News 12/15/11

The Orthopaedic Group, a 36-provider group in Mobile, AL, replaces its legacy EHR with SRS EHR.

Emdeon and HHS announce a program through which Emdeon will donate Emdeon Clinician EHR licenses to 100 New Jersey healthcare providers practices in medically underserved areas. License fees will be waived for one year from the date a qualified provider contracts with Emdeon. I found this demo of Clinician from this year’s HIMSS conference.

athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush speaks out in The Hill’s Congress Blog, calling for greater transparency and accountability in the Meaningful Use incentive program. Bush points out that the current program includes no verification process to prove physicians are actually using HIT in a meaningful way. He argues that the lack of verification could potentially lead to billions of wasted taxpayer dollars and “enormous disparities between what physicians and hospitals are able to do with the EHRs and their actual ability to improve care.”

The Maine REC (MEREC) reaches its enrollment target of 1,000 primary care providers. MEREC, by the way, does not charge for its services, and, the statewide HIE will not charge small practices a connection fee for the first year.

The New England Chapter of HIMSS names practicing physician Daniel J. Nigrin, MD (Children’s Hospital, Boston) Clinician of the Year. Nigrin is also CIO at Children’s and a faithful HIStalk/HIStalk Practice reader.

The White House announces that more than $2.9 billion in healthcare fraud has been recovered in 2011, which represents a 167% increase over 2008.

In article highlighting HIPAA privacy, The Boston Globe profiles Leon Rodriguez, director of the Office of Civil Rights. Also getting a mention: Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative CEO Micky Tripathi and his recent HIStalk Practice post, which details his organization’s handling of a patient security breach earlier this year.

E-mail Inga holiday greetings.