News 11/19/15

Top News

Greenway Health announces that its Prime Suite customers can now use CommonWell services to exchange health data with other participants at no cost. The company is one of the health alliance’s seven founding members. “The Alliance gives our customers and other participants a more secure way to gain a more comprehensive view of the patient’s health history, regardless of the point of care or what information system was used,” says Greenway CEO Tee Green. “This will enable clinicians to make the most informed decisions possible.” Greenway will roll out CommonWell services to other product users at a later date.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

I had my first run in with what I can only assume was an identity theft scam. A customer service rep claiming to be from Dell called to inform me that the “Dell server inbox” had received several notices that my computer was experiencing suspicious, virus-like activity. His scripted conversation seemed shady, so I kept asking him to go into detail, which he didn’t. He asked if I was near my computer, which raised my shadiness alert factor even higher. I explained I didn’t have time to go through any sort of diagnostics, at which point he asked if he could call back at another time. The phone call ended rather abruptly, which I’m sure is not part of Dell’s customer service training. I had the presence of mind to call Dell and ask if they proactively call customers about suspected suspicious activity on their computers, which they don’t. I promptly reported the entire incident to the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer hotline – an action that made me feel better, but is likely just a drop in the bucket of preventing the proliferation of such illicit activities.

Webinars

November 20 (Friday) 2:00 ET. “The Athenahealth Leadership Institute Presents: Dr. John Halamka Interviewed by Jonathan Bush.” Sponsored by Athenahealth. Presenters: John Halamka, MD, MS, CIO, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Jonathan Bush, CEO, Athenahealth. Providers are fed up with interface fees and the lengthy, fragmented narratives we’re exchanging today. But what is the right course of action to help deliver better care across the continuum? Bring your questions as we join Dr.Halamka and Jonathan Bush to discuss the current state of healthcare and how we can improve care coordination and interoperability.

December 2 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “The Patient is In, But the Doctor is Out: How Metro Health Enabled Informed Decision-Making with Remote Access to PHI.” Sponsored by Vmware. Presenters: Josh Wilda, VP of IT, Metro Health; James Millington, group product line manager, VMware. Most industries are ahead of healthcare in providing remote access to applications and information. Some health systems, however, have transformed how, when, and where their providers access patient information. Metro Health in Grand Rapids, MI offers doctors fast bedside access to information and lets them review patient information on any device (including their TVs during football weekends!) saving them 30 minutes per day and reducing costs by $2.75 million.

December 2 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Tackling Data Governance: Doctors Hospital at Renaissance’s Strategy for Consistent Analysis.” Sponsored by Premier, Inc. Presenters: Kassie Wu, director of application services, Doctors Hospital at Renaissance; Alex Eastman, senior director of enterprise solutions, Premier, Inc. How many definitions of “complications” (or “cost” or “length of stay”…) do you have? Doctors Hospital at Renaissance understood that inconsistent use of data and definitions was creating inconsistent and untrusted analysis. Join us to hear about their journey towards analytics maturity, including a strategy to drive consistency in the way they use, calculate, and communicate insights across departments.

December 2 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Creating HIPAA-Compliant Applications Without JCAPS/JavaMQ Architecture.” Sponsored by Red Hat. Presenters: Ashwin Karpe, lead of enterprise integration practice, Red Hat Consulting; Christian Posta, principle middleware architect, Red Hat. Oracle JCAPS is reaching its end of life and customers will need a migration solution for creating HIPAA-compliant applications, one that optimizes data flow internally and externally on premise, on mobile devices, and in the cloud. Explore replacing legacy healthcare applications with modern Red Hat JBoss Fuse architectures that are cloud-aware, location-transparent, and highly scalable and are hosted in a container-agnostic manner.

December 3 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “501(r) Regulations – What You Need to Know for Success in 2016.” Sponsored by TransUnion. Presenter: Jonathan Wiik, principal consultant, TransUnion Healthcare Solutions. Complex IRS rules take effect on January 1 that will dictate how providers ensure access, provide charity assistance, and collect uncompensated care. This in-depth webinar will cover tools and workflows that can help smooth the transition, including where to focus compliance efforts in the revenue cycle and a review of the documentation elements required.

