News 11/13/19

Top News

NextGen will acquire patient intake, scheduling, and payment software company Medfusion for $43 million. Medfusion will spin off its data services business into a separate entity named Greenlight Health.

Medfusion’s owner, Steven Malik, sold the company in 2010 to Intuit for $91 million, then reacquired it in 2013. Malik, who owns the North Carolina FC of United Soccer League and North Carolina Courage of National Women’s Soccer League, is working to build a $2 billion entertainment complex in Raleigh.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Mr. HIStalk (not me) did a great job reviewing David Shulkin’s new book, “It Shouldn’t Be This Hard to Serve Your Country.” He did such a good job, in fact, that I now feel like I don’t need to read it. Die-hard politicos may still want to pick up a copy.

I’m in the middle of “The Island of Sea Women” by Lisa See, which aims to be a tale of decades-long friendship. I am, however, more enjoying the interwoven Korean history lessons, especially as they relate to Japanese occupation, transitional American government, and eventual independence. The glimpses it gives into the birth of North Korea are fascinating.

Next up: “Mayflower” by Nathaniel Philbrick. The history book caught my eye as my local library’s book club selection of the month.

I wrapped up my HIMSS travel arrangements yesterday. I was happy that my favorite hotel still had rooms available. While not the poshest of places, it’s affordable and a short walk from the convention center and Pointe Orlando, where all of the after-hours networking seems to happen.

When applying for a press pass, I listed the “consumerization of healthcare as it relates to digital health, telemedicine, and big retail’s impact on traditional healthcare business models” as my top three story angles. All are a bit broad, so if you’d like me to keep my eyes and ears open for more specific trends, please let me know.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Atlanta-based clinical data integration and analytics vendor Clinigence will merge with Accountable Healthcare America, an ACO management company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Once the merger is complete, the new entity will work on acquiring and operating medical groups, independent practice associations, and ACOs.

Announcements and Implementations

The North Carolina Medical Society Foundation will use data integration services from NetDirector for its virtual recovery and treatment program for opioid users. Data will be pooled from from LabCorp, NCCARE360, the state HIE, and various EHRs.

Advanced Sleep Medicine Services (SC) implements patient self-scheduling software from Bridge Patient Portal.

DrFirst customers in Washington can now connect to the state’s PDMP through the statewide OneHealthPort HIE.

Tidewater Physicians Multispecialty Group (VA) will integrate patient engagement technology from InteliChart with its NextGen EHR.

Telemedicine

Virtual care company Medek partners with the United Way to offer a free telemedicine visit to those in need each time a Medek customer pays for their visit with an American Express credit card.

ClearHealth Quality Institute adds outcomes measurement validation to its Telemedicine Accreditation Program. The new outcomes supplement looks at an organization’s access to care, clinical effectiveness, clinical experience/satisfaction, financial impact, and operations.

Research and Innovation

A Medici survey of 800 consumers finds that the inconvenience of making an appointment has led a third of respondents to seek care in the ER rather than wait to see their physician, and some to forego care altogether. Nearly 75% of respondents wish they could text their physician and take advantage of virtual visits from their mobile devices.

Other

First Cerner, now NextGen: Puppy cuddling at conferences is becoming a thing. I wonder if we’ll see it at HIMSS.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Give your practice the financial breathing room it needs (AdvancedMD)
• Basic Principles That Could Transform Your Practice (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 11/11/19

Top News

WeShareMD, a co-working medical office space company with several properties in California, prepares to open additional co-working spaces in Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville, FL. The company will soon rebrand to ShareMD as it looks for opportunities to expand into Atlanta; Washington, DC; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Houston; and several cities in North Carolina.

I’d love to hear from physicians who have tried out a medical office co-working arrangement. Email me with your experience and your thoughts on whether or not this will become a popular business model for practices just getting off the ground.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Los Angeles-based patient messaging and engagement company Curogram raises $1.8 million.

Outpatient diagnostic imaging services provider RadNet invests in WhiteRabbit.ai and licenses its breast imaging technology after a pilot in two test markets helped to improve the annual screening compliance of mammography patients.

