Morning Headlines 3/4/16

VA leaders cite progress on health record interoperability

David Shulkin, the under secretary for health at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, testifies before Congress that the VA and DoD are on track to be fully integrated by 2018, though during the same hearing VA CIO LaVerne Council reported that it was time to “take a step back” from planning the modernization of Vista while it considers off-the-shelf alternatives.

Cerner lands another big contract

Dignity Health will implement Cerner across all of its ambulatory clinics. Dignity already runs Cerner in its 39 acute care hospitals

This genetics company claims it just achieved a major milestone in biology — and it could transform personalized medicine

Veritas Genetics breaks the $1,000 genome sequencing threshold, offering full sequencing, interpretation, and genetic counseling for less than $1,000.

Life as a Healthcare CIO: Dispatch from HIMSS

John Halamka, MD recaps his impression of HIMSS16, expressing excitement over Surescripts National Record Locator Service, CommonWell, FHIR, and other initiatives that are gaining momentum.

Morning Headlines 3/3/16

ONC proposes greater oversight for EHR vendors

ONC publishes a proposed rule granting it authority to regulate EHR certification testing bodies, as well as review certified health IT products for information blocking and potential risks to patient safety,

EHR adoption is a great success! Except that docs still hate them

During a panel discussion on EHRs and interoperability, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo,  MD and CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt, MD offer contrasting views on the future of healthcare. Slavitt explains his pessimism, “She works with the technology community, which is making tons of progress. I’ve been spending the last few months hearing from physicians trying to use technology, I think they affect my mood just a little bit.”

Garmin and Allscripts Enter Strategic Relationship to Improve Patient Care

Allscripts partners with Garmin to integrate real-time patient generated health data captured by Garmin’s fitness trackers into Allscripts’ population health manager solution. Berkshire Medical Center (MA) will pilot the technology.

Morning Headlines 3/2/16

Surescripts activates National Record Locator Service, includes data on 140 million patients

Surescripts announces the launch of its National Patient Record Locator Service, a partnership that includes CVS, Express Scripts, Epic, and NextGen Healthcare, covering 140 million patients and 2 billion patient interactions.

Investing in the Future: New Market-Ready, User-Friendly Health Technology App and Infrastructure Support

National Coordinator for Health IT, Karen DeSalvo, MD unveils three new FHIR developer challenges aimed at improving interoperability.

Supreme Court Rules Against Vermont Health-Care Data Law

The Supreme Court strikes down a 2005 Vermont law requiring large health plans to report “information relating to heath care costs, prices, quality, utilization or resources required” to a state database.

Lahey Hospital’s operating loss widens as IT, drug costs mount

Lahey Hospital reports a $5.6 million operating loss for Q1, citing increased operating expenses and its $160 million Epic implementation costs as primary reasons.

Morning Headlines 3/1/16

Vendors, providers agree on interoperability, consumer access

HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell announces during her HIMSS keynote speech that EHR vendors providing 90 percent of all systems used in the US along with the five largest private health systems have pledged to adopt federally recognized interoperability standards, avoid information blocking, and expand patient access to data.

eClinicalWorks aims to deploy healthcare IT solutions in 200 Indian hospitals by 2016 end

EClinicalWorks has 75 hospitals using its EHR in India, and expects that number to grow to nearly 300 by year end.

Health Catalyst raises $70 mln

Norwest Venture Partners and UPCM co-lead a $70 million Series E investment round, which CEO Dan Burton says will be its last investment round.

UPMC to lead $35 mln investment in medCPU

UPMC has taken a majority interest in MedCPU, a New York based clinical decision support startup and has led a $35 million investment round in the company.

Morning Headlines 2/29/16

Remarks by the President in Precision Medicine Panel Discussion

The White House publishes the Presidents transcript from the Precision Medicine panel discussion, in which he calls out interoperability issues directly, saying, “Part of the problem with have right now is that every patient’s data is siloed — it’s in a hospital here, a hospital there, a doctor here, a lab there.”

Meaningful-use hardship exemption deadline extended

CMS extends the hardship exemption deadline for hospitals and providers to July 1. Hospitals originally had until April 1 to file for an exemption, while EPs only had until March 15.

Cerner Names John Glaser SVP of Population Health

John Glaser will take over Cerner’s population health division on April 1.

Morning Headlines 2/26/16

Obama Administration Announces Key Actions to Accelerate Precision Medicine Initiative

The White House releases an update on its Precision Medicine Initiative, detailing commitments from 40 private organizations that will work on the project, largely on efforts to improve cybersecurity and data sharing as researchers work to build a one million participant research cohort.

NIH Taking First Steps on Huge Precision Medicine Project

As part of the Precision Medicine Initiative, the NIH will issue a grant to Vanderbilt University and Google’s life science business Verily to fund a pilot project to learn how best to recruit cohort participants and collecting their data.

Epic, the Cold Hard Facts

HIStalk and Peer60 publish survey results of C-level executives from Epic-using organizations, asking straight-forward questions written by Mr. H.

