Industry Watch

REPORT

LONDON, July 22 — Service providers should embrace cloud services and bundle them into their solutions, according to the latest report from Analysys Mason. The report, “Enterprise Cloud Services: Worldwide Forecast 2010–2015,” states that the global market for enterprise cloud-based services will grow from $12.1 billion in 2010 to $35.6 billion in 2015.

 

ACQUISITION

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions (Libertyville, Ill.) signed a deal to acquire its rival Eclipsys Corp (Boca Raton, Fla.) in a $1.3 billion all-share deal, to create a leader in electronic healthcare records. Eclipsys shareholders will receive 1.2 Allscripts shares for each share that they hold. The combined company’s client base will include over 180,000 doctors, 1,500 hospitals and nearly 10,000 nursing homes. The acquisition will enable Allscripts to better access $30 billion in federal funds for the adoption of electronic healthcare records. Eclipsys CEO Phil Pead will become chairman of the combined company. Misys Healthcare Systems (Raleigh, N.C.) will cut its 55 percent stake in Allscripts to approximately 10 percent and sell about 68 million Allscripts shares via placement and through buybacks by Allscripts to raise more than $1.3 billion. It will return money to its shareholders via a tender offer. Misys intends to focus on its banking software business.

 

PUBLICATIONS

If you’ve been wondering what the number one reason is for low adoption rates of electronic medical records (EMR) by physicians, or how to overcome EMR “go-live” myopia, or even how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) might transform EMR acceptance, “Beyond Implementation: A Prescription for Lasting EMR Adoption” has the answers. This new, 132-page soft-cover book by Dr. Heather Haugen and Dr. Jeffrey Woodside aims to get at the heart of the matter: Why is EMR adoption so costly, lengthy and frustrating?

Haugen and Woodside feel your pain.

The duo tackles everything from workplace dynamics (“How Leaders Create a ‘Tone at the Top’”) to the numbers game (“Performance Metrics and Adoption”), all with the long-term goal of reaching EMR sustainability in your enterprise.

Dr. Heather Haugen earned her doctorate in health information technology from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and is the corporate vice president of research for healthcare IT consulting firm The Breakaway Group. Dr. Jeffrey R. Woodside earned his medical degree from the University of Oregon Medical School and is the former executive vice president and chief medical officer for UT Medical Group. Combined, the two have more than 45 years of research, practice and corporate medical experience.

Published by Magnusson Skor, this $15.99 title is available at www.BeyondImplementation.org and www.Amazon.com.

 

STUDY

NEW YORK and ASPEN, Colo., July 14 (PRNewswire-FirstCall) — A report issued by Thomson Reuters – and shared in part at the Aspen Ideas Festival on July 10 – indicates that a combination of better coordinated public and private sector care; stronger patient awareness of health risks and wellness; and application of improved information systems to eliminate fraud and abuse could lead to a 50 percent reduction in wasteful spending in healthcare, saving $3.6 trillion over the next decade. The study, “A Path to Eliminating $3.6 Trillion in Wasteful Healthcare Spending,” is available at www.ThomsonReuters.com.

 

Concerns remain regarding aggressive Stage 1 objectives

ANN ARBOR, MI, July 20, 2010 – Changes included in the final rules governing the meaningful use objectives for Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs for electronic health records will improve the odds that more providers can qualify for government stimulus funding.

The final rules, released July 13, include desperately needed flexibility that will give eligible hospitals and healthcare professionals a better opportunity to qualify for incentive funding in the early years of the program, according to an early analysis by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.

CHIME, a 1,400-member professional organization based in Ann Arbor, Mich., is currently conducting a closer analysis of the final rule. It plans to produce a list of questions that need clarification for the final rule, and also produce guidance and support for its members and the industry at large.

While some portions of the 1,100 pages in final rules released last week still need clarification by the government, the early analysis of the final rule governing meaningful use indicates that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services responded to some of the most significant concerns of those who commented on the proposed rule, which was issued in January, said Pamela McNutt, senior vice president and CIO at Methodist Health System and chair of CHIME’s Policy Steering Committee.

In particular, CHIME was pleased the final rules give providers some flexibility in choosing how to qualify for stimulus funding. The final rules include 14 core objectives for hospitals and 15 for eligible professionals; in addition to achieving those, providers generally must meet five other objectives from a menu of 10 additional objectives.

CHIME believes the flexibility in choice in the final rule provides more opportunity for providers to qualify for funding in the first years of the program. CHIME had voiced concerns about the preliminary rule, which laid out an “all or nothing” approach that would have required providers to meet all meaningful use objectives to qualify for stimulus funding.

Additionally, many of the compliance threshold levels for meaningful use objectives in the proposed rule were relaxed in the final rule. That will make it easier for healthcare organizations to be rewarded for their early efforts to use electronic health records, which better reflects the early state of EHR adoption in this country, said David Muntz, CIO at Baylor Health Care System and chair of CHIME’s Advocacy Leadership Team.

While encouraged by the relaxation in objectives for this first stage of the EHR incentive program, CHIME still views the Stage 1 objectives contained in the final rule as an aggressive target for the majority of the nation’s hospitals.

Additionally, CHIME is predicting that many hospitals will have a difficult time qualifying for stimulus funding in subsequent stages of the incentive program, as meaningful use objectives increase in number and become harder to meet, and as other aspects of the stimulus program become more challenging.

CHIME also applauded the relaxation in requirements for reporting quality metrics. Reducing reporting requirements in the early years of the incentive program aligns industry responsibility with current capabilities of commercially available EHR systems and CMS’ own ability to receive quality data electronically.

CMS still needs to clarify some aspects of the final rule, including whether use of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) by a range of medical professionals will enable providers to meet the objective for CPOE usage.

CHIME also supports the inclusion of EHR usage in emergency departments as helping hospitals achieve meaningful use objectives. Because ED patients often become inpatients, the inclusion of ED records is consistent with the goal of improving quality across the continuum of care.

The final rule also puts limitations on states’ abilities to increase certification requirements for EHRs. That’s important for both vendors, which have to create the systems, and for providers that operate sites in more than one state.

CHIME continues to evaluate and seek clarification on all the implications of the regulation and will be issuing further analyses.

 

EHRs
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) issued a final rule on June 18, 2010 to establish a temporary certification program for electronic health record (EHR) technology. The temporary certification program establishes processes that organizations will need to follow in order to be authorized by the National Coordinator to test and certify EHR technology.

Meaningful use – a concept introduced only a year ago – appears to be spurring an increase in healthcare information-technology (IT) spending, along with a brightening economy, suggests results of the 21st annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) leadership survey. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) promises financial incentives to providers and hospitals for the "meaningful use" of certified healthcare IT products. Although criteria for meaningful use will not be established until later this year, 59 percent of the 398 respondents to this year’s survey said they plan to make additional investments to position themselves to qualify for the incentives.