News 10/14/14

Top News

Lifestyle healthcare company Alphaeon Corp. acquires patient engagement technology business TouchMD for $22 million. TouchMD was founded by Fusion Media Inc., known for touch-screen presentations for luxury real estate developments. The acquisition is an interesting example of a fundamentally non-healthcare company successfully cashing in on the current digital health craze.

Webinars

October 21 (Tuesday) 1:00 p.m. ET. Electronic Prescribing Of Controlled Substance Is Here, What Should You Do? Sponsored by Imprivata. Presenters: William T. “Bill” Winsley, MS, RPh, former executive director, Ohio State Board of Pharmacy; Sean Kelly, MD, physician, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center;  David Ting, founder and CEO, Imprivata. Providers are challenged to use EPCS to raise e-prescribing rates for MU, improve physician productivity, reduce fraud and errors, and meet New York’s March 2015 e-prescribing mandate. Hydrocodone painkillers such as Vicodin have moved to Schedule II, with the higher CS prescribing volume adding another reason to implement e-prescribing. This webinar will describe why organizations should roll out EPCS, presented from the perspectives of pharmacy, compliance, physicians, and technology.

Announcements and Implementations

Behavioral healthcare provider Community Connections (AK) selects Essentia EHR, revenue cycle management, and office administration software from Lavender & Wyatt Inc.

Agility Health launches AgileRPM practice-management software for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech pathology clinics, as well as hospital outpatient rehabilitation departments..

MMS Analytics launches healthcare price transparency tool MyMedicalShopper.com. The comparison tool will first roll out to patients in New Hampshire, followed by the rest of New England in 2015 and nationally in 2016.

Palmetto Primary Care Physicians (SC) taps eGroup to help it design, deploy, and support the practice’s new IT infrastructure, which will include EHR, care coordination, population health, and revenue cycle technologies. PPCP is building a $135 million, 50-acre healthcare campus in Nexton, which will be the state’s first community equipped with fiber-optic Internet service.

Allscripts announces GA of the FollowMyHealth Achieve care management solution for Touchworks and Sunrise users.

Government and Politics

ONC adds a dozen primary care physicians and administrators to its Health IT Fellows Program. Heading into its second year, the program empowers fellows to promote productive dialogue about healthcare IT within their communities, and to assist local practices in leveraging Meaningful Use.

The local paper details the Military Healthcare System’s use of secure messaging, and the desire to rebrand the Relay Health solution that has been in use since 2010 under one name across all military branches. The Relay Health contract is up for renewal in 2016.

ONC’s annual report to Congress on health IT adoption and HIE (clocking in at 54 pages) reveals that 39 percent of office-based physicians in 2013 reported electronically sharing patient health information with other providers, while 14 percent indicated they shared patient information with providers outside their organization.

Healthcare IT consultant Tom Munnecke, an early developer of VistA, puts ONC’s latest round of statistics in perspective: “Providers see their information as a proprietary advantage over their competitors. They have no intrinsic motivation to spend money to share information with others. They would much rather keep it internal, locking in their patients to their system and their services. It becomes a game: How can they do the least amount of sharing but still earn their incentive payments?”

Opponents of California’s Proposition 46 – which would quadruple the maximum allowed pain and suffering medical practice award, mandate drug and alcohol testing of physicians, and require that physicians and pharmacists look up controlled substance prescription patients in the little-used CURES drug abuser database – launch a voter campaign suggesting that the CURES database would be vulnerable to hacking. Many of the coalition’s members are healthcare providers and member organizations.

Research and Innovation

Google confirms it is testing a service that offers users video chats with physicians when they search online for symptoms, conveniently intercepting them before they get to competing sites like HealthTap or Doctors on Demand. The company is partnering with Scripps Health (CA) and One Medical Group in its pilot project. Lt. Dan provides a more thorough explanation of Google’s likely plans here.

Other

Forbes highlights Privia Health and Aledade as companies helping independent practices stay afloat. Privia, a physician practice management company that deploys athenahealth’s EHR across its practices, received $400 million in funding last month and is set to expand to New York, Florida, Texas, and Atlanta by 2017.

