From MGMA 10/26/10

If it weren’t for the above establishment, I would have posted an update a bit earlier.

Monday was a packed day, starting with an 8:00 a.m. general session highlighting health reform. MGMA CEO William F. Jessee, MD moderated a panel that included representatives from the Federation of American Hospitals, Humana, the AMA, and the National Business Coalition on Health. The discussion ranged from what is wrong with healthcare today (a lot) to what is wrong with the reform package (a lot) to physician shortages, ACOs, and the purchase of private physician groups by hospitals. Lots of great discussion and theories for how health reform may affect practices. No bottom line was reached (not surprising, given the diversity of the panel) but there were plenty of reasons for stakeholders to wish they had a crystal ball.

David Blumenthal spoke at a separate session that was apparently mired with microphone problems. Unfortunately, I had noted the time wrong time and missed it. Another attendee told me that if had ever have heard Blumenthal speak before, I’ve already heard what he had to say, which including all the great reasons for implementing EHRs.

I sat in on a couple of other sessions and must conclude that the trend for hospital/IDN ownership of practices is high on the buzz meter. A fellow attendee told me a session on physician/hospital integration was beyond standing room only, with people sitting in the aisles to hear Marc Haley of The Haley Consulting Group share his thoughts on the topic.

Another hot topic was lower reimbursements and the threat of cuts. Though the Medicare cuts (totaling about 30%)  will likely not occur, look for drastic reductions in staff and delays in the purchase of EHRs if Congress doesn’t take action by the end of the year.

MGMA released the results of a couple of surveys, including one that found better financial performance for groups with EHRs than those with paper records. Physicians in private practices averaged almost $50K per year higher revenue after operating cost per FTE. Hospital or IDN-owned groups with EHR reported an operating margin $42K more than those on paper records.

Also from MGMA: hospital-owned groups tend to have lower revenue figures than privately own practices, but, some of the differences can be attributed to variations in accounting practices. Specialists working in a hospital-owned group earned 20% less than their independent peers. Primary care physicians working in hospital-owned groups earned $192K, compared to $180K for physicians in private practice.

On a panel discussion about EHR certification, CCHIT seemed quick to point out that their traditional certification program is more robust than the standard ONC certification. Paraphrasing CCHIT Chair Karen Bell, MD, the ONC-only certification may not include everything a practice needs to provide quality patient care. Of course doesn’t CCHIT have to come up with an argument for why vendors should continue paying thousands to obtain various CCHIT product certifications?

Also heard more than once: after CMS starts handing out incentive monies, look for the agency to roll out an audit process to verify that providers are truly using their EHRs in a meaningful way.

athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush and I had a chance to compare shoe fashions and discuss what was going on in the athena world. Last week athenahealth announced great third quarter earnings, which of course put smiles on the faces of quite a few athenahealth staffers. A few other notable items gleaned from the always entertaining Bush:

• “Cloud” is the buzz word right now and he says no one is in the the cloud like athenahealth.
• The cloud, by the way, means that 100% of athenaclinical clients are on the ONC-certified version. It also means that the transition to 5010 will occur seamlessly for athenahealth clients, he told me.
• In this age of vendor mergers and acquisitions, Bush says athenahealth is not currently a target. However, he believes that if one day a company were interested in athenahealth, it would be an entity that is a  “new entrant” to the healthcare IT vertical.
• Bush is the master of the analogies and points out that the difference between buying athenahealth versus traditional solutions is a lot like flying: you could build a plane, develop your own flight plan, and fly yourself somewhere, or, you could go with athena, which is like buying a ticket to fly with a commercial carrier. The commercial flight gets you where you need to go, it’s easier than the first option, and you leave the flying to the experts.

I attempted to hit quite a few more exhibit booths in between sessions. SimplfyMD showed me their EHR, which is heavy on scanning and pushing information to the doctor, rather than the doctor pushing information to the chart. The product does include templates for providers wanting to input their own chart notes, but I thought they looked a bit clunky compared to a number of other products. However, my impression is that they don’t push the template option as much as they do workflow alternatives that keeps the doctor performing too much data entry. The EHR-only product is $400/month/provider and the company does not have a practice management solution. SimplyMD is young (a couple years old or less) and has about 680 providers live.