This Vet Filmed Himself Trying To Get A Doctor’s Appointment At VA. It Wasn’t Pretty

A video of Army veteran Dennis Magnasco trying  to schedule an appointment at his local VA clinic, but being unable to get through to an actual human, goes viral after his employer, Rep. Seth Moulton (D- Mass) shares the story on social media. The attention garnered Moulton several additional co-sponsors to his Faster Care for Veterans bill, which would allow veterans to self-schedule appointments using an app.

Morning Headlines 2/25/16

Dr. Robert Califf Wins Senate Confirmation to Run FDA

In an 89-4 vote, Robert Califf, MD, a cardiologist and clinical researcher from Duke University, has been confirmed by the Senate as the next FDA commissioner.

CommonWell Announces National Deployment of Interoperability Services to the Post-Acute Market

CommonWell will begin offering integration services in the post-acute care market in 2016, noting in its announcement that CommonWell members Brightree, Cerner, and McKesson have agreed to deploy the new services.

Google’s DeepMind AI group unveils heath care ambitions

Google announces that it has teamed up with researchers from the NHS to co-develop a version of its DeepMind AI platform focused on developing healthcare applications.

WebMD sees opening to tap into telehealth space

WebMD CEO David Schlanger says on its most recent earnings call that the company would likely enter the telehealth space, through either an acquisition or a partnership.

Morning Headlines 2/24/16

ResMed to Acquire Brightree for $800 Million

ResMed, a sleep apnea medical device manufacturer, will acquire Brightree, a software vendor focused on the clinical and business needs of home health and hospice markets, for $800 million.

Our Next Chapter for Standards and Technology: Introducing the ONC Tech Lab

ONC introduces the ONC Tech Lab, a group that will focus on standards coordination, development of testing tools, pilot project coordination, and health IT innovation.

eClinicalWorks Enters Acute Care Market

eClinicalWorks announces that it will develop a cloud-based acute care EHR with an anticipated general release sometime in 2017.

Oscar Health Gets $400 Million And A $2.7 Billion Valuation from Fidelity

Tech-savvy insurance startup Oscar Health raises a $400 million private equity investment from Fidelity on a $2.7 billion valuation. The company plans to expand to three or four new states per year as its works to grow its membership level to one million subscribers within the next five years.

Morning Headlines 2/23/16

Coalition of Healthcare Leaders Urges 6 Key Reforms

A coalition of payers, providers, patient advocates, and vendors has issued a report calling for legislative action to help the US health system improve six key issues, including interoperability, care coordination, and patient engagement.

Tenet Swings to Loss Amid Charges

Tenet reports Q4 results: revenue was up slightly to $5.03 billion, adjusted EPS $0.35 vs. $1.03, beating estimates on both. The company recorded an overall net loss of $97 million.

Speeding Up the Digitization of American Health Care

Former National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal, MD and former US CTO Aneesh Chopra, MD co-author a HBR article calling for improvements to the usability of EHRs and “penalties for providers and vendors that slow-walk the digital revolution to protect their economic interests.”

Why DOD cares about hospital network attacks

During a panel discussion, DoD deputy CIO Richard Hale calls for improved network cybersecurity at DoD hospitals and an increased emphasis on identifying and prosecuting hackers.

Morning Headlines 2/22/16

Operations postponed at Royal Berkshire Hospital due to IT issues

In England, surgeries had to be rescheduled at Royal Berkshire Hospital after malware infected the hospital’s Windows XP pathology system.

Schedule 13G: Computer Program and Systems, Inc.

Francisco Partners buys an additional 2 million shares of CPSI, bringing its total ownership in the company to 14.6 percent.

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Paul M. Black on Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

During Allscripts earnings call, CEO Paul Black notes that Q4 bookings of $1.1 billion topped its 2011 record and beat bookings from Q4 2014 by 20 percent.

The Big Mega HIT Purchasing Report

Peer60 releases a report on HIT purchasing trends, finding that population health management and patient engagement solutions are the top purchasing priorities for healthcare executives. 23 percent of respondents reported that their organization plans to switch EHR vendors, with Epic leading in mindshare.

Morning Headlines 2/19/16

IBM to buy data company Truven Health Analytics for $2.6 bln

IBM acquires Truven Health Analytics from Veritas Capital for $2.6 billion. Truven will join the IBM Watson business unit.

Allscripts Announces Fourth Quarter 2015 and Full-Year Results

Allscripts announces Q4 results: revenue climbed one percent to $346 million but missed analyst forecasts, EPS $0.09 vs. –$0.01.

Cerner  Q4 2015 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

In its earnings call, Cerner executives note that the company would have met its bookings guidance but two major deals failed to close by the end of Q4. The company also reports that new business is growing, with 36 percent of its Q4 bookings coming from new clients.

Somerville man accused of plotting attack against Children’s Hospital

A Massachusetts man has been arrested while trying to flee to Cuba for his role in coordinating a denial-of-service attack against Boston Children’s Hospital as part of the hacker group Anonymous.

