Health Data Outside the Doctor’s Office
A new JASON report offers recommendations for creating a health information system infrastructure that achieves interoperability between EHRs and integrates data from personal health devices, social media, demographics, and other sources. More details and a robust discussion from THCB readers found here.
It’s the Money, Stupid
The biggest factor influencing physicians to adopt EHRs since the passage of the HITECH act: incentive payments or financial penalties. An ONC data brief reveals that 62% of providers identify financial incentives as a major motivation for EHR adoption; board certification was the second most common influencer at 39%.
HIEs Facing Financial Struggles and Adoption Hurdles
Despite $600 million in federal funding, most HIEs are not financially viable, according to a RAND Corporation study. Only 25% of HIEs consider themselves financially sustainable and most are still struggling to find a value proposition. Physicians often resist HIE use because of interruptions in workflow, interface problems, and costs, while hospitals adoption lags due to a lack of a business case, insufficient standards, and legal/ethical issues.
ICD-10 Delay Debates Endures
The never-ending ICD-10 delay debate continues as several state medical associations send a letter to House Speaker John Boehner urging a two year delay. Meanwhile AHIMA, CHIME, AHIP and other professional organizations lobby for no further delays.
Show Me the Money
Arizona-based Gila River Health Care will deploy NextGen Ambulatory EMR, PM, and NextGen solutions. NextGen also announced a strategic partnership with Merge Healthcare to integrate their interoperability platforms to facilitate the exchange of electronic imaging orders and image reports between NextGen Share customers and Merge iConnect Network customers.
Granite Healthcare Network in New Hampshire selects athenaCoordinator Enterprise Population Manager. Athenahealth also recently entered into a number of strategic partnerships, including with Inegnious Med, a patient encounter platform provider, and with Henry Schein Medical, who will market Athena products.
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital extends its commitment to Allscripts Sunrise as its core EHR platform until 2020 and will expand its use of Sunrise for a newly acquired facility in Somerville, NJ. RWJUH also selected Allscripts Touchworks EHR for its physician network.
Health and wellness engagement platform provider Sharecare acquires QualityHealth, a patient engagement and identification platform.
New Blood
The ONC names Jon White acting deputy coordinator as the agency searches for a replacement for Jacob Reider. White has been serving as interim lead of the ONC’s Office of Clinical Quality and Safety and acting chief medical officer.
IT services provider CTG promotes Principal Consultant Joseph Eberle to managing director of data analytics.
Aver Informatics hires Michael McDonnell as chief people officer and Mike King as VP of global sales.
Categories: Uncategorized
