Healthcare IT News - March 2009 - (Page 3) www.HealthcareITNews.com industry news March 2009 ■ Healthcare IT News industry Healthcare IT News posts original news stories on its Web site daily. Here are recent top stories, as selected by Healthcare IT News editors. news Executive Health Resources, which provides advise for physicians. “Without having strong processes in place, hospitals may find themselves returning a significant amount of their revenues to CMS,” he warns. CMS awarded RAC contracts last October and plans to roll out the RAC program in phases through 2009 in four regions: ■ Region A, awarded to Diversified Collection Services, Inc. of Livermore, Calif., covers Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. ■ Region B, awarded to CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc. of Fairfax, Va., covers Michigan, Indiana and Minnesota. ■ Region C, awarded to Connolly Consulting Associates, Inc. of Wilton, Conn., covers South Carolina, Florida, Colorado, RaC see page 4 Government to resume Medicare audits Industry experts view IT as a help to preparing, but process more critical. By DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor WasHinGton – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced last month it would resume implementation of its Recovery Audit Contract (RAC) program. The program, which searches for improperly billed Medicare claims, was placed under a stop order in November, due to protests from potential contractors over the award process. The protest has now been resolved and the program will be under way in 2009, as scheduled. Information technology is a big help in getting through these audits, industry insiders say, but even more critical, they say, are Pediatric innovation consortium exPands The Institute for Pediatric Innovation (IPI), a nonprofit focused on transforming unmet needs for pediatric care into product opportunities for industry, has expanded its consortium of pediatric hospitals.The Children’s Hospital, Denver, and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, recently became members of the consortium, joining three founding members: University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. and Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo. Date: 2/17/09 healthcare organizations across the country are preparing for a new round of Medicare audits. the processes used. “Today’s hospitals need to be proactive in designing processes to ensure appropriate medical necessity certification and documentation, and processes to ensure coding accuracy,” Joseph Zebrowitz, MD, advises. Zebrowitz is executive vice president of cleveland clinic Partners with minuteclinic Cleveland Clinic, a pioneer in the use of healthcare information technology, has entered into a clinical collaboration with MinuteClinic, the largest provider of retail healthcare in the country. As part of the collaboration, Cleveland Clinic and MinuteClinic will fully integrate their electronic medical records systems to streamline communication around all aspects of a patient’s care. Under the agreement, Cleveland Clinic will share responsibilities at several locations inside select northeast Ohio sites. Date: 2/13/09 Poised for grand slam By DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor t’s not quite baseball season, but from the look of things in Washington, if healthcare IT were a game, the teams are warmed up and ready to play. Every soul interested in healthcare IT is in this game – industry, privacy stakeholders, federal and state lawmakers and, of course, President Obama. The federal pitcher is winding up, and the industry is up at bat. But what kind of game will it be? Congress will decide much of the game in the stimulus bill that promises $19 billion for healthcare IT. Up for grabs in that debate is privacy. In fact, privacy could be the umpire, calling w a shi ngton a foul on the first pitch, if Congress can’t resolve its differences over how to keep electronic health records secure. Still, if the game goes ahead as planned, experts contend the industry could face costly and difficult requirements for HIPAA compliance under the stimulus package. Business associates would have to comply with HIPAA as if they were a covered entity. The long and short of it is healthcare IT vendors would have to provide HIPAA coverage as if they were a hospital. Bad pitch? I wonder if some vendors will strike out. And good news for the game: the stimulus bill will take the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology MaNos see page 6 i medicare Pilots failed, new study concludes Medicare programs designed to boost the care of chronically ill patients while reducing hospital admissions and saving costs have largely failed, a new government-contracted study concludes. Many of the programs employ information technology and Web portals to track their patients. Only two of the 15 Medicare programs resulted in reduced hospital admissions, and none generated net savings, according to a study in the Feb. 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Date: 2/11/09 the tEPR (towards the Electronic Medical Record) conference and exhibition once attracted thousands. at its most recent conference in February, its 25th, about 800 attendees turned out. Founder weighs tePr’s future Conference may morph into one focused on mHealth Initiative. CoNfBy ERIC WICkluND, Managing Editor PalM sPRinGs, Ca – After 25 years, the fate of cerner revenues rise 18 Percent in 4th quarter The economy may be in crisis, but Cerner Corp. has a rosy outlook. The Kansas Citybased healthcare IT company posted a better-than-expected fourth quarter result on Feb. 10, with revenues up 18 percent. Executives credited the company’s broad global client base for its success. “The large size and geographic diversity of our client base and the deep strategic relationships with those clients contributed to our ability to deliver solid results in a difficult environment,” said Cerner founder and CEO Neal Patterson. Date: 2/11/09 More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: WeBBrIeFS 0309 ● the Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR+) show and conference may be in doubt, but its organizer says he knows where the future lies. C. Peter Waegemann, CEO of the Bostonbased Medical Records Institute, which organizes TEPR+, says the healthcare field will be dominated by applications for mobile devices and services, such as smart phones, cell phones and PDAs. Whether TEPR reinvents itself to focus on this field, chart a different path or fades into the sunset, he says, remains to be seen. “We’re still working that out,” he said one week after the Feb. 1-5 conference, held on its 25th anniversary in Palm Springs, Calif. The conference drew roughly 800 people, well below the thousands who had attended past events (the 2008 show in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., drew an estimated 2,000 people). Waegemann said he received good feedback from attendees on the quality of the conference, but the time has come to shift the focus away from electronic medical records. The future of TEPR+ may be intertwined with the mHealth Initiative, Inc., a non-profit advocacy group launched by MRO at the start of the conference. The organization, incorporated in Massachusetts and led by MRI Vice c. Peter President Claudia Tessier Waegemann and Waegemann, will focus on disseminating the latest information on health applications through mobile devices. “mHealth applications will save money, improve the quality of care and provide greater efficiency,” said Tessier, a former executive director of the Mobile Health Care Alliance (MoHCA). “The mHealth Initiative will show the healthcare industry how this is possible. Through mHI, we will create a roadmap for the new health ecosystem TEPR see page 6 Watch http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.