News 7/10/19

Top News

Cancer-focused social network Belong.Life raises $14 million in a funding round led by Iqvia, which was formed in 2016 through the merger of IMS Health and Quintiles. The app-based startup will use the financing to advance patient engagement software for a variety of conditions launched in May.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Thanks to Amy for reminding me about “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah. The novel tells the story of two very different sisters who survive the German occupation of France during World War II. I couldn’t put it down, though parts of it were hard to get through. I’m sure I haven’t been the only one to shed a tear or two by book’s end.

Please keep your book recommendations coming! Email me with your guilty summer pleasures.

Webinars

July 18 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Healthcare’s Digital Front Door: Modernizing Medicine’s Mobile-First Strategies That Are Winning Patient Engagement.” Sponsor: Relatient. Presenters: Michele Perry, CEO, Relatient; Michael Rivers, MD, director of EMA Ophthalmology, Modernizing Medicine. Providers are understandably focused on how to make the most of the 5-8 minutes they have on average with a patient during an exam, but what happens between appointments also plays a significant role in the overall health of patients. Modernizing Medicine is driving high patient engagement with best practice, mobile-first strategies. This webinar will describe patient engagement and the challenges in delivering it, how consumerism is changing healthcare, and how to get started and navigate the patient engagement marketplace.

July 25 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Meeting patient needs across the continuum of care.” Sponsor: Philips Population Health Management. Presenters: Cindy Gaines, chief nursing officer, Philips Population Health Management; Cynthia Burghard, research director of value-based healthcare IT transformation strategies, IDC. Traditional care management approaches are not sufficient to deliver value-based healthcare. Supplementing EHRs with advanced PHM technology and a scalable care management approach gives health systems proactive and longitudinal insights that optimize scarce resources in meeting the needs of multiple types of patients. This webinar will address the key characteristics of a digital platform for value-based care management, cover the planning and deployment of a scalable care management strategy, and review patient experience scenarios for CHF and diabetes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Bloomberg profiles Well Health Technologies, a Vancouver-based startup focused on dominating Canada’s ailing primary care market. The company has focused on acquiring clinics and EHR vendors, including KAI Innovations and NerdEMR Services. It seems to have hopes of building a national chain of practices that surpasses Canada’s largest, which only has 34. In addition to offering its physicians EHR technology, it plans to roll out telemedicine services in the near future.

Announcements and Implementations

Innovaccer launches an ACO solution that helps member providers aggregate, analyze, and act on population health data from various sources across their networks.

Genesis Chiropractic Software announces GA of the XDocs EHR.

Specialty EHR and practice management vendor WRS Health develops an EHR for Ob/Gyns.

Rimidi adds a cardiovascular disease view to its chronic disease management software, which also helps providers aggregate and act on data associated with diabetes, heart failure, and nonalcoholic fatty liver.

Nextech adds RCM capabilities from Health IPass to its EHR and practice management software for specialty physician practices.

People

Brian Boyd (SAP Fieldglass) joins Modernizing Medicine as chief revenue officer.

Telemedicine

CVS Health expands access to MinuteClinic virtual visits to eight additional states. Launched last August in 18 states, the telemedicine service is powered by Teladoc.

HNC Virtual Solutions develops a device-agnostic application that enables providers to view, edit, share, and consult on radiology images.

Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) awards $226,348 from the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine program to two counties that will invest the funds in telemedicine efforts to combat opioid abuse.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes a new e-guide, “Untangling Large Group Techno-Spaghetti.”

Blog Posts

• The Patient Portal App Saved Me From Surgery (EClinicalWorks)

• Patient Access Centralization – Far More Complicated than Anticipated (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

News 7/8/19

Top News

Patient intake software vendor Phreesia expects to raise $125 million in a mid-July IPO that will see shares priced between $15 and $17. The company, which announced its IPO plans last month, took in $104 million during the last fiscal year and has raised over $100 million since launching nearly 20 years ago.

HIStalk Practice Musings

I’m back from a week of “roughing” it in Northwest Georgia. While our converted train car cabins did have ice-cold AC, it’s been nice to enjoy centralized cooling at home. My small talk with new friends typically includes asking what they’re reading at the moment, and camp was no exception. The camp nurse, who did a brisk trade in ice packs and Band-Aids throughout my stay, couldn’t stop singing the praises of “Mary: Mrs. A Lincoln,” which tells the story of Abraham Lincoln’s widow after her only surviving son has her committed to an insane asylum. I’m looking forward to checking it out soon.

