11/23/09
American Medical News
Digital divide emerges at hospitals serving poor patients
The research finds the digital divide is associated with differences in how well hospitals address racial and ethnic disparities in care and highlights the importance of helping hospitals go electronic.

11/22/09
San Diego Union-Tribune
Federal push to digitize health records
Once the networks are up and running, it should make hospitals, clinics and private practitioners’ offices run more efficiently — and cheaply. A 2005 report by the think tank Rand Corp. estimated that a properly designed network could save the health care system as much as $77 billion per year by providing doctors with the necessary tools to make decisions.

11/20/09
Boulder City Business Report
Health organizations e-link records
The Children’s Hospital, Exempla Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente Colorado are now linked via electronic medical records. By having the independent organizations linked, patients can visit any medical facility in the three networks and have doctors instantly access the patient’s records.

11/19/09
Insurance Networking News
P&C Carriers Face Uphill Battle with Medical Records
Still, medical records processing may be one of the more public—and inscrutable— challenges faced by both health insurers and P&C insurers, especially in light of the scramble to utilize electronic medical records under the Obama Administration’s push for stimulus funds to support improvements.

11/19/09
Jacksonville News
Jacksonville’s Availity, state roll out Medicaid medical record network
Beginning Thursday, no matter where most of Florida’s 2.6 million Medicaid recipients go for health care, their medical records will travel with them. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and a Jacksonville firm are launching a Web site that puts their records at doctors’ fingertips. The project is one giant step toward President Barack Obama’s goal of a nationwide health information network and costs the cash-strapped state no money to implement.

11/19/09
Earth Times
Medicare Extends Personal Health Record Pilot
November 19, 2009 — Medicare PHR Choice, a pilot program that provides beneficiaries with direct input of claims data into online personal health records (PHRs), will continue through December 2010 according to officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The pilot is available to people with Original Fee-for-Service Medicare who are primary residents of Utah and Arizona.

11/18/09
Federal Computer Week
Medical mapping tool ready for test drive
The National Library of Medicine wants health care organizations and vendors to test drive its new mapping tool that seeks to link a standard medical vocabulary to support applications for electronic health records, officials have announced.

11/18/09
PR Newswire
Registration in the Palm of Your Hand
When patients were admitted to the new El Camino Hospital in Mountain View for the first time on Monday, November 16, the registration process included something most people associate with sci-fi thrillers — a cutting edge biometric registration system that “reads” patients’ identities by scanning the unique vein structures in their palms… When someone else uses your medical identity, their medical records can be combined with yours, resulting in your physician having inaccurate information about you. This can lead to improper medical treatment. From allergies to pre-existing conditions, any misinformation contained in your medical record could be dangerous or life threatening.

11/17/09
AHIP
Continuance Health Solutions: Medicare Advantage and Part D plans prepare for additional CMS compliance reporting and external data validation requirements
The new rules require plans to gather, review and submit additional data from across their entire organization. Many of these requirements will need to be reported at the plan level thus increasing, exponentially, the number of reports to be gathered and submitted. In order to comply with increased monitoring and reporting, plans will benefit from utilizing formal workflow processes which are sustainable and easily transferable, and an ability to monitor every aspect of the reporting requirement workflow across all contracts and plans within the organization.

11/17/09
New York Times
A Genetics Company Fails, Its Research Too Complex
After the human genome sequence was achieved in 2003, Dr. Stefansson quickly realized that Iceland’s excellent medical records, combined with the genealogical information available on its close-knit population, provided a fine test bed for seeking the roots of genetically complex diseases like cancer, diabetes and schizophrenia.

11/16/09
BBC News 
London medical records go online
Millions of patient records are to go online in London after long delays to an NHS IT upgrade in the city.

11/14/09
CBS4  Florida
Fla. Medicaid May Put Some Medical Records Online
The state of Florida is beginning to take steps that when completed will make the medical histories of one million Medicaid patients available to doctors, clinics, and hospitals around the state. The program was outlined by the director of the state Center for Health Information and Policy analysis during a Miami conference on Medicaid.

