TRENDING NEWS

IOT, PATIENT ENGAGEMENT, RCM, GENOMICS, DEEP LEARNING AMONG NEW TECH AT HIMSS19

The HIMSS19 exhibit hall this week features health IT vendors offering a wide-ranging selection of technologies and tools designed to help healthcare organization improve care, gain efficiencies and lower costs. Here is another round-up of new products from vendors on the show floor. VivaLNK, a conn...

ABOUT HALF OF ALL HOSPITAL DEATHS COULD BE SEPSIS-RELATED. WE DON'T HAVE THE MEANS TO PREVENT THEM

Sepsis is a leading cause of death in hospitals, spurring investigations into how preventable it might be. But according to research published in JAMA Network Open Friday, significant innovation is needed before it can really be addressed. That's because most patients who die of sepsis also have...

HIMSS19 Q&A: SURESCRIPTS CEO TOM SKELTON ON EFFORTS TO TAKE ON HIGH PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES, INTEROPERABILITY

When it comes to some of the biggest issues in healthcare from prescription drug prices to interoperability, e-prescribing company Surescripts has a big potential role to play. And the software company has been working to grab that mantle, rapidly expanding its footprint from digitizing prescription...

HIMSS19 Q&A: SURESCRIPTS CEO TOM SKELTON ON EFFORTS TO TAKE ON HIGH PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES, INTEROPERABILITY

When it comes to some of the biggest issues in healthcare from prescription drug prices to interoperability, e-prescribing company Surescripts has a big potential role to play. And the software company has been working to grab that mantle, rapidly expanding its footprint from digitizing prescription...

$13.3 BILLION HEALTHCARE EDUCATION SOLUTIONS MARKET BY 2023

The "Healthcare Education Solutions Market by Delivery Mode (Classroom-based, E-Learning), Application (Cardiology, Internal Medicine, Radiology, Neurology, Pediatrics), End-user (Physicians, Non-Physicians) - Global Forecasts to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's ...

INFORMATION SHARING, WIDESPREAD COLLABORATION ON EDUCATION, OUTCOME VIGILANCE CAN HELP CURB THE OPIOID CRISIS

Between 1999 and 2016 more than 400,000 lives were lost to opioid overdoses, with another 47K lost in 2017. Roughly 40 percent of those involved a prescription opioid, said Marcia Conrad-Miller, vice-president of consulting services for CGI and Brad Schoffstall, VP of consulting for CGI's health...

ALIGNING STAKEHOLDERS' INCENTIVES IN THE SHIFT TO VALUE-DRIVEN HEALTH

ORLANDO – Finding the right formula and structuring data are just the initial steps in enabling a shift toward value-driven health. The success of this shift also depends on aligning stakeholders' incentives – making sure they all have an interest in working together and coordinating...

IMAGING, NURSE CALL, PAYMENTS, DIGITAL WORKSPACE NEW PRODUCTS AT HIMSS19

Health IT and imaging technology vendor Royal Philips has launched IntelliSpace Cardiovascular 4.1, its next-generation cardiovascular image and information management system. The latest version builds on the existing pediatric reporting capabilities, recognizing the important and unique nature of t...

PAYERS, PROVIDERS PUSH BACK ON DEMOCRATS' MEDICARE BUY-IN PLAN

Earlier this week, Democrats introduced a bill that would allow people ages 50 and over to buy in to Medicare coverage, and the plan is already getting pushback from payers and providers. Under the most recent proposal, people between the ages of 50 and 65 could buy a Medicare plan and qualify for s...

INDUSTRY VOICES—PHYSICIAN ENCOUNTERS SHOULD BE LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS, NOT ONE-NIGHT STANDS

Too often in this country, emergency room visits are treated like standalone events—“right swipes” of medical care characterized by brief encounters that fix the most emergent issues before patients are sent on their way. Recently, I read an article comparing emergency department u...

CMS LAUNCHES NEW MODEL FOR PAYING AMBULANCE CREWS—EVEN IF THEY DON'T TRANSPORT TO THE ER

The Trump administration is launching a new model that would pay first responders even if they opt not to take a patient to the hospital. The Emergency Triage, Treat and Transport (ET3) model will pay first responders when they transport patients by ambulance to urgent care or their primary care pro...

CMS ADMINISTRATOR SEEMA VERMA LAYS OUT PLAN FOR 'DIGITAL DATA REVOLUTION'

A year ago during HIMSS18 in Las Vegas, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said she wanted to end the use of fax machines for healthcare transactions. On Tuesday at HIMSS19 in Orlando, Verma gave more details on how CMS is moving providers, and also payers, to patie...

IBM WATSON HEALTH’S CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER TALKS HEALTHCARE CHALLENGES AND AI

IBM Watson Health is at the forefront of artificial intelligence in healthcare. The company is tackling a wide array of challenges in the industry, and is working with major provider organizations to do so. For HIMSS19 week, Healthcare IT News conducted an exclusive interview with Dr. Kyu Rhee, vice...

HIMSS19: ONC, CMS OFFICIALS OUTLINE THE FRAMEWORK FOR INTEROPERABILITY, THE USE OF APIS, FHIR

With the release of several proposed rules on Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) outlined new provisions around advancing interoperability and giving patients easier access to their health data, signaling that open APIs and FHIR will be core components. The Office of the ...

AI IN HEALTHCARE: BIG ETHICAL QUESTIONS STILL NEED ANSWERS

ORLANDO – Seemingly overnight, artificial intelligence has found its way into every corner of healthcare, from patient-facing chatbots to imaging interpretation to advanced analytics applications. With that sea change comes a host of ethical questions about how, where and to what extent AI and...

PAYER ROUNDUP—UTAH TAKES ANOTHER STEP TOWARD SLIMMED-DOWN MEDICAID EXPANSION

Utah’s state House has approved legislation that would scale back the number of people eligible for the voter-mandated Medicaid expansion. Voters in the state approved Medicaid expansion in the 2018 election, and under the Affordable Care Act that would allow the state’s program to add p...

PATIENTS WANT ENGAGEMENT WITH DIGITAL OPTIONS, PERSONAL TOUCH

Consumers are willing to embrace technology to engage with their healthcare providers, but still prefer a personal touch despite the abundance of digital channels available for communication, according to a Pegasystems and Censuswide survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers and 200 decision makers a...

DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY CIO: GRAPPLING WITH SIMILAR CHALLENGES, BUT EXTRA COMPLEXITY

ORLANDO – At HIMSS19 on Tuesday, Pat Flanders, chief information officer of the Defense Health Agency, described the unique challenges of standardizing, modernizing and securing the sprawling and dizzyingly complex DHA. It's not just the size, scope and critical mission of the DHA – ...

HOW TO GAUGE THE VALUE OF PRECISION MEDICINE PROGRAMS

Every health system understands the potential of precision medicine, but not all of them are quite ready to take the plunge into the complex and expensive project of actually starting a precision medicine initiative. At HIMSS19 on Monday, Dr. James Weese, vice president of Aurora Cancer Care at Milw...

VIVIFY HEALTH DEBUTS BYOD REMOTE MONITORING TECH, TALKS FHIR AT HIMSS19

Vivify Health, a connected care management and patient engagement technology vendor, has released a new generation of bring your own device technology, growing on the company’s remote patient monitoring engagement platform, which consists of home monitoring kits and its existing BYOD offering....

CHANGE HEALTHCARE UNVEILS FREE DATA INTEROPERABILITY ON AMAZON WEB SERVICES

ORLANDO — Change Healthcare on Monday here at HIMSS19 announced what it described as "free clinical data interoperability services" on Amazon Web Services for document retrieval, identity management and record locator. Interoperability is a perennial HIMSS Global Conference theme and...

WHY UNITEDHEALTHCARE WANTS TO EXPAND DIAGNOSTIC CODES TO THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

UnitedHealthcare wants to see diagnostic codes for services targeting the social determinants of health—such as transportation or healthy meals—expand nationwide. In an interview with FierceHealthcare, Sheila Shapiro, senior vice president for national strategic partnerships in UHC's...

SAS AND INTERSYSTEMS MODERNIZE NORTH CAROLINA HIE

At HIMSS19, SAS and InterSystems announced Monday that they have partnered with the State of North Carolina to modernize the North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s NC HealthConnex health information exchange. NC HealthConnex supports improved care quality and patient safety, fac...

ALLSCRIPTS SUBSIDIARY PARTNERS WITH MIB FOR LIFE INSURANCE DATA EXCHANGE

ORLANDO – Veradigm, which was launched this past November as a rebrand of Allscripts' payer and life sciences division, announced a new partnership today at HIMSS19 to work with MIB, which provides data-driven risk management services for the life insurance industry. Through the agreement ...

EXECUTIVE SPOTLIGHT—CEO FARZAD MOSTASHARI SAYS ALEDADE SUPPORTS THE DOCTORS ‘DOING GOD’S WORK’

Farzad Mostashari, M.D., is back near the frontlines of medicine. After spending a chunk of his career creating policy in Washington, D.C., Mostashari is now running Aledade, the company he co-founded in 2014 to help independent physician practices transition to value-based models. It’s work h...

JUDGE REJECTS OSCAR’S REQUEST FOR INJUNCTION AGAINST FLORIDA BLUE IN SPAT OVER BROKER AGREEMENTS

Florida judge has rejected Oscar Health’s request for an injunction that would block Florida Blue from reaching exclusive agreements with insurance brokers. Oscar filed suit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida in November, alleging that the insurer engaged in anticompetitive practices by...

SHRINKING MEDICAID ROLLS IN MISSOURI AND TENNESSEE RAISE FLAG ON VETTING PROCESS

Tangunikia Ward, a single mom of two who has been unemployed for the past couple of years, was shocked when her St. Louis family was kicked off Missouri’s Medicaid program without warning last fall. She found out only when taking her son, Mario, 10, to a doctor to be treated for ringworm. When...

PAYER ROUNDUP—STAKEHOLDERS START PUSH TO GET MEDICAID EXPANSION ON BALLOT IN FLORIDA

Following successful Medicaid expansion ballot measures in other red states, stakeholders in Florida are beginning a quiet campaign to follow suit. A significant number of Floridians would be eligible for Medicaid coverage if the state expanded the program. As many as 700,000 additional people could...

CARE MANAGEMENT TECH DROPS HOSPITALIZATIONS AND ER VISITS AT CAREGIVER HOMES

Currently, nearly 30 percent of the members served by Indiana-based health services company Seniorlink have a diagnosis of dementia. These members have multiple comorbid conditions and often exhibit challenging behaviors, leading to a higher rate of hospitalizations and emergency department utilizat...

EPIC CONVERSION MEANS 'POTENTIAL JOB CHANGES AND RELOCATIONS' FOR 1,650 TRINITY HEALTH EMPLOYEES

Trinity Health said on Thursday that its massive conversion to Epic’s EHR platform will cause 1,650 Trinity Health employees to be relocated or their positions outsourced in the coming years. Among those are approximately 450 IT employees, Trinity said, and they will be offered employment with...

GREENWAY HEALTH TO PAY $57M TO SETTLE CLAIMS IT FALSIFIED EHR CERTIFICATION

Tampa, Florida-based electronic health record (EHR) company Greenway Health has agreed to pay $57.25 million to resolve claims it falsely obtained EHR certification and incentivized clients in exchange for promoting or recommending its product to prospective new customers. The settlement, announced ...

HUMANA, ALEDADE TEAM UP TO EXPAND VALUE-BASED CARE

Insurance giant Humana is teaming with Bethesda, Maryland-based primary care consulting company Aledade to expand access to value-based care for its Medicare Advantage members in three states.  Physicians working in Aledade’s accountable care organizations in Pennsylvania, Louisiana and W...

MEDICARE RULES INCREASE OUT-OF-POCKET COSTS OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS DRUGS

Medicare patients with multiple sclerosis face skyrocketing out-of-pocket costs for therapies due to complicated insurance rules that force them to pick up an increasing share of the cost, according to new research. Despite recent efforts to constrain escalating costs, researchers with OHSU and the ...

GOVERNMENT PAYMENT POLICIES TIED TO HOSPITAL PERFORMANCE FAIL TO IMPROVE PATIENT SAFETY

Value-based incentive programs, or VBIPs, aim to drive improvements in quality and reduce costs by linking financial incentives or penalties to hospital performance. But a new study has found no evidence these programs have any measurable association with changes in catheter-associated urinary tract...

MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION STANDARDS IMPROVE PATIENT SAFETY, OPTIMIZE EHR USE

The American Medical Association and other standards developing organizations like the WHO and the American Joint Committee on Cancer have lauded the benefits of relevant documentation standards including units of measure; pharmaceutical regimens; cancer protocols; laboratory studies; genetics; dise...

PAYER ROUNDUP—NORTH CAROLINA PAYS OUT $6B IN MEDICAID CONTRACTS

North Carolina officials have reached agreements with five insurers to offer Medicaid managed care in the state, with the deals totaling $6 billion. The insurers—AmeriHealth Caritas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, UnitedHealthcare, WellCare and Carolina Complete Health, a consor...

PBMS LAUNCH COUNTERATTACK FOLLOWING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S PLAN TO END DRUG REBATES

Pharmacy benefit managers are hitting back against critics who blame them for rising drug prices, as the system they use to negotiate rebates on drugs hangs in the balance.  The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association this week launched a campaign called #OnYourRxSide, which aims to educatio...

NEWYORK-PRESBYTERIAN WORKING ON MACHINE LEARNING ANALYTICS TO COMBAT OPIOID CRISIS

NewYork-Presbyterian, a prominent academic health system, is working with machine learning vendor Splunk to develop new data analytics tools that prevent the potential diversion of controlled substances such as opioids. NewYork-Presbyterian approached Splunk to develop the controlled substance monit...

RURAL HOSPITALS FACE GROWING SUSTAINABILITY THREATS ON MULTIPLE FRONTS, AHA SAYS

A multitude of challenges is threatening the stability of rural hospitals in America, a report from the American Hospital Association (AHA) found. Recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals is an ongoing challenge and expense, which is further complicated by geographic isolation. The repo...

GROWTH IN HOSPITAL PRICES OUTPACES THAT OF PHYSICIANS BY NEARLY 20 PERCENT, HEALTH AFFAIRS SHOWS

Physician prices have seen a growth trend over the past several years, but between 2007 and 2014, hospital prices outpaced them, according to new research published in Health Affairs.  Hospital-based procedures have seen growth driven largely be the facility side of the equation, with prices fo...

PROVIDENCE ST. JOSEPH HEALTH LAUNCHES BUSINESS OFFERING PBM SERVICE, POPULATION HEALTH EXPERTISE

Providence St. Joseph Health is getting into the business of helping other healthcare providers and payers with the shift to value-based care. The Renton, Washington-based health system launched Ayin Health Solutions, a population health company, to offer expertise to help payers, providers, employe...

CENTENE STILL BULLISH ON ACA EXCHANGES DESPITE LEGAL CHALLENGES TO THE LAW

Legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act aren’t deterring Centene from their exchange business, officials said on Tuesday.  Centene Corporation’s ACA exchange enrollment grew by 52% to reach 1.5 million members in 2018, the insurer said during its quarterly earnings call, adding ...

HEALTHCARE GAINS 42,000 JOBS IN JANUARY, LED BY AMBULATORY SERVICES

The healthcare industry didn't add as many jobs in January as it did in December, but that's partly because December was a record month. The last month of 2018 saw 52,000 jobs added, while 42,000 more were added in January, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ambulatory service...

MEDICARE SPENDING ON HEALTHCARE FOR ELDERLY DIPS, DRIVEN BY BETTER CARDIOVASCULAR CARE

Healthcare spending among the Medicare population age 65 and older has slowed dramatically since 2005, and as much as half of that reduction can be attributed to reduced spending on cardiovascular disease, a new Harvard study has found. Led by Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics David Cutle...

MEDSTAR LAUNCHES EHR USABILITY CAMPAIGN, WITH VIDEOS SHOWING UX, WORKFLOW CHALLENGES

Effective software depends on user feedback, with developers rely on a culture of open communication to learn more about bugs and usability issues. That goes electronic health records too, and MedStar Health is showing, not telling, how they could. The MedStar Health National Center for Human Factor...

INDUSTRY VOICES—3 WAYS HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CMS’ REDUCED BURDENS

It goes without saying that both regulation and accreditation are crucial to ensuring that healthcare providers and facilities uphold nationwide standards in patient care. While both hold healthcare providers accountable to their patients and community, strengthen patient safety and measure quality ...

WHY LYFT IS MAKING MEDICARE ADVANTAGE A KEY FOCUS OF ITS HEALTHCARE WORK

Ride-hailing service Lyft has been in the healthcare space for the past several years, and it sees Medicare Advantage plans as a key demographic for its health platform. On a call with reporters on Monday, Megan Callahan, vice president for healthcare at Lyft, said its first MA partner was CareMore,...

NYU LANGONE TACKLES END-OF-LIFE CARE DECISION-MAKING

NYU Langone Health developed an end-of-life clinical decision support care initiative for shared decision-making among patients, their families and the care team. Launched in 2017, the Respecting Choices Person-Centered Care Model improves care by aligning the goals of the patient and the care team....

GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR GENOMICS AND HEALTH PICKS 7 DATA INITIATIVES FOR 2019

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health has chosen seven genomic data initiatives from around the world as new Driver Projects for 2019 – projects where researches will work together develop and pilo standards for the sharing genomic and other health data. GA4GH officials said they were ch...

EHRS, POP HEALTH, PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS, INTEROPERABILITY ON CERNER’S HIMSS19 MENU

With HIMSS19 just days away, EHR giant Cerner has a lot on its mind. And its executives at the global health IT conclave are going to be focused on a variety of trends affecting EHRs and much more. “Healthcare is a fast-paced industry defined by dramatic shifts in regulations, technology, care...

CIGNA REPORTS STRONG FOURTH QUARTER, SHRUGS OFF POTENTIAL IMPACT OF DRUG REBATE RULE PROPOSAL

Insurance giant Cigna posted strong year-end results following its merger with Express Scripts. Cigna pulled in $49 billion in revenue for the year, a 15% increase over 2017. Its income from operations was $3.6 billion or $14.22 a share, up more than 30% over $2.7 billion, or $8.77 a share, in 2017....

HOW TO MAKE HEALTHCARE MORE LIKE AMAZON? IT COMES DOWN TO DATA AND PAYER-PROVIDER COLLABORATION

Anyone who has used an e-commerce site like Amazon knows how easy it is to get what you want—sometimes within hours—with the click of a button. With its phone calls, long waits for appointments and yet more waiting at the doctor's office, healthcare strikes a stark contrast. And exec...

EMDS ACQUIRES APRIMA, BOOSTING OUTPATIENT EHR OFFERINGS

Electronic health record developer eMDs is acquiring Aprima Medical Software for an undisclosed sum. The addition of Aprima, which develops EHR, practice management and revenue cycle management technology, will help eMDs better serve its 63,000 provider customers worldwide, the company said. Both co...

IATRIC SYSTEMS BUYS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA SPINOFF HAYSTACK INFORMATICS

Iatric Systems, which itself was acquired by Harris Healthcare this past summer, has announced that it is purchasing Haystack Informatics, whose behavioral analytics offerings aim to help providers ensure patient privacy and optimize operations. Iatric's wide suite of offerings – security,...

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES WANTS TO END 'MIDDLEMEN KICKBACKS' IN DRUG PRICING BY TARGETING REBATES

The Department of Health and Human Services is proposing to lower the list price of prescription drugs by correcting what it calls the perverse incentive to increase list prices to get higher rebates. The rebates are passed on to health plans, which use them to lower the price of premiums. But Part ...

AVERA TAPS PHARMACOGENOMICS TO HELP PROVIDERS CHOOSE THE RIGHT MEDICINE

Avera Health, an integrated system in the Midwest, uses pharmacogenomics to allow providers to pick the right medication for a specific patient, and delivers the information to the clinical point of care through a ready-to-use format in the EHR. Avera employes this pharmacist-driven interpretation t...

DHBS IN NEW ZEALAND TO DEVELOP NATIONAL ELECTRONIC ORAL HEALTH RECORD

An implementation plan for a nationally consistent Electronic Oral Health Record (EOHR) will be presented to the country’s 20 district health board (DHB) chief executives by the middle of this year. Professional services organisation TAS is leading the implementation on behalf of the DHBs afte...

2 DECADES AFTER LANDMARK IOM REPORT, THIS GROUP IS STILL FIGHTING TO CONVINCE HOSPITALS TO TAKE SAFETY STEPS

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—Standing beneath the bright lights on a stage in a California conference center, Joe Kiani told a crowd of hospital leaders he was frustrated. Seven years ago, he’d founded the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. And Kiani, who’d made a name for himself fou...

DIRECTTRUST CEO ON WHY DIRECT MESSAGING SHOULD REPLACE THE FAX MACHINE

An increasing number of providers are engaging in health data exchange and are using data exchange services for a variety of use cases, according to the nonprofit association DirectTrust. Case in point: Direct message transactions increased by 63% in 2018 with steady growth in the number of healthca...

SCRIBES SAVE DOCTORS TIME AND HOSPITALS MONEY, NEW STUDY FINDS

Scribes can benefit both doctors and hospitals, according to a new study. Using scribes increased emergency physicians’ productivity so they can care for more patients and ultimately saved hospitals money, according to research published in the BMJ. The study, which included 88 physicians, was...

ANTHEM MOVES UP LAUNCH OF ITS PBM TO SECOND QUARTER OF 2019

Anthem is planning to begin moving members into its new PBM, IngenioRx, in the second quarter of 2019, bumping up the projected launch from 2020. Anthem announced the change as part of its fourth-quarter earnings (PDF), saying it moved up IngenioRx’s launch because Cigna closed its acquisition...

ADDRESSING SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH? CONSIDER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING

"Social determinants of health" is one of the hot buzz-phrases in healthcare these days, and for good reason. SDOH refers to outside factors that may impact a patient's health, such as employment status and access to education, and providers can improve efficiency and curb costs by add...

AN EARLY LOOK AT A CDC PROJECT DIGITIZING INFECTIOUS DISEASE GUIDELINES TO WORK IN EHRS

Addressing global infectious diseases has been an ongoing challenge. To tackle the issue, in 2018 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put together a Kaizen group consisting of an interdisciplinary collection of healthcare and IT professi...

HEALTHCARE IT’S ‘LORD OF THE RINGS’ PROBLEM

In JRR Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings, the battle in middle earth is about getting control of the “one ring that rules us all.” A constructive analogy in healthcare is the quest to find that one solution that unites different systems and enables a seamless flow of data.
...

TRIBUNAL PROHIBITS PROPOSED MEDICLINIC HOSPITAL MERGER OVER FEAR HEALTHCARE PRICES WOULD GO UP

The Competition Tribunal said on Wednesday that it has prohibited a merger between Mediclinic and Matlosana Medical Health Services (MMHS) in the North West province. In terms of the proposed transaction Mediclinic would have acquired a majority interest in MMHS. MMHS owns and operates, among others...

PAYER ROUNDUP—GRASSLEY CALLS ON HHS, CMS TO EXPLAIN INFLATED LAB SPENDING

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is calling for the Department of Health and Human Services to explain the potential for a big increase in costs to Medicare for laboratory services. Grassley's letter follows a recent report from the Government Accountability Office which...

PAYERS, PROVIDERS CLASH ON CMS' PLANS FOR STEP THERAPY IN MEDICARE PART B

Payers and providers are decidedly split when it comes to CMS’ proposals to allow step therapy for Part B drugs, while insurers want to the agency to take its plans for negotiation in Part D's protected classes further. The comment period on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services...

NEW EHEALTH DIGITAL SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE ALLOWS FIRST EU CITIZENS TO USE EPRESCRIPTIONS ACROSS BORDERS AND MORE EU NEWS BRIEFS

New initiative sees EU citizens use ePrescriptions in other EU country. Finnish patients can now get their medicines from pharmacies in Estonia prescribed electronically by their doctors back in Finland through the new eHealth Digital Service Infrastructure, the European Commission announced last we...

APPLE, AETNA COLLABORATING ON NEW WATCH-DRIVEN WELLNESS REWARDS PROGRAM

This morning Aetna (which was recently acquired by CVS) and Apple announced a new wellness program that will leverage health data, a custom app and the Apple Watch. Called Attain by Aetna, the voluntary program will deliver personalized health goals, recommendations and rewards based on members&rsqu...

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR $1B TOWERS PROJECT

Massachusetts General Hospital is planning to construct a $1 billion, 12-story building on its Boston campus by 2026. MGH announced to its employees in a letter it was launching the process to get approval for the hospital building aimed at addressing growing demands for care and services. Cancer an...

ANALYSIS: PULLING BACK CURTAIN ON HOSPITAL PRICES ADDS NEW WRINKLE IN COST CONTROL

As President Donald Trump was fighting with Congress over the shutdown and funding for a border wall, his administration implemented a new rule that could be a game changer for health care. Starting this month, hospitals must publicly reveal the contents of their master price lists -- called "c...

AETNA, IBM LAUNCHING NEW BLOCKCHAIN HEALTHCARE NETWORK

A group of leading health insurers including Aetna, now owned by CVS Health, launched a collaboration with PNC Bank and IBM to design a blockchain healthcare network that will improve transparency and interoperability in the industry. The initiative—which also includes Anthem and Health Care S...

