News 6/12/17

Top News

OIG auditors estimate that CMS doled out nearly $729 million in improper Meaningful Use incentive payments between 2011 and 2014. Auditors looked at 100 payments and found that 14 were made for incorrect reporting periods, or were based on verification documentation that was incomplete. They also take EPs to task for insufficient attestation documentation. Auditors also found that CMS inappropriately paid out $2.3 million to providers who switched between Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs during that timeframe. MU payments totaling $6 billion have been made thus far. OIG recommends that CMS recoup the incorrect payments and undertake a more thorough review of all payments made.

Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Social Determinants of Health.” Sponsored by Philips Wellcentive. Presenter: David Nash, MD, MBA, dean, Jefferson College of Population Health. One of the nation’s foremost experts on social determinants of health will explain the importance of these factors and how to make the best use of them.

June 29 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Be the First to See New Data on Why Patients Switch Healthcare Providers.” Sponsored by Solutionreach. As patients pay more for their care and have access to more data about cost and quality, their expectations for healthcare are changing. And as their expectations change, they are more likely to switch providers to get them met. In this free webinar, we’ll look at this new data on why patients switch and what makes them stay. Be one of the first to see the latest data on why patients leave and what you can do about it.

July 11 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET.  “Your Data Migration Questions Answered: Ask the Expert Q&A Panel.” Sponsored by Galen Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Julia Snapp, manager of professional services, Galen Healthcare Solutions; Tyler Suacci, principal technical consultant, Galen Healthcare Solutions. This webcast will give attendees who are considering or in the process of replacing and/or transitioning EHRs the ability to ask questions of our experts. Our moderators have extensive experience in data migration efforts, having supported over 250+ projects, and migration of 40MM+ patient records and 7K+ providers. They will be available to answer questions surrounding changes in workflows, items to consider when migrating data, knowing what to migrate vs. archive, etc.

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

Telemedicine

Danvers, MA-based HealthPoint Plus acquires the subscription-based telemedicine assets of Commons Health for an undisclosed sum.

People

GE promotes GE Healthcare Life Sciences CEO Kieran Murphy to president and CEO of GE Healthcare. Murphy takes over from John Flannery, who has been named CEO and chairman elect of GE. Murphy will take over ongoing efforts to strengthen GE Healthcare’s technology with the relocation of hundreds of tech workers to its office in Boston, as well as a planned $500 million software spend over the next several years.

AMGA promotes Ryan O’Connor to interim president and CEO. He succeeds Donald Fisher, who passed away in March.

Announcements and Implementations

Community Health and Wellness Center of Greater Torrington (CT) enlists the help of chronic care management consulting company Stone Health Innovations to launch its Medicare CCM program.

Fledgling insurance company Oscar Health uses claims data to develop a clinical dashboard that pulls together the health histories, medical encounters, lab results, prescription summaries, hospital visitations, and allergies of its members into an easy-to-understand profile for providers.

Research and Innovation

A small study in the Annals of Family Medicine highlights the progress telemedicine is making in the realm of primary care. Of the 19 patients interviewed, all were satisfied with their video visits, and the majority were amenable to using the virtual visits in lieu of in-person consultations. Some reported that they’d prefer receiving any future serious diagnoses via telemedicine because it would allow them to receive the news in the comfort of their own home – an apt observation given that patients find it hard to retain follow-up details after receiving such news in the unfamiliar and sterile environs of a doctor’s office. Patients listed decreased cost and convenience as the main benefits of their telemedicine visits. They also raised concerns about privacy, especially if visits are conducted while at work, and adequacy of physical exams.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Axios.com reports that the FBI is investigating Portland-based ZoomCare in the midst of employee layoffs and voluntary exits. It seems the company, which offers primary care and, until recently, insurance plans, falsified medical claims to avoid paying into the ACA’s risk adjustment pool. CMS also appears to be looking into the matter. The federal investigation comes nearly two months after Oregon insurance regulators found the company’s insurance arm to be financially unstable, causing it to close up shop.

