HIStalk Practice Interviews Jonathan Bush, CEO, athenahealth

athenahealth just released online dashboards indicating the performance of its athenaclinical physicians against individual Meaningful Use criteria. Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush provided some insights into these measurements and their implications.

Tell me what the numbers show at this point.

The numbers show things like it is very awkward and difficult for doctors to ask patients about their race or ethnicity when it is not central to their visit, which it rarely is. They show another that it is extremely damaging to patient throughput for a doctor to print a clinical summary and then have to explain what it is to a patient after they have already had their visit. Those are the kinds of things that the dashboards are showing in the small.

In the large, it is showing that there is a very long tail on every well-meaning piece of centrally-administered legislation, much of which, when viewed in the day-to-day reality, seems ridiculous. But I think the fact of the long tail and the size of the investment – certainly more than $44,000 worth of work per doctor – is the big idea that is emerging. That is what we are seeing so far.

I think we are also seeing that it is doable, that it can happen.

For athenaclinical clients in particular, what are you finding they need to be doing differently?

It varies widely from practice to practice. The big aggregate ones that are toughest for us are the race and ethnicity question and the clinical summary question. But with the clinical summary, because we are athena, we can just take that on ourselves because the practice isn’t doing it. We can just add it to the portal and text the patient and say that it is there, or call them on the phone for the practice, and thereby guarantee that they meet that standard. In that example, we are taking it completely out of the practice workflow.

athena is unique for several reasons in this Meaningful Use example. We know in real time whether doctors are meeting the standards or not. That is both a strength and weakness.

It is a weakness because it is easily auditable. Doctors could be called out if attested inappropriately. But it is good because we can see real time and can fix it right away.

Our fix options are really threefold: 1) we can alert the practice as to where they are they are and give them encouragement; 2) we can change the application so that practices don’t need encouragement, it just happens easily; or, 3) we could actually take the work out of the workflow and do it ourselves in the practice’s name.

In the example of race and ethnicity, we can move it in the application upstream to the patient self check-in and hopefully they will capture it there. Or move it out of the exam and into the pre-exam intake step and require the nurse to ask and put a script around it saying we are required by the government to ask you, which would make it easier.

In the example of the clinical summary, we can say screw this, it is too hard because it slows down the checkout process. Let’s send to patient over the website the same day with a lot of explanation online.

It seems like some of the issues are less about product inefficiencies and more about workflow issues. I would think that would be something that crosses over to all EHRs.

That is an interesting point you make. I think that one of the big things being indicated is that differences between the products of the vendors and the process of the buyers are going away. There is a convergence there.

What makers of healthcare information technology in the future are going to need to sell is good process. Whether they use the web or apps or flying trained pigeons is irrelevant to the customer. The customer needs the change in process. They need the process discipline. They need the new information, no matter how the vendor is going to get it there. That is the product. In the future, they are probably not going to get paid until that happens.

How are you measuring the data?

All of our clients, all of the time, are in one living, breathing instance of our application. We have instrumented all the Meaningful Use data into medical records fields that have been instrumented centrally to trigger this central scoring system. Some aspects of athenaclinicals are medical record fields that an individual doctor has decided she wants to manage and capture herself. But the Meaningful Use fields and other financially-wired fields are administered centrally by athena so that we can know when the standards are met.

This is another problem with traditional, isolated software EMR. The fields are not all instrumented such that they can easily connect to reporting so you know how you are doing.

Do you intend to share this information with CMS or others in the Washington crowd?

I want to share it. I think one of the many good intentions behind the HITECH Act was to generate some transparency around the medical office practice — who has process control and who does not — and reward the ones who do. It has been watered down a lot, but that is the underlying intention. I want the folks in Washington to see how much work they have generated with this, to show how they have generated more than $44,000 worth of work by this.

