All Posts By

Kevin Roche

The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry through Roche Consulting, LLC. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.

Dec 09 2013

HHS has extended the deadlines to meet the stage 3 meaningful use deadlines until 2017, adding additional years to stage 2 participation.

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/cms-extends-stage-2-delays-stage-3-meaningful-use-46982-1.html?ET=healthdatamanagement:e4114:3722900a:&st=email&utm_source=editorial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HDM_DAILY_120913_120913
Dec 09 2013

Dabo Health, which originally was invested in by the Mayo Clinic, has attracted $2 million in additional financing to support its product which helps providers track their performance on quality measures.

http://marketbrief.com/dabo-health-inc-form-d-sec-filng-000001
Dec 09 2013

Telecom New Zealand is putting as much as $5 million into Vigil Wireless Monitoring, which has a wristband that monitors and communicates biometric readings.

http://www.vigilmonitoring.com/news/9-latest-news/37-telecom-investment
Dec 09 2013

A Statistical Brief from AHRQ looks at preventable hospitalizations, finding that they fell 6% for adults and 40% for children from 2005 to 2010, saving about 2% of adult hospital spending and 32% of pediatric hospital spending.  In a couple of areas, however, potentially avoidable hospital stays increased, notably for hypertension, up over 30%, and diabetic complications, up over 20%.

http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb151.jsp
Dec 06 2013

CureMD, an EMR company, announced that it has acquired AviaraMD, a provider of medical billing services.

http://www.curemd.com/News-detail.asp?News_ID=133
Dec 06 2013

Nautic Partners has acquired QOL meds, an operator of pharmacies for community mental health centers.

http://www.pehub.com/2013/12/nautic-partners-acquires-specialty-pharmaceutical-firm-qol-meds/
Dec 06 2013

Shareable Ink, a provider of HIT services to aid in clinical decision support and analytics, has raised $10.7 million in a Series C round.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/12/prweb11388851.htm
Dec 06 2013

Kitara Media has acquired Health Guru, a provider of health videos, for 18 million shares of Kitara stock.

http://www.adotas.com/2013/12/kitara-media-acquires-healthguru-com-combined-business-2014-revenues-estimated-at-50mm/
Dec 06 2013

IMS Global Use of Medicines Report

http://www.imshealth.com/deployedfiles/imshealth/Global/Content/Corporate/IMS%20Health%20Institute/Reports/Global_Use_of_Meds_Outlook_2017/IIHI_Global_Use_of_Meds_Report_2013.pdf
Dec 06 2013

Cerner is providing computing and software infrastructure in a partnership with Claritas Genomics to assist providers in the ordering and use of genetic diagnostic tests.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20131205/NEWS/312059958?AllowView=VDl3UXpKSzdDdkdCbkJiYkY0M3hla0dwaWtVZEQrND0=&utm_source=link-20131205-NEWS-312059958&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hits&utm_name=top
Dec 06 2013

According to research in the journal Chest, use of tele-ICU services was associated with lower mortality and faster discharges from the ICU and the hospital.

http://journal.publications.chestnet.org/article.aspx?articleID=1788059
Dec 06 2013

An AHRQ Statistical Brief examines the top 5 therapeutic classes of drug use for adults in 2010, which were metabolic agents, CNS drugs, cardiovascular, psychiatric and gastrointestinal.  These classes accounted for about $153 billion of spending or 60% of total drug spending.

http://meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st410/stat410.shtml
Dec 05 2013

Clarity Health, which provides care coordination services across providers, has raised $6.6 million for sales and development purposes.

http://www.newsday.com/business/press-releases/clarity-health-services-completes-6-6-million-investment-round-on-heels-of-triple-digit-year-to-date-growth-1.6539301