5 Questions with Kate Fischer, Director, Free Health & Healing Clinic

Kate Fischer is director of the Free Health & Healing Clinic at the Open Door Mission in Omaha, NE. The clinic implemented telemedicine services from Omaha-based DocOn, and now sees 200 patients a week via the virtual service.

What prompted the mission to look into adopting telemedicine technology?
DocOn came to us wanting to partner with us on a trial basis. The company has issued us vouchers so that our guests can use their services for free. When we do not have a medical provider on duty, the nurse can call DocOn to meet the needs of our guests.

What physicians is the mission partnering with for its telemedicine services?
DocOn provides physicians through its service. The type of physician that seems to be drawn to providing telemedicine service is entrepreneurial and constantly looking for innovative ways to reach and keep in touch with his patients.

Why did you choose to participate in a trial run with DocOn rather than working with another vendor? 
The idea was instantly accepted by our guests and is now used weekly in our clinic. DocOn founder Christy Armendariz comes twice a week and helps our volunteer nurses navigate through the system. It is quite simple to use and the nurses find it very efficient for our clientele. I have recommended it to others.

How receptive have mission residents/patients been to it?
They love it! Calling for a doctor’s appointment can be a two- to three-week wait. Calling DocOn in the clinic with the nurse present gets a quicker response to their need. Many guests come to us from being incarcerated, with health issues like high blood pressure but with no medications. Our nurse can call DocOn, the patient then registers, and the doctor comes on and visits with the guest and calls in the script to a nearby pharmacy. Medication is then picked up and started the same day. Providers can prescribe medications when medically necessary, but cannot prescribe any restricted medications via video.

Does the mission anticipate expanding its telemedicine services in the near future? How so?
Yes! DocOn has benefitted so many of our guests we are planning to obtain more vouchers to expand services.

Contacts

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

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Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 10/11/15

Orlando Health implements VigiLanz’s new BI and predictive analytics SaaS product, designed to help hospitals prevent readmissions, reduce medical errors, identify disease trends, and optimize clinical interventions.

San Francisco-based Healthline Networks launches data analytics business Talix in an effort to better differentiate its consumer health information and enterprise software businesses. HealthLine will transfer its health graph, NLP and search technologies, and its configurable clinical rules database over to the new subsidiary.

New Hampshire-based hospitals Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Elliot Health System, and Frisbie Memorial Hospital partner with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in a joint venture called Benevera Health that will provide care and share financial risk for 80,000 local residents. Harvard Pilgrim is talking with seven other hospitals about joining the venture. “Our new company is a game changer,” says Harvard Pilgrim CEO Eric Schultz. “The goal is to vastly improve patient care in New Hampshire by injecting personnel and new technology that will provide doctors and other clinicians with the information they need to help their patients make the best choices about their healthcare.”

Nonprofit collaborative Wilderness Health implements the EClinicalWorks CCMR population health tool across its nine health systems in rural Minnesota and Wisconsin.

McLaren Health Care (MI) chooses Cerner for EHR, revenue cycle, and population health management. McLaren selected McKesson Paragon and Allscripts EHR in 2010 and will replace both.

Albany, NY-based business leaders and government officials seek $500 million in state funding as part of an ambitious plan to turn the area into a cluster for population health technology innovation. The proposal calls for the development of collaborations and partnerships between area providers, payers, and vendors; a regional board to guide funding; and establishing partnerships with IBM Watson Health and GE Research to support data analytics. Other ideas include the creation of a neighborhood/testing ground for sensors and wearables. A funding decision is expected by the end of December.

Sponsor Updates

•  Intelligent Medical Objects will exhibit at the CHIME Fall CIO Forum 2015 October 14-17 in Orlando.
• The Wall Street Journal features PerfectServe’s latest round of funding in its Venture Capital Dispatch.

Blog Posts

• Embracing – and Igniting – Change (Medicity)

Contacts

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

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News 10/8/15

Top News

The Social Security Administration becomes the first government agency to join CommonWell, making it the organization’s 34th member. The agency requests over 15 million medical records from “almost every healthcare provider” to assist it with making decisions about 3 million disability claims each year. The announcement comes on the same day that Cerner announced it has signed up 75 clients, representing 1,200 care sites, for CommonWell’s interoperability services.

