News 8/13/13

Less than 12 percent of providers are planning to replace or purchase an EMR and only 8.6 percent plan to do so within the year, according to physicians participating in an athenahealth/Epocrates survey . While not apples to apples, I find athena’s replace/purchase numbers more realistic than Black Book’s recent estimate that up to 17 percent of practices with an existing EMR will replace their software by the end of the year.  Other key findings from the Physician Sentiment Survey:

• The majority of physicians believe EMRs have at least some positive impact on patient care, though 17 percent believe they worsen care.
• Most physicians don’t believe the financial benefits of an EMR outweigh the costs, though most believe the patient care benefits of EMRs outweigh the costs.
• Seventy-six percent of physicians report having purchased an EMR.

Emdeon reports Q2 adjusted earnings of $77.2 million, down 3.7 percent from a year ago. Revenues were up almost six percent to $311 million.

Emdeon also announces that the Chain Drug Consortium has renewed its agreement to utilize the Emdeon Clinical Exchange eRx Network.

The folks at Greenway Medical sent me a note bragging about Jason Dufner and his 2013 PGA Championship victory, his first major title since Greenway beginning sponsoring him. I actually watched a bit of the tournament Sunday and mildly impressed my fellow couch potatoes when I mentioned  that  the logo on Dufner’s shirt came from one of the same companies that sponsors HIStalk and HIStalk Practice.

Allscripts Enterprise 11.4.1 and Professional 13.0 EHRs receive 2014 ONC HIT Certification from the Drummond Group. Interestingly both products earned two complete ambulatory certifications, one with Allscripts FollowMyHealth (formerly Jardogs) and one with Allscripts Patient Portal by Intuit. I interpret that to mean that despite its recent acquisition of Jardogs, Allscripts does not have immediate plans to force customers to migrate off the Intuit platform.

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