The article about Pediatric Associates in CA has a nugget with a potentially outsized impact: the implication that VFC vaccines…
News 4/12/11
Capario partners with Data Media Associates to offer customers customized patient statements and mailing, plus a payment portal.
An analyst with Avondale Partners notes that Emdeon is tracking more than 20 potential acquisitions. The analyst predicts Emdeon will “focus on adding solutions that monetize data from payment integrity, clinical messaging, business intelligence and decision support, and look to expand its RCM suite, and clinical information exchange.”
The State of Hawaii Public Safety Department contracts with eClinicalWorks to provide EHR to the 4,200 inmates in its correctional facilities.
eClinicalWorks, by the way, announces the pending availability of its MAQ Dashboards, which gives practices the data required to illustrate their Meaningful Use of the ECW EHR.
McKesson’s Practice Partner, ABELMed EHR, CureMD, and NCG Medical are named preferred certified EHR vendors by the Ponce School of Medicine REC (PR).
MinuteClinic, the healthcare division of CVS Caremark, partners with Advocate Health Care and Advocate Physician Partners to serve as medical directors for 23 MinuteClinics in Illinois.
The AMA says there are currently about 8,000 health-related apps available through the iTunes store. Wow. The AMA believes that’s not enough, so it is sponsoring an App Challenge to find new apps. Since first announced March 30th, the AMA has received 60 submissions from physicians, residents, fellows, and medical students.
Please help me in welcoming Julie McGovern as a new contributor to HIStalk Practice. Julie is CEO and founder of Practice Wise, an eight-year-old, Wilsonville, OR-based consulting firm based that focuses on clinical and financial services for ambulatory practices. Find her debut Practice Wise post here.
US adults are strongly in favor of physician EMR use and the electronic exchange of data between physicians, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey. Though only 14% say they can access their records online, 34% can order prescription refills online, 22% can schedule appointments online, and 21% can email their physician.
Of the first 13 states to launch their Medicaid meaningful use programs, only six have issued incentive payments. At least 18 states don’t expect to open their programs until the second half of the year and nine have not yet indicated a start date.
Chartwise Medical Systems partners with consulting firm H.I. Mentors to provide ChartWise customers preliminary reviews of their clinical documentation improvement process, as well as training.
A GAO report finds that when physicians and patients appeal denied claims, reversals were made 39% to 59% of the time. Miscodings and incomplete information on claims were common causes for automatic claims denials.
Nearly 70% of physicians view information from drug company reps as useful in making prescribing decisions, according the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. The results of this survey remind me of a conversation I once had with a physician about the overall product knowledge of drug reps compared to EMR/PM reps. His opinion: EMR reps would be far more successful if they took a few lessons from drug reps. Drug reps tend to be well versed on the specifics of their products and able to articulate their advantages and disadvantages over the competition. Generally they were excellent with follow-up and regularly asked physicians for feedback on their products. I have to admit being irritated by that remark at the time, since I always viewed those of us selling EMRs as one step above the former cheerleaders and football players that moved into the pharma world. On later reflection I decided the observation had (and still does have) merit.
Modernizing Medicine, makers of documentation software for dermatologists, raises $7.1 million, including $4 million from Speedo swimwear owner Pentland Group. The Electronic Medical Assistant application was designed by a practicing dermatologists and costs $650 a month, plus a onetime fee of $6,000.
On applications, like the quote on “the AMA doesn’t think this is enough”:) Everywhere I turn on the web someone has developer competition going, even Microsoft has theirs for Life Science applications and I have come to the point to where some of this stuff I am “junkers” as nobody is using it, and this is mostly on the consumer side of the healthcare apps. Why write an application just because you can. Even some of the pharma companies are retiring some of the stuff they put out there and I am guessing it may have been due to lack of use. All these apps that do only “one thing” should get together with the other guys who do one thing and create apps that do a lot of things and maybe there might be more interest. That’s just my opinion but ee gad how many can you look at, much less use:)
What we need more of is collaboration and I once did a post about innovation without collaboration is what is fouling up our system. I think if we move past the innovation word and get to some serious collaboration we might get some where and they can leave out some of the steroid marketing too. To drive the point home that we are not short in innovation here in the US and that we are flooded with marketing, there’s a company that will literally paint your house with advertising, we have reached a new limit. I don’t want Facebook and Twitter on my house and most home owner groups would probably frown, but you have to see the image to appreciate:) I do hope EHR vendors don’t give this a second look and get any ideas:) The picture is priceless:)
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/04/give-me-break-would-you-live-in-home.html
And with that I’m going back to continue my conversation with the @aflacduck on Twitter:) We are talking now but I probably have no chance on being the new quack. By the way too, my favorite picture from HIMMS was the one Inga took at the Peabody, they do know how to treat ducks but I wouldn’t want to live in their penthouse:)