Other

The Ohio State Medical Association will offer Stratus Video’s remote interpretation service to its members to help them care for patients with limited English proficiency.

Sponsor Updates

• Gartner names AdvancedMD a leader in its FrontRunners for Mental Health Quadrant.
• Frost & Sullivan recognizes Medicomp Systems with the 2017 Enabling Technology Leadership Award.
• YourStory.com profiles GE Healthcare’s efforts to bring healthcare accessibility and skills to rural areas in India.

Blog Posts

• Why you shouldn’t delay your EHR upgrade (Nordic)
• Defining a Legacy EMR/PM Strategy (Mica Health)
• Why providers burn out on EHR documentation – and how to fix it (Nordic)

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Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 6/8/17

Top News

Athenahealth acquires Palo Alto, CA-based EHR optimization vendor Praxify Technologies for $63 million. Athenahealth will use the company’s underlying natural-language processing and machine intelligence technology, thus far supported by a development team based in India, to bolster its cloud-based EHR and PM software.

Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Social Determinants of Health.” Sponsored by Philips Wellcentive. Presenter: David Nash, MD, MBA, dean, Jefferson College of Population Health. One of the nation’s foremost experts on social determinants of health will explain the importance of these factors and how to make the best use of them.

June 29 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Be the First to See New Data on Why Patients Switch Healthcare Providers.” Sponsored by Solutionreach. As patients pay more for their care and have access to more data about cost and quality, their expectations for healthcare are changing. And as their expectations change, they are more likely to switch providers to get them met. In this free webinar, we’ll look at this new data on why patients switch and what makes them stay. Be one of the first to see the latest data on why patients leave and what you can do about it.

July 11 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET.  “Your Data Migration Questions Answered: Ask the Expert Q&A Panel.” Sponsored by Galen Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Julia Snapp, manager of professional services, Galen Healthcare Solutions; Tyler Suacci, principal technical consultant, Galen Healthcare Solutions. This webcast will give attendees who are considering or in the process of replacing and/or transitioning EHRs the ability to ask questions of our experts. Our moderators have extensive experience in data migration efforts, having supported over 250+ projects, and migration of 40MM+ patient records and 7K+ providers. They will be available to answer questions surrounding changes in workflows, items to consider when migrating data, knowing what to migrate vs. archive, etc.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Ezras Choilim Health Center, an FQHC based on Westborough, MA, will roll out EHR, population health, and behavioral health-focused population care planning tools from EClinicalWorks to its 36 providers.

The Compliancy Group will package IMatrix’s website marketing services alongside its HIPAA-compliance service for eye care providers.

Government and Politics

Vermont Governor Phil Scott passes legislation that requires payers to reimburse providers for telemedicine visits at rates comparable to in-person appointments.

Connecticut lawmakers sign into law a bill that mandates e-prescribing and calls for expanded data sharing between state agencies on opioid abuse and overdose deaths.

People

Ann Schnure (Consumer Health Connections) joins occupational health and urgent care provider Concentra as VP of the telemedicine business it launched in March.

Research and Innovation

STAT takes a look at the financial and clinical impact the “free” annual Medicare wellness visit has had since it launched in 2011. Just 8 percent of eligible beneficiaries took advantage of the visit in 2011; that number crept up to 14 percent in 2014. The authors note that patients were more likely to take advantage if their practice was part of an ACO, and if they had one the year before. Many patients found that “free” wasn’t free when they received bills for services rendered during the well visit that were eligible for billing. JAMA author and PCP Ishani Ganguli, MD believes that,

“… the reality of the visit can fall short of its intentions. The results in our JAMA paper tell us that the individuals getting the visits are more often those who are already well-connected to the healthcare system rather than the historically underserved, including certain minorities and Medicaid-eligible patients, who may be more likely to benefit from them. As we come up with more sophisticated ways to track aspects of patients’ preventive care needs, an in-person visit dedicated to this purpose starts to feel obsolete.”

