Morning Headlines 4/21/14

UPMC data breach may affect as many as 27,000 employees

UPMC (PA) reports that hackers have stolen the personal information of 27,000 of its employees. 788 are reporting that their tax returns were stolen when the information was used to file fraudulent tax returns, while others are reporting that unauthorized bank accounts are being opened in their names.

A Robust Health Data Infrastructure

HHS publishes a JASON report on health information interoperability which concludes that without a sophisticated data exchange framework, health IT will continue to struggle to improve care quality or reduce costs. The report recommends that Stage 3 Meaningful Use be used "as an opportunity to break free from the status quo and embark upon the creation of a truly interoperable health data infrastructure."

T.J. Samson Community Hospital announces job, salary cuts Nearly 50 employees losing positions

49 employees at T.J. Samson Community Hospital (KY) will lose their jobs, while most remaining employees will face salary cuts as part of a new plan designed save $3.6 million between now and October. CEO Henry Royse says the cuts were needed due to problems with a Siemens install which he summaries by explaining "One year after going live, the product’s inoperability is still costing the hospital tens of millions of dollars in unrecoverable bad debt, consultant fees, and lost productivity.”

Even After Doctors Are Sanctioned or Arrested, Medicare Keeps Paying

In 2012, Medicare paid at least $6 million, but likely much more, to physicians that were actively suspended or terminated from state Medicaid programs for committing fraud, according to a ProPublica report.

Morning Headlines 4/18/14

Nuance PowerShare Network Unveiled for Cloud-Based Medical Imaging and Report Exchange

Nuance announces that it has acquired image sharing vendor Accelarad and will immediately begin marketing a cloud-based document and image sharing platform called the Nuance PowerShare Network. Financial details were not disclosed.

Athenahealth Posts Loss, Misses Street; Stock Down 10% – Quick Facts

Athenahealth reports Q1 earnings: revenue was up 30 percent at $163 million, but missed analyst estimates of $170 million, EPS $0.12 vs. $0.38.

Epic Wins Tender For Royal Children’s EMR

In Australia, Epic wins a $48 million deal at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, concluding a vendor search that reportedly included all major US vendors as well as representation from local Australian vendors.

One Medical Group Raises $40M To Help Reinvent The Doctor’s Office

San Francisco, Calif.-based One Medical Group, a startup building technology-laden primary care offices across the nation, raises a $40 million investment round to continue its expansion.

Morning Headlines 4/17/14

Scientists embark on unprecedented effort to connect millions of patient medical records

PCORI will invest $100 million to build a nationwide database containing 26 to 30 million EHR records in an effort to begin supporting retrospective clinical research.

Telehealth Medical Treatment Coming to all 50 States, Brought to You by MeMD

MeMD announces that its subscription-based telemedicine service has expanded to include licensed providers in all 50 states.

Budget Office Lowers Estimate for the Cost of Expanding Health Coverage

The Congressional Budget Office expects that expanding insurance under the ACA will cost $100 billion less than previously forecast over the next 10 years, according to a report published Monday that cites an increase in non-elderly coverage and a decrease in the forecasted cost of insurance subsidies.

Morning Headlines 4/16/14

Public Workshop – Proposed Risk-Based Regulatory Framework and Strategy for Health Information Technology, May 13-15, 2014

The FDA, ONC, and FCC will co-host a free three-day public workshop at NIST’s campus in Gaithersburg, MD from May 13-15. The event will provide experts and stakeholders an opportunity to provide input on the recently published FDASIA health IT report.

ICD-10

CMS finally acknowledges the ICD-10 delay in a new post on its ICD-10 readiness website that says, "CMS is examining the implications of the ICD-10 provision and will provide guidance to providers and stakeholders soon."

Meaningful Use Not Correlated With Quality in Study

A study at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (MA) that compared the quality scores of 540 physicians who achieved MU with those of 318 physicians who did not finds that adoption of Meaningful Use does not correlate with improved quality.

IT landscape changing for sharing Oklahoma patient medical records

A local paper covers the launch of two competing health information exchanges in Oklahoma and discusses the impact the competition will have on the overall sustainability of the project.

Morning Headlines 4/15/14

DeSalvo calls for big data use over next decade

In a speech on Capitol Hill last Thursday, Karen DeSalvo, MD, said that one of the ONC’s goals for the next decade would be bringing about the benefits of big data, which she says will require that “the underpinnings of EHRs” be reconfigured to support the free flow of information.

