News 2/24/09

From Nomer Stimpson: "Re: stimulus and for-profits. Why is Micky Tripathi getting recognition for anything at this point?  The Mass eHealth Collaborative is a bust, New York treats him like he’s a god, and in the end, he’s just Girish Kumar’s cousin (by marriage, I believe) pushing eClinicalWorks." I asked eCW President Girish Kumar Navani and here is his response: "Thanks for asking the question, your desire for getting the facts is one of the big reasons HIStalk continues to grow. No, Micky is not related to me or anyone at eCW. He is not my cousin. During the MAeHC project, eCW did a very good job implementing practices. We completed the EMR deployments earlier than the planned milestones. We also deployed the Health Exchange software ( eEHX) on time and we came in line with our costs and completed the project on time and budget. I can’t speak for anyone else, but generally speaking, people do tend to comment positively for others when dealt with fairly. I will not be surprised if you start to hear the same from NYC-PCIP project, eCW has successfully implemented 1100+ providers in NYC with 99%+ adoption of the EMR; I guess we are probably related to them as well."

Speaking of eCW, Girish believes the federal stimulus package will allow his company to add 500 jobs within two years. That is pretty aggressive growth considering the company employs 750 today.

McKesson announces its Achieve IT Web site and telephone center for doctors interested in learning more about the impact of the economic stimulus plan.

Clarkstown Medical Associates (NY) rolls out mPro Care, the first two-way mobile diabetes solution that provides automated reminders and accepts readings via standard cell phone.

CCHIT will launch nine new certification programs: clinical research, dermatology, advanced interoperability, and advance quality (all of which are new), plus planned newcomers for behavioral health, long term care, eye care, oncology, advanced security, and advanced clinical decision support. OB/GYN has been tabled until 2012. If you believe certification protects physicians from bad products and sticks to its original purpose of guaranteeing interoperability, then you will probably like these (other than their cost if you’re a vendor). If you didn’t like CCHIT in the first place, they’re giving you more reasons to congratulate yourself for seeing this coming.

A transcription company lapse is blamed when patient records from Northeast Orthopaedics (NY), including full dictations and patient data, are found to be openly accessible on the Internet.

Pulmonary Associates claims its $260,000 EMR investment reduced transcription costs by $53,000 and allowed them to hire four more doctors without having to add more clerical staff. Pulmonary Associates is a 13-physician, two-office practice in Delaware.

Physicians who prescribe electronically through the Rochester RHIO are now able to view the medications prescribed by all providers. Axolotl’s Elysium Exchange and EMR Lite software facilitate the this data exchange, which also includes lab results, radiology reports, and medication history.

President Obama appoints Mary Wakefield head of the Health Resources and Services Administration. Wakefield, a nurse at the University of North Dakota and head of the university’s Center for Rural Health, will lead the agency as it distributes $2.5 billion from the economic stimulus bill. The agency is a division of HHS and responsible for improving access to healthcare services for the uninsured and improving health care in rural communities.

Visions@Work announces the launch of its Preferr product to help physicians automate the referral process. The product will be available on a monthly subscription basis and includes patient data exchange, referral tracking, and secure provider-to-provider communications.

Now that the leaders of the Medical Records Institute have left to lead the non-profit mHealth Initiative, the obvious question is: what will happen to the annual TEPR conference?  Does the industry really need another conference? Let us know what you think. 

Noteworthy Medical receives a "substantial" equity investment from German ehealth service provider CompuGroup. Hard to believe it’s been a year since Noteworthy acquired practice management vendor MARS Medical Systems.

After its deal with Health Systems Solutions falls apart, imaging vendor Emageon agrees to sell itself to AMICAS. Just a couple of weeks ago, Emageon was to be acquired by HSS for $62 million, but last-minute financing issues caused the deal to fall through. Even though the AMICAS deal is $23 million less, Emageon is ready to become an AMICAS subsidiary.

Pee Dee Cardiology, a 16-provider group in SC, selects EHR and PM products from Allscripts to replace its Misys system originally purchased in 1987.

Antek HealthWare releases a practice management system for concierge practices, stripping out the billing capability and instead simply printing an invoice for the patient to pay (bet everybody wishes payment was that simple in their practice).

Mt. Carmel Health System (OH) will cut a number of patient programs as well as its physician practice management service.

A liberal think tank says four million Americans have lost their health insurance since the recession started (it seems like such a quaint time last fall when economists argued whether it was really a recession, technically speaking).

A California woman pleads guilty to running an unnecessary surgery scam, recruiting phony patients for an outpatient surgery center by offering cash or free plastic surgery. It was not a small operation: the fraud covered 45 states and $154 million.

A nurse suing Flushing Hospital (NY) for allowing a doctor with a history of sexual harassment to proposition and grope her and other nurses for eight years is awarded $15 million, with the doctor and hospital splitting the tab. It’s the largest award to an individual in a sexual harassment case in state history.

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