MOST HOSPITALS WOULD LIKELY BENEFIT FROM THIRD-PARTY LIABILITY INSURANCE COVERAGE, SAYS ERI

Citing dramatically increased costs and concurrent drops in insurance reimbursement, an article published by Emergency Recovery Inc. in its Rev Cycle Quarterly publication laid out a case for most U.S. hospitals to secure third party liability coverage, or TPL, describing what Celler Organization an...

OPTUM SUES FORMER EXECUTIVE FOR WORKING FOR COMPETITOR COMPANY RUN BY ATUL GAWANDE

Optum has sued former executive David William Smith for going to work for Amazon, Berkshire-Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, breaking his non-compete agreement. Optum has filed for a temporary restraining order to prevent Smith from working for the company it calls "ABC." Smith, former vice pr...

CROSS-INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS, INCREASING CONSUMERISM TO DRIVE MORE HEALTHCARE M&A IN 2019

Last year was a record-breaking year when it came to healthcare deals and the trend isn't expected to slow down in 2019, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute’s latest US Health Services Deals Insights report. Overall deal volume was up 14.4% from 2017 to the en...

PAYER ROUNDUP—MAINE'S NEW GOVERNOR REJECTS STATE’S PLANNED MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS

Newly instated Maine Gov. Janet Mills has rejected work requirements in the state’s Medicaid program, which were requested by her predecessor and approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The waiver request submitted by former Gov. Paul LePage was approved on Dec. 21 shortl...

38 HOSPITALS SUE HHS OVER SITE-NEUTRAL PAYMENT RULE

A month and a half after several hospital advocacy groups joined together to sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over it's finalized site-neutral payment policy, 38 hospitals have followed, filing suit against HHS Secretary Alex Azar for a policy they say will deprive hospitals ...

BENEFITS OF BUNDLED PAYMENTS TURN ON WHETHER THEY ARE VOLUNTARY OR MANDATORY: GAO

CMS suspects Medicare could save money by adopting episode-based payment models. But according to a new report by the the Government Accountability Office, the outcome is highly dependent on the specific structure of those models. In particular, the results can change massively depending on whether ...

LESSONS LEARNED: WHAT PATIENTS SAID ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE IN PRIMARY CARE PRACTICES

What makes a good doctor? Just ask their patients. Based on a new survey, it becomes clear that good communication with their physicians, as well as with other clinicians, is key to a positive patient experience. That’s a big lesson from the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) survey ...

INSULIN PRICES NEARLY DOUBLED IN 5 YEARS, REPORT SAYS

The cost of managing diabetes in the U.S. is rising quickly, largely due to dramatic increases in the cost of insulin, according to a new report (PDF) from the Health Care Cost Institute. Looking at health insurance claims from 13,800 to 16,200 people with Type 1 diabetes who use employer-sponsored ...

AHA, FAH URGE FASTER PROGRESS ON INTEROPERABILITY IN NEW REPORT

Seven leading hospital organizations are putting out a call to arms to advance data sharing and interoperability across the healthcare industry. Data sharing improves care coordination, patient safety, family empowerment, efficiency and cost, the groups wrote in the new report (PDF) released by the ...

JPMORGAN SPINOFF KADENA PUTS BLOCKCHAIN ON AWS—AND ON THE TABLE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES

The startup announced Wednesday morning that it would be moving its blockchain development platform to Amazon Web Services. It hopes that this accessibility can eliminate or reduce the upfront costs of setting up blockchain nodes. "There's a lot of organizations that want to use blockchain ...

MORE THAN HALF OF CONSUMERS LACK CONFIDENCE IN THEIR ABILITY TO PROPERLY TAKE NEW MEDICATIONS AS DIRECTED

More than half of consumers lack confidence in their ability to properly take new medications as directed, according to a survey released today by e-prescribing and patient medication management solution outfit DrFirst. Among the consumers who had concerns about taking new medications correctly, two...

BUNDLED PAYMENT PROGRAMS IN HEALTHCARE BECOMING MORE COMMON DESPITE LACK OF COMPREHENSIVE IT SOLUTION

Recent rule changes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has once again brought bundled payments into the national spotlight. Addressing uncertainty among payers and providers on the future of bundled payments, the latest report from Chilmark Research analyzes the market trends shapin...

PAYMENTS TO PHYSICIANS MAY INCREASE OPIOID PRESCRIBING, STUDY SHOWS

Doctors who receive direct payments from opioid manufacturers tend to prescribe more opioids than doctors who receive no such payments, new research shows. The report, published in the journal Addiction, found that the association between payments and prescribing is strongest for hydrocodone and oxy...

LOYOLA MEDICINE, PALOS HEALTH EXPAND PARTNERSHIP WITH PLANS TO FULLY MERGE

Illinois hospital systems Loyola Medicine and Palos Health plan to merge, according to a joint announcement made Monday. The two systems have signed a non-binding letter of intent and due diligence is expected to take several months. The terms of the LOI are not being disclosed. Palos Health will co...

PART D PLANS TAKE ON MORE RISK IN NEW CMMI MODEL

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is testing new models through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to bring down prescription drug costs in Part D and to add benefits and increase competition in Medicare Advantage plans. Both models are voluntary. The Part D payment moderni...

BLUE CROSS NORTH CAROLINA AND 5 MAJOR HEALTH SYSTEMS ENTER CONTRACT TO SHARE IN OUTCOMES AND COSTS

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has entered into a shared risk contract with five of the state's major health systems and their accountable care organizations. The program called Blue Premier, ties payment to performance. The health systems share in the cost savings if they meet ind...

VANDERBILT COMBINES AI AND SMART ON FHIR IN AN EHR VOICE ASSISTANT

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is one of the first provider organizations to develop a voice assistant for electronic health records that can give verbal summaries back to providers using natural language processing. With VEVA, the Vanderbilt EHR Voice Assistant, the health system is using NLP...

HL7 GIVES A GLIMPSE OF FHIR 5

Health Level 7 International on Monday offered a peek at its roadmap for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, aka FHIR 5. FHIR is widely viewed as holding great promise for enabling health data sharing among vendors, providers, payers, government, health information exchanges and other entiti...

A NEW HEALTHCARE RULE DESIGNED TO PROTECT CONSUMERS DOES ANYTHING BUT

Of life's many expenses, there's perhaps none more baffling and frustrating than healthcare. After all, when a car breaks down, your mechanic must provide you with a detailed estimate of what it will cost to fix it, including replacement parts and labor. Medical care doesn't work that wa...

NORTH CAROLINA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL OKS HCA ACQUISITION OF MISSION HEALTH

HCA's planned acquisition of Asheville, North Carolina-based Mission Health System cleared a major hurdle this week after North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein announced that he has no objections to the deal. Stein pointed to HCA's commitments to provide healthcare services and to make ...

INTERMOUNTAIN TAKES ITS CHALLENGE OF FALSE CLAIMS ACT TO THE SUPREME COURT

Intermountain Healthcare is trying to take its ongoing challenge of the False Claims Act (FCA) to the Supreme Court. The Salt Lake City-based health system has asked the court to review a decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming the FCA violates the Appointments Clause of the Constitu...

INDUSTRY VOICES—4 WAYS HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS CAN PREPARE FOR NEW MATERNAL CARE DESIGNATIONS

Four years ago, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine released a joint consensus statement on maternal level-of-care designations (MLOCD). The goal of the designations was to standardize levels of maternal care as a means of improving mat...

CVS, WALMART MAKE NICE, REACH NEW MULTI-YEAR DEAL TO KEEP RETAIL GIANT IN CAREMARK’S NETWORK

Just days after Walmart announced it would pull out of CVS Caremark’s network, the two sides have resolved their differences and reached a new contract agreement.  CVS Health announced Tuesday that Walmart had opted to exit Caremark’s pharmacy benefit management and Managed Medicaid...

STUDY: SHIFTING DRUGS FROM MEDICARE PART B TO PART D COULD HIT SOME BENEFICIARIES WHERE IT HURTS—THEIR WALLETS

Moving pricey Medicare Part B drugs into Part D could bring down drug spending overall, but it may also hit the wallets of some beneficiaries harder, according to a new study. Researchers led by a team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that shifting some of the...

HOW MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA USED ITIL FOR A TELEHEALTH SERVICE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The Medical University of South Carolina was charged recently by its leadership and state leaders to expand its telehealth portfolio and rapidly develop new services. That goal was helped along by some strategies gleaned from ITIL, a library of best practices to help organizations optimize their inf...

NEW ZEALAND’S NORTHLAND DHB HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT TOOL GOES LIVE

Northland District Health Board (DHB), which is based in Whangarei and covering the northernmost part of the North Island in New Zealand, has launched a web-based interactive version of the Health Needs Assessment (HNA). DHBs must produce an HNA report every 5–7 years as a way of monitoring th...

DECISION SUPPORT CAN GUIDE CLINICIANS TO PRESCRIBE LOWER COST ALTERNATIVES

To curb costs in prescription drug spending, clinical decision support can help stop the upward trend of per capita spending that makes cost in this country higher than in any other industrialized nation. Adam Szerencsy, medical director, Ambulatory Informatics, NYU Langone Medical Center, will disc...

STUDY: 1 IN 4 ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS LIKELY INAPPROPRIATE

A quarter of prescriptions are likely inappropriate for the conditions they were prescribed for, according to a new study published Wednesday in BMJ. And that estimate is probably conservative. The study was conducted by looking at the diagnostic codes for just more 19 million privately insured indi...

HEALTHCARE ROUNDUP—TENET STRIKES MULTIYEAR DEALS WITH ANTHEM, HUMANA

Tenet Healthcare has reached multiyear agreements with Anthem and Humana to ensure members can receive in-network care at its facilities. Tenet is contracted with Humana until 2023 and did not specify the length of its agreement with Anthem. Executives at the health system and both payers said the d...

DEFINITIVE HEALTHCARE ACQUIRES HIMSS ANALYTICS DATA PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Definitive Healthcare on Wednesday announced that it has acquired HIMSS Analytics' Logic, Predict and Analyze assets to enhance its market intelligence platform. HIMSS Analytics, a Healthcare IT News sister, will continue its focus on maturity models, such as the EMR Adoption Model, and adoption...

SENIORS MORE LIKELY TO SWITCH MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS IN 2019, SURVEY SHOWS

Today's seniors are increasingly tech savvy, expect more from Medicare plans and in 2019 are more likely to switch their Medicare Advantage plans, finds a new survey from Welltok. With more than 60 million Americans projected to be covered by Medicare by 2020, it is critical for plans to underst...

CVS CAREMARK, WALMART CLASH OVER REIMBURSEMENT RATES

Walmart and its pharmacy benefit manager network, CVS Caremark, have fallen out over reimbursement rates, leaving commercial and managed Medicaid members out-of-network when filling scripts with the retailer. CVS Health said it has requested that Walmart continue to fill prescriptions as an in-netwo...

HOW ADVENTHEALTH LEVERAGES REAL-TIME DATA TO BOOST OUTCOMES

Quality improvement is no longer just a nice-to-have. It's a critical must-do for any health system that hopes to survive in the era of value-based care. But opinions vary widely on the best way to manage data for better outcomes. Robert Altemose, RN, clinical operations analytics director at Al...

EUROPEAN AI-ON-DEMAND PLATFORM UNDERWAY, ONLINE 'CALCULATOR' TO PREDICT RISK OF CANCER, AND MORE EU DIGITAL HEALTH NEWS

New project looks to create European AI-on-demand platform. A new AI4EU project aims to support the development of the “first European on-demand AI platform” with a €20m budget over the next three years. French company Thales is coordinating the roll-out, with a view to expand membe...

PROVIDERS WALK ‘FINE LINE’ BETWEEN INFORMING AND SCARING IMMIGRANT PATIENTS

While the Trump administration decides whether to adopt a controversial policy that could jeopardize the legal status of immigrants who use public programs such as Medicaid, doctors and clinics are torn between informing patients about the potential risks and unnecessarily scaring them into dropping...

PAYER ROUNDUP—JUDGE ORDERS DOJ TO CONTINUE CVS-AETNA REVIEW; CMS CONSIDERING MEDICAID BLOCK GRANTS

A federal court's review of CVS Health's $69 billion purchase of Aetna won't be held up by the federal shutdown after a judge rejected a request by the U.S. Justice Department. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ordered the agency to file public comments and its response by Feb. 15. The...

HEALTHCARE ADDED MORE JOBS THAN OTHER SECTORS IN 2018, AND THE GROWTH OUTLOOK IS STRONG

A lot of jobs were created in the U.S. in 2018, and healthcare accounted for 346,000 of them, for an average of 29,000 jobs per month. That's an increase over the 2017 total of 284,000 healthcare jobs created. Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest data, the jobs created in the heal...

WALGREENS, MICROSOFT PARTNER FOR NEW CLOUD-BASED CONSUMER HEALTH INITIATIVE

Walgreens Boots Alliance and Microsoft are partnering for a project they say will lead new delivery models and technology for consumer health – and will offer new competition as companies such as Amazon continue to make inroads in the healthcare space. The collaboration will be based around Mi...

HOSPITAL PROFITABILITY, VOLUMES STRUGGLED DURING 2018, WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS

With 2018 now in the books, it's possible to see how certain trends played out in the world of healthcare. Kaufman Hall was certainly interested in examining the year that was, and in looking back, the firm found that while 2018 got off to a bad start, hospital volumes and profitability rebounde...

AUSTRALIA’S MY HEALTH RECORD SYSTEM SEES RISE IN DATA BREACHES

The agency’s Annual Report 2017–18 identified that “42 data breaches (in 28 notifications) were reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)… concerning potential data security or integrity breaches”, but with “no purposeful or malicio...

CHINESE HOSPITAL IN GUANGDONG DEPLOYS AI CAMERAS TO DETECT BLINDNESS-CAUSING DISEASES

Last week, Deqing county hospital in Guangdong Province launched free consultations featuring artificial-intelligence (AI) cameras to detect ocular fundus diseases, which are major causes of blindness, according to a report by Xinhua News. About 300 residents from Zhaoqing City in Dequing County att...

HOW HCA HEALTHCARE IS USING CLINICAL ANALYTICS FOR OPIOID STEWARDSHIP

HCA Healthcare's Physician Services Group offers oversight for some 5,700 physicians and advanced practice providers, and embraces an approach to communication and collaboration that's "deeply collaborative," said Barbara Coughlin, RN, vice president of quality at HCA. One specific...

THE TOP TRENDS IN HOME HEALTH CARE FOR 2019

2018 was a banner year for the Medicare-certified home health care industry. Big providers got even larger through creative mergers and acquisitions. Admissions and utilization numbers held strong. New telehealth opportunities started to emerge. And, in general, revenues remained high. The upcoming ...

NHS ENGLAND CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER TO JOIN VIDEO GP CONSULTATION PROVIDER LIVI

NHS England chief digital officer Juliet Bauer is joining video GP consultation provider LIVI, which launched in the UK last October after signing partnerships with two NHS GP federations. The announcement follows the publication this week of the NHS long-term plan that outlined key milestones for t...

MERITUS HEALTH ROLLS OUT EPIC EHR, WITH HELP FROM ST. LOUIS-BASED MERCY

Meritus Health, based in Hagerstown, Maryland, has gone live with its new Epic electronic health record – implemented and hosted via a collaboration with partnership with Mercy Technology Services, the IT arm of the 45-hospital St. Louis-based Mercy. Meritus, which has direct a software licens...

MID-REVENUE CYCLE MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT MARKET EXPECTED TO GROW OVER THE COMING YEARS

The mid-revenue cycle management and clinical documentation improvement market is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2023, up from $3.1 billion in 2018, at a compound annual growth rate of 7.9 percent. That's the verdict of a new ResearchAndMarkets.com analysis. It found that market growth is lar...

AFTER BITTER CLOSURE, RURAL TEXAS HOSPITAL DEFIES THE NORM AND REOPENS

Five months ago, the 6,500 residents of Crockett, Texas, witnessed a bit of a resurrection -- at least in rural hospital terms. A little more than a year after the local hospital shut its doors, the 25-bed facility reopened its emergency department, inpatient beds and some related services, albeit o...

HOSPITALS ARE TURNING TO TELEHEALTH TO MANAGE SCARCE PHYSICIAN RESOURCES

New flexibilities for telehealth reimbursement and expected changes for 2019 and beyond are making its use more widespread. Providence St. Joseph Health headquartered in Washington State, has been working for over 12 years on its telehealth program and the technology, in fact, has become necessary a...

PAYER ROUNDUP—DEMOCRATS PASS RESOLUTION TO DEFEND ACA AGAINST LAWSUIT

The House passed a resolution to defend the Affordable Care Act against a lawsuit challenging the healthcare law on Wednesday. It comes as a standalone package days after another House vote passed a similar measure as part of a larger package. Last month, a federal judge struck down Obamacare, sidin...

MOLINA HEALTHCARE SAW A STUNNING TURNAROUND LAST YEAR. CAN THE GROWTH CONTINUE?

Has Molina Healthcare’s new leadership team been so successful in their company turnaround that they’ve run out of places to grow? Not even close, CEO Joseph Zubretsky said during a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this week. It has been the foremost question facing ...

AS HOSPITALS POST STICKER PRICES ONLINE, MOST PATIENTS WILL REMAIN BEFUDDLED

As of Jan. 1, in the name of transparency, the Trump administration required that all hospitals post their list prices online. But what is popping up on medical center websites is a dog's breakfast of medical codes, abbreviations and dollar signs -- in little discernible order -- that may initia...

HOW TO MAKE BUNDLED PAYMENTS WORK? START BY ENGAGING PATIENTS

Over the past two years of the mandatory comprehensive care for joint replacement payment model, Froedtert Health saved $1.5 million on the 615 patients who had the surgery, according to Mike Anderes, chief innovation and digital health officer for Froedtert and president of its affiliated Inception...

RHL VENTURES INVESTS IN HEALTHCARE SAAS PLATFORM HEALTHMETRICS

RHL Ventures, a Malaysia-based private investment firm, on Jan 10 announced its follow-on investment into healthcare SaaS platform HealthMetrics. RHL Ventures participated in HealthMetrics’ seed round, along with other institutional investors. HealthMetrics was founded in 2015 by Alvin Yuan an...

MEDICAL MARKETING SKYROCKETS OVER PAST TWO DECADES, BUT OVERSIGHT REMAINS LIMITED

Healthcare spending in the U.S. is the highest in the world, totaling $3.3 trillion -- or 17.8 percent of the GDP -- in 2016. To capture market share, and to expand the market, drug companies and healthcare organizations use a wide array of promotional activities, including TV and digital advertisin...

BLOCKCHAIN IN HEALTHCARE MARKET TO REACH $890.5 MILLION BY 2023: P&S INTELLIGENCE

Blockchain in Healthcare Market by Application (Clinical Data Exchange & Interoperability, Claims Adjudication & Billing Management, Drug Supply Chain Management, Drug Discovery & Clinical Trials, Prescription Drug Abuse) by End User (Pharmaceutical Companies, Healthcare Providers, Healt...

HEALTHCARE CONTRACT RESEARCH ORGANIZATION (CRO) MARKET SURPASS US$ 54.82 BN BY 2026 | CAGR 6.5% - ACUMEN RESEARCH AND CONSULTING

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global healthcare contract research organization (CRO) market is anticipated to expand at a stable CAGR above 6.5% during the forecast period 2018 to 2026. According to the report titled “Healthcare contract research organization (CRO) Market ...

HEALTHCARE CHATBOTS MARKET 2019: GLOBAL INDUSTRY ANALYSIS, SIZE, SHARE, GROWTH, TRENDS AND FORECAST TO 2025

Healthcare Chatbots Market valued approximately USD 105 million in 2017 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 21% over the forecast period 2018-2025. Growing necessity of virtual health assistance is the major factor which is driving the growth in the Global Healthcare Chatb...

NEW YORK CITY LAUNCHES US$100 MILLION UNIVERSAL HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM

New York City has launched a US$100 million health insurance program to cover 600,000 uninsured residents, including those unable to afford coverage and those living in the United States illegally, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday. De Blasio, now in his second term as mayor of the country's ...

ALLSCRIPTS AND MICROSOFT PARTNER TO BUILD NEW TECH FOR CLINICAL RESEARCH IN THE CLOUD

Microsoft and Allscripts subsidiary Veradigm announced a partnership to develop a new product that would help researchers conduct studies via Allscripts cloud-based electronic health record. Allscripts’ payer and life sciences-focused business unit, Veradigm, has been tapped to work with Micro...

LACK OF WOMEN CEOS IS A PROBLEM FOR HEALTHCARE, OLIVER WYMAN SAYS

More than 80 percent of the decisionmakers in the U.S. healthcare workforce are women — and 65 percent of women in C-suite healthcare positions fill technical or influencer roles — yet only 13 percent make it to CEO, according to the latest Oliver Wyman report. And, when they do make it ...

MEDICAID PLANS COVER DOCTOR VISITS, HOSPITAL CARE—AND NOW GEDS

Emilia Ford became pregnant at 15 and, after her daughter was born, dropped out of high school. As she held down different jobs during the past decade—including housekeeping and working in a relative’s retail store—she always thought about going for her GED to show she met high sch...

PHYSICIAN PRACTICE ROUNDUP—BASELGA TAKES HELM OF ASTRAZENECA’S CANCER R&D

Baselga takes helm of AstraZeneca’s cancer R&D as pharma rings in the new year with big changes Major changes are afoot at AstraZeneca as it shakes up its research structure with new units, new names and big moves. First up, we have José Baselga, who will run a newly formed cancer-f...

NEW MEXICO CUTS READMISSIONS, IMPROVES ED CARE WITH MIDDLEWARE THAT ENABLES INFORMATION SHARING

New Mexico is a state rich in history and natural resources. It also has one of the highest proportions of Medicaid beneficiaries, currently 42 percent of the population. Many of these patients live below the poverty line, struggle to receive adequate primary-care services and are high utilizers of ...

INTERNATIONAL DRUG PRICING MODEL CONCERNS ONCOLOGISTS, OTHERS WHO WORK WITH MEDICARE CONSUMERS

Healthcare organizations that represent patients who rely on Medicare Part B drugs have told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services they are concerned over its proposal to save money on drug costs through an international pricing index model. CMS is considering issuing a proposed rule this s...

HOW EMPLOYERS CAN IMPROVE CANCER CARE AND COSTS, BASED ON A NATIONAL ALLIANCE ROADMAP

While cancer deaths have been declining since the early 1990s, costs have continued to increase, with more than $147 billion spent for cancer care in the United States in 2017. Despite these rising costs, employers and health plans have been reticent to manage oncology care, and are also faced with ...

CITYMD STRIKES DEAL TO STAY IN-NETWORK WITH UNITEDHEALTHCARE

Urgent care firm CityMD has reached a last-minute contract to stay in UnitedHealthcare's network, curtailing the possibility that some of the firm's patients would face higher costs or need to find another provider. As 2018 came to a close, it seemed likely CityMD might not reach a deal in t...

HEALTHCARE ROUNDUP—GOTTLIEB STAYING AT FDA; REPORT SAYS OPIOID OVERDOSES COST HOSPITALS $11B A YEAR

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., said on Twitter that he’s staying on the agency in response to a reporter investigating his alleged exit.  Gottlieb said in the post that “an online pharma news pub” was in contact with friends, digging into repor...

INSURERS BLAME SPECIALTY DRUG COSTS FOR RISING PREMIUMS. THIS REPORT FROM CALIFORNIA SHOWS WHY

Specialty drugs made up about 3% of prescriptions in California in 2017 but accounted for more than half of the prescription drug spending that year, according to new report that compiled drug spending from nine insurers in that state. According to the first Prescription Drug Cost Transparency Repor...

MICHIGAN MEDTECH COMPANY RAISES $77M FOR RENAL DENERVATION SOLUTION TO HYPERTENSION

Hypertension is a condition that affects millions of people around the world and can lead to serious health issues including cardiac arrest, stroke and heart failure. It also represents a significant burden and cost to the healthcare system as a whole. One potential innovative pathway to addressing ...

PAYER ROUNDUP—INSURANCE GROUPS CALL FOR HRA PROTECTIONS; MAINE GOVERNOR SIGNS MEDICAID EXPANSION

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) are opposing a Trump administration proposal to allow usage of health reimbursement arrangements to buy short-term limited duration health plans. "Enforc...

DECEMBER SAW THE MOST NEW HEALTHCARE HIRES IN DECADES

December brought the U.S. healthcare industry's largest monthly spike in the number of new hires since at least February 1990.  Healthcare added 50,200 jobs last month, the largest numeric increase in new hires in Modern Healthcare's monthly jobs data, which stretches back to February 1...

INDUSTRY VOICES—THE HIDDEN SECURITY THREAT MOST HOSPITALS HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF YET

There is a huge network threat that most people aren’t aware of: Today’s printers present greater security risks than traditional servers, desktops and laptops. What most do not appreciate, or have ignored, is that printers have evolved from being “dummy copiers” into today&r...

ATTORNEYS GENERAL APPEAL JUDGE’S HEALTH LAW RULING, SETTING NEXT STAGE IN BATTLE THAT’S ON PATH TO SUPREME COURT

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled last month that the health law is unconstitutional without the individual mandate penalty. Attorneys general from more than a dozen Democratic states are leading the charge to defend the Affordable Care Act at the next phase in court. Meanwhile, the gove...

