News 4/18/13

 

The HHS Office of the Inspector General publishes protocols for providers who wish to voluntarily disclose self-discovered evidence of potential fraud. The OIG notes that physicians and other healthcare providers that follow self-disclosure protocols “deserve to pay a lower multiple on single damages than would be normally required in resolving a Government-initiated investigation,” though the specific multiplier may vary depending on the facts of the case.

NextGen reseller TSI Healthcare recognizes Carolina Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Center as its Circle of Excellence award winner in the practice management category.

HIMSS Analytics recognizes 54 Essentia Health (MN, ND, WI) ambulatory clinics for achieving Stage 7 on the Ambulatory EMR Adoption Model. The clinics run Epic.

Meditab Software introduces the AllergyEHR Shot Lab, which works with third-party EHRs to provide immunotherapy tracking and management.

The preliminary results are in from our 2013 HIStalk Practice Reader Survey. I’ll summarize the findings in a separate post, but I’m pleased to report that 91 percent of survey participants believe that reading HIStalk Practice has helped them perform their job better in the last year. Readers shared a number of good ideas to make the site even better and Mr. H and I will be weeding through those in the next few days. Thanks to all who took the time to participate.

GE Healthcare IT announces several new initiatives in support of customers at this week’s 2013 Centricity Live USER Conference in Washington, DC. Proposed programs include:

• The GE Centricity Productivity Award for practices that most embody GE’s vision of “connecting productivity with care”
• An expansion of the channel partner program to support small and midsize independent practices

The Wall Street Journal interviews athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, who discusses his company’s purchase of Epocrates, physician adoption of cloud-based services, his political family ties, and more. A couple of highlights:

The biggest obstacle to athena’s business success has been the fact that we’re totally unknown. And when we’re known, we’re not trusted because we’re too new, too young, too complicated. Everybody knows Epocrates and trusts them. And so the first benefit is that, is just that we can now be known.

I worked for my uncle George—41’s—campaign when I was a teenager and he has been an idol my whole life. Not at the same level as my dad, who also had a much bigger impression on me. But my uncle is very, very, very loyal, committed to his team, and I am that way as well

Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics announces a telehealth program that will connect allergy patients in Wichita with providers in Kansas City. An RN will facilitate the remote visits and physicians will use a digital stethoscope to assess a patient’s ears, nose, and throat.

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