News 10/17/17

Top News

The HHS Office of the Inspector General releases its analysis of 428 MSSP ACOs over the first three years of the program. The 43-page report proclaims right off the bat that such ACOs have shown potential for reducing spending  and improving quality. Extremely high-level takeaways include:

• Reduction in spending compared to benchmarks.
• Net spending reduction of $1 billion.
• The propensity of more established ACOs to achieve greater cuts in spending.
• Performance improvement on 82 percent of the program’s 33 quality measures.
• Greater performance on 81 percent of measures compared to fee-for-service providers.  

Physician-only ACOs decreased over time, though the organizations made more PCPs and specialists available to their beneficiaries as the three-year period wore on – a fact that, in my mind, points to a correlation between access to quality primary care and spending reductions.

A Health Affairs editorial points out that the ACO “savings” achievement comes with context, and should be further broken down into utilization, payer, and society savings to determine the true value. Plus, they somewhat pale in comparison to the achievements of their commercial counterparts. Despite this last caveat, the authors believe further testing of the ACO model should continue because:

• Providers can benefit financially because ACOs generate efficiencies.
• ACOs do generate some savings, with those likely to grow over time.
• Beneficiaries enjoy lower premiums and improved quality.

Webinars

October 19 (Thursday) noon ET. “Understanding Enterprise Health Clouds with Forrester:  What can they do for you, and how do you choose the right one?” Sponsored by: Salesforce. Presenters: Joshua Newman, MD, chief medical officer, Salesforce; Kate McCarthy, senior analyst, Forrester. McCarthy will demystify industry solutions while offering insights from her recent Forrester report on enterprise health clouds. Newman and customers from leading healthcare organizations will share insights on how they drive efficiencies, manage patient and member journeys, and connect the entire healthcare ecosystem on the Salesforce platform.

October 24 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Improve Care and Save Clinician Time by Streamlining Specialty Drug Prescribing.” Sponsored by: ZappRx. Presenter: Jeremy Feldman, MD, director, pulmonary hypertension and advanced lung disease program and medical director of research, Arizona Pulmonary Specialists. Clinicians spend an average of 20 minutes to prescribe a single specialty drug and untold extra hours each month completing prior authorization (PA) paperwork to get patients the medications they need. This webinar will describe how Arizona Pulmonary Specialists automated the inefficient specialty drug ordering process to improve patient care while saving its clinicians time.

October 25 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Delivering the Healthcare Pricing Transparency that Consumers are Demanding.” Sponsored by: Health Catalyst. Presenter: Gene Thompson, director, Health City Cayman Islands. Health systems are unlike every other major consumer category in not providing upfront pricing information. Learn how one health system has developed predictable, transparent bundled pricing for most major specialties. Attendees will gain insight into the importance of their quality measures and their use of actual daily procedure costing rather than allocated costs. They will also learn about the strategic risk of other market participants competing with single bundled pricing. The organization’s director will expand how its years-long process is enabling healthcare delivery reform.

October 26 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Is your EHR limiting your success in value-based care?” Sponsored by: Philips Wellcentive. Presenters: Lindsey Bates, market director of compliance, Philips Wellcentive; Greg Fulton, industry and public policy lead, Philips Wellcentive. No single technology solution will solve every problem, so ensuring you select the ones most aligned to meet your strategic goals can be the difference between thriving or merely surviving. From quality reporting to analytics to measures building, developing a comprehensive healthcare strategy that will support your journey in population health and value-base care programs is the foundation of success. Join Philips Wellcentive for our upcoming interactive webinar, where we’ll help you evolve ahead of the industry, setting the right strategic goals and getting the most out of your technology solutions.

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.

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

Announcements and Implementations

After a two-year evaluation period, Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services selects Epic. A full roll out is expected across its eight locations in Iowa and Michigan by June 2018.

Pediatric-focused software vendor CubHub Systems develops an app and Web-based tools to help home-based nurses and therapists better coordinate care and track outcomes.

ZocDoc integrates its consumer-facing online scheduling capabilities with Allscripts scheduling software.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Newbridge Spine & Pain Center (VA and MD) becomes part of the Privia Medical Group network, enabling it to take advantage of Privia’s reimbursement programs, and its patient portal, EHR, and billing software.

