Category Archives: Health Care

Data security, Health Care, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Medical, Protected health information, Webinar/Webcast/Presentation

How Tough are the Final HIPAA Privacy, Security Rules?

Online Tech is hosting an educational webinar on the new final HIPAA omnibus rule, No More Excuses: HHS Releases Tough Final HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules Thursday, January 31 at 2 P.M. ET. The webinar will discuss how the latest HIPAA modifications affect the healthcare industry and healthcare vendors.

Dickinson Wright’s Brian Balow will lead the No More Excuses webinar with April Sage, Director of Healthcare Vertical for Online Tech. On January 17, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services released its long-anticipated modifications to the Privacy, Security, Enforcement, and Breach Notification Rules under HIPAA/HITECH.

These modifications leave no doubt that covered entities, business associates, and their subcontractors must understand the application of these Rules to their operations, and must take steps to ensure compliance with these Rules in order to avoid liability. To find out more about the webinar and register via GoToMeeting, click here.

Electronic medical record, Health administration, Health Care, Medical, Medical Billing, Partnerships

iSALUS Healthcare, CIPROMS Partner to Launch Revenue Cycle Management

iSALUS Healthcare, a privately held electronic medical records and practice management service provider, and CIPROMS, Inc., an Indianapolis-based revenue cycle management firm, are partnering to offer medical billing and revenue cycle management services.  The agreement allows both organizations to co-promote their respective services.

“The healthcare industry is quickly becoming more automated with electronic medical records.  We felt it was time to provide a fully integrated service that could save physicians time, improve efficiency, and enhance patient care, while delivering increased financial performance.  It is critical for our organization to be aligned with a leading EMR and practice management solution provider, and we were fortunate to find that team right here in Indianapolis,” said Cheryl Louks , president and CEO of CIPROMS.

The management at both iSALUS and CIPROMS recognized that in today’s fast-paced medical environment, there is little time for providers to focus on all the necessary details to ensure a practice is reaching its financial potential.  As such, the partnership addresses the market need to deliver medical billing services within a web-based EMR.  This solution is designed to increase practice revenue, reduce costs, and minimize the administrative aggravations associated with the ever-changing rules and regulations.

“Being a 100% mobile practice poses challenges for a traditional EMR company and managing all the paper charting became very burdensome and time consuming for me as a physician.  I wanted to transition to an EMR for process improvement and efficiencies and knew an all-inclusive solution was ideal.  I chose OfficeEMR™ RCM for its simplicity, mobile application, and the ability to provide medical billing services within an integrated cloud-based service,” said Dr. Irene Roge , D.P.M.  “It is great to have one affordable solution that services both the clinical and financial aspects of my practice.”

“Our partnership with CIPROMS is a noteworthy milestone for iSALUS.  Physician practices are increasingly forced to navigate the choppy waters of changing regulations while trying to manage constant margin pressure.  It was imperative that we offer our clients a ‘best in class’ solution to address such pressures.  We have a long-standing relationship with CIPROMS and I am pleased to be moving forward with this all-in-one service,” said Michael Hall , founder and CEO of iSALUS Healthcare.

Business Processes, Health Care, M&A Activity, TriZetto, Workflow

TriZetto Acquires Cloud-based Claims Workflow Automation Company

TriZetto Corporation today announced its acquisition of Franklin, Tenn.-based Healthcare Productivity Automation (HPA). HPA’s healthcare workflow automation solutions will be integrated with TriZetto’s business management services unit over the coming months. Terms of the transaction, which closed on Dec. 17, were not disclosed.

HPA solutions employ a highly advanced, cloud-based claims workflow tool, Health Mason®. The Health Mason solution automates certain manual processes in claims administration, which can greatly improve the efficiency and quality of the provider reimbursement process. The tool replicates human decision-making to review large volumes of claims, enter data and determine the best way to process claims. Processing can be up to 30 times faster than typical manual processes, with high reliability – more than 95 percent first-pass accuracy on a rolling 12-month average across HPA’s book of business.