Other

Beginning July 1, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia will no longer cover ER visits it deems unnecessary, entering a very gray area that some critics say will lead to patients suffering from questionable symptoms to avoid the ER and resulting bills. “I have four children,” says Medical Association of Georgia President Michael Palmisano, “and if there’s an injury and it’s hard to determine the pain they’re experiencing, it’s hard to determine whether to go to the emergency room or not. It [creates] that added stress because you’re dealing with a loved one and you’re putting parents in a very difficult situation.” BCBSGA is pushing patients with non-life-threatening symptoms to instead head to the nearest urgent care or retail clinic, or to use its LiveHealth telemedicine app.

I’ll stick to Twitter: Hackers thought to be part of the Turla cyber espionage group use the Instagram account of Britney Spears to hide test malware code.

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Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 6/7/17

Top News

Surescripts releases its annual progress report on e-prescribing. Key takeaways include:

• Nearly 75 percent of prescriptions in 2016 were electronic, totaling 1.6 billion – that’s 180,000 every hour.
• E-prescribing of controlled substances increased year over year by 250 percent.
• Patients with chronic conditions accounted for 91 percent of all prescriptions filled.

While the company claims e-prescribing helps improve medication adherence by 10 percent, I think it would be interesting to dig a little deeper to determine just how much adherence improved, and if there were any downstream benefits such as reduced hospital readmissions or ER visits. It’s a correlation that would hopefully give physicians impetus to rethink their current prescribing workflows.

Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Social Determinants of Health.” Sponsored by Philips Wellcentive. Presenter: David Nash, MD, MBA, dean, Jefferson College of Population Health. One of the nation’s foremost experts on social determinants of health will explain the importance of these factors and how to make the best use of them.

June 29 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Be the First to See New Data on Why Patients Switch Healthcare Providers.” Sponsored by Solutionreach. As patients pay more for their care and have access to more data about cost and quality, their expectations for healthcare are changing. And as their expectations change, they are more likely to switch providers to get them met. In this free webinar, we’ll look at this new data on why patients switch and what makes them stay. Be one of the first to see the latest data on why patients leave and what you can do about it.

July 11 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET.  “Your Data Migration Questions Answered: Ask the Expert Q&A Panel.” Sponsored by Galen Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Julia Snapp, manager of professional services, Galen Healthcare Solutions; Tyler Suacci, principal technical consultant, Galen Healthcare Solutions. This webcast will give attendees who are considering or in the process of replacing and/or transitioning EHRs the ability to ask questions of our experts. Our moderators have extensive experience in data migration efforts, having supported over 250+ projects, and migration of 40MM+ patient records and 7K+ providers. They will be available to answer questions surrounding changes in workflows, items to consider when migrating data, knowing what to migrate vs. archive, etc.

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

People

John Merenich, MD joins care management and patient engagement software company Clarify Health as strategic advisor.

Telemedicine

Salus Telehealth looks to an untapped market – that of the touring recording artist. The Waycross, GA-based telemedicine company has partnered with Dreamcatcher Artist Management to offer its musicians and their road crews access to its service. Country artist Mo Pitney is among the first to install VideoMedicine cameras on his tour bus.

Back to business: EClinicalWorks adds telemedicine functionality to its Health & Online Wellness smartphone app.

MyTelemedicine incorporates e-prescribing technology from EazyScripts into the physician-facing software of its virtual consult services.

HomeHero pivots from a defunct home care marketplace to a telemedicine company focused on naturopathic care that will also offer in-home lab testing and natural treatments. Co-founders Kyle Hill and Mike Townsend renamed the company Harvey after William Harvey, an English physician and scientist who discovered the way in which blood circulates throughout the body.

Announcements and Implementations

Addiction recovery EHR vendor Alleva develops a patient-facing app that serves up post-treatment plans and daily meditations, survey prompts, and crisis alerts. The startup has also opened a new office in Provo, Utah.

