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HIStalk Practice Interviews Justin Barnes, Chief Growth Officer, IHealth

August 11, 2016 News Comments Off on HIStalk Practice Interviews Justin Barnes, Chief Growth Officer, IHealth

Justin Barnes is chief growth officer at IHealth.

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You left Greenway in early 2014 and recently joined IHealth as a partner and chief growth officer. How did you fill the time in between?
My number-one priority when choosing to depart Greenway, which was a very difficult decision, was to take a little bit of time off to just recharge the batteries. I had my hands in three fairly large pots in the industry. Greenway was one of them. I was doing a lot of work on Capitol Hill and then also helping to start and lead several industry associations. I was running in a lot of directions for well over a decade, and it was time to pull back a little bit, to reflect on what I’d been able to accomplish, what I still wanted to do, and where my passions were. To figure out what’s next, I believe you’ve got to slow down, reflect, and really be deliberate about your path of life. For you, for me, and for a lot of our friends, our work is intricately involved with our life in general. We compartmentalize probably fairly well, but we’re very passionate people, we all care about healthcare, our society, and our country, and so you just can’t separate them morning, noon, and night. It’s all interwoven.

I know you have a real soft spot for entrepreneurs. How did you stay in that world during your downtime?
I’m very faith-based, as you know, and so I prayed about it. I didn’t want to take myself too far out of entrepreneurialism and fortunately was introduced to ATDC, the Atlanta-based Advanced Technology Development Center, which is a technology incubator out of Georgia Tech. It was kind of love at first sight in a way. They saw my background and wanted to get me more involved with the 12 companies they had at the time. That was a great opportunity to see what’s evolving in the industry and how startups are managing today. It was really interesting to see how running a startup is different than it was when we built Relay Health and then Greenway. It’s very different today.

What drew you to IHealth?
I’ve always felt that navigating care providers is the future of healthcare. It’s what I did with Greenway. It’s why I did all the public policy work. It’s why I did all the industry association work. With Greenway, and a lot of the industry, it was all about innovation technology; that’s kind of where the industry was at the time. Now, with all these evolving payment and care delivery models, it’s about service. It still comes down to hands-on service – helping providers, sitting with them, and navigating them through their challenges, which are increasingly related to moving them from fee-for-service into value-based care.

During my time off, I asked myself, how do I continue on this mission? This is still my mission. It really and truly is. Again, it comes back to faith. I prayed about it and then happened to run into a good friend of mine who is a partner at Fulcrum Equity Partners, a private equity group here in Atlanta. He’d loved what I’d done at Relay and Greenway, and wanted to try and find a way for me to work with Fulcrum. They introduced me to a company that was looking to do a couple of acquisitions. When I met with them, they were all about revenue cycle and they’ve done very, very well on that side of things.

Another company that they were looking at acquiring did very well, again, on the revenue cycle side, but also had a great customer base in the hospital environment. One side of the business that was growing, IHealth Solutions, was really practice-based, focusing on credentialing and revenue cycle. The other company they were looking at, called DNA Health, was looking at the hospital market, but did some practices as well. They focused on revenue cycle, but also had care coordination, population health, and analytics. When you put those two organizations together, you have the full suite of innovation-enabled services for the practice market as well as the hospital market. That’s when I said, wait a second. That is the secret sauce to helping providers navigate the future of healthcare.

They were leaning on my knowledge and expertise to really fashion this type of opportunity into something more substantial, and so that’s really how it all came together. It was meant to be. It was just three business partners that we congealed very quickly, very well. These were very mature organizations in their own regard, but coming together made them much stronger. I think today they have over 300 employees globally. We’re off to the races.

How is IHealth poised to help physicians move to these new value-based care models. What does that actually look like to your average MD working daily in the trenches?
I see it as two parts, maybe even three. The first part is, let’s look at what you’re doing today. Every single practice, and hospital for that matter, that we walk into has so many inefficiencies and opportunities for revenue. Despite what they’re already doing, they’re not getting paid anywhere near what they should be. You and I, we would never stand for that. If I work, I should get paid fairly and compensated for my work. Most providers feel that way, but they don’t have the innovation or the service to be able to capitalize on that and optimize that, and so the number-one step is to stabilize where they are today. Optimize their fee-for-service contracts, make sure they’re getting paid properly based on their fee schedules, make sure their denials are as low as they possibly can be, send out the cleanest claim, authorize 100 percent of patients before you put them through the entire process, and make sure all the doctors are credentialed.

