Profile of Ken Terry

News & Commentary Posts: 490
Ken Terry is a freelance healthcare writer, specializing in health IT. A former technology editor of Medical Economics Magazine, he is also the author of the book Rx For Healthcare Reform.

Public HIEs Failing, Poll Says

1/30/2014
Exchange leaders blame "flawed business model," offer strategies to help public information exchanges succeed going forward.
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CCHIT Exits EHR Certification Business

1/30/2014
Top government-endorsed certifying body Certification Commission for Health Information Technology is losing money; will transition to advisory role to healthcare vendors and providers.
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What Patients Will Share To Improve Care

1/28/2014
Surveys show chronically ill patients and the general population are both willing to share personal information to help improve quality of care.
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Feds Barking Up Wrong Tree On EHR Fraud?

1/27/2014
Most doctors copy and paste to save time, not overbill. But the practice can result in dangerous errors, says consultant.
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MDLive, Sutter Health Make Telemedicine Inroads

1/24/2014
Telehealth provider MDLive rides high on healthcare partnerships totaling $24 million in funding so far.
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Physician EHR Adoption Leaps 21% In 2013

1/22/2014
Healthcare providers and EHR vendors are making strides toward updating systems to qualify for Meaningful Use Stage 2.
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More Hospitals Buy Clinical Data Warehousing Apps

1/21/2014
Nearly half of all hospitals now have data repositories, says HIMSS Analytics. Buying plans for next five years include warehousing, patient portal, and radiology barcoding apps.
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MedAllies Goes National With Health Data Direct Messaging

1/16/2014
Direct secure messaging service lets healthcare providers exchange information about patients, regardless of what EHR software sends the message.
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Fired HealthCare.gov Contractor CGI Won't Starve

1/13/2014
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services replaces HealthCare.gov prime contractor CGI with Accenture. But CGI won't go hungry for Medicare contracts.
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Feds Must Prioritize EHR Billing Fraud, Watchdogs Say

1/13/2014
Medicare agency should provide better guidance to contractors on how to spot billing fraud, Inspector General says.
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Patient Portal Improves Medication Adherence: Study

1/10/2014
Diabetic patients who used a portal to request refills were more compliant with medications and had lower cholesterol levels, Kaiser research suggests.
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HHS To Strengthen Enforcement Of HIPAA Transaction Rules

1/7/2014
Health plans will have until the end of 2015 to get certified for compliance with HIPAA transaction operating rules.
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Digital Health Startups Charm VCs

1/6/2014
Digital healthcare funding reached nearly $2 billion in 2013, and more IPOs are expected this year.
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Health IT Growing Rapidly Through 2017

1/6/2014
Meaningful Use regulations among the factors that will drive 7.4% annual growth rate in North America, says new research report.
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Health IT Salaries Continue To Rise

1/3/2014
The average healthcare IT professional's salary reaches six figures, with generous raises and bonuses. Interesting data points about demand emerge.
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5 Trends For Health CIOs In 2014

12/23/2013
Patient portals, direct messaging, and medical identity theft will keep healthcare execs on their toes in the new year.
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9 Digital Health Trends For 2014

12/23/2013
Step back, EHRs. These healthcare IT innovations are poised to take center stage in 2014.
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DeSalvo Appointed National Coordinator For Health IT

12/19/2013
Dr. Karen DeSalvo receives high praise for her post-Katrina work in New Orleans and her extensive experience in health IT.
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Bill Seeks To Clean Telehealth State Regulations Mess

12/19/2013
Telehealth regulations differ in each of the 50 states, inhibiting use of technology to treat patients, say proposed law's sponsors.
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Wearable Tech Muscles Into Consumer Fitness Market

12/18/2013
Wearable fitness devices intrigue more people, says CEA study. Smartphones and wireless connectivity play a big supporting role.
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Will Automated Care Plans Keep Patients Healthier?

12/18/2013
Vanderbilt, West Corp., and West Health Institute collaborate on research to streamline and improve chronic illness care through technology.
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CommonWell Unveils EHR Interoperability Pilot

12/13/2013
CommonWell Health Alliance, a group of EHR vendors, enlists providers in Illinois, and in North and South Carolina to try its patient matching and information exchange system.
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IMS Offers M-Heath App Ratings

12/10/2013
Health tech firm offers prescription infrastructure for healthcare providers, along with consumer health app rankings.
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Feds Extend Deadline For Electronic Health Meaningful Use

12/9/2013
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services extend period for attesting to Meaningful Use stage 2 regulations through 2016. Meanwhile, hospitals worry about meeting stage 2 in 2014.
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Doctors Prefer Online Drug Info To Rep Visits

12/5/2013
Convenience is the main reason doctors choose digital channels sponsored by drug companies over in-person visits from pharmaceutical reps.
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Chicago HIE Will Be Among Nation's Largest

12/3/2013
Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council is preparing to launch one of the largest regional health information exchanges in the US.
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HealthCare.gov Shows Government IT Procurement Needs Reform

12/2/2013
Former ONC chief David Blumenthal says a disconnect between the contracting office and IT managers increases the risk that government tech projects like HealthCare.gov will fail.
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Do Patient Portals Improve Healthcare?