More on this in a bit, but I was surprised by Cerner’s 10×10 booth, situated in one of the spaces on the outer edges of the hall. I consciously was keeping an eye out for Cerner and didn’t even notice their booth the first time I walked their row.

Thanks to the sponsors who prominently displayed their “I Power HIStalk” signs, including SRSsoft, e-MDs, Advanced MD, and iMDsoft.

Workflow.com had its same tired tiki-themed booth. Time for a refresh, I think.

As usual, NextGen had a great approach for getting prospects to their booth and listening to their elevator pitch. During a 5-10 minute overview of the company and products, two attractive artists worked together to create art. It was fascinating to watch because the pair were so in sync that it was almost like watching some sort of modern dance. Very fun.

Some of the many giveaways that I didn’t win included a lovely Coach purse (Ingenix), a few Wiis (Fifth Thirds was one I recall), a seven-day cruise (Tavoca), and plain old cash from a number of vendors. Eric Fishman of EHRtv won an iPad from Surescripts, as did a couple of his employees. Did I mention I didn’t win anything?

Quite a few vendors were tweeting throughout the conference. I was amused by one from Greenway which encouraged people to “see” its founders at the booth. I’ll blame the choice of the word “see” versus “meet” on the fact that was shorter to tweet; I assume Greenway didn’t place Tommy Green and Tee Green in some sort of display case.

The Cerner folks sent me a couple of personal invitations to watch demo of their ambulatory EMR product. As I mentioned, the booth was pretty small, so doing an inconspicuous over-someone-else’s-shoulder demo was a little challenging. I admit the demo I observed was limited and I didn’t get to ask questions. However, compared to other EHRs on display throughout the exhibit hall, Cerner’s patient summary screen looked comparatively “busy” and not particularly pretty. It didn’t appear to be as intuitive as some of the newer, sexier products on the market and certain features seemed user unfriendly. For example, I didn’t think the template charting function was very quick. If a provider were trying to find a particular item to select, they would have to wade through too many other options to find the preferred choice.

I have a few more impressions to share but I’ll pick it up on the next post. Meanwhile, thank you Gateway EDI for the invite to your party at the Gordon Biersch Brewery. I am blaming Gateway for kicking off a fun evening that ended too late at one of New Orleans’ most notable landmarks.

E-mail Inga.

Intelligent Healthcare Information Integration 10/25/10

Moving Ahead with Albert’s Axe

OK, not to be overly the drama queen, but after taking a little time to let the situation unfold and sink in a bit, I’ve now come to the realization that, at least for me, hearing the news of my EHR’s impending death has triggered the grief cycle cascade as defined back in 1969 by Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross.

Denial, anger, and bargaining are done. Depression settled in, but has just now started to lift as I head into acceptance (though perhaps begrudgingly).

Whether or not you accept the Kübler-Ross five stages of grief theory, or even the newer “extended” seven-stage version, I think everyone agrees that the loss of a loved one, even the loss of a loved “thing,” can trigger a profound series of emotional effects. While very few providers would consider our EHRs an objet de l’amour, it is still something which becomes a very intimate and engrained part of the majority of our working hours, perhaps even of the majority of our waking hours.

The transition from pen and paper is traumatic, filled with many a “I’m gonna heave this this freakin’ thing right out the second floor window and enjoy watching it disintegrate on the concrete” moment. Learning a new way of doing virtually everything you do during a working day is filled with numerous episodes of “I wanna go home” whines and “I hate this” whinnies.

Once you’re there, once you’ve tapped into your never-ending source of adaptability and allowed it to overtake your nostalgic inertia, you get on into the groove. The new way, assuming you’ve made a smart choice in your new workflow direction, starts to become a part of you. The new habits, patterns, and work styles begin to light up with the promise which had originally enticed you to embark upon this new path. You start to get your mojo thang workin’ again.

