News 7/20/16

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The Theranos saga, which Mr. H has admirably been keeping up with at HIStalk.com, veers into physician practice territory with the filing of a lawsuit filed by a patient in Arizona. The lawsuit (the company’s ninth) alleges that the company’s now-invalidated tests contributed to the patient’s heart attack. The patient, who is referred to as “R.C.,” had an annual heart panel done at a Walgreens Theranos facility at the behest of his physician. Though results came back normal, no doubt setting R.C.’s mind at ease, he later suffered an attack. The suit argues that valid testing might have led R.C. to seek additional care, preventing the heart attack. R.C. is also suing Walgreens, which finally cut ties with Theranos last month.

Webinars

None scheduled in the next few weeks. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

People

Wayne Dix (UnitedHealth Group) joins SSA & Company as vice president, healthcare.

Zillion promotes Andy Brooks to CFO.

Government and Politics

The local news gauges consumer reaction to the HHS report addressing privacy and security gaps in apps, wearables, social media platforms, and other entities not covered by HIPAA. When asked if they are bothered by such gaps, or the fact that many vendors sell their health data to third parties, reactions ranged from mild outrage to a total lack of concern:

• "I guess I feel cheated by just the fact that these companies are selling my personal information and stuff that I’m doing in a gym or walking around my neighborhood and they’re making extra profit off of it.”
• "My social security number is not really attached to it and you know if they want to know how many hours of sleep I sleep, great! Let them have it. I don’t really see any problem with giving that information.”
• "I haven’t read the policy. To be honest with you, like, 99 percent probably haven’t either.”

That last comment reminds me of one of my favorite documentaries, Terms and Conditions May Apply, which “exposes what corporations and governments learn about people through Internet and cell phone usage, and what can be done about it … if anything.” It seems to me that, until consumers call for it, there won’t be much emphasis given to developing more robust standards around the use of consumer-generated health data.

Research and Innovation

An AMGA survey shows that physician compensation in 2015 remained relatively flat, with a 3.1-percent average increase for all specialties.  Emergency medicine (9.6 percent), cardiac/thoracic surgery (8.1 percent), and cardiology (6.9 percent) experienced the biggest jumps. Primary care docs saw saw an increase of 3.6 percent, which is relatively good news given that their compensation experienced a 0.3-percent decrease in 2014.

A Cybersecurity Ventures survey finds that companies do a lackluster job of managing user passwords for employees with the most access. Twenty-five percent, in fact, have the same level of security for privileged users as they do for standard users. Also alarming is the fact that 30 percent of companies surveyed still have not changed their default passwords on privileged accounts, and 30 percent allow passwords and accounts to be shared. The more these types of studies come out, the more I’m convinced that cybersecurity issues stem from human nature than a lack of technology and protocols.

Interviews with 25 PCPs working within the Johns Hopkins health system (MD) reveal that (surprise, surprise) a majority like some of their patients more than others, though favorite patients may not be the most compliant or similar to the physician. Favorites tend to be those whom the physician has known over a period of time, and/or those the physician has seen more frequently. “Doctors are human too, and as humans we like some people more than others – in both our personal and professional lives,” says researcher Albert Wu, MD. “We want our doctors to be humanistic, and patients benefit from positive regard. It is good to recognize it, to avoid playing favorites, which is different than having favorites.”

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• What Is Interoperability? (AdvancedMD)
• Wait Time Management: Why The Problem With Waiting Isn’t Waiting (Clockwise.MD)
• Swedish Medical Group Clinics Optimize Care Delivery with Versus Advantages Clinic (Versus Technology)

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

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News 7/19/16

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HHS continues its HIPAA-awareness efforts with the release of a 32-page report highlighting the privacy and security gaps that have surfaced between HIPAA-covered entities and non-covered entities thanks to the proliferation of social media platforms, apps, and wearables. It allocates quite a bit of ink to addressing the opaque (not to mention hard to find) privacy policies and notices that consumer-facing companies typically use, as well as an industry-wide lack of encryption.

Webinars

None scheduled in the next few weeks. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Rock Health’s mid-year review of digital health funding should give entrepreneurs cause to rejoice: Over $2 billion in venture funding has been spent in the first half of this year; a figure in keeping, but not surpassing, 2014 and 2015 totals. A “record-breaking” 151 companies have raised $2 million so far. Analytics, wearables, and population health management make up 2016’s top three funding categories.

People

James Dye (MedSynergies) joins Global Healthcare Alliance as vice president of business development.

