Humana acquires health information exchange vendor Certify; VA aims to drastically increase telehealth efforts;

> Louisville-based health insurance company Humana this week announced that it had acquired San Jose, Calif.-based health information exchange vendor Certify Data Systems for an undisclosed amount. According to Brian LeClaire, senior vice president and chief information and service officer for Humana, the move helps to boost the payer's coordinated care efforts. Announcement

> More than 85,000 medical records were sent through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Electronic Submission of Medical Documentation system from Sept. 15, 2011 to Sept. 15, 2012, the system's first operational year, CMS recently announced. As of September, 1,778 Medicare providers--including hospitals, physicians and medical equipment suppliers--use the system. Announcement

> The Department of Veterans Affairs aims to drastically increase the number of veterans to which it connects via telehealth consults by the end of 2013 to roughly 825,000 veterans, Government Health IT recently reported. Speaking at the recent Center for Connected Health Symposium in Boston, Adam Darkins, the department's chief consultant for telehealth services, said that in the past year alone, the VA's program recorded 1.3 million consultations for about 460,000 veterans. Article

And Finally… Sounds about right. Article