News 4/26/12

Quality Systems, the parent company of NextGen, acquires Matrix Management Solutions, a NextGen reseller that provides RCM, implementation, and support services. Quality Systems says the acquisition will “enable NextGen Practice Solutions to expand its footprint among private and hospital-based physicians and groups by leveraging Matrix’s RCM expertise.”

Emdeon completes the re-pricing of its existing senior secured credit facilities and borrows $80 million of additional term loans for general corporate purposes, including potential acquisitions.

 

Phreesia adds an electronic version of the M-CHAT autism screening tool for toddlers to its patient check-in system.

 

Cokingtin Eye Center (KS) goes live on MedInformatix’s EMR on May 1.

 

eClinicalWorks opens a Chicago office to provide a central US presence.

 

Hawaii Island Beacon Community implements a physician practice redesign program to transform up to 30 independent primary care physician practices into PCMHs. Participating practices will receive at no charge practice assessments, educational tools, and PCMH recognition upon program completion.

The Houston Chronicle reports that that Medicare has overpaid physicians millions of dollars in bonuses, including $33 million in 2010 alone. The overpaid physicians practiced in areas that were once considered underserved but which have since been reclassified. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration is responsible for updating the records of qualified communities, but failed to adjust its lists from 2003 until November 2011. As a result, physicians in at least 311 communities have been incorrectly paid bonuses equal to 10% of each Medicare claim filed. Good luck getting those funds back.

Even though as many as 91% of US physicians were eligible to participate in the Meaningful Use program last year based on Medicare revenue or Medicaid volume, only 11% of EPs had both an EHR with at least 10 of the 15 capabilities required for Stage 1 and had plans to apply for incentives. That’s a far lower participation rate that CMS originally estimated (as high as 36% for the Medicare MU program and 47% for Medicaid’s.)

 

Overall physician compensation fell in from 2010 to 2011, though the  average pay in several specialties averaged more than $300,000. Radiologists had the highest average compensation ($315,000) and pediatricians the lowest ($158,000.)

 

Occasional HIStalk Practice contributor Lyle Berkowitz, MD is profiled here discussing Healthfinch, an HIT start-up company he co-founded. Healthfinch’s productivity apps include RefillWizard, which connects to a practice’s EMR and runs prescription refill requests through a Web service.

 

E-mail Inga.