News 7/18/17

Top News

Minneapolis-based RCM vendor Ability Network acquires Eagen, MN-based Secure Bill Pay, which offers online, point of service, and back office payment applications. Ability Network will retain all of SBP’s employees. Ability Network has raised nearly $600 million since launching as VisionShare in 2009. SBP is its sixth acquisition. It acquired ShiftHound in April, and EHealth Data Solutions and G4 Health Systems last year.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Don’t miss last week’s interviews with:

• Ashley Moss, MD founder of a new house call-based pediatric practice in Maryland. I enjoyed talking with her about the ways she’s using technology to care for her patients.
• Geeta Nayyar, MD chief healthcare and innovation officer at Femwell Group Health. She offered a compelling take on the ways in which new patient engagement technologies are helping Femwell physicians improve care plan adherence.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Community Health Partnership – a group of 25 provider organizations that provide care to Medicaid patients via the Community Care of Central Colorado program – selects ClientTrack care coordination technology from Eccovia Solutions.

Betances Health Center (NY) will pilot smart messaging technology from Klara Technologies thanks to grant funding provided by Health 2.0 and New York City Economic Development Corp. Goals for the pilot include reducing time needed to handle patient requests, as well as unnecessary callbacks and voicemails.

Cow Creek Health & Wellness Center, a 10-physician clinic within the Oregon Indian Health Service, will replace its government-provided Resource and Patient Management System with Intergy software from Greenway Health.

MTBC guarantees that new PracticePro customers will not face the upcoming 4-percent Medicare reimbursement penalty predicted for small practices that don’t comply with MACRA in 2017.

People

Former National Coordinator Vindell Washington, MD joins Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana as CMO. Before his time in government, Washington was president of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System’s medical group in Baton Rouge.

Sylvan Waller, MD (MDLive) joins Miami-based telemedicine startup EpicMD as CMO.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Physician turned entrepreneur Mark McKenna, MD outlines his plans to launch a retail medical aesthetics business that will provide, among other services, Botox injections via app-powered house calls. Virtual consults are also in the works. The company has raised $38 million so far, and plans to open its first clinics in Atlanta and Nashville.

Med Tech Solutions acquires the health IT business of holding company Constellation for an undisclosed sum. MTS, which supports EHR software from NextGen, EClinicalWorks, and Practice Fusion, among others, will retain most of Constellation’s employees. 

Government and Politics

HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD and CMS Administrator Seema Verma address the federal government’s efforts to combat opioid abuse during their time at the National Governors Association Meeting in Rhode Island. Price specifically mentioned the need to bolster timely public health data and reporting, presumably via PDMPs.

Also at the meeting, CVS Health and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced plans to open an Opioid Center of Excellence focused on expanding medication-assisted treatment for opioid-addicted patients. CVS, which is headquartered in Rhode Island, will invest $250,000 in the facility.

Research and Innovation

Solo family physicians Lynn Ho, MD and Jean Antonucci, MD advocate for the use of patient-generated data culled from free online tools like How’s Your Health? as a means to increase the health confidence of patients and, in turn, improve quality and outcomes. “Unfortunately,” they add, “despite the advantages and ease of use of this combined approach to measurement and improvement, we have encountered resistance from regional payers and quality organizations when suggesting the use of patient-entered data for quality measurement. Primary care physicians are forced to spend too much time gathering and reporting quality data when tools like How’s Your Health? are available.”

Telemedicine

Telepsychiatry and behavioral health pharmacy company Genoa acquires Minneapolis-based Medication Management Systems for an undisclosed amount, and rebrands it to Genoa Medication Management Solutions. Tukwila, WA-based Genoa operates 370 pharmacies within community mental health centers across the country.

