Morning Headlines 8/27/13

Q&A: OSEHRA CEO Seong Mun on iEHR, future of open source

Leading up to the 3rd annual OSHERA summit, CEO Seong Mun answers questions on unifying VistA under a standard codebase and the odds of VistA coming out on top in the DoD EHR vendor search.

Data Triage for the Boston Bombing: How Beth Israel Deaconess Protected Patient Records From Hackers, Journalists, and Curious Doctors

FastCompany interviews John Halamka, MD, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess on the IT security protocols used to thwart hackers and journalists from accessing victim’s medical records in the post-marathon bombing hours while its staff treated both bombing victims, and then later that week bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Tony Abbott eager to overhaul e-health system

Leading up to federal elections in Australia, Opposition leader Tony Abbott vows to overhaul the struggling patient-controlled electronic health record program if elected. The PCEHR program has been widely criticized due to cost overruns and dismal patient engagement.

Morning Headlines 8/23/13

Move Over, Richard Kiley. Here’s Why We Want to Combine Public Health Data with Health Care Data

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces a $100,000 prize as part of the foundations latest public health challenge. The contest is seeking innovative ways of combine public health data with medical data to improve community health.

Nuance plan could fend off Carl Icahn

In an effort to prevent activist investor and billionaire Carl Icahn from increasing his stake in the company, Nuance enacts a "poison pill" defense which effectively prevents any outside investor from gaining 20 percent ownership of the firm.

Total cost of that axed NHS IT FIASCO to taxpayers: £10.1bn

In England, the final cost of the failed NPfIT program has been tallied at $16 billion. The program launched in 2002 and was formally suspended in September 2011 when government leaders acknowledged that there were fundamental weaknesses with a " top-down, centrally-imposed IT system."

UMass Medical Center settles fraud charges

UMass Memorial Medical Center pays $66,000 to settle fraud charges stemming from a whistle blower case claiming that the hospital mailed unpaid bills to homeless shelters so that they could then submit the bills to a state program for payment.

Morning Headlines 8/22/13

Allscripts Announces Winners of the Open App Challenge

Allscripts announces the launch of the Allscripts App Store along with the winners of its Open App Challenge during Wednesday’s kickoff of the 2013 Allscripts Client Experience. The contest challenged developers to create a revolutionary app that integrates with the Allscripts EHR. The winning app is healthfinch Refillwizard, which automates prescription renewal requests.

The Highway to Better Healthcare is Open: Missouri Health Connection Rolls-Out Statewide Health Information Network

Missouri launches its statewide health information exchange network, providing services to more than 7,000 physicians, 62 hospitals, and 350 clinics. Missouri contracted with InterSystems in July 2012 to design and deploy the network.

Emergency Clearance: Public Information Collection Requirements Submitted to the Office of Management and Budget

A Federal Register post by CMS calls for an emergency review of its recently proposed rule that would require breach reporting for health information exchanges to be capped at a one-hour limit between the time an HIE breach is discovered and the time it is reported, stating that the proposed rule is essential to public security and failing to approve it quickly would likely result in public harm.

Morning Headlines 8/21/13

First Databank Acquires Design Clinicals

First Databank announces the acquisition of Seattle-based Design Clinicals, the developers of a clinician-friendly medication reconciliation software.

Intuit sells Intuit Health Group back to Raleigh entrepreneur Steve Malik

Intuit Health Group, which went by Medfusion before being acquired by Intuit in 2011, has been sold back to its original founder Steve Malik for an undisclosed sum.

Say Hi To Oscar: The New Kid That May Change Health Insurance

New York City-based health insurance startup Oscar is trying to re-engineer the relationship between insurance companies and patients. Oscar’s goal is to leverage technology, like telehealth visits, patient portals, and mobile wellness apps, to be such a value adding insurance company that patients chose them before they chose a doctor. Oscar will formally launch when New York’s health insurance exchange launches on October 1st.

Allscripts Introduces Population Health Analytics

Allscripts launches its new population health management solution which provides point of care interventions to reduce readmission rates and help control costs associated with chronic disease management.

Morning Headlines 8/20/13

Patient Engagement: Blockbuster Drug Or Snake Oil?

A recent Forbes article discusses patient engagement strategies along with some of the notable success stories reported thus far.

Delaware considers statewide ACOs

Delaware Governor Jack Markell is working with policy advisors and CMS to draft plans that will bring all of Delaware’s payment and provider systems under the ACO model.

Greenway Reports Fourth-Quarter and Fiscal 2013 Results

Greenway reports its Q4 and 2013 year-end results: -$0.08 EPS on the quarter, which missed analysts estimates of -$0.02. The company ended the year in the red, reporting a net loss of $5.1 million. Shares traded flat during after hours activity.

Morning Headlines 8/19/13

Forbes ranks Cerner among world’s most innovative companies

Forbes ranks Cerner #13 on its list of the world’s 100 most innovative companies, as measured by the difference between its market capitalization and the net present value of cash flows from its existing businesses.

