Healthcare IT News - August 2008 - (Page 3)

www.HealthcareITNews.com industry news August 2008 ■ Healthcare iT News industry By Diana Manos, Senior Editor news congress moves closer toward It bill Hit leaders urge industry to tackle fraud issue Healthcare fraud doesn’t even get a mention in the recently released government plan for creating a nationwide health information network. Donald W. Simborg, MD, headed a team that worked on the problem of fraud for the Office of the National Coordinator. It’s a problem that costs the healthcare system an estimated $60 billion a year at the lowest estimate, and perhaps as much as $200 billion a year, Simborg told an audience at the 3rd Annual Leadership Summit on The Road to Interoperability, held in Boston in July. Date: 7/25/08 WASHINGTON ge HealtHcare adds Vital signs to its portfolio A New Jersey-based developer of single patient-use products for several healthcare settings is being acquired by GE Healthcare for roughly $860 million. Vital Signs, Inc., a Totowa, N.J.-based provider of medical products for anesthesia, respiratory care, sleep therapy and emergency medicine, is being acquired for $74.50 per share in cash. The company will be folded into London-based GE Healthcare’s Clinical Systems business, expanding the healthcare giant’s offerings in monitoring, anesthesia and respiratory care. Date: 7/25/08 bill and will push it toward the full “your grocery store House for approval as soon as possible. – Congress has moved automatically knows “Investing in HIT today will help make one step closer to passing a healthcare what brand of chips our healthcare system more efficient IT bill. The Committee on Energy and you bought last year, tomorrow, thereby lowering costs and Commerce approved the PRO(TECH)T saving lives,” he said. Act of 2008 on July 23, a new bill introbut your cardiologist The bill builds on a discussion draft duced in June by Rep. John Dingell (Ddoesn’t automatically released in May and co-sponsored by Mich.), the committee’s chair. know what Reps. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), ranking memDingell said The PRO(TECH)T Act, prescriptions your family ber of the Committee on Energy and or the “Protecting Records, Optimizing Treatment, and Easing Communication doctor prescribed for you yesterday.” Commerce, and Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), ranking member of the Subcommittee through Healthcare Technology Act of – Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich) on Health. 2008,” H.R. 6357, would strengthen the Despite a handful of healthcare know what prescriptions your family doctor quality of healthcare, provide standards for exchange of healthcare information, prescribed for you yesterday.” Dingell said. IT bills introduced this year, no bill has reduce medical errors and costs, and further “That’s problematic for healthcare quality gained much traction. Privacy remains a contentious issue regarding healthcare IT and costs.” protect the privacy of health information. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., (D-N.J.), chair- legislation. “Your grocery store automatically knows In a hearing June 4, Deborah Peel, MD, what brand of chips you bought last year, man of the Subcommittee on Health, said but your cardiologist doesn’t automatically he hopes to see bipartisan support for the Bill see page 5 Some see personal networks Government as key to health data exchange turns up heat to provide the leadership for tHe news: Industry interoperability. – Personal health infor- ➔ insiders push PHIN for In discussing personal mation networks are likely to data exchange. health information networks prove better models for health wHat it Means: in an earlier session, Vince data exchange than regional ➔ Possible declining Kuraitis, a lawyer and principal health information organizations, confidence in RHIOs as of Better Health Technologies, or RHIOs, speakers at a recent way to build nationwide said companies would begin world conference on interopernetwork. to build applications for platability said. forms such as The personal health record platforms, such as those provided by Microsoft, Google Health, Microsoft’s Google and Dossia provide hope for the Health Vault and Dossia. “This will look more like a exchange of health information sooner than could be achieved by RHIOs, R. Tim telephone network,” Kuraitis McNamar, founder and chief executive offi- said. David Kibbe, MD, senior cer of e-certus inc., told healthcare executives at the 3rd Annual Leadership Summit adviser to the American R. tim McNamar on the Road to Interoperability held here Academy of Family Physicians, said, “We can’t expect government