News 3/21/18

Top News

After a five-year legislative and technology selection process prompted by frustrated physicians serving in the state legislature, the Oregon Health Authority’s Office of Health Information Technology will take over the state’s credentialing program, bringing dozens of credentialing programs in house under the new Oregon Common Credentialing Program. Stakeholders selected Medversant, which runs a similar program in Washington, to handle verification, staffing, and software; and Conduent to take on help desk duties. A pilot of the new system will kick off in July, and the system is expected to fully go live in November.

Webinars

April 5 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Succeeding in Value-Based Care Via a Technology-Driven Approach.” Sponsor: Health Fidelity. Presenters: Adele L. Towers, MD, MPH, senior clinical advisor, UPMC Technology Development Center; Adam Gronsky, director of advisory services, Health Fidelity. Success in value-based care requires a thorough understanding of how risk-based payment models work. To prosper in this data-laden era of care, providers need to manage their patient populations holistically rather than through a collection of individual episodes and be able to accurately identify, document, and report risk scores. Given the stakes, is your provider organization adequately set up to take on and succeed in managing risk? In this webinar, learn how technology-enabled risk capture optimization is helping providers succeed in risk-based payment models.

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

People

Fresenius Medical Care North America promotes Angela McClure to the new role of chief experience officer.

Hope Clinic, an FQHC based in Waxahachie, TX, promotes founding pediatrician Peggy Linguist, MD to CMO.

Digital waiting room media company Health Media Network hires Donna Turgeon (KnowBe4) to lead its Physician Recruitment Division at new, expanded office space in Tampa, FL.

Announcements and Implementations

The Soldiers Project, a nonprofit provider of free mental health services for post-9/11 veterans and service members, selects messaging technology from Lua.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Vanan Online Services spins out a new medical billing and coding company called Vanan Healthcare.

Private equity firm LLR Partners forms practice management company Eye Health America through the acquisition of The Eye Associates (FL), Clemson Eye (SC) and Piedmont Surgery Center (SC). EHA, which will provide its clinicians with “best-in-class technology,” will be led by former Thomas Eye Group (GA) Rod Roeser.

Telemedicine

The ClearHealth Quality Institute launches a revamped telemedicine accreditation program, which it took over from the American Telemedicine Association last year.

The Branson, MO-based Jesus Was Homeless ministry partners with the local health department and Cox Health system to offer low-income residents access to free virtual consults.

Fitness enthusiast-focused telemedicine startup SteadyMD raises $2.5 million, bringing its total funding to $4 million since launching in 2016.

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima will exhibit at the Association of Independent Medical Software Value Added Resellers Annual Conference March 23-24 in San Antonio.
• Nordic publishes a podcast titled “How will transitioning to Nordic’s maintenance and support affect my internal teams? Q&A with Loma Linda University Health.”
• Healthwise will exhibit at the 2018 Midwest ACE User Group Conference March 21-23 in Chicago.

Blog Posts

• Have You Connected Your Patients to their Benefit & Estimate Information on your Organization’s Portal? (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)
• Improving Patient Experience Through Innovation at HIMSS18 (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

News 3/19/18

Top News

Constellation Healthcare Technologies voluntarily files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to pave the way for easier sale of its Integrated Physician Solutions PM business, and Allegiance and Orion Healthcorp RCM subsidiaries. Constellation’s NYNM IPA and management company are not included in the filings, though they will be put up for sale. The company seems to have been compelled to take Chapter 11 action after taking on debt connected to internal fraud that resulted in an executive ouster and criminal investigation.

Webinars

April 5 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Succeeding in Value-Based Care Via a Technology-Driven Approach.” Sponsor: Health Fidelity. Presenters: Adele L. Towers, MD, MPH, senior clinical advisor, UPMC Technology Development Center; Adam Gronsky, director of advisory services, Health Fidelity. Success in value-based care requires a thorough understanding of how risk-based payment models work. To prosper in this data-laden era of care, providers need to manage their patient populations holistically rather than through a collection of individual episodes and be able to accurately identify, document, and report risk scores. Given the stakes, is your provider organization adequately set up to take on and succeed in managing risk? In this webinar, learn how technology-enabled risk capture optimization is helping providers succeed in risk-based payment models.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Practice Fusion’s shift to a subscription-based pricing model is likely behind the uptick in the most recent adoption numbers from EHR vendor MTBC. The Somerset, NJ-based company has seen 1,000 physicians sign up for its free TalkEHR, which launched last fall.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Mental health app startup Learn to Live raises $4.3 million in a bit to attract more students, employers, and payers to its service. The Minneapolis-based company’s CEO, Dale Cook, spent several years at Deloitte Consulting before joining the company in 2012.

Pharos Capital Group acquires Horizon Oncology, a four-physician practice in Indiana that will form the basis of PHG’s new Verdi Oncology clinical research and PM company. Led by new CEO Wes Chapman (PHG), Verdi Oncology will focus on buying additional oncology practices eligible for the CMS Oncology Care Model program.

