News 2/12/13

Capario realizes double-digit revenue growth from its provider base in 2012 and says it significantly increased adoption of its portal application. Capario also notes that 100 percent of its clients participating in KLAS’s annual satisfaction survey believe the company keeps it promises and say they would buy from Capario again.

Vitera Healthcare Solutions hires Kermit Randa (Surgical Information Systems) as EVP of sales and marketing.

Athenahealth earns the #8 spot on Fast Company’s list of the World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare. Forbes says athenahealth “stands out” among other EMR companies because theirs is “a system that doctors actually like to use.” Teledoc, a provider of phone and video medical consultations, came in at #9.

Practices should set expectations early for the distribution of MU payments, suggest industry consultants. The decision should ideally be made prior to attestation so providers know whether they are allowed to keep incentive funds or if they are expected to return monies to the practice.

TransforMED, the AAFP subsidiary that supports practices transitioning to PCMHs, announces the retirement of president and CEO Terry McGeeney, MD.

SimplifyMD launches simpleStart, a program that allows medical practices to  go from a demo of the simplfyMD EHR to live clinical use in the same day.

An AHRQ study finds that projects funded under the “Enabling Patient-Centered Care Through Health IT” initiative have shown that healthcare outcomes are positively impacted when HIT is used to create or enhance patient-centered care.

The Huron Valley Physicians Association selects e-MDs as a preferred partner to provide EMR solutions for its 500 physician members.

Don’t miss the interview we did this weekend with SRSsoft CEO Evan Steele, who discusses a range of topics, including Thoma Bravo’s recent investment in the company, “usable” EMRs,  and MU. Steele has been an outspoken critic of the MU program and shared a few of his concerns:

• The government’s Meaningful Use program has sapped innovation out of the EHR marketplace, and it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future if CMS continues churning out overly complex rules.
• The government has set the development roadmap for all EHR companies with its Meaningful Use certification requirements and the compressed timeframe for development and implementation.
• As Meaningful Use has piled on requirement after requirement, physicians are drowning in program-related minutiae.
• Not understanding the complex requirements has kept many from even attempting to participate, and many who are managing to muddle through are suffering tremendous losses in productivity.
• Dissatisfaction is even greater among specialists. They were included as an afterthought in what is basically a primary care program, and many resent reporting on requirements that are irrelevant to their practices.

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