Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 10/4/15

Predictive analytics WPC Healthcare completes its management buyout from Washington Publishing Company. The now-independent business will now focus on developing and rolling out its Taproot SaaS and other predictive analytics solutions. Guy Crossley (GAC Ventures) has joined WPC as president.

Market research firm CentraForce launches CentraForce Health and its Population 360° Health Intelligence Platform, which enables payers and providers to dive into the location and quantification of populations by disease type, payer type, and other types of criteria.

Patient engagement solutions vendor Emmi and population health technology company Valence Health partner to develop outreach campaigns targeted to specific patient populations, particularly those that have fallen through care gaps. Physician’s Health Services, an independent physicians’ association based in Dalton, GA, has signed on to implement the new service.

Fairfax Family Practice Centers (VA) partners with Privia Medical Group, a multispecialty practice owned by Privia Health, a national PM and population health technology company. “Privia Health has the resources, technology tools, and proven performance in population health management that, when combined with our physician expertise in primary care medicine, will enable us to provide higher quality care for our patients, better access, and improved ability to manage the health of our population in the coming years,” says FFPC CEO Lauri Rustand.

PBS covers Air Louisville, a project in which asthmatics use “smart” inhalers with Propeller Health’s sensor attached to contribute to a database that matches the severity of their symptoms to their GPS-reported locations at the time, helping the city understand how poor air quality affects the 13 percent of its residents with asthma.

Post-acute care consulting firm Pathway Health will integrate PointRight’s predictive analytics solutions into its consultancy. The two companies will in the weeks ahead further partner to develop analytics-driven solutions that assist providers in measuring outcomes, managing costs, and reducing risk.

R&D firm PCCI partners with The US Oncology Network to develop oncology solutions that will run on PCCI’s Pieces software, which interprets real-time EHR data into intervention warning tools. The solutions, developed for Stage IIIb/IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer, will help PCCI developers engineer software that will help physicians make faster, more effective treatment decisions.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic’s Kevin Dumser and his son’s battled with childhood cancer is featured in the local paper.
• NVoq will exhibit at the American College of Pathologists Annual Meeting October 4-7 in Nashville, TN.
• Intelligent Medical Objects will exhibit at the MUSE International Medical Users Software Exchange October 7-8 in Liverpool, UK.

Contacts

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

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News 10/1/15

Top News

ICD-10 is upon us, and every media outlet (and Twitter bot) around seems to be jumping on the coverage bandwagon. The Texas Tribune makes a somewhat tenuous connection between EHRs, ICD-10, and the booming Texas market for medical scribes – a market that was surely picking up speed well before ICD-10 was delayed the first time. The article packs a more solid punch in highlighting the reactions of local physicians to the new code set, ranging from guardedly optimistic to akin to an “expensive headache.” Texas Medical Association President Tom Garcia III, MD puts things in perspective: “I hope patients will not notice any delays or changes in quality of care, but every doctor I’ve talked to is very, very worried.”

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Happy ICD-10 transition day! (Or should I be offering condolences?) An industry friend tells me he’s been up to his “eyeballs building ICD-10 physician documentation templates for this day for the last three months. It’s nice that it’s actually here now and everyone can take a breather for 30 seconds.” I’d love to hear from physicians in the field, not to mention vendor help desk reps, regarding how your October 1 has gone thus far. Share your anecdotes via the comments below.

If you’re a HIStalk Practice, HIStalk, or HIStalk Connect sponsor exhibiting at MGMA, complete this form and we’ll include your company in our attendee guide. I’ll be reporting from Nashville during the event, which kicks off October 11.

Webinars

October 7 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Develop Your Analysts and They’ll Pay for Themselves.” Sponsored by Health Catalyst. Presenters: Peter Monaco, senior business intelligence developer, Health Catalyst; Russ Stahli, VP, Health Catalyst. It takes years for analysts to develop the skills they need to build reports and dashboards that turn data into valuable insights. This webinar will describe how to cultivate those analytical skills, including technical prowess and adaptive leadership. Leaders will learn how to develop a culture that fosters improvement, how to encourage analysts to develop the right skills, and ways to remove the barriers that stand in their way.