HIStalk Practice News and Announcements

The HIStalk Must See Exhibitors Guide for MGMA 15 is now live. Check out what some of our sponsors will be doing at the show, plus preview some great giveaways.

#HIStalking Tweet Chat

Loran Cook (@loranstefani) will host the next #HIStalking tweet chat on Thursday, October 15 at 1pm ET. Stay tuned for discussion topics. Check out past chat recaps here.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Government health IT contractor Apprio opens a new office in Baltimore to better support its work with CMS, which includes assisting with EDI standardization efforts and ICD-10 compliance reporting for provider claims.

Following in the footsteps of Greenway Health and Athenahealth, CareCloud launches the CareCloud Connect partner marketplace.

The ICD-10 transition may have gone smoothly, but that doesn’t mean providers and vendors aren’t still scrambling for qualified help, per the Craigslist ad above, which pegs the hourly  wage at $18-$25 based on experience. There’s no doubt many organizations will seek outsourcing help, too. It appears the Philippines – the world’s international call services hub – is ramping up to accommodate such US-based requests. IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines Chairman Dan Reyes anticipates that the new code set will open up more processing jobs, which the country will be well-equipped to fill given its large pool of qualified graduates.

Announcements and Implementations

Greenway Health names patient intake management solutions vendor Phreesia its Marketplace Partner of the Year for the second year in a row.

Radiology Associates of DeKalb (GA) renews its RCM services agreement with Zotec Partners

People

Randy Jones (UT Southwestern Medical Center) joins Culbert Healthcare Solutions as SVP of consulting services for the Western region.

Government and Politics

For those of you who haven’t quite got your fill of reading reactions to ONC’s Meaningful Use modifications, check out the well-organized and refreshingly brief takeaways from The Advisory Board. Health IT newcomers will especially appreciate the MU primer.

National Coordinator and HHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Health Karen DeSalvo, MD receives a 2015 Innovators in Health Award from the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation for her leadership in using healthcare IT for better public health and patient care.

Telemedicine

The MedWand team takes home the Health 2.0 Launch! Award for its telemedicine-friendly remote examination device. The win comes just a week after Eau Claire, WI-based Group Health Cooperative selected the MedWand device and accompanying Digital Onsite Clinic for its employer clients.

Cisco Systems partners with UNC Healthcare to open its third on-site medical practice for 4,800 employees and their families. The Research Triangle Park-based LifeConnections Health Center will be staffed by 25 UNC clinicians and comes equipped with the usual primary care trappings plus telemedicine capabilities, a Zen Suite for massages, and optometry services. Cisco will initially pay UNC for services rendered, after which the health system will assume some of the financial risk of patient care.

The ATA writes to the DEA in support of changing the rules related to prescription of controlled substances via telemedicine, which are currently hampered by The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act. “[T]he interpretation of the Act’s general prohibition of prescribing controlled substances by means of the internet has become overly restrictive,” the authors note. “Therefore, it is time to identify a structured yet flexible framework for appropriate online prescribing that recognizes long-standing practices by legitimate, licensed providers who offer needed medical services to a highly targeted group of patients.”

Research and Innovation

Boston Scientific launches the Connected Patient Challenge, a contest designed to encourage innovations in the use of remote-patient monitoring via such technologies as wearable, implantable or ubiquitous sensors. Submissions will be accepted through January 5 and finalists will be showcased at a live event in Cambridge, MA. Challenge winners will divvy up $25,000 in services for further idea development and potential piloting.

A Practice Fusion survey of clients before and after the ICD-10 transition shows that though just 18 percent felt prepared, only 17 percent found the switch to be disruptive to their practice. Most commonly used codes thus far include essential (primary) hypertension (I10); type 2 diabetes mellitus without complications (E11.9)’ hyperlipidemia, unspecified (E78.5); low back pain (M54.5); and anxiety disorder, unspecified (F41.9). I wonder which physician practice will be the first to recognize some of the wacky codes we’ve heard so much about.

Other

Former Senator Bill Frist, MD documents his most recent trip to Cuba – the third this year, this time paying a call to a family care physician in Havana. Though Mercedes Pina, MD has no EHR or PM tools, lacks many of the most basic medical supplies, and cares for nearly 400 patients with the assistance of a single nurse, she is a familiar and trusted figure that clearly connects with her patients. “I’m struck by how powerful a tool healthcare can be for diplomacy,” Frist explains. “The differences between our country and hers are vast and complicated, but sitting down together — physician with physician — Dr. Pina and I find much common ground. We can learn from one another. We love our communities and we want to build healthy habits and enable healthy choices for the people in them.”