December 9 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “The Health Care Payment Evolution: Maximizing Value Through Technology.” Sponsored by Medicity. Presenter: Charles D. Kennedy, MD, chief population health officer, Healthagen. This presentation will provide a brief history of the ACO Pioneer and MSSP programs and will discuss current market trends and drivers and the federal government’s response to them. Learn what’s coming in the next generation of programs such as the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the role technology plays in driving the evolution of a new healthcare marketplace.

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

#HIStalking Tweet Chat – Ensuring the Patient’s Voice is Heard

Healthwise led the #HIStalking crowd through a great discussion on ensuring patient’s have easy access to their health data in formats they understand, plus the importance of end-of-life conversations, and potential impact of interoperability and related standards. Check out the recap here.

Announcements and Implementations

Springfield Clinic, a multispecialty physician group in Central Illinois, implements the ProviderMatch platform from Kyruus at its access center to better match patients with physicians based on condition and availability.

Referral coordination solutions vendor Infina Connect adds the ICC Direct referral automation tool to its Intelligent Care Coordination platform, connecting clinical information from a physician’s EHR to the referral workflow in ICC.

People

Reed Tuckson, MD (Tuckson Health Connections) joins The Foundation for the Public’s Health Board of Trustees.

Jeffrey Kang, MD joins ChenMed as president.

Telemedicine

Presence Learning, an online behavioral health, speech, and occupational therapy firm, secures a $25 million Series C investment from Catalyst Investors. The company, which also offers special education academic instruction and assessments for school districts and special-needs children, will use the funding to continue development of its services, including telemedicine consultations. “After starting with schools, where we are privileged to beneficially affect the lives of tens of thousands of children everyday, we are now expanding to hospitals and other places where people need professional care,” adds co-CEO Clay Whitehead.

Government and Politics

The Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health receives a $100,000 ONC grant to help connect its mental health IT system to the HealtHIE Nevada HIE. The division will work with Netsmart over the next year on connecting the two systems.

Other

Anyone take advantage of Uber’s flu shot delivery service today? The company, which piloted a similar program last year, partnered with Passport Health to offer vaccinations to 35 cities nationwide via its UberHealth service. On a related note, John Brownstein has joined Uber as its first healthcare advisor. Brownstein, director of the Computational Epidemiology Group at Boston Children’s Hospital, was instrumental in last year’s pilot.

Santa will definitely find this on my Christmas list: Lego launches a pair of slippers guaranteed to dull the pain of stepping on a Lego brick. As @shdw3a tweeted yesterday, “if @Lego_Group isn’t awarded a Nobel prize for this, then I just don’t know what to believe anymore.” If I could just get them in a cheetah print.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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#HIStalking Tweet Chat Recap

News 11/18/15

Top News

An Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report finds that, while healthcare standards are improving across the board in OECD countries, the US spends more money on care per capita than any other OECD country – about $8,713 per person – and yet only averages a life expectancy of 78.3 years, just on par with Chile and below the OECD average of 80.5. The report also points out that the US wastes about $750 billion a year due to inefficiencies including poor administration, unnecessary services, and fraud. EHRs, HIEs, and interoperability were supposed to be this nation’s saving grace in terms of reducing this eye-boggling amount of financial waste, and yet the industry still finds itself stymied by Meaningful Use blowback and consumers that can’t afford quality care.

Webinars

November 20 (Friday) 2:00 ET. “The Athenahealth Leadership Institute Presents: Dr. John Halamka Interviewed by Jonathan Bush.” Sponsored by Athenahealth. Presenters: John Halamka, MD, MS, CIO, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Jonathan Bush, CEO, Athenahealth. Providers are fed up with interface fees and the lengthy, fragmented narratives we’re exchanging today. But what is the right course of action to help deliver better care across the continuum? Bring your questions as we join Dr.Halamka and Jonathan Bush to discuss the current state of healthcare and how we can improve care coordination and interoperability.

