News 4/21/16

Top News

Lawmakers introduce the Flexibility in Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reporting Act (HR 5001) in an attempt to implement a 90-day reporting period for Meaningful Use in 2016. Sponsored by the usual legislative suspects, the bipartisan bill hopes to offer providers the option of choosing any three-month quarter for the EHR reporting period in 2016 to quality for MU. “Representative Ellmers’ bill allows for a 90-day reporting period and supplies providers with the flexibility to avoid harmful, bureaucratic penalties,” says bill co-author Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN.) “This administration has constantly failed to offer patients, and the provider community, with the resources necessary in order to provide quality care.”

Webinars

April 26 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Provider-Led Care Management: Trends and Opportunities in a Growing Market.” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenter: Matthew Guldin, analyst, Chilmark Research. This webinar will provide a brief overview and direction of the provider-led care management market. It will identify the types of vendors in this market, their current and longer-term challenges, product capabilities, partnership activity, and market dynamics that influence adoption. It will conclude with an overview of key factors for vendors and solutions moving forward.

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

Telemedicine

Dictum Health partners with Creekridge Capital to offer financing options to its telemedicine customers. The company’s Virtual Exam Room received FDA clearance at the end of February, and formally launched in early March.

HealthTap launches a free, online training and certification program for virtual care. The course will provide physicians with one hour of CME credit, plus an opportunity for advanced training.

Children’s Health Fund heads to the Hill to advocate for pediatric telemedicine. The Congressional briefing coincides with the release of a CHF white paper outlining the benefits of telemedicine access, particularly for underserved children and those living in rural areas.

Salus Telehealth and Covenant Technology Group develop a bluetooth stethoscope for physicians looking to conduct virtual visits.

Announcements and Implementations

Flatiron Health will enhance its OncoEMR and OncoAnalytics tools to help oncologists meet new CMS Oncology Care Model reporting requirements. Updates will include automated reporting of quality measures, embedded pathways at the point of care, and the ability to create care plans. I had the opportunity to chat with Robin Zon, MD at Michiana Hematology Oncology (IN) about her practice’s OCM plans. You can read my interview with her here.

The Greater Houston Healthconnect HIE completes its accreditation from the Texas Health Information Exchange Accreditation Program in partnership with EHNAC and the Texas Health Services Authority. Established in 2010, the HIE serves 39 percent of the region’s physicians and just over half of the hospital market.

Other

ClearHealthCosts.com partners with local news outlets to launch PriceCheck, a searchable online database that combines healthcare procedure costs with information and reviews from patients living in South Florida and the Tampa Bay area. “People should know what things cost in healthcare,” says Jeanne Pinder, a healthcare journalist and founder of ClearHealthCosts.com. “We’ll use the power of our communities to reveal the secrets of the marketplace, and join hands to make this opaque system more transparent.”

In other healthcare cost transparency news, Vitals pays homage to Bob Barker with The Price is Varied, a map that highlights the extreme price differences for six procedures across the country. Mapmakers point out that California has the highest costs across the board, while Maine has the most “rational,” with minimum cost differences for four of the six categories.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 4/20/16

Top News

ONC reports to Congress on the feasibility of improving healthcare IT comparison and selection tools, highlighting four areas (targeted technical assistance, improved awareness, data collection and sharing, and increased collaboration) where public and private sectors have room for improvement, especially when it comes to helping smaller healthcare organizations with fewer resources make HIT purchasing decisions.

Webinars

April 26 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Provider-Led Care Management: Trends and Opportunities in a Growing Market.” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenter: Matthew Guldin, analyst, Chilmark Research. This webinar will provide a brief overview and direction of the provider-led care management market. It will identify the types of vendors in this market, their current and longer-term challenges, product capabilities, partnership activity, and market dynamics that influence adoption. It will conclude with an overview of key factors for vendors and solutions moving forward.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Everseat offers users the ability to schedule a ride with Lyft through its doctor appointment scheduling app.

People

HealthLoop names Harry Kirschner (The Advisory Board) chief revenue officer and Beverly Miner (Allscripts) chief marketing and business development officer.