I’m also adding “Founding Mothers” by Cokie Roberts to my growing summer reading list. Thanks to Dr. Jayne for the recommendation. You can read her review in her latest Curbside Consult.

Please email me your recommendations of books – fiction or biographies – that dig into the back stories of our country’s early leaders and their families. There’s typically so much more to these larger-than-life historical figures than the average school book has room for.

Webinars

July 18 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Healthcare’s Digital Front Door: Modernizing Medicine’s Mobile-First Strategies That Are Winning Patient Engagement.” Sponsor: Relatient. Presenters: Michele Perry, CEO, Relatient; Michael Rivers, MD, director of EMA Ophthalmology, Modernizing Medicine. Providers are understandably focused on how to make the most of the 5-8 minutes they have on average with a patient during an exam, but what happens between appointments also plays a significant role in the overall health of patients. Modernizing Medicine is driving high patient engagement with best practice, mobile-first strategies. This webinar will describe patient engagement and the challenges in delivering it, how consumerism is changing healthcare, and how to get started and navigate the patient engagement marketplace.

July 25 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Meeting patient needs across the continuum of care.” Sponsor: Philips Population Health Management. Presenters: Cindy Gaines, chief nursing officer, Philips Population Health Management; Cynthia Burghard, research director of value-based healthcare IT transformation strategies, IDC. Traditional care management approaches are not sufficient to deliver value-based healthcare. Supplementing EHRs with advanced PHM technology and a scalable care management approach gives health systems proactive and longitudinal insights that optimize scarce resources in meeting the needs of multiple types of patients. This webinar will address the key characteristics of a digital platform for value-based care management, cover the planning and deployment of a scalable care management strategy, and review patient experience scenarios for CHF and diabetes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

VertitechIT and its physician practice-focused sister companies, Akiro Consulting and Baytech IT, will expand their operations at the Open Square mixed-use development in Holyoke, MA. Built in the 1800s, the former textile and paper factory is now the country’s largest zero net energy development.

Forum Health opens for business in Salt Lake City as a membership-based precision health medical group offering its physicians access to Power2Practice’s EHR.

Announcements and Implementations

MedEvolve announces GA of AI-powered RCM workflows.

Nashville Oncology Associates enlists the practice and clinical research management services and technologies of Verdi Oncology.

Progressive Radiology implements RoyalPay eligibility verification and payments software from Royal Solutions Group at its 15 imaging centers across Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.

Anesthesia Associates NW implements Plexus Technology Group’s anesthesia information management system at its Salem Endoscopy Center, in Salem, OR.

Inbox Health adds Healthpac’s billing software to its billing and patient communication software.

People

EHR and practice management vendor Aesthetic Record names Tiphany Lopez (Galderma Laboratories) chief growth officer.

ONC promotes Steve Posnack to deputy national coordinator, effective August 19.

Telemedicine

Medical supply company Agile Medical partners with sleep care physician network Welltrinsic and sleep apnea testing company CleveMed to launch Sleep Care Online. The new telemedicine business will offer consultations; testing and post-testing analysis; and access to recommended equipment, coaching, and longer-term care.

MedHealth Urgent Care in Montgomery, AL launches a GoFundMe campaign in hopes of raising $1 million to fund new telemedicine services. Assuming its patients are already strapped for cash, which I assume most patients are these days, it seems like a counter-intuitive way to raise money for new technology.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

News 6/26/19

Top News

Remedy, an on-demand urgent and primary care company that caters to consumers and employers, raises $10 million in a Series A financing round led by Santé Ventures.

HIStalk Practice Musings

HIStalk Practice won’t publish next week, as I’ll be off the grid and deep in the wilds of West Georgia. It’s become an annual summertime experience that I share with a few dozen other adults. While my schedule won’t necessarily be a relaxing one, it will be nice to be away from screens and the pull of digital correspondence.

An interview with Danish philosopher and author Svend Brinkmann caught my eye as I was contemplating the week ahead. His latest book, “The Joy of Missing Out,” delves into our consumerist society’s social media-fueled need to always be on the hunt for the next greatest experience – all to the detriment of the experiences we could be having in the present moment. He even links it to one of my favorite past times:

“I … think things like reading a novel or dwelling on the past can be genuinely useful. It’s about ritualizing your life, developing habits and routines that will make it much easier to focus and to miss out on all the noise and all the distractions.

