HIStalk Practice Interviews Perry Solomon, MD CMO, HelloMD

Perry Solomon, MD is CMO of HelloMD, a San Francisco-based company that recently pivoted from offering general telemedicine services to focusing solely on digital health services for the medical marijuana industry.

What factors contributed to the decision to pivot the company from a more general telemedicine company to one specifically for medical marijuana users?
Telemedicine and digital healthcare generally are a multi-billion dollar industry, and in many ways represent the future of medicine in America. It’s already a crowed market, with thousands of startups and some very well-funded players. Even Walgreens recently got into the game with their telehealth consultations through pharmacy locations. We pivoted from this initial focus –  where we were a smaller player –  to be the first digital healthcare platform for the cannabis market. We saw a blue ocean opportunity, and we already had the platform that could be applied for a rapid start. The response was immediate and overwhelming. We are now the leading digital healthcare platform for medical marijuana patients, and we continue to innovate in that direction.

How does the new business model work?
Patients buy an annual membership (priced at $49), which includes the doctor’s consultation; online follow up during the year; as well as access to deals, product advice, and other benefits. We ensure they are in compliance with all local laws, and we maintain an online medical history in our HIPAA-compliant database. Many people entering the cannabis market for the first time are looking for advice on product selection, retailer recommendations, and quality medical advice. Our focus is in the emerging demographic of non-traditional marijuana users – moms, dads, professionals, and the elderly.

Why does your website refer to “recommendations” rather than prescriptions?
Since cannabis is classified at this time by the FDA as a Schedule l drug, a physician is not able to prescribe it. A recommendation is what is required to obtain it from a dispensary.

How many states does HelloMD offer its services in? Do you anticipate expanding to more in the near future?
At the current time, telemedicine evaluations of patients for medicinal cannabis are only allowed in California and Nevada. Hopefully in the near future other states will realize telemedicine opens access to people who cannot find physicians close to them to provide this service. We plan on opening physical offices in states where telemedicine is not allowed for medical cannabis recommendations.

Did the company’s focus on technology change with this decision?
By having secure and HIPAA-compliant video conferencing, we are at the forefront of patient engagement. We will be releasing our mobile application within the next two weeks.

How do you foresee this market – telemedicine for easy and secure access to medical marijuana dispensaries – growing?
Since we are not a dispensary, we have partnered with ones that are leaders in the field of obtaining the best products that have been tested for quality and purity, so that the patients are assured that what they are putting in the body is safe and contains what is stated on the label.

As more people realize that they can get a qualified physician to evaluate them from the comfort and privacy of their home or other location convenient to them, we know that the market will expand. By creating access for people that don’t want to travel to undesirable areas of town, have transport issues, find it hard to arrange transport, are in retirement communities and are housebound, or for any other reason that they want to reach out online, we are confident that this will grow. Over the past few months we have seen an explosion of demand and don’t foresee it slowing down.

What has patient reception been like over the last several months?
Reception has been phenomenal. The feedback from patients who realize that they can see a physician without traveling, parking, waiting in an office, etc. has been nothing but positive. As I mentioned above, our key focus is increasing access for patients to help them with their medical issues by the most convenient and seamless way possible.

How do you envision telemedicine and other digital health technologies advancing patient access to cannabis treatments?
By making available evaluations of patients by telemedicine, this will increase access to care tremendously. At HelloMD, we feel that having a community of patients who can communicate with each other regarding what treatments work for their individual medical condition is also key. We are having sections of our site dedicated to feedback from patients on all aspects of their experiences with medicinal cannabis.