Morning Headlines 2/16/16

Theranos Files Plan to CMS for Fixing California Lab Problems

Late Friday, Theranos submitted its proposed plan of correction to CMS after being granted a one week extension to submit the documents.

Interoperability Form and Function: Interview with Doug Fridsma

AMIA President and CEO Douglas Fridsma, MD discusses the path forward for interoperability in a recent interview.

State tells Boston Children’s Hospital to slow down

State regulators in Massachusetts have asked Boston Children’s Hospital to prove that its $1 billion expansion plans will not undercut efforts to reduce healthcare spending in the state.

Morning Headlines 2/15/16

New records system takes bite out of Partners earnings

Partners Healthcare (MA) reports net profits of $13 million, down from $74 million last year. The health system blamed the drop in earnings on unexpected costs associated with its $1,2 billion Epic install.

Hack Attack: Hollywood hospital victim of cyber attack

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (CA) reports that its network has been  infected with ransomware, with the hackers demanding $3 million to restore access.

NHS will monitor Facebook for comment about hospitals, says new CQC head

In England, the NHS will begin reviewing patient complaints about hospitals posted on Facebook as a source of “early intelligence” that may signal potential problems.

In America, the art of doctoring is dying

A Washington Post opinion piece by a retired internist describes the art of medicine as dead, noting that medical students today are trained to focus on technology and testing, and “know little to nothing about how medicine was once practiced.”

Morning Headlines 2/12/16

CommonWell Health Alliance Membership Continues to Expand Across the Care Continuum

CommonWell Health Alliance announces seven new members:eClinicalWorks, HIMSS, ImageTrend, lifeIMAGE, Mana Health, MediPortal, and Modernizing Medicine.

Electronic Health Record Adoption and Rates of In-hospital Adverse Events

A retrospective study analyzing 2012-2013 patient visits finds that “fully electronic EHR” use is associated with a 17 to 30 percent decrease in adverse events for patients with cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, or for surgical patients.

Insurer Centene ends search for missing hard drives

Insurer Centene announces that it found the six missing hard drives containing PHI from 950,000 patients that went missing last month.

US News Withdraws Rankings of 2 Children’s Hospitals

US News has removed Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital (TX) and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital (NY) from its annual ranking of children’s hospitals after discovering significant errors in the data submitted by the hospitals.

Morning Headlines 2/10/16

Justification For Other Than Full and Open Competition

Leidos is awarded a $51 million contract to host its recently purchased Cerner EHR system.

Senate Health Committee Unanimously Passes Alexander, Murray Legislation to Improve Health Information Technology for Patients, Doctors, Hospitals

The Senate passes the Improving Health Information Technology Act, a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Alexander explains, “Our goal is to make our country’s electronic health record system something that helps patients rather than something that doctors and hospitals dread so much that patients are not helped”

Cerner Launches Developer Experience For SMART on FHIR Applications

Cerner launches a developer platform that will give third-party developers an opportunity to code with its SMART on FHIR API within a sandbox environment.

Skagit Regional Health approves $316 million budget; adds jobs

Skagit Regional Health (WA) will spend $72 million implementing Epic over the next 10 years.

Morning Headlines 2/5/16

Health IT & Health Information Services: 2015 Year-End Market Review

Healthcare Growth Partners publishes its annual market review, noting that “at this point in the market cycle, health IT behaves more like a policy-based economy than a market-based economy.”

Athenahealth, Inc. Q4 Earnings Retreat 21 percent

Athenahealth reports Q4 results: revenue of $257 million compared to $213 million during the same quarter last year, adjusted EPS $0.45 vs. $0.58, missing analyst estimates on revenue but beating on earnings.

Head Of California Exchange Scolds UnitedHealth For Blaming Woes On Obamacare

California health insurance exchange executive director Peter Lee criticizes UnitedHealth for blaming Obamacare exchanges for its financial losses, explaining “Instead of saying we screwed up, they said Obamacare is the problem and we may not play any more. It was giving an excuse to Wall Street and throwing the Affordable Care Act under the bus.”

Top 20 Employee Benefits & Perks

Glassdoor ranks Epic 16th on its list of Top 20 Employee Benefits and Perks, citing the company’s policy of granting a paid four-week sabbatical to employees after five years of employment.

Morning Headlines 2/4/16

Practice Fusion Lays Off 25% Of Workers To Create Positive Cash Flow

Practice Fusion confirms that it has laid of 25 percent of its workforce, across all divisions, in an effort to become cash positive.

Bipartisan Senate bill seeks to expand telemedicine services

A group of bipartisan senators introduce the CONNECT for Health Act, a bill aimed at expanding telemedicine services through expanded Medicare benefits.

2016 Clinical Analytics for Population Health Management Market Trends Report

A Chilmark report predicts that the data analytics market will grow as more health systems shift to value-based reimbursement models.

Healthcare: For here or to go?

An Accenture report predicts that startups working in the on-demand healthcare market will see investment levels quadruple by 2017, growing to nearly a billion dollars in annual investment.