News 9/1/16

Top News

Sherpaa founder and CEO Jay Parkinson, MD announces the company’s move into consumer-facing telemedicine. The New York City-based business previously catered solely to employer clients like General Assembly, Meetup, and Freelancers Insurance Co. It has raised over $7 million since getting its start in 2012. Parkinson helped co-found practice management company Hello Health, which he left in 2010.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Announcements and Implementations

Integrated Radiology Partners, a PM, collaboration, and consulting company headquartered in Milwaukee, announces partnerships with Cambria Somerset/Life Point Hospital System, Empire Health Support Services, and Synergy Health Alliance. 

Central Virginia Family Physicians and Medical Associates of Central Virginia join Privia Medical Group, a business unit of population health and practice management company Privia Health. The Virginia-based practices employ a combined 80 physicians across 15 facilities.

People

Steven Wolinsky, MD (Horizon Blue Cross of New Jersey) joins Zelis Healthcare as CMO.

Telemedicine

The local business paper profiles Carolina Online Health, a South Carolina-based telemedicine company co-founded earlier this year by ED doctor David Circle, MD. “We’re not doing this to get rich,” Circle explains. “We’re doing this because I’ve been a physician for 17 years in the ER, and it’s frustrating to me to see the waste and inefficiency and how inconvenient it is for patients. The truth is that many patients in the ER don’t need to be seen in person. They could be helped through telemedicine without cutting back on the quality of care.”

Other

Coding audits and assessment company Central Learning launches the “Code your way to $5K” 30-day coding contest. Open to coders of all levels of proficiency and experience through September 15, the contest will award prizes in three categories:

• Ambulatory surgery coder with highest average accuracy and productivity scores across 30 outpatient cases.
• Inpatient coder with highest average accuracy and productivity scores across 10 inpatient cases.
• ED coder with highest average accuracy and productivity scores across 30 outpatient cases.

Jazzercise never looked so good: Nick Offerman and First Lady Michelle Obama present a compelling visual presentation on the “The History of Exercise.” (Offerman’s wife, Megan Mullally, even makes a cameo.)

Clear Vue Eye Center (FL) owner Monique Barbour, MD agrees to pay $1 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that alleges she billed excessively for patient visits, for procedures that weren’t medically necessary, and for procedures that happened while she was out of the country, all of which violate the False Claims Act. Whistleblower and Office Manager Lori Moore says Barbour’s fraudulent billing practices included using improper billing codes and not taking notes in real time. Moore, who worked at the practice for over a decade, knew something was up when Barbour’s lifestyle became increasingly extravagant with the purchase of multiple homes, cars, and businesses, and even an attempt to become a pop star.

Contacts

Jenn,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 8/31/16

Top News

HHS awards $53 million to six programs designed to help healthcare organizations bolster drug misuse prevention efforts, improve access to opioid use disorder treatment, reduce opioid-related deaths, and improve data tracking of opioid misuse and overdoses (fatal and non-fatal). The 25 states participating in the data-related programs will receive a combined $10 million, which will be distributed via the CDC and SAMHSA. “States are on the frontline of preventing prescription opioid overdoses—it is critical that state health departments have the support they need to combat the epidemic,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD. “States can use these funds to develop, implement, and evaluate programs that save lives.”

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Announcements and Implementations

Falcon Physician adds charting capabilities to its Platinum EHR for nephrologists.

The Reconstructive Orthopedic Center of Houston will roll out RCM and patient engagement software and services from Indianapolis-based Zotec Partners at its four facilities.

Telemedicine

The National Psoriasis Foundation adds the DermatologistOnCall telemedicine service from Iagnosis to its Patient Navigation resource center. The Pittsburgh-based vendor has had a busy month, also signing on United Skin Specialists (MN) and Summa Health (OH).

A JABFM policy brief (based on the somewhat dated findings of an AAFP survey) highlights the likelihood of safety net clinics and health management organizations to use telemedicine in primary care. Family physicians working in PCMHs were evenly split in their use of telemedicine, prompting the authors to suggest “a need for greater evidence of telehealth’s benefits and incentives for its adoption on the road to practice transformation.”