Jeremy Hunt plans sale of confidential patient medical records to private firms

In England, the General Practice Extraction Service will send de-identified electronic patient records from NHS to a central database, where they can be bought by private companies performing research.

NSF invests $20 million in large projects to keep the nation’s cyberspace secure and trustworthy

The Trustworthy Health and Wellness Program will receive a five-year, $10 million National Science Foundation cybersecurity grant to develop tools for authentication and privacy, malware detection, and medical IT auditing.

Bingham Memorial Hospital CEO pleads guilty to stalking charge

Louis Kraml, CEO of the Idaho hospital, pleads guilty of ordering the IT director to tap the telephone of a former hospital physician. Kraml received a suspended jail sentence, probation, a $1,000 fine, and 100 hours of community service. Charges were dropped against two other IT employees, but a warrant has been issued for the arrest of IT Director Jack York after he failed to appear in court.

Morning Headlines 8/16/13

Investor digital-health darling CareCloud raises another $9M

The additional funding raises the company’s total to $55 million.

Penn State Employees Protest Wellness Effort

A professor’s petition calls for the university’s wellness program to be cancelled, saying employees shouldn’t have to answer health questions and commit to receiving an annual physical exam in order to avoid a $100 per month insurance surcharge. The university says it’s trying to hold down healthcare costs in the face of a projected 13 percent cost increase in the next year alone and voluntary health and wellness programs have drawn minimal participation.

EHR costs outweigh financial benefits, doctors say

An athenahealth physician survey finds that while only 18 percent of them have an unfavorable opinion of EHRs and 68 percent of them say EHRs improve patient care, 51 percent say EHR costs outweigh their benefits. The survey also found that fewer physicians plan to buy an EHR in 2013 since 98 percent of them already have one.

Morning Headlines 8/15/13

Why EHRs are not (yet) disruptive

According to the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, EHRs aren’t disruptive because they were designed to simply replace paper and users aren’t motivated to change their business model.

Affinity Health Plan Fined $1.3 Million for Photocopier HIPAA Violation

AHP failed to erase the hard drive of a leased photocopier containing PHI of 345,000 patients.

Quality Systems slips on a less-than-stellar initiation at KeyBanc

Analyst’s report suggest that Quality Systems / NextGen and presumably other practice EHR vendors may be losing ground as hospitals acquire physician practices and replace their systems with those of enterprise vendors such as Epic and Cerner. 

Morning Headlines 8/14/13

Surescripts Adds 19 Healthcare Organizations to National Network

Surescipts adds 19 state HIEs and health information service providers to its national health information network, including Cerner, ICA, and Quest Diagnostics.

As its Farm Campus opens, Epic Systems prepares for even more workers

Epic Systems prepares to open its third campus, built to resemble a working farm, as the company also completes a fourth campus that will open in the fall.

CareFusion Reports Fourth Quarter And Fiscal 2013 Results

Revenue was down six percent, adjusted EPS $0.49 vs. $0.55, in line with expectations.

Scripps Launches Study To Assess Role Of Mobile Health Devices In Lowering Health Costs

Scripps Translational Science Institute launches a clinical study that will determine if wireless technologies and the use of social media can reduce healthcare spending.

Morning Headlines 8/13/13

Marlin Equity Acquires Health Care Software Firm

Marlin Equity Partners acquires long-term care software vendor 6N Systems.

Doctor lost control of patient records

A physician in Canada is cited for failing to exercise control over health records when she tries to obtain the electronic medical records of her patients to start a new practice and is denied by the EMR vendor because she had never registered as the official contact with the vendor.

Report: Apple will reveal new iPhone next month

Apple will reportedly announce a new model of the iPhone, rumored to be named either the iPhone 6 or iPhone 5S, on September 10.

Morning Headlines 8/12/13

Draft – FDASIA Committee Report

HIT Policy Committee’s FDASIA workgroup, tasked with determining now to address patient safety concerns with electronic health records, call for leaving healthcare IT unregulated by FDA, but encourages reporting,  post-implementation safety testing, and allowing customers to publicly rate their applications. They also call for national standards for quality process and interoperability and encouraging vendors to publicly share patient safety information.

WattsUpDoc looks at medical device power usage to spot malware

University of Michigan researchers develop WattsUpDoc, which detects malware in biomedical devices by looking for changes in the power they consume.

Merge Healthcare CEO resigns

Merge parts ways with CEO Jeff Surges after a disappointing quarterly report.

Morning Headlines 8/9/13

Allscripts announces second quarter 2013 results

Allscripts announces Q2 results: revenue of $344.8 million and $0.05 EPS, compared to $370 million and $0.16 EPS for the same period in 2012. Paul Black is optimistic, based on strong bookings for the quarter driven primarily from its population health solutions.