New York-based HIE HealtheConnections relocates to larger office space in Syracuse to accommodate future expansion plans. Founded in 2010, the company has grown to 40 employees.

Walgreens will bring 300 technology jobs at its office in Chicago as part of its plan to develop a technology center of excellence. The new center will house the company’s digital, mobile, e-commerce, and retail pharmacy technology teams. Walgreens employs over 3,500 people in Chicago, where it got its start as a drugstore in 1901.

Allscripts signs a lease renewal and expansion at its One Burlington Woods office in Burlington, MA.

People

Jerriene Cordova (Ideal Life) joins MobileHelp Healthcare as director of telehealth solutions.

Cybersecurity company ISign International appoints Al Holloway (The Independent Physicians Association of America) to its advisory board.

Other

Bassett Family Practice (VA), an FQHC in Martinsville, VA, informs patients of a data breach stemming from the August theft of an unencrypted laptop from an employee’s car. The practice had apparently shuffled PHI on to several laptops while it transitioned to a new IT system.

Zookeepers call on Kimberly Harmon, MD the head physician of the University of Washington’s football team, to help diagnose a leg ailment in Jumoke, a 275-pound female gorilla who’d gotten into a scuffle with a younger gorilla. “Who better to call than the head physician of one of the nation’s top-ranked football programs?” quips Darin Collins, the zoo’s director of animal health. “We were very fortunate she used her expertise for Jumoke’s welfare.”

Contacts

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News 10/16/17

Top News

EHR-related medical malpractice claims continue to rise, according to the latest analysis from The Doctors Company. The malpractice insurer’s study of 66 such claims between July 2014 and December 2016 found that end-user factors like copying and pasting notes were found in 58 percent of the claims, while system factors such as those above were found in 50 percent. Drug or clinical decision support alert failure seems to be the only type of system factor that has decreased over the last 10 years. The silver lining for physicians is that fewer EHR-related claims were filed pertaining to practices and ambulatory surgery centers.

Webinars

October 19 (Thursday) noon ET. “Understanding Enterprise Health Clouds with Forrester:  What can they do for you, and how do you choose the right one?” Sponsored by: Salesforce. Presenters: Joshua Newman, MD, chief medical officer, Salesforce; Kate McCarthy, senior analyst, Forrester. McCarthy will demystify industry solutions while offering insights from her recent Forrester report on enterprise health clouds. Newman and customers from leading healthcare organizations will share insights on how they drive efficiencies, manage patient and member journeys, and connect the entire healthcare ecosystem on the Salesforce platform.

October 24 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Improve Care and Save Clinician Time by Streamlining Specialty Drug Prescribing.” Sponsored by: ZappRx. Presenter: Jeremy Feldman, MD, director, pulmonary hypertension and advanced lung disease program and medical director of research, Arizona Pulmonary Specialists. Clinicians spend an average of 20 minutes to prescribe a single specialty drug and untold extra hours each month completing prior authorization (PA) paperwork to get patients the medications they need. This webinar will describe how Arizona Pulmonary Specialists automated the inefficient specialty drug ordering process to improve patient care while saving its clinicians time.

October 25 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Delivering the Healthcare Pricing Transparency that Consumers are Demanding.” Sponsored by: Health Catalyst. Presenter: Gene Thompson, director, Health City Cayman Islands. Health systems are unlike every other major consumer category in not providing upfront pricing information. Learn how one health system has developed predictable, transparent bundled pricing for most major specialties. Attendees will gain insight into the importance of their quality measures and their use of actual daily procedure costing rather than allocated costs. They will also learn about the strategic risk of other market participants competing with single bundled pricing. The organization’s director will expand how its years-long process is enabling healthcare delivery reform.

October 26 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Is your EHR limiting your success in value-based care?” Sponsored by: Philips Wellcentive. Presenters: Lindsey Bates, market director of compliance, Philips Wellcentive; Greg Fulton, industry and public policy lead, Philips Wellcentive. No single technology solution will solve every problem, so ensuring you select the ones most aligned to meet your strategic goals can be the difference between thriving or merely surviving. From quality reporting to analytics to measures building, developing a comprehensive healthcare strategy that will support your journey in population health and value-base care programs is the foundation of success. Join Philips Wellcentive for our upcoming interactive webinar, where we’ll help you evolve ahead of the industry, setting the right strategic goals and getting the most out of your technology solutions.