12/2/2013
Study results are mixed on how portals affect the quality and efficiency of patient care, suggesting more research is needed.
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Send ECGs Via Smartphone? AliveCor Says Yes

11/26/2013
Mobile heart monitor company teams with telemedicine firm to offer patients ECG analysis via smartphone.
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Hospitals Urged To Report Quality Electronically In 2014

11/26/2013
Online reporting is not yet mandatory, but Advisory Board consultants suggest hospitals get prepared.
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Inside New York State's Health Site Launch

11/21/2013
Where Healthcare.gov has failed, N.Y.'s marketplace has succeeded because of good planning, say a state official and the contractor CSC.
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Population Health Management Doesn't Measure Up

11/20/2013
Health IT research firm KLAS says PHM is a diverse, fast-growing market, but available products don't meet healthcare providers' needs.
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EHR Accreditation Could Spur Doctors' Direct Messaging

11/20/2013
DirectTrust is on track to accredit intermediaries used by nine EHR vendors that have the bulk of the EHR market.
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Cloud Services May Replace EHR Portals

11/15/2013
EHR integration with Box suggests a trend: cloud services for care coordination and one-stop patient record access.
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IEEE, Continua Collaborate For Device Interoperability

11/14/2013
IEEE Standards Association and Continua Health Alliance team to help home-monitoring devices and mobile health apps communicate more easily with healthcare providers.
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How To Get Obamacare Moving Now

11/11/2013
CMS should let insurance brokers use its eligibility hub to start enrolling people who have been frustrated by HealthCare.gov.
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Health IT Could Reduce Demand For Physicians

11/8/2013
Comprehensive use of IT in 30% of physician offices would have major impact, but that is not expected to occur for 5 to 15 years, says study.
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Michigan Health Networks Joins eHealth Exchange

11/5/2013
Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN) Shared Services becomes first state-designated entity to join the national network after meeting new set of testing criteria for "plug and play" interoperability.
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21% Of Obamacare Visitors Have Enrolled

11/4/2013
Despite websites' technical problems, many people managed to obtain insurance, according to Commonwealth Fund survey.
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Mobile Health Tech Could Reduce Doctor Visits

11/4/2013
Scripps researchers laud potential, say more evidence needed to show whether apps to manage acute and chronic illnesses are safe and effective.
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EHealth To Obama: We Can Run HealthCare.gov

10/30/2013
Obama Administration response to online health insurance site is cool, but proposal reveals backup possibility. EHealth offers to help Covered California, too.
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One-Third Of Doctors Exchange Clinical Summaries

10/30/2013
Doctors who use an electronic health record system are much better equipped to exchange data than those who don't have EHRs, says Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT study.
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Obamacare Rollout Hampered By Operating Rules Lag

10/29/2013
Backend transmission rules, slated for 2016, may have prevented the rampant errors sending enrollment data from health insurance exchanges to insurance companies.
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Private Sector Rides To Rescue Of HealthCare.gov

10/25/2013
Handful of Web insurance brokers will start enrolling people in HealthCare.gov plans within a month, but backend coding problems could continue to delay completion of policy purchases.
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Medicare Drags Feet On Secure Patient IDs

10/23/2013
Medicare increases identity theft risk because it uses social security numbers as patient identifiers, says GAO report.
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Surescripts Aims To Expand Hospital Network

10/21/2013
Surescripts partners with Meditech, Vitera in effort to enable Direct messages among more than 60% of U.S. hospitals.
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IBM Watson's New Gig: Cancer Fighter At MD Anderson

10/18/2013
Houston cancer center MD Anderson taps IBM's powerful Watson computer system to help cure eight kinds of cancers as part of its "Moon Shots" program. The first target: leukemia.
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Deloitte, Intermountain Launch Healthcare Outcomes Tool

10/17/2013
Big-data product PopulationMiner lets healthcare organizations and drug companies design hypotheses by looking at patient populations.
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Dignity Health, Optum Launch Revenue Management Firm

10/16/2013
Large West Coast healthcare system joins with healthcare IT firm to form Optum360, which aims to help hospitals prepare for new payment methods and optimize revenues.
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Health Insurance Exchanges Plagued By Data Errors