“The acquisition of HPA underscores TriZetto’s continuing investment strategy to provide innovative, integrated technology and service solutions that simplify healthcare and improve both its efficiency and effectiveness for payers, providers and members,” said Harish Mysore, senior vice president of corporate development and strategic alliances at TriZetto. “This acquisition builds on our commitment to enhance payer-provider collaboration by increasing the quality, accuracy and efficiency of claims processing and payment.”

“We’re excited to join TriZetto because its large payer and provider client base allows us to make a bigger impact on healthcare,” said Sal Novin, HPA’s CEO. “In managing the claims administration function of dozens of health plans, TriZetto will leverage HPA’s technology to bend the cost curve of processing claims and increase administrative efficiencies for both healthcare payers and providers.”

Aviacode, Health Care, Medical, NextGen Healthcare, NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Partnerships, Quality Systems

NextGen Healthcare, Partners with Aviacode for Medical Coding

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc., announced today it has partnered with Aviacode, a provider of technology-enabled medical coding services, to provide integrated cloud-delivered medical coding services to NextGen Healthcare clients.

Under this agreement, NextGen Healthcare clients can leverage Aviacode’s ProCoder™, a web-based coding system, along with Aviacode’s experienced network of specialty-specific certified coders to help improve the accuracy and efficiency of medical coding – a critical component of the healthcare revenue cycle.

Through this partnership, providers can take advantage of special pricing on Aviacode’s turnkey medical coding services. The NextGen Healthcare and Aviacode platforms are seamlessly integrated with the billing system to ensure the highest degree of data integrity. This provides a more efficient option for medical coding services to help clients optimize revenue while minimizing compliance risk.

“In the healthcare industry, proper reimbursement for healthcare services is crucial to the financial stability of any business. However, fair and complete reimbursement is only realized when services are accurately coded,” noted David Jensen, founder and chief executive officer at Aviacode. “This partnership allows Aviacode to continue its growth with the leading practice management and electronic health record system in the industry.”

“Realizing appropriate payment for services is a challenge for healthcare providers across the board and becoming increasingly difficult. Our goal has been, and continues to be, helping our clients reduce costs while improving the quality of care. Coding can have a major impact on a provider’s ability to manage revenue, insurance denials and compliance risk,” said Monte Sandler, executive vice president for NextGen RCM Services. “Our partnership with Aviacode is just one more example of the solutions and services we offer that afford providers the opportunity to leave their revenue cycle worries to us — the experts — allowing them to focus on clinical competency and patient care.”


Cerner, Electronic health record, Health Care, Medical, Nuance, Nuance Communications, Partnerships, Voice

Cerner, Nuance Collaborate to Embed Cloud-Based Voice Techn in Mobile EHR Solutions

Cerner and Nuance Communications today announced that the companies have expanded their relationship to accelerate the adoption of simpler, faster and smarter healthcare solutions for clinicians worldwide. The expanded partnership reflects both companies’ commitment to providing innovative, proven solutions that keep patient care a top priority by leveraging voice and mobile technologies to optimize clinician workflow and maximize the benefits of electronic health records (EHRs).

Under a new worldwide agreement, Cerner will embed Nuance’s cloud-based medical voice recognition into its full portfolio of mobile EHR solutions – including PowerChart Touch™ that was announced at the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in February. This integration will create a new class of mobile healthcare solutions on phones and tablets that enable clinicians to capture more complete patient notes, navigate applications and search for information while on-the-go – simply by using their voice.

In addition, Cerner and Nuance announced the availability and integration of Nuance’s radiology reporting suite, PowerScribe 360, with Cerner’s RadNet® Radiology Information System (RIS). This solution is an example of both companies’ ongoing innovation and will allow radiologists to dictate, in real-time, reports that are integrated directly and instantly with the patient record.

“The expansion of our partnership with Nuance, a company that offers voice and clinical understanding solutions used by 450,000 clinicians worldwide, exemplifies our commitment to provide state-of-the-art solutions to customers across the globe,” said Don Bisbee, senior vice president of DeviceWorks at Cerner. “By incorporating Nuance’s voice recognition capabilities into our core clinical applications including our latest mobile solution, PowerChart Touch, we are able to provide the healthcare industry with a simple, fast method of capturing complex medical information within the patient record at the point-of-care.”

