News 6/7/16

Top News

CMS issues a nearly 300-page final rule on MSSP ACOs outlining changes to the program’s benchmarking methodology, a new alternative participation option that encourages participants to enter performance-based risk arrangements sooner, and policies for addressing payment corrections.

Webinars

June 28 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Your Call Is Very Important.” Sponsored by West Healthcare Practice. Presenters: Cyndy Orrys, contact center director, Henry Ford Health System; Brian Cooper, SVP, West Interactive. The contact center is a key hub of patient engagement and a strategic lever for driving competitive advantage. Cyndy will share how her organization’s call center is using technologies and approaches that create effortless patient experiences in connecting them to the right information or resource. Brian will describe five key characteristics of a modern call center and suggest how to get started.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Fitbit keeps its head up in the midst of legal troubles, announcing the launch of Fitbit Group Health at its inaugural Captivate Summit. The new service line will bring the company’s offerings together for corporate wellness, weight management, and payer programs, as well as health research. The wearables company has also launched corresponding analytics and benchmarking technology to help FGH customers keep track of progress and peers.

Telemedicine

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signs into law the South Carolina Telemedicine Act, setting up practice standards that “shall adhere to the same standard of care as a licensee employing more traditional in-person medical care and be evaluated according to the standard of care applicable to the licensee’s area of specialty.”

Government and Politics

Vice President Joe Biden launches the Genomic Data Commons at the University of Chicago with $70 million from the National Cancer Institute. As part of the Cancer Moonshot and Precision Medicine initiatives, the commons will receive, store, and organize clinical and genomic data, and offer it to cancer researchers in user-friendly formats.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory outlines his plans for Medicaid reform, including the establishment of a statewide HIE and Health Transformation Center, which will help physicians and prepaid health plans share quality improvement ideas.

Other

Montefiore Health System (NY) and the United Hospital Fund publish a guide to integrating behavioral health services into primary care. "While the framework will undoubtedly have relevance for large provider groups,” says Linda Lambert, executive director of the New York Chapter of the American College of Physicians, “we are pleased that this paper and its recommendations were designed with the flexibility to work for smaller practices and physicians who operate independently. If integrating behavioral health care into primary care practices is going to work, it has to work for the smaller practices as well, which the authors clearly understood." The framework gives ample airtime to healthcare technology, advising physicians to take shared care planning beyond hallway conversations and into EHRs.

The New York Times puts the economics of EHR adoption front and center, highlighting several MDs who have seen their salaries and practice revenue decrease in the post-HITECH era of IT. Peter Sutherland, MD part of a 50-physician HealthStar practice in Morristown, TN, has seen his personal income and group revenue fall then rise since Athenahealth was implemented in 2012. Despite the financial rollercoaster, he has found value in being able to quickly provide better information to patients. “My patients are better served,” he says, “and I’m happier.” 

Contacts

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

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5 Questions with Leslie Saltzman, DO Medical Director, Tandigm Health

Leslie Saltzman, DO is medical director at Tandigm Health, a West Conshohocken, PA-based company helping primary care practices transition to value-based care models. The company, which is a joint venture between DaVita HealthCare Partners and Independence Blue Cross, has 380 primary care physicians in its network of 112 practices. It is the one of the only organizations in the Philadelphia market outside of payers that has taken on full risk for its patient population. Tandigm Health launched virtual visits through a partnership with TouchCare last month.

What was the impetus for implementing telemedicine services? How do you plan on rolling it out to your practices?
One of our main goals at Tandigm Health is to combine tradition and innovation. We are constantly looking for unique ways to innovate around quality care delivery. As such, we recently partnered with mobile health company TouchCare to enable our physicians to connect securely with patients face-to-face by video. This new telemedicine program is one of the many ways we enable our doctors to improve access, engagement and health management for our patients. After completing a successful five-month pilot program in May, we are now in the process of expanding the TouchCare program and making it available to our network of 380 physicians by the end of the year.

How do you hope its utilization will benefit your practices and their patients?
Overall, I believe that the TouchCare model will produce benefits for both the patient and the provider. The unique video appointment platform allows our network of physicians to connect with their patients in an easy, effective, and convenient way. The telemedicine program gives Tandigm’s physicians the tools to improve access, engagement, and health management through telephonic and video support. This platform is one component in Tandigm’s comprehensive effort to lower costs and increase the satisfaction of chronically ill patients by reducing admissions and readmissions, and unnecessary utilization of emergency departments.