EHR VENDOR MEDSPHERE MOVES TO INCLUDE SUPPLY CHAIN APPS WITH NEW ACQUISITION OF HEALTHLINE SOLUTIONS

Medsphere Systems, a provider of the electronic health record CareVue and RCM Cloud announced today that it has acquired HealthLine Solutions for its hospital supply chain inventory applications. HealthLine’s applications, which use bar coding and RFID technology for automated tracking, are al...

CAREMOUNT REDUCES TOTAL COST TO COLLECT BY 25% ON ITS WAY TO VALUE-BASED CARE

CareMount Medical is the largest independent multispecialty medical group that provides comprehensive medical care to more than 550,000 patients across more than 40 locations in New York. This medical group also is affiliated with organizations including Massachusetts General Hospital, Mount Sinai H...

INDUSTRY VOICES—TECHNOLOGY ALONE WON'T SAVE HEALTHCARE. WE MUST REVISIT OUR PRIMARY CARE ROOTS

People are standing by today’s disastrous status quo healthcare system, and quite frankly, it’s nonsensical. Rather than defending something that is clearly broken out of fear that change will make things worse—though it’s hard to imagine how—it’s time to stop see...

PAYER ROUNDUP—TENET, CIGNA SIGN MULTIYEAR DEAL, OPTUM SCORES VA CONTRACTS

Tenet Healthcare and Cigna have entered into a multiyear agreement that allows Cigna’s members “uninterrupted” access to Tenet’s provider network. Tenet facilities will also be in-network for members of Cigna’s Medicare Advantage plans. Tenet CEO Ron Rittenmeyer said th...

OLDER AMERICANS WORRIED ABOUT INSURANCE COVERAGE, HEALTH COSTS AS THEY APPROACH RETIREMENT

A sizable percentage of Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 are worried about their healthcare coverage as they head toward retirement, according to a new poll from the University of Michigan. Although some of these concerns include things people can’t directly control, such as policy chan...

HL7 RELEASES FHIR 4

Health Level Seven announced on Wednesday that a new version of its interoperability specification is now available. Many in the healthcare industry have been eagerly awaiting the fourth iteration of FHIR 4 because future changes will now be backward compatible. "Applications that implement the...

LINK BETWEEN READMISSION RATES, MORTALITY RATES BACK UNDER SCRUTINY

A new study shows a statistically significant correlation between lower readmission rates and higher mortality rates for patients with heart failure and pneumonia, renewing questions about the efficacy of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRR...

NEW AI IMAGING TOOL TO ACCELERATE CRITICAL PATIENT DIAGNOSES

The project, a joint collaboration between Intel and GE Health, is promising to offer physicians automated diagnostic alerts for some conditions within seconds of medical imaging being completed. It leverages the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit, running on Intel processor-based X-ray systems ...

CHANGES TO PHARMA AND HEALTHCARE IN 2019

Continuing funding shortages, Brexit uncertainty, regulator moves and regulation reforms: there is no shortage of change facing the sector in 2019. We asked the industry’s trade associations about the biggest challenges to tackle and most exciting opportunities to embrace in the year ahead. Wh...

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT TO REMAIN IN PLACE DURING APPEALS PROCESS

A federal judge who ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional earlier this month has stayed his decision to allow the law to remain in place during the appeals process. U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas issued the ruling Sunday saying many Americans would "face great uncertain...

HERE'S A BIG SUPPLY CHAIN COST-SAVINGS OPPORTUNITY: PHYSICIAN PREFERENCE ITEMS

It's a fair guess that many hospitals and health systems will be making cost savings a New Year's resolution in 2019, and by standardizing physician preference items, they could realize some of those savings in their supply chains. It's an approach that has certainly worked for Kentucky-...

WHAT HOSPITALS NEED IN THE AGE OF CONSUMERISM: GUERRILLA MARKETING

There's a battle going on between health systems for covered lives. There's also an internal battle within organizations between keeping the status quo of what has traditionally worked coming up against new, very targeted approaches to gain consumer share. Whether hospitals have a powerhouse...

INSURER GROUP URGES CMS ADMINISTRATOR SEEMA VERMA TO RECONSIDER PASS-THROUGH FUNDING FOR NON-ACA PLANS

America's Health Insurance Plans is urging Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma to prevent subsidies from being used to purchase plans that are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act. In a December 20 letter to Verma, AHIP said CMS's October proposal to of...

CLEVELAND CLINIC INNOVATION EXECUTIVE SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR FRAUD

The Department of Justice announced that Gary Fingerhut, a former manager of a Cleveland Clinic spin-off, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and $2.7 million in restitution for conspiracy to defraud the Cleveland Clinic. The clinic hired Fingerhut in 2010 to help manage the development ...

BOOKENDED BY OBAMACARE, 2018 WAS THE YEAR OF POLICY CHANGE

With Congress' attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act dead by the end of 2017, any relief the law's supporters felt were likely short-lived, as 2018 was the year the Trump administration began significantly remolding a law it fundamentally opposes.Led by HHS Secretary Alex Azar, who took ...

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HEALTHCARE MARKET TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS & COMPETITIVE INSIGHTS TO 2026

A Research Report on Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market Potential Growth, Share, Demand and Analysis of Key Players- Research Forecasts to (2018 – 2026). The global Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Market research report covers main factors responsible for the development of the globa...

VERILY, WALGREENS PARTNER TO TAKE ON CHRONIC CONDITIONS

Alphabet subsidiary Verily and Walgreens revealed plans to collaborate with on several fronts to improve care for people with chronic conditions. There are several aspects of the partnership: Walgreens is now the first choice pharmacy partner for Verily. The companies will look into emerging technol...

TEVA’S PROAIR DIGIHALER FDA APPROVED TO MONITOR ASTHMA AND COPD TREATMENT

Teva Pharmaceutical, based in Israel, landed the first FDA approval for a digital inhaler with built-in sensors. The ProAir Digihaler (albuterol sulfate 117 mcg) Inhalation Powder is indicated for people suffering from asthma & COPD as a way of preventing and treating bronchospasm, a tightening ...

FDA ACTION ALERT: WRAPPING UP 2018 AND HEADING INTO 2019

With the holidays upon us, along with the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) squeezed some target action dates into the last weeks and beginning of the new year. As it turned out, these appear to be a mixed bag of extensions, resubmissions and suppleme...

ACORDA SNAGS APPROVAL FOR NEW TREATMENT OF OFF EPISODES OF PARKINSON’S DISEASE

Acorda Therapeutics can breathe a bit easier. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Inbrija, the first inhaled formula of levodopa (L-dopa) for the intermittent treatment of OFF episodes in Parkinson’s disease patients. The approval came about two weeks before its PUDFA date. Th...

PARAMEDICS CAN SAFELY EVALUATE PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS' MEDICAL CONDITION IN THE FIELD

Emergency medical personnel in Alameda County, California, use a screening process for determining whether to "medically clear" patients experiencing psychiatric emergencies before transporting them. They identify patients who are at low risk for medical emergencies and take them directly ...

FRAMINGHAM SUES DRUG MAKERS, DISTRIBUTORS OVER OPIOID EPIDEMIC

City officials are pressing their case against drug makers and distributors for what they describe as reckless conduct that fueled the nation’s opioid epidemic. A pair of law firms representing the city recently filed a lawsuit in Middlesex Superior Court seeking damages from a range of major ...

MERCK/PFIZER’S BAVENCIO FLUNKS SECOND OVARIAN CANCER TRIAL

Merck KGaA and Pfizer PD-L1 inhibitor Bavencio has missed the mark in its second ovarian cancer trial in a month, this time failing in previously-untreated patients. Results from a planned interim analysis of the phase III JAVELIN Ovarian 100 trial showed that Bavencio (avelumab) was unable to impro...

UROLOGY PROCEDURES INVOLVE OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS

Washington: Antibiotics are overused in up to 50 percent of patients undergoing common urological procedures, suggests a new study. Researchers at the University of Iowa showed that the high rates of overuse were mostly due to the extended use of antibiotics following the procedure. The findings wer...

PURETECH’S VEDANTA RAISES $27M FOR MICROBIOME RESEARCH

US-based Vedanta Biosciences has raised $27 million in a Series C financing to investigate microbiome-derived therapies for several indications, including cancer and food allergy. Investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Rock Springs Capital, Invesco Asset Man...

OPTUMSERVE AWARDED TWO CONTRACTS WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded OptumServe two major contracts for 2019 to provide telephone-based lifestyle coaching and medical disability exams. The virtual lifestyle contract covers coaching for diet, exercise, stress and alcohol use for eligible veterans receiving care from the V...

TAKING SURPRISE MEDICAL BILLS TO COURT

Joaquin Lopez had emergency gallbladder surgery after rushing to an ER last year. He has been haggling with Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis over what he owes ever since. The 37-year-old college professor was hit with a nearly $8,000 bill from the out-of-network hospital—that was after the...

HPE EXECUTIVE SAYS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TAKES IT AND CLINICAL TEAMS WORKING TOGETHER

In today’s world, almost everything computes thanks to constant connectivity, exponential increases in data, easy access to massive computational power and the growth of human-machine interaction. Technologies in these areas are accelerating the pace of innovation and creating new possibilitie...

WHY DATA ANALYTICS IS A CORE COMPETENCY FOR POP HEALTH SUCCESS IN A RISK-BASED WORLD

Medicare is clearly driving value-based payments and MSSP programs in a direction such that providers will have to take on risk. With that in mind, there are core capabilities providers will need to be successful and analytics is one of them. Just how to effectively harness data and analytics, espec...

FEWER PEOPLE CITE HEALTHCARE AS COUNTRY'S MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM FOLLOWING MIDTERMS, GALLUP FINDS

Healthcare, along with immigration, were top concerns among voters heading into November's midterm elections. Many cited those issues as among the nation's top problems. Now, though, concern over healthcare is down, according to a new poll from Gallup. Before the midterms, 11 percent of Amer...

BLUE CROSS, ALEDADE TEAM UP TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT PRACTICES IN NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH ACOS

A health plan and a startup company are pairing up to support independent primary care physicians in North Carolina. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and Aledade, a well-funded startup that partners with primary care physicians to build and lead accountable care organizations (ACOs), are...

WALGREENS AND VERILY ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIPS FOR DIABETES, MEDICATION ADHERENCE

Walgreens Boots Alliance and Verily, Alphabet Inc.’s life sciences research arm, announced multiple plans on Wednesday to help patients with chronic conditions. One project uses “devices and other approaches” to improve medication adherence, and the other “provides tools, coa...

PHYSICIAN PRACTICE ROUNDUP—CALIFORNIA DOCTOR ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY PRESCRIBING DRUGS TIED TO DEATHS

A Southern California doctor was arrested Tuesday on federal charges that allege he illegally distributed opioids and other narcotics by writing prescriptions, including to at least five people who suffered overdose deaths. But his prescribing also appears linked to the death of a bicyclist struck b...

NEW AFFORDABLE CARE ACT POLICIES COULD DRIVE DOWN UNINSURED RATE FROM 12 TO 7.3 PERCENT

If a number of specific policy actions are implemented, Congress could potentially supplement the Affordable Care Act in such a way as to bring health insurance to 12 million more Americans, finds a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That doesn't necessarily mean Congress will take ...

PHARMA GIANTS PFIZER AND GLAXOSMITHKLINE TO CREATE JOINT CONSUMER HEALTHCARE BUSINESS

Pharma giants Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are creating a joint venture consumer healthcare business. The Boards of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction under which Pfizer's consumer healthcare business will essentially roll into GlaxoSmithKline's existing cons...

ALTARUM: GROWTH OF HEALTHCARE PRICES FINALLY DROPPED BELOW INFLATION—AND THAT TREND MAY BE HERE TO STAY

Healthcare prices are growing at a rate that’s slower than the overall inflation rate, and there are signs that this trend may be the new normal. In series of briefs on healthcare spending, employment and price growth, Altarum said it found that the Health Care Price Index (HCPI) increased by ...

HEALTHCARE ROUNDUP—UPMC'S CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER HEADS TO NEW GIG AT ATRIUM HEALTH

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's well-known chief innovation officer, Rasu Shrestha, M.D., is heading to a new gig at Atrium Health. Shrestha will become Atrium's new chief strategy officer, officials announced Tuesday. In the role, Shrestha will be leading enterprise strategy, incl...

INDUSTRY VOICES—TACKLING DRUG DIVERSION WITH A PROACTIVE APPROACH STEEPED IN ANALYTICS

We’ve made great strides in addressing the opioid epidemic at a national level. Just two months ago, Congress passed a comprehensive bipartisan package (PDF) taking aim at substance abuse disorders by combining ideas from 58 opioid bills. But one area that still eludes our industry is the drug...

CLEVELAND CLINIC, KAISER PERMANENTE THROW SUPPORT BEHIND PROPOSAL TO REQUIRE PRICES IN TV DRUG ADS

Some major health systems and trade groups threw their weight behind a Trump administration proposal which would require pharmaceutical companies to include the list price of their drugs in TV ads targeted at consumers. The public comments come after CMS announced a proposal earlier this year to req...

GOOGLE EXEC SAYS HEALTH ORGS SHOULD KEY IN ON DATA MANAGEMENT AND ADVANCED INSIGHTS

Google Cloud will be focusing on, among other things, data management and advanced data insights at HIMSS19 -- two areas it sees as important trends for CIOs and other IT executives to stay focused on in the year ahead. As the amount and types of healthcare data grow, it is becoming increasingly com...

AVERAGE OUTPATIENT VISIT IN U.S. APPROACHING $500, STUDY FINDS

The average outpatient visit in the United States costs nearly $500, according to a new scientific study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. In addition, the average inpatient stay had a price tag in 2016 of more than $22,000. Both of these dollar amou...

DAVITA DROPS PRICE OF MEDICAL GROUP TO $4.3B IN SALE TO UNITEDHEALTH

Dialysis giant DaVita is lowering the price of its Medical Group to UnitedHealth Group's Optum unit to $4.3 billion, DaVita officials announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday. Davita and UnitedHealth originally agreed to a sale price of $4.9 million for DaVita Medical H...

WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE PURCHASING A NEXT-GEN AMBULATORY EHR

Electronic health record systems are the backbone of ambulatory practices today and need to be designed and tailored to meet the specific needs of physicians. Ambulatory EHRs are tasked with streamlining workflows, improving care and helping to trim costs. And like every technology, ambulatory EHRs ...

CVS HEALTH DEFENDS MERGER AND INTEGRATION OF AETNA

Ahead of a federal court hearing on Tuesday, CVS Health is defending its merger with Aetna, through briefs filed on Friday. On Friday, the Department of Justice, which has approved the acquisition, also filed a brief which states the court has the authority to reject a proposed merger settlement, bu...

UK TO INVEST £1 MILLION AN AI-BASED HEALTH PROGRAMME

The British High Commission announced at an event in Delhi that the UK would be making an ambitious one million pound investment in a programme which will bring several artificial intelligence companies from the UK to help tackle diseases in Indian hospitals and health centres. India-UK FutureTech F...

SUPREME COURT PUTS FORTIS HEALTHCARE SALE TO IHH ON HOLD

The Supreme Court today ordered a status quo on the Rs 4,000 crore sale of Fortis Healthcare Ltd. to Malaysian group IHH Healthcare Bhd. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi was hearing the petition filed by Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo alleging former promoters—brothers Mal...

SMALL PERCENTAGE OF UNINSURED PATIENTS GENERATE MOST OF HOSPITALS' SELF-PAY REVENUE

Upwards of 30 percent of self-pay accounts -- those patients without health insurance or those who have a patient balance after insurance -- will generate more than 80 percent of the self-pay revenue collected by hospitals, finds a new TransUnion Healthcare analysis. Which means that, if hospitals a...

CIGNA, EXPRESS SCRIPTS MERGER CLEARS STATE HURDLES

Cigna and Express Scripts have cleared two state hurdles to their merger, as New York and California insurance regulators approved the $67 billion merger. The deal reportedly only awaits approval from the state of New Jersey. The New York Department of Financial Services and the California Departmen...

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE TELEHEALTH UPSIDES OF MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS

This past October, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services came out with an eagerly-anticipated new rule expanding the ways providers can use telehealth and get paid by Medicare Advantage plans. The biggest way the rule changes the status quo, once it goes into effect in 2020, is that provide...

WHAT DOCTORS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MACRA’S NEW PATIENT RELATIONSHIP CODES

Doctors may have heard plenty about MACRA. But they may be far less familiar when it comes to new patient relationship categories and codes. But, according to a perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine, they are one of the "more important provisions” of the Medicare Access...

IHI 2018: WHY IT’S CRUCIAL TO TAP INTO THE ‘PSYCHOLOGY OF CHANGE’ TO SUSTAIN QUALITY IMPROVEMENT EFFORTS

ORLANDO, Fla.—As providers push quality improvement initiatives, a key part of making those changes stick is emphasizing the human element. With that in mind, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement released a framework this week aimed at getting to the “psychology of change” when...

DOCTORS WHO ARE MOTHERS FACE ‘INSIDIOUS, PERSISTENT’ DISCRIMINATION, STUDY FINDS

It’s not always easy being a mom. Try being a mother and a physician. A new study, published in the BMJ, finds “insidious, persistent and sometimes blatant” discrimination experienced by physicians based specifically on their status as mothers. That conclusion was drawn from an ana...

PATIENTS MORE LIKELY TO APPROVE OF MEDICAL AID-IN-DYING THAN DOCTORS, SURVEY FINDS

The majority of physicians now support medical aid-in-dying for the terminally ill, but their patients are still far more likely to approve of the practice. Despite ethical concerns, a new survey from Medscape of 5,200 physicians surveyed across 29 specialties found 58% agree that physician-assisted...

ANALYTICS TO HELP UNDERSTAND SOCIAL DETERMINANTS CAN IMPROVE CARE, BOOST REVENUE

Factors such as income security, literacy and social isolation are some of the many social determinants of health – key personal factors that can greatly inform a patient's overall health outcomes and quality of life. Understanding and working to improve the SDOH for patients has long been...

HEALTHCARE ROUNDUP—U.S. HEALTHCARE COSTS FROM ANIMAL-RELATED INJURIES EXCEED $1B

The total healthcare costs of animal-related injuries exceeds $1 billion every year and is expected to rise amid climate change and development pressures on animal habitats, according to research published in the online journal Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open. What kind of injuries? Nearly half w...

INDUSTRY VOICES—HOW AMAZON'S HEALTH VENTURE COULD HELP TURN UNSTRUCTURED EHR DATA INTO REFINED FUEL

As I’ve written before, we need fresh thinking and new investments in healthcare, but this is a complex industry with some unique challenges. In the long run, a mash-up of old and new could lead to real breakthroughs. In the short run, we should expect failures and flameouts. Recent reports ab...

AI'S NEXT HEALTHCARE TARGET: ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING

Now that electronic health records have, for the most part, been universally adopted in the U.S., enterprise resource planning is the next top to-do for many hospitals, and artficial intelligence is likely to be a big part of it, a new survey shows. The report on AI and machine learning, from Evans ...

ONC FOCUSED ON PRIVACY AND USABILITY IN NEW APP-BASED HEALTHCARE ECOSYSTEM

The Trump administration’s top health IT official told lawmakers his agency is acutely focused on ensuring that privacy and security remain pillars of future rulemaking as the healthcare industry transitions to an app-based economy. Lawmakers in the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on He...

PROMINENT DOCTORS AREN’T DISCLOSING THEIR INDUSTRY TIES IN MEDICAL JOURNAL STUDIES. AND JOURNALS ARE DOING LITTLE TO ENFORCE THEIR RULES

This story was originally published by ProPublica. It was co-published with The New York Times. One is dean of Yale’s medical school. Another is the director of a cancer center in Texas. A third is the next president of the most prominent society of cancer doctors. These leading medical figure...

ONEONCOLOGY CONTINUES GROWTH SPURT, ADDS FORMER SEN. BILL FRIST TO ITS BOARD

Nashville-based cancer care startup OneOncology has continued its growth spurt by bringing on new leadership, including former Senator Bill Frist to its board, and preparing for the addition of new cancer practices in 2019. The company expects to name a chief medical officer soon and recently named ...

GETTING HEALTH SYSTEM BOARDS ENGAGED IN QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IS TRICKY. IHI RELEASES NEW FRAMEWORK TO HELP

ORLANDO, Fla.—Tackling quality and safety improvement in healthcare facilities is vitally important. But with its increasing complexity, health system board members may struggle to keep up. So, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement has issued a framework aimed at making quality governance e...

PWC’S 2019 TREND TO WATCH: HEALTHCARE’S BECOMING MORE LIKE THE BROADER ECONOMY

Healthcare was long considered an outlier compared to the rest of the economy, but it’s now behaving more in line with other industries—and that’s driving the trends to watch in 2019, according to a new report. PricewaterhouseCoopers released its annual list of industry issues to t...

HOSPITAL FOR SPECIAL SURGERY FIRST ORTHOPEDIC HOSPITAL TO WIN HIMSS DAVIES AWARD

New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery, the first specialty hospital to win a HIMSS Davies Award for Excellence. has found a way to use teamwork and health IT to improve processes and care outcomes. With nearly 19,000 annual inpatient surgeries, requiring close bed utilization monitoring, ...

HOW HOSPITALS CAN TURN INNOVATION LABS INTO COMMERCIAL PROFIT CENTERS

Some U.S. hospitals and health systems have turned their successful in-house work in health IT into commercial offerings that other hospitals and health systems can benefit from. This work is typically done in what is called an innovation lab. This is not necessarily an easy task. First one must hav...

BANNER ACHIEVES HIMSS DAVIES FOR INTENSIVIST TACT TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES, SHORTEN LENGTH-OF-STAY

Banner Health is using two-way A/V technology, predictive analytics, data visualization and advanced reporting to tackle its patient volume challenges, while at the same time improving the care of high-acuity patients. The health system’s use of IT and efficient daily use of intensivists for c...

VICTORIA’S BASS COAST HEALTH INTEGRATES CLINICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM USING MASTERCARE EMR

The MasterCare EMR solution will be used by Bass Coast Health clinicians to govern the assessment and management plans of clients, along with the monitoring and measuring of on-going outcomes. It comprises of a complete EMR and Practice Management solution, with software supporting Minimum Data Set ...

TELEHEALTH SOLVES PSYCHIATRIST SHORTAGE FOR IMPOWER, AND MUCH MORE

Back in 2012, Longwood, Florida-based Impower was a small behavioral health agency that focused on home- and school-based care for individuals in the child welfare system. The behavioral health provider organization's services were limited, provider shortages were severe and wait times were over...

HEALTH IT ROUNDUP—FORMER CONSTELLATION HEALTH DIRECTOR ARRESTED; HOSPITAL BEDS GET AN UPGRADE

The former director of a now-defunct revenue cycle management company was arrested by federal authorities in JFK airport over the weekend for his role in a $300 million investment fraud scheme. Pavandeep Bakhshi, a United Kingdom resident and former board director of Constellation Health, has been c...

EHR INTEGRATION IS THE NEXT LOOMING CHALLENGE FOR TELEHEALTH VENDORS

The telehealth industry is riding a wave of satisfaction from healthcare clients that say virtual care vendors are generally worth the money. But a looming challenge around EHR integration could set some companies apart. That’s according to a new analysis released by KLAS Research which evalua...

HEALTHCARE ROUNDUP—HHS, NASA TEAM UP TO STUDY HEALTH; 41% OF AMERICANS PLAN TO SKIP FLU SHOT

The Department of Health and Human Services and NASA are working together to study health concerns for people on Earth and in space. NASA, for example, is interested in further research on cardiac arrhythmia and nutrition, and both agencies would benefit from an investigation into portable and auton...

ONC NAMES WINNERS OF CERTIFIED HEALTH IT PRODUCT LIST CHALLENGE

Three winners and one honorable mention have been announced in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT'’s Certified Health IT Product List Data Challenge. The competitors were tasked to find ways for users of the Certified Health IT Product List to make better use of the granu...

HEALTHCARE SPENDING SLOWS FOR 2ND CONSECUTIVE YEAR, REMAINS AT 18% OF GDP

Healthcare spending in the United States decelerated once again in 2017 to a growth rate of 3.9%, nearly a full percentage point lower than in 2016, according to new statistics released by the federal government on Thursday. It’s the second consecutive year that healthcare spending has slowed,...

HHS TAPS FORMER CAREFIRST BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD EXECUTIVE AS SENIOR DRUG PRICING ADVISER

The Department of Health and Human Services has named a new adviser to oversee its drug pricing initiatives. John O’Brien, a pharmacist and adviser to HHS Secretary Alex Azar on health reform and drug pricing policy, was named senior adviser for drug pricing reform, HHS announced. He joined HH...

CIVICARX'S FIRST CEO, MARTIN VANTRIESTE, TALKS ABOUT THE COMPANY'S AMBITIONS FOR 2019 AND BEYOND

When Martin VanTrieste left his executive role at AmGen, he said he was retiring. He’d started out as a pharmacist, working in formulation development for a large pharmaceutical company, and went on to ultimately become the chief quality officer of a drug giant. But earlier this year, he jumpe...

