News 7/30/18

Top News

Walgreens launches an online marketplace to help customers find healthcare services at their local stores; and from provider partners that include brick-and-mortar health systems, and urgent care and lab-testing facilities. Tech-based providers include telemedicine vendors MDLive and DermatologistOnCall, and app-based house call company Heal. The marketplace will no doubt boost business for its partners, given that the Walgreens app sees 5 million visitors each month. Aside from Baptist Health (FL) and UnitedHealth’s MedExpress, it seems all of the marketplace’s providers are on Epic. Walgreens began transitioning its Healthcare Clinics to Epic in 2016.

Webinars

July 31 (Tuesday) 12:30 ET. “How to Proactively Troubleshoot End User Experience Issues in Healthcare IT.” Sponsor: Goliath Technologies. Presenter: Goliath Technologies engineering staff. An early warning system for EHR access problems helps prevent downtime and user access problems before they impacts patients and collects objective technical evidence of the issue’s root cause. This webinar will describe how hospitals protect their investment in Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, and Meditech EHRs by anticipating, troubleshooting, and preventing end user experience issues and collecting the technical data needed to collaborate with their vendors on a solution.

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

Announcements and Implementations

ACO management company MedLink Advantage will offer its customers access to The Garage’s population health management software and services.

Modernizing Medicine adds electronic prior authorization, real-time prescription benefit, and inventory management capabilities from Surescripts to its EMA EHR for dermatologists.

PatientPoint adds educational content from Migraine Again to its digital content for patient waiting rooms. The companies will soon offer similar content for exam room touchscreens.

Government and Politics

The Delaware Health Care Commission seeks provider applicants for 10 grants of between $25,000 and $250,000 each as part of its State Innovation Model initiative. Applicants must be willing to launch pilot projects aimed at increasing data integration, improving care coordination, and/or transitioning to an Alternative Payment Model. Applications are due August 30.

Research and Innovation

An AMGA survey of 270 medical groups finds that physician productivity and compensation lagged in 2017 – the first year in over a decade that compensation increased by less than 2 percent. Productivity across all specialties decreased by 1.63 percent, while compensation increased by just under 1 percent. Primary care providers saw similar percentages. The study’s authors point fingers at the typical culprits – burdensome EHRs, and administrative and compliance efforts.

Other

Blue Springs Family Care (MO) notifies patients of a May 12 ransomware attack and its efforts to prevent similar attacks in the future, including the installation of a new firewall and the transition to a new EHR with stronger encryption capabilities. Privacy Officer Melanie Peterson told me that the practice’s switch from EMDs to EClinicalWorks coincides with a transition to new ownership.

This act of generosity is bittersweet: Staff at Oasis Family Medicine (KS) join other area physicians in donating $10,000 to the Midwest Direct Primary Care Alliance, which then used it to cover $1.4 million in unpaid medical bills that had been sent to collections. Oasis RN Holly Cobb said the donation was made because she and her colleagues realize “health care, medication, and lab work are too costly. Healthcare costs passed on to patients are often big and bloated. As clinicians, we care about making healthcare costs reasonable.”

And then there’s this: Ritz-Carlton Residences decides to throw in a year of free concierge medical services from The Agatston Center for Private Medicine to buyers who close on one of their properties in Miami, which sell for between $2 million and $40 million. Project lead Ophir Sternberg believes the healthcare services will attract “even the most jaded of buyers.”

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News 7/25/18

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One Medical will expand to San Diego in early 2019 with the opening of three offices and a care coordination partnership with UC San Diego Health. The membership-based, tech-focused primary care company serves consumers in six states plus Washington, DC. Amir Rubin, who took over as CEO from founder Tom Lee, MD last August, is making good on his promise to open new clinics and drive company growth, having hired three high-level staffers, including Chief Marketing Officer Doug Sweeny (Nest), in the last three months.

Webinars

July 26 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “The Patient’s Power in Improving Health and Care.” Sponsor: Health Catalyst. Presenter: Maureen Bisognano, president emerita and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Patients, even those with chronic diseases, only spend a few hours each year with a doctor or a nurse, while they spend thousands of hours making personal choices around eating, exercise, and other activities that impact their health. How can we get patients to be more engaged in their care, and help physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers transition from a paradigm of “what’s the matter” to “what matters to you?” This webinar will present stories of patients and healthcare organizations that are partnering together with tools, processes, data, and systems of accountability to move from dis-ease to health-ease.

