Modern Healthcare – August 12, 2019

2 Modern Healthcare | August 12, 2019

The federal investigation also in-

volved how Practice Fusion obtained

software certification under the Office

of the National Coordinator for Health

Information Technology’s health IT cer-

tification program. “The main focus has

been on actions that occurred prior to

our ownership, and thus, we were high-

ly motivated to reach an accord with the

DOJ as soon as possible so that we could

put this chapter behind us,” Allscripts

President Rick Poulton said.

In 2017, another vendor, eClinical-

Works, and some of its employees paid

a $155 million settlement for allegedly

falsely obtaining certification for its EHR

software.

„„„Medicare will now cover CAR T-cell

therapy, a treatment that leverages a

person’s immune cells to fight certain

cancers. The CMS said Medicare will

cover the gene therapy nationwide

for Food and Drug Administration-

approved indications when provided

at healthcare facilities enrolled

in the FDA risk evaluation and

mitigation strategies. It will also

approve the therapy for off-label uses

recommended by the CMS-approved

compendia. The decision promises

to be a financial boon to providers

as hospitals may charge up to $1.

million or more to cover the costs of

the therapy.

„„„Revenue-cycle and information

services provider Experian Health

has acquired online scheduling

service MyHealthDirect. Franklin,

Tenn.-based Experian Health said

the deal strengthens its ability to

provide solutions to healthcare’s

biggest financial and administrative

challenges, including scheduling,

providing cost estimates and

insurance coverage verification.

Nashville-based MyHealthDirect’s

technolog y helps patients choose

providers and enables real-time

scheduling online, in call centers and

in provider offices. Terms of the deal

were not disclosed. The deal did not

require regulatory approval.

„„„CommonSpirit Health has named

Suja Chandrasekaran its first senior

executive vice president and chief

information and digital officer. The

$29 billion system has said an

important part of its alignment is

creating interoperability between

its preceding health systems. It

operates in 21 states and has 150,

employees and 25,000 physicians.

Chandrasekaran led the global IT

strategy for Kimberly-Clark. She also

held IT leadership roles at Walmart,

Nestle and the Timberland Co. She

will be responsible for assessing

CommonSpirit’s EHR system since

the legacy CHI and Dignity facilities

continue to use separate EHR

platforms, Epic and Cerner.

Briefs

More than 22 million people had data exposed in

healthcare breaches reported to the federal government

last month.

July had the second-highest reported number of

individuals affected by healthcare breaches since HHS’

Office for Civil Rights began maintaining its online

database in 2010. But last month still fell below February

2015, when reported data breaches affected nearly 79 million people.

Two of the 42 data breaches that providers, health plans and their business

associates reported to the OCR in July affected more than 10 million individuals

each. Both of those incidents related to a massive data breach at billing

collections vendor American Medical Collection Agency, which has sparked a set

of investigations and inquiries since it was first publicly disclosed in June.

LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics in June said a data breach resulting from an

unauthorized user accessing the vendor’s web payment system between August

2018 and March 2019 had affected millions of their patients, but that AMCA had

not yet provided them with information on which patients’ data was exposed.

After further investigation, Optum360, a Quest revenue-cycle contractor that is

part of UnitedHealth Group, on July 1 filed a formal report of the data breach with

the OCR, reporting that the incident had affected 11.5 million people. That’s the

largest incident to be reported to the OCR this year and the second-largest to be

reported since the OCR launched its breach portal in 2010.

LabCorp on July 13 reported that nearly 10.3 million of its patients had been

affected in the data breach, marking the second-largest incident to be reported to

the OCR this year and the fourth-largest to be reported since 2010.

Hacking and IT incidents accounted for almost 70% of the breaches reported

in July. The remaining breaches resulted from theft, loss, improper disposal, or

unauthorized access or disclosure of patient records. —Jessica Kim Cohen

Allscripts agrees to

$145 million HIPAA,

kickback settlement

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions

reached a tentative settlement with the

U.S. Justice Department to resolve inves-

tigations of an electronic health record

vendor it bought last year. Practice Fu-

sion, which Allscripts acquired in Febru-

ary 2018, was subpoenaed in March over

“certain business practices,” including

compliance with the anti-kickback stat-

ute and HIPAA. If finalized, Allscripts will

pay the Justice Department $145 million

to resolve civil and criminal liability.

July-reported healthcare

breaches second-highest

since tracking began