Telemedicine

Denver-based Mednow Clinics sues Spectrum Health (CO) for trademark infringement related to the “MedNow” branding of its telemedicine service. The two-facility chain of clinics is seeking damages, legal fees, profits generated by MedNow (which seems pretty cheeky to me), and a halt to Spectrum’s use of the name.

Other

Primary Health Care (IA) notifies patients of a March 1 data breach involving four employee email accounts. Patient identification, health, and financial information may have been compromised, though no evidence of malicious activity has yet been found.

Has it come to this? The Chicago Tribune profiles a number of companies that are developing – and monetizing – ways to incentivize people to stay off of their smartphones. The QuietCoin app, for example, rewards users with free workout classes and healthy meals at local restaurants for keeping their phones out of sight and mind. The Wyndham Grand hotel chain has taken things a step further by offering families a 5-percent discount on their stay in return for stowing their phones in special lockboxes.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

News 3/14/18

Top News

The local news looks at the success South Miami Children’s Clinic (FL) is having with the text-based Medici app. Medical Director Tina Carroll-Scott, MD believes that offering the app to her patients is the “natural next step for medicine.” Carroll-Scott, who conducts between 35 and 40 virtual consults during the week, says they have helped reduce ER visits and improved her relationship with patients.

While the news coverage doesn’t dive into how the clinic is reimbursed for these visits, its adoption does reflect the widespread interest of physicians in virtual healthcare services, as highlighted in an MGMA poll earlier this year that found 40 percent of medical groups are currently or are planning to offer telemedicine services. A follow-up analysis finds that lack of reimbursement is the top barrier to broader adoption. Those that have integrated telemedicine into their practice routines have done so with expected ROI around increased patient satisfaction, new revenue sources, and enhanced branding.

Webinars

April 5 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Succeeding in Value-Based Care Via a Technology-Driven Approach.” Sponsor: Health Fidelity. Presenters: Adele L. Towers, MD, MPH, senior clinical advisor, UPMC Technology Development Center; Adam Gronsky, director of advisory services, Health Fidelity. Success in value-based care requires a thorough understanding of how risk-based payment models work. To prosper in this data-laden era of care, providers need to manage their patient populations holistically rather than through a collection of individual episodes and be able to accurately identify, document, and report risk scores. Given the stakes, is your provider organization adequately set up to take on and succeed in managing risk? In this webinar, learn how technology-enabled risk capture optimization is helping providers succeed in risk-based payment models.

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

Announcements and Implementations

ReportingMD adds workflow-friendly EHR data retrieval capabilities from Holon Solutions to its Total Outcomes Management analytics tool.

WebPT and Modernizing Medicine develop an interface between their respective EHRs to enable better data sharing between physical therapists and orthopedists.

MedConnect integrates Clinigence’s quality reporting software with its EHR, PM, and billing platform for physician practices.

Cleveland-based Chronic Care Management launches new behavioral health integration-focused software and services, including outcome assessment tools, care gap identification, and community resource-need matching.

People

Chicago-based physician practice RCM vendor HealthiPass hires Imran Ahmad (OCA Ventures) as COO and Ryan Navratil (Outcome Health) as director of product.

Telemedicine

Cohen Veterans Network will open new mental health clinics for post-9/11 veterans in Orlando and San Diego this fall. Services will be available to patients across Florida and California via the network’s CVN Telehealth Services.

DoseDr expands its telemedicine services to include care for chronic diseases like hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, and stroke. The Baton Rouge, LA-based company will add congestive heart failure and COPD services next month.

Sponsor Updates

• Intelligent Medical Objects promotes Matt Cardwell, PhD to chief product officer and Jose Maldonado to chief solutions officer.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at Endo Expo 2018 March 17-20 in Chicago.
• Healthwise announces new health educational content partnerships with GetWellNetwork, TeleHealth Services, and Mytonomy.
• IMO and Aorn Syntegrity partner to create a consolidated surgical scheduling procedure list.

Blog Posts

• The Role of Practice Automation in Healthcare Communication (AdvancedMD)
• Removing Friction from the Prescribing Process (Aprima)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

News 3/12/18

Top News

Greenway Health will close its office in Lake Mary, FL, laying off 27 employees in a process that will kick off in late April. I can’t determine if this is part of the restructuring announced late last year that involved plans to close its Atlanta office and move some jobs from its former Carrollton, GA headquarters to Tampa. The local paper also mentions the company is in the process of closing down operations in Birmingham, AL.  Greenway announced at HIMSS that it has completed the first phase of Project Polaris, a two-year initiative that will result in the consolidation of its three software systems into one EHR and PM tool.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Another HIMSS is in the books, which means the post-HIMSS workweek has begun. I tried to clear away email clutter over the weekend so that I could ease into the workweek, but I still feel as if I have a lengthy list of tasks to get through – all things I swept under the rug while I was in Vegas. If you find yourself with a few minutes of leisure time this week and want to catch up on the HIStalk team’s HIMSS coverage, check out our respective reviews in handy chronological order:

From HIMSS 3/5/18, 3/5/18 (Part 2), 3/6/18, 3/7/18, and 3/8/18

Jenn’s HIMSS 3/5/18, 3/6/18, 3/7/18, 3/7/18 (Part 2), and 3/8/18

Dr. Jayne at HIMSS 3/5/18, 3/6/18, 3/7/18, and 3/8/18

Also, Lorre is still offering her “Cellar Dweller Special” for our Hall G neighbors at HIMSS who want to sign up as a new sponsor. A year online is better than three days in the basement. Contact her for details.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Millennium Physician Group (FL) selects population health management technology from Lightbeam Health Solutions to better care for 170,000 patients across seven ACOs and six Medicare Advantage plans.