December 2 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “The Patient is In, But the Doctor is Out: How Metro Health Enabled Informed Decision-Making with Remote Access to PHI.” Sponsored by Vmware. Presenters: Josh Wilda, VP of IT, Metro Health; James Millington, group product line manager, VMware. Most industries are ahead of healthcare in providing remote access to applications and information. Some health systems, however, have transformed how, when, and where their providers access patient information. Metro Health in Grand Rapids, MI offers doctors fast bedside access to information and lets them review patient information on any device (including their TVs during football weekends!) saving them 30 minutes per day and reducing costs by $2.75 million.

December 2 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Tackling Data Governance: Doctors Hospital at Renaissance’s Strategy for Consistent Analysis.” Sponsored by Premier, Inc. Presenters: Kassie Wu, director of application services, Doctors Hospital at Renaissance; Alex Eastman, senior director of enterprise solutions, Premier, Inc. How many definitions of “complications” (or “cost” or “length of stay”…) do you have? Doctors Hospital at Renaissance understood that inconsistent use of data and definitions was creating inconsistent and untrusted analysis. Join us to hear about their journey towards analytics maturity, including a strategy to drive consistency in the way they use, calculate, and communicate insights across departments.

December 3 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “501(r) Regulations – What You Need to Know for Success in 2016.” Sponsored by TransUnion. Presenter: Jonathan Wiik, principal consultant, TransUnion Healthcare Solutions. Complex IRS rules take effect on January 1 that will dictate how providers ensure access, provide charity assistance, and collect uncompensated care. This in-depth webinar will cover tools and workflows that can help smooth the transition, including where to focus compliance efforts in the revenue cycle and a review of the documentation elements required.

December 9 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “The Health Care Payment Evolution: Maximizing Value Through Technology.” Sponsored by Medicity. Presenter: Charles D. Kennedy, MD, chief population health officer, Healthagen. This presentation will provide a brief history of the ACO Pioneer and MSSP programs and will discuss current market trends and drivers and the federal government’s response to them. Learn what’s coming in the next generation of programs such as the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the role technology plays in driving the evolution of a new healthcare marketplace.

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

#HIStalking Tweet Chat – Ensuring the Patient’s Voice is Heard

The next #HIStalking tweet chat will take place Thursday, November 19 at 12pm ET. Nonprofit Healthwise (@healthwise) will host. Check out topics here.

People

Paul Kleeberg, MD (Stratis Health) joins Aledade as medical director.

Announcements and Implementations

ZirMed reports a successful transition to ICD-10, with its clients achieving a first pass clean claims rate of 98 percent.

Silver Spring Dermatology Services (MD) selects RxOffice’s EHR and patient portal.

Colorado Springs Orthopaedic Group (CO) selects virtual EHR assistance from Skywriter MD. It will go live on the technology with its first three physicians early next month.

The San Antonio-based UPSA ACO selects TMA PracticeEdge’s turnkey ACO solution, including population health management tools, care coordination resources, and IT services. UPSA, which has 48 physicians from 32 different primary care practices, will use the new solution as part of a value-based agreement with BCBS of Texas that starts in January.

Medent integrates dashboard analytics and business intelligence reporting solutions from DashboardMD into its EHR and PM tools.

CVS launches a new app that generates medication reminders, and allows users to submit prescriptions and insurance cards by taking a picture of them.

Research and Innovation

MIT researchers attempt to give traditional wearable fitness trackers a run for their money by developing a smartphone that can capture similar readings while sitting near the user in a bag or purse. The BioPhone receives biological signals from its accelerometer, and can capture small body movements that result from heart beats and breathing. They haven’t yet cracked how to reliably measure heart and breathing rates when the phone is in different spots, such as a pocket.

Other

Crain’s New York looks at the business of CityMD, a New York City-based urgent care chain of 48 clinics that is on the cusp of expanding into New Jersey. While the article does spend some time focusing on the company’s use of healthcare IT (telemedicine and proprietary Aftercare software, to name a few), it was CEO Richard Park, MD’s quip about inner office communications that really grabbed my attention: “The crux of it is we love people. It’s trite, but it’s true. When we yell at people or our staff yells at each other, it’s because we’re upset when patients aren’t cared for, or when they wait too long.” Perhaps it’s the yelling that explains the “somewhat chilly reception from insurers and primary-care clinicians who have doubts about the chain’s ability to keep people healthy.”

