I try to keep the updates coming here and there have been a couple other recent 
announcements as the ONC-REC centers get rolling. Some are a lot further along than others as this takes time. What is interesting though is to see the vendors selected and how they vary a bit from center to center as they come out.
Nice to see e-MDs on the list as going back to my writing HER code days this is a good company with a system of doctors working with doctors and they do a good job. (disclaimer they advertise here but that has nothing to do with my opinion that goes back way before this time this blog was started).
It’s also interesting to see the big corporate entities being selected such as Ingenix, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Health Group with their medical records system, and they have a new name as of yesterday that may or may not change for the medical record name, but again knowing who your vendor is as well as where your money goes today is important so if you spend your money there, it adds to the over all United bottom line profits. If one is a partner of an IPA owned by Untied or one of their subsidiaries there could be other components of their algorithms from either their side or in use by another vendor that perhaps scrubs claims already in place. Here’s a recent purchase that was in the news of a fairly large IPA in southern California.
OptumHealth (Subsidiary of United Healthcare) Takes Over Memorial IPA in California-Subsidiary Watch
Their expertise is in writing algorithms and software with other consulting divisions and some were through mergers and acquisitions last year and some I guess write some pretty powerful algorithms as they getting patents on some of this, so why give it away when you can make a buck I guess. At any rate I just try to cover who owns who and where the money goes as if you are and MD looking to make a purchase this might have some impact. I just think with all the business of healthcare today one should know if they are contributing to the bottom line profits of an insurance company when buying a records system.
QualityMetric/Ingenix (United HealthCare) Receives Patent for Patient Health Survey Algorithms-Subsidiary Watch
I also read somewhere recently too about the possibility of AthenaHealth having to maybe do some infrastructure upgrades for additional browser capacities outside of IE, but don’t quote me for sure on that end, but I know others are doing the same for use on Apple Safari, Firefox and so forth on web based systems. Just in February the Los Angeles REC Center opened.
Los Angeles REC Center (Medical Records Assistance) is Open for Business HITEC-LA
There’s one REC center in Florida that seems to have their act together with contracts and full support already and they even made a video talking about what they do and you can see more at the link below.
Regional Extension Center (REC) Working in Florida-What the Centers Are Doing to Help Physicians With Electronic Medical Records
This is a good deal for the doctors and getting affordable records; however over time what transpires will be interesting with vendors and also their connectivity to HIE systems, some of which too are also owned by insurance companies…hint..hint…read between the lines on the potential next merger and acquisition wave as they all seem to start with financial investments with those that come together with all the data and algorithms. BD
The Maine Regional Extension Center has endorsed EHRs from athenahealth Inc., e-MDs Inc. and Ingenix Inc. The REC also has endorsed the planning and implementation services of Concordant. In addition to discounted products and services, physicians enrolling with the REC receive eight hours of quality coaching, access to low-interest loans and a connection to the state's health information exchange. HealthInfoNet, operator of the REC, also is the state HIE. More information is available at hinfonet.org.
The Ponce School of Medicine Regional Extension Center serving Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands has initially endorsed four EHR vendors and will issue another request for information. The vendors are ABEL Medical Software, Cure MD, McKesson Practice Partner and NCG Medical. Endorsed vendors agree to offer Spanish language versions. More information is available at http://rec.psm.edu.
Maine, Puerto Rico RECs Pick EHR Vendors
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