News 11/8/17

Top News

Learning Machine brings blockchain to the medical licensure process with a pilot program that puts medical education credentials on a blockchain records-issuing system endorsed by the Federation of State Medical Boards. As part of the program, healthcare professionals can use a linked app to maintain secure profiles that include records of professional degrees, transcripts, and credentials. Learning Machine VP of Business Development Natalie Smolenski stresses that the program puts professionals – rather than vendors – in charge of their data. “That is the great promise of blockchain technology,” she adds. “Now individuals can own their digital property without reliance upon trusted intermediaries to serve as custodians of that property.”

Webinars

November 15 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “How Hospitals and Practices Can Respond to Consumerism by Better Engaging Patients Through Price Transparency and Payment Options.” Sponsored by: Change Healthcare. Presenters: Kathy Moore, president, Moore Martini Medical; Linda Glidewell, VP of business development, consumer payment solutions, Change Healthcare. Healthcare consumerism and high-deductible health plans require providers to offer upfront estimates and payment options throughout all points of service. In his webinar, we’ll discuss consumerism as a critical area of opportunity in revenue cycle management and review numerous areas across the revenue cycle where your staff interacts with patients and leaves lasting impressions. From your first interaction with patients on the phone to discuss financial responsibility; to collecting payments at all points of service; to offering payment plans and various payment options — these are all areas that can be game-changing. With the right approach to consumerism, you can improve patient collections and optimize revenue from the start while also improving the overall patient experience.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Eye Care Leaders announces availability of custom MyCare EHR and PM solutions and services for ophthalmology practices.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Private equity firm Alpine Investors takes a controlling interest in behavioral health EHR vendor Exym. Alpine’s Nick Horn will take on the role of Exym CEO while founder Matt DeBeer will transition to CTO. Exym launched its flagship pre-EHR Activity Tracking System in 2005.

Circling like vultures, several EHR vendors – including Allegiance MD, CureMD, and MTBC – look to lure in SOAPware EHR customers with special promotions as the company prepares to sunset its technology early next year.

Government and Politics

The Kaiser Family Foundation develops an individual mandate penalty calculator to help consumers compare potential tax penalties with the cost of healthcare plans found on federal and state-based exchanges. Open enrollment on the exchanges continues through December 15. Entering my credentials just for fun finds that my household would be subject to a $2,085 penalty, and would be eligible for $683 in monthly financial assistance. The calculator determined that the lowest-cost plan in my area would cost around $500 a month with assistance and $1,200 without. I can only assume the yearly deductible would be $10,000 or more.

A new PDMP report from St. Louis County health officials in Missouri finds that physicians write 1.5 prescriptions for controlled substances per person; that number jumps to three for women over 65. Data from the first three months of the program, which launched in April, will hopefully give prescribers and government officials a good start at understanding prescribing habits among the PDMP’s 54 participating cities and counties.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma does a little redecorating at the CMS offices in Baltimore.

Telemedicine

San Francisco-based Sappira launches the text-based HeyDoctor primary care app in 19 states. Consults are $20 a pop – significantly cheaper than a typical video consult, but in my mind also significantly hampered by a lack of contextual interaction. (Emojis can only convey so much, after all.) The app will go live in 10 more cities by the end of the year.

EverythingBenefits adds Teladoc’s HealthiestYou telemedicine app to its line of products for payroll,and benefits broker and administrators.

Research and Innovation

A new study finds that an AI-based weight-loss coaching app for diabetic patients is just as effective as face-to-face coaching in terms of weight lost and healthy meals eaten.

Other

Premier Medical Group (TN) brings phone systems and its Athenahealth EHR back on line after experiencing an unspecified technical outage for several hours. The group is the area’s largest multispecialty practice, with four locations and 60 providers.

The local paper profiles Jack "Jay" Saux, MD and his costumed efforts at St. Tammany Cancer Center (LA) to help patients get through the physical and emotional trials that come with cancer treatment. “They have this terrible disease, you’re spending a lot of time preparing treatments and helping them get through the toxicities and side effects of treatments,” says Saux, who has used his physician pirate alter ego to raise money for local healthcare charities. "And the thing they appreciate the most is when you sat down and held their hand or told them a story or let them take a picture of you in your costume."

