This Week in Document Imaging 117/10

- According to the Department of Health & Human Services, more than 5 million Americans have been affected by HIPAA data breaches since, 9/2009.
- According to The Ponemon Institute, hospitals spent $6 billion annually because of patient data breaches, and Federal regulations (i.e. HIPAA) have not improved the safety of patient records. Research showed:
o hospitals are not protecting patient data
o hospitals admit to being vulnerable to data breaches
o breaches are occurring frequently and often go unreported
o only a small percentage of healthcare organizations rely on security technology

- ScImage Inc. of Los Altos, CA announced that it has developed software to integrate EMR software systems with Konica Minolta ImagePilot digital radiography systems, using HL7 communications and web-viewing technologies.

- Former employee, Cam Giang, pled guilty to stealing personal information (name, date of birth and Social Security numbers) from 218 coworkers while at University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Mr. Giang was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison.

- A skin printer? The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced they have developed an inkjet printer that deposits skin cells directly onto a wound to help it heal faster.

- Results of survey conducted by CompTIA:
o 34% of healthcare providers report using EHR system
o 16% report using a partial EHR system
o 29% are evaluating their options
o 20% have not yet started research

- More reason why healthcare firms should use biometric finger vein reader options:
o 100 times more accurate than finger print scans
o Nearly impossible to hack
o Scanner converts subcutaneous vein pattern into thousands of zeroes and ones
o All data encrypted and hidden behind firewall
o Encrypted to AES 128 bit
o You can not leave your vein pattern at a crime scene
o Prevents medical records overlays and merging
o Prevents identity theft
o Prevents lack of ID for unconscious patients

- Allscripts announced it won an EHR system contracts from:
o United Hospital Systems of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
o Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital of New York
o Martin Memorial Health Systems of Florida

- Allscripts CEO, Glenn Tullman stated that the federal government will spend as much as $27.4 billion between 2011 and 2021 to encourage health professionals to install EHR systems.

- Epic wins more EHR contracts:
o $56 million from New Hanover Regional Medical Center (which is receiving $13.7 million in federal incentive money)
o $450 million system at the 28 hospital Sisters of Mercy Health System in Arkansas
o Fairview Northland Medical Center in Minnesota
o Fairview Lakes Medical Center in Minnesota
o Pen Bay Healthcare of Maine

- According to survey conducted by KLAS, the most popular EHR providers for community hospitals:
o For small hospitals of 1 to 150 beds = Meditech
o 151 to 300 beds is Cerner
o 300+ beds is Epic

- Meditech reported that its last quarter’s revenues were up 23%.

- Meditech announced it has certified Canon & Kyocera MFPs as printers for its system.

- Sage Intergy wins contract for 90 radiation therapy centers in 16 states for 21st Century Oncology, headquartered in Florida.

- NextGen announced:
o wins EHR system contract from ACT Health Management Services of North Carolina with 400 locations and 70 clinicians
o wins HER system contract from Methodist Hospital of Texas (5 hospitals and 289 physicians)
o reported that its revenue was up 14% to $81.5 million during last quarter.

- Athenahealth wins a EHR system contract from Holy Cross Hospital of New Mexico.

- EHR federal government timeline:
o Fall of 2010 = certified EHR technology available and listed on ONC website
o January, 2011 = Registration for EHR incentives begin
o January, 2011 = State Medicaid providers may launch the programs
o April, 2011 = Attestation for EHR incentive programs begins
o May, 2011 = incentive payments begin
o November 30th, 2011 = last day for hospitals to register and attest to receive incentive payment for FY2011
o February 29, 2012 = last day for physicians to register and attest to receive incentive payments for CY2011
o 2014 = Last year to initiate participation in program
o 2015 = Medicare payments are reduced for those that have not installed EHR system and shown meaningful use
o 2016 = last year to receive incentive payments and last year to initiate participation
o 2021 = last year to receive incentive payment

- Microsoft reported that only 150 hospitals worldwide are connected to its HealthVault personal health platform.

- McKesson, provider of EHR systems, announced it is buying US Oncology for $2.16 billion. US Oncology of The Woodlands, Texas, makes EHR systems for 1,300 community-based oncologists.

- Cerner wins contract for EHR system at Regional Medical Center in South Carolina. Also has install at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

- After originally not being selected, Missouri healthcare officials are giving Cerner a second change after the Kansas City based company failed to make a two-state list of preferred EHR vendors.

