News 4/30/18

Top News

A two-phased study in Health Affairs finds that primary care offices in 10 states made appointments available to self-pay patients who could commit to paying in full at the time of service. Appointment availability was far less, however, for patients that inquired about payment plans – a indication not only of the access issues faced by the uninsured, but of the thin margins these practices continue to operate under.

Webinars

May 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “How to Make VBC Work for You: The Business Case to Transform Into the Health System of the Future.” Sponsor: Philips Wellcentive. Presenters: Mason Beard, co-founder and chief product officer, Philips Wellcentive; Scott Cullen, MD, principal, ECG Management Consulting; Seema Mathur, director of strategy, Sage Growth Partners. How well is your organization funding its transformation to VBC? This free webinar explains how to achieve ROI as your organization transforms to meet the future. You’ll learn how VBC is impacting healthcare system management, three strategies for funding your transformation, and what the healthcare system of the future will look like.

May 24 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Converting Consumers into Patients: Strategies for Creating Engaging Digital Experiences People Demand.” Sponsor: Healthwise. Presenters: Antonia Chappell, director of consumer solutions, Healthwise; Josh Schlaich, senior product manager, Healthwise. Nearly three-quarters of US adults use a digital channel to manage their health and the internet to track down health information. It’s clear that consumers have come to expect online interactions as an integral part of their overall patient experience. In fact, the Internet may be the first way people come in contact with your organization. They have more choice than ever on where to get healthcare services, and their decisions are increasingly influenced by how well organizations connect with them in the digital space. This webinar will show you how to create engaging digital and web experiences that convert casual consumers into patients and keep them satisfied throughout their entire patient journey.

June 5 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Increase Referrals and Patient Satisfaction with a Smarter ‘Find a Doctor’ Web Search.” Sponsors: Phynd Technologies, Healthwise. Presenters: Joseph H. Schneider, MD, MBA, FAAP, retired SVP/CHIO, Indiana University Health; Keith Belton, VP of marketing, Phynd. A recent survey found that 84 percent of patients check a hospital’s website before booking an appointment. However, ‘Find a Doctor’ search functions often frustrate them because their matching functionality is primitive and the provider’s information is incomplete or outdated. Referring physicians need similarly robust tools to find the right specialist and to send the patient to the right location. Attendees of this webinar will learn how taxonomy-driven Provider Information Management improves patient and referrer satisfaction by intelligently incorporating the provider’s location, insurance coverage, specialty and subspecialty, and services offered that can be searched via patient-friendly terms.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Behavioral health and youth services organization Excelsior (WA) selects CareLogics EHR software from Qualifacts. The technology will also be offered to members of the new Integrated Managed Care Collaborative being formed by Excelsior in Washington State. Behavioral health and human services company Xpio Health will assist with implementation, training, and population health management programs.

Intermedix develops performance analytics for physician practices that include practice volume, patients per hour, comparative rankings, documentation quality, and revenue analysis.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Remote patient monitoring company VRI will hire up to 75 new call center employees at its facility in Franklin, OH.

Telemedicine

Membership-based primary care company One Medical selects technology from TokBox to power virtual consults within its mobile app.

This tweet from the American Telemedicine Association’s annual conference caught my eye. I’m surprised “machine-learning” wasn’t also part of the solution. After digging through the first full day’s tweet stream, it looks like the exhibit hall and sessions don’t offer much for independent practices. Practice-focused EHR vendors include EClinicalWorks and Azalea Health.

This #ATA18  tweet also caught my attention. I can certainly identify with “Cindy,” but at some point a busy mom is going to consider where to go for in-person care, and then wonder how to transfer her virtual care history over to her brick-and-mortar physician. An iPhone might help, if it’s on the latest operating system and if her physician is in a network that participates in Apple’s app-based medical record sharing. I’m a big fan of telemedicine, as I’ve documented, but I can imagine it’s these types of data-sharing barriers (not to mention reimbursement issues) that keep smaller practices on the sidelines of virtual care business models.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/25/18

Top News

Doctor on Demand raises $74 million in a Series C funding round led by Princeville Global and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. The San Francisco-based company has raised over $160 million since it launched in 2012 as the direction of talk show host Dr. Phil, his son Jay McGraw, and Adam Jackson, who served as CEO until Hill Ferguson took over the role in May 2016.

Webinars

May 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “How to Make VBC Work for You: The Business Case to Transform Into the Health System of the Future.” Sponsor: Philips Wellcentive. Presenters: Mason Beard, co-founder and chief product officer, Philips Wellcentive; Scott Cullen, MD, principal, ECG Management Consulting; Seema Mathur, director of strategy, Sage Growth Partners. How well is your organization funding its transformation to VBC? This free webinar explains how to achieve ROI as your organization transforms to meet the future. You’ll learn how VBC is impacting healthcare system management, three strategies for funding your transformation, and what the healthcare system of the future will look like.