RAND: U.S. SHOULD PILOT SUPERVISED INJECTION SITES, HEROIN-ASSISTED TREATMENT

Positive results from supervised injection sites and heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) abroad suggest it’s time for U.S. policymakers to consider piloting similar programs stateside, according to a new report. A new study from RAND Corporation suggests these controversial treatment options are v...

CONGRESS HAS SIGNALED A CRACKDOWN ON PROVIDER CONSOLIDATION. EXPERTS SAY IT'S TOO LATE

Experts warn that increasing consolidation in healthcare is driving up prices, and that has caught the attention of lawmakers in recent months. Now a new report suggests the healthcare market has already experienced so much consolidation that policymakers should take steps to ease pricing concerns i...

OIG FRAUD RECOVERIES DROPPED $1.2B THIS YEAR. THAT MIGHT NOT BE A BAD THING

The federal government brought in 30% less in fraud recoveries in 2018 than it did the previous year, thanks to far fewer large settlements. But that could be a net benefit, according to the agency. The Office of the Inspector General recovered $2.9 billion from fraud investigations during the fisca...

OPEN DOOR FAMILY MEDICAL CENTERS WINS HIMSS DAVIES AWARD

Open Door Family Medical Centers has won the HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence for its work with colorectal cancer screening and health IT. The award will be presented at HIMSS19 in Orlando, Florida, in February. Open Door Family Medical Centers prioritizes early screenings for improved patient outco...

OPEN DOOR FAMILY MEDICAL CENTERS WINS HIMSS DAVIES AWARD

Open Door Family Medical Centers has won the HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence for its work with colorectal cancer screening and health IT. The award will be presented at HIMSS19 in Orlando, Florida, in February. Open Door Family Medical Centers prioritizes early screenings for improved patient outco...

IMPRIVATA, DIGICERT TEAM UP ON EPCS TECHNOLOGY TO TIGHTEN OPIOID PRESCRIPTION ACCESS

Electronic prescribing for controlled substances continues to gain momentum as a valuable weapon in the fight against the national opioid epidemic. Imprivata, the healthcare-focused security firm, and DigiCert, the SSL certificate authority, have teamed up to deliver an automated identity proofing p...

COMMONWELL-CAREQUALITY BEEFS UP DATA SHARING, BUT SOME PROVIDERS REMAIN DISCONNECTED

Last month, CommonWell and Carequality officially teamed up, allowing providers to share information in electronic health records (EHRs) with one another regardless of which vendor they use. The move was supposed to make it easy for providers to communicate and connect with one another. Why, then, i...

THE MISSING PIECE IN TELEMEDICINE? DENTISTRY

Telemedicine has gotten plenty of chatter when it comes to specialty and mental health care, but more providers should drill down on using it for oral health care, according to a new study. The University of Rochester’s Eastman Institute for Oral Health piloted a teledentistry program that in ...

UPMC, HIGHMARK BREAKUP MAKING IT HARD TO DO ENROLLMENT FOR SENIORS

This week marks the end of the enrollment period for Medicare recipients in Pennsylvania. But this sign-up season has been a bit of a trick for seniors in the western part of the state stuck in the middle of the breakup between two of the region's largest health providers. A state-brokered agree...

UNSAFE MEDICAL DEVICES ALLOWED INTO GLOBAL MARKETS HARM PATIENTS, INVESTIGATION REVEALS

A global investigation has found that unsafe medical devices have caused 1.7 million injuries globally and almost 83,000 deaths in the last 12 years. According to The Implant Files, a year-long investigation of the manufacturers of devices by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists...

MOODY'S: IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THINGS WILL GET MUCH BETTER FOR NONPROFIT HOSPITALS IN 2019

With a report earlier this year showing nonprofit hospitals on an "unsustainable path" as expenses outstripped revenue, this year hasn't been great for nonprofit hospitals. Now, a new report from Moody's Investors Service doesn't project great news for 2019, either. Why? Analys...

WHICH DOCTORS ARE MOST LIKELY TO USE TELEMEDICINE? IT DEPENDS

Telemedicine is gaining traction in physician practices. But it’s more popular among doctors in certain specialties, a new study has found. Who’s jumping on board? Radiologists were the most likely, as they reported using telemedicine to store and forward data about diagnoses (39.5%), ac...

CHILDREN'S MERCY RAMPS UP NUMBER OF SPECIALTIES VIA TELEHEALTH FROM 3 TO 30

Not only is geography a health determinant, but the quality of and access to healthcare can be determined by ZIP code. Children's hospitals are collections of providers that have specialized in pediatric medicine and then specialized again in specific disorders of childhood and adolescence. Thes...

AETNA, ASCENSION JOIN BLOCKCHAIN ALLIANCE TARGETING PROVIDER DIRECTORIES

A new blockchain alliance that wants to improve the accuracy of provider information just added two healthcare powerhouses to its efforts. Aetna and Ascension have joined Synaptic, the blockchain-focused alliance launched earlier this year by UnitedHealth, Humana, Multiplan and Quest Diagnostics. Th...

NEW MEDICARE MARKETING GUIDELINES RAISE THE SPECTER OF PAST PREDATORY SALES TACTICS

In 2007, insurers, state regulators and federal officials gathered before a Senate committee to answer what had become a nagging question within a growing Medicare Advantage (MA) market: Who was benefiting from the marketing of the increasingly profitable plans? The answer, it appeared, was insurers...

SEN. ALEXANDER FAVORS 21ST CENTURY CURES OVERSIGHT OVER NEW LEGISLATION

The lawmaker behind the landmark 21st Century Cures Act isn’t interested in hashing out follow-up legislation. He’d prefer to see the 2016 law implemented. “We’re more likely to make adjustments to it than we are to pass another big new bill like that in the next few years,&r...

MASSACHUSETTS AG, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION GIVE OK TO BETH ISRAEL, LAHEY MEGAMERGER

Massachusetts' Attorney General gave the OK for the proposed merger between Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health System following a number of agreements with health system officials, including a promise not exceed a seven-year price cap. The Federal Trade Commission also voted t...

BRIGHT HEALTH SETS SIGHTS ON EXPANSION WITH NEW $200M FUNDING ROUND

Insurance startup Bright Health closed its largest funding round to date, with plans to expand its footprint in 2020. The Minneapolis-based insurer announced it raised $200 million on Thursday in an “oversubscribed" series C, meaning it raised more money than intended. Bright Health has r...

AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: LESS COMPETITION IN HEALTH INSURANCE MARKETS IN HALF OF U.S. STATES

Many patients had fewer choices last year as competition levels dropped in health insurance markets in half of the U.S. states, according to a new report. The report (PDF) released by the American Medical Association (AMA) found that half of all states had commercial health insurance markets that we...

DOCTORS ADD VOICES TO FEARS CLIMATE CHANGE IS POSING HEALTH RISKS AROUND THE GLOBE

In the wake of a new study released Wednesday that warned of escalating health risks from climate change, a major physician group is backing the call for action. Published in The Lancet medical journal, the report says that climate change is already posing health risks around the world from extreme ...

PHYSICIAN PRACTICE ROUNDUP—DOCTOR’S TV INTERVIEW RESULTS IN $125K HIPAA FINE FOR PRACTICE

A Connecticut physicians group has been hit with a $125,000 fine for alleged HIPAA violations after one of its doctors spoke to a TV reporter in a dispute with a patient over bringing a service animal to the allergy practice. Allergy Associates of Hartford agreed to pay the fine to the Office for Ci...

AFTER A CENTURY OF INDEPENDENCE, SEATTLE-BASED POLYCLINIC IS ABSORBED BY UNITEDHEALTH’S OPTUMCARE

UnitedHealth is continuing its provider acquisition spree, purchasing a large multispecialty physician group in Seattle that had remained staunchly independent for more than century. During Tuesday’s investor meeting, UnitedHealth CEO David Wichmann said the company signed an agreement to acqu...

CMS' SEEMA VERMA SAYS ADMINISTRATION FORGING AHEAD ON WORK REQUIREMENTS AS IT EXAMINES ARKANSAS

Despite large numbers of Arkansas residents losing Medicaid eligibility under that state's work requirement law, the Trump administration is doubling down on its support of a "long list" of other states seeking to create their own Medicaid work requirements. Speaking with reporters on ...

OIG: CMS SHOULD REVISIT HOSPITAL WAGE INDEX SYSTEM, CITING $140M IN OVERPAYMENTS

CMS' hospital wage index system has been systematically overpaying hospitals for over a decade, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) found in a recent report. Between 2004 and 2017, the Medicare program overpaid at least 272 hospitals to the tune of $140.5 million. The OIG identified severa...

PREMIER CEO SUSAN DEVORE TO KEYNOTE HIMSS19

Susan DeVore, president and CEO of Premier,  an analytics company that helps health systems move to risk-based payment models, will be a keynote speaker at HIMSS19. DeVore will address “Healing from Within: Leading Change, Inspiring Action,” on Friday morning at the global health IT...

HIMSS ANALYTICS RANKS TOP 10 ERP VENDORS IN HEALTHCARE BY MARKETSHARE

Enterprise resource planning software is a business stalwart dating well back into the previous century. Yet as healthcare facilities have been focused on implementing electronic health records and patient billing software, many have invested less in ERP. "Healthcare organizations have been slo...

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROPOSAL WOULD ALLOW PART D PLANS TO NEGOTIATE PRICES OF DRUGS IN 'PROTECTED' CLASSES

The Trump Administration's latest proposed rule aimed at curbing prescription drug prices would allow Medicare Part D plans to negotiate better prices in "protected" classes. “Certain CMS regulations constrain these plans’ full negotiating power and the changes that we&rsqu...

CALIFORNIA APPROVES DIGNITY HEALTH-CHI DEAL. BUT IT COMES WITH A CATCH

California officials have approved the megamerger between Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives expected to be known as CommonSpirit. But regulators placed a number of charity care requirements on the deal. The state’s attorney general will require (PDF) the joint health system—...

NYC HEALTH + HOSPITALS EXPANDS ECONSULT PROGRAM AFTER CUTTING DOWN WAIT TIMES FOR SPECIALTY CARE

NYC Health + Hospitals has expanded its eConsult system—a tool that eases communication between primary care providers and specialists—to 81 primary clinics, the health system announced. NYC Health + Hospitals, the country’s largest municipal health system, first piloted eConsult i...

PENNSYLVANIA SUPREME COURT SAYS UPMC MUST SAFEGUARD EMPLOYEE DATA

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) must protect the personal information of its employees from hackers, Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled last week. The decision bolsters a long-running class-action lawsuit filed by UPMC employees following a 2014 data breach that exposed the ...

IS THERE AN ROI ON WISHES GRANTED THROUGH MAKE-A-WISH? THIS STUDY SAYS YES

The immediate benefits of Make-A-Wish Foundation dreams to sick children and their families are well documented. But it appears they could also bring some sustained health benefits resulting in fewer unplanned admissions and emergency department visits among seriously ill pediatric patients, a recen...

HOW GRADY HEALTH SYSTEM USED AI TO REDUCE PREVENTABLE READMISSIONS

Preventing avoidable readmissions is a focal point of most, if not all health systems big and small. These episodes are often costly to the patient and provider and open up additional opportunities for exposure to hospital-acquired infections. However, some patient populations, especially those with...

HHS NAMES FIRST DSIIS MEETING PARTICIPANTS AND DATE TO UNLOCK OBSTACLES TO HEALTH IT INVESTING AND INNOVATION

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that Dec. 18, 2018 will be the first quarterly meeting of the Deputy Secretary’s Innovation and Investment Summit (DSIIS). Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan announced the yearlong collaboration of stakeholders -- including HHS officials -- ...

OPTUMLABS IS USING AI TO PREDICT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

This year, OptumLabs began a research project using artificial intelligence to predict Alzheimer's disease. The long-term project is being done in conjunction with a pharmaceutical company and other sponsors to identify clusters in a population at risk of developing Alzheimer's, which could ...

REPORT SHOWS STRONG BUT UNEVEN SPENDING IN MEDICAL AND HEALTH R&D ACROSS SECTORS OVER FIVE-YEAR PERIOD

Total investment in medical and health research and development in the U.S. grew by 27 percent from 2013 to 2017, led by industry and the federal government, according to a new report from Research!America. Industry accounted for 67 percent of total spending in 2017, followed by the federal governme...

KENTUCKY'S MEDICAID WORK RULES RE-APPROVED BY FEDS

The Trump administration has again approved Kentucky's Medicaid waiver, which requires beneficiaries to either get a job, volunteer in the community or go to school to keep their benefits. Kentucky state regulators announced the approval on Tuesday, nearly five months after a federal judge block...

POLITICS COULD DRIVE 2019 CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON RURAL HEALTH

In the wake of the polarizing midterm elections this month, advocates hope that House Democrats and Senate Republicans see strengthening rural healthcare access as a prime area for bipartisan action in Congress next year.They say moves to shore up financially struggling rural hospitals and offer com...

HEALTH TECH COLLABORATIVE HOPES TO BRING VALUABLE SOLUTIONS TO THE VULNERABLE

Medicaid beneficiaries are, by definition, the most vulnerable healthcare population in America. Despite this, innovative health technology companies tend to bring their products elsewhere—usually the employer-sponsored or Medicare Advantage markets. Sometimes it can take a decade for those so...

WALGREENS PARTNERSHIP WOULD GIVE HUMANA MORE LEVERAGE IN SHIFTING MARKET

Following a report that Humana and Walgreens are in discussions to take equity stakes in one another, one analyst says the move would allow the insurer to keep pace with surrounding vertical integration. A formal partnership would also dispel any chance of a Walmart takeover, rumored earlier this ye...

HUIYIHUIYING LAUNCHES NEW AI FULL CYCLE HEALTH MANAGEMENT CLOUD PLATFORM BASED ON AI 2.0 TECH

Huiyihuiying, a Chinese medical imaging artificial intelligence company, yesterday announced the launch of their new AI Full Cycle Health Management Cloud Platform, which consists of two separate platforms for different health concerns: the Breast Cancer AI Full Cycle Health Management Platform and ...

MEDICAID DEMONSTRATIONS AREN'T PROPERLY EVALUATED. RANDOMIZED TRIALS COULD FIX THAT

Section 1115 waivers in the Medicaid program are meant to be experiments for states to test coverage approaches that don't meet federal requirements. However, most of those evaluations fall far short, lacking the rigorous study design needed to properly evaluate them, according to a new commenta...

VA REPORTEDLY IN TALKS WITH APPLE TO PUT HEALTH RECORDS ON THE IPHONE: WSJ

The Department of Veterans Affairs is reportedly in discussions with Apple to put electronic health records on the tech giant's mobile devices, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple would create special software tools that would allow veterans in the VA system to transfer their health reco...

HEALTHCARE ROUNDUP—ELEVENTH CHILD DIES IN NEW JERSEY ADENOVIRUS OUTBREAK

An eleventh child has died as a result of an adenovirus outbreak in a New Jersey rehabilitation facility, state health officials said.  Thirty-four children with compromised immune systems have been diagnosed with the virus, which typically causes flu-like symptoms in pediatric patients. The st...

CMS REAPPROVES MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS IN KENTUCKY

Less than six months after a federal court blocked Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reapproved the state's waiver. Wednesday's approval (PDF) comes after the agency was forced to restart the waiver application process after ap...

ATRIUM EMPLOYEES SUE OVER HEALTH AND RETIREMENT BENEFITS

A group of former employees filed a federal class action suit against Atrium Health, accusing the healthcare system of trying to swindle them over health and retirement benefits. The Charlotte Observer reports that Atrium, formerly Carolinas HealthCare System, claimed to be an arm of the government ...

REPORT: EMPLOYERS NEED TO ASK THESE QUESTIONS BEFORE THEY COVER GENOMIC TESTS

There's a lot of promise—but also a lot of hype—around the still-emerging science of genetic testing for consumers. Even so, there are plenty of national brands such as Levi Strauss, Instsacart and Visa that have begun offering insurance coverage for their employers for tests such as...

DOCTORS TO NRA ON GUN VIOLENCE: THIS IS OUR LANE

The gloves appear to be coming off when it comes to doctors talking about guns. Just a few weeks after a social media dust-up in which the National Rifle Association told doctors in a tweet to "stay in their lane" when addressing the politically charged issue of guns, an editorial response...

ACLU OF ILLINOIS DEMANDS REMOVAL OF CHILDREN IN DCFS CARE FROM TROUBLED CHICAGO HOSPITAL

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois on Friday took the state’s child welfare agency to federal court to attempt to force the removal of all children in its care from a troubled Chicago psychiatric hospital after additional claims of sexual abuse there. A sexual assault allega...

THEFT AND DISCLOSURES ACCOUNT FOR MOST HEALTHCARE DATA BREACHES. BUT HACKERS TOOK 3 TIMES AS MANY RECORDS

Over the last decade, healthcare organizations have been far more likely to report a data breach due to theft or an unauthorized disclosure. Hacking, meanwhile, is much less common. But attackers make off with far more patient records. In a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday, re...

INDUSTRY VOICES—WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO ELIMINATE HEPATITIS. FIRST STEP: TESTING.

It's no secret that malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV are among the deadliest maladies on the planet. But there's another condition that exacts an even larger death toll and yet receives far less attention. That condition is viral hepatitis, which claims 1.5 million lives a year. Most people wh...

AMIA CALLS FOR TIGHTER COORDINATION OF DATA PRIVACY RULES

The American Medical Informatics Association is asking the Trump administration to take a close look at both HIPAA and the Common Rule to see how they might be updated or harmonized for a new era of the privacy policy. Specifically, the AMIA wants a more integrated approach to how policies aimed at ...

GEISINGER LAUNCHES PROGRAM MEANT TO 'REDESIGN' SURGICAL EXPERIENCE

Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System is launching a program to "redesign" the surgical experience aimed at improving the healing process following surgery while ultimately tackling one of the major sources of opioid addiction: postsurgical care. Officials said they Proven Recovery pr...

STUDY: ONLINE REVIEWS CAN FLAG STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES IN THE ED AND URGENT CARE

Plenty of healthcare providers are still skeptical about the value of online patient reviews. But a new study found that the data can help identify some of the strengths and weaknesses in emergency and urgent care. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine analyzed mo...

EHR, REVENUE CYCLE AND PRACTICE MANAGEMENT VENDORS TO INTEGRATE PRODUCTS, BLACK BOOK SAYS

Integrated delivery networks (IDNs) are demanding product consolidation of electronic health records, revenue cycle and practice management vendors are likely to deliver sooner rather than later, according to new Black Book research. The firm found that the recent uptake of physician practices by ho...

UNITEDHEALTHCARE ADDS APPLE WATCH TO MOTION PROGRAM WITH OPTION TO 'WALK IT OFF'

Beginning this month, UnitedHealthcare members in some employer-sponsored plans will be able to receive a new Apple Watch and pay the insurer back simply by walking. UnitedHealthcare said it is integrating Apple Watches into its existing wellness program called Motion that rewards members for meetin...

WANT TO SPEED ADOPTION OF NEW EVIDENCE-BASED CARE GUIDELINES? TRY GETTING INSURERS AND PROVIDERS TO WORK TOGETHER

It takes 17 years on average for a discovery in the lab to make it to the bedside. But better collaboration between insurers and healthcare providers could help accelerate the use of evidence-based care, according to a new report from the Alliance of Community Health Plans.“Their shared commun...

CONFIDENT ABOUT ELIMINATING DIABETES, VIRTUAL CLINIC VIRTA HEALTH PUTS 100% OF FEES AT RISK

In the world of payment models, getting providers to take on both upside and downside risk can be like pulling teeth. But online specialty medical clinic Virta Health is daring to go where few providers have gone before, announcing plans to embark on an ambitious 100%-downside-risk model. Under thei...

INDUSTRY VOICES—3 WAYS TO ADDRESS HOSPITAL CEOS' TOP PRIORITY: COST CONTROL

The Advisory Board’s Annual Health Care CEO Survey found that cost control is now healthcare system CEOs’ number one priority. The nationwide survey took place between December 2017 and March 2018, with 146 C-suite executives from hospitals and health systems providing their responses. B...

CMS INCREASES HEALTHCARE.GOV BREACH TOTAL TO 93,600

More people were impacted by last month's Heatlhcare.gov data breach than previously thought, according to an update from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The agency reported a final total of 93,689 people whose information was compromised during an Oct. 16 data breach tha...

HIMSS ASIAPAC 18 - INTEROPERABILITY AND SECURITY ARE TOP CONCERNS OF MILITARY HEALTH LEADERS

Setting the context regarding military health systems for the broad audience who may not have direct experience with them or understand how they work, Dr Charles Alessi, Chief Clinical Officer, HIMSS, who is also the moderator of the IMHIT panel on Day Two of the conference, explained that the popul...

INDUSTRY VOICES—CATHOLIC HOSPITALS NEED TO RECONNECT TO THEIR FAITH-BASED LEGACIES

Not so long ago, Catholic hospitals were typically run by nuns. Their presence in the halls and executive suites were a constant reminder of the hospitals’ faith-based legacies, which were generally appreciated by community members, regardless of their religious affiliation. Today, Catholic ho...

DOCTORS ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF LICENSURE COMPACT TO PRACTICE IN OTHER STATES VIA TELEMEDICINE

Doctors are taking advantage of a compact to get licensed to practice in other states via telemedicine. Since its launch more than a year and a half ago, 3,426 doctors have been issued medical licenses by state medical boards through the streamlined process provided by the Interstate Medical Licensu...

REPORT: HEALTHCARE COSTS VARY BY REGION, SO SOLUTIONS MUST VARY TOO

As industry stakeholders look to drive down rising healthcare costs, a consistent trend emerges Geography matters, and it causes significant variation. Tracking regional differences is crucial to ensuring all valuable voices are brought to the table to address the issue, according to a new report (P...

HEALTH SYSTEM MOVES FROM TEXT-ONLY TO AI-POWERED INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA RADIOLOGY REPORTS

The radiology report is the principle work product of the radiologist. Until recently, reports describing findings in imaging studies have been plain, text-only documents. Such reports are increasingly inadequate. “Traditional radiology reports are limited to plain-text in order to simplify th...

GOOGLE HIRES GEISINGER CEO TO CHART HEALTHCARE STRATEGY

Google has tapped Dr. David Feinberg, who has served as chief executive of Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger since 2015, to help it develop and expand its healthcare strategy. Feinberg will be tasked with organizing and innovating Google's various healthcare initiatives, some of which overl...

FEDERAL JUDGE SHUTS DOWN FLORIDA COMPANY THAT COLLECTED MORE THAN $100M FOR SHAM HEALTH PLANS

A federal court has temporarily shut down a sham health insurer that collected more than $100 million from consumers and left tens of thousands of people uninsured. The South Florida company called Simple Health Plans LLC sold “worthless” plans to consumers, according to the Federal Trad...

ALLSCRIPTS RAMPS UP NETSMART SALE AS Q3 LOSSES REACH $36M

Allscripts is accelerating efforts to sell off its ownership stake in Netsmart, an EHR company that targets post-acute care providers and behavioral health. Citing “significant market interest” in the company, Allscripts has hired financial advisors to run a formal sale process, Chief Fi...

TOP BLOCKCHAIN CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTHCARE

Open blockchain jobs are on the rise. In fact, according to a Glassdoor report, the number of unique jobs related to blockchain rose from 446 in August 2017 to 1,775 for the same month this year. That’s an eye-popping 300 percent. Not bad for a new technology. When blockchain does become wides...

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS REVALIDATED AGAINST NEW EMRAM STAGE 6 STANDARDS

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) has become the first NHS trust and the first Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) to be revalidated against the new Stage 6 HIMSS Analytics international Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) standards that came into force at the beginnin...

HOSPITALS AREN’T THE ONLY ONES WITH PRICE VARIATION. NEW RESEARCH SHOWS PAYERS HAVE LARGE DISCREPANCIES, TOO

The prices payers negotiate with hospitals can vary significantly between payers, between hospitals, among services, and among contract types, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper. While critics frequently point to poor price transparency and variation among p...

HEALTH IT ROUNDUP—HHS OPENS CYBERSECURITY CENTER; NEXTGEN ADJUSTS GUIDANCE AFTER REVENUES FALL

EHR vendor NextGen Healthcare scaled back its earnings guidance for 2019 after reporting a $2.3 million decline in quarterly revenue. The company’s revenue dropped to $130 million in the last quarter due to “an uptick in attrition” along with larger deals with longer implementation...

HEALTH IT ROUNDUP—HHS OPENS CYBERSECURITY CENTER; NEXTGEN ADJUSTS GUIDANCE AFTER REVENUES FALL

EHR vendor NextGen Healthcare scaled back its earnings guidance for 2019 after reporting a $2.3 million decline in quarterly revenue. The company’s revenue dropped to $130 million in the last quarter due to “an uptick in attrition” along with larger deals with longer implementation...

HHS SET TO IMPLEMENT LONG-DELAYED 340B FINAL RULE IN JANUARY

HHS is planning an about-face on the long-delayed rule that would set price ceilings and monetary penalties in the 340B program, moving up its start date by several months. The Department of Health and Human Services issued a notice (PDF) saying that it intended to finally implement the rule on Jan....

HCA'S INCOMING CEO OFFERS HIS TAKE ON THE FUTURE OF THE HEALTH GIANT AS INCOME JUMPS IN THIRD QUARTER

Nashville-based hospital giant HCA Healthcare's shares jumped more than 6% Tuesday after reporting a more than 7% jump in revenue as it released its third-quarter earnings. HCA reported that its revenues increased 7.1% to $11.5 billion in the third quarter ending Sept. 30, compared to $10.7 bill...