Telemedicine backpack developer SwyMed will make its virtual consult capabilities available via Google Glass, which is being re-introduced as a tool for enterprise environments.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 7/17/17

Top News

Investment firm K1 sells chiropractic EHR and PM vendor ChiroTouch to Waud Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. The news comes just a few days after ChiroTouch let it be known that WCP had made an investment worth “millions of dollars” in its future development. (Perhaps it’s a case of overlapping/poorly edited press releases.) WCP executive George Ahn will take over as ChiroTouch CEO from Robert Moberg (though that fact, strangely, isn’t mentioned in K1’s announcement). Moberg will assume the role of president. Both men will serve on the company’s Board of Directors. K1 acquired the company in 2014.

HIStalk Practice Musings

I’m back in the saddle after a week of being on top of a mountain and away from devices. It was nice to walk away from my laptop for a full seven days of beautiful sunrises (and a few bug bites). Healthcare was never far from my mind, though. I got back to basics providing first aid to dozens of people far younger than me who weren’t shy about thanking me with full-body hugs. All in a day’s work when you’re off the grid, I suppose.

That being said, I’ll spend this week catching up on practice-related health IT news from the air-conditioned comfort of my home office. Feel free to email me with news, rumors, and opinions you feel are must-reads.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Harbin Clinic (GA) implements the Psychiatric EEG Evaluation Registry from Mynd Analytics to help physicians provide more personalized mental healthcare – including prescriptions – to patients at its clinics in Rome and Calhoun.

Valley Regional Imaging (NC) selects PM and RCM services and technology from Zotec Partners.

MyMipsScore adds Able Health’s value-based performance tracking and quality improvement tools to its line of technology and consulting services geared towards QPP-focused physicians.

People

Merrie Wallace, RN, MSN (Premier) joins PerfectServe as chief revenue officer.

Karla Angel (Culbert Healthcare Solutions) joins Carex Consulting Group’s candidate relations team.

Telemedicine

Global specialty insurance company Beazley creates a policy for organizations that provide telemedicine services including physicians, vendors, and hosting companies. The Virtual Care Policy includes medical malpractice, technology errors and omissions, and privacy coverage.

MMJ Technologies develops virtual consult and data collection capabilities for medical marijuana patients and their physicians.

Research and Innovation

A study in the Annals of Family Medicine looks at the retention patterns of family physicians working in rural areas. Conducted between 2000 and 2014, researchers found that the turnover rate for physicians 45 and younger was twice that of older physicians. Primary reasons included a small population, lack of a local hospital, and physician shortage. Economic demographics didn’t appear to be a consideration. Physicians between 45 and 65 were more likely to leave rural practices located near urban areas.

Government and Politics

In an effort to improve patient safety and prevent opioid abuse, Nebraska’s Dept. of Health and Human Services and its HIE enlist DrFirst to aggregate prescription data and deliver it to the state’s PDMP, which launched at the beginning of this year. Next year, Nebraska will become the first state to require that all prescriptions be tracked.

Other

Validation never tasted so good: Several new studies confirm what I’ve hoped for since I started imbibing during my first office job oh so many years ago – drinking more coffee could lead to a longer life. Two separate studies of over a combined 700,000 people found that those who drank between two and four cups a day had an 18-percent lower risk of death than those who didn’t. Coffee consumption was found to be inversely proportional to rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and stroke, among other ailments.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks describes how its Healow Kids mobile app connects parents with their child’s pediatrician.

Blog Posts

• How to tell if a consulting company is “the one” (Nordic)
• Overcoming obstacles with Workflow Automations and Voice Recognition (NVoq)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 7/9/17

Neal Patterson, co-founder, CEO, and chairman of Cerner, died Sunday of complications following a reoccurrence of cancer. He was 67. The company announced that co-founder and vice board chair Cliff Illig will serve as chairman and interim CEO.

Anna Clark (Truven Health Analytics/IBM Watson Health) joins Medecision as SVP/chief revenue officer.

The ACOs and IPA of Orange Care Group will implement Epic’s Healthy Planet population health management system and will also offer its EHR via Memorial Healthcare System (FL) and Epic Connect.

Wisconsin’s Department of Health chooses Cerner for its seven care and treatment centers in a 10-year, $33 million contract. In-state competitor Epic did not submit a proposal for the project, which drew five bidders.