And I thought Google Glass was dead: The local paper profiles Andrew Laster, MD the first rheumatologist in the country and first physician in the Southeast to adopt the technology. Laster uses the smart glasses in conjunction with real-time scribe services provided by Augmedix. “I would never go back,” said Laster. “In terms of dictating on the computer, it saves me easily an hour and a half every day. And it frees me up to go in the room, sit down and look the patient in the eye.”

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the New York Health Plan Association 2015 Annual Conference November 18-19 in Albany.

Blog Posts

• Measuring the Mission (Healthwise)
• Increase practice revenue through benchmarking, steps 1 and 2 of 5 (AdvancedMD)
• HIT Breakdown 12 – Healthy Planet: Opportunities and challenges (Nordic)

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

News 11/17/15

Top News

ONC launches its newest advisory committee, the Certified Technology Comparison Task Force, which will collaborate on the development and maintenance of a certified EHR comparison tool. Task force members include representatives from AMA, Mayo Clinic, Vibrant Health Family Clinics, Missouri Cancer Associates, Tenet Healthcare, Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, the National Rural Health Resource Center, and ONC. The new committee will hold two hearings in January to hear from experts in the field, and then work to compile its recommendations for a MACRA-mandated report ultimately due to Congress in April.

Webinars

November 18 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Making VDI Secure and Simple for Healthcare.” Sponsored by Park Place International. Presenters: James Millington, group product line marketing manager, VMware; Erick Marshall, senior systems engineer of virtual desktop infrastructure, Park Place International. Deployment of a virtual solution can optimize the experience of clinician users. Attendees will learn how to address the evolving demands of security and mobility in clinician workflow to improve the quality of care.

November 20 (Friday) 2:00 ET. “The Athenahealth Leadership Institute Presents: Dr. John Halamka Interviewed by Jonathan Bush.” Sponsored by Athenahealth. Presenters: John Halamka, MD, MS, CIO, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Jonathan Bush, CEO, Athenahealth. Providers are fed up with interface fees and the lengthy, fragmented narratives we’re exchanging today. But what is the right course of action to help deliver better care across the continuum? Bring your questions as we join Dr.Halamka and Jonathan Bush to discuss the current state of healthcare and how we can improve care coordination and interoperability.

December 2 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “The Patient is In, But the Doctor is Out: How Metro Health Enabled Informed Decision-Making with Remote Access to PHI.” Sponsored by Vmware. Presenters: Josh Wilda, VP of IT, Metro Health; James Millington, group product line manager, VMware. Most industries are ahead of healthcare in providing remote access to applications and information. Some health systems, however, have transformed how, when, and where their providers access patient information. Metro Health in Grand Rapids, MI offers doctors fast bedside access to information and lets them review patient information on any device (including their TVs during football weekends!) saving them 30 minutes per day and reducing costs by $2.75 million.

December 3 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “501(r) Regulations – What You Need to Know for Success in 2016.” Sponsored by TransUnion. Presenter: Jonathan Wiik, principal consultant, TransUnion Healthcare Solutions. Complex IRS rules take effect on January 1 that will dictate how providers ensure access, provide charity assistance, and collect uncompensated care. This in-depth webinar will cover tools and workflows that can help smooth the transition, including where to focus compliance efforts in the revenue cycle and a review of the documentation elements required.

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

#HIStalking Tweet Chat – Ensuring the Patient’s Voice is Heard

The next #HIStalking tweet chat will take place Thursday, November 19 at 12pm ET. Nonprofit Healthwise (@healthwise) will host. Check out topics here.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Health IT and RCM solutions vendor TeamPraxis will market and sell Athenahealth products to physicians in Hawaii.

Healthcare staffing firm AMN Healthcare acquires executive search and advisory services firm B.E. Smith for $160 million.

Announcements and Implementations

AdvancedMD and its “ICD-10 Posse” report that all of its clients smoothly transitioned to ICD-10 by the October 1 deadline, and that clearing-house and carrier-level rejections have decreased from ICD-9 levels. Successful claims are at the highest level ever seen by the company’s clients.

IPatientCare develops a Peer to Peer portal to help physicians collaboratively manage and track referrals, schedule appointments, and share patient charts.

