Morning Headlines 5/13/15

Health Information Companies HealthPort and IOD Incorporated to Merge

HealthPort and IOD, both health information management vendors, will merge, creating a single company with a combined revenue of $450 million and a customer base of 18,000 health care facilities in the US.

McKesson Reports Fiscal 2015 Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results

McKesson reports Q4 and FY2015 year end results: full-year revenue up 30 percent  to $179 billion. Q4 revenue up 19 percent to $4 billion, adjusted Q4EPS $2.94 vs. $2.71, beating expectation on both.

New machine could one day replace anesthesiologists

The Washington Post reports on an FDA-approved anesthesia machine that can automate sedation and could one day replace the need for an anesthesiologist when performing routine procedures.  An Anesthesiologists’ fee for sedation during a colonoscopy averages $2,000, but the machine can perform the same task for just $200.

An end-to-end hybrid algorithm for automated medication discrepancy detection

A study evaluating the use of natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to support medication reconciliation processes found that by analyzing notes and prior prescription lists within the patient chart, the algorithms were able to increase accuracy and reduce manual labor.

Morning Headlines 5/12/15

Core Functionality in Pediatric Electronic Health Records

AHRQ publishes a report calling for pediatric-specific functionality to be included in EHRs, including more advanced medication ordering tools, immunization tracking systems, and data sharing between family member records.

IBM’s Watson to guide cancer therapies at 14 centers

14 cancer institutes across the US and Canada will use IBM’s Watson computer to help oncologists create cancer treatment plans based on a  tumors genetic.

US attorney subpoenas records related to Health Connector

The federal government has subpoenaed records related to the Massachusetts health insurance exchange following a failed go-live that resulted in the site being scrapped and a new site being built. Federal investigators have not yet disclosed why the records were requested or whether an investigation is underway.

Experts Criticize World Health Organization’s ‘Slow’ Ebola Outbreak Response

An independent report criticizes the WHOs response to the Ebola outbreak, saying the organization failed to seek outside support in a timely manner and claiming that there is “strong, if not complete, consensus that WHO does not have a robust emergency operations capacity or culture.”

Morning Headlines 5/11/15

The revolution will be digitized

The Washington Post analyzes the emerging wearables market, the data-tracking consumers driving the increased demand, and the critics that say the “worried well generation” is collecting data that is not necessarily useful or accurate, and that over-monitoring introduces a host of new problems.

Cerner (CERN) Q1 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Cerner shares drop 4.5 percent on Friday after reporting lower than forecasted Q1 earnings and reducing Q2 expectations. On its earnings call, Cerner CFO Marc Naughton explains that the $50 million shortfall on projected revenue was a result of missed targets within both the Cerner and Siemens business lines.

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions (MDRX) Paul M. Black on Q1 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Allscripts hosts its Q1 earnings call, in which CFO Richard Poulton explains that the company missed both revenue and EPS projections for the quarter in part because its professional services bookings were down and client service margins were down because anticipated work to support New York’s eRx initiative never materialized.

Morning Headlines 5/8/15

Cerner Reports First Quarter 2015 Results

Cerner reports Q1 results: revenue climbed 27 percent to $784 million, adjusted EPS $0.45 vs. $0.37. Revenue came in below Cerner’s Q1 forecast, due to lower than expected revenue across both its existing business and its new Siemens business.

Allscripts Announces First Quarter 2015 Results

Allscripts reports Q1 results: revenue was down two percent, at $335 million, adjusted EPS $0.08 vs. $0.07, missing expectations on both.

Are bungled VA claims systemic? Senators want agency review

The VA’s notorious claims processing system is back in the headlines. The VA reports that the claims backlog currently stands at 161,00, down from its peak of 611,000 in March 2013, but a VA inspector general review uncovered doctored data at five of the 10 worst performing claims processing centers. Now, a bipartisan group of senators is calling for a wide-scale, GAO-led review of all 56 regional VA claims processing offices.

Meaningful Use Stage 2 E-Prescribing Threshold and Adverse Drug Events in the Medicare Part D Population with Diabetes

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association compares medication error rates between handwritten and electronically generated prescriptions and finds that e-prescribing was associated with fewer adverse drug events. The study also found that e-prescribing increased the number of prescriptions that make it to the pharmacy by 12%, and increased the number of prescriptions picked up by the patients by 10%.