10/11/2013
Health insurance exchanges, especially the one run by Uncle Sam, are having problems sending files that can be opened and that have complete information.
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Remote Patient Monitoring Closer To Mainstream

10/10/2013
Remote monitoring is mostly for the sickest patients today, but use could broaden as healthcare focuses on keeping people well.
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Google Glass Enters Operating Room

10/9/2013
Google Glass prototype lets surgeons view vital signs on a head-mounted display while performing operations, but Phillips isn't promising a commercial product.
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American Well: The Doctor Will See You Online

10/8/2013
Telemedicine company American Well offers anyone urgent-care video consultations on mobile devices for $49 a pop.
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Athenahealth Tracks Flu Outbreaks During Government Shutdown

10/7/2013
Health IT vendor uses cloud-based EHR database to show outbreaks in absence of information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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In One ER, EHR Takes 44% Of Doctors' Time

10/3/2013
Small-scale study in Pennsylvania ER found physicians spend more time inputting data in their EHR than taking care of patients.
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Dignity, Box Launch Health App Contest

10/2/2013
Dignity Health, cloud vendor Box and venture capital firm seek cloud-based app that will encourage patients to take active part in their healthcare. Winner gets $100,000.
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State Insurance Exchanges: Hospital IT's Next Challenge

9/26/2013
As state insurance exchanges take hold, hospital IT departments must figure out how to keep up with patients' insurance eligibility, health status and benefits in fluid environment.
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Patient Portals Bloom Under Meaningful Use

9/24/2013
But most portals still have long way to go in fully meeting patient needs as required by law, according to KLAS survey.
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Device Interoperability Effort Seeks Hospital Leaders

9/23/2013
Center for Medical Interoperability, funded by the Gary and Mary West Foundation, aims to solve incompatibilities between medical devices and health IT systems.
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Allscripts Enables EHR Customers To Send Data To Payers

9/19/2013
Deal with analytics firm Inovalon designed to relieve burden on providers while enabling online feedback from health plans.
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CMS Floats Flexibility In Meaningful Use Stage 2

9/18/2013
As some unprepared EHR vendors opt to abandon Meaningful Use, agency considers options to ease transition requirements.
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Patients Seek More Online Access To Medical Records

9/17/2013
41% of those who don't have online access to records would consider switching physicians to obtain it, Accenture survey finds.
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ACOs Need Claims Data For Analytics, Expert Says

9/16/2013
Accountable care organizations will use data from payers to manage population health for next 10 to 15 years, predicts Jonathan Weiner, professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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ONC Partners Tackle Patient-Data Matching Problem

9/12/2013
ONC leads public-private coalition working on a key interoperability challenge: how to match unique patients to their personal data as it moves across the healthcare system.
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Hospitals In Early Stage of Analytics Usage

9/11/2013
Fewer than half of healthcare organizations have clinical and business intelligence tools, and most who do are still learning how to use them, says HIMSS Analytics survey.
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Fitbit Gadget Could Improve Hospital Care

9/10/2013
Mayo Clinic uses Fitbit accelerometer to track postsurgical patients' mobility and identify potential problems earlier.
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United Healthcare Introduces Online Bill Payments

9/6/2013
New option, provided through InstaMed electronic payment network, makes it easier for patients to see what they owe and pay all their doctors.
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Medical Practices Move Health IT To Cloud

9/6/2013
Lower upfront costs, outsourcing options among factors driving physicians toward cloud-based EHRs and practice management software.
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Smartwatches Could Outshine Wearable Fitness Gadgets

9/5/2013
Samsung's Galaxy Gear and other new smartwatches equipped with fitness apps could squeeze the mobile health gadget market.
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FDA Issues Guidelines On Wireless Medical Devices

8/16/2013
FDA outlines risks such as lost signals and recommends stringent security measures -- but document is not the last regulatory word.
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Startup Will Build New York's Ambitious Patient Portal

8/15/2013
Mana Health portal will give patients the ability to view records from multiple doctors in one place, a first for statewide health information exchanges.
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47% Of Doctors Use Smartphone, Tablet And PC

8/14/2013
More clinicians than ever are "digital omnivores," using smartphones, tablets, and computers for clinical work, survey says.
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Kaiser Permanente Automates Quality Reporting To Joint Commission

8/13/2013
Converting nearly half of core measures to e-measures saves time, but there are limits to what EHRs can do, cautions study.
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HIE Participation Bolsters Surescripts' National Network

8/13/2013
Connectivity firm takes giant step toward providing Direct messaging access to providers nationwide.
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Most Hospitals Exchange Data, But Scope Too Limited

8/9/2013
ONC study suggests ways that providers could increase data interchange.
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Will Health Information Exchange Become Medicare Payment Criterion?

