News 3/13/17

Top News

IExhale raises $1.86 million seed funding round led by Dorilton Capital. The Beverly Hills, CA-based startup, which launched its messaging and phone-based therapy app for California residents last December, will likely use the investment to add video consult capabilities and expand into additional states.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

ClinicTracker upgrades its behavioral health EHR to be more compatible with new and emerging operating systems. Added features include compliance automation, enhanced reporting, and staff and patient portal enhancements. 

Curatio develops a social support app for people suffering or recovering from a variety of ailments. Features include the ability to connect with people from similar backgrounds with the same condition, a physical and mental health symptom tracker, patient communities, and educational materials.

Southwest Behavioral & Health Services (AZ) adopts EnSoftek’s DrCloudEMR at its 15 facilities in the metro Phoenix area.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

CaptureRx will relocate to larger headquarters in downtown San Antonio early next year thanks to a variety of tax breaks and waivers. The 17 year-old company and its 114 employees have developed technology that helps safety net providers manage inventory and financial transactions for 340B prescriptions. It has pledged to invest in further development of the historic Kress building, and will create an additional 200 full-time jobs within six years. 

Research and Innovation

Just over half of 1,300 surveyed physicians report using multiple methods to remind patients of appointments, according to a new MGMA poll. I’d like to dig a little deeper and determine what combination improved no-show rates the most. Providers, feel free to share your experience with technology and appointment reminders in the comments below.

Other

The local business paper covers the opening of a second One Medical practice in Boston, highlighting the ways in which its homegrown technology and membership-based business processes are helping to prevent physician burnout: “The balance of the virtual care means less burn out for us,” says Julie Sugarbaker, a OneMedical nurse practitioner who came from the world of private practice. “I don’t even know what percentage of e-mails or phone calls I don’t deal with during the day, because they’re handled by the virtual team.” She adds with a laugh that patients thank her for “fitting them into her schedule. They don’t know the back end that goes into reserving a percentage of same-day appointments and our process.”

ProPublica launches aggregates data from several healthcare projects at a new website. Consumers can look at specific providers based on payments received from pharma companies, number of prescriptions written by drug type, their Medicare fees for visits and treatments, and complication rates for surgeons who perform common elective procedures covered by Medicare. The nonprofit will launch a corresponding API later this year to give software developers the ability to integrate the data with their own applications.

Sponsor Updates

• Intelligent Medical Objects will exhibit at the Cerner UK Collaboration Forum March 13-16 in London.
• NVoq will exhibit at the AAOS Annual Meeting of Orthopedic Surgeons March 14-18 in San Diego.
• PerfectServe will exhibit at the Renal Physicians Association Annual Meeting March 17-18 in Nashville.

Blog Posts

• [International Women’s Day] Four things everyone can do to #BeBoldForChange (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

News 3/9/17

Top News

Senate Republicans break through the Democratic attempt to stall final voting on Seema Verma’s nomination to head up CMS by passing a cloture vote – a move HIStalk Practice readers may recall from the will-they-or-won’t-they voting process for HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD. It looks like the final confirmation vote will happen within the next several days. As with Price, Verma’s eventual confirmation is expected along party lines.

Webinars

None scheduled in the coming weeks. Contact Lorre for information on webinar services.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Global skincare company LEO Pharma’s Innovation Lab invests $5.5 million in five startups, two of which are based in the US. San Francisco-based Pacific has developed an app to help consumers manage stress, anxiety, and depression; and a corresponding dashboard tool for providers. Remedly, also based in San Francisco, has developed an EHR and PM system for dermatologists. 

Announcements and Implementations

Austin-based startup WeInfuse develops cloud-based infusion center management software that includes patient scheduling, insurance pre-authorization, and medication inventory and delivery capabilities.

Casamba adds MedBridge’s patient engagement technology, including home therapy programs, to its TherapySource EHR and PM solution for post-acute therapy providers.

People

CareCloud brings on Greg Shorten (Validic) as chief revenue officer.