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD will exhibit at the American Academy of Ophthalmology conference November 11-14 in New Orleans.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the Kentucky Primary Care Association Conference November 8-10 in Lexington.

Blog Posts

• Using Technology to Build an Integrated Practice #4 of 6 (AdvancedMD)
• Intrinsic and Extrinsic Physician Motivators to Consider When Driving Change (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 11/7/17

Top News

Citing family reasons, Outcome Health COO Vivek Kundra steps down amidst allegations that the patient education media company over-promised and under-delivered on waiting room screen time. The company, which held a high-profile ribbon cutting for new corporate headquarters in downtown Chicago last month, has seen several major advertisers pull their ads from its network. Omnicomm Group, Healix, and Bristol-Myers Squibb pulled over $20 million worth of advertising earlier this week, pending third-party reviews. Outcome Health, which announced a $5 billion valuation earlier this year, will conduct its own internal audit of the 250-plus ad campaigns it ran last year.

Webinars

November 8 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “How Clinically Integrated Networks Can Overcome the Technical Challenges to Data-Sharing.” Sponsored by: Liaison Technologies. Presenters: Dominick Mack, MD, executive medical director, Georgia Health Information Technology Extension Center and Georgia Health Connect, director, National Center for Primary Care, and associate professor, Morehouse School of Medicine;  Gary Palgon, VP of  healthcare and life sciences solutions, Liaison Technologies. This webinar will describe how Georgia Heath Connect connects clinically integrated networks to hospitals and small and rural practices, helping providers in medically underserved communities meet MACRA requirements by providing technology, technology support, and education that accelerates regulatory compliance and improves outcomes.

November 15 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “How Hospitals and Practices Can Respond to Consumerism by Better Engaging Patients Through Price Transparency and Payment Options.” Sponsored by: Change Healthcare. Presenters: Kathy Moore, president, Moore Martini Medical; Linda Glidewell, VP of business development, consumer payment solutions, Change Healthcare. Healthcare consumerism and high-deductible health plans require providers to offer upfront estimates and payment options throughout all points of service. In his webinar, we’ll discuss consumerism as a critical area of opportunity in revenue cycle management and review numerous areas across the revenue cycle where your staff interacts with patients and leaves lasting impressions. From your first interaction with patients on the phone to discuss financial responsibility; to collecting payments at all points of service; to offering payment plans and various payment options — these are all areas that can be game-changing. With the right approach to consumerism, you can improve patient collections and optimize revenue from the start while also improving the overall patient experience.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Mediware adds billing capabilities to its MediLinks EHR for practices offering physical, occupational, and speech therapies.

Drchrono develops Apple Face ID recognition capabilities for its tablet-based EHR to help providers save time when logging in.

The Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients, an HIE serving patients in Maryland and Washington, DC, renews its contract with Verato for its cloud-based patient-matching software.

The Paso del Norte Health Information Exchange in El Paso, TX selects health data integration technology from Innovaccer to onboard six physician practices with three different EHRs. The company will also provide performance measures reports, and analytics for future population health management initiatives.

Surescripts develops real-time prior authorization capabilities and prescription pricing benefits. It’s e-prescribing network will pull data from CVS Health; Express Scripts; plus Aprima, Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, Practice Fusion, and GE Healthcare EHRs as well as pharmacy benefit management systems to offer prescribers and patients cost information at the point of care. Given that I am a cash-paying consumer of healthcare, this will hopefully make my hunt for affordable medications that much easier. Perhaps it will even shorten the fact-finding pharmacy missions I go on ahead of time so that I can present my PCP with a list of medications and their prices during my consult, all in an effort to avoid being prescribed name-brand medicines that don’t fit my budget, and that necessitate follow-up phone calls to request cheaper alternatives.

People

Allergy and Asthma Center of Duncanville (TX) Medical Director Harold DelasAlas, MD becomes a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Optium Cyber Systems names Mark Anderson (AC Group), Cory Jammal, MD (Memorial Pathology Consultants) (not pictured) and Susan Lehrer to its new healthcare-focused advisory board.

Telemedicine

Mozzaz adds secure messaging – including video calls – to its digital health platform for behavioral health that includes EHR, PM, and patient portal capabilities, and wearables integration.

