Healthcare IT News For VARs — October 17, 2014
By Megan Williams, contributing writer
In this week’s news, a California hospital faces financial ruin because of an EMR system, and a study reveals that telemonitoring provides a 3-to-1 ROI.
Doctors’ Group Wants Changes To MU Program For EHRs
The American Medical Association has made recommendations to federal regulators on improving the Meaningful Use program, according to Bloomberg BNA. The letter, issued October 14, was directed to CMS and focused on the removal of the MU EHR program’s “all-or-nothing” approach to qualifying participants for incentives. The association believes that entities meeting 75 percent of the requirements should be eligible for receiving incentives.
Report Indicates Most Providers Have Little Faith In Infrastructure
A report from Meritalk (available here) revealed that 96 percent of providers believe their infrastructure is not prepared to leverage technologies like the cloud, Big Data, mobile, social, or to optimize their EMR, leaving only 4 percent saying they are already prepared to implement the technologies listed. IT leaders in the survey plan to address the preparedness issue by enhancing security systems, improving application performance, investing in cloud solutions, and modernizing backup and recovery solutions.
EHR Implementation Leaves California Hospital In Financial Trouble
Alameda Health in California invested $77 million in its new EHR, and is struggling to pay its bills. According to the Contra Costa Times, the system had hoped that the new electronic system would bring them out of an area of paper-fueled bureaucracy, but instead they are facing an ever-worsening financial crisis. The hospital has run out of money and has maxed out lines of credit with Alameda County. The issues are said to have come from an activation that “did not go as well as planned” according to Alameda Health System’s CIO, Dave Gravender. The system went live in July 2013.
Telemonitoring Provides 3-to-1 ROI
A Geisinger Health Plan Study has revealed that telemonitoring not only has the potential to create significant reductions in admissions across the board, but that it also can impact cost of care, with an estimated ROI of 3.3. The study covered 70 months and was conducted by tracking 541 elderly patients with heart failure. All patients were enrolled in the GHP Medicare Advantage plan. The program used Advanced Monitored Caregiving Bluetooth scales with an IVR system, and saved approximately $216 (11 percent) per patient per month. Read more here.
Healthcare IT Talking Points
This article on MobiHealthNews addresses the question of the impact that Apple’s HealthKit will possibly have on the future of EMRs. It speculates that HealthKit could be the missing link in bringing patient-generated data into the health ecosystem — something that the industry still struggles with. “I really believe this Apple HealthKit thing is a transformational opportunity,” one of the seed investors said during a panel discussion. “Credit to Microsoft and Google for trying with HealthVault and Google Health, but the time has come now, and all that patient-generated data has a safe place to live in HealthKit.”
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Healthcare IT Resource Center.