RANSOMWARE THAT WON’T QUIT: SAMSAM STILL PUMMELING U.S. HEALTHCARE

The notorious SamSam ransomware – that hampered Allscripts for a week and shut down the city of Atlanta’s government – has not let up as the year draws to a close. And its hackers are continuing to target the U.S, especially the healthcare sector. According to a new Symantec report...

RESIDENCY TRAINING NEEDS A REVAMP. SO AMA IS OFFERING CASH FOR THE BEST IDEAS

Building on its efforts to transform medical school training, the American Medical Association is now turning its eye—and its funding—to residency training. The AMA, the country’s largest physician association, announced today that it will provide $15 million over five years to fun...

UNIVERSAL HEALTH SERVICES OFFICIALS 'OPTIMISTIC' FOR RESOLUTION IN DOJ INVESTIGATION SOON

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services is cautiously "optimistic" it is getting close to a deal with the Department of Justice more than three years after it disclosed it was under investigation for billing practices at its behavioral health facilities. The company h...

SPARROW HEALTH WINS HIMSS DAVIES ENTERPRISE AWARD

Sparrow Health System in Lansing, Michigan, has won a 2018 HIMSS Davies Enterprise Award for its work using evidence-based best practices to reduce non-emergent blood transfusions. Sparrow recognized that overuse of red blood cell and platelet transfusions was a significant problem – one that ...

HEALTH IT ROUNDUP—IBM BUYS RED HAT FOR $34B; MORE ACUTE CARE HOSPITALS ENGAGED IN INTEROPERABILITY

IBM has agreed to buy a leading provider of open source cloud software for $34 billion. The tech giant's purchase of Red Hat makes it the “world’s #1 hybrid cloud provider” according to IBM President and CEO Ginni Rometty. "The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer,&rdq...

EHR OPTIMIZATION LEADS TO 53% INCREASE IN CASH COLLECTIONS AT RANGELY HOSPITAL

Rangely District Hospital in Rangely, Colorado, was struggling to show progress toward quality measures with limited reporting tools. It was at risk of missing out on revenue from Medicaid and Medicare. The hospital was losing valuable physician and staff time making up for missing functionality. It...

MEET THE NEWEST HIMSS ANALYTICS ADOPTION MODEL: INFRAM

HIMSS Analytics has launched a new maturity model to help healthcare organizations measure how their technology deployments compare with their peers. The new Infrastructure Adoption Model, or INFRAM, aims to assess health systems' IT network across five subdomains. INFRAM is meant to help provid...

AWS SIGNS ON WITH NIH CLOUD PRECISION MEDICINE PROJECT

AWS is working with the National Institutes of Health, joining its STRIDES Initiative, which will leverage cloud technology to make big biomedical datasets more easily available for healthcare and life science researchers. STRIDES – it stands for Science and Technology Research Infrastructure ...

HOW SARATOGA HOSPITAL LEVERAGED PATIENT MONITORING TO REDUCE TRANSFERS TO ICU BY 63%

For many hospitals, the shift to value-based care is adding pressure to deliver quality care and achieve the best clinical outcomes while reducing costs. Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs, New York, was one such hospital facing these challenges as they tried to adapt to delivering higher quality...

MACHINE LEARNING, AI DISRUPTING MEDICAL EDUCATION AND ADAPTIVE LEARNING MODELS

As the industry continues to shift into value-based care, many organizations are leveraging new technology to support care delivery. But new technology requires a change in how care is provided, which should begin in medical school and continue throughout a clinician’s career. “Outcomes ...

U.S. HOSPITALS IMPROVED INFECTIOUS DISEASE PREPAREDNESS IN RESPONSE TO EBOLA THREAT, FEDERAL WATCHDOG SAYS

Preparedness for emerging infectious diseases threats saw a marked improvement at U.S. hospitals after an Ebola outbreak scare in 2014, according to a new report from a federal watchdog agency. The challenge now? Keeping that level of preparedness in the midst of competing priorities. According to t...

MEDICAID MANAGED CARE PLANS ARE MAKING A FORAY INTO HOUSING—BUT THEY CAN DO MORE

There is an abundance of evidence that housing impacts health. People who lack stable, safe housing, or who have no place to live at all, experience poor health outcomes. In turn, they generate additional costs for the healthcare system. Historically, it’s been difficult to make a difference f...

U.S. HOSPITALS WASTING ABOUT $25.4B ON SUPPLY CHAIN EVERY YEAR

The amount of money U.S. hospitals will waste on unnecessary supply chain spending will reach $25.4 billion this year, up about 10% or $2.4 billion over last year, according to a new report. In its study (PDF) of 2,300 hospitals, consulting firm Navigant also found that hospitals could save up to 18...

REPORT: MORE PROVIDERS ADOPTING VALUE-BASED PAYMENT MODELS, BUT PLENTY STILL HESITATE TO TAKE ON RISK

The number of payments tied to value-based models continues to grow, but there’s more work to be done to drive providers to take on risk, according to a new report. The Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network released its latest progress report on the uptake of alternative payment mo...

ANALYTICS WITH SOCIAL DETERMINANTS DRIVES MILLIONS IN VALUE-BASED SAVINGS AT CARILION

Carilion Clinic in Virginia has been on a path toward value-based care for more than a decade and has built much of the clinical infrastructure needed to best meet its patients' needs. And although it had a certain level of analytics maturity, staff realized they needed more support in gaining b...

CMS RESPONDS TO DATA BREACH AFFECTING 75,000 IN FEDERAL ACA PORTAL

The files of an estimated 75,000 individuals were accessed in a breach of Healthcare.gov for Affordable Care Act enrollment, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS said it detected anomalous activity in the federally facilitated exchanges or direct enrollment pathway for ag...

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION EXPANDS HEALTH REIMBURSEMENT ARRANGEMENTS FOR MARKETPLACE COVERAGE

The Trump administration plans to release a proposed rule on Tuesday morning allowing businesses to give employees money to purchase health insurance on the individual marketplace, a move senior official says will expand choices for employees that work at small businesses. The proposed rule, issued ...

UNAUTHORISED ACCESS ATTEMPTS DETECTED ON SINGAPORE’S HEALTHHUB PORTAL

HealthHub, a one-stop portal and mobile application for Singaporeans to access a wide range of health content, rewards, and e-services, which was launched in 2015, had experienced a series of unauthorized log-ins, according to the Health Promotion Board’s (HPB) recent statement. The portal is ...

INDUSTRY GROUPS SOUND OFF ON ACO PROGRAM CHANGES, BUT HALF OF PARTICIPANTS SAY THEY WILL STAY

Provider groups had plenty to say about the proposed changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) that are likely to drive out a portion of accountable care organizations (ACOs) if finalized. A new survey by the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) released this week shows that 60% of ACOs...

AMA ISSUES 12-STEP 'PLAYBOOK' FOR DIGITAL HEALTH IMPLEMENTATION

The nation’s largest provider group unveiled a new “playbook” Wednesday designed to help physicians implement a variety of new digital tools. The American Medical Association (AMA) released its Digital Health Implementation Playbook at the Connected Health Conference in Boston. The...

FDA UPDATES MEDICAL DEVICE PREMARKET GUIDANCE TO INCLUDE CYBERSECURITY RECOMMENDATIONS

Updated guidance issued by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday includes several new cybersecurity recommendations for medical devices. Among those changes, the FDA is asking manufacturers to include a list of hardware and software components within each device—known as a “bill ...

OPTUM QUIETLY SNAPS UP ANOTHER SPECIALTY PHARMACY AS UNITEDHEALTH’S Q3 PROFITS BALLOON

UnitedHealth quietly purchased Avella Specialty Pharmacy last quarter, marking its second such acquisition over the three-month span. The company disclosed the acquisition in its third-quarter financial filing but did not list the purchase price. Last month, the insurer said it acquired Genoa Health...

AS AMAZON TURNS ITS GAZE TO HEALTHCARE, THE INDUSTRY MAY BE IN FOR A WILD RIDE

Amazon has been in the headlines disrupting markets for years, but over the past few months, we have seen more and more news about the company’s ambitions in healthcare. From the alliance with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway that Dr. Atul Gawande has been appointed to lead to the purchas...

NEMOURS CHILDREN'S HEALTH SYSTEM POSITIONS ITSELF, PEDIATRIC HOSPITALS FOR LEADERSHIP ROLE IN SHIFT TO VALUE

With the backdrop of the U.S. Capitol Building through a wall of windows behind him, Nemours Children's Health System's newly minted CEO made his case for why the nation's top healthcare leaders and lawmakers need to pay more attention to pediatric hospitals in the push for a value-based...

PENN MEDICINE’S NEW TRANSFORMATION PROJECT LOOKS TO FILL THE ‘MIDDLE SPACE’ BETWEEN EHRS AND CLINICIANS

Impatient with the current progress of electronic health records (EHRs), one of the nation’s foremost academic medical centers is taking matters into its own hands. Last week, Penn Medicine—which operates as the health system under the University of Pennsylvania—launched a new init...

UNDERSTANDING THE NEED FOR SYSTEMS SUPPORT IN ONCOLOGY CARE

In the United States, healthcare spending has grown at a rate faster than the gross domestic product. In 2016, according to the federal government, America’s total medical costs hit a new record of $3.3 trillion. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates that the direct medical ...

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION REVISITS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS FOR BIRTH CONTROL COVERAGE

A contentious federal rule that would expand employer exemptions for contraceptive coverage based on “moral convictions” is back under review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released two proposed rules loosening c...

TEXAS FINES HUMANA $700K FOR NETWORK INADEQUACY, UNDERSCORING COMPLEXITIES OF SURPRISE BILLING

Texas regulators fined Humana $700,000 for network adequacy deficiencies, an unusual step that could signal state regulators are more willing to wade into concerns about surprise billing. The fine came months after the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) learned that Humana canceled network contract...

TELEHEALTH COMPANY HEALTHRIGHT CHARGED IN $1B FRAUD SCHEME

The CEO of the telemedicine company HealthRight was charged alongside several compounding pharmacies for a $1 billion fraud scheme in which the company assisted with a scheme to bill insurers for marked-up pain creams and marketed other bogus supplements to patients. HealthRight CEO Scott Roix plead...

COMMUNITY HEALTH SYSTEMS CONTINUES HOSPITAL SELL-OFF WITH DEAL IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Franklin, Tennessee-based hospital giant Community Health Systems (CHS) has continued with its previously announced plan to divest part of its portfolio, announcing that a subsidiary has agreed to sell a two-hospital health system in South Carolina by the end of the year. CHS's subsidiary signed...

TWO PHISHING ATTACKS ON MINNESOTA DHS BREACH 21,000 PATIENT RECORDS

Two employees of the Minnesota Department of Human Services fell for phishing attacks, which potentially breached 21,000 patient records over the course of more than one month. The first email compromise began on June 28, the second on July 9, but officials said the IT department did not discover th...

HHS ENLISTS HIMSS HEALTHBOX TO REDUCE INNOVATION BARRIERS BY ENGAGING INVESTMENT COMMUNITY

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is working with HIMSS Healthbox to reach out to investors and better understand the barriers to innovation. "This is going to be the first time we formally engage the investment community," HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan told Healthcare IT...

DETROIT MEDICAL CENTER-AFFILIATED HOSPITAL CHARGED WITH UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES

A Detroit Medical Center-affiliated hospital has been hit with charges of multiple labor violations from the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB complaint is based on claims from nurses at Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, who allege that hospital leadership threatened them for trying to improve wor...

PATIENTS WANT DOCTORS TO TALK TO THEM ABOUT MORE THAN JUST PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS, MEDICATIONS

Today’s patients have a broader view of what good health means, according to a new survey, and they have greater expectations of what their doctors should be talking about during office visits. The survey of 2,027 U.S. adults conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of Samueli Integrative Health...

AETNA FINED MORE THAN $600K IN MULTISTATE INVESTIGATION INTO 2017 HIV DISCLOSURE

Following a $17 million settlement earlier this year, Aetna has agreed to pay three states nearly $650,000 to resolve investigations into a 2017 incident in which it disclosed members’ HIV status. The insurance giant will pay fines to Connecticut, Washington, New Jersey and the District of Col...

ANALYTICS BOOSTS USE OF CLINICAL BEST PRACTICES AT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL

At Tampa General Hospital in Florida, analytics on orders and process workflows were hard to come by. Clinical and financial questions had to be answered by a custom report, some of which could take several days to produce. The data simply wasn't easily accessible, and each report would inevitab...

HIPAA AND DATA SHARING: RETHINKING BOTH FOR THE DIGITAL AGE

Ironically, HIPAA was written at a time when most providers were on paper charts and submitting paper claims. It established a framework for protecting patient information and focused heavily on the way providers shared patient information. The subsequent HITECH (Health Information for Economic and ...

TRUMP SIGNS BILLS ENDING PHARMACY GAG CLAUSES

President Donald Trump signed two bipartisan bills into law on Wednesday that would ban so-called gag clauses at the pharmacy counter. The bills, the Patient Right to Know Act and the Know the Lowest Price Act, would allow pharmacists to tell patients that they could save money on drugs by paying ca...

CENTENE EXPANDS ACA MARKETPLACE FOOTPRINT, ADDS 4 NEW STATES

Centene is expanding its marketplace offerings in 10 markets in 2019, including four new states. The St. Louis-based insurer announced on Wednesday that it will enter markets in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and expand its reach in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mi...

JOHNS HOPKINS’ ARMSTRONG INSTITUTE MAKES BRIGHAM HEALTH EXECUTIVE ITS NEW DIRECTOR

Johns Hopkins’ famed Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality has found its new director. Allen Kachalia, M.D., who currently serves as a clinical quality officer and vice president for quality and safety at Brigham Health in Boston, will take over the position beginning Dec. 1, John...

HIMSS ANALYTICS DELIVERS A STATE OF THE HEALTH IT INDUSTRY REPORT

For National Health IT Week 2018, HIMSS Analytics delivered new research exploring some key trends, looking closely at established software infrastructure and emerging technologies alike. "What we're seeing as far as a state of the market is acceleration beyond the EMR," said Blain New...

HOSPITALS ARE ROADBLOCKS TO PATIENT EHR DATA REQUESTS, DESPITE HIPAA

What if the challenge to overcome with data sharing was the policies common among hospitals? A new study published in JAMA Network Open found just that: Patients are facing many hurdles when they request to receive their records from hospitals. Conducted by Yale University School of Medicine, the st...

WHY PROVIDERS, LAWYERS AND COMMUNITY-BASED WORKERS ARE THE PUBLIC HEALTH DREAM TEAM

The things we generally view as determinants of health—genetics, personal choices, and access to high-quality care—really only play a supporting role. In fact, social, economic and environmental factors determine as much as 60% of an individual’s health status. Those factors can ma...

HEALTHCARE ROUNDUP—KAVANAUGH CONFIRMED; SURVEY FINDS EMPLOYEES AREN'T USING HSAS FOR LONG-TERM SAVINGS

In a highly contentious confirmation process that promises to have broad health care implications, Brett Kavanaugh officially became a Supreme Court Justice over the weekend. With a 50 to 48 vote, it was one of the closest confirmation votes for a Supreme Court justice in history. Republicans cheere...

WANT YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS? BETTER BE PREPARED TO CALL—AND PAY UP

HIPAA guarantees patients the right to receive a complete copy of their medical record from providers. But you wouldn't know it from the way most hospitals manage records requests. Patients face substantial barriers when requesting their records from hospitals, according to a recent study conduc...

JOHNS HOPKINS' ELECTRONIC TRIAGE TOOL BOOSTS ER EFFICIENCY, SAVES BED HOURS

Clinicians in the emergency department are often short on time, so researchers at Johns Hopkins are arming them with an electronic tool aimed at improving efficiency at triage. Hopkins built the Electronic Triage System, a machine learning program that uses data from the electronic health record to ...

CERNER REVEALS LONG LIST OF VA EHR MODERNIZATION PARTNERS

Cerner shared the list of the 24 health IT vendors that will support the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ transition to from its legacy VistA EHR to the Cerner platform. Accenture, Leidos and AbleVets are among the leading names of vendors that will support the project throughout the proje...

HEALTHCARE ROUNDUP—OPIOID PACKAGE HEADS TO TRUMP'S DESK; DEDUCTIBLE AND PREMIUM HIKES EAT EMPLOYEES' WAGE GROWTH

The Senate passed a massive package aimed at addressing the nation's opioid addiction crisis, sending the bill to the president's desk on Wednesday. The opioid package includes more than 70 bills, including the STOP Act to halt illegal drugs at the border. The legislation would allow the Foo...

PEW SAYS CONSUMERS PREFER BIOMETRICS FOR PATIENT MATCHING, BUT HOSPITALS HAVE CONCERNS

Pew Charitable Trusts this week published a report on patient matching, examining it as a key challenge for healthcare's overall goal of more effective interoperability. In the study, Pew looked at the potential for biometrics and, through interviews with consumers and healthcare executives, det...

VERMA: CMS IS EXPLORING WAYS TO EXPAND SITE-NEUTRAL PAYMENTS

Following a proposal that would change the way Medicare pays for clinic visits, the Trump administration is looking at ways to expand site-neutral payments to other areas of care. Post-acute care could be one of those areas, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verm...

BANNER HEALTH, ASCENSION EXECUTIVES JOIN HUNDREDS OF HOSPITAL CEOS DEFENDING 340B PROGRAM

CEOs from more than 700 hospitals sent a letter (PDF) to congressional leaders on Tuesday, calling on them to protect the 340B drug discount program. The 340B program requires drugmakers to provide discounted drugs to hospitals, health centers, and other healthcare providers that serve disproportion...

UNITEDHEALTH BUYS GENOA HEALTHCARE, ADDING MORE THAN 400 PHARMACIES TO ITS PBM

With new competitors closing in, UnitedHealth is bolstering its defenses by purchasing Genoa Healthcare, the fifth-largest pharmacy chain in the country with 435 locations. Genoa—which also offers telepsychiatry services and medication management for behavioral health patients—will be ab...

HERE'S WHAT INNOVATORS REALLY NEED FROM EHR MAKERS TO MOVE HEALTHCARE FORWARD

Healthcare is on the verge of open APIs and data, developer programs from leading software vendors, and an even bigger rush of upstarts and entrepreneurs looking to create digital health tools that usher in a new generation of care delivery fit for consumers by focusing on patient experience. As exc...

COMMUNITY HEALTH SYSTEMS-OWNED HOSPITAL CHAIN AGREES TO PAY $262M SETTLEMENT FOR KICKBACK, FRAUD ALLEGATIONS

A health system that is part of hospital giant Community Health Systems Inc. agreed to pay more than $262 million to resolve criminal charges and civil claims, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday. Health Management Associates (HMA), a hospital chain formerly headquartered in Naples, Florida,...

EXPERTS SAY ANTI-FRAUD LAWS ARE HOLDING BACK RURAL HEALTH

With a dwindling supply of physicians and more hospitals going out of business, rural areas of the country face considerably more healthcare hurdles. But experts say two outdated anti-fraud laws—the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and the Stark Law—could go a long way in solving some of the ...

CONGRESS REACHES CONSENSUS ON OPIOID EPIDEMIC LEGISLATION PACKAGE

The House and Senate have reached a consensus on a legislative package aimed at the opioid crisis, setting the stage to swiftly send a bill to the president’s desk. The two chambers of Congress each passed individual bipartisan bills before coming together to hammer out a joint package (PDF). ...

MICROSOFT SAYS CARE COORDINATION AND SECURE MESSAGING TOOLS ARE COMING TO ITS TEAMS PLATFORM

The software giant will enable caregivers to communicate and integrate with EHR systems. Microsoft is holding its Ignite conference this week, and the company teased a forthcoming care coordination tool that is in early stages of development – as well two secure messaging features it's cre...

MICROSOFT SAYS CARE COORDINATION AND SECURE MESSAGING TOOLS ARE COMING TO ITS TEAMS PLATFORM

The software giant will enable caregivers to communicate and integrate with EHR systems. Microsoft is holding its Ignite conference this week, and the company teased a forthcoming care coordination tool that is in early stages of development – as well two secure messaging features it's cre...

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES WEAKENING RULES GOVERNING ORGAN TRANSPLANT CENTERS

The Trump administration this week proposed eliminating a decades-old regulation that puts hospitals at risk of losing their Medicare funding if too many of their patients die or suffer organ failure after receiving transplants. The rule the government is proposing to scrap is the same one that led ...

INDUSTRY VOICES—RIGHT TO TRY LAW PROVIDES A LICENSE TO CASH IN ON PATIENT FEARS

More than 1.7 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year. Almost one in three of those patients will eventually succumb to it. Knowing these odds, patients are eager to try anything to improve on them. They and their loved ones want quicker access to the latest medicines—even if...

WHAT IF HEALTHCARE IS NOT BROKEN? AND WHAT IF WE'RE ACTUALLY WINNING THE OPIOID BATTLE?

Here comes a counterargument to two widely held opinions: that the U.S. healthcare system is broken, and that we are losing the battle against the opioid crisis. Instead, Dave Chase says, healthcare is already fixed because solutions exist to the industry’s biggest dysfunctions – and he ...

OMB HEALTHCARE OFFICIAL: SEEKING SIMPLE SOLUTIONS ON HEALTHCARE POLICY IS A ‘FALLACY’

Searching for simple solutions on health care policy is “like hunting squirrels with a shotgun," said a high-level OMB official responsible for vetting such proposals. It works ultimately, but there won’t be much left to eat with that approach, said Joseph Grogan, the associate dire...

PRIVATE BLOCKCHAIN, EXPLAINED: WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT ISN'T AND HOW TO MANAGE YOUR HIPAA EXPECTATIONS

For many healthcare executives, blockchain is more than just hype. Data silos and interoperability challenges abound in healthcare, and blockchain technology appears to provide a solution, theoretically allowing distinct sources of data to update each other in a decentralized way—without the c...

NHS UNVEILS NEW DEVELOPER PROGRAMS TO SPARK INNOVATION FOR PATIENTS

The National Health Service in England announced two new innovator programs to accelerate the use of digital health tools that benefit patients and remove barriers slowing adoption of innovation in the NHS. Part of a wider effort led by NHS England and the Academic Health Science Networks, NHS Engla...

TRUMP'S TARIFF THREATS ON CHINA COULD HIT HOSPITAL IT SHOPS

President Trump on Wednesday threatened to add new import taxes on an additional $257 billion of Chinese goods to the $200 billion established on Monday. This was in response to China on Tuesday announcing plans to impose new tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. exports. Even though it’s only a thre...

STUDY: DRUG PRICES RISE TWICE AS FAST AS EXPECTED IN A SHORTAGE

It's not unexpected for prices to go up during a drug shortage. But during drug shortages in 2016, prices went up—way up—at a rate more than twice what would ordinarily be expected, according to a new study. Specifically, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard compar...

BILLIONAIRE PETER SOON-SHIONG'S VERITY HEALTH SYSTEM DECLARES BANKRUPTCY

Hospitals that are part of Verity Health, an El Segundo, California-based nonprofit chain owned by billionaire Peter Soon-Shiong, remains open after the system filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a release, health system officials said they secured debtor-in-possession financing of up to $185 millio...

UNITEDHEALTHCARE AND AMA CLASH OVER MEDICARE'S STEP THERAPY CHANGES

A recent policy change that would allow Medicare Advantage plans to use step therapy for Medicare Part B drugs is creating yet another dividing line between insurers and providers. UnitedHealthcare—the nation’s largest Medicare Advantage carrier, with a prominent voice in the ears of fed...

TELEHEALTH HELPS EINSTEIN MEDICAL CENTER SLASH READMISSIONS, BOOST VALUE-BASED CARE

The Einstein Medical Center wanted to decrease readmissions for liver failure patients by 50 percent. Caregivers had a longtime interest in the potential for remote patient monitoring and turned to telehealth technology to address this mandate. Thus far, since implementing the RPM processes, the hos...

IT'S NOT JUST AMAZON: EMPLOYERS ARE TURNING 'ACTIVIST' WHEN IT COMES TO HEALTHCARE

Amazon, JPMorgan, and Berkshire Hathaway have grabbed the headlines in recent months by becoming the employers to finally disrupt healthcare. But while hospital executives have said they believe that particular effort has the greatest chance of actually making an impact, experts said it's just o...

LAWMAKERS ASK MEDPAC TO INVESTIGATE HOW HOSPITAL CONSOLIDATION IMPACTS MEDICARE, AND VICE VERSA

For better or worse, hospital consolidation has increased steadily over the last decade. Now, lawmakers are worried about how those mergers impact Medicare—and they're turning to a federal commission to investigate. Writing to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), three congre...

MOMENTS OF IMPACT: A LIFE-LONG JOURNEY IN PUBLIC HEALTH

There are moments in our lives that are incredibly impactful, whether we are aware of their impact at the time they happen or in hindsight. For Jessica Kahn, senior expert in Public Sector Healthcare IT and Data at McKinsey & Company and recent recipient of HIMSS’s Most Influential Women i...