Telemedicine

AHIP includes greater telemedicine utilization in its recommendations for alleviating physician shortages, which hamper the ability of payers to meet ACA-mandated network adequacy standards. Specialty physician group supply rates currently fall far below the national average for one or more specialty physician groups in a number of states, according to the trade group’s analysis. It also advocates for simplifying the processes by which physicians educated abroad obtain the right to work in the US, increasing government financing for residency training slots, and enabling physicians and PAs to work to the top of their licenses and training to ensure more “robust” care.

Other

Medical scribes aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, according to an editorial in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The authors point out that physicians should be aware of potentially negative patient reaction to scribes, particularly during intimate/highly sensitive medical encounters. With regard to workflow, they add that “subjecting scribes to EMR inefficiencies by delegating clinical documentation and EMR navigation to a less highly paid person does not necessarily mean we have created ‘efficiency.’”

Direct primary care company R-Health launches an ACO in Southeastern Pennsylvania that will initially consist of 100 smaller, independent PCPs. The new Care is Primary ACO, which will serve 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries, marks R-Health’s second foray into ACOs. It acquired Philadelphia-based Advanced Comprehensive Care Organization in May.

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

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News 7/18/16

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NASA selects telemedicine technology from PM13 Preferred Medical Solutions to help care for the six astronauts who will spend 16 days 62 feet underwater as part of the agency’s 21st Extreme Environment Mission Operations Expedition. The NEEMO program, which launches today off the coast of Key Largo, FL, acts as a training ground for astronauts, helping them to simulate living on a spacecraft and test spacewalk techniques for future space missions. Irish clinician Derek O’Keeffe, who has worked with NASA in the past, has been tapped to monitor the crew’s health topside.

Webinars

None scheduled in the next few weeks. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Announcements and Implementations

Intermedix adds patient no-show prediction to its analytics software for physician practices. It is the first major release from the company’s new analytics division.

Revere Health (UT) implements Basware technology to automate purchasing, invoicing, and budget-tracking activities across its 100-facility network of family  and specialty practices.

PCIHIPAA develops OfficeSafe to help small to mid-sized physician and dental practices comply with HIPAA regulations. The new set of resources includes HIPAA policies and documents, emergency and disaster recovery planning protocols, and staff training tools. Fun fact: PCIHIPAA operates under the Data Momma LLC umbrella.

People

Sylvan Waller, MD joins MDLive as CMO. Waller seems to have walked away from Atlanta-based telemedicine startup Alii Healthcare, which he co-founded in 2014 after spending time as an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Advanced Technology Development Center.

Telemedicine

HHS announces $9 million in AHRQ grants to help improve opioid-addiction treatment in primary care practices in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. Participants in the three-year initiative will leverage Project ECHO telemedicine training principles to connect urban physicians with their rural counterparts.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Atlanta-based Azalea Health closes a $10.5 million Series B round of financing led by Kayne Partners that it will use to accelerate growth, potentially through acquisitions. It acquired EHR vendor SimplifyMD in July 2014. Nishita Cummings, partner at Kayne Partners, will join Azalea’s Board of Directors.

Government and Politics

Former US CTO Aneesh Chopra, now president of population health tech vendor NavHealth, signs an open letter from technology leaders decrying Donald Trump’s plan for the presidency. “We stand against Donald Trump’s divisive candidacy,” the 149 authors write, “and want a candidate who embraces the ideals that built America’s technology industry: freedom of expression, openness to newcomers, equality of opportunity, public investments in research and infrastructure, and respect for the rule of law.”

ONC announces the first-phase winners of the Consumer Health Data Aggregator Challenge and Provider User Experience Challenge, both of which seek to highlight FHIR- and open API-friendly apps that make electronic health information easier to access and use. The eight winners of the two challenges each receive $15,000. Initially announced at HIMSS16 in March, both challenges now move on to second phases that will include app evaluations and the chance to win up to $100,000.

Other

File this under “Whoops:” The Maine Dept. of Health and Human Services accidentally lists the number of a phone sex line on some of its EBT cards. The number, which was nearly identical to the department’s line for lost and stolen cards, has been corrected on new issues.

Get your Hot Pockets ready: MGMA taps comedian Jim Gaffigan to headline its annual conference, taking place October 30-November 2 in San Francisco. I’ve enjoyed the event the last several times I’ve attended, but am a bit put off by the fact it’s being held over Halloween this time around. Gaffigan’s “keynote” may make up for it, though. I’ve seen him live once before and it was worth every penny.

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

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Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 7/17/16

Chris Hammack (Patientco) joins population health management consulting group Aegis Health Group as SVP of sales and business development.

Medecision launches Aerial for Medicaid and Medicare Advantage, a population health management system.

