News 6/30/11

The Washington and Idaho Regional Extension Center (WIREC) includes Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, eMDs, GE, Greenway, NextGen, and Pulse in its EHR Group Purchasing Program.

ADP AdvancedMD announces plans to expand its workforce by 45% this and add up to 100 new jobs in the Salt Lake City area.

In Australia, the government initiates a telehealth incentive program that pays general practitioners about $6,400 for the first time they help a patient take part in a telehealth consult with a specialist. The intent of the program is to encourage GPs to buy the equipment necessary to serve rural patients remotely without the patients having to travel huge distances . Eligible GPs must work at least 12 miles outside of a city center, which is where 62% of Australia’s population lives.

Northeast Valley Health Corporation (CA) and Community Health Center Network (CA) are among 32 community health centers to select NextGen EHR solutions.

HHS says it will shelve its “mystery shopper” survey, which required government employees to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices, and gauge the difficulty of getting an appointments. The program’s intent was to measure access to primary care. I am with Senator Orrin Hatch, however, who said the project was "wasting taxpayer dollars to snoop into the care physicians are providing their patients.”

Earlier this week we posted Micky Tripathi’s latest Pretzel Logic column, The Quality Measure Conundrum. The piece includes many gems, including an explanation of the significant effort required on the part of practices to track and report on clinical quality measures. Micky also shares his findings from a non-scientific random sample of 25 vendors: only five (athenaclinicals, e-MDs, Epic, Greenway, and NextGen) are certified for all 44 quality measures, while the rest were certified for the bare minimum of nine measures. The article is a must-read for anyone wanting to be in the know about EMRs and Meaningful Use.

An MGMA advisor and a Navicure exec share opinions on why practices are behind CMS’s endorsed timeline to implement HIPAA 5010:

• Many vendors, payers, and practices believe the 5010 deadlines will be pushed back as the 4010 deadlines were.
• With an average upgrade price tag of $16,000 per physician, many practices are putting off the expenditure.
• Practices are too busy addressing Meaningful Use and ICD-10.
• Practices are relying on their clearinghouses to take care of the conversion. This approach may be risky because some software packages must also be upgraded by the PM vendor.

Practice Fusion expands its board with the appointment of Cora M. Tellez. She’s the former president of Health Net and CEO of Blue Shield of California-Bay Region.

The AMA and over 100 other state and medical specialty societies send President Obama a letter, urging the elimination of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for paying physicians to treat Medicare patients.  The current temporary Medicare payment fix is set to expire in January 2012, at which time a 30% SGR pay cut is scheduled to go into effect.

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