- eClinicalWorks announced it won an EHR systems contract from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, for its 800 doctors.

- A survey of hospital medical records departments conducted by CapSite found:
o 3M Health Information Systems has 30% marketshare
o Meditech has 22% marketshare
o 41% plan to invest in new applications during next 24 months

- The 2010 HIMSS (health information management systems society) Security Solutions Survey found:
o 50% spent 3% or less of their IT budgets on security
o 14% of hospitals have yet to conduct a risk analysis
o 33% of clinics have yet to conduct a risk analysis
o 31% have encrypted data on laptop computers
o 16% have not encrypted any laptop computers
o 69% have plan in place to respond to a data breach
o 33% of hospitals have fulltime chief security officer
o 8% of clinics have fulltime chief security officer
o 38% have designated a staffer to handle security responsibiities

- Surescripts Inc., which operates a nationwide e-prescribing network, announced that it will now support and enable the electronic exchange of all types of clinical information.

- Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has sued health insurer WellPoint Inc. for $300,000, alleging the firm took too long to notify Indiana residents affected by a HIPAA data breach, affecting 32,000 people. The breach was related to a website that inadvertently exposed personal financial info and SS#’s.

- FormFast Software announced it won contract for electronic forms software from Capital Region Medical Center of Jefferson City, MO.

- Scientists from the University of Oxford have shown that they can improve a person’ math abilities for up to 6 months by applying an electrical current to the human brain.

- A document management survey conducted by Version One revealed:
o 86% of senior IT professionals are still reliant on paper records
o 51% stated that they are “very reliant” on paper based records
o 1% stated that they “hardly ever” rely on paper
o 13% stated that they are “occasionally reliant” on paper
o 32% would switch to document management system (DMS) to improve customer service
o 20% said that assurance that electronic documents are legally admissible would be key driver for eliminating paper
o 48% want to be assured that DMS would provide enough security

- WorkflowOne announced it won a document management solutions contract from the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Dayton, Ohio.

- Survey results from Medical Group Management Association (MGMA):
o Hospitals with EHR systems reported $49,916 greater total medical revenue after operating cost per physician than practices using paper
o After 5 years of use, practices reported an operating margin 10.1% greater than practices in their first year of EHR


-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-

This Week in Document Imaging "Industry Notes" 10/31/10

OpenText of Canada, maker of fax servers (FaxPress & Rightfax) and DMS (Hummingbird) announced it has purchased StreamServe Inc., for $71 million, which makes electronic forms software.
- Keane Inc., a company which specializes in offering managed IT services to healthcare industry, announced it was acquired by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) of Japan for $1.2 billion.

- Allscripts, a vendor of EHR, announced that last quarter’s revenue was $192.5 million compared to previous quarter’s revenue of $190.3 million

- McKesson, EHR vendor, announced it won contract from Cowherd Family Medical Center of Heber, Arkansas.

- Federal authorities arrested 4 people in connection with $200 million fraudulent Medicare claims in Miami. The companies involved were American Therapeutic Corp. and Medilink Professional Management Group, and had to do with bogus mental health therapy sessions.

- Auxilio, a company that specializes in offering managed print services to the healthcare industry, announced it won another bid in New York, with a $3.5 million, 3 year contract from New York Hospital Queens.

- Surescripts Inc. announced it is expanding its nationwide e-prescribing network with a new service that will allow for exchange of clinical health information. It includes:
o Up to date summaries of patient’s recent visits
o Secure messaging tools
o Net2Net Connect for sending and receiving clinical info outside their network
o Message Stream for electronic exchange of clinical info
o Clinical Message Portal for those without EHR that wish to send and receive info


- Results from healthcare survey conducted by SK&A:
o Survey of 213,500 medical offices
o EHR adoption at hospital-owned offices grew from 44.1% to 54.9% (10.8% increase)
o EHR Adoption at health-system owned offices grew from 50.2% to 61.2% (11% increase)
o Overall, medical office EHR adoption has grown from 36.1% to 38.7% (3% increase)
o Most commonly used EHR functions are:
 28.4% use electronic patient notes
 27.3% use electronic labs/x-rays
 25.9% use electronic prescribing
o Physician offices with more exam rooms, more physicians on staff, and higher daily patient volumes have highest EHR adoption rates
o Physician specialties with highest adoption rates
 Radiology = 59.9%
 Pathology = 59.8%
 Aerospace medicine = 59.5%
 Dialysis = 59.3%
 Emergency medicine = 57.6%
o Which states use EHR more?
 Northern states = 40.9%
 Southern states = 40.1%
 Minnesota = 62.6%
 Utah = 55.4%
 Wisconsin = 52.3%