Announcements and Implementations

Innovaccer integrates its InCare care coordination software with Microsoft Teams.

Veterans service organization AmVets will pilot Sync.MD’s PHR software to help select members better manage their health data.

White Horse Recovery will implement The Echo Group’s behavioral health EchoVantage EHR.

To simplify MIPS reporting for its members, the American Podiatric Medical Association integrates NextGen’s Office EHR with its registry and MIPS app.

People

Beth Anderson, chief administration officer of the City of Burlington, VT, will take on the role of president and CEO of Vermont Information Technology Leaders next month.

Government and Politics

I missed this when it was first announced: Walmart joins the VA’s ATLAS (Accessing Telehealth through Local Area Stations) project by donating private rooms in five rural store locations for use as telemedicine access points. The project launched last month with 10 telemedicine pods installed at select VFW and American Legion posts. Walmart’s involvement was announced late last year. The VA will assess clinical quality, value, and patient experiences before expanding the project.

Telemedicine

A two-year study of 299 pediatric allergy patients finds their parents to be very receptive to virtual visits. Compared to their most recent in-person visit, 37% were more satisfied, 63% were just as satisfied, and none were less satisfied with the telemedicine appointment. Convenience was the biggest driver of patient satisfaction.

Nonprofit behavioral health center United Services (CT) will use a $319,000 grant from the USDA in a telemedicine initiative that will connect its clinical centers, shelters, program locations, housing facilities, and community partners.

Medical marijuana evaluation telemedicine company NuggMD offers veterans free evaluations on Veterans Day. The company expanded into the state, which apparently has the least restrictive MME policies in the country, last month.

Other

Minnesota Public Radio profiles the efforts providers at the Alexandria Clinic went through to reduce their opioid prescriptions, including clinic-mandated checking of the state’s PDMP, creating a task force to help patients transition to lower dosages, and developing and disseminating “report cards” that show the number of prescriptions by doctor. Staff member Paul Kietzmann, MD says the clinic is also working to incorporate PDMP access directly into its EHR. “When you’re called out and you see what your numbers are and you do that comparison,” he says, “you start to wonder, ‘Are my prescribing habits different than everyone else?’ If I’m prescribing a lot more than others, gosh, if I’m harming somebody, I certainly want to know about that.”

Sponsor Updates

• Healthwise and Intelligent Medical Objects will exhibit at NextGen UGM 2019 November 10-13 in Orlando.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the TAHP Texas Covered Health Care Conference + Expo November 11-12 in Austin.
• Nordic will exhibit at the HIMSS Gulf Coast Chapters GC3 Conference November 13-15 in Biloxi, MS.

Blog Posts

• How to Improve Your OB/GYN With Your EHR (EClinicalWorks)
• How Nordic’s Managed Services can help with short-term demand spikes (Nordic)
• Improve Patient Experience Before, During, and After Care (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 11/6/19

Top News

CVS profits jump 13% in Q3, generating revenue of $1.5 billion – quite a different tune than competitor Walgreens is playing as it contemplates going private. CVS CEO Larry Merlo says the company is focused on expanding its Health Hub concept stores beyond the original three that opened in Houston in February. The stores devote more square footage to health and wellness services including expanded Minute Clinics, exercise space and programs, dieticians, respiratory specialists, and more health-focused products. CVS plans to open 1,500 hubs by the end of 2021.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Social services coordination software vendor Healthify raises $16 million in a Series B round led by SV Health Investors. The New York City-based company, a graduate of the Blueprint Health accelerator program, has raised $28 million since launching in 2013.

People

Kura MD promotes Doug Sumaraga to CEO, and names Keith Woodard (World Wide Learn) VP of sales.

Announcements and Implementations

Maryland Physicians Care selects Evolent Health’s Identifi software and operations services that include claims processing, care management, provider data management, utilization management, portals and analytics. MPC will use the tools to serve over 200,000 Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in the state’s HealthChoice program.