Contact Lorre for webinar services.

Announcements and Implementations

WEDI announces that its searchable ICD-10 Issue Reporting Database will remain live after October 1. The database, developed with CMS, was launched early last year to offer providers transitional support and resources leading up to the ICD-10 conversion.

The COPD Foundation and Washington, D.C.-based ViiMed partner to develop COPD360coach, an interactive website and app for health education, coaching, and wellness monitoring for COPD patients of health systems and ACOs.

Procentive adds JReport BI tools to its EHR SaaS tool for behavioral and mental health physicians.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

PerfectServe closes a $21 million round of financing led by MemorialCare Health System’s MemorialCare Innovation Fund, with additional support from CHV Capital, Piper Jaffray, River Cities Capital Funds, and Ares Capital Corp. The Knoxville, TN-based company will use the new funds to further develop its Synchrony care communication and collaboration tool.

People

Bysakh Bhasi joins Green Circle Health as CTO.

Telemedicine

Atlanta-based MedZed raises $3.2 million from unnamed investors to hire additional staff and further develop its house-call platform, including telemedicine and remote-monitoring technologies.

Entra Health Systems adds video consults to its MyHealthPoint platform for physicians, clinical researchers, and caregivers.

The ATA awards its fifth Accreditation for Online Patient Consultations to Upstate Concierge Medicine (NY), which provides concierge care via telemedicine.

A dozen healthcare trade groups and providers write to Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) in support of increased coverage of telemedicine and remote-patient monitoring options during the transition period to implementation of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act. The authors ask that Congress “create a transition mechanism by which the Secretary of Health and Human Services may lift originating site restrictions, and allow payment for remote monitoring of beneficiaries suffering from chronic diseases. We believe these reforms should remain in effect until at least the year 2021 as a bridge for providers who have committed to changing their practices to comply with MACRA or for ACOs working to achieve risk-based models. Such a transition period would facilitate preparation and serve as a glide path to a new era of value-based care. “

Government and Politics

ONC convenes the 5th Annual Consumer Health IT Summit in Washington, D.C., taking advantage of the somewhat captive audience to unveil a new interactive tool that outlines steps physicians can take to educate patients about online capabilities available via their patient portals.

Other

The 1000 Genomes Project Consortium creates the world’s largest catalog of genomic variants among humans, offering researches a standardized reference for how the genomic make-up of populations varies around the world. Consortium scientists anticipate the catalog will be used in a range of studies related to medicine and biology, and will help researchers better understand how inherited differences in DNA can contribute to drug response and disease risk.

It seems many healthcare professionals took my advice yesterday regarding laughing their way through ICD-10 today. I’m hopeful that humor really is the best medicine.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 9/30/15

Top News

The AMA hosts a Town Hall meeting in Waltham, MA with the Massachusetts Medical Society, offering physicians a chance to vent their frustrations with EHRs, Meaningful Use, vendors, audits … the list could go on and on. Massachusetts physician concerns are warranted, given that over 80 percent use EHRs but only 25 percent have achieved Stage 2 of Meaningful Use. AMA President Steven Stack, MD was enthusiastic in his cry for postponement of Stage 3, echoing a letter the AMA and 41 other medical societies sent to HHS earlier this month. The meeting, held just a few months after a similar gathering in Atlanta, is part of the association’s Break the Red Tape awareness campaign. 

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

If you’re a HIStalk Practice, HIStalk, or HIStalk Connect sponsor exhibiting at MGMA, complete this form and we’ll include your company in our attendee guide. I’ll be reporting from Nashville during the event (assuming my press pass gets the ok), which kicks off October 11.

Webinars

October 7 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Develop Your Analysts and They’ll Pay for Themselves.” Sponsored by Health Catalyst. Presenters: Peter Monaco, senior business intelligence developer, Health Catalyst; Russ Stahli, VP, Health Catalyst. It takes years for analysts to develop the skills they need to build reports and dashboards that turn data into valuable insights. This webinar will describe how to cultivate those analytical skills, including technical prowess and adaptive leadership. Leaders will learn how to develop a culture that fosters improvement, how to encourage analysts to develop the right skills, and ways to remove the barriers that stand in their way.