The local paper highlights the process Everett Clinic (WA) has made with healthcare technology such as touchscreen check-in kiosks and Epic’s My Chart patient portal. Online appointment scheduling via the portal will eventually roll out to the clinic’s 44 specialties.

William Thornbury Jr., MD discusses the success Medical Associates of Southern Kentucky has seen with implementation of lean systems principles, including development of the mobile health Me-Visit app. “All of this came from attending that Lean Systems Certification class four years ago,” Thornbury says. “I had no idea how much it would change my life.”

Kaiser Permanente is working on supply chain redesign, hoping to reduce duplicate inventory, increase patient care time of nurses, and manage expired and recalled items. They are also scanning product ID barcodes into the EHR so that product effectiveness can be reviewed electronically afterward.

The Washington Post publishes a comprehensive and haunting piece on the current Ebola outbreak and how the world’s health organizations failed to contain its spread in Africa.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.

HIStalk’s “Must-See” Exhibitors Guide for MGMA 2014

We’ve put together a list of wonderful HIStalk sponsors exhibiting at this year’s MGMA conference in Las Vegas. Take a moment to look over the products and innovations (and giveaways!) our sponsors plan to showcase, and map out your trip to the exhibit hall accordingly. We’ve also included contact information for a few sponsors who will not be exhibiting, but will be available for one-on-one meetings.

You can also download a viewable/printable PDF version.

ADP AdvancedMD
Booth 1237

AdvancedMD is a leader in all-in-one, cloud EHRs; practice management with Big Data practice analytics; and medical scheduling software; as well as medical billing services. With AdvancedMD, you can leave behind five or more systems with our all-in-one unified solution that allows you to optimize schedules, simplify check-in and checkout, document patient encounters, prescribe and order, capture and pursue revenue, leverage real-time analytics to improve financial performance, engage with patients, and practice on the go. AdvancedMD simply makes running your small practice easier. Come see us at booth #1237 where we will offer free ICD-10 risk assessments and demo the latest product innovations aimed at helping independent medical practices enhance performance and productivity. Visit us online at www.advancedmd.com  or on Twitter @adpadvancedmd.

Allscripts
Booth 614

Visit Allscripts to experience The Power of All.  We connect people, places, and information across all care settings through our Open, Connected Community of Health. Our full suite of population health solutions build on the power of our comprehensive suite of Clinical and Revenue Cycle core products. We deliver the portfolio flexibility to work with all major EHR applications in the market today. We enable our clients to deliver better outcomes.  Solutions that will be showcased during MGMA include Allscripts TouchWorks EHR, Allscripts Wand for TouchWorks, Allscripts Professional EHR, Allscripts Wand for Professional EHR, Allscripts Practice Management (PM), Allscripts Payerpath, Allscripts Revenue Cycle Management Services, FollowMyHealth, FollowMyHealth Achieve (Press Release), and Allscripts Payer Life Sciences.  The Allscripts Developer Program will showcase more than 80 certified partner apps and devices on the Allscripts Application Store.  These innovative applications were custom built for TouchWorks EHR, Professional HER, and PM.  For more information, contact Laura Mullaney.

Aprima Medical Software Inc.
Booth 901

Aprima offers a fully integrated, single application, single database practice management/EHR solution, as well as complete RCM services. Our no-template design is chief-complaint driven with an adaptive learning capability based on your style and habits. To learn more about how Aprima can help your practice, visit www.aprima.com or email info@aprima.com.

Availity
Booth 715

Don’t miss daily drawings for Tiffany & Co. jewelry at the MGMA 2014 Annual Conference, courtesy of Availity. Stop by Availity booth #715 on Sunday* and enter your ticket for three chances to win. You must be present to win, so be sure to come back during drawing times:  Sunday, October 26 at 6 pm; Monday, October 27 at 1:30 pm; and Tuesday, October 28 at 1:30 pm. While you’re there, spend a few minutes talking with an Availity representative about challenges you face at your organization, and let us pass our expertise on to you! If you’re struggling with patient collections, schedule a 30-minute meeting with a patient access consultant. *You may enter at any time, but will have fewer chances to win. Entries roll over to the next drawing.

