News 3/21/13

The CMS Office of E-Health Standards and Services says that between five and 10 percent of all EPs attesting for MU will be selected for prepayment audits. According to the director of CMS’ Health IT Initiative Group, selections will be made “both randomly and also based on protocols that identify suspicious or anomalous attestation data.”

McKesson launches two free mobile apps for the iPad and iPhone. Lytec Mobile is for use with the Lytec 2013 practice management system, while Medisoft Mobile is available for Medisoft V18.

Emdeon reports Q4 revenues of $300 million, up six percent from a year ago, and a net loss of $10 million vs. $70 million.

SiliconMesa partners with DrFirst to provide Rcopia e-prescribing functionality to customers running the SiliconMesa EHR and PM system.

The 42-physician Yankton Medical Clinic (SD) selects InteliChart’s patient portal.

CMS hosts a series of Webinars this week and next to advise EPs and practice managers on participation in the EHR incentive program, PQRS, and the e-Rx program. The Webinars will review the actions that EPs need to take in 2013 in order to earn incentives and avoid payment adjustments.

Please join me in welcoming Nordic Consulting as the newest HIStalk Practice Platinum Sponsor. Last year KLAS ranked Nordic the #1 firm providing Epic staffing and implementation support and it’s one of only four firms to be credentialed for Epic Community Connect. The Madison, WI-based Nordic is the largest Epic-only consulting firm and all  of its 130 consultants are Epic-certified with an average of nine years EMR implementation experience. Nordic consultants have over 800 certifications (an average of four each) and collectively demonstrate expertise on every Epic application. We appreciate Nordic’s support of HIStalk Practice.

More than half of all hospitals participating in a Jackson Healthcare survey plan to acquire a physician practice this year, which is up from 44 percent last year. Though last year many practices initiated the acquisition process, hospitals also purchased practices to build or maintain a competitive advantage and attract physician recruits.

E-mail Inga.

News 3/19/13

The 48-provider Commonwealth Orthopaedic Centers (KY) chooses SRS EHR and PM.

PCPs and endocrinologists that have electronic access to their patients’ formularies and co-pays are more likely to prescribe a less expensive drug for Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Through February 2013, Medicare and Medicaid have paid an estimated $4.3 billion in MU incentives to 216,000 Eligible Providers. The most often used menu objectives for EPs are drug formularies, immunization registries, and patient lists; the least popular are transition of care summaries and patient reminders.

athenahealth reports that 96 percent of its participating providers have successfully attested for the 2012 Stage 1 Year 1 MU program.

SRS CEO Evan Steele offers an interesting analysis of MU attestation data as of December 2012, including the observation that many of the 472 EHR vendors with certified Complete EHRs did not have a single physician who had attested by the end of the year. Evan notes that the top 24 EHR vendors account for 80 percent of all attestations and only 32 companies have exceeded 500 attestations. Meanwhile, 112 vendors have had only one to five attestations. Evan’s prediction: many EHR vendors will not be around to see Stage 2.

SuccessEHS successfully moves into production health information exchange with South Carolina’s HIE.

Hayes Management Consulting updates its Web site to commemorate its 20th year in business.

E-mail Inga.

News 3/14/13

The number of pharmacies accepting e-prescriptions for controlled substances grew from 22 in February 2012 to over 13,000 today, primarily driven by acceptance from drugstore chains CVS, Walgreens, and Rite-Aid. According to DrFirst, 18 percent of all pharmacies now receive e-prescriptions for controlled substances.

Pediatric and family medicine practices that serve children, especially those with five or fewer physicians, are less likely to have the resources required to implement all the NCQA standards for medical home certification, according to a University of Michigan study.

The 21-physician Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic (CA) selects Orion HealthCorp to provide medical billing and practice management.

CureMD completes its acquisition of Navinet’s EMR and PM provider base. Navinet had been a reseller of CureMD’s solutions.

Boston Redevelopment Authority Director Peter Meade participated in the formal opening of CareCloud’s Boston office, which is is expected to house 35-40 employees by the end of the year.

Eighty-seven percent of doctors say they receive too many EHR-based alerts, according to a survey of 2,600 primary care physicians.Thirty percent of the providers admit missing some abnormal patient results because they are overwhelmed with an average of 63 alerts per day.

Advanced Orthopedic Center (FL) selects SRS EHR for its nine physicians.

Group Health (WA) providers doubled the rate of on-time screenings for colon and rectal cancer using EHRs to identify patients due for screening, according to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Emdeon begins the process of mapping new HIPAA 6020 standards for CMS and creating an analytical methodology to define the processes and tools required for the transition.

E-mail Inga.

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).