Telemedicine

The Center for Connected Health Policy publishes a 236-page update on the state of telemedicine and Medicaid programs across the country. All but three states – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Utah – have some form of reimbursement in place. Live video is the predominant method of telemedicine and subsequent reimbursement, followed by store-and-forward services, and remote patient monitoring.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute hosts a briefing on the power of telemedicine as part of series of health briefings on Capitol Hill. AMA Senior Washington Counsel Sylvia Trujillo highlighted barriers, while ATA Chief Policy Officer Gary Capistrant stressed the alternative care delivery model’s ability to reach underserved patients.

Online retail healthcare marketplace SingleCare officially launches in Pittsburgh. The member-based website, which offers pharmacy and appointment-booking services and price-comparison tools, has added telemedicine visits through a new partnership with American Well.

Research and Innovation

A new WEDI report outlines gaps in care and the data-exchange challenges that exacerbate them. Technical barriers include interoperability (of course), accuracy, completeness, provenance, timeliness, and transparency. The authors advocate for consensus on the development and standardization of quality measures and methodologies for data exchange between providers, patients, and payers.

Other

Good news for cord-cutters like me: Amazon will offer its video-streaming service as a stand-alone product for $8 a month, slightly cheaper than Hulu and Netflix, which will raises its rates by $2 next month. Amazon’s videos were previously accessible only to members of Amazon Prime, which came with an annual price tag of $99. I’ll have to compare the offerings of all three services and see which, if any, I should add or drop. My Netflix subscription, which I’ve had for years, has quite satisfactorily satisfied my binge-watching habits thus far. 

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima will exhibit at the Boulder Valley Individual Practice Association meeting April 26 in Lafayette, CO.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the California MGMA 2016 Annual Conference April 22-23 in Sonoma.

Blog Posts

• Medical billing & EHR software tips for tackling 1,900 new ICD-10 codes (AdvancedMD)
• Physician Quality Reporting (PQRS) (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Credentialing (E-MDs)
• Costs Should Be Part of the Equation (Healthwise)

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 4/19/16

Top News

Greenway Health brings on Scott Zimmerman as CEO. Zimmerman replaces company co-founder Tee Green, who will stay on as executive chairman. Zimmerman has done stints at TeleVox, Merck, Boston Scientific, and GE Healthcare. His expertise also extends to patents, including a “simplified user interface that prescribes, creates, and presents images ready for a radiologist to review” and a “method and apparatus for providing messaging to targeted lifestyle segments.”

Webinar

April 26 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Provider-Led Care Management: Trends and Opportunities in a Growing Market.” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenter: Matthew Guldin, analyst, Chilmark Research. This webinar will provide a brief overview and direction of the provider-led care management market. It will identify the types of vendors in this market, their current and longer-term challenges, product capabilities, partnership activity, and market dynamics that influence adoption. It will conclude with an overview of key factors for vendors and solutions moving forward.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Private equity firm GI Partners completes its joint venture acquisition with Allscripts of Netsmart Technologies. The new venture will merge the Allscripts homecare software business unit with Netsmart.

People

OptumLabs CEO Paul Bleicher, MD joins medical wearables company MC10’s Board of Directors.

ZirMed promotes Jay Volk to vice president of partner and corporate development.

Announcements and Implementations

The New Hampshire Health Information Organization selects secure messaging software from TigerText for its 100-plus HIE participants.

PrecisionBI partners with PractiSource to offer RCM and analytics services to physician practices and labs.

Better Day Health adds Isabel Healthcare’s differential diagnosis decision support engine to its clinical documentation technologies for orthopedic and ambulatory clinics.

The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers selects consulting services from EMedApps to assist its 49 member organizations in connecting to The Massachusetts Health Information Highway, the state’s HIE.

The OPIE/Futura Software Group, a company that caters to physicians working with orthotics and prosthetics, taps ZirMed to serve as the clearinghouse for its client base.

Telemedicine

Chiron Health joins the Greenway Health online marketplace of partner companies.

Physician’s Computer Company signs an MoU with ThinkMD to bring its Medical Evaluation and Diagnostic System for Infants, Newborns and Children (MEDISINC) technology to the US market starting this spring. PCC, which helped develop MEDSINC, will presumably integrate it with its pediatric EHR.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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5 Questions With Robin Zon, MD Michiana Hematology Oncology

Robin Zon, MD is a medical oncologist at Michiana Hematology Oncology, an Indiana-based practice with six locations and 180 staff that care for up to 350 patients on a daily basis. The practice, which has attested for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use, uses Elekta’s Mosaiq v.2.62 EHR and Navigating Cancer’s patient portal. It is working with area hospitals on the coordination of care criteria required for their ACOs and its Commission on Cancer Oncology Medical Home accreditation, both of which are scheduled for survey in 2016. MHO is one of the eight initial practices that rolled out the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s CancerLinq data-aggregation software late last year.