Beacon Partners
Booth 1050

For more than 25 years, Beacon Partners has provided healthcare management consulting services to hospitals, academic medical centers, physician groups, and health systems across North America.  We help our clients optimize their operational, clinical, and financial performance by helping them navigate regulatory challenges, integrate clinical and financial systems, manage costs and revenue, and improve patient outcomes.

Billian’s HealthDATA
To schedule a meeting, contact Nathan Lenyszyn at nlenyszyn@billian.com.

Comprehensive physician and group practice intelligence from Billian’s HealthDATA helps clients proactively identify and engage best-fit healthcare buyers. Target clinicians and practice leadership in our online database by size, specialty, location, and Meaningful Use participation and connect via email, direct mail, and social media. Visit billianshealthdata.com to learn more.

CareSync
Booth 1307

CareSync connects people and data to redefine the role of the patient and create a better healthcare experience for everybody. The team will demonstrate how CareSync’s unique combination of technology and services creates the best source of patient data that is accessible, relevant and meaningful, and easily shared, directly from the application. They’ll also showcase the newly released CareSync Pro, the enterprise communication layer that for the first time connects healthcare entities with members, their families, and their caregivers to share valuable health information and facilitate care coordination.  Email team@caresync.com to schedule an appointment, or visit booth #1307 during exhibit hall hours.

Clockwise.MD
Booth 1340

Clockwise.MD addresses the most common source of patient dissatisfaction in healthcare – waiting for care.  It lets patients skip the waiting room, keeps them up-to-date and informed about their position in the queue,  and  lets them know when they’ll be seen.  It also automates the wait list, filling cancellations in seconds.  Visit us in booth #1340 to win Bose QuietComfort Noise-Cancelling Headphones for the flight home!

CompuGroup Medical US
Booth 827

Stop by booth #827 and experience an exciting activity line up with incredible prizes to be won!  CompuGroup Medical US (CGM) will be in Las Vegas for the MGMA 2014 Annual Conference from October 26-29, 2014, and we want to see you there! As a global e-health company with over 25 years of international market leadership, we are here to serve you! Our healthcare software solutions augment the efforts of healthcare providers, enabling them to achieve the best possible outcomes for their patients. Versatile, easy-to-use and intuitive, our solutions offer high productivity and efficiency gains, and are highly configurable to suit the unique needs of physician practices, community health centers, and laboratories as well as several other healthcare organizations. Are you in the market for a population health management solution? We have you covered! We look forward to seeing you there! Visit www.CGMus.com for more information.

e-MDs
Booth 600

Whether your medical group is a single specialty or multi-specialty, e-MDs can meet your needs. Our software is used by physicians in nearly every medical specialty and supports many workflows unique to individual specialties. E-MDs’ integrated EHR/EMR and practice management software solutions, designed with the input of thousands of physicians, enable physician productivity and a superior clinical experience, with proven benefits for the quality of care and business operations. E-MDs also offers a comprehensive and affordable population health management solution used in more than 40 ACOs across the U.S. E-MDs Population Health Management identifies care and quality gaps across the enterprise. Its administrator views and physician dashboards make it easy to manage risk and take action using population-based and patient-specific drill-downs that enable timely point-of-care actions to improve health and financial outcomes.

eClinicalWorks
Booth 215

EClinicalWorks delivers healthcare IT solutions, including EHRs, population health, and patient engagement tools. With medical providers across all 50 states using its solutions, customers include physician practices, patient-centered medical homes, ACOs, university student health services, athletic organizations, out-patient departments of hospitals, health centers, and convenient care clinics. Stop by our booth to hear how several physician-led ACOs have improved quality while significantly increasing savings, learn about new developments, and see live demos.