Whether by choice or vendor decree, going to a new EHR and enduring another workflow overhaul may not be as grandiose a change as moving from paper to digital, but prior advantages have been lost. Before the paper-to-PC switch, you have dreams of how much better the world will be. Now, though, the anticipation of what is to come is muted by the awareness of what is to come.

Simply and honestly put, workflow overhaul is a major bitch. Innocence lost, you know what you’ll have to endure, at least to some degree. Thus, the dread of re-experiencing the frustration blues associated with major change is difficult to offset because the anticipation and excitement allowed by naïveté are diminished.

I don’t know if making such system and workflow changes are more or less difficult in a larger group, hospital, or other institutional setting where the advantage of more support personnel may be offset by more people needing to make the transition. My sense is that it is tough for all. But, for us one- and two-horse practices, it is not only difficult, it is also quite personal. The depersonalizing corporate-think is not actuated and there are zero degrees of separation between the decision makers and the implementers.

From several experiences now, it has become apparent to me that it is difficult for EHR vendors to maintain a balance in dealing with both the very large and the very small medical worlds. Just as quantum physics requires quite the different vocabulary from that of the Newtonian world, the needs and vocabulary of small provider practices are quite divergent from their larger counterparts. Same healthcare universe, but very different scales and quite different perspectives.

Seems a Grand Unifying Theory is a tough thing to find regardless of your universe of concern.

From the trenches…

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal." – Albert Einstein

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician, directs the “Pediatric Office of the Future” exhibit for the American Academy of Pediatrics and is a member of the Professional Advisory Council for ModernMedicine.com. More of his blather…er, writings…can be found at hisblog, practice web site or directly from doc@madisonpediatric.com.

From MGMA 10/25/10

I arrived early Sunday afternoon in the eternally muggy Crescent City. After dropping off my bag at the hotel, I headed over to the New Orleans Convention Center for the conference check-in. I opted to spend the afternoon walking through the exhibit hall and ended up seeing about half the vendors. Here are a few impressions.

The guys at Cattails MD gave me a bit of background on the company that I sort of knew, but also sort of forgot. They have have about 100 total clients, though only a couple of them use all modules (Marshfield Clinic and Ministry Health). Marshfield represents about half of the 15,000 total user licenses they’ve installed.

I chatted with Ingenious Med, which offers a charge coding product for physicians tending to hospitalized patients. They seem pretty comfortable about their position in the marketplace, contending their software is more user-friendly than their direct competitors. They also weren’t too concerned that EMR-specific vendors would put them out of business since none of the EMR products have particularly strong integrated coding tools. I didn’t see too much of their product, but the elevator pitch was compelling.

I actually held and posed with this little guy at the Emdeon booth. If you allow Emdeon to swipe your card, they’ll  donate money to alligator conservation. I feel mildly guilty admitting this, but as I held the alligator, I couldn’t help but think how nice his skin would look on a pair of pumps.

I checked out Bio-Optronics, which was featuring its new scheduling product. These folks contend that their product’s advantage is its rules exchange, which simplifies scheduling, particularly when facilities have multiple providers and locations. I can see how this program would be especially powerful for practices requiring surgery scheduling tools and needing to coordinate assisting physicians, anesthesiologists, and other providers. Their program interfaces with third-party PM/EHR products so a practice could forgo the appointment scheduler native to their PM software without sacrificing workflow. Everything is color-coded, from providers, to types of services, to facilities. In fact, there were a bit too many colors for my taste. However, I can see how the rules engine would make this a powerful tool for practices with complicated appointment scheduling needs, especially specialists.

As I methodically walked row by row, I felt a bit sorry for those vendors on the edges who didn’t seem to be getting a whole lot of love. So I made a point to chat with few of the “outsiders” including Follow My Health. This company claims it is the first to create to offer a combined patient portal / PHR solution, as opposed to a PM/EHR company that also offers a portal, or a PHR company that doesn’t have a portal solution. I couldn’t think quick enough on my feet (my feet were perhaps tired) to argue the point, but I’ll assume their pitch is accurate.