“This ancient art of reading, of getting immersed in a book, is very disciplining. Many people have lost the ability to sit for hours and read a book. They constantly become distracted and want to check their smartphones. I do that as well. But practicing these routines are small steps we can take to learn to live within a culture that is constantly pulling us in a million different directions.”

Webinars

July 18 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Healthcare’s Digital Front Door: Modernizing Medicine’s Mobile-First Strategies That Are Winning Patient Engagement.” Sponsor: Relatient. Presenters: Michele Perry, CEO, Relatient; Michael Rivers, MD, director of EMA Ophthalmology, Modernizing Medicine. Providers are understandably focused on how to make the most of the 5-8 minutes they have on average with a patient during an exam, but what happens between appointments also plays a significant role in the overall health of patients. Modernizing Medicine is driving high patient engagement with best practice, mobile-first strategies. This webinar will describe patient engagement and the challenges in delivering it, how consumerism is changing healthcare, and how to get started and navigate the patient engagement marketplace.

July 25 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Meeting patient needs across the continuum of care.” Sponsor: Philips Population Health Management. Presenters: Cindy Gaines, chief nursing officer, Philips Population Health Management; Cynthia Burghard, research director of value-based healthcare IT transformation strategies, IDC. Traditional care management approaches are not sufficient to deliver value-based healthcare. Supplementing EHRs with advanced PHM technology and a scalable care management approach gives health systems proactive and longitudinal insights that optimize scarce resources in meeting the needs of multiple types of patients. This webinar will address the key characteristics of a digital platform for value-based care management, cover the planning and deployment of a scalable care management strategy, and review patient experience scenarios for CHF and diabetes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Occupational, speech and physical therapy software vendor Clinicient acquires Intermountain Healthcare’s quality improvement software for physical therapy. Clinicient will incorporate the Rehab Outcomes Management System with its Keet Health mobile patient engagement technology.

Medical co-working space company Clinicube opens its second shared office in New York City. The company bills itself as a physician practice accelerator for millenial doctors who want to start their own practices without incurring crushing financial burden right out of med school. I’ve come across several of these WeWork-type companies opening for MDs, but none that delve into what it’s actually like to practice (or be cared for) in one. Email me if you have a story to share.

People

Digital patient education company Health Monitor Network names Paul Wituschek (Icon) chief commercial officer, Joseph DiCarlo (Westmed Practice Partners) chief people officer, and David Zuern (Benjamin Moore) SVP of operations.

Announcements and Implementations

Tablet-based EHR vendor DrChrono will offer Jamf’s Apple device management service to end users for quick and easy loading of the company’s and its partners’ apps across office devices.

PracticeSuite offers EHR and practice management customers access to chronic care management reporting capabilities from One Healthcare Solutions.

NextGen reseller TSI Healthcare works with Articularis Rheumatology Network to develop a rheumatoid arthritis clinical decision support pathway for EHR workflows.

West Cancer Center and Research Institute implements Flatiron Health’s RCM software and services across its 13 clinics in 13 clinic sites in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

News 6/24/19

Top News

Oncology EHR and research company Flatiron Health will nearly double its Manhattan office space and add 200 jobs by the end of the year, bringing its total head count to 1,000. The company relocated to its current SoHo office space last summer to accommodate company growth. It also has an office in San Francisco.

Drug maker Roche acquired the company in early 2018 for nearly $2 billion.

Webinars

July 25 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Meeting patient needs across the continuum of care.” Sponsor: Philips Population Health Management. Presenters: Cindy Gaines, chief nursing officer, Philips Population Health Management; Cynthia Burghard, research director of value-based healthcare IT transformation strategies, IDC. Traditional care management approaches are not sufficient to deliver value-based healthcare. Supplementing EHRs with advanced PHM technology and a scalable care management approach gives health systems proactive and longitudinal insights that optimize scarce resources in meeting the needs of multiple types of patients. This webinar will address the key characteristics of a digital platform for value-based care management, cover the planning and deployment of a scalable care management strategy, and review patient experience scenarios for CHF and diabetes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

ENT and Allergy Associates holds a ribbon-cutting for its new 40,000-square foot headquarters in Tarrytown, NY. The new HQ will employ 300 and house all the back-office functions of the practice, which employs 208 physicians across 43 offices in New York and New Jersey. CEO Robert Glazer says the new facility was a necessary step to better enabling its physicians to focus on caring for their patients, rather than on administrative tasks.

Applied behavior analysis EHR and practice management vendor CentralReach acquires competitor Pathfinder Health Innovations. CentralReach has been on a bit of buying spree over the last year, acquiring Chartlytics in May and Bronco Billing last December.