Emdeon
Booth 631

Join practice operations and revenue cycle management expert Elizabeth Woodcock, MBA, FACMPE, CPC, in Emdeon booth #631 to learn practical, real-world strategies for overcoming the most common roadblocks to practice success. Monday at 9:45: “Eligibility tips & tricks;” Monday at 12:45: “Denied Claims Mean Denied Revenue: Get control of your denials today!”  Tuesday at 9:45: “Getting your patients to pay”    www.emdeon.com

GE Healthcare
Booth 559

From increasing patient throughput to reducing rejected claims, our software and services help you connect productivity with care. Visit GE Healthcare at MGMA booth #559 to learn more about our financial management, care delivery management, and population health solutions. Schedule a demo at this link: http://it.gehealthcare.com/IP_CPS_MGMA_Tradeshow_October_DEMO_2014.html

Greenway Health
Booth 815

Greenway Health will demonstrate how its integrated clinically driven revenue cycle management and integrated EHR/practice management solutions accelerate claims payment, improve workflows, and increase patient satisfaction. Greenway Health will show how its innovative solutions help physicians meet challenges such as ICD-10 transition and Meaningful Use, capitalize on new value-based care models to maximize financial strength, and improve patient outcomes. Along with its RCM/EHR/PM solutions, Greenway Health will also showcase its consumer-engagement solution, PeopleLYNK, and enhanced mobile solutions to improve care delivery and access.

healthfinch
Booth 201

Healthfinch is the leading provider of clinical decision support tools that seamlessly integrate into the EHR and automate and/or delegate the routine and repeatable tasks physicians completes on a daily basis, thus freeing up approximately 40 percent of a physician’s day.

Ingenious Med
Booth 115

Ingenious Med provides the leading patient encounter platform – a cloud-based, Web and mobile point-of-care solution that automates the workflow of care teams in the areas of care coordination, charge capture, and advanced analytics. Ingenious Med continues to break new ground, developing useful, useable solutions to increase the quality of care, protect and bolster revenue, and most importantly of all, put physicians’ time where it is needed most – with their patients. Find out more at www.IngeniousMed.com or visit booth #115 for a 5-minute demo and a chance to win a Pebble Steel smartwatch.

MedData Inc.
Booth 1044

MedData is a leading national provider of revenue cycle management and patient financial lifecycle solutions including billing, coding, collections, and patient satisfaction. From our headquarters in Brecksville, OH, as well as from offices in Grand Rapids, MI, Roseville, CA, Bellevue, WA, and Peoria, IL, we’ve provided innovative billing solutions to the medical community across a variety of medical specialties since 1980.

Navicure
Booth 1007

Stop by booth #1007 to learn more about how Navicure’s cloud-based healthcare billing and payment solutions help healthcare organizations of all sizes increase revenue, accelerate cash flow, and reduce costs in the course of managing insurance claims and payments. Navicure is the exclusive billing and payment solution of the MGMA AdminiServe Partner Network and a MGMA Executive Partner. Make sure to schedule time to attend the following sessions to learn more:

• “Automating the Life Cycle of a Practice Dollar,” presented by Ken Bradley on Monday, Oct. 27, 9:30-9:55 a.m. Location: Halls N2-N4, Booth #154, H1P1
• “Three Steps to Better Denial Management,” presented by Joel Young and Ken Bradley, Oct. 28, 10:15-11:15 a.m. Location: N242

NextGen
Booth 1137

Stop by the NextGen Healthcare booth #1137 to see the future of health IT. Our integrated, interoperable suite of solutions spans the HIT spectrum — from powering collaborative care, PCMHs, ACOs, and HQM, to speeding revenue and managing secure, easy access to patient data. While you are in town, join NextGen for our industry event on Monday, October 27. RSVP by October 24 at www.nextgen.com/mgma14.

Nuance
Booth 1021

Serving 500,000 clinician users at more than 10,000 healthcare institutions, Nuance provides end-to-end transformative clinical documentation, clinical narrative, and image sharing solutions – helping to reinvent the healthcare experience. Contact Laura Serrano-Haggard, 608-230-7150 for more information.

PatientKeeper
Booth 127

PatientKeeper Charge Capture software is the most time-tested electronic solution for streamlining physician charge capture – and now technical and infusion charges, too. PatientKeeper lets physicians record charges electronically on computers and mobile devices, using familiar clinical terminology to generate ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes. PatientKeeper Charge Capture is the “front end” for billing systems at large physician practices nationwide, including many academic medical center physician organizations, preferred for the unparalleled flexibility it affords billers and coders, as well as the intuitive user experience it delivers to physicians. PatientKeeper’s charge capture, analytics, sign out and PQRS applications integrate with hospital and practice EMRs and billing systems to help increase revenue and cash flow, reduce charge lag days, improve billing operations, and comply with PQRS initiatives.

