News 1/20/16

Top News

Under pressure from payers, CMS makes it harder for consumers to sign up for coverage at Healthcare.gov between enrollment periods. Nearly 1 million consumers signed up after open enrollment ended last year, resulting in some dropping coverage after receiving pricey medical procedures. The administration hopes that by eliminating certain special enrollment periods, better clarifying eligibility standards, and enforcing abuse prevention, it will appease payers and motivate the uninsured to enroll by the January 31 deadline.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Compliance services and software vendor YEI Healthcare rebrands to Zebu Compliance Solutions, evoking the South Asian animal “known for its strength and dependability.”

Announcements and Implementations

PatientlySpeaking adds multilingual reminders including voice and text to its patient communications platform.

DirectTrust reports a record number of over 44 million Direct transactions between Direct addresses in 2015, with over 13 million messages delivered in the fourth quarter. The nonprofit anticipates the number of transactions will hit 230 million by the end of this year. Over 52,000 organizations used DirectTrust services last year, a nearly 50-percent increase over 2014.

People

Charles Stellar joins WEDI as interim president and CEO.

Rocco Perla (CMS) joins Health Leads as president.

Daniel Elgort (Philips) joins Spreemo as vice president of healthcare analytics.

Telemedicine

Hispanic health platform company ConsejoSano partners with global consulting firm Mercer to offer its Spanish-language telemedicine services to employers.

The National Association of Realtors offers MDlive telemedicine services to members of its insurance marketplace.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine rebrands its Tell A Sleep Doctor telemedicine service to AASM Sleep. The homegrown service was informally launched last month, and is now available to sleep medicine physicians nationwide.

CareSpan integrates Surescripts-certified e-prescribing technology from DoseSpot into its virtual clinic platform.

Government and Politics

CMS tweaks the Open Payments website, updating its June 30, 2015 dataset and adding the ability to search for physicians by name, a “snapshot” of data, and additional sections from which to download data.

Research and Innovation

New research shows that online patient communities have gained in popularity over the last several years, and have a vital role to play in sharing information between patients, caregivers, and physicians. While the quality of information shared in the forums was considered to be of “low” quality, patient interaction was deemed beneficial in terms of emotional support.

Other

You guessed it: “123456” and “password” remain the most popular passwords according to SplashData’s annual list. Hackers take note: “star wars,” “batman,” and “696969” gained enough popularity to make the list for the first time.

Sponsor Updates

• Health Facilities Management publishes a Field Report detailing how Trinitas Regional Medical Center reduced the severity of injuries due to assault with Versus Staff Assist.

Blog Posts

• 7 Ways to Build a High-Performance Private Practice (AdvancedMD)
• Health IT Shows Up at 2016’s Consumer Electronics Show (Billian’s HealthDATA)

Contacts

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

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Readers Write: Physicians Show Optimism and Resolve in 2016

Physicians Show Optimism and Resolve in 2016
By Ken Comée

Delivering high-quality healthcare while simultaneously maintaining a profitable practice remains a tough challenge for physicians across the country. Evolving reimbursement requirements and a constantly shifting industry landscape pull physicians away from patient care and leave them overwhelmed by administrative tasks. However, for the third consecutive year, CareCloud surveyed more than 5,000 physicians in our annual Practice Profitability Index and, for the first time, the survey has revealed a rise in optimism. The PPI shows that there is an increasing number of physicians who expect to grow profits or at least hold the line against losses in the year ahead, which is good news for everyone!

The PPI also shows that, while physicians are facing numerous challenges, they are taking proactive steps to counter them and manage their practices more effectively. Physicians once again cited declining reimbursement and rising costs as their top challenges for the coming year, with 62 percent saying they are worried about reimbursement decreases, and 55 percent reporting concern about rising costs. Physicians also indicated that administrative tasks take a heavy toll on efficiency, with more than 60 percent saying paperwork consumes their time by as much as a day or more each week. While that figure declined year over year, the impact remains significant. In fact, while fewer physicians with an ownership stake in their practices are looking to sell than in previous years, among the 35 percent of physician-owners who are looking to sell or merge, excessive administrative work is the top factor, with 40 percent citing it.

It’s worth noting, however, that the PPI survey also shows that physicians aren’t throwing their hands up in the face of industry pressures, but rather, implementing new processes and technology to boost practice performance: 40 percent report prioritizing improvements to billing and collections processes, 34 percent to staffing and 33 percent to technology. And given that only two in five physicians say their current staff, technology and/or processes are effective at securing reimbursement — a finding that indicates virtually no improvement on past survey results — it makes sense that doctors are focusing on billing processes.