11/14/09
Wisconsin State Journal
Epic hopes to keep thriving in a crowded records market
In the past several years, as adoption of electronic medical records has become part of the national agenda, Epic’s revenues have ballooned from $370 million in 2005 to about $500 million in 2007 to $600 million last year….Earlier this year, Dell came out with its own software for physicians affiliated with hospitals, as well as a joint product with Sam’s Club and eClinicalWorks aimed at small physician practices.

11/14/09
MedCity News
A crucial cure for health care: Six steps to curb raging inflation
Create electronic personal medical records. Patients’ medical records must be digitized and consolidated around the patient, not the physician or hospital.  These records should be delivered directly to physicians at the point of care to improve medical decision-making and eliminate redundant tests. This could produce savings of $500 billion over 10 years.

11/13/09
Washington Times-Herald
Destruction of Winona Memorial Hospital medical records
Former patients who want their records must request their medical records by 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 1, 2009, and must also pick them up from Iron Mountain in Indianapolis, Indiana, by 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 15, 2009. Copy and retrieval fees may apply.

11/12/09
Valley Central (TX)
Call 4 Action: Medical Records Locked Up
Delia from San Benito is not a happy patient at Valley Diagnostic Clinic in Harlingen.
The upset clinical patient says she only wants to be referred to as only Delia. You see the clinic closed down and her vital medical records have been locked away.

11/12/09
PRNewswire 
Verizon Business Identifies Top Technology Trends That Will Support Business Expansion as Economy Recovers
As companies around the globe position themselves for economic recovery, Verizon Business has identified 10 business technology trends that will help companies grow their business in 2010. ‘As economic conditions continue to improve, we are ready to help our client partners take advantage of pent-up growth opportunities,’ said Kerry Bailey, chief marketing officer for Verizon Business. ‘Whether it’s enabling digital medical records, supporting smart grid energy-conservation initiatives, helping retailers secure transactions, or creating new opportunities for global financial trading, our global solutions can provide a solid foundation for business innovation and success in the coming year.’

11/12/09
AMR Research
The AMR Research Healthcare Top 25 for 2009
The Bottom Line: Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s foremost healthcare companies, is No. 1 in the AMR Research Healthcare Top 25 for 2009, followed by Sisters of Mercy, a hospital system that is leading the way for supply chain transformation at the patient level.

11/11/09
Montgomery News
Voice recognition system saves time and money
As more physicians and medical facilities move toward electronic rather than paper medical records, systems to streamline that process are evolving as well. Speech recognition technology can now save time and money by cutting out the medical transcription middleman.

11/11/09
Health Blog
Shocker: Doctor Visits are Getting Longer
Another possible driver, they suggest, is an increased focus on having patients participate in making decisions about their care — it takes a longer to explain things to patients and seek their input than simply to tell them what to do.

11/11/09
Cleveland.com
Cleveland company developing Google-like service to quickly analyze electronic medical records
Explorys Inc., led by two veterans of the data-management industry, said Wednesday it has raised $1 million to develop its “Population Explorer” search engine. The service would allow quick analysis of massive databases of patient records.

11/11/09
Internetnews.com
Kerry backing bill to boost electronic medical records
“Electronic medical records and prescriptions are the common sense solution to restricting costs, reducing errors and reforming a broken system,” Kerry said in a statement. “Doctors don’t need convincing — they’ve seen the results.”

11/05/09
The Huffington Post Investigative Fund
http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2009/11/stimulus-fuels-gold-rush-electronic-health-systems
The government’s $45 billion plan to jump-start a national shift to electronic medical records has touched off a gold rush among scores of technology firms – even as many experts question whether the benefits of the products are being oversold. Federal officials won’t decide until early next year which types of systems to certify. But some of the world’s largest companies, including General Electric, Microsoft, Dell and German-based Siemens Corp., already are working hard to sign up doctors and hospitals.

11/05/09
WBNG.com
How to Organize Your Medical Records
The first step towards keeping accurate medical information is to capture the critical particulars for every member in your family. Basic information should include at a minimum the following: Family doctor name and contact numbers, insurance information including copy of insurance card, medications currently being taken on a regular basis as well as dosage, allergies to medications or anything else, blood type, any current or recent medical conditions (e.g. diabetes, asthma) , and pharmacy name and phone number.