What was the impetus for implementing CancerLinq?
While serving on ASCO’s Board of Directors, I had the privilege on learning about CancerLinq at its inception and was a strong supporter of the initiative. The idea of using “Big Data" to better enhance our overall learning as it applies to improving patient care and advancing scientific knowledge was gaining attention in several venues, including in IT, provider, and patient groups. In fact, my community oncology colleagues would often comment on how wonderful it would be to share our collective wisdom and lessons learned from taking care of our thousands of patients over the many years in a collective electronic system.

Similarly, patients sitting before me in consultation would patiently listen to my explanation of our medical recommendations based on clinical trial evidence and FDA approvals, which they learned were based on less than 5 percent of patients who usually did not mirror their health status and demographics. Patients would often ask, "Have you or the clinical trials upon which you base your treatment ever taken care of a patient just like me? And how did they do?" Based on these experiences, as soon as I learned about CancerLinq, I knew that my practice needed to participate and be contributors and eventual benefactors from this Rapid Learning System.

How do you hope its utilization will benefit MHO and its patients?
The promise of this technology lies, in part, in being able to better care for our patients. I hope one day we will be able to answer the question so often asked by our patients regarding our experiences in caring for patients just like them. Additionally, patients may derive some comfort and reassurance in knowing that another set of expert eyes is looking at their case via mass data collection and analysis, thereby comparing what we are recommending to what was learned from the RLS. Furthermore, the RLS may also be able to use the patient data in better informing research questions, which complements the expressed desire of patient willingness to contribute to advancing cancer care. From the practice standpoint, we have and want to continue to be involved in cutting-edge initiatives that will benefit our patients while simultaneously making us better doctors and oncology providers. By being early adopters, we hope to not only contribute as a vanguard practice, but be the first in the region adopting this emerging technology.

What other technologies have had a significant impact on MHO?
We currently use Flatiron Health’s OncoTrials as a workflow tool, assisting with screening, eligibility, and task assignment. OncoTrials serves as an efficiency workflow tool at this point, but also gives good data on enrollment and why a patient may be ineligible.

What sort of healthcare technology adoption/implementation challenges are unique to oncology clinics/practices?
Although a majority of oncology practices currently use an EHR, there are a number of identified challenges that impact patient care and provider/practice efficiencies. This includes the publicly discussed interoperability problem between systems. In caring for our patients, important health information is not able to be exchanged easily. In fact, there is posed danger in that patients do not always truly understand their medical history or even the know the medications they have been prescribed. Unless the IT systems are able to talk to each other, we may be missing information that would be critical to know in selecting the appropriate therapy for a patient. The EHR is also contributing to physician burnout, as physicians and patients alike often note the interruption to the physician/patient interaction with the presence of technology in the exam room. Additionally, physicians comment that they spend more time inputting a record than they actually spend with the patient.

Challenges also include having the IT support within a practice to support technology adoption. Considering the increasing demands on practice data, there is competition on a daily basis on how to prioritize, implement, and support multiple technologies. Remember, there is no payment system fully supporting IT in a practice, so this is an expense paid for by the physicians. Finally with quality reporting requirements, compliance with multiple pathways and differing portals for communication, these tasks are overwhelming some practices in many ways, including financially.

Given that you’re past the implementation phase of CancerLinq, what tips can you share regarding implementing new healthcare technologies?
An in-depth analysis of the problems you are trying to solve or the efficiencies you are looking to achieve are critical when determining the "need" for technologies. Map the flow and use of the technology before implementing for it to be successful. I would also recommend engaging a team of stakeholders that includes your IT department, practice managers, CFO, billing manager, nurse managers, physicians, and research staff. There should be clear communication of expectations and what is practical and not feasible. It is equally important to understand the cost associated with technology implementation and support. There should be a willingness and ability of the practice to dedicate resources to support IT personnel and the technology.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 4/18/16

Top News

AMA launches the Healthier Nation Innovation Challenge to encourage physicians, residents, and medical students to come up with game-changing ideas that use technology in the areas of education; helping people live healthier, longer lives; and improving physician practices. AMA will award prizes of up to $50,000 to help move the ideas from concept to reality. Submissions are due May 16.

