Healthcare system gets hi-tech

Cerner, a healthcare IT company, has seen its shares climb more than 50% since early March due to the $787 billion federal stimulus package to encourage e-billing, says The Wall Street Journal.

The goal of the electronic-records provisions is to make the sprawling US healthcare system more efficient, less costly and safer. Besides incentives for wider use of electronic records, the stimulus package penalises providers that don't make the effort.

Spending on healthcare is projected to top $2.5 trillion this year, or 17.6% of gross domestic product, according to the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Mitratech, provider in legal management applications, says it will offer its clients subscription-based pricing for on-premise deployments of the company's TeamConnect software, reports Earth Times.

The suite includes modules for e-billing, litigation holds, and service-of-process management, is used by many of the world's largest corporations to manage complex legal operations.

Afshin Behnia, CEO of Mitratech, says: "In this environment, our goal is to provide our clients the solutions they need to maximise control and visibility of their legal, compliance, and regulatory operations, but with a pricing option that helps their bottom line and minimises capital expenditure."

CarterEnergy has selected DTN, a business-to-business provider of real-time market, news and weather information services, as its premier source for electronic bills, states Convenience Store News.

CarterEnergy is generating more than 60% of its customer invoices using electronic data versus 0% at the end of 2008.

The team is working with DTN to close the remaining gap by the end of the year.