Lawyers start mining the Medicare data for clues to fraud

Lawyers specializing in healthcare fraud cases begin analyzing the recently published Medicare payment data, looking for potential signs of fraud.

Dutton "Committed" To Electronic Health Record

In Australia, Health Minister Peter Dutton expresses support for the country’s EHR program, leading to speculation that while the federal government will not keep the program in its present form, it does not plan to cancel the $700 million project outright.

New York’s electronic medical record plan gets $55 million boost

New York approves an additional $55 million in funding to support its health IT goals, including a $4.5 million investment in the state-run Healthcare Information Exchange of New York.

Morning Headlines 4/14/14

Sebelius’s Slow-Motion Resignation From the Cabinet

The New York Times reports that the writing was on the wall for Kathleen Sebelius after her "wooden" performance on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show in October left the administration questioning whether she was the right person to fix the healthcare.gov debacle.

Image sharing gets to early majority. Nuance’s rumored move validates.

Nuance will reportedly move into the image sharing business and on Monday will announce the acquisition of a small Atlanta-based company working in this space.

What you won’t see in the raw Medicare claims data

The American Medical Association publishes a piece addressing the recent release of Medicare payment data, explaining that the numbers are sometimes inaccurate, and do not represent an individual physician’s take home pay because it does not account for the overhead of running a practice.

‘Heartbleed’ Bug Coder: ‘It was a simple programming error’

The programmer responsible for introducing the OpenSSL bug in 2012 addresses accusations that he introduced the bug intentionally, explaining that it was "a simple programming error in a new feature, which unfortunately occurred in a security relevant area."

Morning Headlines 4/11/14

Health Secretary Resigns After Woes of HealthCare.gov

Kathleen Sebelius has resigned following a five-year span as secretary of HHS. Her term was marred by the failed rollout of Healthcare.gov, despite a late surge that helped it meet its original enrollment goals. On Friday, she will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to replace her.

Laptops ‘could save doctors’ time’

Researchers at the Birmingham Women’s Hospital in the UK find that physicians in its neonatal unit who use laptops or tablets spend an hour-per-day less on paperwork, compared to those that still document on paper.

WelVU Wins Dignity Health and Box Developer Challenge

Patient engagement platform WelVU takes first place and a $100,000 prize in a Dignity Health and Box sponsored developer challenged which called for "innovative health applications that will revolutionize the way physicians and hospitals educate patients."

Capturing Social and Behavioral Domains in Electronic Health Records: Phase 1

A new Institute of Medicine report recommends expanding the use of EHRs to capture social and behavioral data on patients, saying that EHRs are currently limited in what they can capture, and concluding that this information would be helpful to physicians and public health researchers alike.

Morning Headlines 4/10/14

DeSalvo proposes new direction for ONC

Speaking at a Health Information Policy Committee on Tuesday, Karen DeSalvo, MD, proposed dismantling the ONC’s existing HIT workgroups and forming new ones that would address: HIT strategic planning; Advanced health models and meaningful use; HIT implementation, usability and safety; and Interoperability and health information exchange. Paul Tang, vice-chair of the HITPC said, "This is a nice step-back point. Now that we’ve finished wrapping up our comments and advice on Stage 3, we will begin to look a lot toward how are we getting the value from meaningful use.”

Final Notice of Termination of OIG Advisory Opinion No. 11-18

The HHS’s Office of Inspector General has reversed its 2011 decision on the Federal anti-kickback statute as it applies to transmitting patient referrals through an unnamed ambulatory EHR vendor’s "trading partner" network. The OIG originally approved of the network, but has since decided that it creates a situation in which transaction fees may be financially influencing referral decisions.

Lincoln Health Center request gives county pause

In North Carolina, Lincoln Community Health Center is looking to local county commissioners to pick up half of the $2 million it will cost to implement Duke University’s Epic system. The county thinks that Duke, which is paying the other half, should be on the hook for more.

Morning Headlines 4/9/14

ABILITY Network Receives $550 Million Strategic Investment From Summit Partners

ABILITY Network, a web-based Medicare billing technology vendor, announces a $550 million strategic investment from Summit Partners, a growth equity investment firm.

Northwest Patients to Gain Easy Access to Clinicians’ Notes

Nine health systems and medical groups in Oregon and Southwest Washington will begin sharing physician notes with their patients as part of an OpenNotes project that will reach one-million patients in the region.

