On Monday, population health management provider ZeOmega announced the acquisition of HealthUnity, a provider of interoperability solutions that enable providers, payers and public health organizations to streamline the secure exchange of patient data across disparate systems. HealthUnity offerings also include private and public HIE, master person index, referral management and patient consent to integrated delivery networks (IDNs), health systems, group practices and state collaboratives.
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Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Meaningful Use Stage 3 Proposed Rule: 5 Takeaways for Physicians
On March 20, 2015 the stars aligned to produce four simultaneous events that will never again coincide during the life of human civilization. The first three, the vernal equinox, a total solar eclipse and a new supermoon, were brought to us by the stars themselves, and the fourth one was thrown out there by the government. The regulations for Meaningful Use Stage 3 were finally published. Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) was presented to us back in 2009 as part of a stimulus
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HHS Releases Proposed Rules for Meaningful Use Stage 3
On Friday afternoon, the HHS, CMS and the Office of the ONC announced the release of the proposed Meaningful Use Stage 3 rules for the Medicare and Medicaid EHRs Incentive Programs and 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria to support the path to nationwide interoperability.
The proposed rules are one part of a larger effort across HHS to support better care and lower costs in the health care system by working in three core areas:
- to improve the way providers are paid;
-
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KLAS: 25% of Small Practices Feel Stuck With Their Current EMR
More than one-quarter of providers at small practices (1–10 physicians) feel stuck with or plan to leave their current EMR vendor, according to a recent KLAS study,"New Leaders in the Small-Practice Market: Ambulatory EMR Performance 2015 (1-10 Physicians)." Providers cited poor usability, missing functionality, and unreliable vendor support as their primary frustrations with their EMR solution.
For the report, KLAS spoke with more than 750 small practices (1-10 physicians) to understand
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CHIME Launches $1M National Patient ID Challenge
In an effort to find a universal solution for accurately matching patients with their healthcare information, The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) will launch a $1 million challenge early this summer on the HeroX platform, co-founded by XPRIZE CEO Dr. Peter Diamandis. The purpose of this challenge is to increase the success rate of patient ID matching from 80 to 100 percent.
Currently, there is no universal solution exists for matching healthcare
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Sen. Alexander: Gov’t Should Not Force Meaningful Use Adoption
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said the government should enable and encourage physicians and hospitals to adopt EHRs, rather than try to force meaningful use adoption by taking away Medicare payments.
“Transitioning to electronic health records requires a real transformation in how physicians practice medicine. They must implement pricey systems, learn how to use them, ensure their staff is trained, and pay annual licensing fees and for hardware and associated services. The
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Premera Blue Cross Hacker Attack Exposes 11M Customers
Health insurer Premera Blue Cross announced on Tuesday it was the victim of a cyberattack that may have collectively exposed more than 11M patients' information including name, date of birth, phone number, social security number, and home address were taken. Premera first detected that cyberattackers had executed a sophisticated attack to gain unauthorized access to their IT systems on Jan. 29; however, after further investigation discovered the attack may have initially occurred last
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Practice Fusion Releases Free EPCS to Ensure I-STOP Compliance for NY Providers
Practice Fusion, a cloud-based EHR for doctors and patients , today announced that it is now certified for the electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS). With this certification, Practice Fusion can help ensure that its New York State physicians are able to comply with the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act (I-STOP) requirement for EPCS. Easily accessible from a mobile tablet or device, providers’ can quickly and securely transmit controlled substance prescriptions,
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BJC HealthCare Chooses Epic for Integrated EHR
BJC HealthCare and the Washington University Faculty Practice Plan has selected Epic as its strategic partner for a single, integrated EHR for BJC's hospitals and employed physicians. The decision was made after an extensive and thorough twelve-month process that included surveys, demonstrations and site visits. The new EHR system will incorporate clinical documentation from all areas of patient care into a single database for greater ease of use, better accuracy and timeliness, and the
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Pitt, CMU, UPMC Form Alliance To Transform Big Data in Healthcare
Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC have joined forces to create the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance, a powerful collaboration to transform big data in healthcare and wellness. This one-of-a-kind alliance is a wide-reaching commitment to advance technology and create new data-heavy health care innovations over the coming years, resulting in spin-off companies and furthering economic development in the region.
Today's health care system generates massive amounts
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