- Survey data released by during the recent Medical Group Management Association (MGMA):
o Practices with EHR systems that were not owned by hospitals or integrated delivery systems (IDNs) reported $49,916 greater total medical revenue as compared with those with paper medical records
 These practices also reported greater expenses per physician ($105,591), but had greater median revenue per physician ($178,907) than those with paper medical records systems
 After 5 years of EHR use, had operating margin that was 10.1% greater than practices using EHR for 1 year
o Practices with HER system that were owned by hospitals or IDNs had operating margin that was $42,042 higher than those with paper records
o Medical records staff per physician decreased by 44.12% after install of EHR
o 62% of medical practices will limit the number of new Medicare patients they accept if scheduled reimbursement cuts, totaling more than 30%, go into effect
o Almost 50% stated that they will stop seeing new Medicare patients altogether
o 75% said they planned on delaying purchase of new equipment or facilities
o 50% are planning on reducing staff
o 45% may put off purchasing EHR

- Cerner, maker of EHRs, which recently announced it will build a new office in Kansas, is now asking Kansas City for $50 million in industrial revenue bonds to pay for new computers and other equipment in the new facility. If approved, the city would own the equipment and lease it back to Cerner.

- Siemens, maker of EHR, won contract from Charleston Area Medical Center of West Virginia.

- iSalus Healthcare, maker of EHR systems, announced that the CEO it recently fired, Mark Day, is now suing the company. Mr. Day claims he was fired after reporting that he was suspicious that employees were stealing software.
- Epic, maker of EHR systems, won a contracts from:
o Rush University Medical Center of Illinois.
o New Hanover Regional Medical Center of North Carolina for $56 million to replace McKesson Horizon system

- The Kansas Foundation for Medical Care Inc. and University of Missouri Board of Curators published a list of preferred medical software providers, including GE Healthcare and McKesson. Noticeably absent is Kansas City-based Cerner Corp.

- CapSite announced that its survey reveals that 41% of hospitals will invest in new health information management (HIM) solutions in 2011.

- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will implement auditing procedures to check healthcare providers that are claiming funds for install of EHR systems.

-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-

This Week in Document Imaging "Industry Notes"

- The Ottawa Hospital of Canada announced it awarded a contract to Telus Inc. for software system to run 3,000 Apple iPads on a wireless network, with access to its database.

- According to Steven Waldren, director of AAFP’s Center for Health IT, the fed government payments for EHR installs is taxable.

- Cerner wins customer award. Ovum, a division of DataMonitor, announced that based on a survey of the ambulatory healthcare market (not hospitals, which are acute care), that Cerner’s EHR software is number one. More details:
o “Cerner is the most versatile and multi-faceted”
o eClinicalWorks in second place
o GE Healthcare in third place

- Cerner announced it will build a new 600,000 square foot office at Village West in Kansas City, Kansas that will employ 4,000 personnel. Total investment of $16.5 million.

- The Hospital Corporation of American (HCA), headquartered in Nashville, TN, with locations across the U.S. , is apparently testing Cerner’s EHR. This is significant as its current system is from Meditech.

- Siemens, maker of EHR system and other technologies, announced it will layoff 17,000 people worldwide due to slow sales.

- Epic, maker of EHR systems, won more hospital contracts:
o Yuma Regional Medical Center of Arizona, which has 333 beds, and contract is worth $73 million.

o Moses Cone Healthcare, which has facilities in North Carolina and employs 7,400 people. Total contract value up to $120 million.

o Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York

- Katina Candrick was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and a $163,000 fine for stealing information on 1,200 patients while working for MedAssets.

- Athennhealth, maker of EHR systems, announced that its revenue has grown 33% this past quarter to $63.1 million

- Allscripts, maker of EHR systems, announced it won contract from the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center of New York.

- HIPAA data security breach. Keystone Mercy Health Plan and AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan, insurance providers in Pennsylvania, reported the loss of an unencrypted portal flash drive that contained patient data for 280,000 members.

- GE Healthcare announced EHR installs at:
o Capital Region Healthcare in Concord, NH
o Decatur Memorial Hospital in Decatur, IL

- McKesson, maker of EHR systems, announced it won a contract from Greater Florida Anesthesiologists.