TELEMEDICINE RACKS UP $1 MILLION IN COST AVOIDANCE SAVINGS FOR TALLAHASSEE MEMORIAL

Tallahassee Memorial Hospital regularly saves upwards of $1 million per year in cost avoidance through its real-time video telehealth platform, despite not being able to bill for a vast majority of the telemedicine services it provides. The technology also improved patient health, especially among i...

NATIONWIDE PRESCRIPTION SAFETY ALERT SYSTEM PROPOSED BY HOUSE BILL

A House bill introduced on Aug. 30 would create a nationwide Prescription Safety Alert System, designed to better protect patients at risk of opioid overuse. If passed, the Analyzing and Leveraging Existing Rx Transactions (ALERT) Act would mandate the Department of Health and Human Services to work...

IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE OPIOID CRISIS, PROVIDERS ARE TURNING TO TECHNOLOGY

Opioid abuse and addiction continue to be a national crisis, but it is being felt at a very local level. Patient care organizations across the country are seeing the impact of the opioid crisis on the health of their patient populations. From 1999-2016, more than 350,000 people died from an overdose...

AMAZON WEB SERVICES BOOSTS MACHINE LEARNING TO TREAT DEPRESSION

Pharmaceutical company Takeda and the research and development data science institute ConvergeHEALTH by Deloitte have partnered to study patient datasets to better understand the etiology, progression and most effective therapies for difficult diseases. Using insurance claims information including d...

HARRIS HEALTHCARE ACQUIRES IATRIC SYSTEMS, WILL RUN IT AS AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESS

Harris Healthcare acquired Iatric Systems for an undisclosed sum. Boxford, Massachusetts-based Iatric, which specializes in integration tools to help hospitals optimize electronic health records and other IT infrastructure, will operate as an independent business unit of Harris, officials said. Iatr...

WATCHDOG GROUP TAKES AIM AT HHS' NEW PBM REBATE RULE, ASKS ETHICS OFFICERS TO EVALUATE AZAR'S CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

HHS Secretary Alex Azar has once again come under fire regarding his relationship with former employer Eli Lilly, this time from the watchdog group Campaign for Accountability (CfA). The group specifically took issue with the way HHS' new proposed rule would reduce pharmacy benefit manager (PBM)...

AI IS HYPED, BUT BIG DATA, SOCIAL DETERMINANTS WILL HAVE A BIGGER IMPACT

The shift to value-based care often has C-suite executives wondering how best to support the transition, while ensuring a solid return on investment in the long term. And the key to improving care value is to ensure an organization has the right tools to support patients throughout the care cycle. T...

IN SHIFT TO VALUE, PROVIDERS WORRY ABOUT RUNNING AFOUL OF KICKBACK LAWS. OIG ANNOUNCED IT'S SEEKING IDEAS ON HOW TO FIX THAT

The Department of Health and Human Services has released its long-promised request for information on reforming anti-kickback statutes. The RFI (PDF) was posted to the Federal Register on Monday. The HHS Office of Inspector General is seeking feedback on ways it could adjust the implementation of th...

STEWARD ROLLS OUT WOLTERS KLUWER TECH TO STANDARDIZE DECISION SUPPORT ACROSS 38 HOSPITALS

Steward Health Care, the biggest private hospital chain in the country, is turning to technology from Wolters Kluwer to help tackle variations in care across more than three-dozen hospitals. The integrated care network, which spans 10 states and 38 hospitals, is expected to care for some 3 million p...

MORGAN STANLEY: NEARLY 1 IN 10 HOSPITALS AT RISK FOR CLOSURE

Nearly 10% of hospitals are at risk of closure, according to a new analysis. Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, and financial services company, analyzed data on more than 6,000 hospitals and found that 450, or 8%, are at risk for closure. Plus, an additional 10% are performing weakly, meaning close...

CIGNA, EXPRESS SCRIPTS SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE $67B DEAL

Shareholders with both Cigna and Express Scripts voted to approve the insurer’s $67 billion acquisition of the PBM, the companies announced on Friday. The shareholder approval marks an important hurdle in finalizing the deal and follows several weeks in which Cigna tussled with activist invest...

VERILY RESEARCHERS: TIME FOR PSYCHIATRY FIELD TO APPLY ANALYTICS, SENSORS TO THEIR PRACTICES

New technologies and large-scale data generation and analysis could potentially bring a more quantifiable approach to psychiatry and mental health treatment. In a recently published prospective, a group of Verily researchers and Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, called for the psychiatric f...

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FUNDS $3.5 MILLION TO DEVELOP PROTOTYPE IMPLANT THAT REWIRES A SPINAL CORD

The European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) program announced that it is working in conjunction with a project team including four European Union countries to design and build a prototype of an active implant that restores transmission of signals in an injured...

RELENTLESS FOCUS ON INNOVATION WINS OCHSNER A HIMSS DAVIES AWARD

Ochsner Health System has won a 2018 HIMSS Davies Enterprise Award, honored for the accomplishments of its Innovation Ochsner group, or Team iO, and its broader efforts to improve patient safety and population health. The workgroup within Ochsner, the large academic medical center based near New Orl...

DOJ TAKES ANTHEM TO COURT OVER REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH MEDICARE ADVANTAGE FRAUD INVESTIGATION

The Department of Justice is asking a court to force Anthem to turn over information related to an ongoing fraud investigation involving the insurer's Medicare Advantage plans that brought in nearly $215 million using retrospective chart reviews over a two-year period. Anthem, meanwhile, argues ...

A POLICY WAS MEANT TO CURB OPIOID PRESCRIBING. INSTEAD, RESEARCHERS SAY PRESCRIPTIONS AFTER SURGERY WENT UP

A rescheduling of hydrocodone by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2014 was meant to curb prescriptions written for the powerful opioids by providers. Instead, a study published in JAMA Surgery found, the policy might have had the opposite effect from what officials intended. Under the 2014 DEA...

HHS REASSIGNS CIO BETH KILLORAN IN LATEST STAFFING SHAKE-UP

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reassigned CIO Beth Killoran to the Office of the Surgeon General “to develop a comprehensive information systems strategic plan for the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps,” an HHS official confirmed to Healthcare IT News on Tuesday....

HOSPITAL EXECUTIVES BELIEVE AMAZON CAN DELIVER ON ITS HYPE AS A HEALTHCARE DISRUPTER

Out of all the technology giants with ambitions in healthcare, hospital executives have overwhelmingly put their faith in Amazon, according to a new survey. A full 59% of executives say Amazon will have the biggest impact, according to the survey by Reaction Data. Respondents cited resources availab...

VETERANS GROUP SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER ROLE OF ‘SHADOW RULERS’ AT THE VA

A liberal veterans' advocacy organization is suing the VA to prevent a trio of Mar-a-Lago members from exerting further influence on the agency. VoteVets and Democracy Forward filed suit (PDF) in a District of Columbia federal court to block the three “shadow rulers” from continuing ...

UNITEDHEALTH, AARP HIT WITH ANOTHER LAWSUIT OVER CO-BRANDED MEDIGAP PLANS

A lawsuit filed this week accuses UnitedHealth and AARP of violating state insurance laws and charging consumers artificially inflated premiums. It’s the third such lawsuit filed against the two companies this year and adds to ongoing litigation in several states. A class-action lawsuit filed ...

AS CMS RETOOLS ITS ADVANCED PAYMENT MODELS, PROVIDERS STILL GRAPPLE WITH THE TECH REQUIREMENTS

As providers gear up to participate in CMS’ revamped payment models, one major hurdle stands in the way for many: technology. Deirdre Baggot, Ph.D., a healthcare business strategist who has worked with more than 200 hospitals to implement value-based payment models, told FierceHealthcare in an...

HEALTHCARE APP ECONOMY IS COMING: GET READY FOR THE DATAQUAKE

Before the Blue Button Developer Conference on Monday, I stepped inside the U.S. Digital Service for something of a pre-party. USDS hosted this mix of people in full suits rubbing elbows with tattooed technologists wearing t-shirts. In the packed room, USDS Deputy Administrator Edward Hartwig climbe...

CLOUD-BASED PACS SYSTEM CUTS IMAGING COSTS BY HALF FOR RURAL HOSPITAL

Republic County Hospital in North Central Kansas had an imaging problem: Its picture archiving and communications system was supplied by the radiology group that read images for the hospital. It was locked into the group, which limited its ability to find more cost-effective pricing on the open mark...

FLAGLER HOSPITAL USES AI TO CREATE CLINICAL PATHWAYS THAT ENHANCE CARE AND SLASH COSTS

Flagler Hospital in Saint Augustine, Florida, is using artificial intelligence tools to improve the treatment of pneumonia, sepsis and a dozen other high-cost, high-mortality conditions. Usually, it’s large academic medical centers or wide-ranging health systems, not community hospitals, that ...

HOW BLOCKCHAIN CAN HELP WITH HEALTHCARE'S PATIENT MATCHING PROBLEM

Blockchain. The distributed ledger technology has considerable promise in healthcare and, as so often happens with emerging technologies, it’s being hailed as something close to a cure-all for just about everything. From cybersecurity to electronic health records and data interoperability, to ...

NEW MEXICO HEALTH CONNECTIONS ASKS COURT TO IMMEDIATELY STRIKE DOWN UPDATED RISK ADJUSTMENT RULE

A New Mexico insurer in the midst of a legal battle with the federal government over risk adjustment payments has asked a court to strike down a rule that reinstated $10.4 billion in payments for 2017. In a complaint (PDF) filed in the U.S. District Court in New Mexico, New Mexico Health Connections...

REPORT: AMAZON IS PLANNING TO OPEN PRIMARY CARE CLINICS AT SEATTLE HEADQUARTERS

Online retail giant Amazon's foray into tackling healthcare costs might just start with really convenient primary care. Specifically, primary care clinics for its employees located right at its Seattle headquarters, CNBC reported Thursday afternoon. According to the report, the technology compan...

COMMUNITY HEALTH SYSTEMS UNDER SCRUTINY FOR EHRS, MEANINGFUL USE

In a brief mention contained in its Form 10-Q, filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, publicly-traded Community Health Systems revealed that it is facing a "civil investigative demand" related to its "adoption of electronic health records technology and the meaningf...

COMMUNITY HEALTH SYSTEMS FACING EHR MEANINGFUL USE INVESTIGATION

One of the nation’s largest for-profit health systems is under investigation regarding the company’s adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and adherence to federal standards that government incentive payments. A new disclosure buried in a recent financial filing indicates Communit...

AMERICA’S ESSENTIAL HOSPITALS LAUNCHES RESEARCH PROJECT TO IDENTIFY ‘DIMENSIONS’ OF PATIENT TRUST

America’s Essential Hospitals will undertake a research project aimed at improving patients’ trust in their healthcare providers. The three-phase project is backed in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AEH announced Tuesday. The end goal is to build guidelines and policies that ...

THINK TANK URGES SOCIAL MEDIA SITES TO ADDRESS MENTAL HEALTH OF YOUNG PEOPLE

Tech companies could take further action to address rising concerns over cyberbullying and the impact of social media on the mental health of children and young people, the government has said. In its response to a report from the Commons education and health select committees joint inquiry scrutini...

REPORT: WISDOM TOOTH SURGERY INCREASES RISK FOR LONG-TERM USE OF OPIOIDS

Getting wisdom teeth pulled often comes with a side of potent painkillers to help the discomfort. And a new research report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday warns those opioid drug prescriptions associated with the common dental procedure may be leading to long...

HEALTHCARE CYBERSECURITY IS IN A RUT, AND HACKERS KEEP SWINGING

The number of breached patient records has declined from 100 million in 2015 to just 5 million in 2017, according to a recent Symantec report. But don’t take that at as good news: 10 percent more organizations reported a breach in 2017 than the previous year. These results could be interpreted...

IN MEDICARE ADVANTAGE MARKET, CERNER STRADDLES THE LINE BETWEEN PARTNER AND COMPETITOR

Cerner's entry into the Medicare Advantage market could put the EHR vendor at odds with some of its biggest clients. In June, Cerner announced a 10-year strategic investment in Lumeris, which oversees a Medicare Advantage plan in Missouri. As part of the arrangement, Cerner invested $266 million...

WITH MERGER VOTE APPROACHING, CIGNA AND EXPRESS SCRIPTS DIVERGE ON VALUE-BASED CONTRACTS

With just three weeks until shareholders vote on their planned merger, Cigna and Express Scripts indicated different visions for value-based contracting on Thursday. During the company's second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Cigna President and CEO David Cordani said the Express Scripts acqu...

HOW NORTHSHORE'S EPIC EHR IS IMPACTING ITS PRECISION MEDICINE PRIMARY CARE MODEL

As consumer at-home genetic tests become more popular, patients are increasingly interested in how their inherited health impacts their future wellness. At the same time, some hospitals are exploring ways to incorporate genetic information into the delivery of healthcare. NorthShore University Healt...

THIRD-PARTY VENDOR ERROR EXPOSES DATA OF 19K PATIENTS FOR 2 MONTHS

A transcriptionist vendor for Orlando Orthopaedic Center made an error during a software upgrade, which resulted in the exposure of 19,101 patient records for about two months. All patients who received medical services at any of the health center’s clinics prior to January 2018 were included ...

FED UP WITH HUNTING DOWN OTHER PROVIDERS' TEST RESULTS, PHYSICIAN BUILT A NEW PLATFORM

Healthcare can be chaotic for caregivers, especially when it comes to the logistics of tracking down a patient's results on tests ordered by other providers. Clinicians can spend an excessive amount of time and energy on the telephone contacting other providers' offices or having staff waste...

WITH ITS FUTURE UP IN THE AIR, ATHENAHEALTH PRESSES FORWARD WITH R&D INVESTMENTS

After what executives called “quite an eventful quarter,” Athenahealth posted solid second-quarter earnings less than a year after implementing a strategic plan that cut operational spending to the bone. Part of that plan, unveiled last October, included a 9% cut to Athenahealth’s ...

AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES CENTER FOR HEALTH INNOVATION

As providers work to keep up with a constantly evolving healthcare system, the American Hospital Association is launching an innovation center to support that work. The AHA Center for Health Innovation will officially launch in September and was unveiled at the group's annual Leadership Summit l...

ECLINICALWORKS FINED $132,500 BY HHS OIG FOR PATIENT SAFETY RISK

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General fined eClinicalWorks $132,550 for failing to report patient safety issues with its EHR to regulators in a specific timeframe, violating the agreement with the Department of Justice. The fine comes just over one year after i...

1.4 MILLION PATIENT RECORDS BREACHED IN UNITYPOINT HEALTH PHISHING ATTACK

UnityPoint Health is notifying 1.4 million patients that their records may have been breached when its business system was compromised by a phishing attack. This is the second breach for UnityPoint this year. In April, another phishing attack on staff email accounts at its Madison campus breached th...

OIG FINES ECLINICALWORKS $132,500 FOR PATIENT SAFETY REPORTING FAILURES

More than a year after agreeing to a massive settlement to resolve claims it falsified EHR certification standards, eClinicalWorks has been fined for failing to report patient safety issues with its software to regulators within a specified timeframe, violating an agreement with the federal governme...

HIMSS HEALTHCARE SECURITY FORUM TO FOCUS ON BUSINESS CONTINUITY, BREACH RESPONSE

Despite constant warnings and routine breach reports, the healthcare sector continues to struggle with some of the security basics: patch management, funding, network segmentation and the like. Combined with continue security staffing shortages, cybersecurity issues will continue into the indefinite...

HIMSS BIG DATA AND HEALTHCARE ANALYTICS FORUM: WHAT TO EXPECT

Digital data has become the lifeblood of health care, touching every facet of the delivery system and informing – sometimes transforming – the way clinical decisions are made and operational strategies are developed and deployed. And, as anyone who is a healthcare decision-maker knows al...

WORRIED ABOUT 'DEFENSIVE MEDICINE' IN TELEHEALTH? GO ON THE OFFENSIVE

Despite substantial industry excitement around telehealth as a way to coordinate care and improve outcomes, there is still some lingering concern that virtual care could lead to defensive medicine. Defensive medicine has its roots in medical malpractice, with physicians ordering unnecessary tests to...

NERVGEN PHARMA TO TAKE CASE WESTERN-DEVELOPED NERVE REGENERATION TECH TO MARKET

Vancouver, B.C.-based regenerative medicine company NervGen Pharma, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland are collaborating to commercialize a patented technology for spinal cord injury and other conditions associated with nerve damage. Jerry Silver, a spinal cord injury regenerative medi...

WITH $1B PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN RWJBARNABAS AND RUTGERS, BOTH REALIZE ACADEMIC HEALTH SYSTEM STATUS

RWJBarnabas Health will first invest $100 million in Rutgers University as part of a bigger public-private partnership to create a jointly operated academic health system, officials announced this week. Under the terms of the partnership, RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers University will remain separat...

A CIO'S TAKE ON EHR OPTIMIZATION

We’ve officially entered into the “dog-days” of summer here in the mid-Atlantic states. When I think back to the biting cold wintertime in January it seemed that summer would never appear, yet it has arrived in full force. I use this metaphor because it closely resembles the electr...

NIH ENLISTS GOOGLE TO UNLOCK ACCESS TO BIG BIOMEDICAL DATA IN THE CLOUD

The National Institutes of Health, looking to leverage cloud computing to break down barriers to accessing of large biomedical datasets and enable easier computing for researchers, is looking to the private sector with its new STRIDES Initiative. The first company to sign on with the project –...

MOUNT SINAI OPENS BIOMEDICAL BLOCKCHAIN RESEARCH CENTER

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare announced the opening of the Center for Biomedical Blockchain Research to use new technologies and data to work on health care and medical science problems. The new centers come as many health systems are cu...

AMERICAN WELL, ANTHEM AND SAMSUNG COLLABORATE ON THE TELEMEDICINE FRONT

Three entities — American Well, Anthem, and Samsung — have partnered on a new telemedicine-related initiative aimed at helping consumers gain additional health care access. Anthem members with a Samsung Galaxy device and the updated Samsung Health app can now access LiveHealth Online, a ...

CAN A COMMUNITY HOSPITAL STAY TRUE TO ITS MISSION AFTER SALE TO LARGE CORPORATION?

Mission Health, the largest hospital system in western North Carolina, provided $100 million in free charity care last year. This year, it has partnered with 17 civic organizations to deliver substance abuse care to low-income people. Based in bucolic Asheville, the six-hospital system also screens ...

NHS TO BOLSTER HOSPITAL IT WITH $540 MILLION IN NEW SPENDING

In his first major speech since becoming the new Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock has put information technology atop his list of priorities for improving the National Health Service. And he's backing his words with big money – the UK will invest around $540 million for hospi...

TOP PATIENT SAFETY PAIN POINTS AND WHERE TO FOCUS IMPROVEMENT EFFORTS

Many healthcare organizations are working to improve patient safety but serious challenges remain. Medical errors are among the leading causes of death in the U.S. and non-lethal harm occurs even more frequently – at a rate 10 to 20 times higher than deaths, according to The Journal of Patient...

BRIGHT HEALTH PARTNERS WITH MERCY HEALTH TO OFFER MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS IN OHIO

Minneapolis-based insurance business Bright Health has teamed up with Cincinnati-based Mercy Health and will enter the Ohio Medicare Advantage market. The company will offer plans to citizens of Cincinnati, Springfield, Toledo, and Youngstown. Bright Health earned conditional approval from CMS to st...

VA, IBM WATSON HEALTH EXTEND PRECISION CANCER PARTNERSHIP TO HELP VETERANS

The Department of Veterans Affairs and IBM Watson Health have announced a one-year extension to an ongoing public-private partnership applying the AI company’s technology to genomic data for cancer therapy. The precision oncology collaboration has so far assisted the treatment of more than 2,7...

IN A BLOW TO PBMS, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MULLING OVERHAUL TO DRUG REBATE SAFE HARBOR PROTECTIONS

The Trump administration is considering a proposal to overhaul safe harbor protections for pharmaceutical company rebates, a plan that could lead to a significant shift in how drug prices are determined. The Office of Management and Budget is reviewing a proposed rule from the Department of Health a...

HOSPITAL GROUPS VOW TO CONTINUE LEGAL FIGHT AFTER LOSING CHALLENGE TO 340B PAYMENT CUTS

Several hospital and healthcare industry groups vowed to continue their legal challenge to 340B cuts pushed by the Trump Administration after a court ruled against their appeal. “We are deeply disappointed that the courts have once again failed to rule on the merits of our case," the Amer...

HEALTH WIZZ PILOTS BLOCKCHAIN AND FHIR MOBILE APP FOR EHRS

Health Wizz has updated and is piloting its unusual blockchain- and FHIR-enabled EHR aggregator mobile app, which uses blockchain to tokenize data, enabling patients to securely aggregate, organize, share, donate and/or trade their medical records. The idea is to enable individuals to control their ...

HOSPITALS UP THE ANTE FOR MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION TOOLS AS VENDORS MODERNIZE WITH AUTOMATION, VOICE RECOGNITION

Medical transcription tools have long been legacy products but as vendors inject modern technologies, notably automation and voice recognition, new data suggests that hospitals are going to deploy more of these products and services amid broader digital transformation work. Medical transcription is ...

LABCORP GOES DOWN AFTER NETWORK BREACH, PUTTING MILLIONS OF PATIENT RECORDS AT RISK

North Carolina-based LabCorp Diagnostics, one of the largest clinical laboratories in the U.S., was forced to shut down its network on Sunday after officials detected suspicious activity, according to a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Over the weekend of July 14, hackers got i...

L.A. CARE HEALTH PLAN IS COMMITTING $31M TO RECRUIT PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS

Primary care doctors are supposedly at the backbone of efforts to curb runaway health spending in the U.S. by preventing patients from developing serious—and costly—health concerns. But with primary care physicians in short supply and projections showing the problem will only worsen, one...

OPIOID EPIDEMIC: UNC HEALTH CARE TO INTEGRATE EPIC EHR WITH STATE'S PDMP

The University of North Carolina Health Care at Chapel Hill announced plans to integrate its Epic EHR with the state-controlled substance reporting system. UNC, in so doing, joins the growing ranks for providers aligning with Prescription Drug Monitoring Program efforts to fight back against the opi...

ADVOCATE AURORA HEALTH PARTNERS WITH FOXCONN TO BRING ‘SMART CITY’ CONCEPT TO HEALTHCARE

Newly formed Advocate Aurora Health has launched partnership with the technology giant Foxconn to expand the health system’s portfolio of digital tools. The partnership comes several months after Advocate Aurora Health completed a merger that combined Advocate Health Care and Aurora Healthcare...

EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON CMS' BIG CHANGES TO CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION, EHRS AND INTEROPERABILITY

The "historic changes" announced late yesterday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, promising big adjustments to its policies around the Physician Fee Schedule and the Quality Payment Program, already have the healthcare industry talking. CMS says it wants to incentivize t...

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA HEALTHCARE ROLLS OUT FIRST AUTONOMOUS AI DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM CLEARED BY THE FDA

The University of Iowa Healthcare has become the first healthcare organization to implement IDx-DR, the first autonomous artificial intelligence diagnostic system cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The AI system, from vendor IDx, can detect diabetic retinopathy via medical imaging. ID...

HEALTHCARE VENTURE CAPITAL SOARING TOWARD $15 BILLION IN 2018

Healthcare startups received a significant infusion of cash in the first half of the year, benefiting from $10.6 billion in investment from venture capitalists, according to new data from the MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights. The first and second quarters of the year saw ...

BLUES PLANS CRUSHED BY RISK ADJUSTMENT FREEZE AS KAISER SKIRTS NEARLY $1B

Some of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s biggest affiliated insurers would be the hardest hit by the Trump administration’s decision to freeze more than $10 billion in risk adjustment payments. Should those payments remain frozen, three insurers—Blue Shield of California, Health Care Servi...

VERITY HEALTH SYSTEM MAY SELL HOSPITALS TO IMPROVE FINANCES

Verity Health System announced Tuesday it may sell some or all of its six hospitals as it works to fix the financial and operational problems that have dogged the safety-net provider for years. The Redwood City, Calif.-based health system has undergone significant ownership changes in recent years. ...

CERNER DEVELOPING 'EHR-AGNOSTIC' VALUE-BASED CARE TECHNOLOGY WITH LUMERIS

Cerner is partnering with Lumeris, a health plan, and managed services vendor, with a decade-long agreement, including an ownership stake where the companies will help health systems tackle inefficiencies to prepare for value-based reimbursement. An early centerpiece of the new partnership is a join...

RFID SECURITY FOR HOSPITALS: VIGILANT DATA MONITORING IS KEY

If you watch TV for any amount of time, you’ll notice that there are a lot of commercials for wallets and devices that protect your cards from being read by RFID. Like medical devices, RFID was designed before security was the priority it is now. While encryption is supported and is an ISO sta...

CERNER SINKS $266M INTO LUMERIS AS PART OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TARGETING MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS

Cerner will become a minority owner in the parent company of the population health services platform Lumeris as part of a 10-year strategic partnership that includes a new value-based technology offering geared towards Medicare Advantage plans. The deal allows Cerner to tap into an established Medic...

CMS SUSPENDS $10.4B IN RISK ADJUSTMENT PAYMENTS TO INSURERS

The Trump administration has suspended more than $10 billion in risk adjustment payments to insurers, a move that may drive up premiums and create uncertainty in the individual market. Citing a March court ruling, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced over the weekend that it is...

