HealthStar Physicians, a multi-specialty physician group serving Eastern Tennessee, has selected three of health IT developer athenahealths cloud-based services.

The overall heart failure (HF) hospitalization rate for Medicare patients dropped nearly 30 percent between 1998 and 2008, according to a study published Oct. 19 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, but the improvement was not shared by all races or geographic regions. Overall, one-year mortality rates also dipped modestly but still remained high, suggesting that more work needs to be done to achieve better outcomes, the lead investigator told Cardiovascular Business in an interview.

Despite pockets of improvement, the U.S. healthcare system as a whole failed to improve when compared to best performers in the U.S., and among other nations, according to the third national scorecard report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission. The U.S. healthcare system scored 64 out of 100 on key measures of performance, the New York City-based nonprofit added.

3M Health Information Systems introduced the 3M 360 Encompass System, a software application that connects and automates coding, clinical documentation improvement (CDI) and performance monitoring.

While merger and acquisition activity may have slowed down in other industries, in the healthcare industry, 2011 merger and acquisition activity is poised to surpass last years results by about 20 percent, according to a report from Irving Levin Associates.

MedData, a provider of medical billing services, has acquired Peoria, Ill.-based Data Management, which provides physician billing services to pathologists and emergency departments.

Three unencrypted computer backup tapes containing patient billing and employee payroll data have been reported missing from a Nemours facility in Wilmington, Del., according to the health system.

Patients demand their medical records to be guaranteed against data theft and snooping, according to a survey from healthcare privacy auditing supplier Fair Warning.