Research and Innovation

A Kyruus survey of 1,000 healthcare consumers on appointment-scheduling habits finds that most turn to the Web to kick off their search, and most prefer to schedule appointments by phone – a notion that may seem antiquated to some but proves that providers should not completely eschew phone-based customer service in favor of more high-tech methods of booking. Three out of four survey takers consider hospital or health system affiliation when looking for new providers – a stat that makes me wonder if these consumers are considering the facility fees that come with such relationships.

Other

In an new report, the American College of Physicians advocates for enhanced patient safety efforts in outpatient settings – an area that has largely been overshadowed by efforts in the inpatient setting. Recommendations include embedding patient safety goals into daily workflows, enhancing health IT to accommodate such workflows, addressing physician burnout’s impact on such errors, and development of ambulatory-focused patient safety metrics.

And speaking of physician burnout: This article looks at the role physician health programs have in helping drug- and alcohol-addicted doctors get back on their feet. Forty seven states offer such confidential programs, which typically work in conjunction with state medical licensing boards and have shown high success rates. Eighty percent of physicians have remained sober during the five-year program, while 70 percent continued with their healthcare careers.

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Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 11/6/17

Top News

NHS rolls out a telemedicine pilot program in London to help improve healthcare access. The GP at Hand program will give 3.5 million patients the option of transferring their care – and health records – to five participating practices that will offer virtual care and face-to-face appointments as needed. Patients have the option of switching back to their brick-and-mortar practice if they aren’t satisfied. Critics of the pilot worry that those patients ineligible for the program – particularly those with complex conditions – will place even more burden on already overworked practitioners.

The health service has tapped UK-based telemedicine startup Babylon Health to provide the technology. The company, which has worked with NHS on an AI-powered triage chatbot, has raised $85,000,000 (presumably US) since launching in 2013.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

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Webinars

November 8 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “How Clinically Integrated Networks Can Overcome the Technical Challenges to Data-Sharing.” Sponsored by: Liaison Technologies. Presenters: Dominick Mack, MD, executive medical director, Georgia Health Information Technology Extension Center and Georgia Health Connect, director, National Center for Primary Care, and associate professor, Morehouse School of Medicine;  Gary Palgon, VP of  healthcare and life sciences solutions, Liaison Technologies. This webinar will describe how Georgia Heath Connect connects clinically integrated networks to hospitals and small and rural practices, helping providers in medically underserved communities meet MACRA requirements by providing technology, technology support, and education that accelerates regulatory compliance and improves outcomes.

November 15 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “How Hospitals and Practices Can Respond to Consumerism by Better Engaging Patients Through Price Transparency and Payment Options.” Sponsored by: Change Healthcare. Presenters: Kathy Moore, president, Moore Martini Medical; Linda Glidewell, VP of business development, consumer payment solutions, Change Healthcare. Healthcare consumerism and high-deductible health plans require providers to offer upfront estimates and payment options throughout all points of service. In his webinar, we’ll discuss consumerism as a critical area of opportunity in revenue cycle management and review numerous areas across the revenue cycle where your staff interacts with patients and leaves lasting impressions. From your first interaction with patients on the phone to discuss financial responsibility; to collecting payments at all points of service; to offering payment plans and various payment options — these are all areas that can be game-changing. With the right approach to consumerism, you can improve patient collections and optimize revenue from the start while also improving the overall patient experience.

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

Announcements and Implementations

First Look MRI (GA) selects RIS, communications, portal, speech recognition, and PACS technology from RadNet subsidiary ERad. The practice seems to pride itself on being consumer-friendly: It doesn’t require a specialist’s referral and advertises a flat imaging fee of $400.

Family Christian Health Center, an FQHC based in Harvey, IL, selects RCM services and software from Visualutions.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

I don’t get it: Apple’s much-hyped iPhone X sells out over the weekend across 20 major US cities. Customers were seen buying two phones at a time, most likely to gift or re-sell. Craigslist and Ebay listings for the phone soon ventured near the $5,000 mark.

People

Sam Johnson (Relatient) joins Chattanooga, TN-based telemedicine vendor WeCounsel as CEO.

Great Lakes Management Services hires John Hart (National Surgical Healthcare) as CFO.

