Big Health IT News Flowing – ICD-10 Delayed, Meaningful Use Stage 2 Imminent, and More

If you live and love the EMR, EHR and Healthcare IT world like I do, then you’re enjoying all the big news that’s coming out right now. A part of me thinks that the big news is coming out because HIMSS is so close, but some of the news seems like it might not necessarily be timed directly to HIMSS. (To see company news coming out at HIMSS, check out our EMR, EHR and Healthcare IT News site.)

For those not keeping track, here’s a quick run down of some of the major news pieces I’ve seen that really point to larger trends in healthcare IT:

Meaningful Use Stage 2
We know that meaningful use stage 2 is imminent. It’s just a question of when we’re going to hear it. In fact, it might be announced as I’m writing this post. Neil Versel first queued us into the Meaningful Use Stage 2 Announcement prior to HIMSS, but the Twittersphere is also full of rumors about the announcement. Brian Ahier commented on my Facebook message about it:

Nothing is official until it’s released, but since Monday is a holiday it is very unlikely they will wait until next week. My understanding is that the review at the OMB is complete and the proposed rule is ready to be published…

For those who want a sneak preview on what to expect in meaningful use stage 2, check out Jennifer Dennard’s meaningful use stage 2 post.

ICD-10 Delayed
Many have wondered if ICD-10 would be delayed with most arguing that 5010, meaningful use and ICD-10 was a lot to change all at once. Two days ago I got an email from someone saying they thought ICD-10 wouldn’t be delayed. I replied that I wasn’t sure either way, but it seemed like there was movement that could make a delay quite possible. Although, I must admit that I didn’t even think the ICD-10 delay announcement would happen so quickly.

Regardless of prognostication, ICD-10 is going to be delayed. You can read my thoughts on the ICD-10 Delay on EMR Thoughts.

HIMSS Acquires mHealth Summit
Maybe this feels like bigger news since it’s so close to HIMSS and I can see how powerful this conference has become. You can read the press release on the acquisition here. This isn’t that surprising since HIMSS had partnered with the mHealth Summit last year. I think this spells really good things for the growth of the mHealth Summit. I’m not sure I’d want to be another mHealth conference, but there’s a niche for the right event.

I still have a hard time distinguishing mHealth from healthcare IT in general. There could be some differentiation, but I still believe that over time the dividing line between the two is going to be hard to see. Richard Scarfo, HIMSS’ vice president of vendor events (previously mHealth Summit director) is right to be concerned that it will be HIMSS 2.0.

Navinet Acquired by Blues Plans and Lumeris
Read more about the acquisition here. I must admit that I’m still trying to process exactly what this means. Although, one thing I’m sure it means we’re moving the tectonic ACO plates that will be necessary to change how we pay for healthcare.

Vince Kuraitis and Leonard Kish provide some interesting insight in this Google+ thread asking whether this is a shift from institution (enterprise) centered IT to patient centric IT or if it’s becoming payer centric IT. They also mention United’s restructuring of payments and Aetna’s acquisition spree as indicators of the shifting plates of healthcare reimbursement.

Aneesh Chopra as Senior Advisor to the Advisory Board Company
This isn’t as big of news, but it just came out so I thought I’d throw it in. For those that don’t know Aneesh Chopra is now former CTO of the US. Everyone just wondered what he’d do next. Brian Ahier posted that Aneesh Chopra landed at The Advisory Board Company where he worked previously for about 10 years. Looks like Aneesh and his energy and enthusiasm will still be around healthcare. I think that’s a very good thing.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

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