Re: Walmart Health: Just had a great dental visit this morning, which was preceded by helpful reminders from Epic, and…
News 7/1/10
CMS wants to integrate their PQRI program with the EHR Meaningful Use incentives. Assuming the effort would reduce duplicate reporting requirements, it sounds like a win for providers. Look for the final ruling in July.
Physicians at Tufts Medical Center are using the Web to conduct live medical consultations to patients in Haiti. Students from Tufts University School of Medicine are in Haiti and providing the on-site medical services, while faculty physicians are providing real-time consults using American Wells’ Online Care technology. And the medical world gets a little flatter.
Arizona Integrated Physicians (AIP) selects eClinicalWorks EMR/PM system for its 600 physicians. AIP member physicians will be eligible for preferred pricing and receive the eCW software via a SaaS model. Post-implementation support services will be handled by AIP.
Fifty thousand participants are now receiving weekly text messages from Text4baby. The free Text4Baby service provides both English and Spanish updates to women from early pregnancy through the babies’ first year.
According to MGMA members, the top three challenges of running a group practice are dealing with rising operating costs, managing finances with uncertain Medicare rates, and, selecting and implementing a new EHR. Interesting to note that compared to previous years, implementing a patient-centered medical home model is a much bigger concern. Surveyed members ranked medical homes as their 12th biggest challenge, compared to 22 last year.
RCM provider Capario enters a preferred partnership with software billing developer Healthpac Computer systems.
Greenway Medical Technologies is awarded a patent for its custom clinical template builder. Over the last few months a number HIT vendors have announced patent awards, making me wonder if companies seek patents because they want to product truly unique technology, or, because it’s a good marketing tool. I am hoping someone smarter than me will advise.
NeuroCenter Medical Clinic (CA) selects Acentec to provide IT services, including MedInformatix software and integrated Dragon voice recognition.
Enforcement of Red Flags rules for physicians may be delayed yet again as the FTC works through several lawsuits with medical associations and societies. FTC chair John Leibowitz says that members of the AMA, American Osteopathic Association, and state medical societies will be not be required to follow the rules until 90 days after a decision is handed down through the federal court. In case you are counting, the FTC has delayed physician enforcement five times already.
HIStalk Practice had a big month in June with over 10,000 views. In the last six months readership has jumped a whopping 35%, which makes both Mr. H and me very happy. We appreciate readers stopping by, and, are very grateful to our terrific sponsors for keeping the keyboards clicking.
Happy Independence Day to all!
In reference to your question on the recent high number patents being awarded to EHR vendors. I believe three things are fueling these patent grabs.
1. As the EHR vendor market consolidates further these patents are use to increase the net value of the company being purchased. As in most cases when purchasing an EHR vendor your doing it for two reasons, customer base and intellectual property.
2. As it is today and going forward most EHR’s are quite a bit alike. As in the past they have had be CCHIT certified to be marketable to the masses, and going forward they will need to be certified to HHS Meaningful Use criteria. That said what they vendors will be left with is selling on the value proposition of what makes their EHR more user friendly then their competitors and what tools they have built into their EHR that compels users to use it.
3. Finally I believe as the market consolidates and more patents are granted we will see suits from vendors stating a patent infringement as the basis of the suit.
Time will tell but these are my thoughts as to why we are seeing such a large number of patents being sought and awarded by EHR vendors. I welcome others to comment too.