News 6/21/12

The 23-physician Medford Medical Clinic (OR) selects athenahealth’s athenaClinicals, athenaCollector, and athenaCommunicator services, as well as business intelligent services from athenahealth subsidiary Anodyne Health Partners.

e-MDS 2012 User Conference and Symposium starts Thursday in Austin, TX. Send me an update if you are attending.

CMS says that as of the end of May, more than 110,000 EPs and over 2,400 hospitals had been paid a combined $5.7 billion in EHR incentives from Medicare and Medicaid. That’s about 20% of eligible Medicare and Medicaid providers. CMS also reports that over 133,000 primary care providers and 10,000 specialists were working with RECs, though only 12,000 (8%)have received incentive payments. Sounds like a pretty low number to me.

Greenway Medical Technologies announces a pilot integration of Microsoft HealthVault with PrimeSUITE and its PrimePATIENT portal. The integration will allow patients to create a HealthVault account through PrimePATIENT and upload clinical elements and summaries from PrimeSUITE to HealthVault

At its annual policy making meeting, the AMA votes to evaluate ICD-11 as a possible alternative to ICD-10 for replacing ICD-9, saying it is “critical to evaluate alternatives that make for a less cumbersome transition for physicians and allow physicians to focus on their primary priority – patient care.”

CMS reports it paid $662 million in e-prescribing and PQRS incentives in 2010. The average e-prescribing incentive payment was $3,836 per EP and $14,476 per physician practice, while the average PQRS payment was $1,257 per EP and $20,364 per practice. Participation in both programs jumped significantly from 2009 to 2010.

The local press highlights the roll-out of Cerner’s ambulatory EMR at 70 Palmetto Health offices (SC).

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