Meghan Hendricks (SSM Health) joins prescription drug pricing software company Doc and I as CIO.

Mordechai Raskas, MD (Children’s National Medical Center) joins specialized pediatric urgent care provider PM Pediatrics as director of telemedicine and clinical informatics.

Telemedicine

Akos launches its virtual consult business for consumers and employers in Arizona, with plans to expand to 10 more locations within the next few months. The company, formed last year by InstaMed Health Center Chairman Kishlay Anand, MD and neurologist Swaraj Singh, MD has raised $1 million in seed funding thus far. Its preferred brick-and-mortar provider network for patients that need in-person care seems to be the only thing setting it apart from the many other telemedicine companies popping up with increasing frequency.

Greenway Health software reseller and consulting company MDS Medical will add Otto Health’s telemedicine platform to its service line.

Government and Politics

Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush makes the media rounds this week to weigh in on the release of the GOP’s American Health Care Act, which he admits offers a “glimmer of hope” when it comes to prompting consumers to shop around for their care. He believes three things need to happen to make healthcare “shoppable:”

1. Arm patients and providers with cost/quality information to make better decisions, and reward them financially for doing so.

2. Connect our various care settings so when people do go in and out of certain settings, their health information will follow them.

3. Put all of health care on a national network. The industry can build all the software it wants, but without the connected tissue of a network innovation and knowledge-sharing can only happen in silos. One of many missed opportunities in healthcare that could be resolved with a national network is around scheduling; today only 16% of providers have at least some of their appointments available for web scheduling. A two-sided national network would allow patients to book appointments more conveniently, as well as for providers to fill appointments more conveniently. On the clinical side, with a national network doctors could share and access like-clinical scenarios and outcomes in real-time vs. once a year at an annual conference.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

News 3/8/17

Top News

Scottsdale, AZ-based telemedicine hardware, software, and medical device company GlobalMed acquires Miami-based TreatMD, a telemedicine company with global providers that also offers billing, EHR, remote monitoring, and wearable integration, plus white-labeling capabilities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. TreatMD was launched by Lennick Holdings Managing Partner Bryan Lenett last August.

Webinars

March 9 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “PAMA: The 2017 MPFS Final Rule.” Sponsored by National Decision Support Company. Presenter: Erin Lane, senior analyst, The Advisory Board Company. The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 instructed CMS to require physicians to consult with a qualified clinical decision support (CDS) mechanism that relies on established appropriate use criteria (AUC) when ordering certain imaging exams. Providers must report AUC interactions beginning January 1, 2018 to receive payment for Medicare Advanced Imaging studies, with the CDS recording a unique number. Outliers will be measured against a set of Priority Clinical Areas and interaction with the AUC. This webinar will review the requirements for Medicare Advanced Imaging compliance and will review how to ensure that CDS tools submit the information needed for reimbursement.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Parasail Health offers an open API to help developers integrate its patient financing app, which includes tools to help patients comparison shop for loans, into their respective website or payment portal.

Modernizing Medicine will add e-commerce capabilities to its EHR through a partnership with skincare company Galderma Laboratories, giving dermatologists and their patients the ability to more easily order OTC products in tandem with prescription drugs.

Alternative Family Services will replace six IT systems in use at its eight facilities in California with the Cx360 EHR from Core Solutions.

Medical Oncology Hematology Consultants (DE) joins The US Oncology Network, a McKesson Specialty Health-supported company that provides PM tech and services to independent oncologists across the country.

Mental health and substance abuse outpatient provider A Helping Hand of Wilmington (NC) adopts Mediware’s AlphaFlex EHR.

People

Navicure hires Kermit Randa (PeopleAdmin) as its first chief growth officer.

Todd Unger (Daily Racing Form) joins AMA as chief experience officer and SVP of physician engagement.

