News 4/6/20

Top News

AI-powered telemedicine company 98point6 will use a $43 million Series D funding round to launch its new patient wait-time dashboard and triple its physician staff by the end of April.

The company, which uses chatbot software to initiate virtual visits, has seen its visit volume increase 200% since the beginning of the year, with COVID-19 concerns accounting for 40% of those encounters. It has raised $129 million since launching in 2015.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

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Webinars

April 15 (Wednesday) 1 ET: “Scaling front-line COVID-19 response: virtual education, screening, triage, and patient navigation.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenters: Lawrence “Rusty” Hofman, MD, medical director of digital health, Stanford Health Care; Kristi Ebong, MPH, MBA, SVP of corporate strategy, Orbita. The presenters will describe how chatbots can be quickly deployed to streamline individual navigation to the appropriate resources, administer automated virtual health checks for monitoring and managing specific populations, increase access to screening and triage for high-risk populations across multiple channels (web, voice, SMS, and analog phone), and reach individuals in multiple languages.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Release-of-information companies ScanSTAT and DataFile merge. ScanSTAT President Matt Rohs will become CEO of the newly combined business.

Government and Politics

MGMA comments on ONC’s “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan,” stressing that it needs “to do more than offer vague promises” when it comes to reducing administrative burdens on physician practices. It also calls on the ONC to focus on the privacy and security of patient data, leverage health IT to help practices participate in value-based care programs, and avoid mandating the adoption and utilization of health IT.

Telemedicine

One Medical begins offering virtual visits; COVID-19 screening, assessment, and testing services; and tele-behavioral health services. It has also re-purposed clinics in select cities to care only for patients with respiratory problems.

Membership-based telemedicine company SteadyMD raises $6 million in a Series A round. It has developed an algorithm that matches patients with best-fit providers they can see on a continual basis.

The American Telemedicine Association and the Consumer Technology Association develop an online directory of telemedicine and remote monitoring technologies and services.

In Iowa, Family Health Care of Siouxland rolls out telemedicine services from Doxy.me.

Research and Innovation

A late-March Kareo survey of 600 practices finds that, as headlines attest, most are struggling with the effects of COVID-19:

• Seventy-five percent have either already launched virtual services or are actively planning to.
• Nearly 30% have switched all of their visits to telemedicine.
• Patient volumes have dropped by 35%.
• Nine percent have closed their doors for good.

Other

Ben Callister, founder and CEO of  Tennessee-based EHR vendor Dr. Know, taps the expertise of his son and his scouting friends to start 3-D printing face shields for area medical workers. They’ve so far donated 150 shields to local hospitals, and have received requests from providers in California, Kentucky, and Washington, DC.

Sponsor Updates

• PerfectServe offers free software and services for Patient & Family Communication and free services to implement best practices for COVID-19 purposes.

Blog Posts

• Managing change on a burning platform (Nordic)
• How SG Pediatrics is Using TeleVisits to Help Patients (EClinicalWorks)
• Forgiveness and Grace: Surprising Advice for Working from Home (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/1/20

Top News

AristaMD will use $18 million in Series B funding to further develop and scale use of its e-consult and referral software for primary care physicians. The San Diego-based company has raised $30 million since launching in 2013.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Your local, independent bookstore is facing the same plight as your friendly, neighborhood physician practice – dwindling revenues and a struggle to remain open, in some capacity, for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, readers have stepped up: As “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” author Dave Eggers shares in this article, audiobook portal Libro.fm has given 100% of proceeds from purchases to the bookstore of the buyer’s choice, and seems poised to do more.

Reader Comments

From Chip: “Re: Pediatric prep for COVID-19. We fired up a COVID community for pediatricians. We’re already at 1,500 members, 50K views in the last 10 days. People are sharing stories, questions, content. The need is there. Some vendors are stepping up and really helping. Others, not so much.” Chip tells me the online community for pediatricians is vendor-neutral. You can access it here.

