Tidbits

-Survey data released by during the recent Medical Group Management Association (MGMA):o Practices with EHR systems that were not owned by hospitals or integrated delivery systems (IDNs) reported $49,916 greater total medical revenue as compared with those with paper medical records
 These practices also reported greater expenses per physician ($105,591), but had greater median revenue per physician ($178,907) than those with paper medical records systems
 After 5 years of EHR use, had operating margin that was 10.1% greater than practices using EHR for 1 year
o Practices with HER system that were owned by hospitals or IDNs had operating margin that was $42,042 higher than those with paper records
o Medical records staff per physician decreased by 44.12% after install of EHR
o 62% of medical practices will limit the number of new Medicare patients they accept if scheduled reimbursement cuts, totaling more than 30%, go into effect
o Almost 50% stated that they will stop seeing new Medicare patients altogether
o 75% said they planned on delaying purchase of new equipment or facilities
o 50% are planning on reducing staff
o 45% may put off purchasing EHR

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-OpenText of Canada, maker of fax servers (FaxPress & Rightfax) and DMS (Hummingbird) announced it has purchased StreamServe Inc., for $71 million, which makes electronic forms software.

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-Intel announced it has formed a partnership to create a new standard for solid state hard drive technology, including:
o Dell
o EMC
o Fujitsu
o IBM
o Amphenol
o Emulex
o Fusion-io
o IDT
o Marvel Semiconductor
o Micron Technology
o Molex
o PLX
o QLogic
o STEC
o SandForce
o Smart Modular Technology
o Noticeably absent is HP

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-HP Toner cartridges apparently now involved in terror plots. Packages originating in Yemen, placed on cargo airplanes, were discovered with toner cartridges containing explosive materials, wires and cell phone electronics designed to set the bombs off.

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-Solimar Systems of San Diego, CA announced new version of its iCONVERT software:
o Compatible with MS Windows 7 Professional and Windows Server 2008
o Emulates IPDS printers commonly used in mainframe and midrange environments
o Generates PostScript, PCL, PDF and TIFF data for printers that do not support AFP
o Printer monitoring for SNMP enabled devices
o Can email administrators when problems occur
o Can specify is blank back pages are to be included in the output
o Can tune appearance of gray shading

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-Laserfiche, maker of document management software, sued SAP, accusing the company of stealing its “Run Smarter” trademark.

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-Canon’s CEO, Fujio Mitarai, announced that it won’t make a higher offer for the Oce’ shares that it does not already own. 10% of the shares are still held by investment firms that are hoping for a better offer.

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-Lexmark CEO, Paul Curlander, announced he will be quitting his post in spring of 2011:o He led Lexmark for 12 years
o He will be replaced by Paul Rooke, who is currently President of Imaging Solutions division, and has been with company since its inception
o Shares of Lexmark plunged 20% after announcement
o Total quarterly revenue of $1.02 billion, up 6% from last year
o Quarter’s net income of $72 million
o Current market capitalization of $3 billion
o Is constant source of buyout rumors

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Xerox announced it will let go of 2,500 jobs in 2011, to increase its net income by $250 million

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-Japanese companies complained that their profits are being affected by the weakness of the U.S. dollar, which sunk to a 15 year low of 81.7 yen this past week.

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-Results from healthcare survey conducted by SK&A:o Survey of 213,500 medical offices
o EHR adoption at hospital-owned offices grew from 44.1% to 54.9% (10.8% increase)
o EHR Adoption at health-system owned offices grew from 50.2% to 61.2% (11% increase)
o Overall, medical office EHR adoption has grown from 36.1% to 38.7% (3% increase)
o Most commonly used EHR functions are:
 28.4% use electronic patient notes
 27.3% use electronic labs/x-rays
 25.9% use electronic prescribing
o Physician offices with more exam rooms, more physicians on staff, and higher daily patient volumes have highest EHR adoption rates
o Physician specialties with highest adoption rates
 Radiology = 59.9%
 Pathology = 59.8%
 Aerospace medicine = 59.5%
 Dialysis = 59.3%
 Emergency medicine = 57.6%
o Which states use EHR more?
 Northern states = 40.9%
 Southern states = 40.1%
 Minnesota = 62.6%
 Utah = 55.4%
 Wisconsin = 52.3%

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will implement auditing procedures to check healthcare providers that are claiming funds for install of EHR systems

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Auxilio, a company that specializes in offering managed print services to the healthcare industry, announced it won another bid in New York, with a $3.5 million, 3 year contract from New York Hospital Queens

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-Kodak announced that it narrowed its quarterly loss to $43 million due to increases in sales of inkjet printers and a digital camera patent licensing deal with an un-named rival.

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-Microsoft claims that Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in PC history:o Was launched on 10/22/2009
o Sold 90 million copies by 3/2010, and 240 million total as of 10/1/2010
o Most likely will release Windows 8 in 2012

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-Flexprint, a managed print services dealer, announced it won a contract from Consolidated High School District of Illinois:
o Claims it will save the schools $10,000 per year
o Includes 350 printers
o $5,241 per month
o Has a 30 day out for convenience clause
o Includes purchase of $28,747 on existing inventory
o Includes free printer replacement
o Current volume is 300,000 b/w pages and 14,000 color pages per year

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-Keane Inc., a company which specializes in offering managed IT services to healthcare industry, announced it was acquired by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) of Japan for $1.2 billion.

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-Allscripts, a vendor of EHR, announced that last quarter’s revenue was $192.5 million compared to previous quarter’s revenue of $190.3 million

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-Surescripts Inc. announced it is expanding its nationwide e-prescribing network with a new service that will allow for exchange of clinical health information. It includes:
o Up to date summaries of patient’s recent visits
o Secure messaging tools
o Net2Net Connect for sending and receiving clinical info outside their network
o Message Stream for electronic exchange of clinical info
o Clinical Message Portal for those without EHR that wish to send and receive info

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-Federal authorities arrested 4 people in connection with $200 million fraudulent Medicare claims in Miami. The companies involved were American Therapeutic Corp. and Medilink Professional Management Group, and had to do with bogus mental health therapy sessions.

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-iSalus Healthcare, maker of EHR systems, announced that the CEO it recently fired, Mark Day, is now suing the company. Mr. Day claims he was fired after reporting that he was suspicious that employees were stealing software

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-Cerner, maker of EHRs, which recently announced it will build a new office in Kansas, is now asking Kansas City for $50 million in industrial revenue bonds to pay for new computers and other equipment in the new facility. If approved, the city would own the equipment and lease it back to Cerner.

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-CapSite announced that its survey reveals that 41% of hospitals will invest in new health information management (HIM) solutions in 2011

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