New York City-based human services agency PSCH integrates mobile patient engagement solutions, including text messaging, from Sense Health into its Assertive Community Treatment program for mentally ill Medicaid patients. 

Performance Physical Therapy implements Clinicient’s Insight PM solution across its nine practices in Rhode Island.

Connect Healthware adds NetDirector’s health data exchange capabilities to its Chart EHR.

Telemedicine

Chattanooga, TN-based startup WeCounsel Solutions sees a 35-percent increase over the last three months in telemedicine sessions conducted via its platform for private mental health practices.

Research and Innovation

An American Journal of Managed Care study of 27 high-performing primary care practices highlights eight recommendations for Stage 3 Meaningful Use clinical quality measurement requirements:

• CQMs should be evidence-based, focused on high-priority conditions, and relevant for primary care physicians.
• A few core CQMs focused on public health issues should apply to all eligible providers.
• The focus of CQMs should largely be on outcomes.
• Reporting of CQMs should limit burden on providers.
• Consider performance thresholds for some CQMs.
• EHRs should have capabilities to capture patient-generated data, which could be incorporated into CQMs.
• Locally developed CQMs can encourage innovation.
• Population management tools are vital to improving quality.

Other

AMA formally adopts several new health IT-related policies at its Interim Meeting this week, including working to revise quality standards and Meaningful Use requirements; accelerating the development and adoption of “universal and enforceable” EHR interoperability standards for all vendors before the Medicare Incentive Based Payment kicks in, and developing model state legislation that will help increase physicians registration and use of state-based prescription drug monitoring programs. That particular policy incorporates a demand for ONC to delay MU until real-time integration between EHRs and PDMPs has been achieved. Media reports also suggest that AMA backed off its proposed guidelines for the ethical practice of telemedicine, sending them back to the drawing board for a lack of focus on medical specialties and telemedicine-related liability.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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

5 Questions with Peter Weigel, MD Medical Associates of Westfield

Peter Weigel, MD is a PCP at Medical Associates of Westfield (NJ). The practice sees between 25 and 35 patients a day via its two full-time physicians and one part-time physician. MAW also employs a part-time NP and two full-time receptionists. It attested for Stage 2 Meaningful Use this year using Hello Health’s EHR and patient portal, and began participating in the Medicare chronic-care management incentive program earlier this year.

1. How long has the CCM initiative been running, and what type of outcomes have you seen?
We started participating in CCM in June. It’s too early to see any significant outcomes; however, we have several patients to whom we were alerted that there was a problem. This allowed us to reach out to them and address the problem, either over the phone or by an office visit earlier than scheduled.

2. What types of technology have enabled your practice to participate in CCM strategies?
Our EHR offers CCM services. We have been working with our vendor from the outset. They have a call center, and can access our EHR to obtain patient information and enter phone-call content.

3. What are your practice’s CCM goals?
I hope to enroll all eligible patients, and to use CCM to improve their overall health and decrease hospitalizations.

4. Have you received any incentives yet?
We have submitted charges to Medicare and are beginning to see some payments. Medicare pays between $42 and$48 dollars per patient per month for CCM. They are paying in the same timely fashion as they do for all other submitted charges, on average in about two weeks. They pay 80 percent of allowable and the patient’s secondary insurance pays the other 20 percent. There has not been an issue so far. 

I think that, with a large enough practice, this could be a significant revenue generator, especially because you as the physician do not have to do the majority of the work. You just have to review what has been done and sign off on the note. Of course, if you use a company such as Hello Health, you’ll need to split the income, but you would in essence be splitting it if you did it all in your office because you would have to pay someone to be the coordinator and make the calls. All in all, I think it is a reasonable amount of income for the amount of work necessary. It is also a way for physicians to “get their feet wet” in outcomes-based reimbursement, which will be the payment model in the future.

5. What advice do you have for other independent physicians looking to undertake CCM projects?
It probably does not make sense from a monetary or personnel standpoint to attempt to do CCM on your own, especially if you are a solo or small group practice. It makes more sense to connect with a vendor that offers a turnkey service so that you can get set up and hit the ground running. The money you spend for the service is more than made up for in decreased personnel costs and headaches.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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