May 24 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Converting Consumers into Patients: Strategies for Creating Engaging Digital Experiences People Demand.” Sponsor: Healthwise. Presenters: Antonia Chappell, director of consumer solutions, Healthwise; Josh Schlaich, senior product manager, Healthwise. Nearly three-quarters of US adults use a digital channel to manage their health and the internet to track down health information. It’s clear that consumers have come to expect online interactions as an integral part of their overall patient experience. In fact, the Internet may be the first way people come in contact with your organization. They have more choice than ever on where to get healthcare services, and their decisions are increasingly influenced by how well organizations connect with them in the digital space. This webinar will show you how to create engaging digital and web experiences that convert casual consumers into patients and keep them satisfied throughout their entire patient journey.

May 29 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Increase Referrals and Patient Satisfaction with a Smarter ‘Find a Doctor’ Web Search.” Sponsors: Phynd Technologies, Healthwise. Presenters: Joseph H. Schneider, MD, MBA, FAAP, retired SVP/CHIO, Indiana University Health; Keith Belton, VP of marketing, Phynd. A recent survey found that 84 percent of patients check a hospital’s website before booking an appointment. However, ‘Find a Doctor’ search functions often frustrate them because their matching functionality is primitive and the provider’s information is incomplete or outdated. Referring physicians need similarly robust tools to find the right specialist and to send the patient to the right location. Attendees of this webinar will learn how taxonomy-driven Provider Information Management improves patient and referrer satisfaction by intelligently incorporating the provider’s location, insurance coverage, specialty and subspecialty, and services offered that can be searched via patient-friendly terms.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Riverside Medical Group (NJ) selects practice management and RCM services from Continuum Health.

Central Georgia Health Network deploys Arcadia analytics as part of its population health management efforts.

CampDoc.com adds text message alert functionality to its EHR.

The New Jersey-based Osler Health network of independent physicians will implement Innovaccer’s data aggregation and exchange technology.

Chimes Family Services (MD) selects care management and population health management software from VirtualHealth.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Henry Schein spins off its animal health business with plans to focus on the development of its dental and medical businesses, including practice management, EHR and document management software.

Seattle-based Vera Whole Health raises $5 million that it will use to open six more membership-based workplace clinics by the end of the year. The primary care company is no doubt hoping to avoid the fate of similarly conceptualized (and located) Qliance, which also ran six clinics before abruptly shutting down last year.

Cura Health Management purchases competitor ACO Health Partners from Citra Health Solutions, which will focus on providing technology and services to risk-bearing organizations.

Telemedicine

A study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine highlights the value of telemedicine in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters, particularly when it comes to helping patients manage chronic conditions. Of the five companies that provided free virtual consults to affected patients, Doctor on Demand (which provided data for the study) treated 2,057 – 63 percent of which were first-time users. Physicians in non-disaster states handled just over half of the visits.

Baby products company Philips Avent adds access to virtual visits from American Well to its UGrow parenting app.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD will exhibit at ACOG April 27-29 in Austin, TX.
• Aprima will exhibit at AROC April 25-26 in Atlantic City, NJ.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the 2018 Physician Practice Management & ASC Symposium April 25-26 in Nashville.
• Healthwise will exhibit at GetWellNetwork’s getconnected 2018 conference April 30-May 2 in National Harbor, MD.

Blog Posts

• Lessons Learned in 40 Years of Software Development (Medicomp Systems)
• 5 Questions Every Practice Owner Should Ask (AdvancedMD)
• Are you using data to understand your pharmaceutical costs? (Nordic)
• Striving for Health in Rural America (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 4/23/18

Top News

Two weeks after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, CCS Oncology notifies patients and employees it will shut down on April 27. Adding to its woes with its creditors and the IRS, the New York State Department of Labor has opened an investigation into the company after employees complained of not receiving paychecks following the Chapter 11 filing.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Beverly Hills, CA-based National ACO selects population health management and care coordination software from The Garage.

The San Antonio Endovascular & Heart Institute (TX) implements Biotricity’s Bioflux remote cardiac monitoring solution.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Web-based specialty consult company RubiconMD raises $13.8 million in a Series B funding round that brings its total raised to just under $20 million. The two year-old company plans to use the investment to expand its customer base and develop machine learning data-mining capabilities.

Telemedicine

The Ocean City American Legion Morvay-Miley Post 524 in New Jersey will become the first post to offer veterans telemedicine services as part of a VA pilot program.

Other

In Iowa, Polk County Health Services notifies 1,071 patients seen at the Crisis Observation Center in Des Moines that their information was “accidentally and unknowingly disseminated” between June 2014 and January 2018. The organization offers no further explanation as to how the breach occurred.

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services and Department of Human Services send 4,136 letters to incorrect addresses. The correspondence included birth dates and medical, financial, and health insurance information. The mix-up was attributed to data files incorrectly reconciled between the two departments.