I can’t even begin to tell you the tens of thousands of dollars going to practices and millions of dollars that we’re requesting for hospitals on top of where they were. We’re unique in that we go 100-percent at-risk. We don’t charge a nickel until we collect additional revenue for you. We’ll stabilize where they are, optimize where they are, and even help them modify some of their EHR templates and reporting to get additional money. We also look for risk-based contracts they might be able to engage in. IHealth has a whole team dedicated just to that. Then we’ll go back and educate the practice on what they can do. Once we register them for qualifying programs, then we’ll modify and customize their EHR for capturing all those metrics and then manage that to make sure they’re hitting red light, green light, yellow light ….

We’ll manage it all through our dashboard and then produce your analytics, your reports, and then attest for you. It really is soup to nuts. No one has ever done this before in the history of healthcare that I am aware of, going in 100 percent at risk. It’s all service. This is really going from stabilizing to optimizing to properly positioning them for tomorrow.

You mentioned that the world of startups is different than it used to be. How has the revenue cycle world changed over the last several years? What sort of challenges are physicians faced with now that they may not have faced five years ago?
The revenue cycle world is completely different than it was even three years ago. Payment models are becoming much more complicated, not just with ICD-10 but with fee schedules and risk-based contracts. Hospitals and practices are under more pressure and they are having their payments held up more than ever before by payers and others. This is very complicated and I’ve got to be very respectful here. The doctors need an ally on their side. I know how to go get that money, how to manage their revenue cycle so that they can go collect a fair amount of money from their payers. Right now, money is being held up through no fault of their own. It’s because there are many more complexities and a lot of the billing staff just don’t have that expertise to file that claim cleanly initially with all the right authorizations so they can get paid much faster.

This has changed so dramatically over the last probably two years. You now have to have a completely different RCM strategy if you want to get paid. Most providers have got to be off by 15 to 20 percent, if not more, if they haven’t changed anything in the last couple of years, and I know that from sitting with them. That’s just traditional fee-for-service, never mind once you layer on a risk-based contract or any type of value-based care contract. That’s another conversation altogether. We call that revenue cycle performance, which is allowing you to get paid for what you’re doing and optimizing what you’re doing.

It seems providers are getting hit with something every few months, whether it’s a new federal program or deadline of some sort. Have you ever seen this pace of change?
No, I’ve never seen this pace. I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon, either. It’s almost a call to the industry. Our industry needs help. It needs service. This is what I feel that all of us should be focused on, really engaging with these providers and helping them through the next steps. There might be 50 initiatives for even a single state, but you know what? There’s probably three that make the most sense for a practice or a cardiologist in Florida, or for an OB/GYN in Georgia.

We don’t know where the final MACRA rule will land, but I’m thinking there’s going to be some type of MIPS advancement in 2017, so we’re positioning all of our practices that way. If there is a 90-day reporting period in 2017, we want to be ready for it. I think there’s going to be. I think CMS is going to offer that option in 2017 because they don’t want to delay this until 2018.

Do you think MACRA will start on January 1 as proposed?
Here’s the way I think it’s going to play out: We get the final rule in November. I do believe that there is going to be an option that says if you want to have a 90-day reporting period, you can start July 1 and end September 30. If you want to start October 1st and end December 31st, and then report in February of 2018, you can do that. It might be voluntary in 2017, with the program really getting off the ground in 2018. It would give people time to test and to have options to see if they can perfect the process.

CMS could also say we’re going to start mandatory reporting October 1. If you want to start July 1 with the test data, that’s great, but no matter what, you have to start October 1. I wouldn’t be surprised about that, either. I think you’re going to have a 90-day reporting period in 2017, either mandatory or voluntary.

What will be key to helping physicians succeed with these new advanced payment models?
My advice is to go ahead and put a plan together for either MIPS and APM engagements or for quality reporting initiatives. Have a plan ready to go and then discuss amongst your team and board in 2016. That is the best way to position. That way, you are deliberately navigating the future of healthcare. You’re not waiting to take what balls are being thrown at you. You have proactively put a strategy in place to navigate it and see revenue increases. Again, it’s not just about surviving, it’s about thriving. I do believe that there will be more money available to you in the future than there is today if you deliberately navigate these new payment and care delivery models.