Morning Headlines 5/7/15

Dr. Karen DeSalvo to leave ONC if confirmed for new HHS post

Karen DeSalvo has been nominated for the permanent position of assistant secretary for health, a role she has held as interim along with her National Coordinator position since October 2014.

Dramatic results for Banner Health’s telehealth pilot

Banner Health announces that it has reduced its hospitalizations by 45 percent, and its cost of care by 27 percent through its new telehealth pilot with Intensive Ambulatory Care pilot program.

Lack of Impact of Electronic Health Records on Quality of Care and Outcomes for Ischemic Stroke

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology designed to measure any correlation between improved ischemic stroke outcomes and the use of EHRs finds no such correlation.

FDA launches UDI database website

Three years after Congress called for medical devices to be tracked with unique identifiers, the FDA has launched a website where consumers can look up information on devices sold in the US by its unique ID.

Morning Headlines 5/6/15

Cognizant Earnings Top, Fueled By TriZetto Buy

Cognizant reports Q1 results: revenue up 20 percent to $2.9 billion, EPS $0.62 vs. $0.57, beating analyst estimates on both. The company’s stock price climbed 10.8 percent, to a record high $65.55, following the results.

Imprivata Achieves Revenue Growth of 32% for the First Quarter of 2015 and Raises Annual Guidance

Imprivata reports Q1 results: revenue up 32 percent to $25 million but still resulted in an overall net loss of $6.7 million, EPS –$0.28 vs. –$2.29, beating expectations for both.

Overkill: An avalanche of unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and financially. What can we do about it?

In a New Yorker piece, Atul Gawande, MD discusses the tendency to overtreat patients in the US, citing a study suggesting that, every year, at least 25 percent of Medicare patients receive high-cost tests that are well known to be wasteful.

Apple Has Plans for Your DNA

Apple will begin offering DNA testing to some iPhone owners to support current and future ResearchKit initiatives. UCSF and Mount Sinai Hospital are planning ResearchKit-based studies that involve DNA testing.

Morning Headlines 5/5/15

Imprivata Acquires HT Systems to Expand its Authentication and Access Management Platform to Patients

Imprivata acquires HT Systems, a palm-vein based biometrics vendor focused on the patient identification market, for $19.1 million in cash and $6.9 million in potential performance bonuses scheduled to be paid out over the next two years.

Athenahealth Looking Like A Very Unhealthy Stock

Forbes contributor David Trainer forecasts additional losses for athenahealth stock , citing slowing revenue and after-tax profit growth, and a 35 percent decline in stock value since its peak in February 2014.

Why Your Next Doctor’s Visit Might Be Through An iPhone

Telehealth vendor American Well launches a new telemedicine application designed to help doctors provide telehealth services to just their own local patients. The new app is designed to help doctors working through regulatory restrictions on remote consultations.

Morning Headlines 5/4/15

Former HealthCare.gov IT program manager Chao retires from CMS

Henry Chao, CMS deputy director of the Office of Information Services and program manager of the troubled Healthcare.gov rollout, retires after 21 years of government service.

Almost half of Obamacare exchanges face financial struggles in the future

The Washington Post reports that nearly half of the 17 state-run health insurance exchanges are struggling financially. Some are considering increasing fees imposed on insurers, while others looking into cost sharing arrangements with other states or shutting down completely and migrating exchange services to Healthcare.gov.

athenahealth’s (ATHN) CEO Jonathan Bush on Q1 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Athenahealth hosts its Q1 earnings call, with CEO Jonathan Bush providing his own style of commentary on the company’s recent performance and projects. This quarter the company added 2,300 providers, and sold a number of new inpatient systems through its recently acquired EHR RazorInsights.

Erlanger Chooses Epic Software For New $100 Million Electronic Medical Records System; CEO Judy Faulkner To Visit Chattanooga

Erlanger Health System chooses Epic as its next EHR vendor, beating out Cerner as the other finalist. The system will be implemented over a two-year period and will cost $100 million.

Morning Headlines 5/1/15

Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data: Part D Prescriber

CMS publishes a new dataset containing Medicare Part D prescription details for 2013, representing $103 billion in drug costs.

athenahealth, Inc. Reports First Quarter Fiscal Year 2015 Results

Athenahealth publishes its Q1 results: revenue is up 27 percent to $206 million, adjusted EPS $0.24 vs. $0.12. Epocrates-related earnings remained flat at $10 million. Athena shares are up 20 percent over the past year.

