News 12/13/11

AthletiCo Physical and Occupational Therapy (WI/IN) selects NextGen Ambulatory EHR/PM for its 50 physical and occupational therapy facilities.

HHS’ Office of Inspector General releases an advisory opinion regarding the exchange of EHR data for patient referrals. At issue: whether a vendor can facilitate a (presumably nominal) charge from a referring doctor to a specialist for a patient’s clinical record, without violating the anti-kickback statute. In reading the advisory opinion, it appears the vendor will not only facilitate the charge, but also keep a portion of the fee. OIG’s verdict: the proposed“coordination” service would not violate the anti-kickback statute. At the vendor’s request, the OIG does not name the vendor, although it sounds a lot like athenahealth to me (unverified.)

Danbury Radiological Associates (CT) selects ADVOCATE to provide billing services for its 20 physicians.

Quest’s Care360 EHR is named the top standalone e-prescribing platform by Black Book Rankings. Practice Fusion earned top scores for its EHR-based e-prescribing module.

e-MDs clients Drs. Mark Woodruff and William Weeks of Southwest Family Physicians are among the first providers in Nebraska to attest and receive Medicare payments for their meaningful EHR use.

The Chicago Health Information Technology REC says it’s on target to reach its enrollment goal of 1,486 primary care providers by the end of the year.

Altos Solutions will extend preferred access to its OncoEMR and OncoBilling platforms to members of the Innovatix non-acute care purchasing organization.

The California Health Information Partnership Services Organization (CalHIPSO) partners with CDW Healthcare to provide technology services and solutions to practices implementing EHRs.

DrFirst embeds technology from Atlas Medical into its Rcopia e-prescribing solutions, allowing Rcopia users to order tests and receive reports from any diagnostic testing facility on the Atlas iOn Interoperability Network.

Dermatology-specific EMR Encite, Inc. integrates NetHealth’s Quality Report System into its product to automate PQRS reporting.

An employee hired to purchase and maintain the IT systems at Wasatch Internal Medicine (UT) faces second-degree felony theft charges for stealing nearly $350,000 from the clinic. Over a 2-1/2 year period, the clinic paid Eric David Christensen almost $400,000 to purchase 51 PCs, warranties, and servers. Results of an audit uncovered that only three computers had been supplied to the office and none had warranties. When confronted, Christensen admitted he had been overcharging the clinic and had falsified records to cover up his actions.

A former physician with Fletcher Allen Health Care pleads guilty in US Court to unlawfully obtaining the private medical information of another person. Apparently Joshua Welch was having a sexual relationship with a woman who was not his patient and wanted to ascertain if she carried a sexually transmitted disease. He faces up to one year in prison and a $50,000 fine.

Overlake Imaging Associates (WA) selects Zotec Partners as its outsourced billing provider.

CMS posts the PQRS measures for 2012, including detailed specifications and release notes on the individual quality measures and measures groups. I found the release notes gave a pretty quick summary of what measures have changed and how.

On EHRtv, Medicomp CEO David Lareau talks Quippe with EHRtv’s Eric Fishman. He discusses the multiple way different EHR vendors are incorporating Quippe into their platforms.

Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot Program, with implementation support services the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, earns Level 3 NCQA recognition for 29 of its 31 primary care practices.

E-mail Inga.