July 31 (Tuesday) 12:30 ET. “How to Proactively Troubleshoot End User Experience Issues in Healthcare IT.” Sponsor: Goliath Technologies. Presenter: Goliath Technologies engineering staff. An early warning system for EHR access problems helps prevent downtime and user access problems before they impacts patients and collects objective technical evidence of the issue’s root cause. This webinar will describe how hospitals protect their investment in Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, and Meditech EHRs by anticipating, troubleshooting, and preventing end user experience issues and collecting the technical data needed to collaborate with their vendors on a solution.

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

Announcements and Implementations

AdvancedMD updates its AdvancedInsight financial reporting solution to include enhanced data visualization and cross-browser capabilities.

MTBC adds voice-activated virtual assistant capabilities to its TalkEHR for easier documentation.

Edgewater Health (IN) selects TenEleven Group’s EHR based on its primary care, behavioral health, and medication dispensing capabilities.

Augusta Oncology (GA) goes live on Integra Connect’s EHR. Utah Cancer Specialists and and Hudson Valley Cancer Center (NY) have also selected the company’s software.

Healthfinch makes its Refills Lite e-prescribing solution available to AthenaClinicals end users.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Mental and behavioral health software vendor Therapy Brands raises an undisclosed amount of financing from a group of investors led by Lightyear Capital. The Birmingham, AL-based company changed its name from TheraNest earlier this year.

Internal Medicine of Griffin (GA) signs on for practice management services from VillageMD. The Chicago-based company launched DocOS, an analytics-focused operating system for VillageMD practices, in April.

Other

In California, the local paper looks at the ways in which the Sonoma Country Medical Association is working with its members to ensure that those affected by wildfires last fall have what they need to remain in the community. Over 250 physicians in the area lost their homes to the fire. Outreach efforts include quarterly fire-recovery events; developing and deploying an internal resiliency team to help members cope with losses, relocation, and rebuilding efforts; and working with Kaiser Permanente to offer free wellness activities.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes a new eGuide, “Best Practices to Improve Patient Payments.”
• Nordic posts a podcast titled “Developing a strategy for your Epic Community Connect program.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 7/23/18

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Former CareSync employees recount the weeks leading up to the chronic care management company’s abrupt closure, which left 292 out of work and looking to public officials for answers.

Warning signs included the April transition of Travis Bond from CEO to chief innovation officer due to financial mismanagement, and the June ouster of cofounder and senior solutions architect Jamie Grant – events Grant has described as a “hostile takeover.” A heavy, almost unethical emphasis on providing patients with the 20 minutes of care coordination services necessary for Medicare reimbursements under the CCM program also raised red flags for staff. “There were times that we were told to ‘sit’ on the member until it reached 20 minutes,” a former employee explained, adding that the 20-minute mark was required even for patients about to quit the program.

Webinars

July 26 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “The Patient’s Power in Improving Health and Care.” Sponsor: Health Catalyst. Presenter: Maureen Bisognano, president emerita and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Patients, even those with chronic diseases, only spend a few hours each year with a doctor or a nurse, while they spend thousands of hours making personal choices around eating, exercise, and other activities that impact their health. How can we get patients to be more engaged in their care, and help physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers transition from a paradigm of “what’s the matter” to “what matters to you?” This webinar will present stories of patients and healthcare organizations that are partnering together with tools, processes, data, and systems of accountability to move from dis-ease to health-ease.

July 31 (Tuesday) 12:30 ET. “How to Proactively Troubleshoot End User Experience Issues in Healthcare IT.” Sponsor: Goliath Technologies. Presenter: Goliath Technologies engineering staff. An early warning system for EHR access problems helps prevent downtime and user access problems before they impacts patients and collects objective technical evidence of the issue’s root cause. This webinar will describe how hospitals protect their investment in Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, and Meditech EHRs by anticipating, troubleshooting, and preventing end user experience issues and collecting the technical data needed to collaborate with their vendors on a solution.