Government and Politics

The Delmarva Foundation joins 11 other CMS-funded organizations in helping small practices participate in MACRA’s Quality Payment Program. The foundation will specifically provide technical assistance to 5,500 MIPS-eligible practices with 15 physicians or less in Maryland and Washington, DC.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Tips from a Superuser – How to Improve Functionality.”

Blog Posts

• Transform how your front office engages with your patients (AdvanceMD)
• Population Health: An old-school approach to handling requests of your IT team [podcast] (Nordic)
• Patient Access Throughput: The Strategy to Success (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)
• Four Focus Areas in Health IT for Care Coordination Workflow Success (Healthwise)
• #HIMSS17 fun, takeaways, giving [recap] (Nordic)
• Using RTLS Data to Increase Capacity in Ambulatory Care (Versus Technology)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

News 3/7/17

Top News

A study conducted by RAND Corp. and Harvard Medical School researchers uses commercial claims data from 300,000 patients with acute respiratory illnesses to determine that, while telemedicine may increase access to care, it also has the potential to increase utilization and resultant healthcare spending. Their analysis found that 12 percent of direct-to-consumer virtual visits replaced in-person visits to other providers, 88 percent were new users, and annual spending increased by $45 per user. “If you make something easier to access, people will use it,” says co-author Lori Uscher-Pines. “That lower threshold means that people are using this as an add-on service.”

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Don’t miss the second installment of the HIStalk Practice Winners Circle, an interview series featuring physician practice professionals that have been recognized for their health IT-related expertise. This month features Kids Plus Pediatrics owners Albert Wolf, MD and Todd Wolynn, MD. They entered the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition not once, but three times, finally winning in the healthcare category. I’d ideally like to run at least one of these interviews a month. (February got away from me thanks to HIMSS.) I’m already looking to line up April’s interview. Feel free to email me with suggestions of award-winning physician to reach out to.

Webinar

March 9 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “PAMA: The 2017 MPFS Final Rule.” Sponsored by National Decision Support Company. Presenter: Erin Lane, senior analyst, The Advisory Board Company. The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 instructed CMS to require physicians to consult with a qualified clinical decision support (CDS) mechanism that relies on established appropriate use criteria (AUC) when ordering certain imaging exams. Providers must report AUC interactions beginning January 1, 2018 to receive payment for Medicare Advanced Imaging studies, with the CDS recording a unique number. Outliers will be measured against a set of Priority Clinical Areas and interaction with the AUC. This webinar will review the requirements for Medicare Advanced Imaging compliance and will review how to ensure that CDS tools submit the information needed for reimbursement.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Over 120 primary care providers in Maryland partner with management services company Collaborative Health Systems to form the Chesapeake Independent Physician Association. “This new IPA fills a need and offers independent physicians the means to provide better care while transforming their practices as healthcare changes from ‘volume to value,’ notes Gene Ransom, president of The Maryland State Medical Society. “The association prepares physicians to take advantage of value-based contracts with commercial and public payers.”

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

India-based Omega Healthcare Management Services acquires healthcare analytics company WhiteSpace Health for an undisclosed sum. The deal adds Research Triangle Park, NC-based WhiteSpace’s development facility in Hyderabad, India to the Omega fold, bringing its India-based facilities to five.

People

Family HealthCare Network (CA) promotes Paramvir Sidhu, MD to CMO.

Peter Spitzer (Spitzer & Associates) joins Innovaccer’s Board of Directors.

Research and Innovation

Researchers develop technology that enables a human to correct a robot with their mind using an electroencephalography monitor cap, which measures brain waves, algorithms to monitor those brain waves, and output capabilities that can send the brain wave analysis to the robot before it makes a mistake. The scientists have even programmed the robot to blush after being corrected.

Fitbit introduces a new, slimmer wristband with continuous heart-rate monitoring, plus new sleep-tracking capabilities to help users monitor the duration and intensity of their sleep cycles. The product developments come alongside the company’s announcement that two founding employees – Chief Business Officer Woody Scal and Interactive EVP Tim Roberts – are on their way out, and that it will “formally align” around consumer health and fitness, and enterprise health. “2017 is a transition year,” says co-founder and CEO James Park, “and while we continue to lead the connected health and fitness market, we must take important steps to chart our return to profitability and growth. It is essential that we are organized properly so that we can successfully execute our strategy.”