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.

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

Announcements and Implementations

CKM Healthcare adds a hand hygiene app to its line of infection prevention and control software. Part of its new IPaC Cloud platform, the app gives providers the ability to track and manage protocols for staff, and act on real-time feedback and analytics. 

AMA launches the Integrated Health Model Initiative in an effort to help healthcare stakeholders develop a common data model they can use to organize and share information, address interoperability challenges, and eventually develop new patient care models. Initial efforts will focus on diabetes prevention, hypertension management, asthma status and patient goals, and defining wellness.

PatientPop incorporates Google Posts into its practice marketing software, giving physicians the ability to share custom content – including appointment booking capabilities – in Google search results and maps.

CVS Health will add population health and analytics tools from Epic in an effort to work with physicians, payers, and patients on improving medication adherence. CVS, which already uses Epic in its MinuteClinics and Specialty care management programs, will leverage the new technology to offer real-time electronic prior authorization, prescription savings, and pharmacist access to care plans.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Charlotte, NC-based Eye Care Leaders purchases eye care-focused healthcare technology company IMedicWare for an undisclosed amount. IMedicWare founder and CEO Arun Kapur will head up ECL’s line of EHR, PM, and software for ophthalmic and optometric practices and ambulatory surgery centers.

MTBC secures a $5 million line of credit from Silicon Valley Bank. The Somerset, NJ-based company, fresh off the nearly nationwide rollout of its new TalkEHR, plans to use the financing for general corporate development.

Dermatologist Erum Ilyas, MD launches a line of women’s wear that incorporates UPF 50 in every made-in-the-USA garment. “For me, creating this clothing line is blending an aesthetic [with] functionality. This is in many ways the essence of what I do as a dermatologist — merging art and science in a practical way,” Ilyas says. She is working on funneling a portion of the proceeds from each sale to nonprofit Dress for Success, which helps women in need with resources and job placement.

People

The American Board of Family Medicine appoints Warren Newton, MD (North Carolina Area Health Education Center and UNC) president and CEO. Newton will succeed James Puffer, MD when he retires next year.

Laureen Segall (ZirMed) joins Hiteks as director of products and compliance.

Telemedicine

Medtronic Care Management Services will incorporate American Well’s telemedicine services into its remote patient monitoring software for home-based care.

Research and Innovation

Unintended disclosure incidents top the list of healthcare data breaches for the first nine months of 2017 – more than double that of hacks or malware. Unintended disclosures and insider incidents were the only two categories to see an increase since 2015. Human error (including willful maliciousness) had a hand in 70 percent of all causes, proving that more often than not, employees can be their own worst enemies.

Other

Man’s best friend may just help him lead a longer life: Researchers with the Human Animal Bond Research Institute find that bringing pets into primary care conversations can help physicians build rapport with their patients. An analysis of 225 pet conversations revealed that PCPs gained a better understanding of their patients, including home life and other determinants of health, and helped them incorporate pets into care plans. 

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• How to find the “human moments” in EHR implementation (and other lessons) (Nordic)
• Tips for Structuring a Successful Device Pilot (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Become a sponsor.

News 10/12/17

Top News

Just a few weeks shy of open enrollment, President Trump signs an executive order directing HHS and other agencies to look at:

• Allowing employees to buy insurance coverage across state lines via Association Health Plans,
• Allowing consumers to purchase low-cost, short-term insurance policies that would not be subject to ACA penalties
• Giving employers and employees greater control over HRSA accounts.

Analysts expect Trump’s directives will take at least six months to carry out, with initial market impacts not likely felt until 2019 – not exactly the “fast” timeline his tweet suggests.