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

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News 8/26/15

Top News

CVS Health partners with top telemedicine competitors American Well, Doctor on Demand, and Teladoc on several pilot projects, including offering virtual consults via its digital platforms and enabling its MinuteClinic providers to consult with telemedicine physicians. The company’s announcement comes on the heels of research that determined 95 percent of its telemedicine patients were highly satisfied with the quality of care received. The company began offering telemedicine services in late 2013 at its clinics in Texas and California.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Practice Platinum Sponsor Stanson Health, which is also sponsoring HIStalk at the Platinum level. The Los Angeles-based company provides easily implemented, intelligent clinical-decision support delivered at the point of care. Evidence-based content targets unnecessary tests and treatments while supporting Choosing Wisely and PQRS, while analytics helps organizations understand ordering patterns and identify opportunities. The company’s advanced imaging content works with any source of appropriate use criteria to reduce unnecessary imaging, inspecting 30 patient-specific data elements to minimize interruptions while tripling the inappropriate order cancellation rate compared to competitors. Cedars-Sinai Health System is saving $6 million per year after adding Stanson-powered Choosing Wisely recommendations into Epic (example: ordering an antibiotic for a patient with bronchitis issues a reminder that they don’t work for viral infections). The company also understands that patients may resist the “less medicine is sometimes better” message and has licensed content from Consumer Reports to provide them with friendly educational material. Stanson Health was co-founded by Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH (formerly co-founder and CEO of Zynx Health, now SVP/chief clinical transformation officer at Cedars-Sinai) and Darren Dworkin (SVP/CIO of Cedars-Sinai). Thanks to Stanson Health for supporting HIStalk Practice and HIStalk.

Webinars

September 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Need to cleanse, unify and manage the provider data in your EMR master file and other IT systems?” Phynd’s Unified Provider Management platform allows healthcare organizations to maintain a single, verified, customized profile for each provider across legacy IT systems. This 30-minute presentation will explain how Phynd’s system can help synchronize internal provider information in real time; create provider interoperability among systems; and manage, update, and analyze provider information with workflow tools to improve revenue cycle and clinical communication.

Previous webinars are on the YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for webinar services including discounts for signing up by Labor Day.

Vince Ciotti and Frank Poggio presented an engaging and refreshing opinionated HIStalk webinar yesterday on the DoD HER bid and how it affect Cerner, Epic, and everybody else. They also spent a good bit of time offering advice to Siemens clients looking to break out into new vendor territory. Their slides alone are worth a look. HIStalk readers can also take advantage of the recorded presentation above.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Health WildCatters welcomes the third class of startups to its Dallas-based accelerator program, pointing out that female entrepreneurs lead half of the fledgling companies. Participants receive $30,000 in seed money with the potential for up to $250,000 in further funding. Plano, TX-based participant Insight Optics seems to be the only company specifically targeting physician practices, with mobile-imaging IT that enables PCPs to record fundus exams and forward results to ophthalmologists for review.

Telemedicine

SkyMD integrates DoseSpot e-prescribing technology into its specialty-specific telemedicine software, achieving Surescripts certification along the way.

Ghana’s Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Union brings telemedicine to 100,000 cocoa farmers as part of a pilot project that will be conducted in three regions of the west African nation. The union will conduct the pilot alongside a mobile clinic program launched earlier this year.

Announcements and Implementations

The Medical Society of New Jersey offers its members discounted pricing on MedXCom cloud-based nightcall technology, accessible via smartphone app. MedXCom was founded in 2010 by three New Jersey-based physicians, including former Meridian EMR VP Michael Rothkopf.

Worksite health clinic chain Premise Health sees success with partners Greenway Health and EHealth Exchange in establishing bi-directional data exchange between its Portland-based Intel Corp. clinics and area providers who utilize Greenway and Epic systems, including Providence Health & Services, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, and The Portland Clinics. Over 26,000 data sets of patient information have been exchanged via CCDA thus far, prompting the roll out of a similar program in Arizona.

Government and Politics

CMS releases 2014 quality and financial performance results for Pioneer ACOs and MSSP participants. Both groups showed improvements in 27 out of 33 quality measures, yet delivered fewer savings in 2014 than in 2013, declining from $417 million to $411 million. AMGA President and CEO Donald Fisher was quick to point out there’s definitely room for improvement: “We appreciate the tremendous efforts our medical group members have made to improve the care for their Medicare patients through the Shared Savings Program and the Pioneer ACO Program. Some of them have been able to share in savings while improving patient care, while others, despite their significant investments in improved care processes and quality initiatives, have not realized any shared savings. These results point to the need for continued refinements to the ACO program framework, and AMGA is committed to working with CMS and Congress to pave the way for medical groups to succeed as ACOs.”

Research and Innovation

Researchers find low utilization of 20 glucose-tracking smartphone apps by Spanish-speaking diabetics, a statistic made all the dire when the number of Spanish apps is considered – just 35 percent of those in the Apple and Google app stores are available in that language. In addition to an overall greater need for health literacy and education in Spanish, researchers conclude that developers increase glucometer connections to the apps and improve reminder alerts.

