals. Papworth had entered into a joint procurement process with Cambridge in 2012 and was slated to install Epic in 2016.

Morning Headlines 8/4/15

Community Health Systems to spin off 38 hospitals, shift focus to larger markets

Community Health Systems will shed 38 of its 196 hospitals as it restructures to focus on larger markets. The health system, which currently owns 196 hospitals, will lose its status as the largest health system in the process.

FDA Clears First 3D-Printed Drug

The FDA has cleared a new 3D-printed oral epilepsy drug designed to dissolve with just a sip of water, even at doses as large as 1000 mg. The drug marks the first 3D printed medication to earn FDA approval.

Impact of the HITECH act on physicians’ adoption of electronic health records

A study published in JAMIA looks back on EHR adoption rates during  the five years since the passage of the HITECH Act, Surprisingly, researchers claim that the MU program only spurred EHR adoption by seven percent above the anticipated adoption rate given pre-MU adoption trajectories.

Morning Headlines 8/3/15

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust investigated over finances

In England, the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will be investigated by Monitor, the primary regulator within the NHS, over financial problems, including the introduction and management of its $300 million Epic install.

FDA warns of security flaw in Hospira infusion pumps

The FDA has issued a safety alert warning that Hospira’s Symbiq infusion pumps contain software vulnerabilities that allow attackers to take remote control of them over hospital networks. The alert recommends discontinuing use of the pumps and moving to a new infusion system as soon as possible.

Health Care Scheduling and Access: A Report From the IOM

The Institute of Medicine publishes a report on issues related to access, scheduling, and wait times in healthcare. The report outlines ten strategic initiatives it hopes will improve access and care delivery options for patients.

Morning Headlines 7/31/15

Ellmers Legislation Delivers Relief to Healthcare Providers

Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC) introduces the Flex-IT 2 Act, which proposes delaying MU Stage 3 rulemaking until at least 2017, citing as a reason the fact that only 19 percent of providers have met Stage 2 attestation requirements thus far.

Health IT & Health Information Services 2015 Midyear Market Review

Healthcare Growth Partners publishes its 2015 midyear review, focusing on health IT investments and IPOs. The report finds that private investments have increased 509 percent since 2007, while the number of IPOs has climbed 367 percent.

BJC HealthCare hobbled by system wide computer outage that lasted 20 hours

13-hospital BJC HealthCare (MO) experiences 20 hours of network downtime that impacted both its EHR system and its corporate email across all of its facilities.

McKesson Reports Fiscal 2016 First-Quarter Results

McKesson reports Q1 results: revenue grew nine percent to $47.5 billion, adjusted EPS $3.14 vs $2.47. Revenue from the company’s technology solutions business unit fell four percent.

Morning Headlines 7/31/15

Leidos Wins Massive Pentagon Health Care Records Contract

DoD announces it will implement Cerner as its next EHR in a $4.3 billion initial contract through Leidos that is anticipated to be worth up to $9 billion over the next 18 years. Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics noted that at the conclusion of the procurement process, there was “a clear best-value solution for us.”

Clarifying Questions and Answers Related to the July 6, 2015 CMS/AMA Joint Announcement and Guidance Regarding ICD-10 Flexibilities

CMS publishes clarifications to the ICD-10 Flexibility announcement that it made earlier this month.

Minnesota data analytics IDs potential savings

The Minnesota Department of Health analyzes emergency department visits, as well as hospital admissions and readmissions from 2012 claims data, finding that 1.3 million visits, generating $2 billion in spending, were potentially preventable. Pneumonia, heart failure, and COPD were the leading conditions driving up preventable ER visits.

Answers to Questions for the Record Following a Hearing on The 2015 Long-Term Budget Outlook Conducted by the Senate Committee on the Budget

In a follow up report from its 2015 Long-Term Budget Outlook report, the CBO discusses telehealth services and the potential financial costs or savings increased access would have on overall Medicare spending.