Today’s Business News
Focused on better health and greater value through information technology, the HIMSS Foundation and the National eHealth Collaborative announced their merger. Both organizations embrace a similar mission to engage with all stakeholders to drive positive change in healthcare with IT and provide a single, mission-driven voice and focus; NeHC will fold into the HIMSS Foundation. NeHC’s Board of Directors approved the merger in late November, and NeHC members approved the merger in mid-December. NeHC’s CEO, Kate Berry, will play a leadership role to assist in ensuring a smooth transition of NeHC into HIMSS over the next few months.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has released a package of materials—including a brief,videos, case studies, and more—demonstrating how health care clinicians are using publicly reported performance measurement data to improve patient care. The package highlights how physician practices across the country are using performance data to compare how they stack up to their peers, motivating them to improve. Regional health improvement collaboratives are also using data to identify top performers and enable providers to share best practices. The materials also include a resource guide and interview with a local health care provider that demonstrates how performance data can drive quality improvement. The resources are part of the Aligning Forces for Quality “Quality Field Notes” series highlighting lessons learned by regional alliances of clinicians, patients, and payers to transform their local health care and provide models for national reform. To learn more about the Quality Field Notes series, visit rwjf.org/goto/putdata2work.
CynergisTek™, a leading provider of IT security solutions for healthcare organizations, announced it has partnered with SecureLink, a company specializing in the management of remote support from technology vendors, to offer a more robust portfolio of vendor management solutions for healthcare provider organizations. CynergisTek will now offer SecureLink’s product, SecureLink Enterprise, to help its clients manage and limit Business Associate (BA) access to internal systems and ensure compliance with the HIPAA Omnibus Rule. Enforcement of the HIPAA Omnibus Rule began on September 23, 2013, focusing more attention on BA responsibilities under HIPAA and leaving Covered Entities (CEs) with a desire to have a better appreciation for their BA’s ability to meet their obligations. Given this new regulatory landscape, provider organizations are increasingly seeking outsourced support and turnkey solutions for limiting and documenting a BA’s access to systems in an effort to mitigate risk. With SecureLink Enterprise, CynergisTek customers will now be able to manage their vendors by exercising greater control over who is accessing their system and identify and address suspicious behavior to eliminate unnecessary entry.
Merge Healthcare has announced a strategic partnership with athenahealth where athenahealth will integrate Merge’s iConnect Network with its national cloud-based platform, enabling athenahealth clients to receive and view exam results, diagnostic quality images and other critical patient information within the athenaClinicals® EHR workflow. The partnership will support advanced interoperability between radiologists and providers by decreasing duplicate tests and radiation exposure, improving patient outcomes and increasing physician satisfaction while reducing the cost of care.
Sevocity, a division of Conceptual MindWorks, Inc. (CMI), has announced the release of PDX™(Provider Patient Data Exchange) for Sevocity Electronic Health Records (EHR) customers.With this new tool, Sevocity customers will be able to share medical information with their patients’ other providers. This secure provider-to-provider communication tool is required for Stage 2 Meaningful Use but is also available to all Sevocity EHR customers. PDX™ will allow Sevocity customers to import and export patient information with other providers using the national DIRECT system, regardless of the EHR system the other provider uses. PDX™ will be included for all current and new Sevocity customers at no additional cost.
SA Ignite announced it will offer complimentary Ambulatory Meaningful Use Payment Tracking Program to provider organizations through March 31, 2014. Participation in the program will on a first-come first-served basis for those who fill out the registration form. To be eligible to participate in this promotion, provider organizations must have at least 50 ambulatory Eligible Providers (EPs) who are pursuing calendar year 2013 MU incentives and have at least one-third of its providers registered in the Medicare incentive program. Beginning the week of January 20th, participants in this program will receive two reports every week that identify providers they have submitted attestations for, along with their program, payment year, payment status and payment amount. Learn more.