Morning Headlines 8/7/14

Practice Fusion buys startup Ringadoc in telemedicine play

Practice Fusion acquires Ringadoc, an after-hours call routing system that it says will play a vital role in its plans to roll out a full telehealth platform for its customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

ONC lays down 10-year interoperability plan milestones

ONC interoperability manager Erica Galvez outlines details from the office’s 10-year interoperability plan during Wednesday’s HIT Policy Committee meeting.

M*Modal Partners with athenahealth to Empower Physicians with Speech-Based Clinical Documentation

MModal joins athenahealth’s More Disruption Please program, bringing natural language processing functionality to athenahealth’s customer base.

UW Health, five other providers enter statewide partnership

In Wisconsin, six health systems representing 44 hospitals, all of which run Epic, have created a state-wide partnership that will share emerging best practices around IT, research, care management, and patient experience. The new partnership is also launching its own insurance plan backed by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Blue Priority network.

Morning Headlines 8/6/14

Cerner to Acquire Siemens Health Services for $1.3 Billion

Cerner announces that it will acquire the health IT division of Siemens for $1.3 billion, confirming rumors that have been circulating since late April.

Premier, Inc. continues growth trajectory with acquisition of Hospira’s TheraDoc

Premier announces that it will acquire TheraDoc, Hospira’s clinical surveillance business, for $117 million in cash. Hospira acquired the business themselves in 2009 for an undisclosed sum.

MModal Completes Financial Restructuring, Emerges from Chapter 11

After nearly five months, MModal officially emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reducing its debt by 55 percent in the process.

New California Not-for-Profit to Operate Statewide, Next-Generation Health Information Exchange

California will launch a state-wide HIE, founded through $80 million in seed funding from Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross. The funding will sustain the exchange for its first three years of operations, after which it will charge subscription fees to providers and insurers to fund continued operations.

Morning Headlines 8/5/14

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Oversight of the Testing and Certification of Electronic Health Records

An OIG investigation finds that the ONC’s EHR testing and certification standards do not test EHR security features enough to adequately ensure that patient information is protected.

State will replace CGI, health exchange vendor

Vermont is the next to join a growing list of states that have fired CGI as their primary health insurance exchange firm. Starting in September, development responsibilities will be handed over to Optum as part of a $5.7 million deal.

Actionable Recommendations in the Bright Futures Child Health Supervision Guidelines

A new study published in Applied Clinical Informatics finds that only 20 percent of the preventative health care guidelines followed by US pediatricians are defined in a way that would allow them to be integrated into EHR clinical decision support tools.

DeSalvo says providers, hospitals on track for EHR Stage 2

With just 10 eligible hospitals attesting for Stage 2 MU thus far, national coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, reports “We know from past experience with meaningful-use Stage 1, for example, that people wait to attest until the eleventh hour,” adding “It seems on track with where we expect it to be, and we’re watching it closely.”

Morning Headlines 8/4/14

Kaiser Permanente, Johns Hopkins Medicine Announce Enhanced Strategic Collaboration

Johns Hopkins and Kaiser Permanente announce a partnership that will focus on “sharing evidence-based best practices, advancing population health programs, collaborating on education and research endeavors, and exploring how the organizations can work together to create better health care models.”

Berwick believes he has a healthy chance in race for governor

Democratic candidate for Massachusetts governor Donald Berwick, MD, says in a recent interview that healthcare costs, which make up 42 percent of the state’s budget, “are just eating the state alive.” He is calling for a single-payer health care system instead.

Hospital wants back CEO charged in scheme to steal $158 million

Riverside Hospital (TX) is asking a local judge to allow one of its healthcare administrators, recently charged with $158 million in Medicare fraud, to return to work at the hospital as an unpaid consultant where he would help them address their financial issues.

Morning Headlines 8/1/14

Deadline for ICD-10 allows health care industry ample time to prepare for change

CMS confirms in a press release that the ICD-10 switchover will take place on October 1, 2015.