- McKesson agreed to pay the state of Connecticut a $15 million fine to settle charges of illegally inflating drug costs.

- Cause of data theft named after Greek god. The Zeus malware program is being blamed for many thefts of customer information. The computer virus first appeared in Europe in the mid-90s. and the makers continue to modify it to circumvent whatever security measure are put in place. It is a keylogger software, meaning it affects a PC, and then tracks keystrokes, making it ideal for tracking bank account information.

-=Greetings from Sandy Hook"

Getting into already-tied-up accounts by selling solutions

I had the chance to meet Yusuf when he joined the Print4Pay Hotel forums and then emailed me a short note about the solutions that Dipritec provides for the MPS and MFP industry.  Since I had not heard of Dipritec and their solutions I asked him to be a quest blogger for us. Enjoy!!

Getting into already-tied-up accounts by selling solutions

There is one customer objection that every sales person cringes upon hearing: “We have signed a 3-year contract with another company and can’t buy printers until that contract goes out”.

Now I am not a printer salesman, and I won’t claim expertise in the area. But one thing I do have under my belt is that we have many resellers selling our print management solution, and they claim to have found a great way to overcome this objection.

Simply tell the customer that you are not interested in selling them printers, so the exclusivity agreement doesn’t matter. Instead, tell them that you are interested in how they manage those printers that your competitor has sold to them.

Very commonly, they are aware that they do not have a good strategy for managing their printers. For example, it can be difficult to track and reduce costs of printing, or they may lack functions such as print and pull. I have written another article about how a pull and print solution can help companies reduce costs and improve security.

If the organization is big and has multiple offices, a problem that is very often persistent and difficult to solve is how those printers are networked efficiently from an IT standpoint. For example, are there print servers in each office and how does that affect energy usage and maintenance costs? How are printer drivers kept track of and updated centrally? And how much time does the IT support spend on printer related issues?

By first going in with a standalone software solution instead of machines, many of our resellers’ account managers have established long-term relationships with their competitors’ customers, even when those customers have been tied up in long-term contracts. Learn the basics about a great print management software, and use this strategy next time you get the above objection!
Yusuf Hasanogullari
Tel: +353 (0) 876 74 04 22
yusuf@dipritec.com
---
Dipritec - Take control of your printers
www.dipritec.co.uk

-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-

Sharp MX-B402 "Spec Review"

Sharp launched a new A4 b/w laser MFP, the MX-B402 featuring:

o Base MSRP of $4795

o 40ppm top speed

o Will replace the MX-B401

o 50 second warmup time and 8 second first copy out time

o Has 25% lower cost per page to the dealer
o 20,000 page yield for black toner (based on 5% coverage per page)
o 7” color touchscreen LCD display with thumbnail preview
o 600x600dpi
o Optional fax board with PC fax
o Handles up to 110lb. index paper weight
o Comes standard with 100 sheet stack bypass and one 500 sheet paper drawer, and can up to 3 more drawers to make unit floor standing
o Auto duplex & 50 sheet document feeder standard with 35opm scan speed
o Card shot standard
o Built-in print controller:
 Actual maker unknown (most likely Zoran)
 IPv6
 10/100/1000BaseT& USB ports in rear
 USB port in front for print from thumb drive
 Optional card readers
 800MHz processor from Freescale
 512MB RAM (separate 1GB RAM for copier features)
 80GB hard drive
• Optional hard drive data security kit
 PCL & PostScript print drivers standard
• Optional XPS print driver which requires purchase of 1GB RAM option
 imageSEND scans documents to 7 destinations
• USB/network/email
• Scans in color
 Internet fax
 OSA technology for optional embedded applications
o Optional internal 30 sheet stapling finisher

-=Greets from Sandy Hook=-

Weekend Document Imaging Notes

- TIFF format works better with OCR than PDF? According to Sam Schrage, president of AnyDoc, maker of document capture software, “It’s really about applying the least common denominator. With TIFF files, you have a better idea of what you are getting. The only variation is going to be the layout. With electronic files, you have to worry about different formats, versions of formats, and even things like macros.”

- Another healthcare data breach. The University of Kentucky is notifying 2,207 people that their personal information including Social Security numbers was on a laptop computer that was stolen.

- Federal regulators now estimate that nearly 4.8 million individuals have potentially had their personal information exposed due to the 138 breaches reported so far.