Research and Innovation

A survey of 438 physicians, practice managers, and executives finds that interest in the Chronic Care Management is on the rise – 41 percent of surveyed medical groups have launched a CCM, which is a sizeable increase from those surveyed in 2015. Practices of 20 or more physicians are leading CCM adoption; 84 percent of surveyed CCM participants believe it is positively impacting patient care. Interest in (and preparation for) MACRA, on the other hand, has not fared quite as well. Just 19 percent of those surveyed claim to be very familiar with the federal act; 25 percent have never even heard of it.

Other

Independent physician Bruce Latham, DO doesn’t seem to need technology to help prevent opioid abuse amongst his patients and within his community. The small-town doc has a close relationship with local law enforcement, and has patients who receive prescription pain medicine sign an agreement authorizing him to “cooperate” with law enforcement and waiving any right to confidentiality. “If you sell,” he says, “I turn you into the police. I can’t have one person destroy the program.”

DataBreaches.net reports that Victory Medical Center notified patients Monday of a data breach discovered by a patient in April that exposed non-sensitive patient information. The cause of the breach has not yet been made public, though it is believed to have occurred in 2013.

Sponsor Updates

• Software Advice names AdvancedMD a 2017 Mental Health FrontRunners Quadrant Leader.
• Aprima Medical Software will exhibit at the NJ MGMA meeting June 14-16 in Atlantic City.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at AHIP Institute & Expo June 7-9 in Austin, TX.
• Healthwise will exhibit at the Cerner North Atlantic Regional User Group June 12-14 in Springfield, IL.

Blog Posts

• 5 areas to focus your 2017 MIPS strategy (Nordic)
• CMS Quality Payment Program – MIPS Path (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)
• Can interoperability defeat the asymmetry beast? (EClinicalWorks)
• A quick and painless intro to rolling out your EHR (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 6/6/17

Top News

MDLive announces that the $5 million class action lawsuit brought against it in April for privacy violations has been voluntarily dropped by the Utah-based plaintiff. The suit contended, among other things, that the telemedicine company captured screenshots of virtual consults without telling patients, and then transmitted them to a third-party IT company tasked with maintaining the MDLive mobile app. “Privacy and patient confidentiality are at the heart of everything we do,” said CEO Scott Decker in response to the news, “and MDLIVE will continue to rigorously review and evolve our technology and processes to safeguard member information and build trust in the telehealth industry. We are thrilled this lawsuit was appropriately dismissed …”

Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 1:00 ET. “Social Determinants of Health.” Sponsored by Philips Wellcentive. Presenter: David Nash, MD, MBA, dean, Jefferson College of Population Health. One of the nation’s foremost experts on social determinants of health will explain the importance of these factors and how to make the best use of them.

June 29 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Be the First to See New Data on Why Patients Switch Healthcare Providers.” Sponsored by Solutionreach. As patients pay more for their care and have access to more data about cost and quality, their expectations for healthcare are changing. And as their expectations change, they are more likely to switch providers to get them met. In this free webinar, we’ll look at this new data on why patients switch and what makes them stay. Be one of the first to see the latest data on why patients leave and what you can do about it.

July 11 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET.  “Your Data Migration Questions Answered: Ask the Expert Q&A Panel.” Sponsored by Galen Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Julia Snapp, manager of professional services, Galen Healthcare Solutions; Tyler Suacci, principal technical consultant, Galen Healthcare Solutions. This webcast will give attendees who are considering or in the process of replacing and/or transitioning EHRs the ability to ask questions of our experts. Our moderators have extensive experience in data migration efforts, having supported over 250+ projects, and migration of 40MM+ patient records and 7K+ providers. They will be available to answer questions surrounding changes in workflows, items to consider when migrating data, knowing what to migrate vs. archive, etc.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Central Oregon Radiology Associates selects patient intake, billing, and messaging technology from Royal Solutions Group.

Allscripts will add prescription pricing options from GoodRx to its Professional and TouchWorks EHRs.

Applied Pathways develops a self-triage app that providers and payers can incorporate into their patient portals and other patient engagement tools.

IPA Scripps Mercy Physician Partners (CA) selects technology and services from Chronic Care Management LLC to support the CCM efforts of its member physicians.