You have worked with a number of administrations over the last several years. How would you characterize each one as they related to healthcare technology? How will the next administration change the healthcare IT landscape?
Bush put the framework for strategic action into place. He’s the one who actually put this entire plan that we’re moving through in technology and innovation into place. Every single component that we are implementing today still stands on top of that framework. Then the Obama administration basically invested in that plan – institutionalizing it and making sure that we had all the necessary incentives. You have to have the infrastructure built. That’s exactly what that administration did. In 2009, it was ARRA and HITECH. Then they have layered accountable care and now MACRA on top of it. That’s the evolution of what every administration has done. Nobody has ever done it perfectly, nor will anyone ever do it perfectly because perfect is in the eye of the beholder. I’m not going to give it an A+, but they have achieved what they set out to achieve in both of those administrations.

Looking at the Trump and the Clinton campaigns, I don’t see any major changes to what has already been done. I’m not talking about a single payer healthcare system. I’m not getting into the health insurance world. In talking with staffers from both of those organizations, I’ve yet to hear anyone say, "We are going to go back to paper. We are taking IT out of healthcare. We don’t believe in shared savings. We don’t believe in risk-based contracts." There’s none of that. The fee-for-service model is no longer in healthcare’s future. I have not heard from a single person that we’re going to repeal MACRA.

This is my prediction: These programs will continue on, no matter who wins the election. I do not see a big wave of funding. I do not see anybody saying, "We need another $4 billion for this or $80 billion for that." I don’t see that at all. I do see the tying of payments to quality, value, and efficiencies in healthcare. That is what I see from both parties.

Do you have any final thoughts?
No, I think this was great. I haven’t done any real interviews since joining and being very heads down with IHealth, so I’m happy we could make this work.


Contacts

JenniferMr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

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News 8/10/16

August 10, 2016 News Comments Off on News 8/10/16

Top News

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Government initiatives to combat the opioid epidemic take center stage this week: US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD launches Turn The Tide Rx, a national campaign and resource-rich website that aims to help physicians understand and share opioid prescribing practices, and better communicate with patients seeking opioid prescriptions. The site offers a two-page fact sheet on leveraging prescription drug monitoring databases.

Meanwhile, the states of Alabama and Rhode Island partner with the AMA and their respective state medical societies to develop Web- and print-based educational toolboxes geared towards helping physicians alleviate prescription drug abuse. The toolboxes, funded by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and scheduled for release next month, will include practice-specific recommendations to help physicians treat patients with chronic or acute pain and opioid use disorders, among other resources.


Webinars

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August 24 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Surviving the OCR Cybersecurity & Privacy Pre-Audit: Are You Truly Prepared?” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenter: John Gomez, CEO, Sensato. Many healthcare organizations are not prepared for an OCR pre-audit of their privacy and security policies. This webinar will provide a roadmap, tools, and tactics that will help balance policies and budgets in adopting an OCR-friendly strategy that will allow passing with flying colors.

We’re expecting great attendance for this webinar, given that over 900 people have viewed John’s last presentation, “Ransomware in Healthcare: Tactics, Techniques, and Response,” on the HIStalk YouTube channel.


Announcements and Implementations

Forward Health Group and Leavitt Partners team up to offer turn-key consulting and technology solutions to providers and payers applying to the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus program.

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Medical Advantage Group joins the Great Lakes Practice Transformation Network. Funded by CMS as part of its Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, the Altarum Institute-led GLPTN is a group of 33 healthcare organizations that have pledged to deliver quality improvement services to over 2,000 healthcare providers in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.


People

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Cassidy Tsay, MD (Blue Shield of California) joins CAPG as vice president of business development.

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Marcus Gordon (Evolent Health) joins XG Health Solutions as chief marketing and communications officer.

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Pam Paris (NextGen) joins Harmony Healthcare IT as director of product management and development.


Telemedicine

A National Business Group survey of its large-employer members shows that 90 percent of companies will offer telemedicine services to employees next year, a 20-percent increase over 2016. Nearly all large employers plan on offering telemedicine by 2020 – a statistic that no doubt will fuel the fire of companies looking to jump into the telemedicine space, and providers looking to finally take the leap of incorporating the technology into their daily (or after-hours) routines.


Research and Innovation

MGMA reports that physician-owned multispecialty practices spent over $32,500 per FTE on IT equipment, staff, maintenance, and other related expenses last year. Related data also shows that technology expenses at such practices have increased by 40 percent since 2009 – no surprise given the current the government’s tech-heavy push to value-based payment programs. What would be more interesting to me is to overlap these statistics (which you can purchase for the low, low member price of $655) with quality scores. I’d also love to know if providers felt the ROI was sufficient in a number of areas – improved workflows, patient satisfaction, etc.


