This Week’s Health IT Business News

We lead off this week’s recap with the news that Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has completed its acquisition of maxIT Healthcare for $473 million. The 1,300 employees of maxIT Healthcare will join the SAIC, Vitalize Consulting Solutions (VCS) Team to create the largest EHR implementation consulting practice.

In other acquisition news Streamline Health Solutions, developer of content management and business analytics technology,  has acquired the outstanding capital stock of Meta Health Technology for approximately $15 million. Meta Health Technology is a provider of health information management solutions for hospitals, physician group practices and other providers. “The acquisition of Meta, with its outstanding reputation in the health information management (HIM) space, represents the continuation of our ongoing growth strategy,” said Robert E. Watson, president and CEO of Streamline Health Solutions. The acquisition is aimed to help Streamline’s healthcare clients make the switch to ICD-10.

In contract news this week HealthcareITNews reported that Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded General Dynamics a four year, $80 million contract to support the Department of Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP). General Dynamics Information Technology’s Health IT Solutions sector will develop and deploy the ERRP application and payment systems and support all ERRP operational departments. Under the award, the company is responsible for overall software design, development and business application support, which includes a public website and educational outreach programs as well as data center infrastructure and administration. Read the full story here.

Medicity announced this week that Texas Health Resources has selected its Medicity health information exchange (HIE) solutions to power the exchange of patient information among its facilities and physicians.  Texas Health has 25 inpatient, transitional, rehabilitation and short-stay hospitals, 18 outpatient facilities and more than 5,500 affiliated physicians.

ClearDATA Networks, a healthcare cloud computing platform and service provider, announced  this week they will be offering their services of HIPAA-compliant cloud computing, offsite backup, disaster recovery, and information security,  to Wide River Technology Extension Center’s members. ClearDATA services are designed to help providers achieve Meaningful Use, reduce IT costs, improve productivity, and ensure regulatory compliance.

And speaking of HIPAA, Apria Healthcare made news this week with their announcement that a company-owned employee laptop containing patient names, Social Security numbers and possibly other protected health information (PHI) was stolen from a locked vehicle in Phoenix, Arizona. The laptop contained information pertaining to patient billings in a number of states, including California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. The laptop was stolen from the employee’s lock care on June 14.  “There has been no indication that any information has been accessed or misused,”   Doreen R. Bellucci, Apria’s Associate General Counsel and Privacy Officer. “However, Apria has nevertheless taken many steps necessary to address the incident and is committed to fully protecting all of our patients’ personal information. In addition, we have notified or are in the process of notifying the appropriate Federal and state regulatory agencies of the incident. We are also in the process of encrypting all of the company’s laptops with due speed and strengthening other aspects of our internal HIPAA security program.”

Federal Agencies are looking to EHRs and HIEs for real-time public health reporting, so goes a news report from Healthcare Informatics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC) are collaborating with the Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM to standardize the exchange and use of public health information through digital platforms to better control healthcare quality and care. The main purpose of the collaboration, IBM says, is to control major outbreaks of infections such as flu strains. “The state of a national healthcare infrastructure can be vastly improved through better management of data and an improved understanding of how healthcare services are delivered,” states Nikolay Lipskiy, M.D., Health IT standards and interoperability lead for the CDC. “This collaboration is an opportunity to reduce disparities, improve control of infectious diseases, with the aim of building standardized electronic healthcare systems that is accountable for the health of our communities and our country.” Read the full article here.

MEDSEEK, provider of enterprise strategic patient engagement platform, and GetWellNetwork® Inc., provider of interactive patient care (IPC) solution have announced their partnership to provide healthcare facilities with a patient engagement solution. The press release from MEDSEEK references potential Stage 3 Meaningful Use requirements, stating “hospitals and health systems will be able to leverage the combined solution to empower patients to serve as active participants in their care pre-admission, during their hospital stay and post-discharge.”

GovHealthIT reported this week that ApeniMED will partner with ChartMaxx from Quest Diagnostics to streamline Medicare audit responses.  ApeniMED has developed a software solution to respond electronically to audit requests. The solution, eAudit from ApeniMED, will be integrated into the ChartMaxx platform to provide staff with 24/7 concurrent access to complete patient medical records for streamlined submission of Medicare audit responses. Read the full story here.

And in other news this week on Quest Diagnostics, Harris Corporation announced its agreement with Quest to expand Florida’s HIE secure messaging service to 11,000 physician offices. Harris was awarded a four-year contract to implement a statewide HIE infrastructure in Florida. The Care360 suite of solutions from Quest Diagnostics is a web-based platform that provides physicians with online laboratory test ordering, e-prescribing, clinical messaging and clinical documentation. Quest Diagnostics will be the first technology vendor to partner with the Florida HIE, through Harris.

Do you have a bit of business news for this column?  Email me at carol@hitechanswers.com.