KLAS corrects Epic — EHRs don’t reduce readmissions — DoD awards contract for EHR testing center — AllScripts reports quarter 3 loss

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With help from Arthur Allen (@ArthurAllen202), David Pittman (@ David_Pittman ) and Aubree Eliza Weaver (@ aubreeeweaver )

KLAS TO EPIC: STOP PUTTING WORDS IN OUR MOUTH: KLAS, the market research firm that produces influential surveys of EHR performance, clarified Thursday that it rates Epic Systems No. 1 in health information exchange, not interoperability as Epic has been stating lately. In a response to comments seemingly directed at Epic by Cerner Chief Executive Neal Patterson, a spokesman for the Verona, Wisc.-based vendor told the Kansas City Star on Wednesday that Epic was rated “No. 1 for interoperability performance as ranked by actual users surveyed by the highly respected firm KLAS.” The company made similar comments to POLITICO in an interview last month. However, KLAS objected to that characterization. It said Epic was ranked as the top vendor for health information exchange in 2012 and 2013 — but interoperability was measured in a separate report. “There was no single vendor/solution that was named as overall top performer in this specific report regarding EMR interoperability,” said Larry Salazar, director of global market engagement at KLAS. Health information exchange is a component of interoperability, Salazar said. Well, now that that’s cleared up…

eHealth tweet of the day: @ MergeHealthcare: Will #mHealth tech bring consumer & #doctor closer together or drive them farther apart? A delicate duet: ow.ly/DKdEA

Welcome to Friday morning eHealth, where we are oh-so-happy Election Week is over, and we bet you are too. What’s next? Ping us your thoughts at [email protected] and connect with us on Twitter @ ashleyrgold, @ POLITICOPro and @ Morning_eHealth.

The health IT implementation, usability & safety workgroup meets today at 1: http://bit.ly/10Db76p. Looks like the committee will be discussing the future of the ONC Health IT Certification Program.

DO EHRS REDUCE READMISSIONS? NOT FOR US: Thus spake Stephen Lawless, vice president of quality and safety for Nemours DuPont Hospital in Wilmington, DE, at an ECRI Institute conference Thursday. His hospital, which uses Epic, has won the HIMSS Davies Award, is a HIMSS analytics stage 7 hospital and has won various Leapfrog and “Most Wired” awards — but it’s not seeing fewer re-admissions since implementing its EHR. Patients don’t come back for the week they’re discharged, but after that, the numbers spring up again. Why is that? Patients can access their personal health records online, yes, but they’re not written in ways patients can understand, and no one is following up with the patients once they’re discharged. If integrated with the rest of the system, the EHR can be a “glue” to hold care together, Lawless said, but there’s a lot more to be done. “The EHR is a tool and gives a false sense of security,” Lawless told us. “There’s so many things providers have to do — the EHR has been an additional thing you have to do.”

DOD AWARDS EHR TESTING CONTRACT: The Department of Defense has awarded Fulcrum a five-year, $13.9 million contract to update its EHR testing facility in Richmond, VA, and open another health IT testing center in West Va., all in support of the DHMSM replacement project. http://bit.ly/1pto926

HAPPY RETIREMENT: Dr. Don Lindberg, AMIA President and 30-year president of the NIH’s National Library of Medicine (NLM), has announced his retirement. “We will miss Don as a preeminent leader at NIH, who brought NLM into the modern age of biomedical information. We also, however, will continue to benefit from his wisdom, drive, and accomplishments,” NIH Director Francis Collins writes in a post.

ALLSCRIPTS REPORTS QUARTER 3 LOSS: EHR company Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. on Thursday posted lower-than-expected third-quarter results. Its stock “tumbled,” in extended trading, the AP reports, after posting revenue of $345.4 million that fell short of forecasts. http://buswk.co/1ptqQRg

EXPERT SPEAKS ON MU AUDIT ISSUES: The meaningful use audit process has had its share of problems, according to Jim Tate, head of EMR Advocate. “Back in 2011 and 2012 there was very little clarification from CMS on the issues of meaningful use and attestation,” Tate wrote on his website. “CMS admits there was much confusion and has adapted the program to alleviate some of these issues. Unfortunately the process has not seen the benefit of corrective adjustment.” He notes that the audit process has witnessed lost appeal submissions, inconsistent rulings, and even different responses to the same appeal (e.g. a hospital being told its appeal was supported, only to be undone later on). Read more: http://bit.ly/1ptaVT7

MeHI OFFERS GRANTS FOR EMR USE: The Massachusetts eHealth Institute is offering $6.7 million in grants to behavioral health providers, skilled nursing facilities and behavioral health hospitals to fund wider use of electronic medical records. Grants will be done in stages, in increments of $5,000-$30,000 per payment, but not exceeding $85,000 — and will be dependent on the providers’ adoption of EMRs. The funding will come from the profits of Massachusetts’ 2012 health-cost containment law, which totaled about $225 million. More on that here: http://bit.ly/1x9G4uB

TELEMEDICINE ALLIANCE CONTINUES DESPITE RECENT LEADERSHIP SHAKEUPS: Work at the telemedicine lobbying group the Alliance for Connected Care continues while the organization tries to reconfigure following the departure of two key figures from the law firm DLA Piper. Executive Director Krista Drobac retains her position with the Alliance despite recently leaving DLA Piper. Late last month, Sen. Tom Daschle announced he was also leaving DLA Piper for the public policy firm Baker Donelson. Drobac and Daschle launched the Alliance while at DLA Piper earlier this year. The group has been a driving force behind accelerated congressional interest in telemedicine thanks to the star power of Daschle and its other leaders, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and former Sen. John Breaux. The group, which includes telemedicine providers, payers and pharmacies, spent $210,000 lobbying in the third quarter between three law firms including DLA Piper. Telemedicine needs the attention — in other news, more than half of healthcare practitioners surveyed at an Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine conference believe their medical boards don’t grasp the technology for long-distance medical treatment. Despite this, 38 percent of the 754 interviewed providers (including 587 MDs) said they used telemedicine and 29 percent more said they planned to within a few years — though only 19 percent said it was reimbursable. The interviews occurred at the annual conference in San Diego in October.

GINGER.IO ANNOUNCES COLLABORATIONS WITH MAJOR MEDICAL CENTERS: Ginger.io, a digital behavioral health solution, has announced new research collaborations with academic centers and released some research findings. The mobile app identifies patterns in patients’ behavior and mental state that “may impact their health and well-being,” according to the company. Its product is designed for use in mental health and chronic illness programs. Physicians at UC-San Francisco are using Ginger.io to measure digital interventions for patients with depressive disorder. They’re also using it to detect early signs of heart problems in certain patients. At McLean Hospital in Boston, physicians are examining whether the Ginger.io platform can help reduce hospital readmissions for patients with conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Others uses under examination include tracking recovery from joint replacement surgery and measuring the interaction of patients’ arthritic pain with their levels of communication and travel.

WHAT WE’RE CLICKING:

One doctor’s old-fashioned idea to cut health care spending: house calls, in the Washington Post: wapo.st/1AqgiXu

Jacob Reider talks to the Heartland Health Monitor: Let’s use technology to change the way we talk about health: bit.ly/1tEwcY5

FierceHealthIT: Partners’ Cara Babachicos: The people part of IT is really complicated: http://bit.ly/1slwG2u

Wearables are totally failing the people who need them most, Wired reports: http://wrd.cm/1uBsAsV

In MobiHealthNews: 6 more crowdfunding campaigns for health tracking tools: http://bit.ly/1y9qMFb