8/8/2013
Government could tie Medicare reimbursement to information sharing by providers, suggests CMS/ONC report.
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Healthcare Analytics Sought For Population Health Management

8/6/2013
Hospitals have keen interest in analytics for population health management, but tech is still in early stages, according to new survey.
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Leapfrog Counsels Employers On Medical Error Costs

8/5/2013
Employers can steer patients to best facilities, pressure local hospitals to improve, healthcare purchaser coalition asserts.
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Hospital Readmissions Targeted By Indiana HIE, Analytics Firm

8/5/2013
Indiana Health Information Exchange and Predixion Software to co-develop apps for hospitals to prevent relapses, choose best treatments and reduce redundant testing.
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Why The Private Sector Lags VA In Telehealth

8/2/2013
The VA's focus on efficiency and controlling the costs of treating aging patients have made it a telehealth model. Can the private sector learn from its example?
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Health Information Exchanges: More Innovation Needed

8/2/2013
HIEs have been slow to develop offerings that organizations can use to improve care coordination, says report.
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Telehealth Program For Veterans Expands

8/1/2013
Half a million veterans got healthcare via home monitors, videoconferencing and other remote services in 2012, says agency. VA telehealth is growing 29% a year.
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Doctor Profile Data Exchange In Works

7/30/2013
Data Commons hopes to make complete info about physicians, from name and address to specialty certifications, available through one online hub.
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Mobile Health Market To Reach $26B By 2017

7/30/2013
mHealth market will grow by 61% due to sales of mobile monitoring devices and integration with mainstream medicine.
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Hospitals Struggle With EHRs For Quality Reporting, AHA Says

7/26/2013
AHA report details problems hospitals encountered with EHRs in MU stage 1, recommends policy changes to address them.
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Docs Unlikely To Track Gifts With CMS App

7/25/2013
Busy doctors not expected to track freebies using Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' new mobile app, even though it could help them check government's accounting of gifts later.
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Healthcare Reform Spurs Health IT Mergers

7/24/2013
Deal-making declined in the first half of 2013 due to tax-law changes, but interest in buying healthcare firms remains high.
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MGMA Protests Decision Not To Test ICD-10 With Medicare

7/23/2013
Government's decision against end-to-end testing would be "catastrophic" for practices, Medical Group Management Association says in letter to Health and Human Services' Sebelius.
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High EHR Usage: Driven By Need Or Regulations?

7/18/2013
When analyzing CMS data showing improvements in healthcare associated with EHR usage, beware "clicks for cash" phenomenon, cautions one analyst.
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Why EHRs Don't Lower Total Healthcare Costs

7/17/2013
A new study says electronic records led to smaller increases, but providers need bigger changes to reduce total costs.
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Aetna CarePass Combines Mobile Health App Data

7/17/2013
CarePass integrates data from personal health records, multiple mobile fitness and wellness apps to help people achieve health goals.
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HIMSS Health IT Value Suite Pitches Providers

7/17/2013
HIMSS tries to put positive spin on benefits of healthcare technology, despite some studies that show little gains from health IT.
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States Seek Direct Messages For Health Data During Disasters

7/15/2013
10 states recently entered a compact to exchange patient data in case of a natural or a man-made disaster. No solution covers the entire country, however.
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Health Information Exchanges Grow, But Slowly

7/12/2013
Most HIEs that help unrelated organizations exchange data admit they don't have a long-term business model.
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ONC Outpost Ready To Help Docs With Regulations

7/10/2013
New Jersey branch of Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT is converting into a membership organization to help providers meet Meaningful Use, ACO and patient-centered medical home requirements.
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Healthcare Experts Watch For EHR Dropoff By Docs

7/10/2013
Of the doctors who attested to Meaningful Use of EHRs in 2011, 20% failed to participate in the federal incentive program in 2012, new data says.
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Teleservices Interest Grows In Healthcare

7/8/2013
While the number of remotely monitored patients remains small, it's expected to rise rapidly, CSC report says.
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9 Pioneer ACOs Expected To Leave Medicare Program

7/2/2013
Reasons aren't clear, but quality of data benchmarking and lack of access to claims data are said to be among the gripes.
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Venture Capitalists Keep Digital Health Products Flowing

7/2/2013
Rate of capital infusion into digital health companies during first half of the year didn't match previous year's, but far outpaced that of healthcare overall.
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HHS Expands Health IT Regional Extension Centers' Mission

7/2/2013
RECs surpass their goal of helping small medical practices acquire EHRs, now apply their expertise to other healthcare reform objectives.
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