PDR Network
To schedule a meeting, contact Thomas Eck Thomas.Eck@pdr.net.

Population health management is the future. Is your EHR equipped with tools to support providers? PDR Network – the leader in FDA-approved patient drug safety and support services for EHRs – makes easily integrated interactive solutions available for EHR partner companies at no charge to enhance their offerings by improving patient/physician interactions to improve medication adherence and outcomes, and by offering providers real-time information to reduce liability, better understand drug costs, and reduce admin costs. PDR’s suite of interactive EHR solutions includes: PDR® BRIEF – the most critical drug information the moment a product is selected; PDR+ for Patients – customized patient-focused drug education guides directly through the EHR, patient portal; PDR® BRIEF Price Solution – patient-relevant copay information at the point of care. For more, visit PDRNetwork.com/PDR-in-EHR.

PerfectServe
Booth 1046

PerfectServe, healthcare’s only comprehensive and secure clinical communications platform, makes it easy to quickly connect with the right clinician at the right time, in the way that clinician wants to be reached. Using a cloud-based system, PerfectServe routes voice, text, web- and system-generated messages based on workflow and preferences for greater reliability, efficiency, and productivity. More than 35,000 physicians use this mobile app to better coordinate care while nurses spend less time tracking down physicians and more time caring for patients.

Porter Research
To schedule a meeting, contact Ben Mauldin bmauldin@porterresearch.com.

Custom market research programs from Porter Research help clients get target-market feedback to drive informed business decisions. Get candid physician feedback for product development; benchmark industry perceptions, pain points, and adoption rates; and leverage findings to establish thought leadership in your industry. Learn more at porterresearch.com.

Premier Inc.
Booth 1416

Premier Inc. is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,000 U.S. hospitals and 110,000 other providers to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Stop by our booth to sign our ICD-10 readiness pledge and receive a free 30-minute consultation.

Sandlot Solutions
Booth 740

Sandlot Solutions, founded in 2006, is a leading provider of clinical interoperability and community health management solutions focused on the exchange of clinical and claims data across the care community, population data analytics, and enhanced care coordination. Sandlot provides the tools and technology that enable healthcare organizations to improve the quality of care, understand and manage risk, reduce costs, and transition to new business models. Stop by our booth to learn more about our software-as-a-service cloud model with configurable technology that streamlines data sharing and provides physicians with actionable patient information and analytics at the point of care. Sandlot’s technology works within a physician’s existing workflow and, using a proprietary, patent-pending digital envelope, enables physicians to proactively address gaps in care at the point of care.

TriZetto Provider Solutions
Booth 1207

Come join us at booth #1207 in AdminiServe Alley!! Check out our new products and meet with Frank Cohen, industry-leading trainer in healthcare analytics and process improvement. Enter for a chance to win a JawBone UP24 Fitness Tracker and keep your health moving forward. Visit www.trizetto.com/provider.

Versus Technology
Booth 321

Every minute matters in your practice.  Are you wasting those minutes with poor patient flow? If you could improve efficiency and save just a few minutes on every patient visit, how many more patients could you serve?  At Versus, we know the power of just one minute. Our Advantages Clinic patient flow system provides real-time visibility and automated alerts to save time in the moment, streamlining patient visits to reduce wait times, cycle times, and overall lengths of stay. Plus, automatically collected historical data allows you to benchmark and continually improve your processes. The end result — adding more appointments to your existing schedule without adding staff or additional exam rooms, while improving both patient and staff satisfaction.  Are you ready to increase access, satisfaction, and revenue with improved patient flow? Visit with Versus at booth #321 to speak with process improvement expert Jim Stilley, MHA, FACHE, CASC. Every visitor will be entered to win a Microsoft Surface Tablet.