Telemedicine

Mental health and substance abuse EHR vendor ClinicTracker uses an integration API from TrueConf to add telemedicine capabilities to its patient portal.

Kura MD makes its telemedicine technology for worker’s compensation cases commercially available. It was previously available only to employers. In an interesting turn of phrase, VP of Sales Keith Woodard says the company’s ultimate goal is to equip employers and providers with “click-and-mortar” clinics capable of treating injured workers on-site.

Research and Innovation

Kidney care company Cricket Health develops a predictive model using administrative data that can help payers and providers identify patients at risk for chronic kidney disease without the need for data from an EHR. Once a CKD patient is identified, Cricket Health will work with primary care physicians to assist with personalized care.

Other

Small effort, big impact: Beginning this month, Memorial Medial Center in Springfield, IL will send new parents and babies home with books by Eric Carle to encourage reading at an early age. Benefits include soothing babies, developing memory skills, boosting creative thinking, building vocabulary, and increasing attention span.

This video is adorable: Man’s best friend might be just what you need to cure what ails you. Side effects may include talking in ridiculous dog voices, picking up poop, making funny faces, being jealous of your dog when it kisses other people, and excessive social media posts, among other amusing behaviors. Cat lovers can find details about a similar cure here.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 11/4/19

Top News

CNBC’s Chrissy Farr pens a review of the actions that led up to Jonathan Bush’s ouster at Athenahealth, and what the former founder and CEO is up to now.

A few clips:

• Towards the end of his time at the company, he says that board meetings became tense and unpleasant: “Suddenly they are meeting three times a week. It’s acrimonious and there’s fear about what’s being written down.”
• Bush says he knows why he was targeted: “We had a flat stock for over three years. And Athena was a steal. It’s a great business to own.”
• A 45-page critique of Bush’s leadership juxtaposed with falling stock prices provided Elliott Management with a “compelling argument about why Bush shouldn’t be running the company.”

Bush now spends half his time as executive chairman of primary care startup Firefly Health, while the rest is spent with family and serving on the boards of AI-focused healthcare company Innovaccer and mental health therapy startup SonderMind. He has admitted that he’s pretty much unemployable as a public company CEO.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

On-demand medical office space company R2 Medical Group rebrands to Cowork Medical. The Maryland-based business opened in October 2018 to offer physicians the ability to rent practice space as needed via a membership model that includes staffing services. Cowork plans to soon offer practice management services that include EHR, billing, and marketing software.

Tinder dating app founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen make good on their promise to invest in Mosh, a men’s digital health and wellness startup akin to Roman, with a $1 million financing commitment.

Health IT reseller Das Health acquires competitor Automated Medical Systems. The acquisition will enable Das to add Henry Schein’s MicroMD to its line of EHRs.

Announcements and Implementations

Primary care-focused managed services organization Collaborative Health Systems selects population health management software from The Garage to help its customers transition to value-based care.

Nextech Systems adds secure messaging and patient engagement capabilities from Klara to its EHR and practice management software for specialists.

Government and Politics

The Connecticut Department of Correction will move from paper records to GE Centricity.

Telemedicine

Health IT reseller TSI Healthcare adds telemedicine technology from Otto Health to its line of products and services.

Research and Innovation

An analysis of data from 1,022 oncologists finds that 50% often discuss the costs of genetic testing with patients, 26% do so some of the time, and 23% never or rarely do. Oncologists with access to EHRs were twice as likely to bring up costs when discussing genetic testing options.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic will exhibit at the CHIME19 Fall CIO Forum through November 6 in Phoenix.
• PerfectServe will exhibit at the Society of Hospital Medicine Leadership Academy November 4-7 in Nashville.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at APHA 2019 through November 5 in Philadelphia.
• Healthwise will exhibit at the Healthcare Internet Conference November 4-6 in Orlando.

