Since C-CHIT seems to be a hot topic...

This article was publised in Healthcare IT News (published by HIMSS) based on a session that I heard the other day at the Medical Group Management Association meeting in Philly.

 Al, you might want to hit the prozac before you read.

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8010

 Nothing really new except a couple of government officials trying to save their jobs

"Tennant explained that the certification process is especially useful because it “pushes” vendors in a particular direction developmentally. Vendors are forced to re-engineer their software to make it better. " -- Since when did the government ever do something better than the private sector

“If an EHR product isn’t certified, and there’s not an obvious reason why it’s not certified, you should pass on that product,” Tennant said. -- Admission CCHIT is inadequate! Which it is, Medscribbler is so far ahead of these guys its scarry.

"The transparency of the certification process helps it get “buy-in” from all stakeholders, Tennant claimed." -- This is the biggest laugh - lets see what happened to all the fees collected in 2006, the financials have mysteriously disappearred from being available - and a re-organization in early 2007 to make the financial trail hard to follow. If I remember Nextgen was one of the founders - didn't the founders get to split the fees? 

>>> If I remember Nextgen was one of the founders - didn't the founders get to split the fees? 

Mike- Of course they did! It was in their incorporation papers that we at emrupdate exposed, leading to the loss of transparency that you mentioned at about 9/2006 when they suddenly stopped posting their quarterly meeting notes for 2 months, then began posting squeeky clean, concise monthly minutes devoud of any significant data.

This article is one big infomercial not unlike the disgusting ones seen on TV for the Cancer Treatment Hospitals of America where a patient with terminal pancreatic cancer cuts loose from her local physician to go to one of these centers and after an unspecified treatment you hear "...and they told me that the tumors were gone!". It's hype that is deceiving, but in the USA you do have freedom of expression and with the money that have been pilfered from vendors as well as the seed money from the Department of Health and Human Services, they have the cash at hand to buy these platforms to try to stir up acceptance among medical offices.

Fortunately, most physicians aren't stupid- they will see the costs involved, the small (if any) rewards promised, and hopefully they will do their research in websites like emrupdate and will opt out of requesting CCHIT certification and go with EMRs (like Medscribbler! ) that will truly help them see patients better with high-tech non-granular tools like inking and DNS dictation.

They will see CCHIT for what it is- a legalized violation of extortion laws as defined by the Rico Act (see here for more discussion on this subject). They are also on the fringe of illegal activity with their "not-for-profit" status, but this law has been bypassed by numerous people and organizations, including the former Speaker of the House, Newt Ginrich, who himself resigned due to nonethical behavior and his use of GOPAC to bypass the not-for-profit statutes (see here and here for more info). Newt is one of the big political backers of CCHIT.

Congress is beginning to see CCHIT in another way, partly due to its association with the HHS/Bush. They are trying to put the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the helm of coordinating healthcare IT standards development. See here for further discussion on this recent development. Hopefully, Mark Leavitt may be out of a job soon.

 Patrick,

There are two ways to respond to your image post,

- one is a good natured response following the "prozac" referrence, and is aimed at the whole thread. 

- the other is a personal attack on Al - trying to marginalize him.

The first is not a easy inferrence and would seem to be unlikely. If it is the second, personal attacks are for those with weak arguments. I would suggest that you either refute what Al says with FACTS, apologize or make clear this was not a PERSONAL attack on Al.

You have not represented Nextgen well here, refute Als arguments, which I doubt you can do, or clarify this was not a personal attack.

CEOMike:

The first is not a easy inferrence and would seem to be unlikely. If it is the second, personal attacks are for those with weak arguments. I would suggest that you either refute what Al says with FACTS, apologize or make clear this was not a PERSONAL attack on Al.

This was not a personal attack. And, with all due respect, don't tell me what to do . And, for the record, facts won't change Al's opinions. We've been there and tried that before.

When you throw out impact words and phrases that are bolded, like extortion and "violation of RICO," you walk a fine line - so I wouldn't expect a bubbly response, although mine was all in good fun. We all saw where walking that fine line got a few other namless former-posters here.

- P

 So I'm a little dense here, was it making fun of Al or making fun of this thread?

NextGen-BW:

This was not a personal attack.

 So I missed the point then - what was it?

NextGen-BW:

...mine was all in good fun.

opus313:

This article was publised in Healthcare IT News (published by HIMSS) based on a session that I heard the other day at the Medical Group Management Association meeting in Philly.