Reader Comments

From Sudsy: “Re: SOAPware. Did you hear? SOAPware will sunset their software in February. Just got a text from a friend who has been a long time user.” Unverified. The Fayetteville, AR-based company has flown under the radar for some time, with no news of any kind listed on its website. (Though its LinkedIn description does, ironically, mention that its user base across “10,000 sites in all 50 states and 30 other countries” … “is the best guarantee against orphaned or obsolete EMR software, and reduces acquisition costs for the EMR while promoting a permanent EMR implementation.”) We last mentioned the company in 2013, when Surescripts announced it would expand its clinical messaging capabilities to SOAPware end users.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

There’s still time to take advantage of our fall sponsorship special. Sign up now and get the rest of 2017 for free. Further discounts will apply if you choose to sponsor both HIStalk and HIStalk Practice. Contact Lorre for more details.

Webinars

October 17 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Improve Care and Save Clinician Time by Streamlining Specialty Drug Prescribing.” Sponsored by: ZappRx. Presenter: Jeremy Feldman, MD, director, pulmonary hypertension and advanced lung disease program and medical director of research, Arizona Pulmonary Specialists. Clinicians spend an average of 20 minutes to prescribe a single specialty drug and untold extra hours each month completing prior authorization (PA) paperwork to get patients the medications they need. This webinar will describe how Arizona Pulmonary Specialists automated the inefficient specialty drug ordering process to improve patient care while saving its clinicians time.

October 19 (Thursday) noon ET. “Understanding Enterprise Health Clouds with Forrester:  What can they do for you, and how do you choose the right one?” Sponsored by: Salesforce. Presenters: Joshua Newman, MD, chief medical officer, Salesforce; Kate McCarthy, senior analyst, Forrester. McCarthy will demystify industry solutions while offering insights from her recent Forrester report on enterprise health clouds. Newman and customers from leading healthcare organizations will share insights on how they drive efficiencies, manage patient and member journeys, and connect the entire healthcare ecosystem on the Salesforce platform.

October 26 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Is your EHR limiting your success in value-based care?” Sponsored by: Philips Wellcentive. Presenters: Lindsey Bates, market director of compliance, Philips Wellcentive; Greg Fulton, industry and public policy lead, Philips Wellcentive. No single technology solution will solve every problem, so ensuring you select the ones most aligned to meet your strategic goals can be the difference between thriving or merely surviving. From quality reporting to analytics to measures building, developing a comprehensive healthcare strategy that will support your journey in population health and value-base care programs is the foundation of success. Join Philips Wellcentive for our upcoming interactive webinar, where we’ll help you evolve ahead of the industry, setting the right strategic goals and getting the most out of your technology solutions.

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.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Cytta will integrate CardioComm’s consumer heart monitoring software and hardware with its EvrCare smartphone-based remote patient monitoring technology. The companies ultimately plan to create a product using their combined technologies that physicians will prescribe to high-risk patients or those with chronic conditions.

ChiroTouch updates its EHR software for chiropractors with new MACRA/MIPS reporting and billing features.

EClinicalWorks offers end users reporting access to clinical data registries through a new partnership with registry platform vendor FigMD.

Compliancy Group releases its annual HIPAA Compliance Checklist to help behavioral health professionals assess compliance needs.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Data-sharing plays a significant role in the success Dallas-based Catalyst Health Network and UnitedHealthcare’s ACO have seen in their efforts to reduce healthcare costs and increase preventive care. Launched in 2015, the ACO now includes 450 PCPs and 60,000 participants. In 2016, it reduced healthcare costs by over $11 million, out-of-network lab procedures by 44 percent, and out-of-network outpatient surgeries by 30 percent.

People

Wendy Rubas (Northwest Community Healthcare) joins VillageMD as general counsel.

Telemedicine

Harvey Health launches a naturopathic telemedicine service, including virtual consults and in-home lab testing. Founders Kyle Hill and Mike Townsend named the company after physician William Harvey, who discovered how blood circulates through the body in the early 17th century. Hill and Townsend both founded Flowtab, a mobile payment app for bars and nightclubs; and HomeHero, a home health company for seniors.

Medical Innovation Holdings debuts Telemedicos USA, a Spanish-language telemedicine service that leverages the company’s 3PointCare subsidiary’s physician network.

Workers compensation-focused Consumer Healthcare Connections raises an undisclosed amount of funding from Mitchell International, a technology company that focuses on the collision repair and property and casualty claims markets. In addition to virtual consults, CHC provides employees virtual claim reviews.