- A study by Frost & Sullivan predicts that revenue for the U.S. ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) market will double from $1.3 billion in 2009 to an estimated $.26 billion in 2012.

- The Drummond Group announced that it has received approval by the feds to offer certification services to healthcare customers for their EHR systems. Pricing starts at:
o Remote testing of EHR = $19,500
o Onsite testing = $23,500 plus travel
o (the other firm who is allowed to certify is CCHIT)

- Epic announced it won an EHR contract from Maine Medical Center, to replace their Eclipsys system.

- Cerner announced it won an EHR contract from Naples Community Hospital.

- The Detroit Medical Center claims that its new EHR system from Cerner will save the hospital $5 million per year. The system cost the hospital $50 million to implement.

- The CFO of Danbury Health System of Connecticut was arrested and charged with cutting checks totaling $140,000 to an EHR software company he ran out of his house.

- Aon Consulting is notifying 22,000 State of Delaware retirees that it inadvertently included their Social Security numbers in a request for proposal that it prepared to the state.

- Survey results from Imprivata about healthcare customers readiness for HIPAA rules:
o 76% claim a data security breach is their greatest security concern
o 38% report that they can not track inappropriate document access
o 76% report that top budget priority is buying an EHR system
o What type of authentication will you deploy to meet HIPAA?
 83% = passwords
 37% = biometrics
 35% = proximity ID cards
o 90% believe that use of passwords slows down patient care from doctors
o 48% are still not sure if their existing EHR qualifies for fed gov reimbursements (under ARRA/HITECH act)
o 46% believe the biggest challenge for complying with fed rules is educating employees
o 47% are not sure if they are subject to any state laws regarding data security
o 97% state that new fed rules drive their purchasing decisions

-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-

Canon imageCLASS MF9280Cdn and MF9220Cdn "Spec Review"

Canon launched two new A4 desktop color laser MFPs, the imageCLASS MF9280Cdn and MF9220Cdn featuring:
o Copy/scan/fax/print standard
o Auto duplex standard
o 50 sheet document feeder
o Comes standard with 250 sheet paper drawer and 100 sheet stack bypass
o Optional 500 sheet paper drawer
o 22ppm color or b/w top speed
o 4 tandem OPC drum design
o 3.5” full color LCD display (not touch screen)
 Easy Scroll Wheel to help select features on the display
o Built-in print controller
 Actual maker unknown
 USB port
 Can print from or scan to a USB thumb drive
 Scan to email with LDAP
 MF9220 offers PCL print driver only
 MF9280 has PCL and PostScript print drivers
 Apparently no XPS print driver available

Need to lease or buy a new multifunctional copier? Call a P4P solutions expert at p4pcafe http://www.p4pcafe.homestead.com/

-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-

Weekend Document Imaging Notes 8/22/10

- Legal vertical workload increases. According to Cowen Group, litigation support departments at law firms are experiencing double digit growth in workload during 2010. Data includes:
o work hours are up
o increases in eDiscovery workloads
o increase in litigation support
o many plan to add staff
o increases in budget for technology purchases

- IBM announced it will offer healthcare IT in the cloud working with Aetna Insurance through its ActiveHealth unit. It will compete with similar offerings from Practice Fusion, AthenaHealth and eClinicalWorks.

- Prompted by the CBS report in April on copier data security, a newspaper in Europe, called News of the World, did its own investigation of copier hard drives. The newspaper purchased a number of trade-in copiers and found:
o NATO briefing notes
o Details of a bank account belonging to BAE systems (a large defense contractor)
o The information was found on the hard drive of a Canon imageRUNNER

- Fujitsu launched a free service that lets individuals use their mobile phones to keep personal health records. The cell phones have sensors to record weight, body fat and blood pressure.

- Fujitsu and the University of Tokyo announced that they have jointly built a supercomputer system that can development drugs to treat cancer and metastasis.

- The Forrester Group reported that its survey of healthcare IT professionals revealed that 75% had their systems go down over the last year. 61% stated it took more than 1 hour to recover from the crash.