Other

St. Louis Public Radio highlights the stumbling blocks faced by President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, including inadequate funding for enrollment and the unknown role Medicaid and Medicare will play in reimbursing participants for genetic sequencing once precision medicine is here to stay. The biggest hindrance may come from EHRs, according to Washington University’s Professor Sarah Gehlert, who notes that low-income patients may not have an existing or cohesive enough EHR to contribute to the cause. “This million-person group needs to be representative,” she explains, “and it needs to include people who are experiencing disparities.”

USA Today shines its healthcare spotlight on Las Vegas-based Turntable Health, a practice that “doesn’t feel like a funeral home, like most doctor’s offices,” according to one patient. The primary care clinic has received its fair share of press thanks in large part to the viral marketing of its founder, Zubin Damania, MD (aka ZDoggMD), and its role in the city’s Downtown Project, a $350 million initiative created by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh that is working (some would say sluggishly) to create an arts and tech hub on the Strip. (I didn’t realize the Millenial-friendly practice is managed by primary care chain Iora Health. You can check out my interview with CEO Rushika Fernandopulle, MD here.)

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD offers “PRM Software Capabilities, part 2 of 2.”
• Stanson Health will exhibit at UHC’s annual conference in Orlando and will participate in its Member Innovation Expo and Reception on October 1.
• Culbert Healthcare Solutions offers “The Defining Moments Leading Up to ICD-10.”

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 8/25/15

Top News

CMS publishes the July 2015 Meaningful Use update: 306,000 EPs and 4,400 EHs have attested to MU Stage 1, while 56,000 EPs and 1,500 EHs have attested for Stage 2. $31.3 billion has been paid out to date.

Webinars

September 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Need to cleanse, unify and manage the provider data in your EMR master file and other IT systems?” Phynd’s Unified Provider Management platform allows healthcare organizations to maintain a single, verified, customized profile for each provider across legacy IT systems. This 30-minute presentation will explain how Phynd’s system can help synchronize internal provider information in real time; create provider interoperability among systems; and manage, update, and analyze provider information with workflow tools to improve revenue cycle and clinical communication.

Previous webinars are on the YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for webinar services including discounts for signing up by Labor Day.

Announcements and Implementations

Arete Urgent Care (TX) selects DocuTap’s EHR and PM software for implementation across its five walk-in clinics.

Jopari Solutions incorporates One Call Care Management’s EZ-Auth expedited authorization and scheduling service into its provider portal to streamline worker compensation processes.

The Washington Technology Industry Association paves presumably new ground by creating health plan packages for its small- and mid-sized tech company members. Created in partnership with Premera Blue Cross, the plans meet WTIA member requests for personal health coaching, telemedicine, wearable devices, and on-site care at the workplace – all features their current health plans don’t offer and that will likely attract top talent. The association is working to roll offer additional plan benefits, including out on-site exercise centers, neighborhood health clinics, and online physician reviews, through a phased approach with help from business and provider partners.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Management consulting firm Practice Works MD opens a new office (presumably its first) in Sarasota, FL. President Karen Vale founded the company last year after a 10-year stint with Partners in Practice, which she sold in 2009 to Origin Healthcare Solutions.

Government and Politics

CMS schedules three September webinars to help physicians understand how their measures may be publicly reported on the Physician Compare website.

Telemedicine

The Iowa Clinic selects the VirtuMedix platform from TeleCommunication Systems to provide telemedicine care via its new eClinic service. The clinic cares for 400,000 patients annually across 37 specialties including family medicine.

The Dallas Observer points out the dismal healthcare quality rankings of Texas, which beat out only Louisiana and Oklahoma in annual HHS rankings – an honor the paper deems “the rough equivalent of beating a couple of asthmatic 4-year-olds in a foot race.” The state scored particularly low in hospital admissions for uncontrolled diabetes without complications and avoidable admissions for hypertension, two categories of care that could likely benefit from the integration of telemedicine. While the state has loosened up its regulations where school-based telemedicine is concerned, the legal wrangling continues over licensure and reimbursement issues that would promote widespread adoption by Texas physicians. 

