News 3/12/13

HHS announces its 2013 HIT implementation goals, which includes having 50 percent of physician offices online with EHRs by the end of 2013.

Satisfaction and usability ratings for certified EHRs fell 12 percent from 2010 to 2012, according to an American College of Physicians survey. The percentage of clinicians who would not recommend their EHR to a colleague increased from 24 to 39 percent, while the percentage of clinicians “very satisfied” with the ability of their EHR to improve care fell six percent.

HIMSS names eClinicalworks customer Unity Health Care (DC) a winner of the 2012 HIMSS Community Health Organization Davies Award based on excellence in implementing EHRs. eClinicalWorks also announced that Coastal Medical (RI) is adding eCW’s Care Coordination Medical Record to advance its ACO-related objectives.

EMR vendor CureMD acquires Practice Services, a New York-based medical billing services company.

Athenahealth proposes an HIT Code of Conduct that calls EHR vendors to adhere to five principles related to data portability, patient safety, provider freedom of choice, and MU:

• Empower data portability and provider choice
• Build a true nationwide information backbone
• Protect patients
• Prevent fraud
• Drive Meaningful Use

Athenahealth also announces that Cerner has certified the athenaNet suite for interoperability with the Cerner network.

e-MDs launches a cloud-based EHR/PM solution and introduces Solution Series 7.2.2, an updated version of its client-server suite of EHR/PM products.

The NCQA awards SuccessEHS client Scenic Bluffs Community Health Centers (WI) the highest level of recognition from its PCMH program and recognizes four Scenic Bluff providers with NCQA 2011 PCMH Level 3 recognition.

The average physician could lose $43,743 over five years with EHR adoption, according to a study published in Health Affairs. Of 49 community practices surveyed, 27 percent could have positive ROI. Practices using their EHRs to increase revenue by seeing more patients or by improving billing processes were more likely to realize a positive return; practices continuing to keep paper records were less likely to realize savings.

Vitera Healthcare releases a hosted version of its Medical Manager practice management platform.

Only one-third of physicians believe their patients should have full access to their full health record, though 82 percent want patients to actively participate in their own healthcare by updating their EHRs, according to an Accenture survey. More than half of the surveyed doctors believe the introduction of EHRs has has improved the quality of patient care.

NexGen unveils NextGen Population Health to assist providers in meeting  PCMH and ACO goals.

E-mail Inga.

DOCtalk by Dr. Gregg 3/10/13

Imagine (Healthcare’s Future Rendition)

Imagine there’s no “healthcare”
It’s easy if you try
No offices to call on
At most, maybe by Skype

Imagine all the patients
Healing their own way
Ay-hay

Imagine no insurance
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to bill or cry for
And no copayments too

Imagine all the patients
Healing ills with ease

You-hoo-ooh
You may say it’s not easy
And you’re not the only one
Tech one day’ll make it simple
And the world will heal as one

Imagine self-diagnoses
I wonder if you can
No e-patient anger
A healinghood of man

Imagine direct admissions
Access in your hand
Hospitals stays and surg’ries
App-arranged and planned

Imagine all the patients
Directing their own care

You-hoo-ooh
You may say it’s not real now
But tomorrow soon will come
Tech one day’ll make it easy
And the world will heal as one

Imagine health’s best practice
In everybody’s hands
Personal genomics
By tricorder scans

Imagine all the patients
Engaged in their own health

You-hoo-ooh
You may say it can’t happen
Outpatient care won’t go ‘way
But med’cine as we know it
May just have seen its day

Imagine taking healthcare
To new heights unseen
People and their health-ness
With nothing in between

Imagine all the patients
Providers of their own

You-hoo-ooh
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day tech will help us
And the world will heal as one

From the trenches (and with full props – or, perhaps, apologies – to J. Lennon)…

“It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” – John Lennon

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics, is Chief Medical Officer for Health Nuts Media, an HIT and marketing consultant, and sits on the board of directors of the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP).

News 2/28/13

McKesson names the Bread of Healing Clinic (WI) the company’s first recipient of its Practice Choice EHR software as part of the McKesson Give Back initiative.

iSALUS Healthcare launches a new version of its OfficeEMR which includes a patient timeline that converts discrete patient data into a visual format with drilldown functions.

More than three quarters of patients served by safety-net clinics express interest in electronically communicating with their providers, according to a UCSF study. Many community clinics, however, do not offer patient portals or secure messaging systems that support electronic communications with physicians.

Cymetrix, an RCM and consulting  provider for physician offices, acquires the healthcare analytics firm CareClarity.

Practice Fusion buys 100Plus, a start-up firm co-founded by Practice Fusion CEO Ryan Howard that provides personalized health predictions based on data analytics.

A Nuance Communications’ survey finds that 80 percent of US doctors believe virtual assistants will change how they interact and use EHRs and will benefit patients by making them more engaged in their own healthcare. Providers also predict the use of virtual assistants will provide accurate and timely information to support care and will improve alerts on missing information in records.

Evolution Health will deploy Greenway Medical’s PrimeSUITE platform across is national network of house call providers.

Only sixty percent of physicians say they are willing to participate in ACOs, with more primary care providers willing to participant than specialists. More providers are interested in being part of an Medicare ACO than ACOs led by other payers.

e-MD clients attending HIMSS can participate in a free User Group Meeting on Thursday March 7 at the Hilton New Orleans. The event is sponsored by Gateway EDI and NHXS.