Coolest promotional tool: Televox had an artist drawing the likeness of attendees using a pen tablet. As he drew, the image was displayed on a big screen. The final image was printed out for the model as a souvenir. Cool use of technology, plus the artist was pretty good. I would have gotten one but the line was long. Plus, did I mention New Orleans is muggy? I can’t imagine there is such thing as a good hair day here.

Sage is clearly trying to make a splash this year. Their booth location seems better than in past years and perhaps more open. OK, and they also offered free gelato, which was the perfect afternoon pick-me-up. Sage provided the bags handed out with the registration materials for all attendees, so their name is hard to miss. In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, they established a Pink by Sage program that features a Wall of Inspiration. Sage is encouraging anyone who’d like to show their support to sign the wall. In exchange, they will donate $5 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for each “story.” I read the wall, then signed it. Then I must admit I had to take a few minutes because I was so overwhelmed by the wall / stories / gesture. If you are at MGMA, I encouraged you to take a look at the wall and pen your name.

After taking some moments to compose myself, I happened upon a friendly group from United Healthcare, who were encouraging attendees to sign a card for hospitalized kids. Kudos on the Project Sunshine, not only because it gave me a chance to use old-fashioned crayons to create my card, but, also because the project was a fun reminder of who we are all working to serve.

I realize that many readers are anxiously awaiting news on trinkets. Yes, I did get a decent haul, including a couple of t-shirts (thank you athenahealth and Ingenix) plus a teddy bear (MED3OOO), lots of beads. Thank you to the booth babe who hit me in the head with the beads from her elevated perch about some vendor’s booth. If I hadn’t momentarily blacked out from the impact of the beads to my head, I would have recalled which vendor had the booth babe — for Mr. H’s benefit, of course.

The Zirmed folks gave me a brief overview of a just-announced patient check-in product that runs on the iPad (I think it also runs on a PC). The iPad version was quite slick for all the reasons an iPad itself is slick: a great user interface, quick, kind of fun. They plan to interface it with third-party systems once they fully roll out the product.

Another notable vendor was Azzly, which is brand new to the EMR/PM/PHR space. I think it is pretty gutsy, in this age of vendor consolidation, to make your debut at this stage of the game. Azzly is a Web-based, single sign-on product that is just now moving out of beta and into early adopters. For $595 per month per provider, you can get a brand new, built from the ground-up product that incorporates all the latest standards and codes. Though not yet ONC ACTB-certified, they say they will be certified by the end of the year. If I have time, I will go back and take a deeper look at the product because I must admit I am intrigued.

Thanks to our all sponsors, including Navicure, who are proudly displaying their HIStalk signs. If you see one of our sponsors, please tell them thanks for supporting HIStalk,HIStalk Practice, and HIStalk Mobile!

MGMA sponsored an opening reception which was well attended and featured some pretty good food and a fun band (local, I assume). Unlike some recent HIMSS events hosted in rather cold warehouse-like settings, the MGMA attendees were out in full force, the atmosphere was fun, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Plus the gumbo was yummy.

I had a chance to chat with several practice administrator types throughout the day and their top concern seems to be decreasing reimbursements in the face of growing demand. There’s lot of nervousness about the pending elections and no one has a clear cut opinion on how things will ultimately play out. A couple of EHR vendors were honest enough to share that they haven’t seen the flood of orders some predicted would come once Meaningful Use and certification was finalized. specifications were released. Will providers be ready to pull the trigger on a big EHR investment after the elections?

More to share, but I am whipped. Additional updates coming soon!

E-mail Inga.

Going to MGMA 2010? Visit Our HIStalk and HIStalk Practice Sponsors

Note: you can download a handy PDF of this page to take along to New Orleans.