But I also want them to make sure they make it fair, because I represent 30,000 providers that have actually done the work. They are meeting the standards, either through their subscription fees to us or by obeying the pop-ups that athena asks them to do. Either way, our work is theirs because they have paid for it. I want to make sure they get credit. I don’t want anybody who hasn’t met the standard to be able to attest and get the money without doing the work.

That is the second thing I am going to say — show me how you are going to audit this. I want our clients to prepare for audits now. I want to make sure you audit more than your fair share of our clients and I want you to do the audits so you don’t just distress our clients. I want you to audit everyone else so nobody attests without really doing it.

Furthermore, let’s get away from this attestation thing if you are not really going to do thousands of audits. Then I want you to stop attestation as part of this larger trend of making unreasonably and obscene rules with massive penalties for non-compliance, and then not auditing, or auditing in such a random way that it really, really, really hampers innovation and creativity and excitement in the healthcare space.

If you want information: ask for it, be ready to receive it, and then pay for it as it comes out. Don’t say, “I will pay you if you promise me I will receive, it even if I don’t receive it.” It’s like “don’t ask, don’t tell” — it is the most absurd and embarrassing way because you create distance between what a doctor attests to and what is true.

Whereas if you just say the data is provided, here it is. Provide the clinical summaries here. Put them in the data base here. Data storage is here. If you need those clinical summaries, put them here. Let me see what you gave them.

Or race and ethnicity. If it is so important for us to slow down the visit and ask for race and ethnicity, then fine, then ask us what the race and ethnicity mix of our client base. If we don’t give it to you, then don’t pay us. But to say, “I want you to be able to tell, me but I am not going to ask you, but if you don’t tell me if I do ask you — which I won’t — then I’ll put you in jail.” That is a really messed up conversation.

What about Stage 2 Meaningful Use?

The second part of the feedback, for Stage 2 — let’s not do attestation. Whatever you ask for in Stage 2, ask for it and use it. Actually move to trading in this clinical performance information and whatever you can receive and use on your side. Pay for it as it comes out. If you can’t, don’t pay for it. Tell the Teabaggers that you saved some money. But don’t just give it out to everyone, whether they do it or not, and don’t not receive it and use it.

It reminds me a lot of the great federal program to pay farmers to pump their milk out onto the road. You got to be kidding me. That is just such a waste. You are paying thousands of doctors around the country to collect this data that will never be used by anyone. It is so embarrassing.

What do you hope the reaction of other vendors will be?

My fondest wish is for a group, ethically-based mass suicide amongst all our traditional software-based competitors. Barring the mass suicide, I am shooting for a reluctant movement towards their own transparency. What is their answer? I am hoping the Ingas of this world will ask them, “Why can’t you tell me what percentage of your doctors are where on these 20 metrics and how does society gauge you if you can’t?” And let them come up with an answer.

You know, Deloitte will provide a middleware that will allow Allscripts users to know how they are doing against other people. It will be free for your first six months. I don’t know, but some answer where they start to move towards competitive positioning based on outcomes, based on the performance of the use of their application. Right now, it is based on demos and golf outings with CFOs. It is just so dumb.

I am glad you are focused on it and I hope you do ask all the other vendors and get them on the phone and say, “I want to know how you are doing, how you are measuring it.”

It is a very dangerous game when reality and talk start to separate. It is a very slippery slope. Once reality and talk are a little bit separated, it is very easy to get a lot separated. That is when you get with the horrific Medicare audits and terrified people who won’t tell the truth and law firms whose professional advice is to not ask the government if they are compliant with this or that reg so they don’t show up on their radar. These things happen all the time today.

Whereas if attestation in general did not exist, but instead reality existed and reality was paid for, the product was delivered and the product was paid for, a lot more people would be attracted. Entrepreneurs and others would be attracted to healthcare. I do not subscribe to the idea that there should be fewer entities making healthcare IT because they are too many to manage. That is the loopiest idea I have ever heard.

News 9/8/11

McKesson reports that 30 physician practices are now using its Horizon Practice Plus practice management product to meet ANSI 5010 standards.