When ‘Hacktivists’ Target Your Hospital

In a New England Journal of Medicine article, Boston Children’s Hospital SVP/CIO Daniel Nigrin, MD discusses his experiences defending the hospital’s network against cyberattacks from the hacker group Anonymous. The group was retaliating over a very public child custody dispute between a Boston Children’s physician and a child’s parents.

McKesson adjusted profit, sales rise above expectations

McKesson reports Q1 results: profit dropped slightly to $425 million, but revenue and sales were both up significantly, EPS $2.49 vs. $2.11, beating expectations.

Novant Health to roll out electronic medical records system at Triad hospitals this weekend

Novant Health will go live with Epic across four of its NC-based hospitals this weekend. The go-live is part of a $600 million system-wide transition and follows its successful install across 300 physician offices last year.

Morning Headlines 7/31/14

Healthcare.gov: Contract Planning and Oversight Practices Were Ineffective Given the Challenges and Risks

A GAO report concludes that Healthcare.gov cost taxpayers a total of $840 million, including $150 million spent fixing the site after its failed launch.

Merge Reports Second Quarter Financial Results

Merge reports Q2 results: revenue is down 5.9 percent to $53.8 million for the quarter, EPS $0.05 vs. $0.01, beating analyst estimates on both.

Full-time Health IT Workers Aren’t As Happy As Consultants

A new employee satisfaction survey finds that consultants working in health IT are more satisfied with their job (43 percent vs. 19 percent) and their pay (40 percent vs. 18 percent) than traditional health IT FTE’s.

PCORI Board Approves $54.8 Million in Funding for Patient-Centered Comparative Effectiveness Research Projects

PCORI today approved $54 million in new grant awards that will support 33 new research projects. The new funding of brings its total contributions to $549 million, spanning 313 research projects.

Morning Headlines 7/30/14

Former Procter & Gamble CEO Tapped as New VA Secretary

Robert McDonald, the former Procter & Gamble CEO, is unanimously confirmed as the new VA secretary.

Many health-IT success stories to note

National coordinator for health IT Karen DeSalvo, MD, publishes a response to an earlier Boston Globe article which reported that rushed EHR implementations are introducing new, sometimes serious, patient safety risks into care delivery.

Graduate Medical Education That Meets the Nation’s Health Needs

The Institute of Medicine publishes a report analyzing what value taxpayers get from the $15 billion in annual funding that is provided to pay for medical student residencies. The report concludes that the investment is warranted, but that improvements, including more transparency and accountability, are needed.

Medical identity theft can threaten health as well as bank account

CBSNews reports that medical identity theft has become the low hanging fruit of

the criminal underworld because the security protections that banks and credit card companies have put in place to protect consumer data have not yet reached healthcare infrastructures.

Morning Headlines 7/29/14

Lawmakers reach $17B deal on VA bill

House and Senate lawmakers announce a $17 billion plan aimed at addressing appointment wait times.  The bill would provide $10 billion for veterans to seek medical treatment from non-VA providers, with another $5 billion going toward hiring additional medical to help the VA keep up with appointment demands.

Almost half of Kaiser Permanente members book appointments, request refills and send messages online

A new Kaiser Permanente report claims the health system’s portal and mobile app saw 131 million visitors during 2013. Kaiser ties their web presence to impressive gains in medication adherence rates and chronic disease management.

Early Q2 financials show reform benefiting hospitals’ bottom lines

The ACA is generating increased patient volumes, and thus having a positive impact on quarterly earnings for publicly traded hospitals, according to Modern Healthcare.

Geisinger CEO will step down

Geisinger Health System CEO Glenn Steele, MD, will retire next year after 12 years leading the organization.

Morning Headlines 7/28/14

Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies Appropriation Bill 2015

The Senate Appropriations Committee cuts ONC’s requested $75 million budget for 2015 down to $61 million and adds a stipulation that ONC should decertify and publicly report any EHR vendors that “proactively block sharing of information.”

NPA seizes over R1bn contract claims

In South Africa, a $133 million Siemens implementation is put on hold over allegations that the local Siemens reseller engaged in bid-rigging to close the deal.