WILL TEXAS EFFORTS TO INTEGRATE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTHCARE BE MIRED BY STATE’S SHORTAGE OF PSYCHIATRISTS?

Kerstin Taylor fought alcohol and substance abuse problems for two decades. She periodically sought help through addiction and psychiatric treatments to stay sober, but she continued to relapse. That unrelenting roller coaster and the emotional and mental fallout left her with little energy or resou...

SHIFT TO VALUE-BASED CARE COULD LEAVE SOME PATIENT GROUPS BEHIND

The healthcare industry's shift to value-based care may be leaving some patients behind. But a task force from Families USA is offering a framework that could ensure patients of color and other underserved populations get a seat at the table in the process. Since Hernández-Cancio, directo...

INOVA HEALTH SYSTEM JOINS SHIFT IN HOSPITALS INVESTING IN INPATIENT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

The hallways of Inova Health System's newest inpatient mental health unit gleam white and new. With all private patient rooms, they look very much the style of patient rooms popping up in brand new hospital towers around this region of the country.  And despite safety design features—...

TEXAS CLINICS BUSTING TRADITIONAL SILOS OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH CARE

Kerstin Taylor fought alcohol and substance abuse problems for two decades. She periodically sought help through addiction and psychiatric treatments to stay sober, but she continued to relapse. That unrelenting roller coaster and the emotional and mental fallout left her with little energy or resou...

GEISINGER'S STEELE INSTITUTE FOR HEALTHCARE INNOVATION TAPS JVION'S AI

Geisinger has selected Jvion’s Cognitive Clinical Success Machine as one of the organization’s critical artificial intelligence assets. The deal follows a successful pilot and validation of Jvion’s performance with industry peers. The initial scope of the Jvion cognitive machine ap...

DELL TO GO PUBLIC ONCE AGAIN - WHAT THAT COULD MEAN FOR HEALTHCARE

Michael Dell is ready to return his company to the public stock market, five years after taking it private with help from investment firm Silver Lake. The New York Times reports that Dell could go public again as early as next week, in a complex $21.7 billion stock buyout deal it says will enable th...

GRADY HEALTH SYSTEM CHOOSES CARE LOGISTICS TO BOOST PATIENT CARE, DRIVE EFFICIENCIES

Atlanta-based Grady Health System, a major safety net hospital, has signed a five-year contract with Care Logistic with the aim of improving patient experience and boosting and efficiency. Care Logistics, based in nearby Alpharetta, Georgia, will roll out its Hospital Operating System at Grady this ...

MERCY SHARES EHR DATA WITH JOHNSON & JOHNSON TO HELP IMPROVE ITS MEDICAL DEVICES

In another partnership that will allow its clinicians make more informed treatment decisions while also helping a major vendor improve its implantable devices, Mercy is working with Johnson & Johnson – making its real-world data platform available to help the device developer track its pro...

GAO: 340B HOSPITALS, OUTSIDE PHARMACIES NEED MORE OVERSIGHT

The 340B drug discount program is in need of a major overhaul including additional oversight by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a government watchdog said. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office made seven recommendations in a report to that Health Resources and Services...

CMS MAKES DECISIONS ON 2 STATES' MEDICAID MODIFICATION REQUESTS

This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services decided on two states' requests to modify their Medicaid programs. And the administration gave one a thumbs up and the other a thumbs down. The CMS denied Massachusetts' request (PDF) to limit certain expensive Medicaid drugs covere...

GE TO SPIN OFF ITS HEALTHCARE UNIT

General Electric this week spun off its healthcare business as a separate company, a move that could bolster what has been a bright spot in GE's business portfolio. The company said Kieran Murphy, president, and CEO of GE Healthcare, will continue to lead GE Healthcare as the standalone company....

HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS SEE GREATER OPTIMISM ABOUT VALUE-BASED CARE, SAYS KPMG POLL

Healthcare organizations are much more optimistic than they were two years ago about how value-based contracts – which promote quality care and emphasize the efficiency of hospitals and other providers – would affect profits, according to a poll by the audit, tax, and advisory firm KPMG....

COALITION OF ACOS, IT ORGANIZATIONS THROW SUPPORT BEHIND A CMS DATA-SHARING MANDATE

A diverse group of accountable care organizations, insurers, patient advocacy and health IT companies want the federal government to require data sharing among providers to participate in Medicare. The organizations didn’t stop there. They also urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Ser...

CLOUD PERFORMANCE TESTS REVEAL THE IMPACT OF LOCATION

Performance is one of the most important considerations for healthcare IT professionals when considering the feasibility of moving their EHR system to the cloud. If a cloud-based EHR isn’t fast enough to meet the needs of hospitals and other medical facilities, quality of care will suffer, cli...

REPORT: VALUE-BASED PAYMENT MODELS HAVEN'T CUT COSTS YET

Value-based payment models have been pointed to time and time again as the panacea for rising health costs. But they haven't yet led to significant reductions, according to a new analysis. Leavitt Partners, the Healthcare Financial Management Association and McManis Consulting teamed up to dive ...

GE SPINS OFF HEALTHCARE UNIT AS A STANDALONE COMPANY

GE Healthcare will become standalone company following a year-long strategic review by General Electric CEO John Flannery. The healthcare spinoff will be completed in the next 12-18 months, GE said in an announcement on Tuesday. It comes less than three months after the company sold off its health I...

CMS CREATES CHIEF HEALTH INFORMATICS OFFICER POSITION TO LEAD INTEROPERABILITY PUSH

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services posted a new leadership position, Chief Health Informatics Officer, which will lead the agency’s interoperability efforts and health IT strategy. Posted late last week, the CHIO will focus on improving interoperability and innovation for CMS. Acco...

NEXT-GEN CLINICAL COMMUNICATION: REAL-TIME LOCATION, CONTEXT-AWARE AND MOBILE

Communication technology has evolved quickly in the last few years, and this has enabled new trends in healthcare delivery. While this is the case throughout the industry, it is especially true in hospitals and health systems where a significant amount of time and energy have been invested into prov...

GOTTLIEB: FDA NEEDS TO FILL DATA GAPS AS IT LOOKS TO INCREASE ACCESS TO TARGETED THERAPIES

In an effort to make it easier for physicians to access information on increasingly targeted treatments, the Food and Drug Administration will soon make clinical endpoints of drug treatments available online, said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on Monday. Those endpoints, which will include ...

HOW PHOENIX CHILDREN'S STRUCTURED ITS EHRS TO BE DISEASE SPECIFIC TO IMPROVE CARE, DRIVE SAVINGS

By optimizing its EHR's advanced clinical documentation technology for treating rheumatoid arthritis patients, Phoenix Children’s enhanced care, and physician productivity while also saving about $1 million dollars. Documentation for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis is challenging because of ...

POLL RESULTS: READERS SAY ATHENAHEALTH SHOULD NOT SELL TO ACTIVIST INVESTORS

We asked for your thoughts on athenahealth’s next steps now that Jonathan Bush stepped down as CEO, and the resounding majority said athenahealth should not sell to Elliott Management, which put out a $6.5 billion bid in May. While the future of athenahealth is still unknown after the departur...

NEXT-GEN POPULATION HEALTH: MHEALTH, SOCIAL DETERMINANTS, PRESCRIPTIVE ANALYTICS

Population health is increasingly viewed as a key to the successful delivery of healthcare in the future, especially as more hospitals and health systems fall under value-based care contracts. Fortunately for provider organizations, there already are plenty of population health information systems o...

WHAT HOSPITALS NEED TO IMPROVE PATIENT EXPERIENCE: REAL-TIME POINT OF CARE DATA

At the HIMSS Patient Engagement and Experience Summit earlier this year, Adrienne Boissy, chief experience officer at the Cleveland Clinic, said hospitals have a lot of work to do when it comes to managing the patient experience. "We have to design for what matters most – not just for our...

HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS ARE ADVANCING THEIR TECH INITIATIVES IN THESE AREAS

Hospitals and health systems are looking to the world of tech as they move forward, a new survey from Ernst & Young shows. The poll, which is part of EY’s Future of Health survey series, was conducted between January 31 and February 6, 2018. Via phone and online, 347 U.S.-based physicians ...

CLEVELAND CLINIC SHOWS ITS DIGITAL HEALTH TOOLBOX FOR IMPROVING PATIENT EXPERIENCE

The Cleveland Clinic and Boston University Medical Center offered a look at some of the ways they are deploying technologies to strengthen the patient experience here at the Patient Experience Summit. Empathy was the overarching theme of the Cleveland Clinic event. Adrienne Boissy, MD, Cleveland Cli...

AHIP18: ACA ARCHITECT EZEKIEL EMANUEL SAYS TECHNOLOGY WON’T SAVE HEALTHCARE

Eight years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, one of the key architects of the law is “wildly optimistic” about the direction of the American healthcare system. He doesn’t share the same optimism about technology’s ability to influence that direction, however. &ld...

PATIENT EXPERIENCE, CLINICAL EXCELLENCE TOP DRIVERS OF HOSPITAL TECH INVESTMENTS IN NEXT 12 MONTHS

Hospital IT executives and professionals know that many healthcare organizations are amid a digital transformation. But where are they focusing those investments in the year ahead? A new nationwide poll released by Ernst and Young found that almost all of the participants -- 91 percent -- have or ar...

270,000 PATIENT RECORDS BREACHED IN MED ASSOCIATES HACK

A hack on Albany-based Med Associates may have breached the patient records of more than 270,000 patients. The health care billing claims vendor began notifying patients on June 14, and local New York-based publication Times Union was able to obtain the exact number of impacted patients. Med Associa...

FEDERAL JUDGE DISMISSES UNITEDHEALTH FRAUD SUIT OVER IN-HOME VISITS, WALMART GIFT CARDS

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare accusing the insurer of fraud over in-home clinical visits and a $25 Walmart gift card. In the decision (PDF), Illinois District Court Judge Thomas M. Durkin ruled that the plaintiff's complaint contained deficiencies including fai...

4 REASONS WHY WALMART COULD BE GOOD FOR HEALTH CARE

Walmart is known as one of the largest retailers and employers in the U.S. In fact, it’s the largest private employer in 22 individual states. The chain is known as a retailer at which millions of Americans shop for day-to-day essentials, so talk of its potential merger with Humana had many ob...

GEOFENCING: THE LATEST DATA PRIVACY ISSUE FACING HEALTHCARE

The healthcare industry got a loud introduction to geofencing marketing recently. The headlines were driven by a law firm targeting individuals going to an emergency room. In particular, the ads attempted to lure individuals into a personal injury suit. The type of action that would be sure to draw ...

ANTHEM COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF ASPIRE HEALTH MONTHS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

Anthem's purchase of Aspire Health is officially a done deal, and months ahead of schedule. The Indianapolis-based insurer announced the completion of its acquisition of the country's "largest non-hospice community-based palliative care provider," which serves 25 states and Washing...

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL PUTS FOCUS ON OPIOIDS, EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

The House Appropriation Committee's budget proposal boosts overall funding for the Department of Health and Human Services and avoids many of the deep cuts proposed by the White House. The draft funding bill allocates $89.2 billion in total to HHS for the fiscal year 2019, a $1 billion increase ...

H-SOURCE: THE COMPANY HELPING HOSPITALS REDUCE SUPPLY CHAIN WASTE

It’s not exactly shocking that the healthcare system accumulates waste. From wasted money to wasted time, the problem happens in health systems across the country. But wasted supplies are another issue — one that H-Source aims to solve. The publicly traded company was founded by presiden...

NEW YORK'S HEALTHIX HIE SENDING CAREGIVERS CLINICAL INFO ALERTS WITHOUT PATIENT CONSENT

New York’s Healthix, the nation’s largest public health information exchange, has launched an Essential Clinical Alerts program that enables providers and care managers to be alerted in real time about a patient’s journey across the care continuum — whether it be a visit to t...

CMS AGAIN DELAYS RELEASE OF HOSPITAL STAR RATINGS

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it would postpone the planned July update to its Hospital Compare Star Ratings. In a notice posted Tuesday, the agency said the update will "give time for additional analysis of the impact of changes to some of the measures on the star ...

CRISPR TECHNOLOGY RAISES POTENTIAL CANCER CONCERNS

Gene therapy has hit a potential speed bump with another cancer scare, according to a news report. Two letters published in the journal Nature, one by Novartis and one by researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, suggest that the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9 may be able to ...

COGNOA PARTNERS WITH SAP TO BETTER SUPPORT KIDS’ DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS

Health IT startup Cognos has joined forces with SAP, a software company, to address developmental growth in children. Through the partnership, SAP employees will be able to use Cognoa’s app to screen their children for developmental delays. Parents can screen for delays in language, speech, co...

HOW PENN MEDICINE LOOKS AT TELEHEALTH FROM THE PATIENT PERSPECTIVE

The benefits of telemedicine are no longer being debated. Clearly, convenience and efficiencies are associated with providing this level of service to the patient community.  This is particularly true for people that live in remote locations, need post-surgical treatment, require second opinion...

BERKSHIRE-AMAZON-JPMORGAN CHOOSE HEALTHCARE CEO, ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON

The much-anticipated healthcare venture between Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon and JPMorgan Chase has its inaugural CEO, but he or she has not yet been revealed. However, one top candidate has confirmed it's not him. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said June 7 that...

JONATHAN BUSH'S FAREWELL LETTER TO ATHENAHEALTH EMPLOYEES

After stepping down as CEO and board member this week, CEO Jonathan Bush sent an email to athenahealth employees. While Bush’s leaving might open the door for activist investor Elliott Management’s proposed acquisition, which includes a plan to take athenahealth private, thus far the EHR...

PHILIPS TO INCORPORATE DANA FARBER'S CLINICAL PATHWAYS TO BOLSTER DECISION SUPPORT FOR CANCER CARE

Royal Philips is poised to implement Clinical Pathways from the Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a leading center of cancer research and treatment. Dana-Farber Clinical Pathways will be deployed through Philips IntelliSpace Oncology, a cloud-based precision medicine platform that provides ...

FCC CHAIRMAN PAI CALLS FOR RAISING RURAL HEALTHCARE BUDGET TO $571 MILLION

In an effort to significantly boost funding for the Universal Service Fund’s Rural Health Care Program, and address shortfalls in telemedicine support, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday circulated a draft order to his colleagues urging immediate action. Pai seeks...

POLL: WHAT'S NEXT FOR ATHENAHEALTH?

Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush is leaving the company he founded following reports of sexual harassment, a video showing Bush making lewd comments at a 2017 healthcare industry event and domestic abuse in 2006 during a divorce, the company announced Wednesday. With its board considering “strat...

AETNA LEANS ON ANALYTICS, STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENTS TO CURB ANTIBIOTIC OVERPRESCRIBING

Nearly a year after launching an initiative with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Aetna has sent nearly 1,500 letters to antibiotic “super prescribers” across 43 states as part of an effort to reduce overprescribing. The insurer has also partnered with health departm...

CVS-AETNA FUTURE LEADERSHIP TAKES SHAPE: WHO'S IN AND WHO'S OUT

Executive leadership for the eventual CVS-Aetna entity is starting to take shape, and not everyone is sticking around. Ahead of its planned acquisition of Aetna, CVS announced its future management team, which includes executives from both companies. Aetna will operate as a standalone business once ...

NYU LANGONE PREPARES TO OPEN NEW HIGH-RISE HOSPITAL COMPLETE WITH SUPERSTORM FLOOD PROTECTION

When Hurricane Sandy caused destructive flooding along the East Coast in 2012, the New York University Langone Medical Center campus sustained significant damage. Power was cut, health providers were forced to evacuate more than 300 patients, and officials had to not only renovate and weatherproof e...

IMPRIVATA LAUNCHES NEW MOBILE DEVICE AUTHENTICATION WITH EYE TOWARD HOSPITAL WORKFLOWS

Imprivata's new Mobile Device Access is touted by the company as an authentication tool that can help hospitals offer secure access to clinical mobile devices and applications while letting clinicians maintain their fast-paced workflow. As was made clear in the most recent HIMSS cybersecurity re...

EARLYSENSE ACQUIRES PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS TO HELP HOSPITALS ASSESS CARDIAC RISK

Cardiac predictive analytics developed by Dana Edelson, MD, an expert in cardiac resuscitation at the University of Chicago, will be integrated into EarlySense's continuous monitoring tool after the company acquired the technology. Edelson is the executive medical director for inpatient quality ...

VCU HEALTH BUILDS TOOL TO STREAMLINE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INPATIENT UNITS AND ITS PHARMACY AT DISCHARGE

At Virginia Commonwealth University, pharmacists had a problem. Even though they are a key part of the discharge process, they had limited information on which patients were closest to being sent home. Clinicians often submitted requests simply marked ASAP, interrupting the pharmacists several times...

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THE ROLE NURSES CAN PLAY IN BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN BEHAVIORAL, PHYSICAL HEALTHCARE

Nurses can bridge the gap between behavioral healthcare and physical healthcare for providers looking to better integrate the two. A nurse is typically the first person a patient interacts with, and he or she can set the tone for the entire visit. This is especially crucial in treating patients with...

SECURITY IS MORE THAN AN IT PROBLEM AND C-SUITE CAN'T TECHNOLOGIZE THEIR WAY OUT

When it comes to security, there are more than enough tools on the market that tout the ability to shore up the ever-increasing number of threats. That’s all well and good, but simply relying on those isn’t nearly enough. “There is kind of a misconception among C-suite leaders that...

UNITEDHEALTH EXPECTS 150M MEMBERS TO BE IN VALUE-BASED PROGRAMS BY 2025

UnitedHealth expects at least 150 million members will be in value-based coordinated care programs by 2025, the company's CEO said on Thursday. Shepherding providers into value-based payments is one of the insurer’s three fundamental goals to help modernize the healthcare system, CEO David...

SALESFORCE INVESTS IN CLOUD-BASED HEALTH IT FIRM VIRSYS12

Salesforce.com on Thursday invested in Virsys12, a consulting partner focused on healthcare innovation nationwide. Tammy Hawes, CEO, and founder of Virsys12 said the company will use the infusion of capital to expand her Nashville, Tenn.-based technology consulting firm, which is mainly focused on t...

HOW AI COMMAND CENTERS ARE HELPING HOSPITALS HARNESS ANALYTICS TO MANAGE OPERATIONS

Tampa General Hospital has tapped GE Healthcare to help it build a new care coordination center that will put predictive analytics to work on an array of quality and experience improvement projects – for patients, families and staff alike – at the hospital. The center will be powered by ...

INTERMOUNTAIN, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ADVANCE PRECISION MEDICINE FOR CARDIOVASCULAR CARE, CANCER

Two new studies shine a light on the promise and accelerating speed of precision medicine and genomics capabilities to transform healthcare faster than many observers might imagine. Intermountain Healthcare and the University of Michigan separately conducted research projects that uncovered a geneti...

COLUMBUS REGIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM TAPS CERNER FOR EHR

hiteville, N.C.-based Columbus Regional Healthcare System announced it will deploy the cloud-based model of the Cerner Millennium EHR along with Cerner’s revenue cycle management technology and patient portal. The announcement about signing up the 154-bed CRHS follows a spate of new hospitals ...

ATHENAHEALTH CEO JONATHAN BUSH APOLOGIZES FOR 14-YEAR OLD INCIDENTS OF ALLEGED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

A report circulated over the weekend that athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush confessed to “numerous physical altercations” with ex-wife Sarah Seldon in 2006. Bush on Tuesday apologized in a statement shared with media outlets. But what’s not clear is why the report came to light now as...

HIMSS STAGE 7 BENEFITS: UNIFIED STAFF, QUALITY IMPROVEMENT, POSITIONING FOR HEALTH REFORM

Achieving Stage 7, the top stage, in the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model is quite a feat. It shows that a healthcare provider organization is playing at the top of its game in health IT. Children's Mercy Kansas City has achieved HIMSS Stage 7 on the ambulatory side, join...

UNITEDHEALTHCARE TAPS QUEST DIAGNOSTICS FOR VALUE-BASED LAB TESTING

UnitedHealthcare is diving further in value-based care with a new partnership with Quest Diagnostics. The companies announced a long-term strategic partnership this week that includes collaboration on "a variety of value-based programs" for lab testing. Health insurers have historically ca...

MERCK, FOUNDATION MEDICINE TO BUILD COMPANION DIAGNOSTICS FOR KEYTRUDA

Drugs that target genetic abnormalities in cancer patients regardless of what specific tumor they have is an emerging trend in oncology drug development. But one challenge is identifying those patients, whose genetic anomalies may be exceedingly rare. With that in mind, drugmaker Merck & Co. and...

EHR MARKET SHARE IN FLUX AS SMALL HOSPITALS SEEK PLATFORMS TO SUIT THEIR NEEDS

Of the 216 hospitals that contracted for a new electronic health record system in 2017, a hefty 80 percent of them were smaller acute care sites with 200 or fewer beds, a new KLAS study shows. Those hospitals are making their mark on the EHR market, looking for specialized technology that meets thei...

ANTHEM TO BUY ASPIRE HEALTH, CONTINUING INDUSTRY TREND

Indianapolis-based Anthem says it plans to buy a large palliative care provider, continuing a trend set by its competitors. The insurer announced on Wednesday it had entered into an agreement to acquire Aspire Health, the country's "largest nonhospice community-based palliative care provide...

INSIDE GEISINGER HEALTH SYSTEM’S PLAN TO OFFER DNA SEQUENCING TO PATIENTS

If you have a genetic mutation that increases your risk for a treatable medical condition, would you want to know? For many people, the answer is yes. But such information is not commonly part of routine primary care. For patients at Geisinger Health System, that could soon change. Starting in the n...

PE FIRM ACQUIRES AND MERGES SIR RICHARD BRANSON’S VIRGIN PULSE+REDBRICK HEALTH EMPLOYER WELLNESS COMPANIES

Convergence and consolidation, mergers and acquisitions, it’s all happening in healthcare. The week kicks off with a variation on these themes: a double acquisition-merger starring employer wellness companies Virgin Pulse, the employer wellness arm of Richard Branson’s company Virgin Gro...

HONOR RAISES $50M FOR CAREGIVER-ON-DEMAND SERVICE AS CMS ADDS FLEXIBILITY FOR COVERAGE OF HOME CARE SERVICES

Honor, a digital health startup that provides access to its pool of caregivers for home care support when customers use its app to book them for short and longer-term assignments, has a closed a $50 million Series C round to support its expansion in California and Texas and in its newest state, New ...

NEXT-GEN EHRS: EPIC, ALLSCRIPTS AND OTHERS REVEAL FUTURE OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

The electronic health record is the lynchpin of healthcare information technology. And it has been evolving at a consistently quick pace in recent years. Healthcare CIOs seeking to ensure they are making the best EHR investments today for the years ahead would do well to listen to experts in the fie...

VA SIGNS $10B DEAL WITH CERNER, BUT IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES STILL LOOM LARGE

After nearly a year of fits and starts, the Department of Veterans Affairs has finally signed a deal with Cerner to upgrade its EHR system. The 10-year, $10 billion deal signed on Thursday represents one of the largest federal IT contracts. The move from the system’s customized VistA platform ...

VA OFFICIALLY SIGNS WITH CERNER ON EHR MODERNIZATION PROJECT

Nearly a year after the initial announcement, Cerner can officially add another government contract to its belt: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will officially contract with the EHR-giant to overhaul its legacy VistA EHR. The pair made the announcement Thursday night, after a year of specul...

KAISER PERMANENTE TO INVEST $200M IN INITIATIVES TARGETING HOUSING INSECURITY

Kaiser Permanente is joining forces with the mayors of some of the country's largest cities to combat homelessness and housing insecurity. The health system will invest $200 million in initiatives to improve access to affordable housing through a partnership with Mayors and CEOs for U.S. Housing...

SUTTER HEALTH ASKS COURT TO DISMISS CALIFORNIA AG'S ANTITRUST LAWSUIT

Sutter Health is calling on a San Francisco court to throw out the state's suit against it alleging anticompetitive practices, saying the case could lead regulations that would significantly hurt the system's bottom line. In documents (PDF) filed Monday in San Francisco Superior Court, Sutte...

HOSPITAL LEADERS: FURTHER CUTS TO 340B WOULD BE 'DEVASTATING'

As legislators continued to debate the future of the 340B drug discount program on Wednesday, leaders at several major health systems in both urban and rural settings raised concerns over the serious risks they face if those savings sustain significant cuts. Already, those reductions have forced Wes...

SUTTER HEALTH BACK ONLINE AFTER 24 HOURS OF SYSTEMWIDE EHR OUTAGE

Sutter Health faced more than a day of downtime of its Epic EHR and an outage of internal communications this week after the activation of a fire suppression system in one of its data centers, officials said. All systems currently are back online. The outage began late Monday night and impacted all ...

ATHENAHEALTH TAKEOVER BID: ELLIOTT MANAGEMENT SAYS IT MIGHT OFFER SUBSTANTIALLY MORE THAN $6.5 BILLION

Activist investment firm Elliott Associates criticized the executives and board of directors at athenahealth for not responding to the firm’s $6.5 billion offer to acquire the company a week after it was sent. Athenahealth initially said it would review the offer. “Last week, we made pub...

CERNER HAS ALMOST DOUBLE EHR GLOBAL MARKET SHARE OF CLOSEST RIVAL EPIC, KALORAMA SAYS

Cerner leads the worldwide EHR market with Epic taking the second spot, Allscripts in third and GE Healthcare at fourth.  “In the competition for large healthcare systems, it's the top four EHR companies mainly participating with some exceptions,” Mary Anne Crandall, a senior an...

