News 1/17/12

From REC Fan “Re: Meaningful Use deadlines. I just got this email from CMS that has some good reminders for EPs. The deadline for registering and attesting to meet MU and receive payment for the 2011 calendar year is February 29, 2012. February 29th is also the last day EPs can submit pending Medicare Part B claims for CY 2011. Providers who applied to for MU incentives but did not met the $24,000 threshold for Part B allowed charges should look for their incentive checks (based on 75% of the EP’s charges) sometime in April.” REC Fan also forwarded this link for EPs who interested in registering and attesting.

Princeton Orthopaedic Associates (NJ) selects SRS EHR. Speaking of SRS, CEO Evan Steele recently shared with me that last year the company grew its revenue 37% over 2010’s results and increased sales by 104%.

Omaha Imaging (NE) selects Atlantic Health Management Solutions to provide billing, collections, and provider contracting and credentialing for its eight physicians.

The Arizona REC adds Navicure to its Vendor Alliance program.

The AMA updates the website for its Practice Management Center, which is accessed by about 7,000 visitors a month. Among changes, AMA has added a Knowledge Center that provides access to practice toolkits, webinars, and white papers.

Physician offices added 67,600 jobs in 2011, which is more than double the 25,300 created in 2010 and the second highest number in the last 10 years.

MED3OOO points out that  KLAS scores for its InteGreat EHR increased 11% over the last year.

I noticed that athenahealth’s 2012 User Conference is coming up April 1-4 in Boston.  What really caught my eye was mention of the keynote speaker, Abraham Verghese, who authored of one of my favorite reads, Cutting for Stone. I am sure the 50 different educational sessions will also be great.

Small to medium-sized practices plan to buy tablets at a faster pace than larger practices in 2012, with 73% of the smaller offices expecting to make a purchase. Practices anticipate spending on average a cumulative total of $6,800 on tablets over the next year.

Gateway EDI’s director of client services says that small labs and physician offices of one to five doctors are experiencing more problems than larger organizations in the transition to 5010. Gateway’s Jackie Griffin attributes the problems on smaller entities’ lack of resources to prepare for the transition and predicts most will experience a financial shortfall over the next 45 days. I wonder if other vendors and practices agree with Griffin’s assessment. 

E-mail Inga.