House Vets to hold oversight hearing on Cerner deal

With help from Darius Tahir

HOUSE VETS TO DIG INTO CERNER CONTRACT: The House Veterans Affairs Committee is looking to hold its first post-signature oversight hearing on the $10 billion Cerner contract the week of June 25, a committee spokeswoman says. As we’ve reported previously the contract continues to face skepticism, in particular because of the problems reported in the MHS Genesis pilot sites where Cerner has been implemented in the Pacific Northwest.

— A section of the VA Mission Act requires the VA to provide regular consults and reports to congressional committees on the big contract. House and Senate committee members seem to unanimously support the transition away from VistA; some are more or less optimistic the contract finally signed last month will meet the VA’s needs.

DIGITAL DOERS DESIRE NEW CODING: A diverse group of 48 signatories including hospital systems, medical societies and tech firms released aletter to CMStoday asking the agency to start reimbursing various types of remote monitoring under codes created by the American Medical Association. They want CMS’s 2019 physician payment rule to include three new CPT codes; one for remote monitoring of physiologic parameters like weight, blood pressure, pulse oxygen and breathing rates; a second for “device supply with daily recording or programmed alert transmission” and a third for remote physiologic monitoring management services.

— In its most recent physician payment rule, CMS expanded payments for remote data monitoring by activating and unbundling CPT code 99091, to allow reimbursement for monitoring of patient-generated health data.

— “While CMS has taken this commendable step forward in unbundling CPT 99091, we believe CMS must continue the commitment … to consider new digital health CPT codes,” says the letter, which was organized by ACT — The App Association.

— The new MIPS framework supports the use of remote monitoring within bonus-linked Improvement Activity. One signatory on the letter, Podimetrics, produces a mat that monitors fluctuations in internal foot temperatures, to show signs of diabetic foot ulcers. Other examples, says ACT’s Roya Stephens, might include continuous glucose monitoring, weight monitoring for congestive heart failure patients, and monitoring COPD symptoms.

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EHRS AND IT FRONT AND CENTER AT AMA MEETING: In his speech over the weekend at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting, CEO James Madara celebrated the graduation of students from the 11 schools of AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium, whom he described as “tech-savvy physicians enter[ing] their residencies with new skills and competencies proven by measurement, knowledge of what electronic health records could and should deliver, a deep understanding of the social determinants of health, of population health, and teamwork within the health care environment.”

— AMA will soon launch a digital education hub and recently debuted a new open-access clinical research journal, JAMA Network Open, Madara said. He also talked up AMA initiatives launched with IT industry leaders like IBM Watson, Accenture, Google and Samsung. “Key in these relationships is that we define problems that need solutions from the vantage point of the patient-physician interface—not from the vantage of administrative level,” said Madara, an IT critic who has spoken of “digital snake oil.”

— AMA President David Barbe, meanwhile, said AMA physician advocates in Washington had won a series of victories over the past year. Number one on the list: eliminating the HITECH language that required EHR standards to grow progressively more stringent. He also mentioned a 10-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the elimination of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, and adjustments to MACRA that provide doctors more flexibility.

BAD ROBOT! AI IS COMING TO HEALTH CARE AND IT’S SCARY: Accenture Health’s Digital Health Technology Vision 2018 report has found — surprise! — that many health organizations are worried that the Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things systems they’re bringing aboard might not act “accurately, responsibly and transparently.” The study found that 77 percent of health care executives expect their systems to invest in IoT and smart sensors this year, and more than half expect to invest in AI systems.

— But 81 percent say they aren’t ready to face the “societal and liability issues” needed to explain their AI systems’ decisions. Most are worried about inaccurate, manipulated and biased data; three-quarters said they plan to develop ethical standards to ensure that AI systems “act responsibly.” Fully a quarter of those surveyed said they had been targeted by “adversarial AI behaviors” such as falsified location data or bot fraud.

Read the complete report here.

NERDS IN THE NEWS: HIMSS has named Steve Wretling its chief technology and innovation officer. Wretling was previously global chief technology officer for DaVita, Inc., and before DaVita held a series of IT-related jobs at Kaiser Permanente. … Rachel Walker, a University of Massachusetts nursing professor, has been named an invention ambassador by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Walker, whose inventions include special glasses that measure fatigue in cancer patients, and a machine that can generate IV fluids from water in disaster zones, says nurses don’t get enough credit for their inventions.

WHAT WE’RE CLICKING:

—Jacob Reider on nine companies that probably won’t (or just might) buy athenahealth now that it seems to be on the block

—This Health Affairs blog says the health care industry needs a roadmap to accelerate effective digital health innovations

—A Madison, Wisconsin newspaper says that since the Supreme Court has upheld Epic Systems’ ability to shun class-action lawsuits by stiffed former employees, it’s time for data-heads at the IT giant to unionize

—A blogger for the National Pain Report says PDMP and other data-sharing requirements in the new opioid law will punish legitimate pain patients.

—Harvard Health weighs the pros and cons of PDMPs.

—A pediatrician-detective from Flint, Michigan, describes in The New York Times how she used her Epic records to trace an epidemic of lead poisoning

—Nieman Lab reports a mysterious turn that stalled Patrick Soon-Shiong’s effort to buy the LA Times and San Diego Union.

—Kim Warren of MITRE takes to the Academy Health blog to school Seema Verma on four ways she could help put patients at the center of the health care system.