E-mail Inga.

News 2/26/13

Memphis Obstetrics & Gynecology Association goes live this week on MED3OOO’s InteGreat EHR.

Medical practice plaintiffs who filed a class action lawsuit against Allscripts for its decision to not enable the MyWay EHR for future MU stages or ICD-10 will learn Tuesday whether they can continue with their suit or will instead be forced to accept binding arbitration. If the complaint is certified as a class action, Allscripts will be required to provide the names of all MyWay customers to the plaintiff’s attorneys, who say all 5,000 MyWay physician users would then be automatically included in the suit. Attorneys for Allscripts have filed a motion to block the suit, arguing that the doctors signed a contract requiring their differences to be settled by binding arbitration.

The Westboro, MA paper profiles a new mobile app from eClinicalWorks that will be offered free to consumers and eCW’s physician customers. It can send patient reminders to smartphones or computers, allow patients to access their medical records and lab results, and allow patient-provider messaging, including refill requests.

The medical director of HealthInsight Utah reports that use of specific HIT tools has enabled Utah Beacon Community providers to achieve a 10 percent improvement in hypertension levels for 2,000 patients. Some of the HIT tools used the development of registries, patient lists, and reminders; the creation of templates that capture data accurately and alert staff of particular requirements; the use smart clinical support tools that include reminders, alerts, and flow sheets; and, the addition of medication adherence assessment options within EHR templates to prompt providers to review e-prescribing lists and determine if patients are filling their medications.

The Maryland State Medical Society introduces the Center for the Private Practice of Medicine, which will provide resources to help independent physicians stay in practice, including assistance with HIT, office management, billing, and related tasks.

Curious: a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal finds that people of high socioeconomic status are 50 percent more likely to be able to schedule an appointment with a primary care provider than those of low socioeconomic status, even though Canada’s universal healthcare system pays physicians the same for either group. Researchers blame discrimination.

Greenway Medical announces that its PrimeSUITE EHR platform has achieved PCMH 2011 Prevalidation status from NCQA.

Rose Marie Nelson of MGMA Health Care Consulting Group discusses the need for population health management tools to effectively manage patient populations and qualify for reimbursement incentives. She notes that EHRs alone may not offer all the required functionality to identify and proactively manage and report on multiple unique populations. Duly noted. Nelson gave me the name of a couple PHM products that I will check out next week at HIMSS.

Another emerging HIT requirement for physician offices are tools for shared decision-making that include feedback loops that allow providers to verify whether or not patients follow through on recommended actions (tests, specialist consults, etc.)

New federal legislation is making physicians a larger target for healthcare fraud investigations. Of the 2,309 civil and criminal healthcare fraud cases opened in 2012, 21 percent involved physicians, compared to 15 percent in 2010.

E-mail Inga.

News 2/21/13

Kareo launches a free application, cloud-based EHR that can be used as a standalone application or integrated with the company’s PM and billing services. It was developed using technology acquired from Epocrates, which exited the EHR business a year ago. Kareo notes that the EHR is “advertisement free” and says it will provide support and updates at no charge. The company hopes that the free EHR offering will attract more clients for its PM and billing service products.

Kareo also announces the appointment of Tom Giannulli, MD (Epocrates) as CMIO.

The Rhode Island REC introduces an EHR adoption program for specialists that allows specialty practices to receive the same assistance and benefits previously only available to certain primary care providers.

Over time more patients will rely on doctor rating Websites to find physicians, predict researchers from the University of Michigan. A poll of parents reveal that insurance, location, referrals, and provider experience are the most important factors when selecting a pediatrician. Parents under the age of 30, however, were twice as likely as older parents to also consider online ratings.

“Data suggest that younger families are more likely to rely on online ratings, which means over time we’d expect the use of these Websites will keep increasing.”

Up to 17 percent of physicians are planning to change EHR vendors by the end of the year, according to a Black Book Rankings poll. Key findings include:

• Vendors are blamed for being too busy selling and implementing systems while development issues are left on the back burner.
• Users complain of unmet needs and MU is blamed for creating an artificial market for dozens of immature EHR products.
• The majority of practices considering a switch say their current solution does not meet the individual needs of the practice; that their practice did not adequately assess its needs before selecting an EHR; and that the design of their EHR is not suited for their practice specialty.
• Specialties least satisfied with their EHRs are nephrology, urology and ophthalmology
• Specialties most satisfied with their EHRs are internal medicine, family practice, and general practice.

Greenway will integrate the Physicians Interactive eCoupon voucher and coupon distribution system into its PrimeSUITE solution.

CareCloud reports it concluded 2012 with its 12th quarter of consecutive revenue growth, expansion into 45 states, management of more than $1.5 billion in annualized A/R, and inclusion of more than 4.5 million patients on its platform.

Healthpac will embed PatientPay’s online bill management services into its practice management system.

Surescripts awards e-MDs the 2012 White Coat of Quality for upholding high quality e-prescribing standards.

MGMA-ACMPE releases DataDive: 2012 Procedural Profile Module, a Web-based tool that allows users to develop an organizational profile which can then be benchmarked against peers using national MGMA data. The goal is to help practices better understand patient demand and and future workload.

E-mail Inga.