Becker's Hospital Review

51 CIO / HEALTH IT Cerner fraudster dies in custody hours after conviction By Julie Spitzer H ours aer a federal jury convict- ed Suresh Mitta for his role in an elaborate fraud scheme that involved selling fake MRI equipment to Dallas Medical Center, he died in U.S. Marshals custody, Dal- las News reported. While Mr. Mitta was being held in a cell with other prisoners shortly aer the jury handed down his conviction, he suffered what au- thorities said appeared to be a seizure and died at a nearby hospital shortly aer. Mr. Mitta was found guilty May 15, and a sen- tencing hearing had not yet been scheduled when he passed away. Mr. Mitta and a group of five other con- spirators — led by Albert Davis — devel- oped and operated a business that imper- sonated the North Kansas City, Mo.-based EHR vendor Cerner to manipulate business transactions and court proceedings for per- sonal gain. As part of the scheme, the fake Cerner attempted to sell a "new" MRI sys- tem to DMC, and believing the company was the real Cerner, DMC paid the conspir- ators more than $1 million for a device it never received. DMC was just a sliver of the damage the fake Cerner caused. Between August 2008 and February 2015, several of the conspirators' victims lost millions of dollars. Mr. Davis pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme in a separate but related case, and the four other conspirators have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced in sim- ilar cases. Chief Deputy Scott Seeling of the U.S. Mar- shals' office told Dallas News there was no "obvious sign" of trauma on Mr. Mitta's body. He faced up to 20 years in federal prison without parole. n KLAS: Which health IT consulting firms exceed hospitals' expectations? By Jessica Kim Cohen F ifty-nine percent of provider organiza- tions indicate the IT assessment and strategic planning firm they worked with exceeded their expectations, accord- ing to a KLAS Research report released in May. For the report, the health IT research firm in- terviewed leaders from 83 provider organi- zations that had recently completed or were involved in an IT assessment or strategy project to determine their attitudes toward the consulting firm they hired. More than two-thirds of clients who worked with Cumberland Consulting Group or emids Technologies indicated the firm had exceeded their expectations. Less than 51 percent of clients who worked with The Chartis Group, Deloitte or Impact Advisors said the firm exceeded their expectations. The market average, according to KLAS Re- search, is 51 to 67 percent of clients report- ing a firm exceeded expectations. Health IT assessment and strategic planning firms like Nordic Consulting and PwC were within this window. n Meditech posts 4% rise in revenue for Q1 2018: 4 things to know By Jessica Kim Cohen M editech filed its earnings results for the first quarter of 2018 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission April 30. Here are four things to know about the company's performance: 1. Meditech posted $122.37 million in revenue for the first quarter, up 4.5 percent from $117.15 million during the same period last year. 2. The company reported $41.92 million in product revenue, up 20.5 percent from $34.78 million during the first quarter of 2017. 3. Meditech posted $80.45 million in service revenue, down 2.3 percent from $82.37 million the company posted during the same period last year. 4. The company reported a net income of $2.82 million during the first quarter, down 80.5 percent from the company's net income of $14.51 million during the first quarter of 2017. In an emailed statement to Becker's Hospital Review May 23, a Meditech spokesperson added, "starting in 2018, new accounting procedures re- quired Meditech to record any changes within our marketable securi- ties within other income and expenses. This newly required accounting practice has led to skewed results for our statements of income. With changes in marketable securities now reported in statements of income, we will see fluctuations to net income (positive and negative) based on how the market and our portfolio is performing. We believe many com- panies, both inside and outside of healthcare, are similarly affected." He added Meditech refers to operating income as its "key indicator of ... financial health." Meditech posted $15.77 million in operating income during the first quarter of 2018, up 19 percent from $13.25 million one year prior. n

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