Advanced MD Software
Booth 1628
10876 South River Front Parkway
Suite 400
South Jordan, UT 84095
Phone:801.984.9500 
www.advancedmd.com

Announces a new, fully integrated EHR + PM/RCM solution. Physicians gain the benefits of strong EHR with integrated ePrescribing and pre-built, customizable templates. Office managers gain access to a strong claims management system, payer-rules engine, and simple denial tracking. Designed to support the needs of medical practices and billing services.

Allscripts
Booth 1417
222 Merchandise Mart
Suite 2024
Chicago, IL 60654-1034
Phone:919.329.1070
www.allscripts.com

Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) provides innovative solutions that empower all stakeholders across the healthcare continuum to deliver world class outcomes. The company’s clinical, financial, connectivity, and information solutions for hospitals, physicians, and post-acute organizations are the essential technologies that enable a connected healthcare community.

Culbert Healthcare Solutions Inc
Booth 142
800 West Cummings Park
Suite 6000
Woburn, MA 01801
Phone:781.935.1002 ext. 13
www.culberthealth.com

Culbert Healthcare Solutions is a professional services firm serving healthcare organizations. We specialize in helping group practices leverage clinical and practice management technologies to improve patient care and financial performance by implementing best practices.

eClinicalWorks LLC
Booth 1536
112 Turnpike Road
Suite 200
Westborough, MA 01581
Phone:508.836.2700
Fax:508.836.4466
www.eclinicalworks.com

eClinicalWorks provides ambulatory clinical solutions, including EMR/PM software, patient portals, and community health records applications. With 40,000+ providers and 120,000+ medical professionals across all 50 states using its solutions, customers include small, medium, and large physician practices, outpatient departments of hospitals, health centers, departments of health, and convenient care clinics.

e-MDs
Booth 1207 
9900 Spectrum Drive
Austin, TX 78717
Phone:8888.344.9836 
www.e-mds.com

e-MDs is a leading developer of healthcare software solutions, founded in 1996, and actively participates in national health information technology and interoperability efforts. e-MDs Solution Series is the standard for affordable, integrated EHR/PM solutions, including clinical, financial, and document management modules that automate medical practice processes and chart management.

Greenway Medical Technologies
Booth 517
121 Greenway Boulevard
Carrollton, GA 30117
Phone:770.836.3100 
www.greenwaymedical.com

Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc. provides a complete physician’s infrastructure of clinical, financial, and administrative technologies through its integrated, single-database EHR, practice management, and interoperability solution PrimeSuite. Greenway’s certified and KLAS-award winning solutions serve more than 23,000 healthcare practitioners nationwide in 30 specialties and subspecialties.

iMDsoft
Booth 1504 
300 First Avenue
Needham, MA 02494
Phone:781.449.5567
www.imd-soft.com

The iMDsoft MetaVision Suite of clinical information systems features fully-integrated tools for data collection, presentation, order management, and decision support across the critical care and preoperative continuum.

Ingenix
Booth 724 
12125 Technology Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Phone:888.345.8745
www.ingenix.com

Ingenix CareTracker is 2011 CCHIT-certified EHR/PM solution that is guaranteed to help physicians meet meaningful use requirements. It’s built with cloud computing technology so you get instant updates, reliable accessibility, complete global content, and immediate connections to labs, pharmacies, and hospitals — all for a lower total cost of ownership.

McKesson
Booth 618
5995 Windward Parkway
Alpharetta, GA 30005
Phone: 404.338.3807
Fax: 404.338.5121
www.mckesson.com

McKesson delivers solutions to physician practices of all sizes and specialties, providing physicians with more products, services, and resources than any other healthcare company — including practice management systems and EHR, billing and accounts receivable management and connectivity services, medical supplies and equipment, and pharmaceuticals.

MED3OOO
Booth 844
680 Andersen Drive
Foster Plaza 10
Pittsburgh, PA 15220
Phone:412.937.8887
Fax:412.937.9221
www.MED3OOO.com

MED3OOO, experts in healthcare management and information technology, advances performance of group medical practices, clinics, and hospital-employed physicians with RCM and ASP PM/EHR systems. Stop by our booth for a demonstration of our InteGreat EHR the intuitive browser-based solution. Uncover your practice potential with MED3OOO’s team of experts.