Self Regional announces security breach of patient info

Self Regional Hospital (SC) announces a data breach affecting at least 500 patients stemming from a Memorial Day office break in that led to the loss of an unencrypted laptop.

Board recaps fair at monthly meeting

In a local article, 71-bed Nevada Regional Medical Center CFO Greg Shaw blames its Cerner billing system for the hospital’s $5.6 million YTD net loss, claiming that the system incorrectly classified insurance payers and aging accounts.

Morning Headlines 7/25/14

Health-Care Technology Firm Cerner Posts Higher Profit

Cerner reports Q2 results: revenue is up 20 percent to $852 million and bookings for the quarter are up 15 percent to $1.08 billion, adjusted EPS $0.40 vs. $0.34.

North Bristol to swap Cerner for Lorenzo

In England, North Bristol NHS Trust will replace its Cerner Millennium EPR with CSC Lorenzo. North Bristol’s medical director says that Lorenzo “ We also have significant ambitions, and we were impressed with the vision and appetite CSC showed for working with us to build a truly world-class approach to patient care.”

Health Information Technology and Health Information Services: 2014 Mid-Year Review

Healthcare Growth Partners releases its healthcare IT mid-year review, which covers investments, M&A activity, and the expansion of the health IT footprint.

NEA Baptist Clinic and Hospital will soon be integrated with an electronic medical record

NEA Baptist Clinic and Hospital (AR) will go live on Epic across its entire organization, migrating from a previous vendor in its clinic and introducing its first EHR in the hospital.

Morning Headlines 7/24/14

Panel approves Robert McDonald’s nomination to VA

The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs confirms the nomination of Robert McDonald as the next VA Secretary in a 14-0 decision. His nomination will now move to Senate for a final vote.  In his post-confirmation statement, McDonald said that the VA needs to prove “ that it can create, with Department of Defense, an integrated records system; (and) that it can regularly and accurately produce key data for decision-makers and oversight entities.”

Study Finds 10.3M Uninsured Gained Coverage Under ACA

A NEJM study finds that 10.3 million uninsured American’s gained health insurance during the ACA open enrollment period, with eight million signing up for private insurance and 2.3 million taking Medicaid. Enrollment variations between age, gender, and ethnicity are also included in the study.

Court halts $4 billion privacy suit against Sutter Health

A $4 billion class action lawsuit against Sutter Health stemming from an earlier data breach has been thrown out because patients could not prove that their data had been accessed by anyone or used in any illegal way.

Morning Headlines 7/22/14

HealthEquity Sets $100 Mil IPO Terms

HealthEquity announces IPO plans that will raise $100 million through the sale of 9.1 million shares valued at between $10 and $12. The offering is being underwritten by JPMorgan and Wells Fargo Securities.

UNC Health Care bounces back from operating loss

UNC Health Care is forecasting a $53 million profit next year, up from last year’s $12.2 million loss which CFO John Lewis attributes to expenses related to its system-wide Epic implementation.

Big Data Peeps At Your Medical Records To Find Drug Problems

NPR covers the FDA’s $116 million mini-sentinel project, a data analytics initiative aimed at uncovering unknown side effects in post-market drugs and medical devices.

iEHR redefined: DOD’s top 3 tactics in VA turf war detente

Government HealthIT traces the remaining funding allocations for the defunct iEHR program, highlighting the various modernization and interoperability projects now being pursued instead

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Morning Headlines 7/21/14

The Leapfrog Group: Hospital Survey Report

The Leapfrog Group publishes its annual hospital report which says that while CPOE adoption is on the rise, the systems being implemented are failing to alert physicians far more often than expected, with “ the proportion of all orders that did not receive an appropriate warning remaining at 36% and the number of potentially fatal orders that did not receive an appropriate warning falling from 14.2% in 2012 to 12.5% in 2013.”

New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Selects QuadraMed  for QCPR Meaningful Use Eligible Professional Software

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which selected Epic last year and was subsequently sued by Allscripts over the decision, announces that it has selected incumbent QuadraMed to provide software to its practice offices.