ZirMed
Booth 607

As the nation’s only company delivering proven, cloud-based business and clinical performance management solutions to meet the challenges of managing population health and optimizing fee-for-service and fee-for-value reimbursements, ZirMed delivers award-winning technology and client support. To discover how much our solutions can do for your organization, visit www.ZirMed.com.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.

News 10/9/14

Top News

Healthcare.gov goes live to much media fanfare. (One headline half jokingly declares that “the Back Button Now Works.”) Changes include a 16-screen online application process, whittled down from last year’s 76; the need to enter basic personal information just once; and the now functioning back button. Nearly 20,000 consumers have made it through the system thus far, though I’m not certain how important that figure is given that 2015 policy and pricing information hasn’t yet been made available. HHS officials won’t comment on how many users the new site can accommodate at one time until the five-week testing period concludes.

HIStalk Webinars

October 21 (Tuesday) 1:00 p.m. ET. Electronic Prescribing Of Controlled Substance Is Here, What Should You Do? Sponsored by Imprivata. Presenters: William T. “Bill” Winsley, MS, RPh, former executive director, Ohio State Board of Pharmacy; Sean Kelly, MD, physician, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center;  David Ting, founder and CEO, Imprivata. Providers are challenged to use EPCS to raise e-prescribing rates for MU, improve physician productivity, reduce fraud and errors, and meet New York’s March 2015 e-prescribing mandate. Hydrocodone painkillers such as Vicodin have moved to Schedule II, with the higher CS prescribing volume adding another reason to implement e-prescribing. This webinar will describe why organizations should roll out EPCS, presented from the perspectives of pharmacy, compliance, physicians, and technology.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Cloud-based solutions company Exostar receives $5 million in funding from the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, which will enable it to expand from the aerospace and defense industries into healthcare and life sciences.

Apple investor Carl Icahn sends the above message, causing Apple shares to trade up above 1.7 percent following the tweet. Talk about the power of social media.

Announcements and Implementations

ACO Pathfinder Health works with Cerner to create a secure way to share health data. The ACO is made up of Northern Arizona Health and community physicians, and will initially manage the care of 5,700 NAH employees and family members.

Merge Healthcare adds electronic referral and order management to its iConnect image sharing network.

Telemedicine company My OnCall Doc rolls out on-demand telemedicine services to members, including access to its network of 500 physicians and healthcare professionals.

Virginia Women’s Center selects Keona Health’s Online Nurse Advice Solution to facilitate patient triage via phone, website, or patient portal.

United Physicians (MI) will roll out Wellcentive’s population health and risk management solutions to cover all its patients.

Georgia West Imaging (GA) and Outpatient Imaging (AL) select McKesson Business Performance Services for its RCM.

SeeChange Health integrates Doctor On Demand telemedicine services into its FlyWheel health improvement platform for employers.

Government and Politics

CMS will reopen the submission period for EHR hardship exceptions through November 30, 2014. Valid circumstances are vendor delays in providing 2014 Edition CEHRT and the inability to attest via the 2014 CEHRT Flexibility Rule.

The AMA is pleased that the hardship exemption has been reopened, noting in a statement to CMS that, “Giving physicians more time to file for a hardship exemption provides necessary relief as many physicians are struggling to meet a number of reporting mandates to avoid multiple penalties.”

Massachusetts becomes the first state to require that healthcare insurers offer real-time prices. I applaud the state’s effort at price transparency, but the caveats make me wonder if the information does more of a disservice to patients. They include:

• Non-standard prices.
• Posted prices may or may not include all charges.
• Prices seem to change frequently.
• No standard list of priced tests and procedures. 

Congressman Phil Roe, MD (R-TN) tours Holston Medical Group (TN) to learn more about its CarePayment patient payment plan, and participation in the Qualuable Medical Professionals ACO and OnePartner HIE. HMG is one of the largest multi-specialty practices in the Southeast, serving 200,000 patients in Tennessee and Virginia.

Research and Innovation

Scientists develop the 3-D LEVER software program to help them identify, tag, and track live cells. The program (“like Photoshop for cell biologists”) will help scientists study cancer-causing abnormal cell proliferation, and the use of stem cells in regenerative medicine.