- Epson announced a new print driver, called ESC/P-R, that will allow some of its color inkjet printers to print from Royal Phillips ultrasound equipment in the healthcare industry

- Recent data on healthcare reveals:
o currently there are roughly 750,000 healthcare establishments in the U.S.
 6,013 hospitals
 918,000 physicians
• 67% affiliated with hospital
• 60% have no HER
• Less than 25% of doctors prescribe drugs electronically
o In addition to medical records and forms, the most common paper documents per department are:
 Customer Records include contracts, forms, authorizations, contact reports and email
 Human Resources include resumes, contracts, expense reports, vacation requests and reviews
 Legal includes contracts, e-discovery and auditing
 Purchasing includes purchase orders, receiving slips, invoices and confirmations
 Product management includes designs, drawings, data sheets and contacts
o The most common reasons why they will invest in technology:
 81.5% want to increase productivity
 67.7% want to lower costs
 60% want to address security requirements
o Only 40% of those surveyed had some type of document management system

- Recent AMA survey shows that it is not uncommon for medical practices to report a gross collection rate of only 60% or less. This means that for every $1.00 of medical services billed, the physician may only receive 60 cents. Other findings:
o gross charges denied by payers has grown to 14-18%
o denied, rejected, resubmitted and underpaid claims can costs as much as $100,000 per month
o practice can lose as much as $75,000 per year in denied claims that are never resubmitted
o many practices do not resubmit up to 50% of their claims
o underpayment of claims is as much as 35% lower than contracted amount

- In a recent healthcare industry trade magazine, in section titled “The Healthcare IT Guy”, recent reminders were given for doctors to qualify for federal funds for implementation of an electronic health records (EHR) system: (of which MFPs, scanners, document management and middleware can play a role)
o If starting implementation in 2012, will be eligible for full payments from Medicare ($44K over 5 years)
o Can start as late as 201 to get full payments from Medicaid ($63K+ over 6 years)
o For hospitals, payments include a base amount of $2 million, plus $200 per patient, starting with the hospital’s 1,150th patient discharged and ending with No. 23,000, beginning in 2011 fiscal year.
 Both doctors and hospitals that cannot “demonstrate meaningful use of EHR” by beginning of the 2015 fiscal year will be penalized



- As the healthcare industry “digitizes”, one of the concerns is the amount of data storage that will be required. In a recent article in “Healthcare Technology”, the data collected by medical imaging (radiology) equipment was detailed:
o “Prior to the mid-90s, most of the scanning was only two slices. Now 3D visualization is a must-have application and a primary diagnostic tool. This has had a significant impact on the medical imaging industry. For example, if you took a head and neck scan in 1994, it was about 21 slices. Today, a single head and neck scan is 240 slices.”
o Formats/acronyms used in radiology are; PACS (picture archiving and communication system) and DICOM (digital imaging and communications in medicine)

- Four different insurance companies announced that they will offer financial incentives to physicians and hospitals for meeting federal EHR meaningful use rules:
o Aetna
o Highmark
o UnitedHealth
o WellPoint

- EHR provider, Epic, announced contracts with:
o Tucson Medical Center
o Kaiser

- Two senators attempt to expand who can get the HITECH subsidies from Medicare and Medicaid:
o Sheldon Whitehouse & Jack Reed of Rhode Island introduced bill
o Want monies to be available for EHR implementation by mental health, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment professionals
o Currently, psychiatrists are eligible, but not psych hospitals, clinical social workers and substance abuse programs

- Another healthcare data security issue. Someone broke into a Texas allergy clinic and stole four PCs containing personal health information (PHI). It cost the clinic $15,000 to send the mandatory breach notifications letters to its 25,000 patients, far more than the cost of replacing the computers.

- And another. Four Massachusetts community hospitals are investigating how thousands of patient records ended up in a pile at a local dump site that was 20 feet wide and 20 feet long. A newspaper photographer discovered the records when he was dumping his own trash, and notified the 4 hospitals; Milford, Holyoke, Carney and Milton.

- The Department of Health & Human Services announced that in 2007, Medicare overpaid physicians by $13.8 million for incorrectly coded claims.

- Eclipsys (which was just acquired by Allscripts) announced it won an EHR contract from Isabel Healthcare of Falls Church, VA.

- Allscripts, maker of EHR software, announced it has hired former U.S. Attorney, Ken Alexander, as its new Executive VP and General Counsel. It also announced it won a contract from the Iowa Health System.

- According to an Institute of Medicine study, 1.5 million Americans are injured each year and 7,000 die from preventable medication errors.


-=Greetings from the Highlands=-

Sharp MX-M623 and MX-M753 "Spec Review"

Gathered from Print4Pay Hotel Members from around the world and a few moles in very good places!