Former hospital CFO ordered to pay $4.4 million restitution

The CFO of a small network of rural Texas hospitals is ordered to pay back the $4.4 million in payments his hospital received after fraudulently attesting to MU Stage 1. He is also facing criminal charges that could result in up to seven years in jail.

Premier statement for the record on 21st Century Cures legislation (PDF) 

Premier applauds the legislative work being undertaken by the House as it drafts the 21st Century Cures bill, and lobbies for increased interoperability requirements through a unique patient identifier, national interoperability standards, and APIs. Premier calls on ONC to include the requirements in its EHR certification criteria.

Morning Headlines 4/30/15

The Evidence Shows IOM Was Right on Health IT and Patient Safety

ONC publishes its first of four planned reports on health IT and patient safety, titled Recent Evidence That Health IT Improves Patient Safety, the report cites a group of studies to support the argument that health IT has reduced medication error rates, enhanced capability for disease surveillance programs, and increased adherence to evidence-based medicine.

Your medical data: You don’t own it, but you can have it

A Brookings Institute report calls into question the need to charge patients for copies of their medical records now that EHRs have essentially eliminated the overhead cost of producing them incurred by hospitals and practices.

Teladoc plans to file for IPO, sues to stop Texas Medical Board rule

Dallas-based telemedicine vendor Teladoc files confidential IPO forms with the SEC in preparation for a public stock offering. The company also filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board, claiming that the board is trying to unfairly limit competition by mandating that consultations happen in an in-person setting.

KLAS names Epic, athenahealth, Medfusion most effective in driving patient portal adoption

KLAS releases a report on patient portal vendors, finding that Epic, athenahealth, and Medfusion are leading patient engagement efforts. Customers of these three vendors report that at least 20 percent of their patients have accessed their portal.

Morning Headlines 4/29/15

Vanderbilt to replace clinical IT systems

Vanderbilt University Medical Center announces that it will replace its current McKesson Horizon system with either Epic or Cerner.

CareCloud announces new CEO, $15M in funding

Cloud-based ambulatory EHR vendor CareCloud replaces its CEO Albert Santalo and announces that it has raised a fresh $15 million in VC funding, bringing its total raised to $70 million.

What Health Care Will Look Like in 2030. Maybe.

Former National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal, MD publishes an article in the Wall Street Journal imagining the future of healthcare in a world where patients are monitored, alerted, and triaged by smartphone apps. To help usher in this reality, he calls for improvements in EHR interoperability and data security.

Validic Tracks Down $12.5 Million to Gather Medical Data

Raleigh, NC-based digital health startup Validic, which sells an interface engine that captures patient-generated health data from fitness trackers and medical devices, announces a $12.5 million Series B funding round. The company recently announced commercial agreements with both Cerner and Meditech.

Morning Headlines 4/28/15

Health Information Technology: Where We Stand And Where We Need To Go

National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, MD publishes an article in Health Affairs on the early successes, current state, and future roles that health IT will take on in care delivery, specifically addressing interoperability, and IT goals that go beyond EHRs and Meaningful Use.

Advancing Breakthrough Devices for Patients Act

Senators Richard Burr, Michael Bennet and Orrin Hatch introduce a new bill that creates an expedited path to FDA pre-market approval for new breakthrough healthcare technologies. The bill is modeled after the 2012 Breakthrough Therapies for Patients Act which created the same expedited pathway for new breakthrough drugs.

DoD To Start Its Own Digital Service Team

The DoD will open new offices in Silicon Valley where it is building its own digital services team modeled after the White House tech team that was responsible for resurrecting Healthcare.gov in its early days. The new team, some of which has already been recruited, are currently working on solving data exchange problems between the DoD and VA EHRs.

Morning Headlines 4/27/15

Health and Human Services Fiscal Year 2016 Budget

HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell faces tough questions from Sen. Lamar Alexander (R – TN) over the EHR Incentive program which Alexander says is driving physician dissatisfaction.

Scientists are skeptical about the secret blood test that has made Elizabeth Holmes a billionaire

Business Insider covers Silicon Valley-based lab test vendor Theranos and its 31 year old billionaire founder Elizabeth Holmes. Despite its incredible early successes, the process Theranos uses to run its lab tests is still being kept secret and the company has yet to publish peer-reviewed studies comparing its results to traditional ones.

MEDITECH Announces Avera Health Moving Forward with 6.1 Web Release

MEDITECH announces that it has been selected to implement its “groundbreaking, completely Web-based EHR” across Avera Health System’s (SD) 33 hospitals and 208 clinics.

