Healthcare IT News - April 2008 - (Page 8)

8 Healthcare it News MY TWO CENTS ■ April 2008 www.HealthcareITNews.com Physicians need dramatic push for IT adoption of allscripts and misys, announced last month, may signal the start of the long talked about consolidation in the still fragmented electronic health record systems market. If that’s the case, it could be good news for uptake of healthcare It by physicians – and also by community hospitals. Despite all the promise and hoopla connected with converting paper records to digital ones, the uptake among physician practices of 10 and fewer physicians is still paltry – a mere 15 percent, by many accounts. Some practices that say they have an automated system really have a combination of an electronic and paper-based system, William F. Jessee, mD, noted two years ago when he spoke to an audience at the american Health Information association. Jessee is president and ceo of the medical Group management association. one of the barriers to It adoption is cost – an estimated $33,000 per physicians to get started, some insiders estimate. that does not take into account the annual maintenance costs nor the fact that physicians continue to face 5 percent cuts in medicare reimbursements year after year. Jessee noted that vendors’ quoted prices typically run 20 percent higher than estimated. a hard-to-perceive roI – or return on investment – an almost certain change in workflow, and a still fragmented market add to physician resistance, he said. While cost remains the most significant barrier to uptake, the fact that there are still 100 or so physician eHr vendors on the market makes the choice somewhat overwhelming for most small practices. If you’re going to spend $33,000 per physician, you want to make sure you get the right software. the federal government has helped on the uptake front with the certification commission for Healthcare Information technology. the commission lists 24 certified ambulatory emrs for 2007 – products that have passed the panel’s criteria for certification. the commission describes a stringent and detailed set of standards aimed at helping physicians take the risk out of selecting an eHr system that is right for their he PendInG merGer T practice. there have also been other recent efforts. one is a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services demonstration project that will reward doctors to adopt electronBernie Monegain, Editor ic health records. HHS is recruiting 1,200 doctors from 12 communities across the United States to participate in a five-year pilot. michael Barr, mD, vice president of practice advocacy and improvement at the american college of Physicians, told Healthcare IT News editor richard Pizzi recently that the high cost of It adoption in the small practice space limits investments in technologies like electronic medical records. “We’d love to see a healthcare It bill that helps practices invest in It,” Barr said. “We’ve been advocating for various options, like low-cost loans and grant funds. Practices have to make the investment, but the biggest return goes to other parties, like the payers. the acP is supportive of healthcare It, but it’s not going to be taken up by a lot of physicians until there’s an appropriate amount of www.HealthcareITNews.com Published in partnership with While cost remains the most signiﬁcant barrier to uptake, the fact that there are still 100 or so physician EHR vendors on the market makes the choice somewhat overwhelming for most small practices. financial support.” We think Barr is exactly right. even with the anticipated streamlining of the market that the allscripts-misys merger portends, the market shakeout will occur over many years. the demo projects are important, too, but they are not enough. the government and private sector ought to get together and think of something big to spur It uptake. Without a dramatic push, it will continue at a snail’s pace. and without uptake by physician practices – large and small – where does that leave the majority of physician practices in a nationwide network? n More at healthcareitnews.com e connect: MoNeGaIN 0408 71 Pineland Drive, Suite 203 New Gloucester, ME 04260 T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Neil Rouda neil.rouda@medtechpublishing.com MedTech Publishing Company PUBLISHER EDITORIAL Jack Beaudoin, Editorial Director jack.beaudoin@medtechpublishing.com Patty Enrado, Contributing Editor patty.enrado@medtechpublishing.com Diana Manos, Senior Editor diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com Molly Merrill, Associate Editor molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com Bernie Monegain, Editor bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com Richard Pizzi, Associate Editor richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor eric.wicklund@medtechpublishing.com Nancy Vitucci, nvitucci@himss.org For advertising contacts, see page 85 or visit http://www.healthcareitnews.com/ page.cms?pageId=3 Karen Diekmann, Production Manager karen.diekmann@medtechpublishing.com Danielle Hartley, Director, Marketing danielle.hartley@medtechpublishing.com EDITOR, HIMSS INSIDER EDITORIAL STAFF ADVERTISING ● PRODUCTION MARKETING READER SERVICES T (978) 671-0449 or cs-hitn@e-circ.net F (978)671-0460 Online: www.myHITN.com Postal mail: PO Box 9369 Lowell, MA 01853 Nicole Carter nicole.carter@medtechpublishing.com SUBSCRIPTION FULFILLMENT MANAGER CIRCULATION MANAGER CUSTOMER SERVICE Peggy Tashjian cs-hitn@e-circ.net REPRINTS The YGS Group T (717) 399-1900, ext. 139 HITN@theygsgroup.com John Glaser, vice president, CIO, Partners HealthCare, Boston Denni McColm, CIO, Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Bolivar, Mo. Jane Olds, COO, Louisiana Health Network, New Orleans Wes Rishel, vice president, Gartner, Inc. William Spooner, senior vice president, CIO, Sharp Healthcare, San Diego Paul Tang, vice president, CMIO, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, California Steven Waldren, director, Center for Health IT, American Academy of Family Physicians EDITORIAL BOARD (whose name is kept secret) profits from secret access to americans’ health information and the patients don’t know their health information has been data mined or their genetic samples were used until they get paid. they still might not know even then why they got a check. “consent” for getting genetic test data is onLy obtained from the provider, not the patient, via “HIPaa and IrBs” - both of which totally bypass the patient. HIPaa allows unfettered use of PHI by covered entities - in total defiance of medical ethics and strong laws in every state which prohibit the use of PHI without consent. HIPaa was gutted by industry appointees to HHS in 2002 and the right of consent was eliminated. there is no consent from patients up front to have their records data-mined or their Dna samples taken by Perlegen. In fact - if you read this story carefully, patients may never know (even later on) that n emr Vendor PeeL see page 35 Peel on Perlegen Perlegen on Peel let you know of the substantial elements of misinformation and misinterpretation that were included in a note you’ve published on 3/21/08, titled “Patient privacy rights advocate attacks plans to mine medical records.” Perlegen shares with Dr. Peel, the author of the note, the highest regard for maintaining patient privacy. We are actively working to protect that privacy in the context of realizing the substantial clinical benefits we all might expect from the advent of more personalized medicine. making personalized medicine a reality relies on the discovery and validation of genetic markers to help predict how individual patients might respond to specific medical treatments. technology for genetic analysis is no longer the bottleneck, thanks to enormous advances in SnP genotyping and next-generation re-sequencing tools. rather, it is the lack of clinically appropriate, e are WrItInG to PeRLeGen see page 35 W CORRECTIONS Healthcare IT News is published by MedTech Publishing Company, LLC, which is solely responsible for its editorial content. Editors are expected to meet the highest professional standards for accuracy, objectivity, fairness and independence. Errors of fact are corrected as soon as the error is established and corrections are published in the medium in which the error appeared. Inquiries or disputes about the factual accuracy of the record should be directed to the editor. EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE Healthcare IT News is published in partnership with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). HIMSS members are eligible to receive Healthcare IT News and related publications – both in print and online – as a beneﬁt of membership. With the exception of the HIMSS Insider, which is produced by the staff of HIMSS and appears within the pages of Healthcare IT News every month, HIMSS and its leadership exercise no control over the editorial content of the newspaper and related publications. Neil Rouda VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne Neil Rouda PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENTS Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne 2005 JESSE NEAL AWARD WINNER http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8983 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/page.cms?pageId=3 http://www.myHITN.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - April 2008

Healthcare IT News - April 2008 Contents New Media Push Stepping Down BI Headaches Decision Grants Safety Alerts Summit 08 Growing an EHR Year 24

Healthcare IT News - April 2008

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