What sort of healthcare technology adoption/implementation challenges are unique to practices that partner with an organization like Tandigm?
When implementing new tools and technologies, there are always hurdles to overcome. For example, the TouchCare telemedicine model is not integrated into the physician group EHRs. Therefore, when a doctor uses the TouchCare system, they may still need to refer to their own system to make a note for the visit. Integrating technologies across various platforms can be a challenge, but it emphasizes the importance of coordinating care and unifying documentation.

What’s next on the horizon for Tandigm in terms of new healthcare technologies? Have any timelines been established?
Currently, Tandigm is in the first phase of conducting a pilot program with a HIPAA-compliant texting platform. This unique platform has the ability to enable our physicians to access important patient data, such as details of an ER visit, via a secure app. We’ll be sharing more about this partnership in the coming months.

What has the physician reaction to MACRA been like since the proposed rule was released? How will Tandigm help its physicians navigate this new program?
As the proposed MACRA rule is still incredibly new, we have not received much feedback from our physicians. However, Tandigm makes it a priority to provide our network of physicians with the information and resources they need to navigate any new programs or legislation. 

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 6/6/16

Top News

Healthcare staffing and solutions company AMN Healthcare acquires HIM services firm Peak Health Solutions for an undisclosed sum. It’s AMN’s second acquisition in less than a year; the San Diego-based firm bought executive search and advisory services business B.E. Smith late last year.

Webinars

June 28 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Your Call Is Very Important.” Sponsored by West Healthcare Practice. Presenters: Cyndy Orrys, contact center director, Henry Ford Health System; Brian Cooper, SVP, West Interactive. The contact center is a key hub of patient engagement and a strategic lever for driving competitive advantage. Cyndy will share how her organization’s call center is using technologies and approaches that create effortless patient experiences in connecting them to the right information or resource. Brian will describe five key characteristics of a modern call center and suggest how to get started.

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

People

Jim Paulson (Viewpoint Construction Software) joins HealthCo Information Systems as CEO.

Telemedicine

Virtual exam technology startup MedWand receives seed round funding from Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxlink Group. Foxlink’s interest was no doubt piqued after MedWand partnered with Doctor on Demand last fall.

Announcements and Implementations

RelayHealth Financial develops software that can automatically track down, inspect, and report accurate reasons for non-payment on claims.

American Society of Clinical Oncology subsidiary CancerLinq will collaborate with Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers (CI4CC), which represents informatics leaders and chief data scientists at National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers and other major medical and research institutions. The organizations will establish joint informatics programs, create an informatics advisory council for CancerLinq, and place a CancerLinq staff member on the CI4CC Leadership Board. Nearly 60 oncology practices have joined CancerLinq’s data-sharing initiative since it was developed in 2013.

Government and Politics

Numerous medical associations meet Friday’s deadline to weigh in on how ONC should measure interoperability under MACRA. The AAFP recommends that ONC include non-Meaningful Users in its measurements, and that “measuring interoperability be harmonized a single process to reduce administrative burdens.” It also advocates for data from multiple sources, and patient-centric measures that promote coordination of care. AMA and 36 specialty societies note in their combined comments that current measures are “too focused on the quantity of information moved and not the relevance of these exchanges or the underlying business case for transmitting data.”

Research and Innovation

Allscripts, Athenahealth, and Marshfield Clinic Information Services rank highest in large group practice overall satisfaction and client loyalty for 2016, according to Black Book survey results. The company’s latest research also shows that, while an overwhelming majority of large group practices are happy with vendor EHR and PM improvements, nearly a third are dissatisfied with vendor efforts to improve implementation and training processes.

Other

Atari attempts a comeback via a licensing deal with French connected home device maker Sigfox. Consumers (and charity organizations) can initially expect to see Atari-branded home, pet, lifestyle, and safety devices. I wonder if fitness trackers might eventually be included in the lifestyle category.

I always appreciate a good poke at startup jargon, and Quartz doesn’t disappoint in its latest take on the attempts of young companies to make their products sound more appealing than they actually are. SparkShare co-founder Chris Parker describes his company as a “video reaction network,” when in actuality it’s a video chat app developer. “It’s jargon,” he says, “but it’s the only way that we can start out when we explain ourselves. We could turn the jargon on [even more] and say that we’re a ‘cloud-based streaming content delivery network,’ but we find that it doesn’t resonate with people.”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Improving collaboration and patient care through a single patient identifier (PerfectServe)
• Interoperability and Toppling the Tower of Babel (Aprima)

Contacts

Jennifer,  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 6/5/16

ZeOmega integrates its Jiva population health management solution with McKesson’s InterQual Connect authorization and connectivity solution. The Plano, TX-based company has also launched the Consultant Certification Program for clinical and technical consultants who want to gain an edge in their use of Jiva.