HEALTHCARE INVESTOR TRIVENTURES BACKS GENOMICS COMPANY GENOOX IN $6 MILLION FUNDING ROUND

Genoox, a genomic analytics company that aims to make it easier for clinicians and researchers to act on genetic sequencing results, today announced it has secured $6 million in a funding round. The round was led by Triventures, a venture capital fund that invests in healthcare startups, and was joi...

INTERMOUNTAIN LAB EXPANDS PRECISION MEDICINE WITH PHARMACOGENOMICS RXMATCH SERVICE

Intermountain Precision Genomics Core Laboratory announced today it is expanding RxMatch. The pharmacogenomics service – the study of how genes affect a patient’s response to medication – will be made available to all Intermountain Healthcare providers. The growth of the effort is ...

QVENTUS RAISES $30M FOR MACHINE LEARNING TOOLS TO HELP HOSPITALS REDUCE BOTTLENECKS

Qventus, a health IT business that harnesses a form of artificial intelligence to improve hospital workflows in a way that’s compared with air traffic control, has closed a $30 million Series B round, according to an emailed news release. The funding will be used to boost its customer base and...

VA FINALIZES TELEHEALTH RULE TO LET PROVIDERS PRACTICE ACROSS STATE LINES

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs finalized its federal rule to allow providers to deliver patient care across state lines and outside of a VA facility using telemedicine. Former VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, and President Donald Trump first began to push for telemedicine expansion in August...

UNITEDHEALTH'S HOUSECALLS PROGRAM HITS 5M VISITS WITH A FOCUS ON PREVENTATIVE CARE

In the end, it was a simple urine test that saved Paul Engwall’s life. The 72-year-old Lyndon, Illinois, the resident saw his primary care doctor regularly and considered himself healthy, so he was reluctant to take a house call offered by his Medicare Advantage insurer. But after a friend die...

AT HLTH, NOTABLE LAUNCHES WITH A VOICE-POWERED WEARABLE APP FOR PHYSICIANS

A new startup, Notable, officially launched earlier this week at HLTH in Las Vegas. The San Mateo, California company offers a wearable voice-powered assistant aimed at helping doctors capture data during interactions with patients. During an interview at HLTH, Notable CEO Pranay Kapadia explained t...

HOW NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUND SAFETY SUCCESS IN ITS PICU

Nationwide Children's Hospital's pediatric intensive care unit was finding success in improving patient safety. In particular, the PICU had found a way to better control adverse drug events. But hospital leaders wanted to understand the secret to success on that ward to see if they could rep...

SENATE PASSES BILL ALLOWING CMS TO CREATE INCENTIVES FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH EHRS

A bipartisan bill cleared the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, which gives the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services the authority to offer incentives for behavioral health providers who implement electronic health records. The legislation now heads to the House where it will be reconciled with similar ...

LYRA HEALTH RAISES $45M TO EXPAND ITS THERAPIST NETWORK

Lyra Health, a digital health startup that seeks to improve care coordination for mental health, has closed a $45 million Series B round three years after its launch, according to a company news release that coincided with the HLTH conference in Las Vegas. The funding will be used towards product de...

CHANGE HEALTHCARE JOINS WITH ADOBE AND MICROSOFT ON NEW PATIENT ENGAGEMENT TECH

Change Healthcare will work with Adobe and Microsoft on a new platform that will aggregate patient data for a more seamless and user-friendly patient experience. The three companies will leverage Change's Intelligent Healthcare Network, Adobe Experience Cloud, and Microsoft Azure to create a pla...

GEISINGER OFFICIALS EXPLAIN THE BUSINESS CASE FOR MAKING DNA SEQUENCING 'ROUTINE'

It wasn't that long ago that the cost of DNA sequencing was measured in the millions of dollars. Even a few years ago, when the cost fell closer to a few thousand dollars, it was largely used for research purposes or reactively as a tool for patients who'd already fallen ill. Now, Geisinger ...

HOW BANNER HEALTH TACKLED DOCTORS' SKEPTICISM OVER INCREASED USE OF ADVANCED PRACTITIONERS

When Banner Health wanted to rethink its approach to care delivery, leaders at the system decided to take advantage of the advanced practitioners in its ranks. There was one major hurdle, however: getting the system's doctors on board. Advanced practice clinicians, such as physician assistants o...

ELLIOTT MANAGEMENT PROPOSES $6.5 BILLION TAKEOVER OF ATHENAHEALTH

Activist investor Elliott Management is pressing athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush to sell the cloud-based EHR company he co-founded in 1997. Shares of athenahealth jumped more than 23 percent on the news. Bush, who is in the midst of retooling the company, said in a statement Monday that the board of ...

ALLSCRIPTS PAYS $60M FOR CARE COORDINATION STARTUP SUPPORTING MOBILE COMMUNICATION FOR CARE TEAMS, PATIENTS

Allscripts snapped up digital health business HealthGrid for $60 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The business seeks to give patients and their caregivers a window into each step of care coordination that’s designed to be more accessible than a tradit...

FACEBOOK STRESSES INTEREST IN BLOOD DONATIONS WITH NEW FEATURE

Facebook has made another move to emphasize its interest in healthcare. At its F8 developer conference earlier this week, the social media giant announced it is expanding its blood donations feature. Last fall, Facebook unveiled a tool that allowed people to sign up to be blood donors. It initially ...

TRINITY HEALTH CHOOSES EPIC FOR INTEGRATED EHR, REVENUE CYCLE MANAGEMENT

It's a big week for Epic implementations in the Upper Midwest. The world-class Mayo Clinic is ready to go live with its newly-minted system on May 5, after more than three years of work. And today comes news that sprawling Trinity Health, based in Livonia, Michigan, has selected Epic to build ou...

NOKIA ENDS A DIGITAL HEALTH MISADVENTURE WITH SALE OF BUSINESS BACK TO WITHINGS COFOUNDER

Two years after Nokia decided to acquire Withings for $192.3 million to grow a digital health business, it has sold the company back to Withings cofounder and chairman Éric Carreel. The move follows a strategic review in February and illustrates some of the pitfalls with growth by acquisition...

AMA SINKS $27M IN HEALTH2047 TO RAMP UP DEVELOPMENT OF NEW CLINICAL TOOLS

A Silicon Valley digital health incubator is getting another round of funding from the nation’s largest physician organization and beefing up its leadership team with former executives from Apple, IBM and Johnson & Johnson. The American Medical Association (AMA) announced a $27.2 million i...

AMAZON, APPLE ONLY PART OF 'SEISMIC CHANGE' COMING TO HEALTHCARE

Health executives know about Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM and Microsoft making moves into the healthcare industry but there are far more Fortune 50 companies that already have a foot in the space. Translation: Healthcare is even more ripe for disruption than it presently appears. And that means it&rsq...

CAPE FEAR VALLEY HEALTH MOVES TO EPIC AND CALLS IT A CHR, NOT EHR

Cape Fear Valley Health, a 916-bed regional health system based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, has chosen Epic for a new initiative to unite all of its hospitals and clinics onto a single platform. Its hospitals include Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Highsmith-Rainey Specialty Hospital, Hoke Hos...

PROMEDICA HEALTH SYSTEM TO BECOME $7B COMPANY WITH PLANNED HCR MANORCARE ACQUISITION

Ohio-based ProMedica Health System has announced plans to acquire HCR ManorCare, the second largest post-acute and long-term care provider in the U.S. The acquisition would take place through a joint venture with Welltower, a healthcare real estate and investment trust, ProMedica announced Friday. I...

ATHENAHEALTH BLOWS PAST Q1 EXPECTATIONS, LOOKS TO CARVE OUT APPEAL AMID VERTICAL MERGERS

Fresh off a strong quarter in which it saw a double-digit increase in revenue compared to last year, Athenahealth (NYSE: ATHN) has its eyes fixed on changes across the healthcare industry and the role it might play in vertical consolidation. Asked about how the company plans to navigate new, potenti...

TASK FORCE: PHYSICIAN BURNOUT COSTS HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY UP TO $17B ANNUALLY

Burnout isn't just a serious problem for providers. It's an expensive one for the health systems they work for, costing up to $1.7 billion a year in turnover among hospital-employed physicians. That's according to a paper released Wednesday from a newly formed task force of doctors aimed...

OCHSNER CHIEF CLINICAL TRANSFORMATION OFFICER PREDICTS FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE IN 3 WORDS

As chief clinical transformation officer at the pioneering Ochsner Health System near New Orleans, Richard Milani, MD, spends his time thinking about strategies and tools for care delivery improvement, both inside and outside the walls of the hospital. A cardiologist with deep expertise in medical i...

HUMANA LAUNCHES VALUE-BASED PAYMENT PROGRAM FOR HOSPITALS

The private insurance market is pushing forward with outcomes-based pricing programs amid calls for the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) to ramp up efforts to shift toward value-based care models. Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana announced Wednesday the launch of the Hospital Ince...

FAIRVIEW HEALTH SERVICES DIRECTLY TARGETS EMPLOYERS WITH NEW WELLNESS PROGRAM

Fairview Health Services is skipping the insurance middleman and going directly to employers with a new suite of workplace health and wellness programs. The Minneapolis-based health system has launched Fairview Employer Solutions, which includes several workplace options including onsite clinics, ex...

DOCTOR ON DEMAND ADDS GOLDMAN SACHS INVESTMENT PARTNERS IN $74M SERIES C ROUND

Telemedicine business Doctor on Demand has closed a $74 million Series C round, bringing the total it has raised to date to more than $160 million, according to a news release. The new funding comes at a time when reimbursement for telemedicine services is trending more favorably with public and pri...

EMORY HEALTHCARE LAUNCHES ACCOUNTABLE CARE PLAN WITH WALMART

One of the largest integrated networks in Georgia is partnering with retail giant Walmart to launch a new bundled payment model for employees at 55 locations throughout the Atlanta metro area. Under the new agreement, announced last week, employees at Walmart, Sam’s Club and Walmart Distributi...

LUMA HEALTH UTILIZES BOT-ENABLED MESSAGING TO IMPROVE PATIENT-PROVIDER COMMUNICATION

As a practicing physician, Dr. Tashfeen Ekram noticed a recurring problem: There’s a breakdown in the ability of patients and doctors to interact. This complication caused him to found Luma Health with Adnan Iqbal and Aditya Bansod in 2015. The San Francisco startup created a cloud-based messa...

MARYLAND NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE THERAPY FIRM RAISES $10.5M IN EQUITY FUNDING

Neurodegenerative disease therapies, population health and a company making drugs for dry eye were among health companies in the U.S. that are in the midst of or closed fundraising rounds in the last week. Curious about who is raising money? Here are some of the latest deals in healthcare: Germantow...

IBM WATSON HEALTH RANKS TOP 15 HOSPITALS

IBM Watson Health has revealed its 15 Top Health Systems based on overall organizational performance. Formerly known as the Truven Health Analytics 15 Top Health Systems, the rankings have been conducted annually since 2008 and reflect operational and clinical excellence, IBM Watson Health said. Top...

UNITEDHEALTHCARE ACCUSES TEXAS LABS OF $44M FRAUD SCHEME

UnitedHealthcare is suing the owners of two lab companies for a fraud scheme that the insurer calls “greed personified.” The lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal complaints against Sun Clinical Laboratory and Mission Toxicology, two Texas-based clinical laboratories that have been ...

ASCENSION BACKS OFF PLAN TO CUT SERVICES AT MILWAUKEE HOSPITAL

Public pressure has Ascension Wisconsin rethinking its decision to cut nonessential services at St. Joseph Hospital in northern Milwaukee. St. Louis-based Catholic health giant Ascension has been pursuing a new strategic direction in the face of financial losses and increased competition from nontra...

ABBOTT RELEASES FIRMWARE PATCH TO FIX CYBERSECURITY FLAWS IN 350,000 MEDICAL DEVICES

Abbott released its second and final round of planned cybersecurity updates to its pacemakers, programmers and remote monitoring systems to fix severe cybersecurity flaws in the devices. The patch will update the battery performance alert, allowing the device to monitor for abnormal battery behavior...

FDA MEDICAL DEVICE PLAN ZEROS IN ON CYBERSECURITY, PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

The Food and Drug Administration released its plan to improve medical device safety, which includes a reorganization of its medical device center and a Congressional plan to launch a public-private partnership focused on cybersecurity. The five-point plan released Tuesday outlines a plan to consolid...

HOW APPLE'S HEALTH RECORDS COULD RESHAPE PATIENT ENGAGEMENT

As a longtime collaborator with Apple – since before it even beta-tested its Health Records project, live now at 39 hospitals – San Francisco-based Dignity Health is in sync with the iPhone developer's vision, said Shez Partovi, MD. "We had been working with Apple prior to their...

FORD MOTOR CO. LAUNCHES NON-EMERGENCY MEDICAL TRANSPORT SERVICE

The business of non-emergency medical transportation continues has been heating up with Lyft’s and Uber’s expansion into healthcare. But Ford Motor Co’s move into this sector is a particularly interesting development. Ford is offering its GoRide transportation service as part of it...

FOLLOW THE MONEY: WHERE GARTNER, IDC AND HIMSS ANALYTICS SAY HOSPITALS WILL INVEST THE MOST IN 2018

IT spending is on the rise. Everyone working in healthcare leadership positions, information and technology, or even remotely paying attention to the sector already knows that. And for executives trying to balance a budget to stay competitive amid a tech talent shortage and ever-evolving regulatory ...

THE LINES THAT DEFINE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY SEGMENTS ARE BLURRING, BUT WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT?

Some of you may remember that old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin builds a “Transmogrifier.” Basically, it’s a magical cardboard box that, when you step into it, allows you to turn yourself into anything you want to be. Well, it seems that, after decades of ignoring each oth...

MUNISING MEMORIAL HOSPITAL TO IMPLEMENT CERNER EHR

Munising Memorial Hospital, an 11-bed, critical access hospital in Munising, Michigan, announced Monday that it plans to implement Cerner EHR and related cloud services. MMH joins the increasing number of smaller hospitals turning to cloud subscriptions from Allscripts, Cerner, athenahealth, eClinic...

TELEMEDICINE ROBOT ENABLES PHYSICIAN CONSULTATIONS IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS

Miramont Family Medicine, a group practice in Fort Collins, Colorado, has four offices with staff and patients in each location. For physicians, finding the time to be physically present where and when they are needed can be difficult. John Bender, MD, Miramont's CEO and a diplomat for the Ameri...

PENNSYLVANIA COURT SIDES WITH UNITEDHEALTHCARE IN BID PROTEST OVER MEDICAID CONTRACT

A Pennsylvania court has breathed new life into a dispute over which insurer will oversee the state’s $12 billion Medicaid program. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania overturned a decision by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services in which the agency denied a bid protest by UnitedHe...

HOSPITAL ROUNDUP—DENVER HOSPITAL SUSPENDS SURGERIES OVER INFECTION CONCERNS; MERCY HEADS TO THE CLOUD

Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver suspended all surgeries after discovering infections among “a number of patients” who underwent orthopedic or spine procedures between July 21, 2016 and April 5, 2018. An investigation by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment turned ...

SAMSAM RANSOMWARE HACKERS STILL TARGETING HEALTHCARE, HHS WARNS

The destructive ransomware strain SamSam is still pummeling the healthcare sector, and hackers using it have hit at least eight separate targets in the government and healthcare sectors this year, according to an alert from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS officials recommend re...

VA DRIVES FEDERAL HEALTH IT MARKET GROWTH TO $8.5 BILLION, FUELED BY ITS EHR

The federal health IT market is seeing strong growth and will peak at $8.5 billion in 2022, which is being fueled in part by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs EHR initiative, according to a new Deltak report. Health IT is pegged at $6.1 billion in 2018, pushed by both the VA and Department of ...

MEDICARE ADVISERS MULL ALTERING BONUS PAYMENTS FOR ACOS

A stronger payment incentive for certain coordinated care organizations could be the key to reducing healthcare costs, according to the primary group that advises Congress on Medicare policy. At a public meeting last week, members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) discussed possib...

3 PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH SYSTEMS JUST TEAMED UP IN GREATER PHILADELPHIA

The University of Pennsylvania Health System is teaming up with two Trinity Health hospitals to expand access to care and develop clinical programs in cancer care, cardiology and surgical services in Greater Philadelphia. Patients at Mercy and St. Mary are also expected to see improved access to ter...

KERN MEDICAL TAPS CERNER FOR EHR, POP HEALTH TOOLS

Kern Medical, a 222-bed acute care teaching hospital in Bakersfield, California, will roll out a Cerner Millennium EHR. The hospital also tapped Cerner for its HealtheIntent, a big data and insights platform for population health management. Kern Chief Medical Officer Glenn Goldis, MD said in a stat...

NEW JERSEY FINES VIRTUA MEDICAL $418,000 FOR HIPAA BREACH

The New Jersey Attorney General fined Virtua Medical Group for more than $418,000 after a misconfigured database breached the protected information of 1,654 patients in January 2016. 1,617 of those patients resided in the Garden State. The attorney general found that Virtua failed to conduct a thoro...

PATIENT ADVOCACY GROUPS TAKE IN MILLIONS FROM DRUGMAKERS. IS THERE A PAYBACK?

Pharmaceutical companies gave at least $116 million to patient advocacy groups in a single year, reveals new database logging 12,000 donations from large publicly traded drugmakers to such organizations. Even as these patient groups grow in number and political influence, their funding and their rel...

EFFECTIVE PRECISION MEDICINE DEMANDS A HOLISTIC APPROACH, PHYSICIAN EXPERT SAYS

As precision medicine gains traction in clinical settings, and understanding among the general public, it's still often thought of primarily in terms of genetics and genomics. But it's so much more than that, says Michael Dulin, MD. "Genomics is a key component, and something that's...

'MAD LIBS' FOR BLOCKCHAIN: FILL IN THE BLANKS NOW TO AVOID MISTAKES BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE

Blockchain’s big potential to fix a broken healthcare system, and all the hype surrounding it, often feel to me a lot like the word game Mad Libs. You get the picture. Many of you will even be able to fill in those blanks without giving it so much as a second thought. But we’ve been here...

EATING VEGGIES HELPS STRENGTHEN NECK ARTERIES IN THE ELDERLY

our mother pestered you to eat your vegetables when you were young, and that advice does not grow old when you do. A new study from scientists in Australia shows that elderly women eating more vegetables showed less carotid artery wall thickness, a characteristic of early atherosclerosis. The most b...

IF YOUR PRACTICE HAS A PROBLEM WITH PATIENT WAIT TIMES, DON'T WAIT TO ADDRESS IT, MGMA SAYS

As consumerism continues to reshape the healthcare landscape, healthcare practices should be looking inward to discover how they can better meet patient demands. Patient wait times are a frequent bone of contention between patients and their providers' practices, and a new Medical Group Manageme...

WELLTOK RAISES $75 MILLION TO EXPAND, DEVELOP NEW POPULATION HEALTH PRODUCTS

Welltok, the Denver-based software-as-a-service company that built the CafeWell Health Optimization Platform, has pulled in $75 million in a Series E2 funding round. The capital will support market growth, product development and product integration. "What continues to attract investors and cus...

HOW DOES WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY AFFECT RELATIONSHIPS?

The decision to undergo bariatric surgery is not one that patients take lightly. It’s important to look at all the health factors when deciding on this procedure, but new research shows that some aspects of patients’ lives, like relationships and other personal factors, should also be co...

HOW MAJOR DEPRESSION AFFECTS NEGATIVE MEMORIES

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a debilitating condition that goes well beyond the usual blues. It's the leading cause of disability in the United States for people aged 14 to 44. MDD affects more than 16.1 million American adults, or about 6.7%of the U.S. population in any given year. While ...

HUMANA, UNITEDHEALTHCARE LAUNCH BLOCKCHAIN PILOT FOCUSED ON PROVIDER DIRECTORIES

Several major health insurers have teamed up to launch a pilot project using blockchain technology to improve the accuracy of provider demographic data. Humana, UnitedHealthcare and Optum are overseeing the new pilot along with the national lab testing company Quest Diagnostics and MultiPlan, which ...

HEALTHCARE CAN TAKE A LESSON FROM THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY, DOCTORS SAY

Just as the airline industry creates a “manageable cockpit” to keep pilots from being overwhelmed, it’s time the healthcare industry takes steps to protect doctors and other clinicians. “For many clinicians, the work of healthcare has become undoable,” write Christine A...

THIS LONDON STARTUP’S APP ASSISTS ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY PATIENTS

London-based myrecovery is a digital health startup whose app seeks to help orthopedic surgery patients feel more informed about their pre- and post-op care and treatment plan. The company was cofounded by two surgeons: Axel Sylvan and Tom Harte. Though they are doctors, they have also experienced l...

WHICH DOCTOR SHOULD I SEE FOR DEMENTIA AND COGNITIVE DECLINE?

Repeating questions as though they’re being asked for the first time. Forgetting conversations. Misplacing items more frequently than usual. Difficulty finding just the right word or remembering a person’s name. Getting turned around or lost in a familiar place. Losing your train of thou...

INDIANA UNIVERSITY, REGENSTRIEF PUBLISH BLUEPRINT FOR IMPLEMENTING IT THAT ENABLES EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE

Clinicians at the Indiana University Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science at the Regentrify Institute and IU Center for Aging Research have developed and published an agile methodology that they say can reduce implementation time of technologies for evidence-based medicine from a ...

LYFT JOINS WITH ACUITY LINK, EXPANDS ACCESS TO SNFS AND NURSING HOMES

Less than a month after its announced partnership with Allscripts, enabling physicians to order up transportation for their patients directly from their electronic health record, Lyft announced that it is also partnering with Acuity Link, whose platform connects ambulatory and acute providers with n...

KAREN DESALVO TO LEAD SOCIETY OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE

With her deep expertise in patient care, education, policy, IT and public health, DeSalvo will lead the 3,000-physician SGIM in its mission: "to lead excellence, change, and innovation in clinical care, education, and research in general internal medicine to achieve health care delivery that is...

UBER HEALTH PRIORITIZES PATIENT DATA SECURITY, HIPAA COMPLIANCE

Ridesharing company Uber launched a platform in March 2018 that aimed to provide more transportation options to patients. Individuals can use Uber Health to get a ride to their provider, while being reassured that HIPAA compliance remains a top priority. Patient data security was never an afterthoug...

CANVAS MEDICAL REVEALS TECH PLATFORM GEARED TOWARD PRIMARY CARE PRACTICES

San Francisco-based Canvas Medical has launched its primary care software platform and made it publicly available. The startup’s technology is specifically focused on independent primary care practices. The goal is to make medical charting and administrative tasks less time-consuming for clini...

DO APPLE'S RECENT HOSPITAL DEALS SIGNAL INDUSTRY SHAKEUP AHEAD?

In a recent opinion piece published by the Harvard Business Review, David Blumenthal, MD, who served as the National Coordinator for Health IT from 2009 to April 2011, writes that Apple's recent pacts with big-name healthcare systems might indeed be poised to disrupt the healthcare industry. Blu...

THREAT INTELLIGENCE SHARING ESSENTIAL FOR HEALTHCARE CYBERSECURITY

The National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (NH-ISAC) constantly stresses the need for threat intelligence sharing in the healthcare sector, especially as cybersecurity threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Healthcare has been called upon to embark on a fairly rapid mobilization a...

GENETIC MUTATION PROVIDES PROTECTION FROM MALARIA

A supposedly rare genetic mutation that provides protection from malaria is actually present in one-third of people of African descent. A new study from the Scripps Research Institute shows how the mutation thwarts the invasion of the malaria parasite in a mouse model of disease. Malaria is a diseas...

TRICLOSAN HAS POTENT ANTI-PARASITIC EFFECTS

An anti-bacterial chemical used in toiletries, triclosan, has been found to interfere with two genes in the malaria parasite during essential parts of their life cycle in humans. The research, by scientists at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil, has shown that triclosan inhibits malaria ...

NEW OSTEOARTHRITIS GENES POINT TO THERAPEUTIC TARGETS

A massive study assessing thousands of people in the UK has revealed nine new genes that are related to osteoarthritis. The work may help create new therapeutics for the painful disorder, which damages the joints of millions of people all over the world. The only treatment for this degenerative dise...

THE 5:2 FASTING DIET BENEFITS THE HEART

A popular fasting diet called the 5:2 or “Fast Diet” may actually be better than traditional calorie-restricting diets for heart health. Scientists from the University of Surrey found recently that the 5:2 diet lowered levels of fat in the blood and reduced blood pressure. The 5:2 diet w...

THIS PATIENT HAD AN AIR POCKET IN THE BRAIN

If someone were to say, "He is such an air head" or "He's lost his mind" that would be considered a pretty rude insult. In the case of one recent patient in Northern Ireland however, it was, at least in part, accurate. A general practitioner there wrote a case report for the ...

BETTER BEER THROUGH GENETIC ENGINEERING

Hops are an essential part of brewing beer, but they need a lot of water to grow; one pint of beer requires around 50 pints of water just for raising the hops. Now, researchers have come up with an alternative - a genetically engineered yeast that can both ferment the beer and impart flavors customa...

IMPROVING CYBERSECURITY RESPONSE IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS