May 20, 2012
blog
I was trained to think of coding as a downstream process to care that is of little clinical significance. But, as I learned during the course of the week; I was dead wrong. Rather than simply polishing the chart, those downstream processes are intended to strengthen it. And, with the rapid evolution of MU and value care, the focus on clinical documentation integrity is moving upstream, directly to the provider.
I also found that getting the diagnosis correct, whether for coding, clinical care, quality improvement, or value-based payment is straight-forward but not at all simple.
May 17, 2012
news
On the heels of an eventful two-week stretch where it dismissed its Chairman of the Board, Paul Pead and replaced him with a new one, Dennis Chookaszian, a few days later, and saw three other board members resign, as well as dealt with a stock price dip, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. has appointed Paul M. Black, former chief operating officer of Cerner Corporation, and The Hon. Robert J. Cindrich (Ret.), former senior vice president and chief legal officer for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), as directors. Black will serve on the Board's Compensation Committee and Cindrich will serve on the Board's Audit Committee.
May 16, 2012
news
Wolters Kluwer Health, a Minneapolis-based provider of information for healthcare professionals and students, has signed an agreement with MEDITECH (Westwood, Mass.) to offer clinical decision integration between MEDITECH version 5.64 (Client/Server and MAGIC) and Wolters’ ProVation Order Sets.
May 15, 2012
news
The Denver-based TriZetto Group’s wholly owned subsidiary, Gateway EDI, has acquired NHXS, a software company that aims to help medical practices manage physician reimbursement and minimize the administrative cost of recovering lost revenues. The Sacramento-based NHXS’s capabilities will be integrated into Gateway EDI’s solutions, which include EDI and revenue cycle management services for reportedly more than 100,000 physicians.
May 11, 2012
news
Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.) has launched an iOS health management app, offering its members access to all of the same tools available through My Health Manage. This includes provider details, lab test results, order prescription refills, and manage appointments.
May 10, 2012 Pete Rivera
blog
Reach back to all your old quality training, Deming, Toyota, whatever and at the core it’s the same message; your front line workers really know what’s going on and what workarounds they are using because the existing system is so bad. They are also the first ones to create new workarounds because the brand new system now takes five mouse clicks to do what the old one did in two.
May 7, 2012
news
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., a Chicago-based EHR vendor, still reeling from poor first quarter earnings, an executive shake-up and sharp decline in its stock, has adopted a stockholder rights plan, commonly known as a "poison pill," which, the company says, aims to enable all stockholders to realize the long-term value of their investment in Allscripts and protect it “from unfair or coercive takeover attempts.”
May 1, 2012
news
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a Cambridge, Mass.-based independent healthcare improvement non-profit group aimed at improving healthcare, has named Gary S. Kaplan, M.D. as the new Chair of the IHI Board of Directors, succeeding A. Blanton Godfrey, who held the position since 2009. Elliott S. Fisher, M.D., Helen Haskell, and Arnold Milstein, M.D., also will join the Board.
April 27, 2012
news
Chicago-based Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., a big-name provider of EMR/EHR software solutions, announced its first-quarter results and they weren’t favorable. Additionally, the company’s Chairman of the Board, Phil Pead, has also been fired.
April 26, 2012
news
Attributing the growth to meaningful use requirements, Cerner Corporation (Kansas City) announced its 2012 first quarter financials, with its revenue, bookings, and net earnings increasing steadily year-over-year. First quarter revenue was $641.2 million, an increase of 30 percent compared to $491.7 million in the year-ago period. Bookings, or funds from future customers, were $652.3 million, which Cerner says was an all-time high for a first quarter and an increase of 24 percent compared to first quarter 2011 bookings of $524.9 million.
April 26, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
blog
HIMSS gets the USA Today treatment today by releasing its first infographic on the increase of social media at its annual conference. As it points out, not only did it have a record-breaking attendance this year, with an attendance increase of 16 percent to 36,531 attendees at HIMSS12 vs. 31,500 attendees at HIMSS11, it broke new records in volume of tweets for healthcare conferences. (I wonder what RSNA has to say about that?)
April 26, 2012
news
The New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) has joined the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and the NYS Department of Health (DOH) to launch the New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA), which attempt to make New York a hub for the emerging digital health technology industry. The place, digitalhealthaccelerator.com, will be run by NYCIF and NYeC, and will choose 12 early- and growth-stage companies that are developing cutting-edge technology products in care coordination, patient engagement, analytics, and message alerts for healthcare providers.