Contacts

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

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HIStalk’s Must-See Exhibitors Guide for MGMA 2015

We’ve put together a list of HIStalk sponsors exhibiting at this year’s MGMA conference in Nashville, TN. Take a moment to look over the products and innovations (and giveaways!) our sponsors plan to showcase, and map out your trip to the exhibit hall accordingly. We’ve also included contact information for those sponsors who will not be exhibiting, but will be available for one-on-one meetings.

AdvancedMD
Booth 1419

Let AdvancedMD show how you can achieve the freedom to practice and remain independent by choice. AdvancedEHR and AdvancedPM automate your practice within a comprehensive and unified cloud ecosystem to optimize your entire staff workflow. In-booth mini sessions will run through the conference and include best practices for billing professionals, easy financial reporting of most any practice metric with AdvancedInsight, and our new peer-to-peer financial benchmarking product. We’ll also debuting our AdvancedExchange interop tools that connect all your health information systems together within and across AdvancedMD.

Aprima Medical Software
Booth 1202

Aprima provides innovative EHR, PM, and RCM solutions for medical practices. The Aprima EHR/PM is an integrated system built on a single database. Aprima uses a fast, flexible design that adapts automatically to a physician’s workflow and sets the benchmark for ease-of-use, speed, and flexibility. Thousands of Aprima users are benefiting from improved quality of care, improved patient satisfaction, improved quality of life, and an improved bottom line. Stop by booth 1202 to see for yourself how Aprima documents visits with lightning speed and get a free stopwatch to compare us to any other EHR.

Clockwise.MD
Booth 1735

Clockwise.MD helps you manage the psychology of waiting to improve patient satisfaction. There are three things that patients dislike about waiting – uncertain durations, unexplained waits, and waits perceived as unfair. Clockwise.MD addresses each by keeping patients up-to-date and informed of their personal wait situation, and by giving them the flexibility to control their wait experience. Patients can choose a time to come in from the Web; and receive text notifications so that they can wait at home, run errands, or get a cup of coffee instead of waiting in the waiting room. Patients can check their status from a dashboard in the lobby. Clockwise.MD also measures satisfaction through post-visit, text-based Net Promoter Score survey questions, and increases positive online reviews. Visit us in booth 1735 and register to win a set of QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones.

CompuGroup Medical US
Booth 814

CompuGroup Medical US will be in Nashville for MGMA15! We will showcase our superior data aggregation and business intelligence solution CGM ANALYTICS, an advanced business intelligence solution designed to provide healthcare organizations with a whole new way to interact with data! Reserve your personalized demo/consultation and learn how you can leverage CGM Analytics to paint a true picture of the clinical, financial, and operational status of your organization or practice. RSVP Today! Text “ANALYTICS814” to 22828.

EClinicalWorks
Booth 417

EClinicalWorks is a privately-held leader in healthcare IT solutions, providing a “next generation” comprehensive EHR and PM solution in addition to population health, patient engagement, and RCM tools. With strong interoperability and patient engagement technologies, EClinicalWorks extends the EHR beyond practice walls to create community-wide records. More than 100,000 physicians across all 50 states utilize EClinicalWorks with customers including physician practices, out-patient departments of hospitals, ACOs, health centers, health systems, departments of health, and convenient care clinics. Stop by the EClinicalWorks booth to learn about new developments and see live demos. Visit www.eclinicalworks.com for more information.

Healthfinch
Booth 1240

MGMA attendees who schedule booth meetings with Healthfinch ahead of time will be entered for a chance to win an iPad mini. During exhibit hours, Healthfinch staff will be on hand to provide brief product demos.

Intelligent Medical Objects
Booth 735

Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO) has developed the most widely-accepted medical terminology solution for the management of medical vocabularies and software applications at healthcare organizations worldwide. IMO’s terminology is used by more than 3,500 hospitals and 400,000 providers daily, and IMO is partnered with virtually all major EHR vendors. IMO medical vocabulary and mapping products effectively capture clinical intent and help EHRs preserve and communicate this across the entire spectrum of care. IMO clinical terms are mapped to all standard coding systems including ICD-10-CM/PCS, CPT4, and SNOMED CT. IMO’s latest solution, IMO Anywhere, provides mobile access to Problem (IT) Terminology complete with ICD-10 modifiers, right from any Web browser, Apple iOS, or Android device. IMO will offer a free IMO Anywhere trial through October 2015; visit booth 735 and www.e-imo.com to start this free trial today.