Behavioral health and addiction treatment provider LifeWorks Northwest (OR) implements population health management technology from Enli Health Intelligence to better enable its participation in the federal Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics demonstration project.

A respiratory disease study undertaken by the City of Louisville, KY finds an 82-percent reduction in rescue inhaler use among the nearly 1,500 asthmatics equipped with Propeller Health’s inhaler monitoring attachment. COPD patients saw a 62-percent reduction in use. The study also enabled city planners to identify asthma hot spots related to poor air quality around high-traffic truck routes, plus high-risk neighborhoods that might benefit from more tree planting and eco-friendly infrastructure.

Dialysis clinic operator Fresenius Medical Care North America licenses Forward Health Group’s population health management system.

Harris’s healthcare group acquires Warwick, RI-based population health management technology vendor Medfx, which it will operate as an independent business unit.

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima customer Mt. Olive Family Medicine Center wins the 2017 NCMGMA Practice of the Year Award.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the 2017 FSASC Annual Conference & Trade Show July 12-13 in Orlando.
• NVoq will exhibit at AHRA 2017 July 9-12 in Anaheim, CA.

Blog Posts

• The ‘New York Minute’ Difference (EClinicalWorks)
• How to tell if a consulting company is “the one” (Nordic)
• Overcoming obstacles with Workflow Automations and Voice Recognition (NVoq)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

News 7/6/17

Top News

The latest investment figures from StartUp Health highlight the confidence investors continue to have in digital health. Nearly $4 billion has been invested in Q2 of this year (including 10 deals over $100 million each), putting 2017 on track to break several funding records. A total of $6 billion has been raised so far. Modernizinig Medicine’s $231 million funding round back in May is perhaps the most relevant to physician practices. While investments in EHR companies managed to stay in the top 10, the vertical saw the least market maturity in the first six months of this year compared to the flashier categories of patient/consumer experience, workflow, and analytics.

Webinars

July 11 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET.  “Your Data Migration Questions Answered: Ask the Expert Q&A Panel.” Sponsored by Galen Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Julia Snapp, manager of professional services, Galen Healthcare Solutions; Tyler Suacci, principal technical consultant, Galen Healthcare Solutions. This webcast will give attendees who are considering or in the process of replacing and/or transitioning EHRs the ability to ask questions of our experts. Our moderators have extensive experience in data migration efforts, having supported over 250+ projects, and migration of 40MM+ patient records and 7K+ providers. They will be available to answer questions surrounding changes in workflows, items to consider when migrating data, knowing what to migrate vs. archive, etc.

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

Announcements and Implementations

MacPractice announces GA of its MacOS Sierra- and El Capitan-compatible Gen 7 PM system for physicians, chiropractors, and eye care practitioners.

MTBC partners with Winpoint Health with an eye to offering Winpoint’s tech-enabled chronic care case management services to its EHR and PM customers.

Fresenius Medical Care North America – a Waltham, MA-based operator of over 2,000 dialysis clinics – will roll out population health management technology from Forward Health Group later this year.

People

Tisson Mathew (Cambia Health Solutions) joins managed care organization Alignment Healthcare as its first CTO.

Research and Innovation

The results of a somewhat dated survey of 744 office- and hospital-based physicians in Rhode Island shows – surprise, surprise – no love for EHRs. Both types of providers had the same top issues with the technology – either they denigrated the quality of their interactions with patients, or negatively impacted the amount of time they were able to spend in the exam room. Though the survey was conducted in 2014, I can’t imagine the evolution of EHRs has lessened their concerns (technology-induced physician burnout seems to be on the rise, after all) – though some may have caved and hired scribes to aid with documentation workflow.

Other

Healthcare employee recognition management software vendor Wambi launches Carepostcard, a digital communications platform that lets patients send notes of thanks to their caregivers. Prospective patients looking for especially compassionate care can also use the tool to review providers.