The AMA applauds the recent changes made by CMS to its e-prescribing program, but is concerned that providers will have insufficient time to file apply for the November 1 exemption deadline to avoid 2012 penalties. Since I was skeptical that it could really be that hard to file an exemption, I searched the CMS Web site for instructions. I have finally concluded that either the exemption information is well hidden on the difficult-to-navigate CMS Web site or the instructions have not been posted yet. Perhaps the AMA’s concern is valid.

Comprehensive Medical Center (MI) selects meridianEMR for its 44-provider practice.

Comanche County Memorial Hospital (OK) chooses eClinicalWorks EHR for its employed and non-affiliated community physicians.

Mid Hudson Medical Group (NY) implements Humedica MinedShare clinical analytic solution to benchmark population health using data from Mid Hudson’s GE Centricity EHR.

Medical Faculty Associates (DC) selects DigiView’s Digisonics PACS and structured reporting solution, which will be integrated into the practice’s Allscripts EMR.

Twelve Community Health Centers in Puerto Rico choose SuccessEHS EHR/PM for their 190 providers and 26 sites.

MGMA’s annual conference is coming up in about six weeks, with 25 HIStalk/HIStalk Practice sponsors exhibiting. I am already working on our “Must See Vendors” list, which we’ll publish the week before the meeting. If you you are attending, you’ll definitely want to peruse the list. Overachievers might even want to memorize it in order to sound intelligent and in-the-know while sipping cool drinks at the various networking receptions. If you plan to attend, let me know your recommendations for sessions or exhibits.

CPU Medical Management Systems wins approval for meeting Medicare 5010 standards in Michigan and Missouri, as well as two clearinghouses.

BayScribe announces the integration of its Clinical Documentation System with the SynaMed EMR, giving users the ability to populate structured, coded data into discrete data fields with the EMR from dictated and transcribed reports.

Three-fourths of physicians believe the AMA no longer represents their views, thus indicating the need for another voice.  Physicians who are dropping their AMA membership note these top concerns: (a) the AMA does not speak for practicing physicians (72%); (b) the CPT code business is a conflict of interest (53%); and (c) the AMA supported last year’s health reform legislation (47%).

An increasing number of physicians are seeking MBAs, giving them career options beyond the practicing of medicine. Many use the business training to run their practices more efficiently, while others seek leadership roles in hospitals or insurance companies. Still other physicians are becoming involved in entrepreneurial activities that leverage both their medical and business skills. Since the late 1990s, the number of joint MD/MBA degree programs has grown from about five to 65.

E-mail Inga.

From the Consultant’s Corner 9/5/11

Implementing an EHR: Mitigating the Risks of Physician Productivity Loss

No one really argues the value of electronic health records (EHRs), yet many physician practices are still reluctant to implement the technology. Software training and go-live processes typically involve a one- to three-week period of reduced patient volume, in addition to a lot of other operational and clinical workflow adjustments. Though practices eventually ramp up to normal productivity levels—and most exceed it—at some point following implementation, the anticipated loss in physician productivity is daunting.

A temporary drop in patient throughput during EHR implementation is no reason to avoid EHR technology, especially with government incentives for adoption and looming penalties for non-compliance. According to several industry studies, practices that deploy an EHR can expect to enhance the quality of patient care as well as provide more cost-effective care delivery. And with some careful planning of the implementation, training and workflows, the impact on physician productivity at go-live can be mitigated.

Proactive strategies minimize productivity loss

The first step is to examine existing workflow processes, both clinical and administrative. Any time new technology is implemented is an ideal opportunity to step back and look for ways to improve efficiency. Begin, for example, by making sure all clinicians are functioning at the top of their license levels. Allowing a nurse or physician’s assistant to take patient vital signs frees up physicians to diagnose, prescribe, and perform procedures, for instance. Optimizing staff resources in advance of an EHR implementation will minimize lost productivity.