Webinars

April 15 (Wednesday) 1 ET: “Scaling front-line COVID-19 response: virtual education, screening, triage, and patient navigation.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenters: Lawrence “Rusty” Hofman, MD, medical director of digital health, Stanford Health Care; Kristi Ebong, MPH, MBA, SVP of corporate strategy, Orbita. The presenters will describe how chatbots can be quickly deployed to streamline individual navigation to the appropriate resources, administer automated virtual health checks for monitoring and managing specific populations, increase access to screening and triage for high-risk populations across multiple channels (web, voice, SMS, and analog phone), and reach individuals in multiple languages.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

RCM vendor PatientPay raises $6 million in a financing round led by Mosaic Partners.

CNBC adds to the national coverage of physician practices struggling to stay open during the pandemic.

People

MTBC names Mike Cuesta (CareCloud) chief marketing officer and Wesley Stolp (HealthPrime) (not pictured) EVP of sales.

Announcements and Implementations

The Steadman Clinic (CO) goes live on Modernizing Medicine’s new telemedicine technology.

Telemedicine

As demand for telemedicine services skyrockets, GoodRx launches a telemedicine marketplace, giving consumers the ability to compare services and prices. The company acquired virtual visit business HeyDoctor last fall.

This article zeroes in on the quick pivot many practices are making from in-person to virtual visits. After launching telemedicine services on March 20, Chattanooga Family Practice has conducted 21,000 virtual visits. “In a word, we’ve militarized and we re-upped our entire office,” says Siobhan Duff, MD of the practice’s shift to all virtual appointments. “I really have to give kudos to my nurses who are the ones who actually educate the patients — I had an 85-year-old woman today that managed to get herself on telemedicine with me alone in her house. So it’s been a feat, and we’re tired.”

Luma Health adds virtual visit capability to its patient engagement software.

Other

Members of Facebook group RVs 4 MDs to Fight the Coronavirus connect RV owners with healthcare workers in need of temporary housing away from their families as they care for COVID-19 patients. Created last week, the group has so far connected 50 first responders in California, Texas, and Michigan with RVs.

Urgent care clinic chain Affordacare (TX) notifies patients of an early February ransomware attack that may have exposed PHI.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic offers free best practices and suggestions as responses to healthcare organization questions in its Ask Nordic service.

Blog Posts

• EHR Patient Reporting Module to Help Combat COVID-19 (AdvancedMD)
• Going remote: Creative solutions to keep projects moving (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 3/30/20

Top News

The plight of physician practices in the throes of COVID-19 continue to make headlines, with financial strains, staff shortages, and lack of PPE becoming the biggest talking points.

Physicians in Texas, worried about making payroll and paying already-reduced rent, lament the vicious cycle that has been kicked off by telling mild to moderately ill patients to stay home: Fewer in-person visits lead to lower reimbursements, while telemedicine visits fall short of comparable reimbursement rates, resulting in furloughs or layoffs that ultimately necessitate closing up shop – a decision that leaves patients with no other option but their local hospitals, which are already becoming overwhelmed.

“I’m in a small, independent practice,” says Austin-based family physician Erica Swegler, MD “and I just don’t hear much if any attention being paid to our peril, which is very real. It’s going to happen very quickly that we just won’t have the resources to keep our doors open.”

Community clinics in Washington face a similar plight, despite a nationwide HRSA grant last week of $100 million for 1,400 health centers. Neighborcare Health CEO Michael Erikson says eliminating dental services in favor of focusing on virus screenings and treatment for its predominantly Medicaid population also contributes to the problem: “You take those … factors … and you have already started to lose revenue before you’re gearing up for new ways of providing care. We are on a pathway to losing $3 million a month.”

Larger, multi-location providers aren’t immune to the same struggle. In the midst of canceling or postponing elective surgeries and shifting many of its physicians to remote care, partners and physicians at the Orthopedic Center of Palm Beach County (FL) have decided to forego their salaries in order to keep their 100 staff members employed.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Good news for those who’ve had to convert to e-reading during the pandemic: The nonprofit Internet Archive has created a National Emergency Library of 1.5 million 20th Century titles available to download for free.