PowerChart Touch is a mobile, cloud-based solution that is part of the Millennium+ portfolio. PowerChart Touch offers role and venue-based mobile workflows which allow physicians to perform their job duties straight from a mobile device. PowerChart Touch will provide a true native application experience across an array of platforms. Nuance’s 360 | SpeechAnywhere medical voice recognition solution, the technology that is embedded within PowerChart Touch, is also cloud-based. Together, Cerner and Nuance solutions will help simplify the large scale deployment of these integrated technologies, while also reducing the overall cost of ownership for customers.

“For more than 30 years, Cerner has proven its ability to create digital technologies that solve problems and positively impact patient care. Its most recent mobile innovations are a prime example of how these solutions are transforming the EHR experience today, and a key reason why now is the right time to expand our partnership. Cerner’s solutions are enabling clinicians to experience a fully functional EHR – anytime and anywhere – and voice is playing an important role in making this a reality,” said Janet Dillione, executive vice president and general manager of Nuance Healthcare. “We are excited to expand our partnership and confident that intuitive, voice-enabled technologies with deep Cerner integration will spur further industry innovation, improve the clinician experience and help focus efforts on the core mission – providing quality patient care.”


Athenahealth, EHR, Electronic health record, Health administration, Health Care, M&A Activity, Medical

athenahealth Acquires Healthcare Data Services

athenahealth, Inc., a  provider of cloud-based practice management, electronic health record (EHR), and care coordination services, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Healthcare Data Services LLC (HDS), a web-based solutions provider and expert in health care data analysis and population health management for payers and providers. It is anticipated that the transaction will close in October 2012.

This acquisition is expected to expand athenahealth’s cloud-based services portfolio to include high-value, population-based cost and quality data analysis and reporting capabilities. By expanding its services in this way, athenahealth will be strengthening its ability to support health care organizations to navigate the growing number of risk-based payment models, and align care coordination with patient population needs.

“Value-based payment models are fundamentally changing the way patient care is coordinated, delivered, and reimbursed,” said Jonathan Bush, CEO and chairman of athenahealth. “With HDS, we can help health care organizations to thrive in the face of change—to drive down costs through smart, high quality care coordination and to understand the totality of services being provided. This acquisition supports our existing efforts to create an information backbone that makes health care work as it should.”

New payment models offered by the U.S. government and commercial health plans aim to create a reimbursement system that links care reimbursement to the quality of care delivered and, ultimately, to reduce overall health care expenses for populations of patients. These risk-based contracts come in a variety of models, including pay-for-performance (P4P) incentives, bundled payments, shared savings, and global capitation; each requires improved insight into patient population data so that health care organizations can gauge and manage patient needs while simultaneously tracking and adjusting their own performance against risk-based reimbursement contracts.

The addition of HDS would bring many advantages and synergies that would expand athenahealth’s recognition as a single-source provider of best-in-class workflow and data insight solutions to support all payment models:

  • Proven Innovation Excellence – HDS has led the market for population
    health tools in Massachusetts, which in turn has led the country in
    transforming toward more of an accountable care health care
    marketplace. Together, the combined organization would be able to help
    a broader set of health care organizations to drive quality and
    improvement to the way care is coordinated and reimbursed.
  • Key and Differentiating Services – The proven services and value of
    HDS would be able to leverage athenahealth’s investment, sales force
    capacity, and complementary cloud-based services. HDS complements
    athenahealth’s commitment to support risk-based payment models, as
    well as athenahealth’s mission to be the best in the world at getting
    medical caregivers paid for doing the right thing.
  • Advancement to Health Information Open Exchange – With HDS,
    athenahealth could better support health care organizations in their
    access and use of data as a means to drive clinical and financial
    improvement. HDS complements athenahealth’s clinical-cycle,
    patient-cycle, and care coordination workflows, as well as
    athenahealth’s efforts to create a health care information backbone to
    make health care work as it should.
  • Accelerated Growth within the Large-to-Enterprise Market – HDS brings
    valuable relationships within the medium-to-large health systems
    market. Greater access to these organizations would accelerate
    athenahealth’s delivery of its cloud-based services and in turn
    contribute to growing revenue streams.