Research and Innovation

Researchers conclude that EHR-based trigger algorithms that identify patients at risk of diagnostic delays stand a good chance of preventing delays in diagnostic evaluation for cancer. A seven-month study with 72 PCPs at two sites found that time to evaluation was significantly lower in intervention patients than in control patients, leading researchers to conclude the algorithm may be beneficial in screening patients with other conditions.

Other

Following news of the Dow’s plunge, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sends an email to employees encouraging them to keep customer worries and company success top of mind. Imagine how this portion would read if you replaced “customer” with “patient.” I can’t help but think of the impact it would have on provider teams if they received a message like this every once in awhile from their executive leadership.

“Our customers are likely to experience an increased level of anxiety and concern. Please recognize this and – as you always have – remember that our success is not an entitlement, but something we need to earn, every day. Let’s be very sensitive to the pressures our customers may be feeling, and do everything we can to individually and collectively exceed their expectations.”

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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5 Questions With Mike Kasper, CEO, DuPage Medical Group

Mike Kasper is CEO of DuPage Medical Group, the largest independent physicians group in Chicago. DMG recently announced a partnership with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois that will enable its 425 physicians to access BCBSIL data on the cost and quality of services patients receive when they receive care outside of the group. In addition to slicing and dicing BCBSIL data, DMG is preparing to roll out ICD-10 and integrate the IT systems of Meridian Medical Associates, a multispecialty medical practice with seven locations in Illinois that it will formally acquire on October 1. The group is also busy working on offering telemedicine visits to its pediatric patients this fall. The Epic shop has been offering video visits to its adult patients through MyChart since February 2015.

What will the BCBSIL agreement mean to DMG physicians? What impact will the data arrangement have on patient care?
The agreement with BCBSIL is unique in that for the first time, a payer and provider will collaborate and share data to ensure our physicians are armed with information on what sites of service offer the best quality, outcomes, and safety for patients. BCBSIL has a claims view of services, which really helps define performance at a high level, while the EHR view of the patient provides a more complete clinical view patient by patient. Melding these two perspectives together will provide a complete view for our doctors to make the best decisions for patients at the point of service.  This value-based approach will also help guide patients to safe, convenient, accessible sites for services.

How will access to this data impact DMG’s bottom line? Do you expect to see an uptick in incentive payments?
The collaboration will help DMG doctors provide the right service at the right time in the right place. This will improve quality and decrease cost of care; as improvement is demonstrated there is an opportunity for DMG to be recognized financially.

How does DMG receive the data, and how often is it received/updated?
There will be some raw exchange of data, but the goal is to have each organization use their unique data set to come up with actionable items based on the analysis each of us perform.

I know you’re only a few weeks in, but have you already seen any type of claims data that has surprised you?
We have started to share information, and the most interesting/important insight is that lower unit-cost pricing at the facility level does not equal a lower overall cost of care. Once you start to factor in avoidable complications, like 30-day readmissions for the same diagnosis, or infection rates, unit-cost pricing becomes less important. Those facilities that provide the highest quality and safety become the most cost effective, even if they are not the lowest unit-cost option.

How will DMG incorporate technology to interpret and act upon the data?
DMG will use analytics and other dashboard-type tools to help us visualize the data and put it to use in a meaningful way to positively improve the patient experience.

What goals do you have for this new arrangement? Any advice to share with other independent physician groups who may be looking at the same type of partnership in their markets?
BCBSIL is making a bold statement with this agreement. They are recognizing the value of the independent physician in the system. Independent doctors are free to pursue the highest quality/lowest cost options in the market without having the conflict that hospital-employed physicians face. Employed physicians are bound to the facility they are employed by; independent doctors are not.

Advice for others – DMG has been on a multi-year journey and we have stayed true to our doctor-directed roots. If independent physicians come together and commit to providing high quality, high value healthcare services, they will create an opportunity to work more closely with payers.

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.
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News 8/24/15

Top News

After a flurry of mostly negative press last week over the company’s downplayed CEO switch, Practice Fusion announces partnerships with Theranos and outpatient imaging services company RadNet via a Forbes editorial penned by Lenox Hill Hospital (NY) physician Robert Glatter, MD. (Glatter’s over-the-top flattery immediately made me question his ties to the company. After some diligent Googling, I could find no record of a previous or current connection.) The article is scant on details of how the partnerships will work moving forward, thought it does offer interim CEO Tom Langan an opportunity to flex his newly acquired executive muscles. He assures readers in a slightly more detailed press release that, “With nearly 1 million lab and imaging transmissions a month facilitated on the Practice Fusion platform, we are excited about the value that the Theranos and RadNet partnership can help provide as we continue to be the nation’s largest and fastest-growing healthcare platform.”

