News 9/20/12

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) introduces a bill to expand the MU program to include safety net clinics that don’t necessarily qualify under the Medicaid incentive program. Kerry’s legislation would allow providers to qualify for incentives if at least 30 percent of their patient volume comes from lower-income patients. The current MU program requires providers to have at least 30 percent of their patient volume from Medicaid beneficiaries.

 

EDI provider MD-Online acquires Intivia, Inc., developer of the InSync EHR/PM system and a provider of RCM and medical transcription services.

EHR vendor Data Strategies will integrate Alpha II’s ClaimStaker scrubbing solution into its MDsuite EHR/PM product.

The Texas-based FQHC CommUnityCare selects NextGen-RCM Services to incorporate with its existing NextGen-Ambulatory EHR and NextGen-Practice Management.

Michigan Health Connect HIE and Greenway Medical will provide data exchange between Greenway’s PrimeSUITE customers and hospitals on the Michigan Health Connect platform.

White physicians are more likely than black, Hispanic, and Asian physicians to use HIT to communicate electronically with patients and to exchange clinical data with other providers, but minority physicians are more likely than white physicians to use HIT to generate service reminders and find information about drug formularies. Researchers were unable to establish a cause for disparities in IT acceptance but speculate that white doctors are less concerned about using electronic drug formularies to help patients reduce drug costs. The study, which was published in Perspectives in Health Information Management, includes all sorts of limitations and is based on data collected in 2004-2005. While I suppose it may help policy makers to be aware of potential variations in HIT acceptance, I wonder if eight-year-old data is relevant to the current HIT environment.

RAC auditors from CMS will begin auditing physicians in 15 “Region C” states, focusing on claims containing Level 4 (99214) and Level 5 (99215) CPT codes.

AMA releases the 2013 CPT code set, which goes into effect for claims filed as of January 1, 2013.

The state of Colorado says that early results of its Medicaid medical home initiative show a 14 percent drop in inpatient hospital stays among children and a five percent drop in adult ER visits.

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