“By combining HDS with athenahealth, we expect to create a comprehensive, easy-to-access platform for health care organizations to take on and succeed in the face of payment reform and the shift to accountable care,” said Jonathan Porter, co-founder of HDS. “The massive changes going on in health care reimbursement create challenges, but more so create opportunities. Together with athenahealth, we would be able to bridge the gap between providers, payers, and patients by providing ready-to-use population health management capabilities as part of EHR workflows that support restructured payment models and ensure the delivery of appropriate and necessary care to patients.”


American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, EHR, Electronic health record, Health Care, Health care provider, Health information exchange, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Medical, Medical record

Zyantus OS Records System Helps Meet Federal Requirements

Zyantus has  launched Zyantus OS Records system, a cloud-based electronic health records (EHR) system. Zyantus OS Records provides electronic storage of patient records and their secure transmission among health care facilities, health information organizations and government agencies according to national standards.

Zyantus OS Records system has earned the federal government’s Complete EHR Certification, which officially deems the EHR software capable of enabling providers to qualify for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The certification, provided by the Drummond Group ONC-ATCB program, ensures EHRs meet the meaningful use criteria for eligible provider technology.

When fully implemented, EHR’s, such as Zyantus OS Records, should result in lower record keeping costs and improved care by facilitating shared access to consistent patient records among health care providers and facilities across the nation.

“We have been in this industry for twelve years and understand the importance of EHR in maximizing the efficiencies of a medical practice,” said Zyantus President Adam Schwindt. “We take pride in always being a step ahead and evolving our services in this ever-changing industry. Health care providers can now leverage Zyantus OS Records to not only make significant care improvements but also achieve meaningful use and qualify for incentive funds under ARRA.”

Since 2000, Zyantus has served the health care industry by specializing in management solutions for medical offices of all kinds. In that time, the company has built a reputation for easy-to-use programs, comprehensive services and rapid response to customer needs.

The Zyantus OS Records system was developed from the ground up by medical personnel who understand office management and the importance of maintaining office productivity while transitioning to new management systems. Zyantus OS Records was designed with Health Information Exchange (HIE) parameters in mind from the beginning, and will securely store and readily share health care information with new HIE systems as they are built.

Health care providers must prove their medical records systems achieve meaningful use in order to qualify for government reimbursement for their investment. The software features a simplified meaningful use section to aid medical offices seeking attestation in order to qualify for incentive payments. In addition, Zyantus OS Records already meets a number of proposed stage 2 meaningful use requirements.

As a cloud-based system, Zyantus OS Records provides a high level of security and is easily implemented across multiple sites, including Mac and PC platforms, smart phones and tablets. No additional hardware is needed to implement the system as it is hosted by the Amazon EC2 HIPAA-compliant cloud with unlimited storage capacity. There are no hidden or additional fees for support. Zyantus OS Records also features friendly, customer-service oriented personnel training and implementation and free e-Prescribe for patient medications.


CareCloud, EHR, Electronic health record, Health Care, Medical, Partnerships, Texas

Lone Star MSO, CareCloud Partner to Offer Cloud-Based Software and Services to Texas Physicians

CareCloud, a provider of web-based practice management, electronic healthcare record (EHR), revenue cycle management and medical billing software and services, today announced that it has partnered with Lone Star MSO, a practice management services organization in Texas, to offer CareCloud’s cloud-based software and services to medical practice clients. Lone Star MSO currently services hundreds of medical group clients throughout Texas and multiple other states and will look to further assist them in optimizing financial and clinical outcomes through CareCloud’s platform and services.