Webinars

August 25 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Cerner’s Takeover of Siemens: An Update (Including the DoD Project).” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenters: Vince Ciotti, principal, HIS Professionals; Frank Poggio, president and CEO, The Kelzon Group. Vince and Frank delivered HIStalk’s most popular webinar, "Cerner’s Takeover of Siemens, Are You Ready?" which has been viewed nearly 6,000 times. Vince and Frank return with their brutally honest (and often humorous) opinions about what has happened with Cerner since then, including its participation in the successful DoD bid and what that might mean for Cerner’s customers and competitors, based on their having seen it all in their decades of experience.

September 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Need to cleanse, unify and manage the provider data in your EMR master file and other IT systems?” Phynd’s Unified Provider Management platform allows healthcare organizations to maintain a single, verified, customized profile for each provider across legacy IT systems. This 30-minute presentation will explain how Phynd’s system can help synchronize internal provider information in real time; create provider interoperability among systems; and manage, update, and analyze provider information with workflow tools to improve revenue cycle and clinical communication.

Previous webinars are on the YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for webinar services including discounts for signing up by Labor Day.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

New York City-based Jaan Health secures up to $1 million from Malin Corp., a  global life sciences business based in Ireland. Jaan Health will no doubt use the funding to ramp up development of its Web-based Phamily community care coordination platform. CEO Nabeel Kaukab comes from Barclays Investment Bank, continuing the dicey tradition of industry outsiders looking to cash in on what seems like the easy in of digital health.

SkinVision, an Amsterdam-based startup that has developed a skin cancer detection app, secures $3.4 million in funding from European pharmaceutical company Leo Pharma. The company has hinted it’s looking to expand into the U.S. healthcare market as a result of the new financing, but it may find regulatory hurdles too burdensome to deal with.  The FTC has been quick to crack down on similar apps in the U.S., including MelApp and Mole Detective, for unsubstantiated marketing claims.

Announcements and Implementations

Genesis Chiropractic Software releases the Genesis GEMs Plus adaptable tool to help chiropractic practices before, during, and after the ICD-10 transition.

Zoom+ takes urgent care one step further with the opening of its Zoom+Super facility in Portland. Billed as an alternative to traditional ERs, the center offers “ER doctors on demand,” with complete treatment costs including labs, X-rays, scans, and medications coming in at a nice round $299.

Telemedicine

HealthSpot incorporates Samsung’s LabGeo PT10 clinical chemistry analyzer to offer lab services at its telemedicine kiosks. Pending FDA approval, HealthSpot patients will be able to obtain blood tests for cholesterol, diabetes , and liver tests in under 7 minutes, with results automatically submitted to their EHR and PHR.

The Colorado Medical Board adopts telemedicine-friendly legislation that allows physicians to treat first-time patients online “so long as the relationship is established in conformance with generally accepted standards of practice.”

Texas passes legislation that will reimburse physicians for school-based telemedicine, provided students covered by Medicaid. The law, which goes into effect September 1, follows in the footsteps of similar programs in New Mexico and Georgia.

Government and Politics

The Federation of State Medical Boards relaunches Docinfo, an online search tool that presents consumers with licensure and disciplinary information on nearly 1 million physicians across the country.

Other

Physicians in Coachella Valley, CA find success with Eisenhower Primary Care 365, a direct primary care program that offers, among other benefits, constant email access via RelayHealth to participating physicians at less than half the price of concierge practices. Founded in 2009 as a way to lure local physicians away from proliferating and increasingly competitive concierge practices, the program now has 14 physicians caring for 6,500 patients at four locations in the valley.

Banksy, the reclusive yet prolific urban artist who has made a name for himself (or themselves) via various forms of social-awareness-raising street art, opens Dismaland in Weston-super-mare, an English coastal town that has definitely seen better days. Billed as “the U.K.’s most disappointing new visitor attraction,” the pop-up art exhibition covers 2.5 acres and brings new meaning to the term “theme park.” (You have to wonder what the first aid station looks like.)

Contacts

Jennifer,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.