pilot project news from FierceHealthIT

In an interesting case of an insurance company doing something (moderately) cutting-edge, Cigna has launched a pilot project under which it has launched a virtual health care community based on Read more...

> Medicare announced that it was launching a South Carolina-based pilot project encouraging Medicare beneficiaries to use a PHR. Read more...

> Experts say the coming requirement that providers use National Provider Identifier numbers when billing the government payers could prove very expensive, as the process is still riddled with Read more...

> A new report from the California HealthCare foundation suggests that community and public health clinics should work together to implement EMRs. Read more...

>  Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center is working with CDW Corp. to build out 370 mobile carts with the capacity to run applications, including EMRs, CPOE and other clinical apps from Read more...

So, it's no surprise, but hey, numbers are worth something. New research from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research has concluded that when physicians and patients engage in email correspondence, patients are 7 percent to 10 percent less likely to see physicians for office visits. These patients also cut back on office phone calls by 14 percent. Kaiser didn't seem to draw any conclusions on …

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Guess nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft, either. The Massachusetts eHealth Coalition, a high-profile regional health information sharing effort, has announced with some fanfare that it will use Microsoft products for its pilot project, which will connect 220 medical locations and 160 medical groups to a common EMR system. The groups will be participating in a 36-month project studying the effectiveness of community-based EMRs, funded with $50 million in seed money from Blue Cross …

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Last week, legislation introduced on Capitol Hill to promote the usage of EHRs showed some political muscle and could end up as part of a pilot project included in the healthcare IT bill now under debate, according to industry experts. While its chances of passing this year are considered slim, it could pop up again in 2007. Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and George Voinovich (R-OH) introduced the legislation that would require insurance carriers that work with the Federal Employees Health …

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