Telemedicine

Global/Georgia Partnership for Telehealth expands its school-based telemedicine services to include over 100 schools across 25 school systems. GPT Director of School-based Telehealth Loren Nix affirms that the nonprofit’s programs are not meant to take away from a local physician’s business – a concern not unheard of as such services gain in popularity. “As we begin initial planning with schools interested in implementing telehealth,” Nix explains, “we strongly encourage them to conduct a local scavenger hunt to assess and tap into existing healthcare providers in their area. It should never be the intention of school-based telehealth centers to erode the local medical community.”

The local news profiles CServ, a Mount Dora, FL-based telemedicine startup that provides virtual therapy services to children with autism. Though it officially launched in 2014, the company dates its true genesis to the 1999 development of its interface by affiliate CNOW Telehealth Solutions.

Research and Innovation

American Association of Neurology researchers uncover a surprising cog in the wheel of physician burnout – typically associated with burdensome regulatory programs and EHR documentation. Over 300 AAN members cited a lack of professionalism in an open-ended survey question about well-being, referring to themselves as “worker bees,” “widgets,” and “hotel clerks” who aren’t treated as professionals; nor understood or respected by peers, management, or policymakers. “I think that at the core, neurologists are burnt out because they do not feel adequately respected and reimbursed for choosing one of the most challenging and dynamic specialties in medicine,” wrote one survey taker. “We feel that the ‘deck is stacked against’ cognitive specialists such as neurologists in favor of the proceduralists/surgeons.”

Other

Endocrinologist Celeste Hart, MD opens an art gallery below her practice in Tallahassee, FL – a business decision that fulfills her lifelong love of art collecting. The Anderson-Brickler Gallery and North Florida Regional Thyroid Center are located in the same building her grandfather, a general practitioner, built to house his practice in 1954.

A judge sentences Lynn Espejo to 45 months in jail for stealing $612,000 over a three year-period from practices she helped manage as an employee of Blanford Medical Services and Practice Management Services. Espejo used the illicit funds and a PMS debit card to buy a car, pool, and house.

I always enjoy the extra hour afforded to me when Daylight Saving Time ends, though I can never seem to remember how it will affect my calendar invites to colleagues in Arizona and Hawaii (both states opted out of the Uniform Time Act when it was passed by Congress in 1966). I ate up my extra hour yesterday with a good book and browsing the Web a bit. I came across this enlightening article about the origins of DST, for which we have to thank the lobbying efforts of several industries.

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Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 11/5/17

John Vassall, MD (Swedish Health Services) joins Qualis Health as physician executive for quality and safety.

Gray Matter Analytics names Roy Smythe, MD (Philips) senior medical advisor.

Milliman adds LexisNexis Socioeconomic Health Attributes to its MedInsight decision-support tool for payers, employers, and state Medicaid agencies.

Mount Sinai Health System (NY) will use value-based managed care services and related technology from Lumeris to move its population health management initiatives forward.

The Nassau Queens Performing Provider System – part of New York’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program – will collaborate with the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance in New York to improve healthcare access and outcomes for medically underserved residents of the Rockaways neighborhood. The alliance will provide data to NQP, which it will use to determine what healthcare gaps need to be addressed first. NQP will in turn provide RWA with grant money for its healthcare-focused, community-based programs.

ZeOmega announces Medicare Advantage-specific enhancements to its Jiva population health management platform.

Casenet’s TruCare is named Best Population Health Management Software Provider in a UK healthcare and pharmaceutical awards program.

Rostock University Medical Center in Germany implements Philips Wellcentive population health management technology, including telemedicine capabilities, to support its cardiac care management.

This Health Affairs editorial advocates for a national standard for reporting social determinants of health – factors that would give more meaning and direction to care delivery and management, and new payment models. “Having technology in place to capture high-quality, timely, and reliable data that merges clinical and social information across communities is instrumental to advancing our understanding of the landscape,” the authors write. “This interoperability will help clinicians and organizations implement best practices, keep track of what’s working, and share lessons learned.”

Sponsor Updates

• Sonifi Health will offer evidence-based health education from Healthwise to customers of its interactive patient engagement system.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the National Conference on Correctional Health Care November 4-8 in Chicago.
• Intelligent Medical Objects Chairman, Founder, and CEO Frank Naeymi-Rad receives AMIA’s Leadership Award.