Other

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Could drones soon enter the teleconferencing market? A new Google patent suggests they will, given that it “outlines a type of small drone that’s been fitted with a screen, that could project a virtual version of someone as it hovers around the office.” Patent details suggest that the drone could be powered by a smartphone sitting in the drone, or paired remotely with another device. Mike Murphy, fast becoming one of my favorite Quartz contributors, asks a pertinent question: Why would anyone want this? “Drones are loud,” he points out, “they have generally very short battery lives (shorter than your average meeting), and their propellers can very easily chop pieces off of you if you’re not careful.”


Sponsor Updates

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  • Aprima customers make over 150 blankets for the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas at its annual users conference.
  • GE Healthcare looks at how its Centricity technology is impacting Olympic athletes in Rio.
  • The Dallas Business Journal runs “Three Questions with … Michael Nissenbaum, CEO of Aprima Medical Software.”

Blog Posts


Contacts

JenniferMr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 8/9/16

August 9, 2016 News Comments Off on News 8/9/16

Top News

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CMS declares the second year of its Independence at Home demonstration project a success. The home-based primary care program, which launched in 2012, saw 15 practices care for 10,484 beneficiaries. All of the participating practices improved quality in at least two of the six quality demonstration measures, and four improved in all six, leading to an overall healthcare cost savings of over $10 million.


Webinars

August 10 (Wednesday) 1:30 ET. “Taming the Beast: CDS Knowledge Management.” Sponsored by LogicStream Health. Presenters: Luis Saldana, MD, MBA, CMIO, Texas Health Resources (THR); Maxine Ketcham, clinical decision support analyst, THR; Kanan Garg, senior applications analyst, THR; Patrick Yoder, CEO, LogicStream health. This presentation will review THR’s systematic process for managing clinical decision support assets, including identifying broken alerts, addressing technical and clinical issues, modifying order sets, and retiring tools that have outlived their usefulness. Attendees will learn how THR uses a robust knowledge management platform to better understand how clinicians are interacting with their clinical content to maintain their order sets and reduce the number of alerts fired.

Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.


Announcements and Implementations

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MyHealthDirect integrates its real-time scheduling software with Microsoft Office 365, enabling Office users to add appointments to their personal calendars across devices. Microsoft announced its new appointment-scheduling capability, Microsoft Bookings, a few weeks ago. I assume the MyHealthDirect integration will ensure that healthcare appointment bookings pass HIPAA muster.

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Community Care Collaborative selects case management and care coordination technologies from Vital Data Technology to better manage the care of its low-income and uninsured patients in Austin.

Integra Connect adds ZeOmega’s Jiva population health management platform, including care management and automated workflow capabilities, to its line of cloud-based tools for specialty physician practices. I have not come across Integra before. Its management team seems well seasoned, with players from Healthagen, CareCloud, Georgia Cancer, Hospital Physician Partners, and Flatiron Health.


Telemedicine

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HealthTap adds multi-participant capability, and translation and interpretation services for 20 languages to its virtual consult technology. The Silicon Valley-based company’s services are used in 174 countries. (Is it just me, or does “Alberto Santiago” in South America look an awful like Dr. Gregg?) The company acquired online medical education company Docphin last month.


Research and Innovation

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A Health Navigator survey of 20,000 calls to medical call centers finds, not surprisingly, that the majority of patient concerns revolve around fever, vomiting, stomach pain, cough, and head pain, with the majority of cases being either low or moderate risk across all age groups. Interestingly enough, no correlation was found between the time of the call and level of urgency. I always assumed early morning calls were the most urgent. The results certainly highlight the role telemedicine could play in alleviating call volume and resultant in-office visits.


Other

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Someone, somewhere has decreed August 9 National Book Lovers Day. It’s a holiday I can get behind – no cards to send or chocolates to buy. I will happily cede some of my precious downtime this evening to curling up with a good tome. My favorite healthcare-related book has to be “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot (sorry, JB). Do yourself a favor and read it before HBO and Oprah Winfrey bring it to cable sometime next year. I’d love for readers to share their favorite healthcare-related books, fiction or otherwise. Feel free to share in the comments below.

Watch out for that Pikachu behind you: While hackers spend days attempting to break through Pokemon Go anti-cheat code, a tourist agency based in Basel, Switzerland, flips the virtual reality game on its head in an attempt to put their city in the spotlight.