Webinars

April 15 (Wednesday) 1 ET: “Scaling front-line COVID-19 response: virtual education, screening, triage, and patient navigation.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenters: Lawrence “Rusty” Hofman, MD, medical director of digital health, Stanford Health Care; Kristi Ebong, MPH, MBA, SVP of corporate strategy, Orbita. The presenters will describe how chatbots can be quickly deployed to streamline individual navigation to the appropriate resources, administer automated virtual health checks for monitoring and managing specific populations, increase access to screening and triage for high-risk populations across multiple channels (web, voice, SMS, and analog phone), and reach individuals in multiple languages.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Canadian health IT and primary care company Well Health invests $6 million in Toronto-based telemedicine vendor Insig. Well Health will use Insig’s technology to launch virtual care capabilities.

People

Adrian Rawlinson, MD (Breakaway Growth Fund) joins chronic disease-focused digital health company Welkin Health as CMO.

Announcements and Implementations

MTBC launches outsourced staffing, technology, and support services for RCM and EHR vendors.

HIEs in Idaho and Nevada offer providers free access to their networks during the pandemic.

Telemedicine

Membership-based telemedicine company Gennev expands its menopause-focused services to include primary care.

PracticeSuite adds e-consult capabilities to its EHR and RCM software.

The Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center at Mercer University School of Medicine partners with the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth to offer rural physicians free access to telemedicine services for six months.

The BMJ publishes guidelines to help physicians choose between phone and video appointments, conduct COVID-19 screenings remotely, and to offer advice for arranging follow-up care.

Other

Texas Academy of Family Physicians CEO Tom Banning delivers 1,500 masks to 37 Austin-based practices. The masks were sourced from a manufacturing facility in Mexico that converted from producing materials for the oil and gas industries to PPE.

In another industry pivot that is becoming common during COVID-19, Maverick Whiskey flips its distillery in San Antonio to manufacturing hand sanitizer. Owner Ken Maverick, MD an ophthalmologist and medical director of the San Antonio Eye Bank, plans to donate production to the city, which will allocate it to area hospitals.

Time publishes an insider’s look at working at a drive-thru testing site, highlighting the challenges providers face in anticipating demand, conveying comfort and concern while wearing PPE, and realizing that scheduling more providers for shorter shifts can prevent fatigue: “I’m an emergency room doctor, so I’m used to 12 hour shifts,” says one urgent care medical director who worked a 15-hour shift during her clinic’s first day of drive-thru testing. “Those N95 [face masks] definitely make you feel tired and spacey, and make breathing difficult. People can’t hear you as well, so you speak louder. And after several hours of yelling through the mask for patients to hear—that’s exhausting.”

Paging Dr. Jayne: Crocs offers healthcare workers a free pair of shoes while supplies last.

If sugary sustenance is more your thing, Krispy Kreme will give a free dozen doughnuts to healthcare workers every Monday through May 11.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Webinar Recap: Healthcare organizations discuss their use of telehealth and technology in the COVID-19 crisis (Nordic)
• We’re Offering Complimentary Support to Clients for COVID-19 Best Practices (PerfectServe)
• TeleVisits: How Fast Deployment Helps (EClinicalWorks)
• Managing Anxiety During the COVID-19 Outbreak (Healthwise)
• How TeleVisits Can Help During a Health Crisis (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 3/25/20

Top News

HHS allocates $100 million to help nearly 1,400 health centers across the country acquire medical supplies, support COVID-19 screening and testing needs, and expand telemedicine capabilities.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Residents in neighborhoods with Little Free Libraries are transitioning those spaces to little free food pantries to help neighbors in need. These haven’t popped up in my neck of the woods, but I have seen them filled to the brim with books in my parents’ Florida subdivision.  Find these libraries in your area here and consider donating books and non-perishables. They’ll likely become great literary resources as public libraries wind down operations for the near-term.