Contact Lorre for webinar services.

Announcements and Implementations

On3Health, developer of the Lifestyle Health Record for chronic care management, joins the Greenway Health Marketplace of value-added partners. In related news, Greenway names genomic decision-support company ActX its Marketplace Partner of the Month.

Healthwise adds a lung cancer screening decision aid to its library of shared decision-making solutions.

PrecisionBI launches a more affordable and customizable version of its enterprise analytics solution for physician practices using GE Healthcare’s Centricity Practice Solution.

Intelligent Medical Objects offers a free trial of IMO Anywhere, an iOS or Android app that allows clinicians to document from any location with ICD-10 drill-down capability and 460,000 terms.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Advertising, marketing and branding firm Grey Healthcare Group acquires a minority interest in OptimizeRx, a Rochester, MI-based technology company that enables pharmaceutical companies to provide services at the point of care via EHR.

Research and Innovation

The latest edition of the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Physician Practice Environment Index likely fueled the fire of many who attended the AMA town hall event yesterday. The latest statistics put the state’s practitioners behind many of their national counterparts, and highlights the challenges they’ll have to overcome to keep up including the cost of doing business, housing expenses, and comparatively lower physician salaries. MMS President Dennis Dimitri, MD pointed out that the index doesn’t even address the “growing burdens of administrative, regulatory, and legislative requirements and mandates, all of which rob physicians of the valuable time necessary for caring for patients.”

People

Nightingale elects David Atkins (Actra Fraternal Benefit Society) chairman of the board.

Wanda Filer, MD moves from president-elect to president of the AAFP.

Government and Politics

Congressional calls for the delay of various stages of Meaningful Use have become hard to keep up with. The latest example: Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) of the Senate’s HELP Committee ask the administration to immediately delay implementation of Meaningful Use Stage 2 to at least January 1, 2017 and then a phase in of Stage 3 based on provider readiness. They join a 116-member bipartisan group asking for the same delay.

Telemedicine

A Kalorama report shows that telemedicine apps account for 40 percent of all healthcare app sales – a market worth $489 million.

Other

A California dermatology practice notifies patients that its document scanner was inadvertently exposing their records on the Internet.

Robots may be taking over certain parts of healthcare, but it seems they won’t hack their way to assembling Ikea furniture anytime soon. Researchers in Singapore put a robot through its furniture-assembling paces, only to discover that Ikea’s pesky little wooden dowels pose a pretty big problem, resulting in the robot “looking like two inebriated humans trying to put the furniture together in slow motion.” 

Eric Topol, MD pitches the benefits of digital health (and his book) on CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer.

It might be too late to prepare for ICD-10, but it’s never too late to laugh your way through it.

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima Medical Software will exhibit at the Texas Pediatric Society annual meeting October 1-2 in Sugarland.
• Billian’s HealthData interviews David Sindelar, CEO, St. Anthony’s Medical Center.

Blog Posts

• Strategies to enhance your scheduling process, steps 4-5 (AdvancedMD)
• Bulletproofing Your Finances against ICD-10 (Greenway Health)

HIStalk Practice sponsors exhibiting at the AAFP FMX Annual Meeting September 29-October 3 in Denver:

• Aprima Medical Software
• EClinicalWorks
• E-MDs
• Greenway Health

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Contact us online.
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5 Questions with Alix Goss, Executive Director, Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority

Alix Goss is executive director of the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority, which works to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes across the state via the secure exchange of electronic health data. The authority announced late last month that it would provide at least $10 million in onboarding grants to help connect practices and hospitals to its Pennsylvania Patient & Provider Network HIE.

How does the Authority work with physician practices?
The Authority’s certified participants provide services directly to providers, including physician practices. Providers and other end-users of electronic health information exchange (eHIE) connect to private-sector health information organizations (HIOs), who then connect to the Authority’s PA Patient & Provider Network (P3N).