Contacts

JenniferMr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Readers Write: Culling Through Mountains of Data to Achieve Meaningful Change

August 9, 2016 News Comments Off on Readers Write: Culling Through Mountains of Data to Achieve Meaningful Change

Culling Through Mountains of Data to Achieve Meaningful Change
By Jim Denny, CEO, Navicure

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Research shows that organizations that leverage analytics are five times more likely to make faster decisions. Considering this fact, along with the mountains of data accumulated by the average healthcare organization, it’s no wonder healthcare leaders have named data analytics implementation a high priority.

Navicure’s May and June 2016 data analytics survey shows that 45 percent of the 622 survey respondents currently have an analytics solution, although 45 percent of respondents without an analytics solution are in the process of selecting or implementing one. If healthcare leaders using such solutions overwhelmingly recognize the value of data analytics, then why haven’t a larger percentage of their peers implemented a technology solution? The answer may lie in the sheer size of the opportunity afforded by analytics. The amount of data and numerous types of data can make it difficult to develop program parameters and get started. The following three steps can serve as a foundation, helping you get your analytics program off the ground quickly and efficiently:

1. Obtain organization-wide buy-in

Analytics is more than just a technology solution; it’s a data-driven approach to process improvement. With that in mind, two factors are especially important for any organization embracing analytics. First, leadership must believe in this data-driven approach. They must begin making decisions based on what the data tells them. Second, the analytics implementation should extend to staff, not just leadership. When mapping the various ways you’ll use analytics, make sure supervisors use data to pinpoint specific tasks and workflows that can be improved, and conduct training accordingly. In addition, staff should be included in the analytics strategy, using analytics to take action and correct their errors.

2. Identify your organization’s critical key performance indicators

An early-stages analytics program can benefit from starting small with the one or two KPIs deemed most critical to organizational success. By identifying KPIs that correlate to your current challenges, you can focus efforts on the areas that will yield maximum results. Some essential revenue cycle KPIs are:

  • Days in A/R
  • First pass rate
  • Denial rates
  • Rejection rates
  • Charge lag
  • Overall cash flow performance

More than 55 percent of survey respondents said their most important KPIs are days in A/R, and denial and rejection rates. Forty percent also rated denials as their top revenue cycle challenge, followed by patient payments and billing (37 percent). To that end, most organizations can make immediate revenue cycle management improvements by first targeting denial and rejection rates. However, if cash flow is your greatest concern, kick off your analytics program by measuring and monitoring charge lag and overall cash flow performance. Organizations should also start to include patient-specific payment KPIs as part of their active monitoring given the growing patient self-pay trend. It’s important for your organization to see the benefits of analytics, and starting with KPIs that can move the needle enables you to get quick wins.

3. Make actionable data an integral part of your strategy

Dashboards are important because they can give leadership and supervisors an easy-to-review snapshot of the above KPIs, but their effectiveness is limited without actionable data. For instance, if you’re targeting denial and rejection rates, the back office team working denials and rejections needs detailed analytics data that enables them to drill down all the way to the claim level. Only then can they begin to understand their error patterns, take action, and create change. At a more detailed level, features such as grouping and filtering can help this team even more. For instance, grouping by denial type enables a billing specialist to determine the cause and related financial impact of each category. Setting up these groups on the front end will allow her to clearly see which denials require certain types of action, thus enabling her to work more quickly while making fewer errors.

Getting the Most Out of Your Investment

The good news about analytics: It’s an investment with a high return, and it can give you both near-term and long-term results. In Navicure’s survey, nearly three quarters of respondents with analytics solutions had achieved cash flow improvement by reducing days in A/R. Fifty-six percent also increased revenue by identifying bottlenecks so they could get paid more quickly, and almost half had improved productivity by using analytics to pinpoint staff that needed training. In summary, those are black and white, irrefutable data-driven reasons to support the value of analytics in healthcare organizations.

Jim Denny is CEO of Atlanta-based Navicure.


Contacts

JenniferMr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

JennHIStalk

News 8/8/16

August 8, 2016 News 1 Comment

Top News

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Mount Nittany Exchange joins the PA Patient & Provider Network (P3N), which also includes Keystone HIE and St. Luke’s University Health Network’s EVantage Health HIE. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Human Services, which oversees the P3N network, anticipates onboarding ClinicalConnect HIE and HealthShare Exchange of Southeastern Pennsylvania by the end of the summer.


HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to these renewing HIStalk Practice sponsors. Click a logo for more information. Contact Lorre if you’re interested in learning about sponsorship benefits.