“We are extremely excited to partner with CareCloud and offer their cloud-based software and services to our clients across Texas and the nation during a time when medical groups of all sizes are requiring more flexible and cost effective ways to streamline their administrative operations and the patient care they deliver,” said Trey W. Schroeder, Managing Director of Lone Star MSO. “We have always looked to bring the industry’s leading web-based practice management technologies to our clients. It has become clear that CareCloud’s practice management and EHR offerings stand out from others in the industry and will be a tremendous help to administrators and caregivers as they navigate an increasingly complex healthcare regulatory environment while delivering the best care possible.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Lone Star MSO will be a value-added reseller of CareCloud’s full suite of cloud-based physician practice management products at pre-negotiated pricing to Lone Star MSO clients. CareCloud currently offers medical groups its Meaningful Use certified electronic health record solution, CareCloud Charts, which is fully integrated with the Company’s practice management offering, CareCloud Central. Additionally, Lone Star MSO customers will be able to leverage CareCloud Concierge, a complete revenue cycle management solution that utilizes dynamic rules intelligence software, expert live support and real time business analytics and reporting tools to help medical practices increase collections and streamline operations.

“Lone Star MSO continues to stand apart in its ability to bring innovative services and technology to physicians across Texas and the nation. By partnering with CareCloud, Lone Star MSO will help its clients grow their practices and deliver the best patient care possible,” said Albert Santalo, Chairman and CEO of CareCloud. “We are thrilled to team with Lone Star MSO and its management team as we look to expand the nationwide presence of our cloud-based platform to help physicians take advantage of new government incentive programs and navigate emerging payer reimbursement methodologies.”


Application programming interface, Collaboration, eMix, Health Care, Health informatics, Medical, Medical imaging, Open Image Exchange, Partnerships

eMix integrates PACSGEAR API to Enable Medical Image Sharing

PACSGEAR today announced an agreement with eMix, a cloud-based virtualized electronic medical information exchange, to participate in the Open Image Exchange, a cloud-based network designed to securely share medical images and information. PACSGEAR will incorporate the application programming interface (API) from eMix to upload images and reports for cloud-based sharing and storage.

“We are pleased to have eMix join the network,” said Eli Rapaich, PACSGEAR’s CEO. “The success of the Open Image Exchange continues to be based on incorporating open APIs, which improves access to medical images and other health information,” Rapaich said.

“Being part of the Open Image Exchange improves access between healthcare institutions, physicians, and patients,” said Florent Saint-Clair, eMix general manager. “Our anytime, anywhere approach to securely sending patient information with eMix has now been adopted by over 450 customers. Open Image Exchange broadens our ability to connect with even great numbers of customers.”


Florida, Government, Health Care, Health insurance, HIX, Medical, Partnerships, Xerox

Xerox to Build Health Insurance Marketplace for Florida Health Choices

Florida Health Choices, a corporation established by the state to improve access to health care, has selected Xerox to administer its Insurance Marketplace, a program designed to give small business and eligible individuals more flexibility in finding affordable health insurance and other services. The nine-year contract is valued at $68 million.

With partner CHOICE Administrators Exchange Solutions, Xerox will provide a cloud-based Web portal and online plan selection tool to give consumers and employers more information when making health insurance selections. The solution preserves the benefits of employer-sponsored insurance and eases the administrative burden for small businesses.

“We’re designing and supporting programs that increase access to health coverage for consumers,” said Will Saunders, group president, Government Healthcare Solutions, Xerox. “The solution we create in Florida will serve citizens and small business owners and help position the state as a leader in establishing a competitive and voluntary health insurance marketplace for small employers.”

Xerox will also provide eligibility determination and enrollment management services for the program, and operate a customer contact center to share information on marketplace offerings. These services will help Florida Health Choices handle the massive amounts of information involved with the marketplace quickly, efficiently and securely.

“We need a partner who can get a fully functional marketplace setup that is designed to serve Floridians now and into the future – delivering on both our short and long-term goals,” said Aaron Bean, chairman, board of directors, Florida Health Choices. “We’re confident Xerox will support us in establishing our marketplace quickly, while helping us to increase healthcare access to small business employees – one of our key priorities.”

Xerox has more than 40 years of experience working with government health agencies to enhance the efficiency of health programs and help ensure the health of citizens.