Blog Posts

• How Nordic’s Managed Services can help with short-term demand spikes (Nordic)
• 3 Ways to Improve Post-Treatment Compliance (PerfectServe)
• A Look Back at the 2019 National Conference (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 10/30/19

Top News

Dialysis clinic operator Fresenius Medical Care North America announces GA of TheHub, a connected care platform offering patients, providers, and home therapy nurses access to real-time care coordination and remote monitoring tools.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

My Walmart Health Experience

Imagine my surprise when I found out several months ago that Walmart would be opening its pilot Walmart Health clinic in my hometown of Dallas, GA. Of all the practices in all the towns in all the world … Professional curiosity prompted me to make the 12-minute drive to check it out before its official opening in late September. Necessity saw me take advantage of its services twice in nearly as many weeks, with both visits being on behalf of family members.

Thanks to media coverage of the clinic, I was already aware of its flat-rate, up-front pricing – a definite bonus for patients like me who don’t have traditional insurance and thus always anticipate hidden charges and undisclosed fees any time I set foot in a healthcare facility.

Setting up the appointments was easy. The Zotec-powered scheduling software made things quick and painless, even though I was registering a new patient. Appointment times were plentiful for our first visit. and I was thankful they were able to work us in on the same day for our second (even though no appointments were listed as available on the website).

Upon our first arrival, I noticed that the clinic’s reception area was bright, spacious, and very modular in design – most of the furniture and décor looked as if it had come from Ikea. The waiting area had a children’s nook, a self-serve beverage station, and several benches with built-in charging stations. What looked like a Silver Sneakers chair aerobics class was going on in an adjoining community room. Though there was a reception desk, I was greeted by an attendant, tablet in hand, who walked up to ask for ID, and then bade me have a seat. The only thing that made me aware I was at Walmart was the fact that the clinic’s “back door” opened into the main store, prompting some customers to wheel their shopping carts through the waiting area.

During the short wait to be seen during our second visit, the attendant told me the clinic uses three software systems – Athenahealth and Orchard for labs. She couldn’t remember the third, and so I can only speculate that it’s a separate system for optometry, behavioral health, or dental.

After being called back, a medical assistant came in to the exam room to attend to vitals and patient history. I noticed on the way in that the clinic’s inner office looked much like any other practice in terms of layout. I did think it odd that the director’s office was made entirely of glass, affording no privacy or place for quiet contemplation.

The family physician who saw us was in fact the director, Anand Mehta, MD who came to the company after a stint with Wellstar – one of the largest health systems in the state. I appreciated his great bedside manner, and the fact that he asked me my thoughts about the clinic, many of which aligned with his reasons for taking the job – the ability to provide more affordable care to patients who would otherwise fall through the pricing/coverage cracks, and less bureaucracy for patients and providers alike.

Checkout was easy, and the final cost was indeed the $40 listed on the website. The clinic texted me a post-appointment survey within several hours of my visit. I’ll certainly recommend the clinic to family and friends, especially those who aren’t attached to long-time providers.

Much has been made in the media of retail’s attempts to get into healthcare. Walmart certainly has the size and scale to make the attempt, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to success. Walgreens’ decision to close many of its clinics highlights the fact that not every retailer’s business model will work. From my experience, it seems like Walmart definitely has a shot.

Announcements and Implementations

Charlotte Behavioral Health Care will implement the SmartCare EHR from Streamline Healthcare Solutions at its four locations in Punta Gorda, FL.

BetterPT and PromptEMR join forces to offer physical therapy clinics integrated software that includes EHR, RCM, practice management, and patient engagement capabilities.

People

Vijay Kotte (DaVita Medical Group) joins R1 RCM as EVP of physician services.

Other

This seems like a good add-on to social determinants of health software: Lyft launches the Jobs Access Program to give eligible users free rides to job interviews and workplaces during the first three weeks of employment. The company’s healthcare endeavors already include partnerships with health systems and Medicaid programs to offer patients rides to and from medical appointments, and integration with appointment-scheduling software from companies like Everseat.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD will exhibit at the APTA PPS event October 30-November 2 in Orlando.

Blog Post

• An EHR that improves clinical productivity and patient outcomes (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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