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

Announcements and Implementations

The Southeast Permanente Medical Group (GA) will access the state of Georgia’s PDMP database through its Epic EHR via Appriss Health’s PMP Gateway software.

Jellyfish Health adds email encryption from Identillect Technologies to its patient scheduling software.

TheraManager DocuTrac develops practice management software for behavioral health providers.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The local paper looks at the competitive boost Reliant Medical Group (MA) has gotten since receiving $250 million from Optum, which beat out nine other bids to acquire the 2,600-employee nonprofit in April for $28 million. Reliant is using the cash infusion to open new clinics, expand and update existing facilities, and recruit physicians – especially primary care docs – who previously may have been more attracted to local employers like UMass Memorial Health Care, which lost its acquisition bid due to antitrust issues.

Government and Politics

HIE efforts in Connecticut stall again, as the development team for the state’s fourth attempt at an HIE wait impatiently to see if CMS will allocate an $11.4 million grant for the project. The state has invested $28 million in three previous attempts dating back to 2007. Impatient to begin sharing health data, the Connecticut State Medical Society launched its own HIE last year.

Telemedicine

After a successful pilot with family medicine clinic In Good Health, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, TN considers adding telemedicine services from local startup Docity to its broadband packages.

Global Partnership for Telehealth announces GA of Pathways, a new virtual consult platform that includes virtual waiting rooms and EHR-friendly encounter summaries.

Research and Innovation

A review of 112 medical encounters finds that physicians ask about a patient’s reason for being there just 36 percent of the time. Patients who were given an opportunity to explain the reason for their visit were interrupted seven out of 10 times, with the initial interruption occurring after just 11 seconds. Patients who weren’t interrupted wrapped up their explanations in six seconds – a stark reminder that patient-centered care is easier to use as a buzz-phrase than it is to put into daily practice.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks Director of Interoperability Strategy and Business Development Tushar Malhotra joins the CommonWell Health Alliance Board of Directors.

Blog Posts

• Is Your Answering Service Disaster-Proof? (PerfectServe)
• Why your practice needs positive online doctor reviews (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 7/18/18

Top News

Rite Aid decides to give virtual consults another go, announcing it will add telemedicine software from InTouch Health to health kiosks already installed in its pharmacies. The retail clinic has dabbled in telemedicine over the last several years. It partnered with OptumHealth to offer virtual visits in its clinic exam rooms in 2012, and piloted 25 HealthSpot kiosks in 2015. HealthSpot unexpectedly closed its doors six months later.

Webinars

July 26 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “The Patient’s Power in Improving Health and Care.” Sponsor: Health Catalyst. Presenter: Maureen Bisognano, president emerita and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Patients, even those with chronic diseases, only spend a few hours each year with a doctor or a nurse, while they spend thousands of hours making personal choices around eating, exercise, and other activities that impact their health. How can we get patients to be more engaged in their care, and help physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers transition from a paradigm of “what’s the matter” to “what matters to you?” This webinar will present stories of patients and healthcare organizations that are partnering together with tools, processes, data, and systems of accountability to move from dis-ease to health-ease.

July 31 (Tuesday) 12:30 ET. “How to Proactively Troubleshoot End User Experience Issues in Healthcare IT.” Sponsor: Goliath Technologies. Presenter: Goliath Technologies engineering staff. An early warning system for EHR access problems helps prevent downtime and user access problems before they impacts patients and collects objective technical evidence of the issue’s root cause. This webinar will describe how hospitals protect their investment in Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, and Meditech EHRs by anticipating, troubleshooting, and preventing end user experience issues and collecting the technical data needed to collaborate with their vendors on a solution.

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

People

Daryl Rolley (PRGX) joins Medicat as CEO. The Atlanta-based company provides EHR and practice management software to colleges and universities.

Payformance names Alicia Torres (Altarum) president and CEO.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

After combining and recapitalizing late last year, Advance Health and CenseoHealth rebrand as Signify Health. The technology-enabled care management company hired former Athenahealth Chief Product Officer Kyle Armbrester as CEO in April.