Once you’ve fine-tuned workflow, don’t rely exclusively on online tutorials or videos for your staff training. Training is critical to the success or failure of an implementation, so be wary of cutting corners. It should be about workflow efficiencies, not just which buttons to click. The EHR is a challenge — make sure your staff has access to face-to-face instruction. Adequate training will remove the fear factor, build comfort levels, and reduce anxiety.

We also recommend that physicians take at least 30 sample charts and enter four or five relevant data items from each in the system before going live. In this way, they become familiar with system navigation on their own time and at their own pace. They can develop shortcuts and templates to enhance efficiency, and they have an opportunity to ask questions before using the system with patients in the room.

The more efficiently your providers use the EHR, the faster the opportunity to begin making up for initial lost productivity. Following EHR implementation, many physicians report shorter patient visits without compromising quality of care. With this outcome in mind, have a strategy in place for leveraging reduced appointment times. Perhaps you could add an extra appointment slot or two each day, for example.

If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it

Plan to monitor key metrics as soon as the EHR goes live. Generate daily reports on patient volume, charges and open encounters; compare them with pre-EHR levels. Evaluation and management (E&M) coding reports are especially important. In a paper-based system, coders or charge entry clerks often key in E&M codes, but it typically becomes the physician’s responsibility with an EHR. Track your E&M coding trends to make sure your practice isn’t over-coding and opening itself to compliance risk, or under-coding and losing income.

Depending on practice size, specialty, complexity, and other factors, the time between EHR implementation and patient throughput gains will vary. Some practices regain or exceed productivity levels within 30 days of EHR implementation; others may take a year. But initial productivity declines can be mitigated. And once a practice is up to speed, the long-range benefits of EHR — standard care delivery processes, reduced medical error, and accelerated reimbursement — far outweigh any temporary reduction in physician productivity.

Rob Culbert is founder and president of Culbert Healthcare Solutions, a professional services firm serving healthcare organizations in the areas of operations management, revenue cycle, clinical transformation and information technology.

News 9/1/11

CMS issues its final rule on changes to the e-prescribing incentive program and includes multiple hardship exemption categories for EPs. EPs have until November 1, 2011 to request a hardship exemption for the 2012 eRX payment adjustment. Categories that EPs may claim include:

• The practice is located in a rural area without high speed Internet access
• The practice is in an area without sufficient available pharmacies for e-prescribing
• The practice is registered to participate in the Medicare or Medicaid EHR incentive program
• Local, state, or Federal law prohibits e-prescribing
• The EP does limited prescribing
• The EP has insufficient opportunities to report the eRX measure due to limitations of the measure’s denominator.

PriMed (CT) expands its relationship with MED3OOO with the selection of InteGreat EHR for its 28 locations and 75 providers.

Crystal Run Healthcare (NY) contracts with DrScore.com to provide patient satisfaction survey services for its 200 providers. When I was on Crystal Run’s Web site, I noticed they have temporarily closed their Goshen office as a result of Hurricane Irene-related damage.

athenahealth launches athenaCoordinator to facilitate care delivery among hospitals, practices, and other caregivers. It’s based on technology from Proxsys, a Birmingham, AL-based company that athenahealth recently acquired.

HealthFusion introduces MediDraw, a Web-based tool that allows physicians to draw directly on a patient’s photo or an anatomical outline image of a body part.  Providers can upload images via a smartphone or PC camera and store the image in MediTouch’s EHR. I found the above foot on HealthFusion’s Web site. I don’t know much about foot anomalies, so I just annotated the toes a pretty shade of red.

The HIMSS EHR Association urges CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, MD to reconsider the proposal to require the submission of patient-level data as it pilots the electronic submission of clinical quality measures (CQMs.) The Association claims the proposed rule for the 2012 Medicare Fee Schedule would put too much of a burden on provider organizations and recommends that CMS rely on the reporting of aggregate data instead.