Other

The local paper looks at the emphasis digital patient education company Outcome Health is placing on serving physician practices in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods. “In a lot of these communities, people don’t have the latest technology,” says co-founder and President Shradha Agarwal. “They don’t have tech literacy. They don’t have the education to be able to understand complex concepts that the physician might be trying to communicate.” The company, which offers its tablet-based patient education content to practices for free, celebrated the opening of its new Chicago headquarters last month.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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From the Consultant’s Corner 10/12/17

Addressing Physician Burnout – It’s Not Just the EHR

Physician burnout continues to rise in all specialty areas. Fifty-five percent of family medicine and internal medicine physicians who participated in the 2017 Medscape Lifestyle Report reported burnout. Fifty-nine percent of emergency medicine and 56 percent of all Ob/Gyn participants reported burnout. While EHRs are often credited as a major contributing factor to physician burnout, a deeper analysis of the root causes of physician burnout is necessary in order to address this challenge.

Administrative burdens placed on providers have accelerated with a variety of regulatory requirements including MU, ICD-10, and now MACRA. Population health management, value-based reimbursement, and coding scrutiny will continue to influence clinical workflow design and EHR usage. A poorly developed or executed EHR implementation approach will absolutely magnify these challenges. Practice leadership should engage their physician community to separate those EHR-related issues, which can be improved upon through optimization initiatives, from the administrative burdens that require alternative solutions in order to have a meaningful impact.

Up until the past two years, our EHR optimization engagements primarily focused on client goals of improving physician productivity. Increasingly, a common driver of most recent engagements is to reduce or eliminate the time physicians spend on administrative, non-clinical tasks, which contribute to physician burnout. These client administrators recognize the administrative burdens placed on their physicians, and they are keenly astute to the costs and disruptions of recruiting and onboarding new physicians. It is simply more cost effective to address physician burnout proactively, than to replace them.

I recommend several tactics below for provider organizations to start the process of addressing physician burnout. There is no silver bullet, but engaging physicians and making real, sustainable efforts to improve their satisfaction will have meaningful impacts.

1. Inefficient workflows and poor EHR design/navigation are far too common. Unfortunately, many vendors accentuate this problem by well-intended yet unproven “best practice” workflow recommendations. Engage your clinicians to understand the bottlenecks and redundancies of their current workflows. Clinical workflow optimization comprised of using all clinical resources to the maximum level of their licensure is a good first step.

2. EHR personalization, focused on enhancing clinical documentation, order entry, results management, and messaging is another best practice. Additional benefits of EHR optimization include enhanced revenue integrity and reduced charge lag, which accelerate cash collections.

3. Provide continual training opportunities for physicians and nurses to introduce and reinforce advanced tools that accelerate clinical documentation.

4. The use of scribes is not a new concept; however, it is a relatively high-cost solution for shifting the administrative tasks off a physician’s plate. Several models of virtual scribes have started to gain traction and are worthy of consideration as an additional tactic to ease burnout for your most at-risk providers. There are different flavors of these services, each with different value propositions and cost considerations. By offloading most of the EHR data entry to a virtual scribe, more face time is spent with the patient and encounters are closed (and billed) at the completion of the patient visit.

Brad Boyd is president of Culbert Healthcare Solutions in Woburn, MA.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 10/11/7

Top News

Seven months after acquiring competitor LeonardoMD, physician practice-focused EHR and PM vendor Azalea Health merges with Prognosis Innovation Healthcare, a Houston-based EHR vendor that caters to rural and smaller hospitals. In a move that echoes those of Athenahealth, Atlanta-based Azalea hopes to leverage Prognosis talent, technology, and relationships as a means to enter the rural hospital market. Prognosis CEO Douglas Cameron will become an Azalea advisor during the transition. Prognosis went through a rebranding in 2014 after being acquired by AO Capital, a private equity firm led by two of the company’s founders.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Lorre tells me that now is the time of year that we typically offer a great deal for new HIStalk sponsors – sign up now and get the rest of 2017 for free. Further discounts will apply if you choose to sponsor both HIStalk and HIStalk Practice. Contact her for more details.