Cerner says in its annual shareholder meeting that:

• More hospitals run its systems than anyone else’s.
• The company has 22,000 employees who are paid an average annual salary of $80,000, with an average age in the mid-30s.
• Cerner will spend $750 million on population health management R&D.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center reports positive results from its Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program, which included adoption of population health management software from Enli Health Intelligence. Outcomes included a 60-percent increase in foot exams and a 100-percent increase in Pneumovax screenings over a 12-month period.

Care Management Solutions of Louisiana and telemedicine partner Advance Telehealth Consulting Solutions select population health management software from EQHealth Solutions to help support their chronic care management program.

An informal Xerox survey of hospital executives finds that top motivations for adopting population health management programs remain the same – improved health outcomes, cost containment, and improved patient relationships. Top challenges to adoption include poor care coordination, data management and integration capabilities, and creating actionable intelligence from available data. Half of those surveyed expect to launch a population health management program within the next two years.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the AAOE 2016 Annual Conference June 9-12 in San Francisco.
• Nordic will host the Qlik Healthcare Wisconsin Users Group Meeting June 9 in Madison, WI.

Blogs

• ICD-10: Are We There Yet? (Medicity)
• Medical Practice Optimization Simplified, Part 2 of 5 (AdvancedMD)
• Patient Wait Times Should be Your Priority (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)
• Hospital Billing Contracts – The why, the ROI (hint: very high), and first steps (Nordic)

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

News 6/2/16

Top News

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay signs a bill establishing a prescription drug monitoring program within the city limits. The program’s database, which will mainly help physicians track prescription opioid painkillers, is expected to be up and running by the end of 2016. Missouri is the only state without a statewide prescription drug monitoring program.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Here is video from HIStalk Connect’s first meetup, held last week in Pasadena, CA. The event featured Stacy Bamberg, CEO of Veristride, who shared the journey of a young startup in developing a healthcare data analytics platform leveraging IoT via an insole wearable. Email Lorre if you’re interested in having HIStalk Connect sponsor your next meetup.

Webinars

June 28 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Your Call Is Very Important.” Sponsored by West Healthcare Practice. Presenters: Cyndy Orrys, contact center director, Henry Ford Health System; Brian Cooper, SVP, West Interactive. The contact center is a key hub of patient engagement and a strategic lever for driving competitive advantage. Cyndy will share how her organization’s call center is using technologies and approaches that create effortless patient experiences in connecting them to the right information or resource. Brian will describe five key characteristics of a modern call center and suggest how to get started.

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

Announcements and Implementations

CloudMedx adds chronic care management capabilities – including automatic patient identification, stratification, enrollment and communication – to its data analytics platform. The Y Combinator alum acquired Gyrus Labs in late April.

Practice Fusion makes available “real world evidence” solutions, giving the company the ability to aggregate de-identified data from its customer network, which it can then use to conduct retrospective studies and studies that include clinical input at the point of care.

Optometric Medical Solutions, a San Antonio-based PM and consulting firm, adds the Compliance Group’s HIPAA compliance solution to its service line.

People

The American Board of Family Medicine elects new officers and board members.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

RubiconMD closes $4 million in Series A financing led by Waterline Ventures with participation from Dioko Health Ventures and Alma Mundi Fund FCRE. The New York-based company will use the funds to scale up its specialty e-consult platform for PCPs.

Athenahealth launches its Unbreak Healthcare marketing campaign, designed to “jolt the industry into experiencing what is broken in healthcare” through a series of short films, social media conversations, and a new Web publication called AthenaInsight.

Government and Politics

ONC produces a series of videos on the rights patients have to access their health information. The office, which wound down its annual meeting today, also launched a Patient Engagement Playbook for Providers to help office staff better leverage health IT in their engagement efforts.

Research and Innovation

A Black Book survey of 11,300 specialist surgical and physician practices reveals that close to 30 percent have replaced their EHRs with more specialty specific software. Nearly 90 percent admitted they didn’t do enough due diligence before implementing their original EHRs. Nearly 80 percent have found that their Meaningful Use incentive checks have not offset personnel and capital costs associated with those initial systems.

Other

Consider this the next time you’re visiting Ancestry.com with a glass of wine in your hand: Vinome sends consumers wines based on their “taste profiles” and DNA acquired via a 23andMe-like spit kit. Membership ranges from $200 to $800 a quarter depending on how many bottles of wine you want delivered to your doorstep.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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