News 5/6/19

Top News

EHR and practice management vendor CareCloud raises $33 million, bringing its total raised to over $150 million. Its last fundraising round, a Series C, came at the end of 2016.

Webinars

May 21 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Cloud-Based Data Management: Solving Healthcare’s Provider Data Challenge.” Sponsor: Information Builders. Presenters: Jeremy Kahle, manager of planning and business development, St. Luke’s University Health Network; Shawn Sutherland, patient and member outcomes, Information Builders; Bill Kotraba, VP of healthcare solutions and strategies, Information Builders. Inaccurate provider data negatively impacts revenue cycle, care coordination, customer experience, and keeping information synchronized across systems and functions. SLUHN will describe how it created a single version of provider data from 17 sources, followed by a demonstration of how that data can be used in reports and geospatial analysis. Learn how Omni-HealthData Provider Master Edition provides rapid ROI in overcoming healthcare organization provider data issues.

People

DuPage Medical Group (IL) CEO Michael Page has died at age 46. He is survived by his wife and two children. Page joined the organization in 2010, overseeing its expansion to 100 locations while keeping it true to its independent roots.

Announcements and Implementations

DirectTrust reports several Q1 accomplishments:

• Participating organizations increased 49% to 167,000 year over year.
• Direct addresses capable of sharing PHI increased 13% to 1.9 million.
• Consumers using Direct messaging increased 19% to 265,000.
• Messages sent increased by 49% to 54 million, bringing the total messages sent and received to 164 million.

EMDs adds Alpha II’s clinical claim and encounter scrubbing software to its EHR, practice management, and RCM technology.

North Mississippi Health Services goes live on Epic across 85 facilities. The new system replaces Logician/Centricity software that had been in use for nearly 20 years.

Government and Politics

OCR fines Touchstone Medical Imaging in Franklin, TN $3 million for potential HIPAA violations related to a May 2014 incident in which one of its FTP servers was left unsecured, enabling uncontrolled access to PHI even after the server was taken offline. OCR later found that TMI did not investigate the incident in a timely manner, nor did it do so thoroughly. OCR also determined that TMI didn’t have business associate agreements in place with its vendors, including a third-party data center and IT support vendor.

Telemedicine

MedBridge adds patient adherence tracking capabilities to its app for home-based physical therapy. The Seattle-based company also offers app-based education and training for physicians.

Other

A receptionist at the Ravines Medical Family Practice and Walk In Clinic in Nova Scotia posts statistics to highlight the number of missed appointments and no-shows during the months of March and April. Patients and staff alike were quick to call out the data as representative of the region’s “healthcare crisis.” I can only assume that already overstretched staff are frustrated by no-shows, while patients who’ve been waiting months to see a physician are equally as outraged.

Fast Company profiles CVS Health’s Health Hubs at select stores in Houston. First announced in February, the three hubs feature a store footprint with more space devoted to healthcare services like urgent care, nutritional counseling, exercise classes, a learning table with iPads, and a pharmacists panel for one-on-one support. Ultimately, says CVS Health Chief Transformation Officer Alan Lotvin, “We’re trying to build the first consumer-centric healthcare company. We want to use technologies to bring more services into people’s communities. And we define community as in your hands, in the store, and in your home.”

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the 2019 AAOE Annual Conference through May 7 in Nashville.

Blog Posts

• 4 Ways to Reduce Physician Burnout with EClinicalWorks (EClinicalWorks)
• Is the Wrong Health Education Solution Crippling Your Care Managers? (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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From the PRM Pro 5/6/19

Want to Get Patients in the Office? Talk to Them Outside of It
By Jim Higgins

Jim Higgins is the CEO and founder of Solutionreach in Lehi, UT.

Do you ever wish you could just “swipe right” and magically find happy patients? If so, you’re not alone. Developing strong patient relationships is almost as hard as developing personal relationships. That’s because these are real relationships that need to be carefully nurtured and grown. Strong patient relationships have a huge impact on the success of your healthcare organization. And just like personal relationships, putting time and effort into your patient relationships is crucial to success.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for weeks, months, or even years (ouch!) to go by between patient visits. It is during these gaps that patients often decide to take their business elsewhere. In fact, the Patient-Provider Relationship Study found that one in three patients will change practices in the next couple of years. One way to help patients stay loyal to you is to reach out during that lull between visits. Email, phone, text message, social media, newsletters, patient portal, instant message …even old-school postcards. There are a ton of ways you can reach out to between visits. Of course, you want to use the most effective and time-efficient methods of communication.