The Orthopaedic Institute of Central Jersey and Orthpaedic Spine Institute select SRS EHR for their combined 19 providers.

Greenway Medical releases its remote clinical and financial product, PrimeMobile, as a native application for Apple’s iPad.

A number of ambulatory EHR vendors are hosting user group conferences over the next couple of months. A few were kind enough to flatter me with an invite – thank you. Though I’d love to skip out on the day job and attend each of them, one user meeting plus MGMA in Las Vegas will have to satisfy my fall travel bug.  Here’s a quick run-down of some of the upcoming conferences:

• Greenway: September 8-11, Orlando
• MED3OOO: September 21-23, Palm Springs
• SRS: September 21-23, Woodcliff Lake, NJ
• eClinicalWorks: October 1-4, Phoenix
• Ingenix CareTracker: October 5-7, Boston
• Practice Fusion: November 11, San Francisco
• Nextgen: November 14-16, Las Vegas

E-mail Inga.

News 8/30/11

athenahealth launches a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) accelerator program , which includes the loading of  pre-existing data into a practice’s EHR in order to speed the PCMH certification process.  athenahealth created this video highlighting how one of its clients achieved PCMH status.

The Allscripts Client Experience (ACE) kicked off Monday in Nashville with over 4,700 attendees. I watched a bit of the opening session, which was streamed live over the Web. ONC Coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD participated remotely as a keynote speaker.

CDW Healthcare and HIMSS introduce plans for a series of eight educational sessions to provide support for physicians interested in qualifying for Meaningful Use incentives. The next session is August 31 in Seattle.

Sage announces that a dozen healthcare facilities have recently chosen to implement its EHR and PM software.

The 57-physician Capital Digestive Care (DC) selects gGastro by gMed as its EHR solution.

Retail medical clinics have grown from 175 in 2006 to 1,250 now. CVS dominates the market with 600, including 45 Minute Clinics opened this year. Eastern Maine Medical Center  bucks the trend with the announced closing of five Clinic at Walmart sites.

Marshfield Clinic (WI) attributes its success in CMS’s Physician Group Practice Demonstration to its well-developed EHR (Cattails, which is homegrown and now sold commercially.) Marshfield was one of only two large physician groups out of 10 participants to qualify for shared savings during each of the five performance years.

Medicomp announces the initial distribution of ICD-10 mappings and functionality in the new version of its MEDCIN Engine. It includes a new user interface to make it easier to use ICD-10 within EMRs, providing clinically contextual, problem-oriented views of incoming data using standard reference terminology.

Kareo introduces a Patient Billing and Portal service that will allow practices to e-mail statements to patients.

Speaking a Kareo, Mr. H and I would like to thank them for their decision to upgrade their  HIStalk Practice sponsorship from Gold to Platinum. Kareo offers Web-based practice management and medical billing software and does not charge setup fees for it services, requires no long-term contracts, and is available with an integration to Practice Fusion EHR. Note that if you are in the market for a medical billing option, Kareo is offering a 25% discount for HIStalk Practice readers through the end of October. For more details on the promo or company, click on their ad to the left. We appreciate Kareo’s support of HIStalk Practice!

eClinicalWorks customer New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene wins a 2011 HIMSS Public Health Davies Award of Excellence for its Primary Care Information Project, which includes 541 independent practices, 38 community health centers, and three hospitals.

Reston Radiology Consultants (VA), Washington Radiology Associates (VA), Shady Grove Radiological Consultants (MD), and Advanced Diagnostic Radiology (MD) add Merge Healthcare’s RIS.

Holston Medical Group (TN) selects Phreesia’s check-in solution to integrate with its Allscripts EHR.

Is it me or have there been very few reports of damage to physician offices and hospitals as a result of Hurricane Irene? Obviously even if medical facilities suffered little damage, plenty of homes and businesses weren’t as lucky. With officials suggesting that some areas may not have power restored for several days, the story of Irene is not quite finished.

E-mail Inga.