11/04/09
Healthcare IT News
Closing VCE Keynote: Don’t underestimate EMR usability
If you think electronic medical record usability means user satisfaction, guess again. Or better yet, listen to the closing HIMSS Virtual Conference keynote this afternoon at 1:30pm CT. While meaningful use criteria dont address measures of usability, usability affects adoption rates, efficiency, training and support costs, said Jeffrey Belden, MD. In his session, Understanding the Landscape of EMR Usability: Implications for ARRA and Beyond, Belden defines usability and the 10 principles of usability.

11/04/09
TradingMarkets.com
Ingenix Survey Finds Physicians Have Limited Understanding of new Government Stimulus Incentives for EHRs
A recent survey found that cost is the top concern among physicians considering electronic health records (EHRs) for their practices. Also, survey respondents had limited understanding of the financial assistance for implementing an EHR system now available to physicians through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

11/03/09
Health Affairs
Evidence Of An Emerging Digital Divide Among Hospitals That Care For The Poor
Some hospitals that disproportionately care for poor patients are falling behind in adopting electronic health records (EHRs). Data from a national survey indicate early evidence of an emerging digital divide: U.S. hospitals that provide care to large numbers of poor patients also had minimal use of EHRs. These same hospitals lagged others in quality performance as well, but those with EHR systems seemed to have eliminated the quality gap. These findings suggest that adopting EHRs should be a major policy goal of health reform measures targeting hospitals that serve large populations of poor patients.

11/03/09
Yahoo! Canada
Medical Services Company Gets Booster Shot From Swine Flu Vaccine
First, San Francisco-based McKesson (NYSE:MCK - News), the largest health care services company in the U.S., has the contract to distribute swine flu vaccine. Add to that the government incentive for development of health care electronic records, and the company is in good shape to outrun some 2008 setbacks.

11/02/09
CPB News
Top Court Opens Access to Medical Records
On Monday the state’s top court opened up Georgians’ access to a deceased spouse’s medical records.

11/02/09
Health Care Law Blog
HIPAA Enforcement Meets HITECH: HIPAA Administrative Simplification: Enforcement Rule
On October 30, 2009, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued the HIPAA Administrative Simplification: Enforcement Interim Final Rule, 45 CFR Part 160 (74 Federal Register 56123, October 30, 2009). This new rule was developed and adopted by HHS to conform the enforcement regulations under HIPAA to the revisions made to HIPAA under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

11/02/09
Fort Worth Business Press
Electronic medical records critical to better health care
When Dr. Henry Plummer developed the concept of the “unit record” nearly 100 years ago, his idea was to place all of a patient’s records in a single file that traveled with the patient and could be stored in a central repository. His concept of medical care continuity quickly became the standard for medical record keeping worldwide.

11/02/09
Press & Guide
Electronic records put your medical information right at doctor’s fingertips
An electronic medical record is a computerized version of that file. Health systems are concerned about maintaining the confidentiality of all patient records and have instituted safeguards to ensure that only authorized personnel can access those files.

11/01/09
PCMagazine
The Web offers an answer to the conundrum of digitizing medical records
Everything about healthcare these days has become a hot-button issue, even down to digitizing medical records. This was one of Barack Obama’s top technology talking points on the campaign trail. But so far, progress on this front has been slow. According to a report co-authored by University of Virginia economics professor Amalia Miller, a big hindrance to getting medical records digitized is privacy protection, such as HIPAA and state regulations. So while doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies are dragging their feet, the Web has stepped up as a way for individuals to take matters into their own hands. Specifically, companies such as Google and Microsoft are creating ways to put your chart in the cloud.

10/30/09
The-Review.com
House Democrats unveil health care bill; vote may be next week
Cheered by President Barack Obama, House Democrats rolled out landmark legislation Thursday to extend health care to tens of millions who lack coverage, impose sweeping new restrictions on the insurance industry and create a government-run option to compete with private insurers.

10/30/09
Earthtimes.org
Fifteen Vendors Seek NCQA Software Certification(SM) for 2010
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced today that 15 vendors will seek certification for software related to the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) and Integrated Healthcare Association’s (IHA) California Pay for Performance (P4P) measurement sets. Such software programs collect relevant data from health plan databases and calculate rates for health care measures that assess the quality of service and care.