Elliptic Labs further develops ultrasound technology to enable multilayered hand gestures to control a smartphone, meaning users can do different things with the phone based on how far away their hand is from the device.

People

Mark Marten (Maverick Medical Group) joins Apollo Medical Holdings as vice president of managed care.

Mike Putnam (Kayak) joins American Well as senior vice president of consumer markets.

Other

A computer glitch at the NHS City Walls Medical Centre presents patients with a test screen upon check-in rather than typical identity confirmation check boxes. J.K. Rowling owes a computer programmer somewhere a tiny slice of her Harry Potter pie.

Box CEO Aaron Levie calls out athenahealth, Practice Fusion, and drchrono in USA Today as cloud-based companies helping physicians do away with expensive, legacy based software. His op-ed (presumably paid for) is a tad too self-serving for my taste. Levie conveniently name drops several companies in which he invests, including Flatiron Health, Oscar Insurance, and HealthTap.

HIStalk Practice Pretzel Logic contributor Micky Tripathi, founding president and CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, points out at the U.S. News Hospital of Tomorrow conference that today’s HIEs often have multilayered sets of competing functions, and the associated value chain is “getting blown to bits.” He adds that central repositories are “the dinosaurs that are going to go away.”

Veterinarians at Animal Medical Center (NY) beta test the LifeLearn Sofie app, powered by IBM Watson, to uncover relevant, objective, and evidence-based treatment options tailored to a specific patient. (Weird News Andy would likely title this story “Watson Goes to the Dogs.”)

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.

News 10/7/14

Top News

Walmart declares it wants to be the number-one provider in the retail space during the launch of its new Healthcare Begins Here insurance initiative. Walmart will partner with DirectHealth.com in about half of its 4,300 stores to make DirectHealth agents available to customers interested in purchasing health insurance and navigating Healthcare.gov. The program begins this Friday and runs for two months. Could Walmart health insurance be far behind?

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to these renewing sponsors for supporting HIStalk Practice. Click a logo for more information.

My countdown to MGMA 14 is on – just 19 days until I touch down in Las Vegas and head for the Las Vegas Convention Center. I am putting the finishing touches on the HIStalk MGMA “Must See” Exhibitors Guide, which will offer a nice synopsis of what HIStalk sponsors will tout at their booths. Be sure to check NextGen’s entry for a RSVP link to their networking event.

Announcements and Implementations

Spine Associates (TX) integrates athenaClinicals and athenaCommunicator with its existing athenahealth EHR. Spine Associates Founder Richard Francis, MD notes in the announcement that he has “made it his goal to stay at the forefront of technology, yet maintain a personal connection with patients and their families.” I have to wonder if he’d disagree with Jonathan Bush’s recent CNBC statements about IT’s role in the mishandling of the Ebola patient in Texas. Surely a medical group like Spine Associates is the very type of practice that thrives off “customized” healthcare IT, neatly filling the pockets of companies like athenahealth at the same time.

Brass Eye Center (NY) launches the ophthalmology specific Sophrona Patient Portal in conjunction with a new website.

Community Health Centers of Arkansas selects the eClinicalWorks Care Coordination Medical Record for its 10 practices. CCMR will be used to coordinate care across CHCA’s 58 locations, including several EHR systems.

Nano 2.0 Business Press releases AppForMyPatients to help dermatologists and plastic surgeons create custom retail and patient portal apps. The company was founded by “Medical Entrepreneur” Steven Hacker, MD, founder of PassportMD.

Walgreens announces a partnership with the VA in which it it will immunize veterans and share its Greenway EHR information with the VA.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Nextech Systems announces it will acquire ophthalmology EHR vendor MDIntelleSys. The acquisition will double Nextech’s ophthalmology market share. MDIntelleSys Founder and CEO Dan Montzka, MD will assume the role of Nextech CMO.

Hewlett-Packard confirms it will split into two companies. Current CEO Meg Whitman will lead Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, which will sell computer servers, data-storage gear, software, and other services to corporations. Hardware “chieftain” Dion Weisler will lead HP Inc., consisting of the PC and printer businesses. HP’s break up follows in the steps of Philips and eBay, which announced last week that it would spin PayPal off into a separate company.

