Tennessee healthcare organizations join Direct pilot; Safeway to roll out SoloHealth kiosks beginning in April;

News From Around the Web

> Five healthcare organizations in Chattanooga and Memphis will participate in the pilot program for Tennessee's Health eShare Direct Project. The providers--HealthSouth Chattanooga Rehabilitation Hospital; Erlanger Health System; Southeast Tennessee Area Agency on Aging and Disability; and Home Health Care of East Tennessee, Inc. and Hospice; and Health Choice LLC--will be able to share health information electronically using Direct technology. Announcement

> Safeway and SoloHealth this week signed an agreement in which the former committed to roll out the latter's health kiosks at 700 stores nationwide beginning next month. The kiosks will give customers access to free health screenings and personalized health assessments. Announcement

EMR News

> Electronic health records can be helpful tools for identifying phenotypes for genetic and other research, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. While EHRs contain many phenotypes, such as specific traits or the presence of disease, the primary use for such tools is patient care, not genetics research. Because of that, such information is recorded inconsistently in different formats. Article

Provider News

> With a quarter of small medical practices eyeing closure and even large hospital-owned practices losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, the need for physicians to improve their business acumen is stronger than ever. As more docs seek out advanced business degrees, emerging programs, such as the medical MBA offered by Kelley School of Business in Indianapolis, are taking the trend one step further by creating a curriculum specifically for physicians practicing in today's fast-evolving healthcare industry. Article

Health Insurance News

> Federal and state attorneys are moving to drop a lawsuit charging Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan of using its market position to gain an unfair advantage against its competitors. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Michigan attorney general asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss their antitrust lawsuit, which claimed Blue Cross illegally used most-favored nation clauses in its contracts with providers to ensure it received lower rates than other insurers. Article

And Finally… Looks like his Type A personality got the better of him. Article