Webinars

March 26 (Thursday) 12:30 ET. “How to Use Automation to Reduce ‘My EHR is Slow’ Complaints.” Sponsor: Goliath Technologies. A common challenge is that a clinician is ready to work, but their technology is not. EHRs can be slow, logins not working, or printers and scanners are offline. Troubleshooting these end user tickets quickly is nearly impossible, especially in complex environments that might include Citrix or VMware Horizon. This webinar will present real-world examples of how leading health systems are using purpose-built technology with embedded automation and intelligence to proactively anticipate, troubleshoot, and prevent end user performance issue across their IT infrastructure and EHRs.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

As coverage of the plight of independent physician practices during the pandemic increases (The LA Times addresses it in this article), the AMA offers tips to keep them in business:

• Implement a process for rapid decision-making and planning.
• Understand your insurance coverage.
• Evaluate ongoing financial obligations.
• Make a financial contingency plan.
• Assess current and future supply needs.
• Understand how to continue business operations.
• Consolidate administrative resources, including coding tools.
• Manage workflow.
• Utilize digital health tools.
• Communicate guidelines for employees.
• Plan ahead for employee furloughs.
• Stay abreast of new care delivery flexibilities.
• Prepare for exposure incidents.
• Identify and implement COVID-19 specific clinical protocols.

Patient billing company Inbox Health raises $3.5 million in a funding round led by Healthy Ventures.

Telemedicine

MedBridge adds virtual visit capabilities to its Digital Patient Engagement capabilities.

PingMD makes its telemedicine app available to providers for free during the pandemic.

Virtual smoking cessation company CoolQuit adds COVID-19 screening to its telemedicine services.

CareCloud adds telemedicine software to its EHR and practice management platform.

Concerns about Telus Health’s Babylon telemedicine app continue to mount in Alberta, Canada, as privacy advocates question the app’s protections, especially the company’s disclaimer that it stores video recordings on its servers and may share them with corporate partners and foreign governments. Alberta’s privacy officials have said it could take up to a year to review the privacy impact assessment Telus Health submitted before the app was made available to citizens across the province. 

PatientPop adds telemedicine capabilities to its patient relationship management technology.

Other

Providers, first responders, and community groups in Manhattan, KS form a COVID-19 Clinical Task Force to identify and allocate medical supplies and hospital bed capacity to providers most in need on any given day. “We just don’t have the supplies to last indefinitely,” says family physician and task force member Ryan Knopp, MD “so all of us are constantly trying to ascertain where we can get an influx of supplies. The beauty of this collaborative group is we’re at the level of sharing those resources with our community partners, so quite frankly if I’ve got an extra abundance of masks this week and I know a pediatric group doesn’t have any, I’m going to have my office manager take a few over there.”

Several practices in Fresno, CA share their experience in shifting primary care patients to virtual visits as a way to free up appointment times for those in need of more urgent care during the pandemic: “What we’re trying to do is just keep the regular visits at home and then the urgent visits at the clinic,” says Juan Batista, MD. “You can say we’ve had an increase, but we’ve had an actual decrease in terms of physical contact with patients. That’s the main thing we’re trying to do for the ERs.”

• Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes a new e-guide, “Making Telemedicine Seamless for Patients and Practices.”

Blog Posts

• New Telehealth Rules Provide a Significant Opportunity for Providers if You Follow the Rules (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
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News 3/23/20

Top News

Officials in Seat Pleasant, MD announce a $200 million remote patient monitoring effort aimed at caring for those most at risk for COVID-19, especially senior citizens and those in underserved areas.

The city will give 300,000 citizens Internet-equipped tablets with access to geriatric-focused telemedicine services from EagleForce and patient portal capabilities, including prescription data. The tablets will also interface with the city’s Smart City Hub, automatically alerting health officials to chronic illness or virus symptoms and the need for additional resources.

HIStalk Practice Musings

I’ve come across several folks sharing virus-related and/or public-health-inspired reading recommendations. Health & Human Rights Strategies founder and CEO Nicole Fisher shares her stack above. Click here for her larger twit pic.

Need to reach for something that will take your mind off of things? Adventure Journal recommends these five books.

And finally, if you’re looking for something totally out of left field, check out the Taco Bell Quarterly. (Warning: The language can be a bit spicy.)

Webinars

March 25 (Wednesday) 1 ET: “Streamlining Your Surgical Workflows for Better Financial Outcomes.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: David Bocanegra, RN, nurse informaticist, IMO; Alex Dawson, product manager, IMO. Health systems that struggle with coordinating operating rooms and scheduling surgeries can increase their profitability with tools that allow for optimal reimbursement. This webinar will identify practices to optimize OR workflows and provider reimbursement, discuss how changes to perioperative management of procedures can support increased profitability, and explore factors that can impede perioperative workflow practices.