Rev360 adds secure credit card payment processing capabilities from Bluefin Payment Systems to its optometry-focused EHR.

Modernizing Medicine adds PACS connectivity from Ambra Health to its EMA EHR for orthopedics.

Eye care nonprofit BostonSight will offer peer-to-peer consult services to its network of participating physicians via the PeerMed telemedicine service from CoolDoctors.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

In an effort to attract new patients, the high-tech Forward Clinic gives out genetic testing kits to consumers who book tours of its membership-based primary care practices in San Francisco and LA.

People

Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick joins Kareo’s Board of Directors. Kalanick’s ties to Kareo go back for quite awhile. He and Kareo founder Dan Rodrigues were classmates at UCLA and co-founders of a late-90s search engine network company called Scour. Kalanick made an early-stage investment in Kareo in 2009, which helped to springboard the Irvine, CA-based company to VC funding of over $125 million. Rob Reid (Listen.com) has also joined the company’s board.

Telemedicine

Occupational healthcare provider Concentra makes telerehabilitation visits available to California-based employees in need of physical therapy for workers’ compensation injuries.

Other

Is there an ICD-10 code for this?: Apple employees make several 911 calls after colleagues walk into glass walls at the company’s new, $5 billion spaceship-like campus in Cupertino, CA. Apple’s forthcoming onsite health clinic won’t likely see many injuries of this type. The emergency calls tapered off after the glass partitions were marked with white stickers.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

News 2/28/18

Top News

A time-motion study of EHR use in primary care clinics finds that providers spend more time working in the EHR than they do with patients during appointments. Providers gave patients non-EHR face time for only 16 minutes of the average 36-minute appointment.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Programming Note: #HIMSSanity is already setting in, with my inbox piling up with last-minute vendor meeting requests and press releases. HIStalk Practice will not publish next week, as I’ll be covering HIMSS18 over at HIStalk.com. Twice weekly posts will resume the week of March 12.

For those who are heading to Vegas for health IT’s biggest event of the year, be sure to check out HIStalk’s Guide to HIMSS18 – your directory of 100+ vendors and their plans, giveaways, and networking events.

Also, stop by and see the HIStalk team at booth 11228. I hear we’re in Siberia this year, so friendly faces will be welcome. Plus, we’ll have those handy survival kits from Arcadia on hand to help get you through the long days of demos, educational sessions, and exhibit hall walkabouts.

I think most HIMSS attendees know that comfortable footwear (such as the pair I purchased above) is a must, but what about our other attire? A friend working in the vendor trenches is conducting an informal poll to help guide the fashion choices of a new employee who’ll be heading to HIMSS for the first time. (Apparently there has been some water cooler talk about the popularity of jeans over suits.) You can weigh in with your opinion here.

Webinars

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

People

Healthwise promotes Elizabeth Beem to CFO.

Lyle Berkowitz, MD (Northwestern Medicine / Healthfinch)) joins MDLive as CMO and EVP of product strategy.

Announcements and Implementations

In an effort to streamline e-prescribing workflows, Maryland’s CRISP HIE will integrate DrFirst’s mobile medication management app with the state-based PDMP, which it operates. Maryland prescribers will be required to review PDMP data before prescribing an opioid of bezodiazepine starting July 1.

Aprima Medical Software selects ChartSpan Medical Technologies as one of its primary CCM partners.

Membership-based primary care provider MDVIP begins rolling out a branded patient app developed by Medfusion that includes messaging, payment capabilities, and health records access.

Capital Digestive Care implements GMed’s cloud-based EHR for gastroenterologists across its 28 locations.

Telemedicine

MeMD adds behavioral healthcare to its line of telemedicine services for consumers and employer groups. The company tapped Mdlogix to help it develop its behavioral health assessment.

Teladoc reports Q4 revenue of $77 million and full-year revenue of $233 million. Quarterly and yearly visits both increased by close to 50 percent. The company’s acquisition of Best Doctors last summer contributed to strong gains in subscription access fees.

Sponsor Updates

• Healthwise publishes its patient education app on Epic’s App Orchard.
• AdvancedMD will exhibit at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons conference March 6-10 in New Orleans.
• Culbert Healthcare Solutions will exhibit at the AMGA 2018 Annual Conference March 7-10 in Phoenix.
• EClinicalWorks launches a cloud-based hospital EHR/RCM system that will start at $599 per bed per month with no upfront capital cost.

Blog Posts

• Medicity’s CEO Attends White House Meeting on Interoperability (Medicity)
• Four tips to improve office productivity & accelerate payments (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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