A cure for burnout? The local paper covers the record store revolution happening in New Braunfels, TX thanks to OB/GYN Kevin Blair, MD. Blair opened StingRay Records in a building adjacent to his practice five years ago, and says the community’s interest in vinyl may prompt an expansion.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 4/18/18

Top News

Membership-based provider Parsley Health raises $10 million in a Series A funding round led by FirstMark Capital. Launched in 2016, the company has clinics in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Digital offerings include real-time tracking, a patient portal, and secure messaging. Parsley Health founder and CEO Robin Berzin, MD has had a somewhat eclectic career, spending time as a producer for Dr. Oz’s radio show, co-founding Cureatr, and caring for patients at Mt. Sinai Medical Center and The Morrison Center in New York.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Virginia Cancer Institute becomes an early adopter of Integra Connect’s new analytics software for oncology practices.

Primary care management company VillageMD announces a new operating system that, if I’m reading the press release correctly, pulls in and normalizes data from multiple sources including EHRs, practice management systems, and claims databases.

People

PatientPop names Jeb Burrows (Athenahealth) as VP of business development and channels, and Caitlin Reiche (Athenahealth) as head of strategic product management.

Telemedicine

AMD Global Telemedicine launches direct-to-consumer virtual consults for smaller healthcare organizations. The company has previously focused its telemedicine software and hardware on enterprise environments and government agencies.

Research and Innovation

Duke Health (NC) researchers find that a three-question, paper-based survey given to patients ahead of their appointments helped to improve patient satisfaction and Group Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Clinician scores. The survey, which helps patients identify goals for their visit and asks for post-visit feedback, also suggests that patients access their health records via Epic’s MyChart portal, which makes me wonder how much time and effort (if any) was spent on inputting form data into Epic or some other digital data repository.

In other paper-based health IT news, a Kaiser Permanente (CA) study finds that letters containing tailored weight-gain recommendations sent to gestational diabetes patients had a significant impact on their ability to meet recommended weight-gain guidelines throughout the rest of their pregnancies. The personalized recommendations were automatically generated using EHR data for patients at 44 KP facilities in Northern California. Post-natal follow-up included 13 telephone sessions with a lifestyle coach. Again, studies like this make me wonder why technology wasn’t used. Was patient portal adoption so low that paper was the better alternative?

Other

Carolina Digestive Health Associates (NC) notifies patients that an employee inappropriately accessed the medical records of 100 patients and shared them with the head of a local identity theft ring who is now behind bars and awaiting trial.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes a new e-guide, “5 Ways to Increase Front Desk Revenue.”
• Aprima will exhibit at the Colorado Rural Health Center Forum April 19-20 in Lakewood.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the NAACOS 2018 Conference April 25-27 in Baltimore.
• Healthwise will exhibit at the Healthcare User Group April 22-25 in San Antonio.
• Intelligent Medical Objects will exhibit at the Allscripts Mid-Atlantic Client User Group Meeting 2018 April 19-20 in Baltimore.

Blog Post

• Petaluma Health Center: Unified Community Care (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 4/16/18

Top News

An OIG analysis of telemedicine claims made to CMS between 2014 and 2015 finds that nearly a third did not meet Medicare requirements. The biggest claim error stemmed from violations of the program’s originating site rule, which states that providers will only be reimbursed for virtual treatment of patients living in rural areas. CMS paid out $3.7 million for the erroneous claims. CMS broadened its telemedicine reimbursement criteria to include several new categories at the beginning of 2018.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Hutchinson Clinic (KS) will implement technology-enabled RCM services from Meridian Medical Management across its 118 multi-specialty provider group.

Drchrono adds automated online appointment review request messaging from BirdEye to its EHR.

The Puerto Rico Primary Care Association Network offers its members – a number of whom are fax-reliant physicians who have not yet implemented EHRs – data exchange capabilities from Health Gorilla.

In an effort to better connect clinical and social service providers, United Way of North Carolina will integrate its NC 2-1-1 patient referral and management system with care coordination software from United Us.

People

Ryan White (DaVita) joins Integrated Oncology Network as EVP, corporate compliance officer.

Behavioral health-focused practice management company Remarkable Health names Chad Camac (ManagementPlus) EVP of growth and Amber Bollinger (Ace Asphalt of the Southwest) VP of people operations.

Telemedicine

1.800MD adds behavioral health to its line of telemedicine services.

Research and Innovation

Nearly a third of larger physician practices expect to replace their EHRs within three years due to optimization issues, according to new research from Black Book. Those looking for replacements put financial analytics, compliance and quality tracking, virtual visit support, and speech-recognition at the top of their shopping lists. Smaller practices facing EHR-induced frustrations attribute them to an inability to optimize their systems to leverage advanced features like secure messaging, decision support, and data sharing.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
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