How are physicians handling the skills and technology gaps that are hampering operations? According to the PPI, the “rip and replace” strategy — in which physicians overhaul core health IT systems, particularly EHR systems — remains a popular option. Many are investing in new systems to help them manage their practices more effectively, with nearly a quarter indicating that they plan to replace an existing EHR system or purchase one for the first time. Like their counterparts in other business sectors, physicians are also looking to bolster analytics capabilities, with one in four looking to analytics to boost performance and 13 percent indicating they plan to invest specifically in a new analytics solution.

At its core, the “rip and replace” trend reflects the fact that physicians are not settling for antiquated EHR and PM systems that can burden their practices with cumbersome workflows and heavy costs. Instead, they’re pulling these systems out and putting more modern solutions in their place – solutions that not only streamline workflow, but can also sync with other technologies in use at the practice. In fact, the PPI reveals that lack of integration with other technologies is the biggest drawback to current solutions, with almost 40 percent of those switching systems citing it as the primary reason. The need to find solutions that are easier to use – driving efficiency rather than slowing users down – and more cost-effective are also among the top factors driving replacement.

The survey also highlights positive industry developments for practice performance from the physician perspective. They expressed the most enthusiasm for opportunities to engage with patients and peers in new ways. In fact, more than one in five doctors cited patient engagement programs like portals and disease management programs as positive developments. About the same number said they saw promise in new alliances with other healthcare professionals, such as through mergers or the addition of ancillary services.

While it’s too soon to tell if 2016 will turn out to be a noteworthy year for physician profitability trends, the results of this third annual PPI survey show that many physicians are proactively addressing key areas in their business. Whether it’s shoring up revenue cycle management processes, investing in new technology or embracing new patient engagement tools, these survey results show that physicians are not settling for the status quo. That’s good news for physicians, patients, and the industry as a whole.

Ken Comée is CEO at CareCloud in Miami.

Contacts

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

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News 1/19/16

Top News

In what’s either part of a well-executed PR strategy or an attempt at Twitter damage control, National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD and Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt outline next steps for Meaningful Use as it will look under MACRA, all of which will be guided by the following principles:

• Rewarding providers for the outcomes technology helps them achieve with their patients.
• Allowing providers the flexibility to customize health IT to their individual practice needs.
• Leveling the technology playing field to promote innovation through open APIs. 
• Prioritizing interoperability by implementing federally recognized, national interoperability standards and focusing on real-world uses of technology. Information-blocking business models will not be tolerated.

The authors concede that the EHR Incentive Program “helped us make progress, [but] has also created real concerns about placing too much of a burden on physicians and pulling their time away from caring for patients.”

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

Fairfax Ob-Gyn Associates P.C. (VA) implements paperless billing services from PatientPay across its three offices.

Best Practices Academy, a chiropractic educational and PM company based in Brookings, SD, will offer its members EHR and RCM services from IPatientCare.

AdvancedMD develops AdvancedEPCS e-prescribing technology to help independent physicians meet EPCS (electronic prescription for controlled substances) regulatory requirements.

Boston-based startup VerbalCare launches a patient-centric, care team communications tool and secure messaging app at its national sales meeting in San Diego. 

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

EHR and PM vendor AllMeds rebrands and expands the reach of its limited-release RCM service line to a national audience. The Oak Ridge, TN-based company, which plans to transition to fully Web-based solutions in the near future, will release a Meaningful Use-friendly EHR later this year.

People

Adrienne Craig-Kennard (Strand Life Sciences) joins CollabRx as vice president of global business development and strategic alliances.

Jerri Ivey (Innovative Consulting Group) joins Culbert Healthcare Solutions as director of consulting services.

Vindell Washington, MD will join ONC as principal deputy national coordinator on January 25. Washington formerly served as CMIO at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System in Louisiana (where I assume he interacted with National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD), and as president of the health system’s medical group.

Telemedicine

Map Health Management adds 1,200 licensed counselors to its recovery support telemedicine services.

Research and Innovation

Navicure’s final ICD-10 survey of 360 practice staff finds that, on average, 14 percent felt a “significant” impact to productivity as a result of the October 1, 2015 switch. Over 30 percent have seen a decrease in revenue of up to 20 percent, and 44 percent have seen an increase in denial rates of between 1 and 10 percent. Just 11 percent have reported denial-rate increases of up to 40 percent – statistics in line with pre-transition expectations. Surprising to me was the fact that 20 percent of respondents didn’t know how much was spent on training.

The Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology releases a 97-page report on lessons healthcare can learn from last year’s OPM breach. The authors call the lack of a dedicated security team one of the office’s largest failings, pointing out that “a healthcare breach is highly likely to begin with an attack campaign against employees. Security is only as strong as its weakest point because attackers tend to focus on the point of least resistance.”

