News From Around the Web
> Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health suffered a security breach after an employee of a third-party inappropriately accessed its electronic health record system without authorization. The breach, which affected 1,800 hospital patients, was discovered after a routine audit of the system, KWQC.com reported. Article
> Greenway Medical Technologies has joined Healtheway, the public-private partnership launched in June to support the eHealth Exchange, formerly known as the National Health Information Network, Health Data Management reported. Greenway is the first purely ambulatory EHR vendor to join the organization. Other members include Epic, Kaiser Permanente and the American Medical Association. Article
> Georgia's regional extension center, the Georgia Health Information Technology Extension Center, has hit a milestone, announcing that 92 percent of its providers have implemented a certified EHR. Fifty-three percent of them have attained Stage One of Meaningful Use, receiving $34 million in incentive payments. It is one of only six RECs that have hit the 53 percent mark; the national median for RECs is 45 percent. Announcement
Health Finance News
> The vast majority of healthcare executives plan to pursue mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by the end of the year, according to a recent survey from GE Capital Healthcare Financial Services. Eighty-eight percent of the 223 senior healthcare executives surveyed said M&A are on the horizon, while 43 percent reported they will pursue refinancing and 36 percent anticipated recapitalization as part of their growth strategies, the survey found. Article
> A loophole in the way pension plans are structured for some not-for-profit hospitals could allow the organizations to escape some or all of their pension obligations, the Washington Post reported. For example, St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic, N.J., was able to deliberately underfund its pension plan and not rely on government insurance to back it up, according to the Post. That's because St. Mary's pension system is under a federally recognized church plan, a change the hospital made in 2001. The pending purchase of the hospital by for-profit chain Prime Healthcare will not change that situation, leaving only about half of the pension obligations covered. Article
Mobile Healthcare News
> Mobile phone apps for the prevention and care of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are fraught with security concerns, according to a letter to the editor of the Journal of Medical Internet Research. HIV/STD prevention and care services via smartphone apps is "an area of rapid and immense growth" in which users are potentially vulnerable to confidentiality and security breaches when downloading these apps, argue the authors. Article
> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has awarded a three-year contract to support the implementation of text4baby, the nation's largest and only free mobile health service for expecting and new moms, in four still-to-be-determined states. According to the announcement, CMS is currently working with text4baby founding partners Voxiva and the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition to determine the target states for this pilot project. Article
And Finally... Clearly this would not be a good week for Hoosiers to start cleaning out the junk drawer. Article