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Webinars

August 10 (Wednesday) 1:30 ET. “Taming the Beast: CDS Knowledge Management.” Sponsored by LogicStream Health. Presenters: Luis Saldana, MD, MBA, CMIO, Texas Health Resources (THR); Maxine Ketcham, clinical decision support analyst, THR; Kanan Garg, senior applications analyst, THR; Patrick Yoder, CEO, LogicStream health. This presentation will review THR’s systematic process for managing clinical decision support assets, including identifying broken alerts, addressing technical and clinical issues, modifying order sets, and retiring tools that have outlived their usefulness. Attendees will learn how THR uses a robust knowledge management platform to better understand how clinicians are interacting with their clinical content to maintain their order sets and reduce the number of alerts fired.

Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.


Announcements and Implementations

Meridian Medical Management’s PrecisionBI division develops an ACO module for Allscripts TouchWorks Reporting users, enabling them to identify eligible patients and aggregate data in a tailored quality reporting database.

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DexCom adds portal-based messaging capabilities to its Clarity diabetes management software, part of its G5 mobile continuous glucose monitoring system.

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Ontario-based startup Strategic Leverage develops an online tool to help physicians understand and manage their online reputations.


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

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The Institute of Healthcare Design Thinking, a healthcare marketing, communications and strategy collaborative, will relocate from Chattanooga, TN to Cleveland this fall in an effort to take advantage of the Ohio capitol’s “thriving healthcare, business, and design ecosystem.” The institute was founded last year as a part of Lift1428, a Chattanooga-based healthcare marketing and design firm. Perhaps it will end up renting a room at the HIMSS Innovation Center, which touts itself as a “physical and virtual, state-of-the-art, testing, exhibition, and conference facility that offers real-time demonstration of healthcare technologies.”


Telemedicine

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This article looks at the South Korea’s lack of love for telemedicine, currently prohibited under the country’s Medical Act. From data security issues to a widespread belief that the development and adoption of telemedicine technologies will create a digital divide between the haves and the have-nots, the fate of telemedicine in one of the most technologically enthusiastic countries in the world seems uncertain at best. The country’s first and only telemedicine pilot program has been plagued by issues related to data mismanagement including improper or lack of encryption, use of vulnerable passwords, and anxiety over last year’s North Korean cyberattack on a medical institution.


Government and Politics

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Kentucky’s proposed Medicaid reform includes offering beneficiaries a $500 incentive to transition out of the $1,000-deductible program and join a commercial health plan for at least 18 months. “As participants roll off of public assistance, they will be prepared to make smart health care choices, which will have a positive effect on the free market,” explains Amanda Stamper, press secretary. “Naturally, as more and more Kentuckians become consumers, quality will increase and costs will decrease in the health care market, as we see happen in all free markets.”

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HHS celebrates National Health Center Week. I’d love to see an infographic that focused on how many have adopted healthcare technologies, and how that adoption has impacted patient satisfaction and quality scores.

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My #firstsevenjobs would read as follows:

Sat babies
Shelved books
Adult swim
Scheduled life savers
Tea pourer
Flagpole paster
Textile coverer

Feel free to share yours in an equally cryptic and brief manner via the comments section below.


Other

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Kinsa donates its smart thermometer and app to Olympians in an effort to help track the spread of illnesses like the Zika Virus. The new location-based Olympic Village Group feature anonymously collects data from users in the Olympic Village, and then reports common symptoms and an overall health grade for the area. The app also offers an anonymous message board so that users can chat about sicknesses and symptoms.

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For all its healthcare bells and whistles, Quartz contributor Mike Murphy calls the Apple Watch “the most anxiety-inducing device” he’s ever owned thanks to a heart condition and predilection to constantly check the device for incoming messages. “The watch is strapped to you,” he writes. “The internet never leaves you alone, is symbiotically tied to you, is physically closer to you than some of your appendages. It’s always there, always tapping you. It’s a reminder that a worry is like a notification, which left unchecked, can consume you. For me, it was the heart rate, and a fear that I was neglecting my mortality, the duty to my parents and the doctors who saved my life when I was two years old by not ensuring that I was doing all I could to keep on living. The heart monitor and the watch itself made me feel like a bad son and lazy person and not a hard-enough worker with the constant reminders that I wasn’t moving enough, answering enough messages, or being present.” After a particularly nerve-wracking visit to the physician’s office, Murphy’s physician recommended that he take a vacation without Internet-connected devices, exercise more, and relax – advice I think we should all take to heart in this hyper-connected world of instant digital gratification.


Contacts

JenniferMr. H, Lorre, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

JennHIStalk

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