People

The Global Partnership for Telehealth promotes Sherrie Williams to COO.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Bedford, TX-based software, services, and consulting firm Quatris Health secures an undisclosed amount of funding from private equity firm Seaport Capital. The company was formed in 2013 through the merger of Final Support and Alliance Healthcare Solutions, and is now the largest reseller of GE Healthcare’s Centricity software.

Sponsor Updates

• Gibson Consultants publishes “Independence remains a rewarding choice for doctors” by Aprima CEO Michael Nissenbaum and Chadwick Prodromos, MD.
• KLAS recognizes Nordic as a top performer in optimization services.

Blog Posts

• Attend EVO16 – This Year’s AdvancedMD User Conference (AdvancedMD)
• What it’s really like to help keep a US health system’s vitals in check (GE Healthcare)

Contacts

Jenn,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Contact us online.
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News 8/30/16

Top News

AMA adds population health data to its health workforce mapping tool, which visually healthcare workforce statistics  in each state. The new feature, developed with help from AAFP and HealthLandscape, serves up data on healthcare access and quality, demographics, and a bevy of social health determinants such as graduation and unemployment rates.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel. Some recent ones that are available for replay:

• Surviving the OCR Cybersecurity & Privacy Pre-Audit
• Your Call is Very Important
• Ransomware in Healthcare: Tactics, Techniques, and Response
• rise of the small first letter vendors
• Six Communication Best Practices for Reducing Readmissions and Capturing TCM Revenue

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Compliance and risk management software vendor CAEK relocates from Fayetteville, AR to Reno, NV, where it plans to hire 150 employees within the next five years. The company, which currently employs nine, targets its “TurboTax for HIPAA compliance” software to dental and physician practices of all sizes.

Announcements and Implementations

Greenway Health and ambulatory surgery center software vendor HSTpathways add San Jose, CA-based VMDOC’s cloud-based patient management software to their respective technologies.

Community health centers in Fresno, Merced, and Contra Costa counties in California roll out Emocha Mobile Health’s MiDot medication adherence app for tuberculosis patients. The company, which licensed its technology from Johns Hopkins University, is based out of the university’s FastForward East accelerator.

Telemedicine

Turnkey telemedicine technology vendor SnapMD adds advanced scheduling, single sign-on access, and workflow tools to its virtual care management platform. The Los Angeles–based startup raised a $5.3 million Series A at the beginning of the year, and has since developed partnerships with Konica Minolta and TelehealthOne.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) visits the Alcona Health Center’s Oscoda Clinic as part of his five-day motorcycle tour of Michigan. Peters, who introduced The Telehealth Innovation and Improvement Act to allow Medicare to cover additional telemedicine services for patients late last year, had a chance to view the clinic’s telemedicine capabilities during his visit. “The only way you can write good legislation and good policy is by coming out and seeing things first hand – hearing directly from the people who do this day in and day out,” Peters explains. “The only way I can really learn and be their advocate in Washington, DC for practical common sense solutions is by being here in the local community and talking to the people that do it everyday.”

And now for something completely different: Prepaid cellular company ROK Mobile teams up with Human Health Organization (a Studio City, CA-based business that seems to deal mainly in electronic cigarettes and vaporware) to develop a low-radiation smartphone using technology developed by NASA. In addition to the phone, subscribers to ROK Mobile plans will have access to telemedicine services, roadside assistance, burial insurance, and ROK’s music-streaming app.

Other

Interfaith Medical Center (NY) launches a prescribe-a-bike program at its Bishop Orris G. Walker Jr. Health Care Center in Brooklyn. The program will enable physicians to prescribe free one-year memberships to a local bike-sharing service in an effort to help patients stave off diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and obesity. The prescriptions also include a free helmet and reflector arm band, access to group rides, and a journal.