What are those methods?

1. Personalized text messages — Texting has become pretty much ubiquitous. This means that it’s the perfect way to reach out to patients and feel confident that your message will be seen. Studies show that 98 percent of text messages are read. When using text for sending appointment reminders, set up messaging that feels more personal. Using dynamic appointment reminders can allow you to include information that is applicable to individual visits — reminders to fast before a patient arrives, for example. But think about using text messaging beyond just appointment reminders as well. Whether you send a birthday greeting, acknowledge a wedding anniversary, or congratulate a patient on their graduation, your kindness will go a long way toward cementing a real relationship with your existing patients.

2. Educational newsletters — In the Information Age, patients are out there searching for information on all sorts of health concerns every day. It’s no wonder that they appreciate it when they receive this information from their healthcare provider. Nearly all — 92 percent of patients — say that they feel more connected to a healthcare organization when they receive digital education. But, the hardest part about sending educational newsletters is consistency. To make it easy, put together a content library and deliver that information automatically over time. A tool that helps you create, schedule, and send your newsletters will make it even easier.

3. Social media — Americans spend enormous amounts of their time online connecting with other people. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tumblr, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube … the list of ways we connect goes on and on. Patients don’t just want to connect with friends and family. They also want to connect with their healthcare practices online. This means that social media is no longer optional. It’s where your patients are hanging out, just waiting to hear from you. Not only does social media have the potential to boost patient trust levels, but it can also do the opposite. When a patient seeks you out on social media and you are not available, the message they receive is that “We do not want to connect with you.” Set up a schedule to post regularly — at least two times per week — and stay abreast of what your patients are saying online.

4. Mobile payments—You may not have ever considered billing to be a way to build stronger relationship with your patients, but it is actually one of the things that impacts patients the most! By connecting with patients the way they prefer to address billing issues, you can make a potentially hot-button issue much smoother. What do they want? Well, they really want it to be a whole lot more like they find in the retail and service world. Unfortunately, 77 percent of providers still use paper-based patient billing methods … even though the majority of patients say they would prefer to receive their bill online. This is troubling, especially when you look at a recent study which found that a whopping two out of three patients say they would switch healthcare providers for a better payment experience. Make your billing experience one that is the most convenient and desirable for patients and you’ll see some of those frustrations disappear.

Staying in contact with patients when they are away from your practice can be the difference between having them show up in your practice at all! Fortunately, there are lots of ways you can connect with patients year-round. And through the use of technology and automation, creating regular patient touchpoints can be efficient and easy.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 5/1/19

Top News

BetterPT raises $5 million to further scale its physical therapy marketplace, which enables patients to find and book appointments with providers in their area. It also offers PT clinics inbound patient relationship management capabilities.

HIStalk Practice Musings

BuiltinChicago.org’s recent article on corporate culture at tech-heavy practice management company VillageMD got me thinking about the literary offerings found in the workplace. VillageMD’s Chicago headquarters features a library filled with books brought in by employees and from the company’s Speaker Series. Company rep Molly Lynch says, “We started the VillageMD Speaker Series and library to both feed employee curiosity and provide a unique model of development that exposes all of us to being thinkers and innovators on topics that are relevant to our business and personal lives. We know that taking breaks to read and learn allow us to expand our minds, and ultimately, to bring greater focus for the tasks at hand, whether they be professional or personal.

“Some of the most popular titles in the library are from previous speaker events, such as ‘Joyful’ by Ingrid Fetell Lee, ‘The Ambition Decisions’ by Hana Schank and Elizabeth Wallace, and ‘Never Enough’ by Judy Grisel, Ph.D.”

Does your workplace or waiting room offer a lending library? Email me with your favorite personal and professional development book titles.

