News 10/17/13

CMS extends the registration period for the PQRS administrative claims-based reporting option and the PQRS Group Reporting Option from October 15 to October 18, 2013 to give providers additional time to register. Failure to participate in PQRS for 2013 triggers a 1.5 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements in 2015.

e-MDs will integrate Phreesia’s point-of-care check-in solution into its EHR platform.

CareCloud CEO Albert Santalo tells the Boston Business Journal that his company may launch an IPO next year. The company also just announced the hiring of R. Scott Lentz as CFO, who was the CFO for Picis when it registered for its IPO and who has been involved in fund raising activities for other organizations throughout his career. Lentz also served as CFO for Aprima Medical and PracticeOne.

Waiting Room Solutions changes its name to WRS Health “to reflect its major expansion of service offerings.” Reading between the lines I take this to mean that in addition to its PM/EMR platform, WRS has expanded its offerings to include  transcription, bookkeeping, practice marketing, and other services. The company also announced the integration of PDR Network into its EMR.

Medfusion rebrands its recently reacquired Inuit Health patient portal technology back to its original name and adds Vern Davenport (formerly of MModal) and Buck Goldstein (UNC Chapel Hill) to its board.

A North Texas publication profiles two physicians in the same practice who have differing views on EMRs. Calvin Simmons, MD has used paper for 40 years and believes that using an EMR makes a physician less focused on the patient and more attentive to the computer; he also believes an EMR would slow him down. Meanwhile Edward Kremer, MD uses Practice Fusion and claims he “couldn’t function” without an EMR. Interestingly, both doctors claim to have patients that have left their care because they don’t like their approach to technology: some have dropped Simmons because they wanted digital records while others have left Kremer because “they didn’t like his faced glued to the screen.” Proof that there’s no pleasing everyone.

Riverside Medical Group (VA) selects athenaCollector for billing and practice management for its 300+ physicians.

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