Hospital still profitable after tax rejection

St. Bernard Parish (LA) voters reject a one-year property tax proposal that would have paid for a new electronic medical records system and several new full time employees at its publically-owned community hospital.

Phoebe Putney Health System Picks MEDITECH 6.1 EHR

691-bed Phoebe Putney Health System (GA) choses Meditech 6.1, marking it the second 400+ bed win for Meditech this year.

Morning Headlines 4/8/14

10 years after the revolution

Modern Healthcare recounts the history of the ONC and the impact each of the previous four national coordinators has had on shaping US health IT policy.

Proposed Risk-Based Regulatory Framework and Strategy for Health Information Technology Report; Notice to Public of Availability of the Report and Web Site Location; Request for Comments

The FDA begins accepting public comments on the FDASIA Health IT Report. The comment period ends July 7, 2014.

Kaiser Permanente Northern California Department of Research to notify participants of potential breach

Kaiser Permanente notifies 5,100 patients of a data breach that potentially exposed full names, age, gender, address, race, medical record number, and lab results. The breach, Kaisers fourth, stems from a malware-infected server that was being used to store research data.

Morning Headlines 4/7/14

IMS Health raises $1.3B in 2014′s second-biggest IPO

IMS Health completes its IPO, selling 65 million shares at $20 and raising $1.3 billion for the company. Stock prices closed at $23 Friday, up 15 percent, at the end of its first day of trading.

5 Things About States With Problem-Plagued Health Exchanges

Oregon, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Hawaii are named as having the worst health insurance exchange marketplaces in the country.

Oversold Conditions For Athenahealth

In trading on Friday, analysts watching key financial indicators warned that Athenahealth’s stock had entered into oversold territory. The stock closed down 11 percent by the end of trading Friday.

Beebe rolls out $33 million electronic records system

Beebe Healthcare (DE) goes live on its $33 million Cerner system, concluding a nine-month implementation and a two-year vendor selection process.

Morning Headlines 4/4/14

Proposed health IT strategy aims to promote innovation, protect patients, and avoid regulatory duplication

HHS publishes the long-awaited health IT regulatory framework proposal. The report suggests that health IT products be separated into three risk-based categories, with the FDA regulating only the category that includes software with medical device-related health IT functions, such as bedside monitor alarms and radiation treatment software. The FDA would not regulate EHRs or systems that provide medication management, provider order entry, clinical results review, and clinical decision support.

GE Healthcare to Acquire Analytics Solutions Provider CHCA, Further Advancing Industrial Internet Mission

GE acquires Canada-based CHCA Computer Systems, which offers the Opera Surgical Management System.

M*Modal Reaches Agreement On Financial Restructuring Plan

MModal announces that it has reached an agreement on the terms of a financial restructuring plan that will reduce its debt by than 55 percent, or $350 million, and lead to a conclusion of its debt-restructuring plan within the next 120 days.

CRMC implements new electronic medical records system

25-bed Cherokee Regional Medical Center goes live on its $2 million Epic install across the hospital, with all outpatient clinics coming on board later this year.

Morning Headlines 4/3/14

ICD-10 delay puts pressure on CMS for answers

Attention shifts to CMS for new guidance now that Congress has prohibited the October 2014 mandatory transition to ICD-10.

MMRGlobal 2014 "This Is Our Year" Letter to Shareholders

MMRGlobal sends a letter to its shareholders titled "This Is Our Year" in which the company boasts that because of Meaningful Use, the patient portal business is “the right business, at the right time”. The letter goes on to acknowledge that it prepared for Meaningful Use by investing millions of dollars in patents, intellectual property rights, and technology.

Veterans Affairs cut claims backlog by 44 percent since last year’s high

Since March 2013, the Department of Veterans Affairs has cut its backlog of pending benefits claims by 44 percent and shortened the average wait time for decisions from 282 days to 119. However, during that same timeframe independent audits turned up errors in 55 percent of the VA’s decisions. Appeals cases are up 50 percent.

Morning Headlines 4/2/14

Securities and Exchange Commission: Form S-1, Imprivata, Inc.

Imprivata files paperwork for a $115 million IPO. The company’s revenue has increased by 30 percent in each of the last two years, but it booked a net loss of $5.5 million at the close of 2013.

