News 1/16/19

Top News

CVS CEO Larry Merlo tells the National Press Club that the retail pharmacy chain has a bold vision for its role in the healthcare ecosystem now that its Aetna acquisition has been finalized. According to Merlo, the company will add wearable devices, push notifications, and predictive analytics to its health IT repertoire, which already includes prescription price transparency tools from within its Epic EHR. New concept stores will feature these capabilities in action, giving customers access to patient navigators who can help them act on preventive recommendations, take advantage of immunizations and screenings for chronic conditions from pharmacists, and better understand CVS Health services and their insurance benefits.

The company will also launch a five-year, $100 million program that will partner with community organizations to help improve access to care and management of chronic conditions and opioids through its chain of MinuteClinics. CVS will provide grant funding to more than 100 free clinics and community health centers in 2019 alone.

Webinars

January 17 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Panel Discussion: Improving Clinician Satisfaction & Driving Outcomes.” Sponsor: Netsmart. Presenters: Denny Morrison, PhD, chief clinical advisor, Netsmart; Mary Gannon, RN, chief nursing officer, Netsmart; Sharon Boesl, deputy director, Sauk County Human Services; and Allen Pendell, SVP of IS and analytics, Lexington Health Network. This panel discussion will cover the state of clinician satisfaction across post-acute and human services communities, turnover trends, strategies that drive clinical engagement and satisfaction, and the use of technology that supports those strategies. Real-world examples will be provided.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Atlanta-based Aetna members can now take advantage of Heal’s app-based house call service. It is the first new market for the California-based company since it launched in 2015.

Clinical communications and collaboration company PerfectServe acquires competitor Telmediq for an undisclosed sum. Telmediq founder and CEO Ben Moore will become PerfectServe’s chief product officer. PerfectServe was acquired by K1 Investment Management last year.

Announcements and Implementations

ChiroFusion adds online scheduling to its EHR for chiropractors.

Government and Politics

Canadian physician and professor Nav Persaud argues for a national EHR for primary care to improve data sharing between institutions. “If we are truly committed to improving the health of Canadians,” he says, “a bold move such as this is needed.” Persaud cites the VA and Singapore as shining examples of organizations that have successfully adopted single-record systems, omitting mention of the VA’s decision to spend billions of dollars on a new system from Cerner, and the 2018 SingHealth data breach that compromised the data of 1.5 million patients and resulted in several staff members being fired for negligence.

Other

The American College of Physicians includes for the first time sections on telemedicine and EHRs in its annual ethics manual. A snippet:

“The EHR should assist and enhance clinical reasoning and the development of cognitive and diagnostic skills; for example, copy-and-paste and other features should be used carefully and only if they help reflect the physician’s thought processes about the current patient encounter and produce an accurate and complete medical record that meets ethical standards. Electronic health record information retrieval, exchange, and remote access can improve care, but also create risks, including unauthorized disclosure and use of protected health information.”

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Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/14/19

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In Canada, primary care-focused health IT company Premier Health acquires EHR and RCM vendor Cloud Practice for $5 million.

Webinars

January 17 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Panel Discussion: Improving Clinician Satisfaction & Driving Outcomes.” Sponsor: Netsmart. Presenters: Denny Morrison, PhD, chief clinical advisor, Netsmart; Mary Gannon, RN, chief nursing officer, Netsmart; Sharon Boesl, deputy director, Sauk County Human Services; and Allen Pendell, SVP of IS and analytics, Lexington Health Network. This panel discussion will cover the state of clinician satisfaction across post-acute and human services communities, turnover trends, strategies that drive clinical engagement and satisfaction, and the use of technology that supports those strategies. Real-world examples will be provided.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Announcements and Implementations

The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services will implement Cerner Millenium at its 13 facilities.

Chesapeake Health Care, an FQHC based in Salisbury, MD, decreases patient check-in time by 50 percent after implementing kiosks and software from Clearwave.