Blog Posts

• How to identify an excellent project manager (Nordic)
• Clinical Conundrum: Too much data, not enough meaning (Medicomp Systems)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 11/2/17

Top News

CMS releases the final rules for the 2018 Physician Fee Schedule and year two of the Quality Payment Program. Key takeaways for physician practices include:

• Expansion of Medicare payments for telemedicine services
• Automatic weighting of certain performance categories at 0 percent of final MIPS scores for providers impacted by natural disasters
• Addition of virtual groups as a MIPS participation option
• MIPS final score bonus points for small practices, and the treatment of complex patients.

“During my visits with clinicians across the country, I’ve heard many concerns about the impact burdensome regulations have on their ability to care for patients,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in announcing the final rules. “The[y] … move the agency in a new direction and begin to ease that burden by strengthening the patient-doctor relationship, empowering patients to realize the value of their care over volume of tests, and encouraging innovation and competition within the American healthcare system.”

Webinars

November 8 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “How Clinically Integrated Networks Can Overcome the Technical Challenges to Data-Sharing.” Sponsored by: Liaison Technologies. Presenters: Dominick Mack, MD, executive medical director, Georgia Health Information Technology Extension Center and Georgia Health Connect, director, National Center for Primary Care, and associate professor, Morehouse School of Medicine;  Gary Palgon, VP of  healthcare and life sciences solutions, Liaison Technologies. This webinar will describe how Georgia Heath Connect connects clinically integrated networks to hospitals and small and rural practices, helping providers in medically underserved communities meet MACRA requirements by providing technology, technology support, and education that accelerates regulatory compliance and improves outcomes.

November 15 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “How Hospitals and Practices Can Respond to Consumerism by Better Engaging Patients Through Price Transparency and Payment Options.” Sponsored by: Change Healthcare. Presenters: Kathy Moore, president, Moore Martini Medical; Linda Glidewell, VP of business development, consumer payment solutions, Change Healthcare. Healthcare consumerism and high-deductible health plans require providers to offer upfront estimates and payment options throughout all points of service. In his webinar, we’ll discuss consumerism as a critical area of opportunity in revenue cycle management and review numerous areas across the revenue cycle where your staff interacts with patients and leaves lasting impressions. From your first interaction with patients on the phone to discuss financial responsibility; to collecting payments at all points of service; to offering payment plans and various payment options — these are all areas that can be game-changing. With the right approach to consumerism, you can improve patient collections and optimize revenue from the start while also improving the overall patient experience.

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

People

Carl Anderson (Van Scoyoc Associates) joins HITRUST as chief legal officer and VP of government affairs.

Oncology Analytics hires Rick Dean (Optum) to take on the role of CEO.

Center for Diagnostic Imaging promotes Anh Le Kremer to chief administrative officer.

Telemedicine

In light of the Trump administration’s declaration of an opioid-related national public health emergency, Colorado-based Medical Innovation Holdings announces that it will speed up development and launch of its nationwide network of telemedicine providers to better accommodate patients looking for substance abuse treatment.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Employee retention rate improvement startup Glint raises $20 million in Series D funding. The company’s technology helps employers conduct and analyze the results of employee surveys to measure how staff feel about compensation, management, and workplace culture. According to Glint, surveys conducted at least four times a year can help employers retain happier employees, and positively impact stock prices. These services seem like they’d find a good foothold in healthcare organizations that are looking for new ways to prevent physician burnout.

House call startup Ranger Health raises $10 million in a Series A funding round that will help the company expand beyond its San Antonio borders. The company, which offers its app-based services to consumers and employers, was founded in 2015 by AirStrip co-founders Trey Moore and Cameron Powell, MD and former Tenet Healthcare executive Michael Zuckerberg. 

Government and Politics

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy will enhance its statewide PDMP, the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System, with Appriss Health’s NarxCare analytics platform. The new technology, accessible within EHR and pharmacy management systems and via the OARRS website, will aggregate and analyze prescription data to give prescribers better clinical insight into potential patient safety risks.

The Oregon Health Authority again finds itself in the hot seat after determining a software glitch led to the improper enrollment of 41,400 people into the state’s Medicaid program. OHA spent $74 million on healthcare expenses for the beneficiaries, $64 million of which it may have to pay back to the federal government. The findings come six months after it came to light that the organization was not performing annual eligibility checks required by federal law.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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