Morning Headlines 4/24/15

U.S. cancer institute, software firm reach deals in Cuba

Two New York-based healthcare companies are among the first to sign commercial agreements in Cuba. The Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, New York will work on lung cancer vaccinations with Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology, and Infor has found a partner that will resell its integration engine software in Cuba.

Few People Lost Jobs With V.A. in Scandal

A New York Times investigation finds that only three VA employees lost their jobs over the VA wait-time scandal, far less than the 60 people that VA Secretary Robert McDonald reported during a NBC television interview he did in February. Additionally, only eight of the VA’s 280,000 other employees were punished in some way for their involvement in the scandal.

WebMD Deserves Fees In Failed Patent Case, Judge Says

MMRGlobal, which sued both WebMD and Allscripts over frivolous patent infringements claims, has lost both claims and will now have to pay each company’s legal fees.

Oxycodone overdose deaths drop 25 percent after launch of Florida’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

Oxycodone-related deaths dropped 25 percent after Florida implemented a controlled prescriptions database. However, the project went live in tandem with state-wide efforts to shut down prescription mills posing as pain clinics, which likely also contributed to the reduced deaths.

Morning Headlines 4/22/15

Lawsuit: Long delay in getting VA medical records could be affecting crucial benefits

Seven disabled veterans have filed a lawsuit against the VA, claiming that they have waited between 10 and 24 months for copies of their medical records, and that the wait is causing delays in the veterans’ ongoing benefits applications. The suit asks that the VA produce the records within 20 days.

Judge issues temporary restraining order in Ebola nurse Nina Pham’s lawsuit

A Texas judge has halted efforts by Texas Health Resources to file a workers’ compensation claim on behalf of Nina Pham, the nurse that contracted Ebola while treating a patient at one of THR’s hospitals. The health system, which is being sued by Pham, claimed that a workers compensation claim would resolve many of the issues outlined in Pham’s lawsuit.

Color Genomics Sells $249 Breast Cancer Gene Test to Masses

Silicon Valley startup Color Genomics announces a $259 genetic screening test that evaluates a patient’s risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer by testing for 19 pertinent genetic mutations. The company is bypassing the FDA requirements that hindered 23andMe by requiring that a doctor order the tests and that results be explained by a trained genetic councilor.

Morning Headlines 4/21/15

Health insurance startup Oscar gets unicorn valuation with $145 million in new funding

Oscar Health, a tech-focused health insurer in New York that offers free telehealth visits and free activity trackers to its customers, raises a $145 million funding round on a $1.5  billion valuation in only its second year of operation.

Fiscal Year 2016 proposed Inpatient and Long-term Care Hospital policy and payment changes (CMS-1632-P)

CMS publishes its proposed 2016 policy and payment changes, which includes a 1.35 percent penalty for hospitals that have yet to attest under the Meaningful Use program, and new reporting requirements that will help align MU’s clinical quality measures reporting with the Inpatient Quality Reporting program, in an effort to ease the administrative burden on hospitals.

CMS commits $3 billion to modernize Medicaid-enrollment systems

CMS will spend $3 billion to make permanently adopt changes introduced in 2011 that established a 90 percent reimbursement rate for costs expenses associated with building state Medicaid eligibility and enrollment systems, and 75 percent reimbursement rates for ongoing costs associated with maintaining the systems.

Morning Headlines 4/20/15

Kaiser Permanente to put IT campus in Midtown Atlanta; create 900 jobs

Kaiser Permanente will build a $20 million medical information technology campus in Midtown Atlanta, spanning 150,000 square feet and resulting in 900 new jobs.

The Problem With Satisfied Patients

The Atlantic takes the ACA’s patient satisfaction mandate to task, suggesting that if hospitals and providers are overly concerned with patient satisfaction, they might avoid having unpleasant but necessary conversations about weight loss and smoking status, and instead spend money on flashy satisfaction wins like valet parking and VIP programs.

CPSI Announces Formation of Evident, LLC

CPSI rebrands itself as Evident, and rebrands its EHR as Thrive EHR, which it says will scale to meet the needs of the 100-300 bed hospitals and help it penetrate that market.

EY Telemedicine Adoption Model Unveiled at HIMSS Conference

Ernst & Young creates a Telemedicine Adoption Model that establishes seven stages of telemedicine maturity based on technology used, integration with core IT systems, and specialty services included.