Government and Politics

HIPAA compliance company PCIHIPAA establishes a $10,000 Shutdown Fund to help government employees during the record-breaking shutdown (now in its 24th day). “I’d like to encourage all businesses to try and help the workers that help us,” says PCIHIPAA CEO Jeff Broudy. “Maybe you can establish your own fund, or you can pile on to PCIHIPAA’s. We can join forces to do something good during a bad situation.”

The New Jersey Department of Health will use a $2.3 million grant from HRSA to develop the Family-Centered Mental Health Access Program, which will provide telemedicine access to pediatric primary, behavioral, and mental healthcare through the state’s Pediatric Psychiatry Collaborative. Organized by Hackensack Meridian Health and Cooper University Hospital, PCC works with PCPs to help refer patients to the most appropriate services.

Other

@Cascadia’s observation is an apt one, though one could argue that physician practices are operating on razor-thin margins these days, and can’t afford not to be blatant about their need for prompt payment.

Sponsor Updates

• The Nordic team continues its partnership with The River Food Pantry in Madison, WI.
• EClinicalWorks publishes a podcast titled “How Interoperability Fine-tunes a Neurology Network.”

Blog Posts

• Meeting the communication needs of today’s care teams: An interview with CEO Terry Edwards (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/9/19

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Kindred Healthcare offshoot Lacuna Health acquires American Chronic Care, which provides chronic care management technology and services to ACOs, FQHCs, and physician groups. Lacuna was launched one year ago to offer care management services to practices, ACOs, hospitals, and post-acute providers.

Webinars

January 17 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Panel Discussion: Improving Clinician Satisfaction & Driving Outcomes.” Sponsor: Netsmart. Presenters: Denny Morrison, PhD, chief clinical advisor, Netsmart; Mary Gannon, RN, chief nursing officer, Netsmart; Sharon Boesl, deputy director, Sauk County Human Services; and Allen Pendell, SVP of IS and analytics, Lexington Health Network. This panel discussion will cover the state of clinician satisfaction across post-acute and human services communities, turnover trends, strategies that drive clinical engagement and satisfaction, and the use of technology that supports those strategies. Real-world examples will be provided.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Digital pregnancy management company Babyscripts raises $6 million in a funding round led by Philips. The company hopes to expand its remote monitoring and patient engagement technologies to accommodate mothers after birth.

Announcements and Implementations

Rockford Radiology Associates (IL) selects RCM software and services from Zotec Partners.

McFarland Clinic will implement patient engagement software from Relatient across its 25 clinics in Iowa.

Health Here announces GA of Clinic Q, a patient intake and payments app that also features Apple Health record integration.

In Georgia, SouthCoast Health signs on with practice management company Privia Medical Group.

People

Iora Health names Tyler Jung, MD (Molina Healthcare) CMO.

Telemedicine

Q2i adds telemedicine capabilities to its patient app and care team portal for the medication-assisted treatment of opioid use disorder.

First announced last fall, Genneve begins offering virtual consults for menopausal women in California, Georgia, New Jersey, and Washington. It plans to expand its telemedicine services to all 50 states within the next year.

Other

I’m always up for a good read, and I’m always intrigued by tales from the physician trenches, which often end up being about much more than the diagnosis. If you’re looking for new titles to read in 2019, check out the following …

Physician burnout seems to be a hot literary topic these days. Part-time physician, author, and “recovering perfectionist” Amaryllis Sánchez Wohlever, MD has penned “Recapturing Joy in Medicine” to offer providers stories and tips on how to prevent or handle burnout. Wohlever says that, “It’s a book that acknowledges how hard things are for doctors, but at the same time calls us out to rise and to have the courage to speak up in our organizations. We need to call out abuse when it’s abuse. We need to lead again.”