Webinars

None scheduled in the coming weeks. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Pediatric eye-screening app startup GoCheckKids raises $6 million in a Series B round led by FCA Venture Partners. CEO Kevon Saber says the Nashville-based company will use the financing to enhance the app’s EHR integration, utilize Apple’s AI capabilities, and expand its sales team.

People

The Michigan Academy of Family Physicians hires Karlene Ketola (Michigan Oral Health Coalition) as CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

Catholic Charities of Baltimore selects the SmartCare EHR from Streamline Healthcare Solutions to better coordinate care among its behavioral health, residential treatment, and special education services.

After announcing they would strategically partner last fall, New York-based HIEs HealtheConnections and HealthlinkNY decide to merge. Rob Hack will remain CEO of the newly combined HIE. HealthlinkNY Executive Director Staci Romeo will become HealtheConnections VP of HIE customer engagement services.

Telemedicine

EWellness Healthcare will expand beyond its physical therapy telemedicine services with the launch later this year of digital speech therapy software.

The Newport-Mesa Audiology Balance & Ear Institute  in California develops virtual reality technology that enables providers to offer home-based treatment for patients with dizziness, vertigo, and imbalance. Technology includes a VR goggle system, patient portal, and app.

Community health center staff in Connecticut lament the lack of reimbursement for e-consults – a state of affairs that forces them to dip into discretionary funds, thus limiting their use and bottlenecking the referral process for patients. State lawmakers are crafting legislation that would allocate funding for technology and pave the way for adequate reimbursements.

Other

This article attempts to separate the hype from the capabilities of several buzzy startups in the healthcare space, including New York City-based women’s clinic Tia. Readers may recall that the clinic, which evolved from a digital health app, has faced scaling issues due to demand for its membership-based services. A few excerpts from the review:

• The providers cast [my medical] notes onto a screen in the room, which was a fun way to visualize my health. I could also look over their shoulders to see their screens.
• The [$150 annual fee] goes toward services like the messaging and booking platform, programming, and access to group wellness events.
• I … had a hard time figuring out how to follow up with the healthcare provider who had done my exam, which will ideally be fixed when Tia’s care team messaging platform launches in a few weeks.

The National Gallery in London loans a nearly $5 million self-portrait of Italian Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi to a clinic in Yorkshire as part of an effort to show people that its art belongs to the nation. Officials believe that the artwork will help to distract and calm waiting patients, though the vigilant security guards that will accompany the painting may counter those effects.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD will exhibit at ACOG May 3-6 in Nashville.

Blog Posts

• 5 Key Questions Every Practice Owner Should Ask (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/29/19

Top News

Medical billing vendor Doctors’ Management Service notifies nearly 40 practices of a GandCrab ransomware attack discovered last Christmas Eve that likely started nearly a year before, and that may have exposed patient PHI. The breach was made through a Remote Desktop Protocol attack on an individual endpoint, according to the company, which rebuilt its files from backups rather than pay the ransom.

Cybersecurity experts have deemed GandCrab the most popular form of ransomware for 2018 thanks to its proliferation and the time hackers have put into updating it, much to the chagrin of its victims.

HIStalk Practice Musings

I had the opportunity to see the hilarious comedienne Kerri Pomarolli last week. My ears perked up when she started talking about books. HIStalk Practice readers may be interested in her mom’s account of working as a Red Cross worker on the USS Repose during the Vietnam War. An excerpt from “The Seas of War” by Barbara Pomarolli:

I felt so depressed about saying goodbye to so many patients who had become my friends. During the weeks they were on the ship, many had poured out their hearts and told me stories of combat, suffering, fear, and courage. I had so much respect for the Marine Corp after getting to know these men. I hated to think of them going back to the DMZ where they would be mortared every night and many would be wounded again or killed.

There was always such a void when they left because I had seen them on ship every day, talked with, and played games with many. I got frequent letters from former patients thanking me and telling me that I reminded them of a sister, daughter, wife, or sweetheart. It was hard not to be depressed, but we had to move on because new patients were arriving daily.  I always felt like I was needed and appreciated and felt guilty about complaining about little inconveniences.

Reader comments: Jared saw my request for military fiction recommendations and wrote with high praise for “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara, adding that “it’s a superb retelling of the Battle of Gettysburg.” Marshall recommends the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Andersonville” by MacKinley Kantor, and “April Morning” by Howard Fast.