March 26 (Thursday) 12:30 ET. “How to Use Automation to Reduce ‘My EHR is Slow’ Complaints.” Sponsor: Goliath Technologies. A common challenge is that a clinician is ready to work, but their technology is not. EHRs can be slow, logins not working, or printers and scanners are offline. Troubleshooting these end user tickets quickly is nearly impossible, especially in complex environments that might include Citrix or VMware Horizon. This webinar will present real-world examples of how leading health systems are using purpose-built technology with embedded automation and intelligence to proactively anticipate, troubleshoot, and prevent end user performance issue across their IT infrastructure and EHRs.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Aledade CEO and former ONC lead Farzad Mostashari, MD posts a tweet thread about the dire financial impact COVID-19 will have on independent practices. His main points:

• Physicians are telling patients to stay away from practices, resulting in fewer visits and decreased payments, which then lead to layoffs.
• Productivity is taking a nosedive in areas of outbreak as infected employees move to self-quarantine and practice owners worry about paying out sick leave and making payroll.
• An emphasis on telemedicine visits has practices scrambling to implement new technology to conduct visits at lower reimbursement rates.

Announcements and Implementations

InteliChart adds EVisit’s telemedicine capabilities to its Healthy Outcomes patient engagement software, including a pre-configured COVID-19 workflow that features virtual screening, triage, and treatment available for free through July.

Government and Politics

CMS will grant exceptions for reporting requirements and data-submission extensions for healthcare providers participating in Medicare quality reporting programs.

The CDC incorporates Microsoft’s Healthcare Chat Bot into its COVID-19 online self-assessment tool.

Following its decision to expand access to telemedicine services for Medicare beneficiaries, CMS publishes a Telehealth Toolkit for General Practitioners.

As companies like Carbon Health, EverlyWell, and Nurx announce the release of testing kits for COVID-19, the FDA warns consumers that it has not approved any for at-home use.

Telemedicine

Health Recovery Solutions announces GA of a COVID-19 remote patient monitoring kit that includes software, tablet, several Bluetooth devices, and relevant clinical pathways.

Online care companies Hims and Hers launch online COVID-19 screening assessments.

Health officials in Alberta, Canada, institute new billing codes to ensure physicians are paid equally for virtual and face-to-face visits. The move comes after physicians voiced their frustration with Alberta’s launch of a free telemedicine app from Telus Health that they said undermined the virtual care services already in place at their practices, which were reimbursed at lower rates than in-clinic visits.

Other

HHS partners with Walmart to open drive-thru virus-testing locations at two of its stores in Chicago. The pilot phase will initially cater to healthcare workers and first responders, and process up to 150 tests per day.

Apple updates its Siri virtual assistant with information from the CDC and HHS to help users with questions about COVID-19.

Laura Jordhen, MD shares COVID-19 advice after working in Shanghai’s United Family Xincheng Hospital as chief of its family medicine department:

In Shanghai, we have enough PPE to meet our needs. My message to U.S. family physicians has been that you can’t combat this alone. It needs regional coordination. It needs planning for what if — for example — your rural care team is ill? If you’re in a physician shortage area and your physician has been exposed and is out for 14 days, what is your contingency plan? This crisis requires groups and health systems to come together. They can say, “We’re not seeing cough and cold patients at clinics A, B and C; they all go to clinic D because it has all the masks.” That’s how you can be good stewards of your resources. It’s a really different way of organizing care.

A thief poses as a delivery man to steal 29 COVID-19 testing kits from El Rio Health Center in Tucson, AZ.

Sponsor Updates

• PerfectServe offers clients free COVID-19 automated patient and family outreach software and free services to implement best practices.

Blog Posts

• Your telehealth journey: Moving forward quickly (Nordic)
• 3 Ways to Save Nurses’ Time with Better Communication (PerfectServe)
• Brown Clinic: Community Values with Leading-Edge Technology (EClinicalWorks)
• This Historic Ruling by the ONC Means More Empowered Patients (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.