Some physicians, however, turn to their patients to inspire their literary endeavors: Chuck Radis, will recount his time as a DO on Peaks Island in Maine when he publishes “Go By Boat.” Described as the first in a trilogy that will focus on people, nature, and medical care, the book promises to highlight his unique experiences in traveling by boat to treat people who wanted to avoid mainland healthcare at all costs. “There was a dramatic mixture of health on the islands,” Radis says. “Certainly there were high rates of alcoholism and drug use on one hand of the spectrum. On the other end, there were very elderly people still extremely active into their 90s and living alone.”

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD announces the winners of its annual Healthcare Innovator of the Year Awards.

Blog Posts

• 5 Tips for Adopting Telemedicine into Your Practice (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/7/19

Top News

Vatica Health acquires CareSync’s care coordination and chronic care management technology. Vatica, which bills itself as a health IT and services company for value-based care, made a $1 million bid to acquire the company’s assets four months after it abruptly closed its doors.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

The balmy weather in my Southeastern neck of the woods belies the fact that it’s early January. It’s a nice change of pace from the rain-soaked weeks that have plagued my area (and tennis game) since what seems like Halloween. Time spent outside this past weekend made me feel as if I had finally come out of hibernation. And speaking of the weather, the forecast looks good for tonight’s championship game. My enthusiasm for this particular bowl game waned after my alma mater’s nail-biting loss last year. (But seriously, it’s the end of a collegiate era now that Mark Richt has announced his retirement.)

Thanks to these companies for recently supporting HIStalk Practice. Click a link for more information.

Webinars

January 17 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Panel Discussion: Improving Clinician Satisfaction & Driving Outcomes.” Sponsor: Netsmart. Presenters: Denny Morrison, PhD, chief clinical advisor, Netsmart; Mary Gannon, RN, chief nursing officer, Netsmart; Sharon Boesl, deputy director, Sauk County Human Services; and Allen Pendell, SVP of IS and analytics, Lexington Health Network. This panel discussion will cover the state of clinician satisfaction across post-acute and human services communities, turnover trends, strategies that drive clinical engagement and satisfaction, and the use of technology that supports those strategies. Real-world examples will be provided.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Announcements and Implementations

In Oregon, addiction treatment and recovery services provider OnTrack Rogue Valley selects EnSoftek’s DrCloudEHR.

ClinicTracker adds Carequality-powered HIE integration capabilities to its EHR for behavioral health.

Modernizing Medicine adds patient communication tools from Relatient to its EHR and practice management software.

Austin Regional Clinic (TX) selects Apple Watch-powered dictation software from Notable Health to help providers cut down on data entry time in its Epic EHR. (Based on the press release, I initially thought Notable had developed software to help providers extract relevant health data from a patient’s Apple Watch and then enter it into their EHR. Now I’m wondering if that software has been developed, and if so, by who.)

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Health IT vendor DAS Health acquires Altex Business Solutions, an EHR and practice management company focused on small practices. It is the Tampa, FL-based company’s sixth acquisition in three years.

In Canada, WELL Health Technologies acquires open-source EHR vendor NerdEMR and Butterfly Medical, which offers NerdEMR support services, for $2.5 million.

People

Grand Rounds names Ami Parekh, MD (University of California at San Francisco) CMO.

Telemedicine

Medici acquires virtual visit competitor Chiron Health (the telemedicine partner of choice for five EHR vendors) for an undisclosed amount. Medici, which has raised $47 million over the last two years, acquired provider-to-provider consult company DocbookMD several months ago.

In an effort to expand the scope of its care, Rancho Neurology and Sleep Medicine (CA) launches a sleep apnea screening program using telemedicine technology from OnDemand Visit.

Other

I know Mr. H gives ride-sharing health IT stories short shrift, but I think this one’s worth paying attention to: Ohio State University plans to launch a pilot program that will provide expectant mothers on Medicaid with app-based rides to medical appointments, grocery stores, and pharmacies. Patients from eight neighborhoods – those with the highest infant mortality rates – will be eligible to participate. The program will be funded with money from the City of Columbus’ $50 million Smart City Challenge prize.