Why did the Authority decide the time was right to announce additional funding to help connect providers to the P3N?
Programs that help HIOs to connect providers to the P3N will help to incentivize both the providers and the HIOs to join P3N and accelerate the build towards a critical mass of participation. However, Authority grant programs are predicated on the Authority’s ability to identify funding from private-sector donors, other agencies, and/or federal sources. The current announcement is based on proposed funding from CMS. Awards to the HIOs are contingent on actual awards by CMS. One of the challenges with the previous grant opportunities was the compressed performance period. We are announcing the grant in advance of the actual award to give us a head start on accepting and processing applications from the HIOs, so as to afford the HIOs the maximum possible time to perform the work of connecting providers to their networks using the grant funds.

Where are Pennsylvania’s physician practices in terms of connectivity to P3N and other HIEs within the state?
Measuring connections by physician practices is more complicated than it might seem. While some practices are connecting to the P3N via direct connections with HIOs, many more may be connected by virtue of their participation in integrated delivery networks (IDNs) anchored by a hospital system that is connected. In the past, not all HIOs have collected information about these subsidiary connections. We are working with the HIOs to develop measurement techniques and practices that will provide the Authority with consistent information across the various network participants. We anticipate this data will be available in early 2016.

Does the Authority have any measurable goals when it comes to connecting physician practices to the P3N?
Our goals for calendar year 2015 involved getting the HIOs connected to the P3N. We anticipate that all four existing HIOs currently operating in the Commonwealth will be connected by December or, at the latest, in early 2016, with any other HIOs that emerge in the coming years to join as soon as practical. We anticipate working aggressively to accelerate hospital connections to the P3N-participating HIOs at least through September 2016, with a stretch goal of connecting at least 90 percent of the facilities that are eligible under proposed Authority grant programs (approximately 125 facilities). Currently, about 27 percent of these eligible facilities are affiliated with a HIO. Also in 2016, we will work with the HIOs and their connected facilities to better understand affiliations between other facilities and physician offices with the grant-eligible facilities, which will in turn allow us to set goals and focus outreach efforts for connections with those who are not affiliated.

How have you seen physician practice adoption of P3N increase and impact patient outcomes since it was launched?
As noted above, and due to the nature of our partnership with the private-sector HIOs in advancing eHIE in Pennsylvania, the Authority does not yet have concrete information regarding growth in physician practice participation in the HIOs. The HIOs will be obligated to provide this information to the Authority only once they are connected to the network. Part of our strategic plans calls for the Authority to undertake surveys of the facilities and physician practices after they are connected to the HIOs, and then the P3N, to gather evidence of changes in patient outcomes deriving from eHIE. We anticipate the first of these surveys in mid- to late 2016, with results published towards the end of the year. In the meantime, the Authority continues to facilitate efforts across the HIOs and with input from other stakeholders to help ensure that the network we are mutually building is focused on supporting improved quality of care and better patient outcomes.

Bonus question: As Meaningful Use winds down, how do you foresee HIE increasing in relevance when it comes to creating true interoperability amongst providers?
A major advantage of the public-private partnership that is the basis of the P3N is that the HIOs are not merely building capabilities to satisfy Meaningful Use requirements, but rather building networks that deliver broader value-added services to providers. Likewise, features of the P3N go beyond minimal Meaningful Use requirements to ensure that the P3N has long-term relevance. For example, the design of the public health gateway, a single point of connection to enable reporting from providers to a variety of government agencies and registries, has long-term efficiency advantages both to the Commonwealth government (thus saving taxpayer money) and to the private-sector organizations who contribute data to these important public health initiatives.