Telemedicine

NuPhysicia Health of Texas and AMD Global Telemedicine launch The Working Clinic, a new telemedicine joint venture aimed at giving small employers easy access to on-site care.

CoreHealth adds telemedicine capabilities from EDocAmerica to its wellness software for employers.

A Deloitte survey of 624 physicians reveals that the biggest barriers to telemedicine adoption are potential medical errors, a lack of access to technology, and the security and privacy of patient data. Survey takers cited “interoperability of virtual care technologies” as their top requirement for increased adoption.

Other

Multi-state addiction treatment facility operator Sunspire Health notifies affected individuals of a phishing email scam that compromised several accounts, some of which may have contained patient information.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 7/16/18

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Joe Harpaz joins Modernizing Medicine as president and COO. Harpaz previously led the tax technology software business of Thomson Reuters. He joins the specialty-focused EHR and practice management vendor just over a year after it secured a $231 million investment from Warburg Pincus. The Miami-based company has raised over $330 million since opening its doors in 2010.

Webinars

July 26 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “The Patient’s Power in Improving Health and Care.” Sponsor: Health Catalyst. Presenter: Maureen Bisognano, president emerita and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Patients, even those with chronic diseases, only spend a few hours each year with a doctor or a nurse, while they spend thousands of hours making personal choices around eating, exercise, and other activities that impact their health. How can we get patients to be more engaged in their care, and help physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers transition from a paradigm of “what’s the matter” to “what matters to you?” This webinar will present stories of patients and healthcare organizations that are partnering together with tools, processes, data, and systems of accountability to move from dis-ease to health-ease.

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

Announcements and Implementations

In an effort to improve internal practice communication, DrChrono adds group chat capabilities from Stitch to its EHR.

Advocare taps GuideIT to lead an EHR procurement and implementation project across its 181 locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

People

Sarah Cho (Scripps Health) joins Health Center Partners of Southern California as VP of clinical transformation and health informatics for its Integrated Health Partners subsidiary.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthy Plus will relocate from Lee’s Summit to Independence, MO, promising to add 125 jobs over the next two years. The Medicare-focused services and software company found itself in hot water last fall after employees alerted the local media to the startup’s payroll problems. Both of the company’s co-founders, former University of Missouri-Kansas City basketball coach Sean Bledsoe and former Kansas City Chiefs player Chris Smith, seem to have shaky financial track records. Bledsoe was involved in a federal lawsuit related to his failure to pay back loans for his former company, VC Medical, whose employees also complained of payroll issues. Smith has faced legal troubles related to unpaid medical bills.

Government and Politics

In a letter to the nation’s doctors, CMS Administrator Seema Verma explains that the proposed streamlining of the Evaluation & Management documentation and coding system will result in enormous time-savings: “Most specialties would see changes in their overall Medicare payments in the range of 1-2 percent up or down from this policy, but we believe that any small negative payment adjustments would be outweighed by the significant reduction in documentation burden. If you add up the amount of time saved for clinicians across America in one year from our proposal, it would come to more than 500 years of additional time available for patient care.”

Other

The New York Times points out that administrative costs aren’t just a problem for hospitals: For every 10 physicians that provide care in a practice setting, seven additional staff members handle billing-related tasks. A related study found physicians spend an extra three hours each week on billing, while support staff devote 19 hours to similar activities.

Practice management software vendor MedEvolve notifies 200,000 Premier Immediate Medical Care patients that files with identifying information were left on an FTP server inadvertently made public between March 29 and May 4. The company also determined that an unauthorized file was accessed, and that a screen shot of a part of the file was posted online in May by DataBreaches.net.

Quartz editors comb through the 915 health and fitness skills available in Amazon’s Alexa skills store to find that 65 have no medical disclaimers, and that the majority “provide mediocre health advice in the best-case scenarios.” When asked to weigh in on Alexa’s diagnostic abilities, Georgetown University neurologist Tian Wang, MD didn’t mince words: “Based on my judgment, these are all bad responses. If this is the best that Silicon Valley can offer, then it will still take a long way for the robotic machine to take over our jobs.”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• After implementation of electronic health records, design rises (Medicomp Systems)
• Nachos Neurosurgery (NVoq)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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