Remember when?: Pokemon Go celebrates its first anniversary. And while it hasn’t quite sustained the absurd amount of downloads it saw last summer, it’s still played on a monthly basis by 65 million people. For perspective, Uber has 40 million users a month, Pandora 77 million, and  Spotify 140 million. Though it didn’t have a huge impact in the world of healthcare, it’s less of a flash in the pan than I thought it would be.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

News 7/5/17

Top News

A 20-month audit of Montana’s clinics for government employees finds that the facilities have failed to document improvements in outcomes, and have offered no evidence of ROI. The first of the state’s health centers opened in 2012, with five more opening and accruing costs in the $26 million-dollar range over the ensuing years. Auditors cited faulty record keeping and a “cumbersome” EHR system that did not allow for sharing of data between providers.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to the following HIStalk Practice sponsors for their continued support. Click a logo for more information.

Contact Lorre if you’d like to take advantage of Mr. H’s “Summer Doldrums” sponsorship discount.

I’ll be off the grid next week and so will not publish daily news updates. Instead, look for several provider interviews and guest posts sprinkled throughout the week. Regular programming will resume July 17.

Webinars

July 11 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET.  “Your Data Migration Questions Answered: Ask the Expert Q&A Panel.” Sponsored by Galen Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Julia Snapp, manager of professional services, Galen Healthcare Solutions; Tyler Suacci, principal technical consultant, Galen Healthcare Solutions. This webcast will give attendees who are considering or in the process of replacing and/or transitioning EHRs the ability to ask questions of our experts. Our moderators have extensive experience in data migration efforts, having supported over 250+ projects, and migration of 40MM+ patient records and 7K+ providers. They will be available to answer questions surrounding changes in workflows, items to consider when migrating data, knowing what to migrate vs. archive, etc.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Pediatric Cardiology Associates (NY) adopts HL7 interfaces in an effort to streamline workflows between its Digisonics Cardiovascular IS and Allscripts EHR. PCA also added DICOM Modality Worklist to automate patient data entry.

Hamakua-Kohala Health (HI) goes live on Medfusion’s patient portal. CIO and COO Milton Cortez hopes to soon roll out mobile portal capabilities and virtual consults to the free clinic’s patients.

Pharmacy software vendor QS/1 offers Updox’s Pharmacy Connect technology to its customers, enabling them to securely send and receive data from physician EHRs and communicate with patients for medication therapy management.

People

David Nace, MD (MarkLogic) joins Innovaccer as an executive advisor.

Portland-based Cambia Health Solutions – a collective of 20 healthcare companies that dabble in health plans, fostering startups, and investing in the next big thing – elects Michael Koppel (Nordstrom) chairman. It has also named Susannah Fox (HHS), Tim Morgan (AAA), and Jim Reynolds (Nike) to its Board of Directors.

Government and Politics

CMS launches a website for physicians working in rural and/or underserved areas interested in participating in Quality Payment Programs like MIPS.

Research and Innovation

An Institute for Health Information Technology survey of providers in Georgia reveals top organizational challenges to be lack of interoperability, IT infrastructure costs, cybersecurity threats, lack of a trained workforce, and patient utilization of engagement technologies. (Surveyed vendors also cited connectivity and cybersecurity as top challenges.) Not to be deterred, respondents plan to adopt telemedicine, predictive analytics, and smart phone apps within the next two years. Georgia-based physicians are in a sweet spot when it comes to access to virtual consult expertise. The state has benefitted from telemedicine-friendly legislation over the last several years, and is home to the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth, which has helped to advanced telemedicine capabilities for providers in rural and underserved areas.

Other

This article highlights the unethical lengths – including paying commissions to other physicians for referrals and redirecting patients to less-equipped facilities because of kickbacks -  many physicians in India go to in order to attract patients. The “cut practice” has become so widespread, especially among physicians who are just starting out, that it has spawned a public anti-corruption campaign and legislation.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• How EHR implementations are getting more creative (Nordic)
• 5 Reasons Health Care Organizations Crush on Content as a Service (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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