- Sharp gave out more details on its new digital b/w A3 copiers, the MX-M623 and MX-M753:
o Replace the M620 and M700
o Base MSRPs of $19,500 and $23,900
o 62ppm and 75ppm top speeds respectively
o Unlike competitive models in this speed ranges, these models have the “hole-in-the-middle” design, so do not look like true “console” designs that customer prefer in this speed range due to copy volumes
o Code name for this engine is the Sharp “Dragon” engine, which was originally launched in 2004
o Models have the textured light gray plastic design of slower speed Sharp models
o 8.5” full color LCD touch screen control panel
o Uses second generation “microfine” pulverized toner
o Optional retractable keyboard
o Optional common access card (CAC) reader
o OPC drum and developer have yield of 300,000
o Toner yield of 83,000 pages based on 5% per page coverage
o 300K/month maximum duty cycle
o 1200x1200dpi print output, 600x600dpi copier output & 600x600dpi scan resolution
o Comes standard with 3,100 sheet paper supply
 Maximum paper capacity with options of 6,600 sheets
 Letter size LCT for $1425, Tabloid size LCT for $2900
o Document feeder can:
 Hold up to 150 originals with top scan speed of 75opm
 Can scan both sides of original at same time
o Finishing options include:
 $3450 for 50 sheet staple or $6550 for 100 sheet staple
 $5000 for 50 sheet staple and 80 sheet booklet maker
 $715 for punch kit
 $2275 for cover inserter
o Built-in print controller features:
 Actual maker unknown (most likely Zoran)
 Uses 800MHz processor from Freescale (not Intel)
 1GB RAM (can be increased to 2GB)
 80GB hard drive
 $399 for hard drive security kit
 Comes standard only with USB port for “host” based printing, meaning that the customers computer has to do the processing of the print jobs
 Optional onboard processing (included on the “N” models)
 $3400 for PCL print driver
• $745 for PostScript print driver
• $595 for barcode printing
• $625 for XPS print driver (for Microsoft Windows 7)
• All require extra 1GB RAM for $500
 $1095 for network scanning
• color scanning
• scan to email/desktop/FTP/SMB/USB (no scan to WebDAV)
• $1230 for compressed PDFs
 Can scan to or print from a USB thumb drive
 Open Systems Architecture (OSA) allows for optional embedded applications but requires $349 Application Integration Module
o $1295 for analog fax board and $545 for Internet fax
- Canon claims that it new imageRUNNER ADVANCE MFP models are environmentally friendly. That it emits 20% less CO2 when compared to previous models. The machine’s plastic exteriors also are made partly by plant-based materials. (company did not explain why it has not switched to dark plastic instead of off-white plastic which requires bleaching)

-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-

Kyocera FS-3140MFP "Spec Review"

- Kyocera (aka Kyoto Ceramic Company), announced two new A4 b/w MFPs, called the FS-3040MFP and FS-3140MFP offering:
o Actually made by Kyocera
o 42ppm top speed
o Base MSRPs of $2649 and $2979
 Models are identical, except 3140 includes analog fax
o RADF holds up to 50 sheets and has top speed of 42opm b/w and 25opm for color
o Toner yield of 15,000 pages based on 5% coverage per page and sells for $81
o $268 for maintenance kit with yield of 300,000 pages
o ASi (amorphous silicon or ceramic drum)
o 200K/month maximum duty cycle
o 22 second warmup time
 7 second first copy out time
o 100 sheet bypass and 500 sheet drawer standard
 Can add up to three more 500 sheet drawers for $249 each
 Optional envelope feeder
o Auto duplex
o Built-in print controller:
 Made by Peerless
 667MHz IBM PowerPC processor
 256MB RAM (can upgrade to 768MB)
 No hard drive
 10/100BaseT & USB ports
 PCL, PostScript & XPS print drivers standard
 Scan to PC/network/FTP/email (no LDAP)
 No secure print or accounting


P4P Notes: Based on a monthly volume of 5,000 pages per month over 36 months, this device will cost you $2,268 for consumables! Note, that this does NOT include service or parts.  The cost per page is 0.0126, thus if you were to use the maximum duty cycle of 200,000 pages in one month, your cost would be $2,520 for that month!

Do you need a quote from a qualified, experienced representative for a multifunctional copier? If so read our mantra P4PCafe

-=Greetings from Sandy Hook=-