Delmarva Health Network ACO selects population health management and analytics technologies from EQHealth Solutions to help better manage the care of its 18,000 members in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

Evolent Health will acquire the majority of Valence Health for $145 million, the companies have announced. The deal, which involves $35 million in cash and the remainder in Evolent shares, excludes Valence’s state insurance cooperative contracts, which will continue to operate under a newly created entity. Mr. H expands on the news here.

Medical Information Network – North Sound, a community-based HIE based in Mount Vernon, WA, selects Jiva population health management software from ZeOmega to support its 20-facility network. MIN-NS has also expanded its use of Jiva HIE, which it signed up for five years ago, by adding care transitions and enhanced HIE capabilities.

Middle Tennessee State University turns to population health management principles to help boost student retention rates. Consulting and research company Education Advisory Board has helped the university use predictive analytics to identify students who are at low risk, rising risk, and high risk of not coming back; and to provide each group with the appropriate outreach services. The 23,000-student institution has seen its retention rate rise by 400 students – equal to $1.5 million – in just one year.

Sponsor Updates

• Teknovation.biz interviews PerfectServe CEO Terry Edwards.
• Nordic is named to Modern Healthcare’s list of “Best Places to Work in Healthcare 2016.”

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News 7/14/16

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During testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt says that he is open to postponing the January 1 implementation of MACRA to ensure that providers have enough time to prepare. (A final rule is expected in November, giving providers just two months to get their ducks in a row.) He also indicated that CMS is open to establishing shorter reporting periods, adding that he is well aware that the more time physicians have to spend reporting data, the less time they can devote to patient care. "We’re putting in an awful lot of change," he told committee members. "Too much change on top of an already burdened physician practice is not where we should be going."

Webinars

None scheduled in the next few weeks. Contact Lorre for webinar services, and be sure to ask her about our “Summer Doldrums Special” sale. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Woodbridge, IL-based Endotronix closes a $32 million Series C funding round, which it will use to continue development of its heart-failure management technology and wireless, implantable pulmonary artery sensor.

Montreal-based Telus Health will acquire the Canadian business of Nightingale Informatix Corp., including its EHR assets and customer base of 4,000 physicians, for $14 million. Nightingale sold its US-based PM business last October, and now retains only its V10 (Nexia) EHR platform and rights to use its claims clearinghouse.

People

The Sequoia Project’s Carequality health data exchange collaborative seeks nominations for its seven-member steering committee, which will oversee the initial roll-out of the exchange among its 12 initial implementers. Applications are due July 29.

Telemedicine

The USDA awards $23.4 million in grants to support 36 telemedicine and 45 distance learning projects across 32 states. It has provided $213 million for 634 such projects since 2009.

Announcements and Implementations

Easter Seals Bay Area implements a number of Salesforce tools, including Health Cloud, to extend its services to patients with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, and other special needs. The Health Cloud CRM will better enable the nonprofit to manage its relationships with 3,600 providers, particularly those who care for patients long-term.

Advanced Urology Institute implements CareCloud’s PM, RCM, and analytics software at 22 locations in Florida and Georgia.

Government and Politics

The HHS Idea Lab hosts its annual Innovation Day, with CTO Susannah Fox at the helm to highlight the novel ways in which government employees are advancing their work. Healthcare topics included EHRs, malpractice data, and opioid alert response.

Other

AMA President-Elect David Barbe, MD shares his priorities for this year and next, including preventing common chronic diseases, creating the medical school of the future, and increasing physician satisfaction in the wake of record levels of physician burnout. Barbe started out in solo family practice, eventually growing the business and then merging it with Mercy Clinic (MO). Unlike AMA President Andrew Gurman, MD Barbe likely has plenty of experience with EHRs, given that Mercy has been on Epic since 2004.

The local paper looks at a locally revered physician’s decision to transition his practice to one that focuses on medical marijuana. Eighty two year-old Gilbert Weinstein, MD described as “an old-fashioned doctor who is on top of everything new,” made the decision after practicing in internal medicine, endocrinology, and nuclear medicine for 50 years. “Due to increasing insurance company and government intrusions and restrictions,” he wrote to his patients earlier this month, “it is impossible to continue practicing medicine as it should be done. I was trained to do no harm. That seems to have flown out the window.”

Allscripts employees pack lunches for a local charity as part of the company’s Global Impact Day. Teams in Atlanta, Chicago, Raleigh, NC, London, Singapore, and India hope to beat last year’s record of 90,000 meals prepared, $12,000 raised, and 13,000 pounds of food donated.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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