Newsline
Document Storage Systems
Inc., which sells
a commercialized version of
the Veterans
Administration’s
VistA electronic
health records
system—along
with supporting applications
for VistA—has
released its
Patient Search
Tool Extension
and Launcher.
The tool, now
available via
the Apache 2.0
Open Source
license, enables
clinicians and
researchers to
search an entire
patient electronic record for
specific free text
data that might
be scattered
throughout the
system, according to DSS.
The text could
include patient
notes, orders,
problem lists
and medications,
among other
information.
DSS
Donates
Search Tool
to Open
Source
Market
Health Tech Holdings, parent company of community hospital information systems vendor Healthcare Management Systems, has acquired perioperative information systems firm Acuitec LLC for an undisclosed sum. The perioperative system,
originally developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will be integrated into the
HMS electronic health record system. Acuitec will operate as an independent business
line in Health Tech and will retain all employees at its Birmingham, Ala.-based headquarters. Health Tech previously acquired emergency department information systems vendor MEDHOST to expand HMS’ functionality, and revenue cycle/document
management vendor Sentry Healthcare Services.
M&A
Hospital Vendor Picks Up
Surgical I.T.
CLAIMS PROCESSING
Insurers, Docs Face Off Over
Georgia’s Enhanced Prompt Pay Law
The American Medical Association and Medical Association of Georgia are
fighting efforts in Georgia to undo the state’s law requiring insurers that provide third-party administrative services to pay claims in a timely manner.
The health insurance trade association America’s Health Insurance Plans is challenging the state’s Insurance Delivery Enhancement Act of 2011, which requires TPAs
to pay paper claims within 30 days and electronic claims within 15 days, or pay 12 percent interest on unpaid claims. The act is effective Jan. 1, 2013.
The new law expands the regulatory scope of Georgia’s existing prompt payment
law by adding TPAs to those payers that must comply. AHIP claims the new TPA provisions are preempted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, known
as ERISA, which sets basic standards for protection of pension and health plans in private
companies. AHIP in August filed suit in the
U.S. District Court in Atlanta seeking a ruling
that permanently prohibits the state insurance
commissioner from enforcing the TPA provision. In September, it filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that would prohibit
enforcement during the litigation.
The medical associations now have filed a motion against AHIP’s motion, as they
hope the law can be enforced in January as litigation on AHIP’s lawsuit continues. “If
AMA and MAG are not allowed to intervene, the bargained-for interests and contrac-
tual rights of their membership pursuant to those provider agreements, along with the
AMA and MAG’s own interest in protecting those rights, will be impaired,” according to
the motion, available here. “AMA and MAG’s memberships have a significant economic
stake in the outcome of this litigation. Their membership often consists of small busi-
ness owners who are adversely impacted financially when TPAs fail to pay for services
rendered in a timely way.”
“This case has national implications for resolving the regulatory void in which health
insurers are unaccountable for chronically late payments when they serve as admin-
istrators for self-insured employers,” says AMA President Jeremy Lazarus, M.D., in a
statement. “Georgia has effectively closed that regulatory loophole, which helps physi-
cians maintain a sustainable practice environment.”
Health information content management company
Wolters Kluwer Health will
acquire medical terminology
software vendor Health Language Inc., while ExlService
Holdings has bought payer
vendor Landacorp. Terms of
both acquisitions were not disclosed.
Health Language markets
its medical terminology databases and associated software to providers, insurers
and electronic health records
vendors to manage and map
180 terminologies and administrative code sets. Wolters
Kluwer Health, which picks
up access to insurers through
Health Language, sells clinical and drug decision support
systems, clinical surveillance
systems and clinical documentation software, among
other products.
ExlService Holdings providers outsourced business processing services in multiple
industries including health
care. Now, the company gets a
technology platform solution
for health insurers through
Landacorp’s CareRadius suite
of disease, case, utilization
and resource management
software. CareRadius also
supports sharing information
between providers, case managers, coaches, pharmacists
and health plan members to
provide population health
management.Landacorp’s
new name is EXL Landa.
New Owners
for Health
Language,
Landacorp
M&A