MedAptus
Booth 702
176 Federal Street
4th Floor
Boston, MA 02110
Phone:617.896.4000
Fax:617.482.1110
www.medaptus.com

With the most powerful, yet easy-to-use, Intelligent Charge Capture technologies available, MedAptus enjoys enterprise-wide adoption at many prestigious, academic healthcare organizations. Our full-scale Professional and Facility offerings increase revenue, re-engineer archaic processes, enhance EMR investments, and save busy providers time.

Medicity
Booth 1644
56 East Broadway #600 
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Phone:801.322.4444 
www.medicity.com

Medicity’s care collaboration solutions work the way you do. We connect you to colleagues, service providers, hospitals, and patients on your terms — without disrupting your workflow. Coordinate care around a 360° view of your patients’ health through the largest network of connected providers in the nation. Are you iN?

Navicure Inc.
Booth 1046 
2055 Sugarloaf Circle, Suite 600 
Duluth, GA 30097
Phone:770.342.0200
www.navicure.com

Navicure is an Internet-based medical claims clearinghouse that helps physician practices increase profitability through claims reimbursement and staff productivity. Our solutions automate account receivables processes, including patient eligibility verification; primary and secondary claims reimbursement; rejected and denied claims management; electronic remittance and posting; claims and remittance reporting and analysis; and patient statement processing.

NextGen Healthcare
Booth 1136
795 Horsham Road
Horsham, PA 19644
Phone:215.795.1050
www.nextgen.com

NextGen Healthcare is a leading provider of integrated electronic health record and practice management systems, connectivity solutions, and billing services designed to serve the needs of ambulatory practices and hospitals of all sizes and specialty areas. Our award-winning, certified solutions help improve care quality and increase operational efficiencies.

Nuance
Booth 535
One Wayside Rd
Burlington, MA 01803
Phone:781.565.5000
www.nuance.com/healthcare

Nuance’s Dragon Medical is the most widely used speech recognition system in medicine today. Dragon Medical reduces transcription expense, delivers results rapidly, and heightens clinician satisfaction by making EHR systems easy to use, which accelerates the adoption of clinical information systems so provider organizations maximize the return from IT investments.

PatientKeeper
Booth 541
275 Washington Street
2nd Floor
Newton, MA 02458
Phone:617.987.0300
www.patientkeeper.com

PatientKeeper works with hospitals and physicians to deliver a single place to work. Through integration and workflow optimization, PatientKeeper has the highest physician adoption rates in the industry. PatientKeeper’s solutions ensure that HITECH meaningful use criteria are met. PatientKeeper’s return on investment is demonstrable and proven across our client base.

RelayHealth
Booth 128
1145 Sanctuary Parkway
Suite 200
Alpharetta, GA 30004
Phone:510.637.7722
www.relayhealth.com

With market-leading clinical, financial, and patient connectivity solutions, RelayHealth provides the access and tools to improve patient care, enhance financial management, and interact with patients and other healthcare providers. Put these advantages to work for you and experience the benefits of Health Connections Brought to Life.

Sage
Booth 536
4301 West Boy Scout Blvd., Suite 800 
Tampa, FL 33607 
Phone:877.932.6301
www.sagehealth.com

Sage provides physician practice management and electronic health records software and services for small to medium-sized practices as well as enterprise customers. We combine business management tools with technology and information solutions that transform both the clinical and financial aspects of healthcare delivery.

SRSsoft
Booth 1101
95 Chestnut Ridge Road
Montvale, NJ 07645
Phone:201.802.1300
Fax:201.802.1301
www.srssoft.com

For over a decade, SRS has been the leading provider of productivity-enhancing EMR technology. The powerful SRS Hybrid EMR delivers speed, enhanced revenue, and client satisfaction. Valued by high-performance physicians, it is particularly well suited to the needs of specialists. Its successful adoption rate is unparalleled in the industry.

