HIMSS16 – ICSA Labs Certifies Seven Health IT Vendors for Interoperability

HIMSS has entered the interoperability standards game and partnered with ICSA on the ConCert seal of approval, though this is a relatively new standard with under 20 vendors certified to date.  New vendors are receiving the ConCert approval for electronic health record interoperability.  Separately, the CommonWell Alliance also announced new members and a post acute care interoperability advancement.

Introduced at HIMSS15 in April 2015, ConCert by HIMSS offers a vendor-independent seal of approval for electronic health record (EHR), health information services provider (HISP) and health information exchange (HIE) systems. Governed by HIMSS, ConCert by HIMSS is built on the work of the EHR/HIE Interoperability Workgroup and IHE USA. ICSA Labs serves as the testing and certification body for this effort. Stella Technology designed the program’s Interoperability Test Tool.

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“The development of these seven certified products is another important stride toward health information exchange across health system and state boundaries,” said George Japak, managing director, ICSA Labs. “ICSA Labs looks forward to the growth of the Concert by HIMSS program as interoperability continues to climb by increasing numbers of patients and providers.”

Seven health information technology vendors are being recognized at a HIMSS16 award ceremony for developing ConCert by HIMSS™ certified products. The ceremony will be held from 1 to 1:30 p.m. PST., March 3, at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase Theater, booth 11954, Hall G, of the Venetian-Palazzo-Sands Expo Center.

The seven vendors are:

  • Caradigm
  • Cerner
  • Corepoint Health
  • iPatientCare
  • MEDfx
  • NextGen Healthcare
  • Qvera

To gain the ConCert by HIMSS mark for the certified products, each vendor completed a rigorous testing program to demonstrate that the product is interoperable with other products and can enable the secure, reliable, efficient and seamless transfer of data within and across organizational and state boundaries.

“In less than a year, seven vendors have responded successfully to the exciting opportunity to advance products meeting Concert by HIMSS’ rigorous standards,” said Joyce Sensmeier, vice president, informatics, HIMSS North America. “As a result, their certified products will be in the spotlight at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase’s Testing and Certification Vignette, where HIMSS16 attendees will be able to see firsthand how certified products facilitate data exchange leading to the best point-of-care decisions and most optimal patient outcomes.”

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Michael F. Arrigo

Michael Arrigo, an expert witness, and healthcare executive, brings four decades of experience in the software, financial services, and healthcare industries. In 2000, Mr. Arrigo founded No World Borders, a healthcare data, regulations, and economics firm with clients in the pharmaceutical, medical device, hospital, surgical center, physician group, diagnostic imaging, genetic testing, health I.T., and health insurance markets. His expertise spans the federal health programs Medicare and Medicaid and private insurance. He advises Medicare Advantage Organizations that provide health insurance under Part C of the Medicare Act. Mr. Arrigo serves as an expert witness regarding medical coding and billing, fraud damages, and electronic health record software for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has valued well over $1 billion in medical billings in personal injury liens, malpractice, and insurance fraud cases. The U.S. Court of Appeals considered Mr. Arrigo's opinion regarding loss amounts, vacating, and remanding sentencing in a fraud case. Mr. Arrigo provides expertise in the Medicare Secondary Payer Act, Medicare LCDs, anti-trust litigation, medical intellectual property and trade secrets, HIPAA privacy, health care electronic claim data Standards, physician compensation, Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark law, the Affordable Care Act, False Claims Act, and the ARRA HITECH Act. Arrigo advises investors on merger and acquisition (M&A) diligence in the healthcare industry on transactions cumulatively valued at over $1 billion. Mr. Arrigo spent over ten years in Silicon Valley software firms in roles from Product Manager to CEO. He was product manager for a leading-edge database technology joint venture that became commercialized as Microsoft SQL Server, Vice President of Marketing for a software company when it grew from under $2 million in revenue to a $50 million acquisition by a company now merged into Cincom Systems, hired by private equity investors to serve as Vice President of Marketing for a secure email software company until its acquisition and multi $million investor exit by a company now merged into Axway Software S.A. (Euronext: AXW.PA), and CEO of one of the first cloud-based billing software companies, licensing its technology to Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS). Later, before entering the healthcare industry, he joined Fortune 500 company Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) as a Vice President, overseeing eCommerce solutions for the mortgage banking industry. While serving as a Vice President at Fortune 500 company First American Financial (NYSE: FAF), he oversaw eCommerce and regulatory compliance technology initiatives for the top ten mortgage banks and led the Sarbanes Oxley Act Section 302 internal controls I.T. audit for the company, supporting Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. Mr. Arrigo earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. Before that, he studied computer science, statistics, and economics at the University of California, Irvine. His post-graduate studies include biomedical ethics at Harvard Medical School, biomedical informatics at Stanford Medical School, blockchain and crypto-economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and training as a Certified Professional Medical Auditor (CPMA). Mr. Arrigo is qualified to serve as a director due to his experience in healthcare data, regulations, and economics, his leadership roles in software and financial services public companies, and his healthcare M&A diligence and public company regulatory experience. Mr. Arrigo is quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Kaiser Health News, Consumer Affairs, National Public Radio (NPR), NBC News Houston, USA Today / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Medical Economics, Capitol ForumThe Daily Beast, the Lund Report, Inside Higher Ed, New England Psychologist, and other press and media outlets. He authored a peer-reviewed article regarding clinical documentation quality to support accurate medical coding, billing, and good patient care, published by Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and published in Healthcare I.T. News. Mr. Arrigo serves as a member of the board of directors of a publicly traded company in the healthcare and data analytics industry, where his duties include: member, audit committee; chair, compensation committee; member, special committee.