A Reuters report says Facebook is working on healthcare tools that include chronic disease support communities and health apps. It adds that the company has been meeting with healthcare experts and entrepreneurs and is setting up a health app R&D unit. Lieutenant Dan has written an interesting summary of the company’s build up to this move at HIStalk Connect.

Government and Politics

California becomes the first state to require businesses to provide a year’s worth of credit monitoring services to individuals affected by data breaches. You have to wonder how that will affect the bottom lines of practices throughout the state. They’ll likely have to begin weighing the cost of beefing up their IT privacy and security versus the expenditures they could potentially face in the event of a breach.

ONC posts a chief medical officer position, and lists the open position of director of the office of consumer ehealth. It will likely soon post one for chief nursing officer, thanks to Judy Murphy’s announcement that she will resign from that position to take up the same title with IBM Healthcare Global Business Services.

CMS awards Northrup Grumman a $53.7 million contract to modernize the agency’s Medicare Enrollment and Premium Billing Systems. Northrup Grumman has been the contractor for that system since 1998. The new contract runs through 2018.

The DoD pushes the DHMSM RFP due date back two weeks to October 23. The missed deadlines have already begun.

Research and Innovation

The local news station profiles GenomOncology and its GO Clinical Workbench software. The program, currently in use at Ohio State University, generates personalized prescriptions for treating cancer based on a patient’s genomic data.

People

Nick Bonvino (CTG) joins Greater Houston Healthconnect as CEO.

John Flannery is promoted to president and CEO of GE Healthcare. Flannery succeeds John Dineen, who is leaving the company.

Other

This article brings up some interesting points regarding the skepticism many physicians feel when it comes to the overhyped healthcare panacea known as Apple HealthKit. The author is smart to point out that HealthKit-happy physicians should be concerned about the accuracy of patient-generated data; and the potential for information overload into a patient’s PHR, potentially throwing overworked PCPs off an already precarious cliff.

RBC Capital Markets comes up with one unit of cloud pricing that can be compared across vendors. Amazon Web Services, popular among many small physician practices, comes in the cheapest at $27. 

Contacts

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

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DOCtalk with Dr. Gregg 10/7/2014

When Docs Cry

Dig if you will the picture
Of you and I engaged in MU
The wealth of your notes enlightens me
Can you my colleagues,
Can you picture this?

Dream if you can, our joint notes
An interactive patient share
HIEs strike curious poses
They spread the wealth
The care between me and you

How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in a practice so cold (So cold)
Maybe I’m just independent
Maybe I’m a solo doctor, too bold
Maybe you’re just institut’nal
You’re never satisfied (Just never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When docs cry

Check if you will my bankroll
Feel how it dwindles inside
They’ve got reimbursements all tied up
Don’t make me sell out
Even docs have pride

How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in a practice so cold (Just so cold)
Maybe I’m just too alone here
Maybe I’m independent, too old
Maybe you’re a multi-practice
You’re wanting all control (Taking all the control)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When docs cry

How can you just leave me standing?
Alone in medicine so cold (Healthcare that’s so cold)
Maybe I’m just independent (Maybe, maybe I’m just too old school)
Maybe I’m just a doctor, but solo (Ya know he’s solo)
Maybe you’re just institut’nal (Maybe you’re just a big system)
You’re never satisfied (You want it all, you take it all)
Why do we scream at each other (Why do we scream, why?)
This is what it sounds like

When docs cry
When docs cry (Docs cry, docs cry)
When docs cry (Docs cry, docs cry)

Don’t Cry (Don’t Cry)

When docs cry
When docs cry
When docs cry

When docs cry (Docs cry, docs cry, docs cry)
Don’t cry
Doctor don’t cry
Don’t cry
Don’t cry
Don’t, don’t cry

From the trenches…

“All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.” – Prince

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics, is Chief Medical Officer for Health Nuts Media, an HIT and marketing consultant, and sits on the board of directors of the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP).

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

Get HIStalk Practice  updates.
Contact us online.