GE Healthcare 2Q profits increase slightly

GE Healthcare announces Q2 results: revenue fell 0.7 percent closing at $4.48 billion for the quarter, however, profit climbed one percent to $730 million up from $726 million for the same quarter in 2013.

Morning Headlines 7/18/14

CVS Caremark Announces New Clinical Affiliations with Four Major Health Care Providers

CVS announces that its MinuteClinic services will partner with ProHealth Physicians in Connecticut, Texas Health Resources in Texas, Palmetto Health in South Carolina and The Baton Rouge Clinic in Louisiana to bring additional chronic disease management services to the population, and to collaborate on medication adherence initiatives.

athenahealth, Inc. Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2014 Results

AthenaHealth announces Q2 results: revenue is up 27 percent to $185 million but  Epocrates-based earnings fell 23 percent to $11.3 million. Adjusted EPS $0.32 vs. –$0.08, beating expectations for both.

Subcommittees Team Up To Learn How 21st Century Technology Can Improve 21st Century Cures

During a joint hearing between the Subcommittees on Communications and Technology and Health focused on the future of technology in healthcare, Rep. Phil Gingrey, MD (R-GA) called out Epic for its resistance to interoperability, saying that the company has indirectly collected billions in incentive payments but is still selling closed platforms.

Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture

Microsoft will layoff 14 percent of its workforce, or 18,000 workers, primarily from its Nokia division, as it works to rebrand itself as a “productivity and platform” company.

Morning Headlines 7/17/14

Acting head of VA says agency needs $17.6 billion to fix problems

Interim VA Secretary Sloan Gibson testified before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee today, reporting that the VA would need $17.6 billion in additional funds over the next three years to fix the departments problems.

Program Evaluation of Remote Heart Failure Monitoring

A study published in Telemedicine and e-Health finds significant reductions in overall hospitalization rates followed the implementation of a remote patient monitoring system, but equivalent drops in hospitalization were also seen within the studies control group, leaving researchers with little choice but to conclude that remote monitoring seems promising, but additional research is needed.

States shirking Medicaid fraud reduction: report

An OIG report finds that 14 states are still not reporting enrollment data used to fight fraud within the Medicaid Interstate Match program.

Morning Headlines 7/16/14

M*Modal Receives Approval to Emerge From Chapter 11

MModal confirms that it will emerge from bankruptcy within three weeks as its Plan of Reorganization is approved by the courts.

Novartis and Google to Work on Smart Contact Lenses

Google and medical device manufacturer Novartis have entered into a licensing agreement to commercialize Google’s recently unveiled glucose monitoring contact lenses.

Best Hospitals 2014-15: Overview and Honor Roll

US News and World Report publishes its 2014 Top Hospitals list with Mayo Clinic taking first place, followed by Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins.

New challenge for team that passed Turing test: health insurance

Three computer scientists from the team that recently claimed to have beaten the Turing Test are leaving the artificial intelligence field and heading to a Santa Rosa company where they will help build a website designed to help consumers shop for Medicare plans.

Morning Headlines 7/15/14

E-Prescribing Trends in the United States

E-Prescribing rates in the US have climbed dramatically since 2011, according to new data published by ONC. In 2011, just seven percent of providers were live with e-prescribing, compared to 70 percent that use the technology today.

New resources improve states’ abilities to advance Medicaid payment and delivery system reform

HHS unveils a new program called the Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program which will work with state agencies to award $100 million in federal funding help promote innovation aimed at advancing Medicaid-specific delivery system improvements.

MMRGlobal Subsidiary Receives Clinical Trials Patent

MMRGlobal receives a US patent titled “Electronic Health Records in Clinical Trials” which the company’s press release says will “opens the door to completely new revenue generating opportunities,” likely by demanding license fees from research organizations and pharmaceutical companies using EHR data within clinical trials.

British Government Picks Illumina to Sequence 100,000 Genomes

US-based gene sequencing firm Illumina lands a $160 million deal with the British government to sequence 100,000 human genomes.