Other

Web application security blogger Anand Prakash shares a payment method entry bug that could have allowed cash-strapped hackers to take Uber rides for free. Prakash alerted Uber about the bug, after which they apparently gave him several free rides in the US and India.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

News 3/6/17

Top News

Chicago-based First Stop Health raises $1.6 million in an investment round led by co-founder and CEO Patrick Spain and co-founder and CMO Mark Friedman, MD. The company, which has raised $7.2 million since launching in 2011, will use the new capital to accelerate its growth in the employer market.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to the following companies for their renewing support of HIStalk Practice. Click a logo for more information.

Webinar

March 9 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “PAMA: The 2017 MPFS Final Rule.” Sponsored by National Decision Support Company. Presenter: Erin Lane, senior analyst, The Advisory Board Company. The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 instructed CMS to require physicians to consult with a qualified clinical decision support (CDS) mechanism that relies on established appropriate use criteria (AUC) when ordering certain imaging exams. Providers must report AUC interactions beginning January 1, 2018 to receive payment for Medicare Advanced Imaging studies, with the CDS recording a unique number. Outliers will be measured against a set of Priority Clinical Areas and interaction with the AUC. This webinar will review the requirements for Medicare Advanced Imaging compliance and will review how to ensure that CDS tools submit the information needed for reimbursement.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Direct pay tech startup Freedom Healthworks will use a $700,000 in tax credits and training grants from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to move to bigger office space and grow its workforce from six to 70 over the next five years. Its Indianapolis-based job openings will include administrative, communications, marketing, and account management.

Pediatric-focused tech and services company Office Practicum moves its headquarters from Horsham to Fort Washington, PA in an effort to consolidate its departments and accommodate future expansion. The company, which experienced record sales growth last year, also has offices in Cleveland and Atascadero, CA. The company was born out of a 2007 merger between Visual Data and Anderson Financial Systems, plus the 2014 acquisition of Workflow.com.

Announcements and Implementations

ChartLogic adds its new Connect Patient portal and communications software to its EHR.

ChiroFusion adds digital intake forms to its EHR for chiropractors.

Diagnostic Imaging Services (LA) will implement AbbaDox RIS from IDS at its seven outpatient centers in the areas of New Orleans and Northshore.

People

Kenneth Paulus (ReferenceHealth) joins Teladoc’s Board of Directors.

Government and Politics

CMS opens up applications for the 2018 Next Generation ACO Model. As CMS explains in its 65-page overview of the application process, the Next Generation ACO “offers financial arrangements with higher levels of risk and reward than other current Medicare ACO initiatives, using refined benchmarking methods that: (1) reward quality performance; (2) reward both attainment of and improvement in cost containment; and (3) ultimately transition away from reference to ACO historical expenditures.” Letters of intent are due May 4.

Telemedicine

Charlotte, NC-based 1800MD.com develops new telemedicine software, including patient and provider apps, member portals, and corresponding PM tools.

ClickaClinic.com adds IBM API connectivity, giving end users the ability to connect its telemedicine services to their EHRs. The West Palm Beach, FL-based company has also developed medical billing and mail-order pharmacy capabilities.

Other

Talk about a life hack: Netflix offers subscribers instructions on how to build a digital, Netflix-themed personal trainer that connects to their personal streaming account. The device, which will definitely require some Maker-like talent, connects to a phone via Bluetooth and measures activity via an accelerometer. Should you fall below a pre-determined intensity threshold, a Netflix character will chime in with words of encouragement. Content will cease streaming altogether if activity stops. If exercise isn’t your thing, you can also consider building a device that turns on Netflix, shuts off the light, and orders takeout all at the push of a button.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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