Phil Gingrey

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Closed Records, EHR Decertification and the DoD

In anticipation of House of Cards Season 4, and with all due respect to the show’s creators, I think real life is giving us a perfect plotline that includes politicians, corporate interests, their lobbyists and a big fat government contract. Maybe Francis and Claire have me seeing conspiracies everywhere, but it seems a chain of recent health IT events have created intrigue in what is historically our staid, conservative industry. Follow the timeline with me and decide for yourself if I’m hearing black helicopters.

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Do Epic And Interoperability Interface? Depends On Whom You Ask

Erin McCann | Healthcare IT News | December 12, 2014

The nation’s largest electronic medical record vendor has an image problem. Verona, Wis.-based Epic has come under fire this year over its lack of interoperability, spurring the company, once well known for its mum relationship with the press, to speak up...

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Doctors Find Barriers to Sharing Digital Medical Records

Julie Creswell | New York Times | September 30, 2014

...While most providers have installed some kind of electronic record system, two recent studies have found that fewer than half of the nation’s hospitals can transmit a patient care document, while only 14 percent of physicians can exchange patient data with outside hospitals or other providers...

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Ebola, Electronic Medical Records, and Epic Systems

Michelle Malkin | Michellemalkin.com | October 7, 2014

A Dallas hospital’s bizarre bungle of the first U.S. case of Ebola leaves me wondering: Is someone covering up for a crony billionaire Obama donor and her controversy-plagued, taxpayer-subsidized electronic medical records company? Last week, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital revealed in a statement that a procedural flaw in its online health records system led to potentially deadly miscommunication between nurses and doctors. The facility sent Ebola victim Thomas Duncan home despite showing signs of the disease—only to admit him with worse symptoms three days later.

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Epic Retains Lobbyist to Improve Image on Capitol Hill

Darius Tahir | Modern Healthcare | September 10, 2014

Electronic health-record giant Epic Systems Corp. has hired a lobbying firm for the first time to counter a perception on Capitol Hill that its EHR systems aren't interoperable with other vendors' technology. The Verona, Wis.-based company retained lobbyists Card & Associates in August, according to the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act database. Epic says in the registration that it's making the move to “educate members of Congress on the interoperability of Epic's healthcare information technology.”

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Epic Systems Feeling Heat Over Interoperability

Darius Tahir | Modern Healthcare | October 1, 2014

Epic Systems' August decision to retain a Washington lobbyist was widely seen as a sign that the leading electronic health-record system vendor is feeling political heat based on the perceived lack of interoperability between its EHR systems and other systems.

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Epic Systems, Leading Defense EHR Bidder, Slammed For Lack Of Interoperability

Bob Brewin | Nextgov.com | October 3, 2014

Epic Systems, considered the front-runner for the Defense Department’s $11 billion electronic health record contract, has come under sustained criticism for lack of interoperability with other EHRs, including most recently a front-page story in The New York Times last Sunday...

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How Closed EHR Records Cause Paralysis

Take a step back from the challenges that surround health information technology (HIT) interoperability and you will recognize that market forces and a desperately fragmented health care system make hospitals and vendors act the way we do...The predominant proprietary HIT vendors know about the interoperability gap yet engage in prolonged foot-dragging on even basic data interfacing. Read More »

Lack of EHR interoperability is 'fraud' against taxpayers

Marla Durben Hirsch | FierceEMR | July 22, 2014

Electronic health record vendors--particularly Epic--may not deserve Meaningful Use incentive money because their systems hinder data sharing, according to physician-turned-lawmaker Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.).

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Providers, vendors both to blame for information blocking

Dan Bowman | FierceHealthIT | April 10, 2015

Most information blocking in healthcare is "beyond the current reach" of federal agencies to detect, investigate and address, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's report to Congress published Friday. Read More »