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EHRs boost quality, costs at community clinics

Electronic health records (EHRs) certainly do help improve the quality of care at community health centers, but do not necessarily provide any financial benefits, a new study says. Writing in the January/February issue of Health Affairs, University of California, San Francisco, researchers Robert H. Miller and Chris West find that quality improvements from performance reports and point-of-care clinical reminders can be substantial, but of the six centers that participated in the …

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Strange bedfellows get together on health reform

Two years after the odd couple of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich teamed up to tout electronic health records, more unusual groupings are forming in Washington. The Business Roundtable, representing major corporations, is getting together with organized labor--namely the Service Employees International Union--to launch "Divided We Fail," a campaign to push for broad-based-and unspecified-healthcare reform.

Tomorrow, America's …

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HHS seeks comments on model EHR anti-fraud standards

The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking public comments through Jan. 22--that's next Monday--on a draft set of standards to sniff out fraud in billing claims and reports produced by electronic health records. Among the recommendations presented by contractor RTI International, EHR users should keep a standardized audit to make it easy for government investigators to spot malfeasance. Needless to say, some privacy advocates are crying foul, but that's why there's a public comment period.

For details:
- see RTI's anti-fraud information page

ALSO NOTED: TennCare reopens coverage program; CDC hands out biosurveillance grants; and much more...

> Tennessee is reopening a TennCare program that gives healthcare coverage to indigent state residents with high medical bills. Report

> $11.5 million from the CDC is being granted to three organizations to enhance CDC's BioSense biosurveillance program and improve disease detection. Report

> With the help of technology …

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Press Release: Less Than 25% of Medical Privacy Complaints Merit HHS Investigation

Press Release: Less Than 25% of Medical Privacy Complaints Merit HHS Investigation

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Study: Seniors at risk for drug interaction

A study conducted by Medco Health Solutions, a prescription benefits manager, has found that adults over 65 are seven times more likely to be the victim of dangerous prescription drug interactions. It's not unusual for an elderly patient with chronic problems to visit several doctors and to be prescribed medications by each of them--roughly 25 percent of American seniors see five or more doctors. Unfortunately, doctors oftentimes aren't aware of the other physicians' activities. "Clearly, …

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Report examines market for device connectivity

Consultant and connectivity guru Tim Gee examines the future of connectivity in the medical device sector in a piece on healthcare IT for Medical Device Link. With both wireless applications and medical devices hot suddenly everybody wants to get into the act and traditional device makers are finding the field competitive. The real action may lie in the market for integrating wireless medical devices with electronic health records, an area where Emergin and legacy specialist …

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ALSO NOTED: Survey finds Americans unaware of EHR drive; The uninsured and the right to life; and much more...

> Aetna shares bop as the company reports a 41 percent increase in fourth-quarter profits. Article

> In a column for Reason, Ronald Bailey argues that a case in which a hospital turned off the life support system of an uninsured patient against her will should have gained far more national attention than it did. …

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Plans for EHR network in NYC

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans for a citywide electronic health records system (EHR) that would serve hospitals and clinics in the Big Apple. The network would provide records access to about 100 hospitals and clinics affiliated with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. Around 5 million patients pass through the system each year. The citywide records network, Bloomberg said, "will reduce preventable illness [and]... will save millions of dollars a year …

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Big techs join forces on pay-for-performance initiative

For a preview of the kind of world which many health policy wonks in Washington want, just take a look in the direction of Silicon Valley. Yesterday, Intel, Cisco and Oracle announced an initiative that will encourage local physicians to adopt electronic health records and other health IT systems. The Silicon Valley Pay-for-Performance Consortium will award $150,000 annually to practices that excel in using technologies like electronic health records, ePrescribing and secure messaging to …

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