ZirMed Inc. 
Booth 838 
888 West Market Street 
Louisville, KY 40202
Phone:877.494.7633
www.zirmed.com

ZirMed is a nationally recognized leader in delivering revenue cycle management solutions to healthcare providers. Through the integration of its proven healthcare EDI solutions with powerful healthcare analytics and smart financial services, ZirMed enables healthcare providers to leverage the power of technology to cure administrative burdens and improve cash flow.

News 10/21/10

A reader forwarded findings from a recent Ovum report entitled Selecting an Ambulatory EHR Vendor in the Healthcare Market. The three vendors on Ovum’s short list were eClinicalWorks, GE Healthcare, and Cerner. Ovum argues that these vendors have established strong brand names in the ambulatory market and have demonstrated market-leading positions. I would definitely agree that eCW is a leader in the ambulatory market. GE was at one time. And, I’ve never thought of Cerner as a leader in this space, especially when you exclude hospital-owned practices. Ovum goes on to say that Cerner is the most versatile and multi-faceted of all the vendors they reviewed (which included the likes of Allscripts, NextGen, Sage, athenahealth, and Amazing Charts). Anyone besides me surprised? I have to admit I’ve never seen the Cerner ambulatory EHR, so I’ll take a peek at it at MGMA and report back.

Speaking of MGMA, take a moment to peruse our latest Vendor Exec question where we asked several industry leaders what the hot topics will be for attendees and what their company will be highlighting.

The 250-provider Greater Florida Anesthesiologists chooses McKesson’s Revenue Management Solutions for its medical billing and PM operations.

MGMA has signed deals with a couple of vendors on behalf of its members. It partners with MedAssets for group purchasing services. MGMA also selects Outcome Sciences to provide PQRI registry reporting at preferred rates.

The New Jersey HIT Extension Center picks ITelagen to provide technical assistance for physicians implementing EHRs and working to earn Meaningful Use funds. In checking the NJ-HITEC Website, I didn’t see mention of any other selected vendors (technical or EHR), but perhaps additional announcements are imminent.

Meanwhile, the Colorado REC says it has signed up its 800th provider, signifying it is more than one-third of its way to achieving its goal of 2,295 primary care providers. CO-REC reached the milestone in a mere three months. Great sales effort, but of course CO-REC now faces the more challenging task of helping these providers implement EHRs and qualify for Meaningful Use reimbursements.

Deloite releases its 2010 Technology Fast 500 rankings, which scores companies based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2005 to 2009. I noticed a few HIT companies, including Medical Present Value (276), Navicure (289), Nuance (297), MEDSEEK (343), SRSsoft (362), and GetWell Networks (386).

Rebound Orthopedics (WA) and Kansas Joint and Spine Institute deploy services from Ancillary Care Solutions to improve clinical workflows and financial returns and assess compliance.

Aprima Medical Software announces new Financial Services offerings that include payment deferral programs, zero down payments, hardware integration, and flexible payment terms. Aprima president Michael Nissenbaum says the service should help doctors affected by tight credit markets.

OB/GYN Women Specialists of Georgia contracts with Waiting Room Solutions for its Web-based EHR/PM solution.

An HHS privacy and security panel recommends that physicians provide patients a short, easy to understand summary of the practice’s privacy practices, including how patient information may be used. Physicians should also discuss face-to-face with patients the way information may be exchanged with third parties, such as HIEs or an integrated delivery network. Great recommendations, but I don’t see too many physicians taking the time for the latter.

Computers trump dermatologists when it comes to finding small, pigmented melanomas, based on the results of a vendor-sponsored trial. The study found that an automated, computerized imaging and diagnostic system spotted melanomas 98% of the time, compared to 78%  of the time for dermatologists.

Skyscape introduces a mobile version of the Johns Hopkins POC-IT Diabetes guide for healthcare providers.

Seventeen percent of cell phone users have looked up health or medical information on their phones and 9% have software apps on their phone to manage their health. I thought there were more of us.

E-mail Inga.