to build a netlast month. “There’s no viable model for RHIOs,” said work. Government didn’t build the Internet. McNamar. McNamar, a Republican former- Government didn’t build PCs.” The interoperable health data exchange ly part of the Reagan administration, criticized President George W. Bush for failing PHin see page 6 By Bernie Monegain, Editor bOSTON t leaVitt Visits alaska to cHeck on teleHealtH Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is visiting southern Alaska to see how telehealth is being used to improve access in rural parts of the state. To better understand the challenges of access to care, Leavitt is visiting Native villages and two regional tribal health consortiums. Leavitt will meet with tribal leaders to discuss the healthcare goals of the Alaska Native people and view demonstrations of how telemedicine and telehealth are employed to increase access and quality of care to Alaska Native communities. Date: 7/24/08 Houston-area wal-Marts to offer teleMedicine clinics Select Houston-area Wal-Marts will offer telemedicine clinics thanks to a partnership between Houston-based companies My Healthy Access, Inc. and NuPhysicia, LLC. The companies will operate under the trade name “Walk-in Telemedicine Health Care.” The program is one of the service lines of NuPhysicia, which operates telemedicine methods developed by the University of Texas Medical Branch. Glenn G. Hammack, NuPhysicia’s president, said the program replaces the care typically provided by nurse practitioners at retail clinics. Date: 7/21/08 More at HealthcareiTnews.com e Connect: WeBBrIeFS 0808 ● healthcare IT vendors since 2006 have been – The Certification Commission certified, representing nearly 50 percent of for Healthcare Information Technology saw the estimated vendors in the ambulatory “record participation” in this year’s volunteer EHR market. Fifty-five percent of the 47 ambulatory workgroup, last month in Chicago. CCHIT products certified during the 2007 Chairman Mark Leavitt, MD, said program year, which ended June this and a number of other factors 30, came from newly participatindicate a continued growing intering vendors, indicating that EHR est in the certification process. market competition from growing, Nearly 100 volunteer workgroup innovating companies continues, members gathered to begin developCCHIT officials said. Of the compament of expanded certifications for the commission’s 2009 certification Mark Leavitt, MD nies certified in the 2006 program, almost all chose to maintain their product program. More than half of the electronic health certification’s three-year term, with 24 perrecord products certified in 2007 were from cent bringing new products for an updated new vendors that had not sought CCHIT certification in 2007. “The record participation at this year’s certification previously. According to CCHIT data, 136 ambulatory products from 93 CCHiT see page 5 By Diana Manos, Senior Editor CHICAGO cchIt reports growing support an increasing media field day for health record security breaches. Last year alone, there were the notable medical record breaches of celebrities George Clooney and Britney Spears. Then, a major U.S. military hospital, Walter Reed, loses control over some of its electronic health data. And now, most recently, the biggest enforcement activity we’ve seen yet out of the Department of Health and Human Services for a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) violation. Seattle-based Providence Health & Services was socked last month with a voluntary settlement payment of $100,000 and continued monitoring. I’m told by a spokesman for Providence, the provider also has a number of private lawsuits pending. If I were a hospital executive or a chief information officer, right about now I’d be saying, “how in the heck can was H ington I keep this from happening at my organization?” According to one expert, the steps to take are fairly simple and not all that expensive. Russell Dietz, chief technology officer for Hifn, a security company based in Los Gatos, Calif., says preventing breaches isn’t rocket science. The Providence case shows that providers need to do more than just have a written security procedure in place. He offers three tips. Here HAS beeN on security Watch Manos see page 4 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9671

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

Healthcare IT News - August 2008 Contents Closer to IT Bill PHIN or RHIOs? Making Leaps After the Flood Tidal Change Denmark Bound Bridging the Divide Robot That Could Mobile Computing Data Everywhere

Healthcare IT News - August 2008

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