Contacts

Jenn,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Contact us online.
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News 8/29/16

Top News

Athenahealth acquires Techstars graduate Filament Labs and its Patient IO care coordination technology for an undisclosed sum. Athenahealth has already added Patient IO to its AthenaWell app for patients, and will add it to its Population Health service  for providers in the fall. The two companies developed a relationship last fall when Athenahealth invested in Patient IO via its More Disruption Please Accelerator program. This acquisition marks the second time Athenahealth has bought an MDP Accelerator company; it acquired Arsenal Health in April. CEO Jason Bornhorst (who developed apps for Expedia prior to his gig with Patient IO) will join Athenahealth as executive director of product strategy, with the rest of the Patient IO staff joining Athenahealth in Austin.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Sensato CEO John Gomez always puts on an excellent webinar and his HIStalk-sponsored one from last week was no exception. I chuckled when he moved to the “Enforcement Fun Facts” slide. Did you know that private practices are number-one when it comes to the most common type of covered entity that has been required to take corrective action to achieve voluntary compliance? Gomez explained that this is due to a number of reasons including budget, and a general lack of security know-how. As Gomez put it during the Q&A, “they just don’t understand that they need to be doing these things.”

Above is the recording of “Surviving the OCR Cybersecurity & Privacy Pre-Audit.” For those with shorter attention spans, a tweet recap is available here.

People

Kumar Parakala (Technova) joins Agnity Healthcare’s advisory board.

Announcements and Implementations

NorthStar Anesthesia implements Plexus Technology Group’s Anesthesia Touch anesthesia EHR at 11 facilities, including ambulatory surgery centers, in Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Calgary-based Brightsquid launches the Secure Health Exchange messaging service. The company is no doubt hoping physicians in its native Alberta will use the new service to take advantage of the province’s new billing codes for using approved secure-communication channels.

Government and Politics

ONC announces the winners of its blockchain research challenge, which sought to uncover ways that blockchain technology could protect, manage, and exchange digital health data. Fifteen winners were chosen, including teams from MIT; Accenture; Deloitte; IBM, which has been working on blockchain concepts for some time; and several hospitals.

Pennsylvania becomes the 49th state to implement a prescription drug monitoring program, which is being rolled out alongside new prescribing guidelines and $20 million in the state budget to fund 20 centers of excellence for addiction treatment. Legislation creating the Achieving Better Care by Monitoring All Prescriptions PDMP was passed in 2014, but its development was delayed by a lack of funding. Governor Tom Wolf has introduced additional legislation that would require physicians to check the PDMP each time they prescribe controlled substances, an idea that has some physicians worried about the strain on their workload.

Telemedicine

The US Patent and Trademark Office declares certain elements of an American Well patent invalid based on its belief that the company didn’t invent them and so can’t patent them. The action, taken at the behest of competitor Teladoc, is similar to a ruling by a Massachusetts federal court earlier this year over the same patent elements.

Other

I had no idea this was a thing (but it makes total sense): HR executives looking for their next fun employee outing may want to consider a visit to their local Rage Room (aka Anger Rooms), where participants can smash items like printers, sofas, and glass to their heart’s content. Prices at the Anger Room in Dallas range from $25 for five minutes of destruction to $75 for 45 minutes of ultimate demolition. (And yes, gift cards are available.)

Sponsor Updates

• The local business paper covers GE Healthcare’s donation of medical equipment to the Olympic and Paralympic games in Rio.

Blog Posts

• 100% dictation accuracy with speech recognition? (NVoq)

Contacts

Jenn,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 8/28/16

Washington Regional Medical System promotes Mark Thomas, MD to vice president, population management.

William Gillespie, MD (Gillespie Health Strategies) joins Medecision as executive vice president, population health management, and CMO.

Bob Vernon (The Advisory Board Company) joins Lumeris as managing principal.

Community Health Centers of Arkansas rolls out population health management technology and reporting capabilities from I2I Population Health across its 76 locations.

Thomas Health System (WV) will work with Aegis Health Group to engage local employers in population health management programs using resources such as its OneCommunity portal, and an embedded employer relations specialist.

The state of Kansas awards a $215 million Medicaid claims system contract to HP Enterprise, which will bring in Cerner’s HealtheEDW data warehouse and population health management tool to allow care managers to optimize the treatment of Medicaid patients in near real time.

A Commonwealth Fund brief on the assessment of patient self-management skills in population health management risk stratification stresses the correlation between low skill levels and risk of chronic-disease development.

Contacts

Jenn,  Mr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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