Consistently warmer weather will soon be here to stay for most parts of the country. Email me with your favorite beach reads.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

DataLink Software rebrands and renames its CareBook solution Evoke360.

Bloom Medical will open Femme, a female-focused urgent care clinic, later this year in Thousand Oaks, CA. If Google serves me right, Bloom Medical is best known for being a medical spa in Whittier, CA, which should give it a leg up on female-focused clinics like Tia, which has had scaling issues due to a lack of direct clinical management experience.

People

OptimizeRx hires Stephen Silvestro (Wolters Kluwer) to the new position of chief commercial officer.

Healthcare Access San Antonio promotes Phil Beckett to CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

Progress House (IN) selects WeConnect Health Management’s addiction recovery app to help its patients transition out of residency and into outpatient treatment.

Simplify ASC merges its business, clinical, and reporting software for ambulatory surgery centers into one system.

Alabama Orthopedic Clinic in Mobile selects Encoda’s BackOffice and Maestro Analytics to improve its revenue cycle management.

ZenCharts develops a CRM for substance use and mental health providers.

Government and Politics

City of Worcester officials launch the Stigma Free Worcester App to give residents access to resources related to substance abuse recovery, mental health support, and housing. The city’s Department of Health and Human Services and Technical Services worked with students at the local polytechnic institute to develop the app.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic will host receptions during Epic XGM on April 30 and May 7 in Madison, WI.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the 2019 IPHCA Annual Conference April 29-30 in Indianapolis.
• Nordic unveils a new logo.
• PerfectServe achieves certified integration with the Spectralink Versity smartphone.
• AdvancedMD publishes a new e-guide, “Pediatrics: Specialized Practice Tools to Boost Your Business Results.”

Blog Posts

• TCM: From Post-It to Proactive (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 4/24/19

Top News

Community healthcare EHR vendor CPSI will acquire Get Real Health, which specializes in patient engagement solutions for a variety of healthcare settings including physician practices. CPSI will move its acute and ambulatory customers to Get Real Health’s InstantPHR patient portal and CHBase health data repository – a transition it expects will save the company $1 million.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Yesterday was World Book Day in the US, an annual event that’s been going on for 22 years to encourage literacy and publishing in 100 countries. Amazon is still celebrating by offering nine Kindle books from around the world for free. Check out the titles here.

Reader comments: Anna confesses that her “somewhat guilty pleasure read is Shelby Foote’s three volume history of the Civil War. Being from the south, and having had multiple ancestors fight on the Confederate side, it’s been kind of a personal reckoning with history. I started last summer and am almost finished. Foote’s novelistic approach to history writing is gripping. Lots to learn about leadership. If we want to find about the roots of our politically divisive culture today, look no further than the lead-up to the Civil War.” Funnily enough, Anna’s note arrived the very same day I toured a local Civil War battlefield with a school group. Given that I’m a fan of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, I’m definitely adding these to my summer reading list. Books like these remind me of the nights spent with my family watching Ken Burns’ weighty PBS documentary about the war, in which Foote made an appearance. The theme song, “Ashokan Farewell” (which I eventually learned to play on the violin), still haunts me.

Have a military title to recommend, or World Book Day anecdote to share? Email me.

Webinars

None scheduled in the coming weeks. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Denver-based SonderMind raises $3 million in a Series A round led by Diōko Ventures with participation from other new investors that include Jonathan Bush. The startup has developed EHR and practice management software for behavioral healthcare providers, plus an online marketplace that helps connect patients with behavioral healthcare services.

Announcements and Implementations

BetterPT integrates Clinicient’s online scheduling capabilities with its online marketplace for physical therapy patients and providers.

Modernizing Medicine adds enhanced allergy documentation capabilities to its EMA for otolaryngology.

Government and Politics

The State of New Jersey will allocate $6 million to fund the roll out of new EHRs for community-based behavioral health providers, the majority of which have reported needing new or upgraded equipment. The New Jersey Innovation Institute will oversee the project, which will also include connecting providers to the New Jersey Health Information Network.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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