Other

Scientific American looks at the increasingly slippery slope of selling de-identified health data, pointing out that anonymity is increasingly harder for patients to come by and as such they should be given a chance to opt out of sharing their data. “It is getting easier and easier to identify people from anonymized data,” says Chesley Richards, director of the Office of Public Health Scientific Services at the CDC. “You may not be identifiable from a particular data set that an entity has collected, but if you are a broker that is assembling a number of sets and looking for ways to link those data, that’s where, potentially, the risk becomes greater for identification.”

Contacts

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

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News 1/18/16

Top News

Cognitive computing company Digital Reasoning acquires Shareable (fka Shareable Ink) for an undisclosed sum. Shareable CEO Hal Andrews – the company’s third since its founding in 2009 – will become president of Digital Reasoning’s new healthcare business. Both companies are based in Nashville, TN.

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

Medical Transcription Billing Corp. releases an e-prescribing app for Apple Watch. The new app is part of a broader company effort to extend its healthcare IT ecosystem to smartwatches and other wearables.

Physiotherapy Associates (PA) rolls out the Athletic Trainer System EHR from Keffer Development Services across its facilities, touting its ability to capture and research injury data as part of its injury prevention initiatives.

Allscripts adds Total Child Health to its roster of strategic partners based on the interest the company’s CHADIS behavioral and developmental screening and decision-support tool has seen as part of the Allscripts Developer Program.

People

Stacy Hiquet (Cengage PTR) joins Zotec Partners as executive vice president of education.

Research and Innovation

An AMIA literature review reveals – not surprisingly – that healthcare IT, particularly EHRs, impact the physician-patient relationship positively and negatively, influencing eye contact and gaze, sharing of information, relationship building, and flow of conversation. The level of impact depends on a combination of factors including consultation room layout, patient and physician styles of interaction with technology and each other, and the ways in which physicians integrate tech into consultations.

A study of over 10,000 family physicians finds that just over half work in solo or small practices, negating the rumor that smaller physician practices are closing up shop in record numbers. While these types of practices continue to keep their doors open, the study points out that they are losing ground when it comes to keeping up with access to care coordinators and patient-centered medical home certification – all of which require resources more easily found in their larger medical group counterparts.

Telemedicine

AmeriHealth New Jersey offers members telemedicine services from MDlive at no additional cost.

Other

University of Pennsylvania physicians make a strong case for rethinking the ways in which employers promote healthy lifestyles via wearable devices:

• Ditch the leaderboards and offer small, immediate rewards. Mitesh Patel, MD stresses (and recent Powerball insanity has shown) that, “It’s better to put people in a lottery where they have a 1 in 10 chance of winning $10 than a 1 in 100 chance of winning $100.”
• Motivate employees by the prospect of losing something rather than gaining something.
• Create accountability teams – groups of employees that know each other and can hold each other accountable for their participation (or lack thereof).
• Create a “daily feedback loop” to encourage near-term rewards rather than, say, the distant promise of a discount in next year’s health premiums.

Sponsor Updates

• Versus real-time location solutions receive Novation’s Innovative Technology designation.

Blog Posts

• After reading 2016 trends, let’s take some actions (Nordic)

Contacts

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

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Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 1/17/16

Munson Healthcare promotes Kimberly Speese to executive director of population health management.

Shareholders approve Toronto-based NexJ’s previously announced plan to spin off its healthcare business, which consists primarily of its cloud-based population health management platform. The plan includes spinning off the business to new corporation NexJ Health Holdings.

Apollo Medical Holdings subsidiary Apollo Care Connect acquires population health management technology company Healarium for an undisclosed sum. In other company news, Mark Fawcett has joined ApolloMed’s Board of Directors.

Health plan MDwise will extend its use of ZeOmega’s Jiva population health management solution to monitor medication adherence and safety.

Indiana-based Michiana Health Information Network (MHIN) partners with case management technology developer ClientTrack to integrate public health data with its HIE’s clinical data to improve outcomes and reduce costs. “Combining data from health and human services with clinical data will allow our providers and partners to effectively address the social determinants of health in their care and evaluation process and positively impact the overall care for an individual and support they receive,” says Waldo Mikels-Carrasco, MHIN’s director of community and population health development.

Sponsor Updates

• Leidos Health will exhibit at the Meditech Executive Institute January 17-19 in San Diego.
• Nordic representatives will attend the HIMSS Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter event January 22 in Arlington, TX.

Blog Posts

• When a Patient is Transferred with Incomplete Records (Medicity)
• 2016 Trends: What’s Ahead in Healthcare IT? (PerfectServe)

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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