Sep 11, 2013

    The Meaningful Use Workgroup of ONC’s Health IT Policy Committee plans functionality goals for MU Stage 3. ONC releases “Certification Guidance for EHR Technology Developers Serving Health Care Providers Ineligible for Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Payments,” designed to help developers of EHRs for providers who don’t usually fall under HITECH (mental and behavioral health, non-acute care settings) design systems that are interoperable with HITECH-influenced EHRs. Innovation and Research A study published in JAMA finds that implementation of EHRs  Kaiser Permanente Northern California in 2004-2009 was associated with a slight but statistically significant reduction in ED visits (519 vs. 490 visits per 1,000 patients) and hospitalizations (251 vs. 239 per 1,000 patients) for diabetic patients. Office visit rates exhibited no association. Another JAMA published study finds that EHR-powered small practices produced slightly better outcomes working under a pay-for-performance program. Mike Wasser creates the very cool BloomAPI v 0.1.0, a free self-hostable API that queries the automatically updated latest version of the National Provider Identifier database. It also supports simple and complex online queries. You’ll be interested if you want to look up doctors in real time by name, ZIP Code, address, or NPI. Brian Norris (@Geek_Nurse) follows up his Tableau-powered MU attestation slicer and dicer with one on data breaches. He seems to enjoy tearing into large, publicly available data sets to provide new insights and the results are cool, so he might accept suggestions (that’s where the breach idea came from). A keyword-based search of online help wanted ads finds that healthcare IT-related job postings have increased by 86 percent since HITECH passed. Southern Polytechnic State University in Atlanta will host the CDC Health Game Jam September 20-22, challenging entrants to quickly produce games that address CDC’s health priorities, such as disease prevention and healthy lifestyles. Technology The European Patent Office will grant PeriGen a patent that covers specialized techniques for displaying patient data to help OBs recognize trends and deviations from normal conditions. Streamline Health Solutions releases its dual coding enhancement for the eCAC and eAbstract applications that allows users to assign ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes simultaneously. Other A HIMSS Analytics survey on clinical and business intelligence finds that only 9 percent of respondents plan to buy a dedicated solution that integrates with their EHR, but among those who do, Truven, Elsevier, and Cognos, all of which significantly trail buying whatever their EHR vendor offers. A debt collection agency that previously worked for the University of Chicago Physicians Group announces that an incorrect security setting on its Web server opened up information about 1,344 still-active claims to anyone who happened to find it. The problem was reported by a debtor who noticed that they could see the information of other debtors. Hospital bond ratings may suffer from the costs and problems introduced by an Epic implementation, but the bonds of Dane County, WI (home of Epic) enjoy a AA+ rating from Fitch because of Epic’s employee growth. Speaking of Fitch bond ratings, Mary Washington Healthcare (VA) gets a low rating and downgrade after a $28 million profitability hit in FY2012 due to a billing systems conversion and another $2 million drain due to CPOE implementation, causing the hospital to write off $25 million. I believe both systems are Siemens Soarian. Weird News Andy wonders what the funniest or most interesting things providers have experienced from their patients as in this story , where a man coming out from surgical anesthesia notices a woman next to his bed and says, “Man, you are eye candy. Whoa. You may be the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen. Are you a model?” When reminded that the eye candy in question was in fact his wife of six years, he exclaimed, “"Oh my God, I hit the jackpot.” Sponsor Updates Capario announces it is ready to begin ICD-10 testing and offers customers an online ICD-10 submitter testing tool at no charge. Aprima Medical integrates NoteSwift into its EHR system. A Forbes article on the use of IT to advance the delivery of healthcare highlights QPID Health, which it calls a “promising startup software development firm.” Convergent Revenue Cycle Management will offer RCM solutions to Siemens customers. HIMSS Analytics reports that Imprivata OneSign is the most widely selected SSO solution among hospitals using EpicCare. ZirMed will offer tools to help providers transition to ICD-10. ATT offers a white paper discussing how providers can use a collaborative care approach to earn incentives and prepare for accountable care. Sumit K. Nagpal, president and CEO of Alere Accountable Care Solutions, shares his thoughts on how the use of technology can improve patient outcomes. Etransmedia CEO Vikram Agrawal discusses the lack of access to qualified programmers. Greenway Medical adopts the EHR Developer Code of Conduct issued by the HIMSS EHR Association. Divurgent posts tips for go-live personnel on how to make the most of relationships with recruiters. HIStalk sponsors listed on the 2013 InformationWeek Top 500 include: ATT, CommVault, Emdeon, Informatica, InterSystems, McKesson, MModal, NTT Data,  TriZetto and Xerox. The CSI Companies acquires IT staffing firm Anteo Group. The GE Foundation awards The Guideline Advantage an $880,000 grant to provide 12 FQHCs with quality improvement technology from Forward Health. Billian’s HealthDATA hosts an #HITchicks tweet chat September 19 to discuss four gender-related HIT topics. Nuance partners with Hyland Software to enable eCopy ShareScan to scan directly into Hyland’s OnBase EMC system. Benson Area Medical Center (NC) reports that it has reduced IT costs and improved security of patient data by utilizing the e-MDs EHR software within the ClearDATA HealthDATA cloud platform. Contacts