Electronic Health Records News

Health execs, advocates brainstorm reform ideas for Obama (BizJournals)
A group with seemingly competing interests hospital executives, government health officials, private physicians, an insurance salesman, a consumer advocate found plenty of common ground Tuesday when discussing health-care reform ideas to send to President-elect Barack Obama.

Fixing health care (The Wichita Eagle)
Ray Morehead and Jason Townsend rolled the dice on health care. Both self-employed, they chose to go without health insurance to have extra money in their pockets. “I’m in good health in general, so I just didn’t think it was worth the money,” said Townsend, 25. Neither did Morehead, 43. Then a red spot on his abdomen proved to be a staph infection. He landed in the hospital, where he found …

Electronic Medical Billing: Going Electronic with Health Care Billing. (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Tom Daschle faces a tough uphill climb if he’s to tackle Obama’s health care reform initiatives, but makers of electronic medical records are seeing the writing on the wall and making an early shift to insure that electronic medical billing is part of their software products.

Japan factory output has biggest monthly fall (AP via Yahoo! News)
Japan’s contracting economy got more bad news Friday when the government said industrial production plunged by its biggest margin since records were started in 1953, the jobless rate jumped and household spending fell.

Health Care: Lake hospital takes St. Helena name; $200,000 for electronic records (The Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
Redbud Community Hospital of Lake County changed its name to St. Helena Hospital Clearlake last month after forming a joint operating partnership with St. Helena Hospital in Napa.

Health care data going paperless (phillyburbs.com)
Health information technology is expected to be a major talking point Tuesday at a community health care forum in Doylestown.

St. Joseph Health System Selects Allscripts Electronic Health Record and Practice Management for Affiliated Physicians … (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Allscripts announced today that St. Joseph Health System has selected the Allscripts Enterprise Electronic Health Record and Practice Management solution to automate and connect clinical and business functions for 100 physicians affiliated with two of its hospitals.

Health tech advances hit funding hole (Rocky Mountain News)
Colorado has become an early pioneer in the use of health information technology but likely must wait for federal help to make the next stride forward, Gov. Bill Ritter and several health experts said Tuesday.

Opinion Piece Says Electronic Health ‘Marshall Plan’ Needed To Fix Health Care System (Medical News Today)
“The problem” with the U.S. health care system “is not with the doctors but with the system,” namely the “fee-for-service” payment system that “encourages doctors to focus on patients’ immediate problems” rather than on preventive care, Baltimore Sun reporter David Kohn writes in a Sun opinion piece. He continues, “Amazingly, less than 5% of U.S.

Health records scheme at pivotal point (Financial Times)
The NHS s multi-billion programme to create an electronic health record has reached a pivotal position where it will require a big rethink if more progress is not made soon, David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, said on Thursday.