Webinars

April 26 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Provider-Led Care Management: Trends and Opportunities in a Growing Market.” Sponsored by HIStalk. Presenter: Matthew Guldin, analyst, Chilmark Research. This webinar will provide a brief overview and direction of the provider-led care management market. It will identify the types of vendors in this market, their current and longer-term challenges, product capabilities, partnership activity, and market dynamics that influence adoption. It will conclude with an overview of key factors for vendors and solutions moving forward.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Allscripts integrates ClearWave’s patient check-in kiosk into its PM platform after certifying the tool through its developer program.

MiraMed Global Services makes available a Qualified Clinical Data Registry through its Anesthesia Business Consultants subsidiary. The registry will help anesthesia and pain-management practices report performance data to CMS.

Nashville, TN-based Urgent Team implements DocuTap’s EHR, PM, and billing software across its 21 urgent and family care centers in the Southeast.

Diversified Radiology of Colorado signs on with Zotec Partners for RCM services and analytical tools via its Medical Administrative Professionals managed services organization.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Madison, WI-based startup EnsoData raises $550,000 in a round led by venture capital fund Health X Ventures. The company’s flagship product, EnsoSleep, automates sleep study scoring for sleep clinics.

People

Jennifer “Jenna” Geiger (Accenture) joins Alignment Healthcare as COO.

Government and Politics

Happy birthday MACRA! CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt commemorates the act’s one-year anniversary, pointing out that one of its most significant changes has been working to pay physicians based on quality rather than volume.

ABC News digs into the “arcane” work of the six year-old Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, focusing on some of its more high-profile programs to date including the brand-new Comprehensive Primary Care Plus program. Hoangmai “Mai” Pham, MD director of the center’s seamless care models group, has the enviable task of helping physician practices transition to value-based care models like ACOs. “You have to build up a lot of trust,” she explains, adding that giving physicians access to Medicare data has gone a long way towards helping that relationship.

AAFP urges the House Appropriations Committee to restore AHRQ’s budget to its 2015 level of $364 million to support research vital to primary care. “Without AHRQ research,” the academy posits, “too little is known about appropriate care for real patients in primary care practices. More attention and research need to be directed to patients with more than one mental or physical health condition.” AHRQ’s budget, once thought to be entirely on the chopping block, was pared back to $334 million for 2016.

Telemedicine

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn keynotes the California Telehealth Network’s annual conference in San Diego, focusing on the commission’s work to decrease the digital healthcare divide and increase broadband access across the country. She highlighted the FCC’s Connect2Health Task Force and its efforts to develop a nationwide mapping tool that will integrate broadband and health data, down to the county level.

Other

The Washington Nationals win Fitbit’s Step Up to the Plate Challenge, which pitted seven Major League Baseball teams plus the commissioner’s office against each other during spring training. Minor league Nationals outfield/baserunning coordinator Gary Thurman logged one million steps alone.

The local paper profiles Ezdan Fluckiger, MD a former family physician who now toils in both the local hospital ER and at The Bread Doctor, the artisanal bakery he started with his family in Wyoming a little less than a year ago. Born out of a desire to create a long-term job opportunity for Eleanor, his teenage daughter with Down syndrome, Fluckiger also sees it as a nice foil to his typically stressful time in the ER. “(The bakery) is really fun,” he says. “It’s just positive. It’s like dispensing bread love all day long. People don’t come to the bakery to be mad. They come to the bakery to get something yummy.”

Now that you’re hungry, how about a little vino? Vital Wines gives back nearly all of its profits to SOS Health Services, a free clinic for the uninsured and underserved in College Place, WA. Wine industry veteran Ashley Trout spearheaded getting Vital Wines off the ground in order to better support the clinic, which serves a patient population largely made up of seasonal vineyard workers who speak English as a second language, if at all. She points out that, “It’s clearly not a problem 30,000 of us are going to solve in Walla Walla for the whole country. But if you can’t get something done in a small community, where can you?”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Large EHR implementations: two critical success factors (Nordic)
• A Patient’s Advocate: Nurses and Technology (PerfectServe)

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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