Chaplaincy Health Care notifies 1,000 hospice and behavioral health patients of a privacy breach resulting from an email phishing scheme that compromised some PHI.

An astute car salesman alerts authorities after a man claiming to be a Texas doctor walks in to the dealership and attempts to buy a $73,000 car. Sensing something fishy, the salesman called the doctor’s practice in an effort to confirm his identity. Proving that not all car sales reps are out to take advantage, the salesman contacted police after receiving a photo of the doctor, which didn’t match that of the identity thief’s.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic posts a podcast titled “Preparing for changes to value-based care reimbursement in 2019.”
• AdvancedMD publishes a case study featuring Surgical Specialists of Jackson (MS).

Blog Posts

• Best Practices for Switching EHRs (Aprima)
• How Allina Health used EHR data to increase provider efficiency and satisfaction (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 12/19/18

Top News

Vancouver, WA-based PeaceHealth acquires Portland, OR-based urgent care chain Zoom Care for an undisclosed sum. Zoom opened in 2006 and grew to 425 employees and 37 clinics in Oregon and Washington, with a heavy emphasis on digital health offerings. 

PeaceHealth EVP Mike Dwyer says Zoom’s technology was a big factor in its purchasing decision: “It’s reflecting where society is going. We’ve got to be able to deliver care in meaningful ways the way people want to receive it. Care over an application-based platform, a digital-based platform, home health care. All of these things are really going to be driven in ways that create greater access, lower cost, and get people the care that they need when they need it. For us, that segmentation is something that we’re trying to address. The 65-year-old wants to touch health care differently than the 19-year-old. We want to be prepared for that and allow for more people to participate and gain access than not.”

Zoom management may be breathing a sigh of relief now that the deal is done, given its last several rocky years: Zoom’s failed attempt at launching a health plan in 2014 brought pressure from state regulators, who launched several investigations into its financials last year. One of the healthcare company’s major investors, Endeavour Capital, also called the veracity of its financial statements into question in 2017, though that lawsuit was resolved and Endeavour ended up investing another $24 million.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

The local hospital’s festive tree display caught my eye, especially those decorated by the radiology staff and nursing. Urine and blood samples hanging from a tree wrapped in a paper-based (!) EKG just screams Christmas, no? Given that the holidays are almost upon us, I’ll wish you all well until HIStalk Practice resumes publishing on January 7.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Announcements and Implementations

Patient referral, engagement, and CRM vendor ReferralMD announces GA of text and email patient communication software.

People

ClearData names Michael Donohue (Axial Exchange) chief marketing officer and Dean Fredenburgh (AWS) chief revenue officer.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Digital behavioral health assessment vendor Tridiuum secures $9.5 million in a Series B round led by Sopris Capital. The company expects to double its sales force by this time next year.

EHR and practice management company CentralReach acquires Bronco Billing, a managed billing services business. It will rebrand to CR BillMax Services to better integrate with CentralReach’s offerings for applied behavior analysis providers. CentralReach acquired behavioral health analytics vendor Chartlytics earlier this year.

Telemedicine

CVS Health’s MinuteClinic rolls out Teladoc-powered video visits in Wyoming. The service is now available in 18 states.

Birmingham, AL-based VirtualCare raises seed funding from the Alabama Futures Fund. The startup offers membership-based virtual and in-office primary care to consumers and employers.

Research and Innovation

More evidence of physician dissatisfaction with health IT: A report from Geneia finds that 86 percent of surveyed physicians believe data-reporting demands have reduced their job satisfaction, though those that use analytics for population health purposes are a bit more optimistic about the ability of those tools to improve (and be reimbursed for) care.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks publishes a podcast titled “How EClinicalWorks is Reducing the Risk of Physician Burnout.”

Blog Posts

• Tools to Help Your Practice Optimize the End-of-Year Rush and Help Your Patients Optimize Their High-Deductible Medical Plans (Aprima)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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