“It became pretty
clear (NwHIN) wasn’t
a pilot anymore.”
ties to securely exchange information
through the NwHIN.
The newest version of Connect
includes technical standards that
support patient discovery, document queries, and better information
retrieval. ONC expects this newest
version of Connect to better allow
healthcare providers to use the HIE
software to meet data exchange requirements included in the stage 2
meaningful use program.
While used in the NwHIN, Connect
software can also be used independently by providers looking to exchange health information within their
own health system or to tie into a regional HIE.
Released March 16, the Connect
update is designed to improve performance and allow greater volumes
of health data to be exchanged, said
Lauren Thompson, director of ONC’s
Federal Health Architecture, in a
Government Health IT article. The Federal
Health Architecture, which manages
Connect, plans to re-architect the
software and services later this year
and launch another product called
Connect+. ¢
The US Defense Department awarded a
$20.5 billion military health contract to
UnitedHealth Group.
The Department of Veterans Affairs
awarded a contract to Harris Corporation
for work related to the EHR system the
VA is developing with the Department
of Defense.
The Maryland Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene has awarded CSC a
five-year, $297 million base contract to
replace the state’s Medicaid management information system and provide
fiscal agent services.
Memorial Hospital and Health System in
Indiana and CoxHealth in Missouri have
selected Fair Warning’s privacy breach
detection software and other health
care applications.
Top Health IT Priorities, 2012
Healthcare providers are busy deploying and upgrading health IT systems and
adapting to a slate of federal regulations this year, and their stated top priorities
reflect the challenges. Other common health IT goals, such as reducing costs
and improving care, are farther down the list. ¢
Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, has awarded ACS, a Xerox company, a 10-year, $1.6 billion contract to
manage its claims processing system.
Ventura County in California will implement The TriZetto Group’s data reporting
software and services.
Merge Healthcare and AG Mednet are
partnering to provide tools to manage
imaging clinical trials.
Managing patient data
or e-health records
64%
Meeting regulatory
requirements
61%
Application developer ZoomMed and
medical billing services provider
Insurance Data Services are partnering
to generate, aggregate, and transmit
electronic prescriptions to pharmacies.
Reducing costs
45%
McKesson has partnered with Aetna and
California’s Hoag Orthopedic Institute to
implement the not-for-profit Integrated
HealthCare Association’s bundled payment system.
Improving care
44%
0%
50%
100%
Health Care Data Works, a provider of
business intelligence, has partnered
with Health Language, a provider of
healthcare terminology software, to
map health data to standard code
sets. ¢
From a January 2012 survey conducted by Information Week. “Healthcare IT Priorities Survey: A Singular Focus.” http://reports.informationweek.com.