Webinars

October 17 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Improve Care and Save Clinician Time by Streamlining Specialty Drug Prescribing.” Sponsored by: ZappRx. Presenter: Jeremy Feldman, MD, director, pulmonary hypertension and advanced lung disease program and medical director of research, Arizona Pulmonary Specialists. Clinicians spend an average of 20 minutes to prescribe a single specialty drug and untold extra hours each month completing prior authorization (PA) paperwork to get patients the medications they need. This webinar will describe how Arizona Pulmonary Specialists automated the inefficient specialty drug ordering process to improve patient care while saving its clinicians time.

October 19 (Thursday) noon ET. “Understanding Enterprise Health Clouds with Forrester:  What can they do for you, and how do you choose the right one?” Sponsored by: Salesforce. Presenters: Joshua Newman, MD, chief medical officer, Salesforce; Kate McCarthy, senior analyst, Forrester. McCarthy will demystify industry solutions while offering insights from her recent Forrester report on enterprise health clouds. Newman and customers from leading healthcare organizations will share insights on how they drive efficiencies, manage patient and member journeys, and connect the entire healthcare ecosystem on the Salesforce platform.

October 26 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Is your EHR limiting your success in value-based care?” Sponsored by: Philips Wellcentive. Presenters: Lindsey Bates, market director of compliance, Philips Wellcentive; Greg Fulton, industry and public policy lead, Philips Wellcentive. No single technology solution will solve every problem, so ensuring you select the ones most aligned to meet your strategic goals can be the difference between thriving or merely surviving. From quality reporting to analytics to measures building, developing a comprehensive healthcare strategy that will support your journey in population health and value-base care programs is the foundation of success. Join Philips Wellcentive for our upcoming interactive webinar, where we’ll help you evolve ahead of the industry, setting the right strategic goals and getting the most out of your technology solutions.

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.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Athenahealth offers end users security risk analysis software from HIPAA One through the company’s More Disruption Please marketplace.

People

Russell Senger (Navicure) joins TDP RCM as VP of business development.

Government and Politics

President Trump promotes HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan to acting HHS Secretary.

Coinciding with National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, ONC announces the Secure API Server Showdown Challenge, a two-stage competition in which teams will build secure FHIR servers that will then be dissected for vulnerabilities by healthcare security professionals. Three winning teams will receive a total of $10,000. Submissions are due January 15.

STAT profiles Grubb’s Pharmacy – Washington, DC’s oldest such establishment – and the delivery services it provides to lawmakers on Capitol Hill through the Office of the Attending Physician. Pharmacy owner Mike Kim seems pleased enough with the decades-old government business, though he does get frustrated by the OAP’s inability to send prescriptions electronically. He seems no longer star-struck when high-profile lawmakers come into his establishment: “I still remember John Kerry — it was literally like the day after he lost [the 2004 presidential election], he came in and he was just standing in line with everybody else,” Kim says. “I just remember seeing him standing in line and almost feeling sorry for him — one day he’s a superstar, he’s got his entourage and security detail, and the next day he’s just by himself, he’s picking up his prescription.”

Other

Vermont Public Radio looks at the state’s nascent medical marijuana industry, highlighting the skepticism new clinics like Canna Care Docs face from the traditional medical establishment. Similarly to the early days of telemedicine, current state regulations require physicians to establish relationships with patients seeking certificates by seeing them twice in a three-month period before issuing certificates – once in person and the second via virtual consult. It’s a strategy that doesn’t sit well with Rep. Ann Pugh, who co-authored the state’s medical marijuana law. “To be honest, that’s not a relationship in my mind,” she says of the Canna Care model.

Coming soon to a mailbox near you: The US Postal Service will pilot self-driving delivery trucks along 10 rural routes in 2019 as part of a larger look at how autonomous vehicles can help the federal agency cut costs and keep its doors open. If the test routes go well, the USPS will roll out the vehicles on 28,000 rural routes by 2025.

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima will exhibit at the American Academy of Home Care Medicine Annual Meeting October 13-14 in Rosemont, IL.
• Healthwise will exhibit at Philips Connect2Care October 16-18 in Los Angeles.

Blog Posts

• The lesson of Dallas: A change in thinking (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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