People

The Massachusetts Medical Society elects Ob/Gyn Maryanne Bombaugh, MD president.

Elligo Health Research names Brandon Cormier chief commercial officer and Jody Case VP of healthcare partnerships.

Announcements and Implementations

The Kings County Department of Public Health in Hanford, CA will offer tuberculosis patients access to Emocha Health’s medication management app.

NextGen implementation and consulting firm Topaz Information Solutions will offer patient engagement solutions from True Mobile Health to its customers.

RxNT will offer PDMP access to its EHR and practice management customers through an integration with Appriss Health’s PMP Gateway software.

PatientPoint adds resources from the the National Comprehensive Cancer Network to its digital waiting and exam room screens.

In Denver, Jade Recovery treatment center will offer Weconnect Health Management’s behavioral health app to help its patients maintain treatment regimens post-discharge.

Other

PainMD patients are left in limbo after the pain management company closes all of its clinics, declares bankruptcy, and reveals that it no longer has access to patient medical records, which ended up being stored in boxes in several storage units. (The storage unit manager contends he does not legally have the right to open the units.) The pain clinic’s bankruptcy was brought on by a federal and state lawsuit that accused the company of unnecessarily injecting patients and then mislabeling the injections so that it could bill Medicare and Medicaid.

Family physician Ashley Denmark, DO publishes “Olivia’s Doctor Adventures” to inspire underprivileged youth in her community. Denmark, who works as a family physician at BJC Medical Group in St. Louis is in the process of launching Doctor Boxes, a subscription box service that includes the book and STEM-related activities.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the California Primary Care Association Region IX Clinical Excellence Conference through June 25 in Newport Beach, CA.
• Nordic releases a new podcast, “How Managed Services can support your EHR extension partners.”

Blog Posts

• Healow insights – a Value-based Revolution (EClinicalWorks)
• Care Manager Efficiency, Part 3: Training Your Team (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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

News 6/19/19

Top News

ESolutions, an RCM technology and services company based in Overland Park, KS, acquires Houston, TX-based competitor Practice Insight for an undisclosed sum.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Mr. H is running his annual annual Summer Doldrums Special on webinars and new sponsorships. Contact Lorre, who may offer a little something extra to former sponsors who want to return to the fold.

Webinars

July 25 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Meeting patient needs across the continuum of care.” Sponsor: Philips Population Health Management. Presenters: Cindy Gaines, chief nursing officer, Philips Population Health Management; Cynthia Burghard, research director of value-based healthcare IT transformation strategies, IDC. Traditional care management approaches are not sufficient to deliver value-based healthcare. Supplementing EHRs with advanced PHM technology and a scalable care management approach gives health systems proactive and longitudinal insights that optimize scarce resources in meeting the needs of multiple types of patients. This webinar will address the key characteristics of a digital platform for value-based care management, cover the planning and deployment of a scalable care management strategy, and review patient experience scenarios for CHF and diabetes.

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

Announcements and Implementations

ClinicTracker adds MIPS reporting capabilities from Health EFilings to its EHR for mental health and substance abuse providers.

Telemedicine

InTeleLabs launches a telemedicine system for at-home pharmacogenomics testing and physician consultations. The Elicity system’s initial offerings will include tests related to mental health, cardiovascular health, and pain management.

Family Practice Center in Atlanta implements telemedicine capabilities from EVisit.

In Rhode Island, Thundermist Health Center uses a CDC grant to launch telemedicine prescribing capabilities with specialists at Codac Behavioral Healthcare. The providers at both facilities will collaborate on getting patients access to medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorder.

Research and Innovation

A Definitive Healthcare survey on outpatient care trends finds investing in and implementing new technologies – especially those related to interoperability – to be the biggest challenge, followed by understanding industry consolidation trends, staffing, and attracting new patients. The field of 200 respondents also acknowledged that new technologies such as telemedicine and mobile apps, as well as streamlined patient technologies, were among the biggest drivers behind outpatient growth.

Other

Residents complain when paperwork left behind the now-shuttered Medical Professional Home Healthcare Center (IL) ends up on the ground and blowing into nearby yards. The papers, which include medical files, were originally left in a locked storage container at the same location. City sanitation crews were quick to clean up the mess after several neighbors called the local news. The center closed in 2017 after losing its state health department license and Medicare certification.

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima will exhibit at HFMA June 23-26 in Orlando.

Blog Posts

• Your practice is nothing without patients (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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