Glenwood Systems will add OptimizeRx’s digital prescription savings software to its EHR.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Aprima announces record growth for the fiscal year, including record revenue, a 97-percent customer retention rate, and the relocation and expansion of its headquarters.

DaVita launches a new business unit aimed at better coordinating care for chronically ill patients, particularly those suffering from end stage renal disease. DaVita Health Solutions will offer house calls for primary and behavioral healthcare, post-acute care services, around-the-clock support – all while keeping the dialysis center as the medical home.

Telemedicine

Innovista Health Solutions will offer advanced care planning telemedicine services from Iris Plans to its physician practice customers in Texas.

Primary care company Carbon Health adds Acuant’s data capture and verification capabilities to its app, which offers telemedicine features in a PHR-like platform.

Government and Politics

CMS agrees to refund Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York $250,000 in Medicare reimbursements initially withheld due to a clerical error. An HOACNY staffer accidentally typed the letter “I” instead of the number “1” when submitting annual performance data to CMS, leading to the quarter million-dollar ding. CMS at first refused to correct the mistake, but later recanted after Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D–NY) and Rep. John Katko (R–NY) took the matter straight to CMS Administrator Seema Verma.

Research and Innovation

A study of 766 outpatient chemotherapy patients finds that those that regularly reported symptoms via a Web-based portal experienced more immediate follow-up care than those that did not, leading to five additional months of survival. A larger, more mobile-friendly clinical trial is ongoing in community practices.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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From the Consultant’s Corner 6/6/17

Leverage MACRA to Support Long-Term Strategic Goals

MACRA is largely understood throughout the healthcare industry, and the majority of provider organizations are in the process of implementing their go-forward strategies. With 2017 being a transitional year, it is an essential time for healthcare organizations to think of the bigger picture and develop a long-term roadmap for 2018 and beyond.

A truly strategic approach to MACRA leverages the program to reinforce the broader goals of an organization. For example, the Clinical Practice Improvement Activities (CPIA) category details over 90 activities that can not only be used to determine your MIPS Composite Performance Score, but more importantly, support the strategic objectives of your practice. Many of these activities are likely on your project wish list.

CPIA is the area in which there is greater flexibility to utilize the MACRA program to drive operational and cultural changes. Although CPIA will only account for 15 percent of the overall MACRA score in the first year, these activities provide real opportunity to differentiate and grow your practice. For example, Expanding Patient Access is a priority for most organizations. These activities benefit the patient, but also increase practice revenues and resource productivity.

Within the nine CPIA categories, there are over 90 activities an organization can utilize, each earning a “high” or “medium” weight. The nine categories include:

• Expanded patient access.
• Population management.
• Care coordination.
• Behavioral and mental health.
• Beneficiary engagement.
• Achieving health equity.
• Emergency preparedness and response.
• Patient safety and practice assessment.
• Participation in an APM.

An example of a CPIA activity within the Expanded Patient Access category is the use of telehealth, which is rapidly gaining popularity. While today’s reimbursement landscape regarding telehealth poses some ROI challenges from an investment perspective, it is a major patient satisfier and it also provides an organization with a real learning opportunity.

Within the Care Coordination category, CMS’ Transforming Clinical Practice initiatives are highly-weighted initiatives that also support other MIPS categories, such as quality. These are additional examples of how to strategically identify performance improvement activities to support the betterment of the practice – not just MACRA compliance.

How can an organization be sure which CPIA activities are right for them? The best approach is to identify which activities are aligned with the strategic goals of the organization. Every organization faces limited resources and competing priorities, so select activities that will achieve a strategic purpose. Also, many organizations are likely pursuing many of the CPIA activities independent of MACRA. Continuing these initiatives will not require a re-allocation of funding.

Healthcare providers have been inundated with federal regulations over the past several years (Meaningful Use, PQRS, value-based care, etc.). Selecting CPIA activities that are aligned with the strategic goals of your practice is an optimal approach that helps minimize the operational and financial burden of MACRA.

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

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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