 Al, you might want to hit the prozac before you read.

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8010

If any of our readers are wondering why some of our posters in this thread are using such strong language, I urge you to carefully read the above article. It contains some of the strongest language I have read regarding specific EMR recommendations. The claws come out! For example, would you believe that only eight EMRs are now considered to be "Kosher" by Tennant's criteria? Next thing you know, we'll be having an EMR shortage! Here's an example of the hot-blooded "Prozac Prose" to which Bob Larson is referring in this great EMR-news-find:

"The first thing you should be looking for is the CCHIT seal,” Tennant said. “And you really should be looking at the 2007 criteria. The 2006 criteria was great, but one hundred more criteria were added for 2007.”

Tennant explained that the certification process is especially useful because it “pushes” vendors in a particular direction developmentally. Vendors are forced to re-engineer their software to make it better.

“If an EHR product isn’t certified, and there’s not an obvious reason why it’s not certified, you should pass on that product,” Tennant said.

 Sorry, but you need to explain the joke to me,

CEOMike:

 Sorry, but you need to explain the joke to me,

Hi Mike, although Patrick is perfectly capable of explaining himself, I will take a shot. We have long teased Al about being the site purveyor of conspiracy theories - he in turn teases us back about being the evil empire. While I am sure both sides see a kernel of truth in the humor, the posts are generally intended as just that - humor. Thus the big smiley face on my original Prozac comment.

Nextgen plays with the big boys.  They are by default a big boy, they sell over 10,000,000 a quarter consistently.  Most other EMR's are not big boys, happy to sell a million a year.  Thre is a big difference.  By the way Nextgen swims in a pool with other big boys who's numbers make Nextgens seem like ours to Nextgens.

That being said, Certification with CCHIT is not a big deal with them, therefore, it goes to reason they would not be for or against it.

Further, Tennent is part of the current thinking in Washington by HHS.  This may not last past another two years as the administrations can change.  That is how Government works.  The administration change, Republican or Democrat will have effect in the area of Health Care, and CCHIT and others will need to spend a lot of money lobbying to get there current momentum to continue to keep the pendulam from swinging. As for the current administration, like most things they do, theys say one think and do another.  They say they are pro EMR adoption, the President makes big national speech on this matter, but then they give a quasi-private company 10 Million Dollars towards EMR.  Think about it, a Government that spends Billions of Dollars every year on Military and Related Research give 10 million dollars over 8 years towards EMR adoption and health care initiatives.  Actions do speak louder then words. 

Comon, Mike, admit it, if you were a corporation that had the ability to provide high end EHR solutions to end users and influence the standards of the industry to your needs, and more importantly, to the needs of your consumers at the high end of the EHR spectrum, would you not.

Nextgen is no evil empire, just a business enterprise looking out for there corporation, which in the end looks out for the end users who pay there bills.

That being said  Nextgen +  CCHIT + Government Regulation + EMR/EHR Solution <> (Not Equal) more sales to small to medium size physicians offices (the bulk of the market place).

Historically, Governement and Standards have not led to adoption in our industry or the Healthcare Industry at large.  Stark Laws change for example as put out by Mark Anderson via Robert as the medium only shows that this restriction did little to nothing at the end user side to reduce cost, with solutions still range at $300 - $1500 a month per provider.  Same with CCHIT.

Comeon guys, we really are giving a lot of credence to something that does not really effect our bottom line except in a very small segment of the healthcare industry, the high end large multi-specialty clinics and hospital/RHIO arena.

My thoughts on this touchy matter for a few people here at EMRUpdate.com.  I say this because most of our physicians in south florida don't know what CCHIT is and could care less about HHS statements.  They are more concerned about what is the offer on the table.

Regards,
Brendon

opus313:

CEOMike:

 Sorry, but you need to explain the joke to me,

 

Hi Mike, although Patrick is perfectly capable of explaining himself, I will take a shot. We have long teased Al about being the site purveyor of conspiracy theories - he in turn teases us back about being the evil empire. While I am sure both sides see a kernel of truth in the humor, the posts are generally intended as just that - humor. Thus the big smiley face on my original Prozac comment.

Thanks, Bob - as a suggestion - for those who may not be in on a joke, a short reference to the other side would mitigate a mis-understanding like mine - and I am not a newbie on the board.