While it is true that the EHR Incentive Program and Meaningful Use have accelerated adoption of both EHR and eHIE technology, the opportunities that these technologies have made possible (i.e. better coordination and transitions of care) are foundational to emerging population health-based care reform models such as accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes. The momentum behind these cost-saving and quality improvement efforts, and the commitment to them by national leaders such as CMS now seems quite likely to outlast Meaningful Use. While not certain, this seems to bode well for not only the continued relevance of eHIE, but the continued evolution of eHIE as an integral part of 21^st century standards of care and support for precision medicine.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 9/29/15

Top News

HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell awards $685 million to 39 regional and national healthcare networks (including medical group practices) as part of the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative – one of the federal government’s largest investments into the support of clinicians across all 50 states. The funds will enable awardees to make improvements in a number of areas related to healthcare technology including patient communication via email and other IT tools; real-time notification alerts for providers caring for high-risk patients; centralized data reporting; and technical assistance with quality improvement targets. 

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

There’s still time to celebrate! Check out this list of deals and freebies from local roaster and national retailers. I’m celebrating from my home office with an extra cup of half-caff in my almost-vintage HIStalk mug. I switched to the less buzzy version a few years ago in order to justify drinking more throughout the day. My cup will runneth over with the real stuff soon enough: I can’t seem to get through healthcare events like the upcoming MGMA conference without copious amounts of java from the press room.

Webinars

October 7 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Develop Your Analysts and They’ll Pay for Themselves.” Sponsored by Health Catalyst. Presenters: Peter Monaco, senior business intelligence developer, Health Catalyst; Russ Stahli, VP, Health Catalyst. It takes years for analysts to develop the skills they need to build reports and dashboards that turn data into valuable insights. This webinar will describe how to cultivate those analytical skills, including technical prowess and adaptive leadership. Leaders will learn how to develop a culture that fosters improvement, how to encourage analysts to develop the right skills, and ways to remove the barriers that stand in their way.

Contact Lorre for webinar services.

Announcements and Implementations

Claims clearinghouse vendor ClaimRemedi develops a Web-based client portal with improved workflow, data analytics, and reporting.

Chronic Care Management launches a suite of software tools to assist physicians with chronic care planning and management. Most intriguing (and refreshing) to me is the My Wishes, My Words feature, which gives patients the ability to document their healthcare goals so that physicians can better integrate them into care plans.

Panorama Orthopedic & Spine Center implements Skywriter MD’s virtual EHR assistance technology at its three locations in Denver.

Meditab Software integrates CoverMyMeds electronic prior authorization technology into its Intelligent Medical Software platform.

SourceMedical Solutions adds DrFirst’s e-medication management software to its software, analytics, and RCM tools for ambulatory surgical centers and rehabilitation centers.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

EClinicalWorks opens an office in Austin, TX that will employ 50 and include a training facility. The company is also expanding its Westborough, MA headquarters with the $21.5 million purchase of a 193,230 square-foot property five minutes from its current location. CEO Girish Navani plans to invest an additional $30 million to build it out over the next 12 months to accommodate 1,000 new employees.

People

Harbin Clinic (GA) promotes Kenna Stock to CEO. She is the first non-physician, and the first woman, to hold the position since the multispecialty group was founded in the late 1800s.

Telemedicine

The local news highlights the positive impact telemedicine services from Doc On are having at the Open Door Mission in Omaha, NE. The mission’s clinic now sees 200 patients a week via the virtual service. “It doesn’t compare to anything,” explains shelter resident Justin James. “When you’re down and out, you need places like this.”

American Well partners with workers’ compensation company CorVel Corp. to offer on-demand physician evaluations via telemedicine for employees with workplace injuries.

Research and Innovation

An 18-month home blood pressure-monitoring pilot project conducted by AMGA and Withings finds that blood pressure control rates of 150 patients improved from 38.6 percent to 70 percent between the first and last recordings using the Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor. The project, part of AMGA’s Measure Up/Pressure Down hypertension campaign, also helped to establish best practices for home blood pressure monitors in ambulatory care settings, such as patient recruitment, enrollment, and engagement; care process and therapy modifications; and patient and provider satisfaction.

Other

The AAFP’s annual Congress of Delegates policy meeting convenes in Denver to cover a wide range of issues affecting family medicine. The always intertwined issues of physician burnout and EHR dissatisfaction seem to be hot topics thus far.

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.