Nuance Gains as Icahn Builds Stake in Software Maker

Investment billionaire and hostile takeover specialist Carl Icahn has increased his percent ownership of Nuance from nine percent to 16 percent, according to an SEC filing.

CDS Surveillance Significantly Impacts Patient Outcomes

A KLAS survey of 140 providers evaluates clinical surveillance systems which as a whole seem to be delivering on promises of improved outcomes, as 79 percent of customers report that utilizing the technology has a moderate to significant impact on clinical outcomes.

Inova Translational Medicine Institute and GNS Healthcare Partner To Advance Diagnosis and Prevention of Preterm Birth

The Inova Translational Medicine Institute and GNS Healthcare will partner on a commercial project aimed at developing software that will use sophisticated algorithms and datasets to create personalized prediction of preterm birth risk and more accurate gestational length estimates.

Morning Headlines 8/8/13

Federal policymakers to develop EHR testing program for behavioral health, long-term care facilities

ONC will announce a voluntary program for the testing and certification of EHRs used by long-term care, post-acute care, and behavioral health providers.

Principles and Strategy for Accelerating Health Information Exchange

ONC releases the results of its March 2013 RFI on interoperability and health information exchanges, and publishes its broad, long-range strategy on accelerating HIE adoption.

4 potential candidates to replace Mostashari

Government Health IT speculates on ONC internal and external candidates that may take the helm after Farzad Mostashari, MD, moves on. The list includes current Principal Deputy National Coordinator and former Baylor Health CIO David Muntz and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO John Halamka, MD.

The Pros and Cons of Electronic Health Records

This month’s issue of The Hospitalist explores the EHR cut-and-paste dilemma through a fictional clinical scenario told from a physician’s perspective.

Morning Headlines 8/7/13

Farzad Mostashari, M.D., ONC Chief, Stepping Down

Farzad Mostashari, MD will step down this fall after serving two years as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

Reduction in federal funding will result in job cuts at many Vermont hospitals

Fletcher Allen Health Care (VT) will add 280 jobs over the next 10 years despite an expected $200 million operational loss. The job growth is attributed to its recently implemented Epic system.

Nuance cuts forecast on delayed deals, move to subscription

Nuance lowers its year-end forecast from $1.33 to $1.45 EPS to a revised $1.27 to $1.35 EPS, due largely to contract delays from mobile customers and a migration to a subscription-based revenue model. The news led to a six percent drop in stock price during after hours trading.

Morning Headlines 8/6/13

Can plagiarism detection tools catch EHR upcoding?

A Government Health IT article explores the idea of combating copy-and-paste documentation in healthcare by adopting anti-plagiarism software popular in many academic settings.

CACI wins VLER contract

The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded CACI International a $14 million contract to build a data exchange platform that will consolidate EHR data and benefits information across the VA, the Defense Department, and other agencies in support of the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record program.

EMR Impact: How Patients Are Connecting To The Future Of Healthcare

A study of 1,000 insured US health consumers finds that 52 percent are interested in using a patient portal, but are not currently doing so. Patients indicating that they are using a portal reported higher than average patient satisfaction scores and stronger network loyalty.

St. Elizabeth Hospital Recognized as Leader in Electronic Medical Records

Thirty-eight bed Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Enumclaw, WA achieves HIMSS Stage 7 recognition.

Morning Headlines 8/5/13

Maine hospitals disband remote ICU program, citing costs

MaineHealth announces that it will stop offering its tele-ICU service in October after several participating hospitals drop out. The program connected nine rural hospitals across the state with a 24-hour-a-day ICU command center at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Whistleblower suit: Hospitals defrauded Medicaid

A whistleblower lawsuit filed by the former CFO of Health Management Associates charges HMA and Tenet Healthcare with paying kickbacks to clinics that referred pregnant illegal immigrants to their hospitals where emergency care claims were then submitted for their deliveries. The report says that the scheme has been operating for more than a decade.

More doctors avoiding Medicare patients

According to CMS, the number of doctors opting out of Medicare has tripled since 2009, with 9,500 physicians opting out in 2012.

Morning Headlines 8/2/13

Cerner to redevelop Bannister Mall site as office park with as many as 15,000 workers

Cerner has purchased a 236-acre former mall outside Kansas City that it will use to house its growing workforce.

EDCO Awarded Patent for Medical Record Scanning Technology and Process

Frontenac, MO-based EDCO Health Information Solutions has been granted a patent for a scanning solution capable of identifying a document type by analyzing its content, rather than requiring a bar code.

Hospitals Face Challenges Using Electronic Health Records to Generate Clinical Quality Measures

The American Hospital Association reports that hospitals are struggling to adopt automated clinical quality reporting following a study that tracks the implementation of electronic clinical quality measures across four hospitals.

Quality Systems Seen Luring Bids Amid Pressure: Real M&A

According to Bloomberg, NextGen parent company Quality Systems, Inc. could attract buyout bids from Siemens and McKesson.