Selected Defense Programs Need to Implement Key Acquisition Practices

A GAO report finds that the Department of Defense is not accurately calculating future costs for its information systems projects, with 11 of the 13 programs inspected missing their long-term cost targets. One program, an in-country EHR called the the Theatre Medical Information Program, was originally budgeted to cost only $67 million, but has already ballooned to $1.6 billion.

“Litigious nature” of software vendors preventing unbiased reviews of healthcare software

In England, hospitals trying to collect and publish unbiased EHR reviews are being pressured to stop by EHR vendors. One hospital executive explains, "We would like to see something like Comparethesoftware.co.uk… but our pockets are not deep enough to confront the legal departments of the suppliers."

Doctors prescribe scribes

Brigham and Women’s Hospital will expand the use of scribes across its facilities to help doctors manage EHR-related data entry. Scribes join physicians during patient exams and take real-time electronic notes while the doctor and patient talk.

Morning Headlines 4/1/14

Senate Approves ICD-10 Delay, ‘Doc Fix’

By a vote of 64 to 35, the Senate approves the "Doc Fix" bill, delaying the implementation of ICD-10 until October 2015, and preserving the current Medicare physician reimbursement rate for 12 months.

HealthCare.gov stumbles twice on deadline day

Healthcare.gov goes offline twice on its final day of registration, first due to heavy traffic, and then again due to software issues. Despite the problems, analysts tracking the registration numbers expect that the final count will come very close to meeting the original goal of seven million new registrations.

Appropriate Use of the Copy and Paste Functionality in Electronic Health Records

AHIMA calls for stronger technical and administrative controls over the use of copy and paste in EHRs, and recommends that the industry develop and publish best practices as a condition of its continued use.

Emergency Department Utilization: Update on Assumed Savings from Best Practices Implementation

A program in Washington state that tracks ED utilization rates for individual patients and alerts PCPs of frequent fliers results in a decrease in Medicaid ED visits and Medicaid narcotic prescriptions.

Morning Headlines 3/31/14

Maryland set to replace troubled health exchange with Connecticut’s system

Maryland’s $125 million health insurance exchange website is being called “broken beyond repair” and will be shut down and replaced by the Deloitte-built system that Connecticut is successfully using.

Morgan Stanley Reveals Stocks on Takeover Target

Cerner is included in a Morgan Stanley report which looks at financial and market sector data to predict which companies are acquisition or takeover candidates this year.

Big data: are we making a big mistake?

A Financial Times article explores the state of ‘big data,’ warning that building larger datasets does not guarantee that statisticians will unlock exciting new answers from them. To illustrate that ‘big data’ comes second to good data, the article cites two presidential polling surveys from the Landon vs. Roosevelt 1936 election. One poll surveyed 3,000 voters and correctly predicted that Roosevelt would win, while the other surveyed 2.4 million voters and incorrectly predicted that Landon would win. The 3,000 sample-size survey called the election correctly because the researchers focused their efforts on building a clean and unbiased sample set, rather than building a massive sample set and assuming its size would correct for any statistical bias.

Medical First: 3-D Printed Skull Successfully Implanted in Woman

A 22-year-old woman in the Netherlands is the first person to receive a 3D plastic scull implant. The woman suffered from a condition that was causing her skull to thicken, leading to severe headaches and total loss of vision. Once the replacement skull was implanted, the woman’s vision returned and her and headaches stopped.

Morning Headlines 3/28/14

House Passes ICD-10 Delay Bill, Senate Next to Vote

The House of Representatives passes a bill that will delay the mandatory use of ICD-10 until October 2015. The bill now moves to the Senate for a Monday vote.

Racial differences in cancer screening with electronic health records and electronic preventive care reminders

A study published in JAMIA looks at an estimated 2.4 billion US adult primary care visits, and finds that orders for screening for breast, cervical, or colon cancer did not differ between clinics with and without EHRs.

Survey: 95% of organizations are at or below budget on ICD-10 transition

The Advisory Board publishes results from its ICD-10 Readiness Survey, which suggests that while there are still significant challenges ahead for ICD-10 adoption, 95 percent of providers are at or under their allocated budgets.

CMS System for Sharing Information About Terminated Providers Needs Improvement

The HHS OIG publishes a report which criticizes the effectiveness of a federal program responsible for broadcasting the identity of providers who have been banned from Medicaid due to fraud to all state Medicare agencies. Specifically, it found that about one-third of the 6,439 records in MCSIS did not relate to providers terminated "for cause," and that 17 states are not submitting provider names at all.