Leidos Health
Booth 1742

Leidos Health is a leading healthcare IT consulting firm with deep clinical and technical expertise to support our customers in selecting, implementing, and optimizing information technology investments. Leidos Health offers a comprehensive range of technology services for healthcare providers – from vendor selection, strategy, design, implementation, and optimization, across all major EHR systems. Our professional services help providers meet regulatory requirements, optimize technology for their clinical workflows, improve collections and reduce receivables, and keep data safe. Stop by our booth (1742) to register for a chance to win a Garmin Vivofit fitness band.

Peer60
To schedule a meeting, contact Taylor Madsen tmadsen@peer60.com, 801. 358. 7106

Meet Reaction, the only healthcare market research platform designed specifically for forward-thinking business leaders. Generate leads while you gather strategy-guiding insights in days, not months. Text or email Taylor during the show for a demo and copies of our latest industry reports on Community Hospital EHR or Ambulatory EHR. tmadsen@peer60.com  801.358.7106

PerfectServe
Booth 730

PerfectServe provides healthcare’s only comprehensive and secure communications and collaboration platform uniting physicians, nurses, and other care team members across the continuum and facilitating timely interaction among them. With flagship solution PerfectServe SynchronyT, you can consolidate patient communication onto a single, secure platform; manage HIPAA compliance across voice, mobile, secure text, SMS, and other modes of communication; maintain your privacy so patients only see your office number when you return or make calls; and route calls based on your preferences for that moment in time. Join more than 50,000 physicians who use PerfectServe to manage patient care communications.

Versus Technology
Booth 1628

Are long wait times an issue in your practice? Do patients have difficulty scheduling appointments? Is your staff working at a frantic pace? Versus Advantages Clinic, named to Physician Practice Magazine’s “Top 10 List of Tech for Physicians,” helps you answer these challenges. Our automated patient flow system has helped medical groups across the nation eliminate their waiting rooms, increase capacity and access, increase patient time with physicians, and improve the patient experience. Learn more about Versus at booth 628, where you can also speak with a respected expert in patient flow Jim Stilley, MHA, FACHE, CASC. Every visitor will be entered to win an Apple Watch.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 10/7/15

Top News

CareSync announces $18 million in Series B funding with participation from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Greycroft Partners, and Harbert Venture Partners as well as existing investors. Founder and CEO Travis Bond tells me that the company plans to use the cash infusion to “invest heavily in research and development for both our consumer and provider-facing technologies. CareSync 3.0 will be the next generation in the patient-to-provider experience for coordinating care and information sharing.” He added that CareSync also plans to hire an additional 500 employees within the next 18 months, which will likely coincide with office additions and expansions across the country.

#HIStalking Tweet Chat

Loran Cook (@loranstefani) will host the next #HIStalking tweet chat on Thursday, October 15 at 1pm ET. Stay tuned for discussion topics. Check out past chat recaps here.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Silicon Valley startup Gliimpse launches the beta version of its automated personal health data platform for consumers. The self-funded company, just 18 months old, was selected as one of 10 finalists at Health 2.0’s Launch! competition.

New York City-based Cureatr opens an office in Carmel, IN, as part of its Midwest expansion. “We consider our expansion in Indiana well-aligned with many of our near-term and long-term growth goals,” says CEO Joseph Mayer, MD. “We recognize there is a lot of talent outside New York, and our office in Carmel gives us a base of operations from which to recruit and build a talent base.”

People

Suzanne Hansen (Tinder Hansen Consulting) returns to DaVita HealthCare Partners as senior vice president of new market integration. Hansen held various positions within the company, including VP of operations, between 1991 and 2013.

Stratice Healthcare adds Ken Majkowski (KEM Consulting) as chief strategy officer and Jeff Benning (Medication Management Systems) as CFO.

Announcements and Implementations

Carrollton, GA-based Fogo Data Centers joins the Greenway Health Marketplace of value-added partners. Fogo CEO Bill Esslinger served in several executive positions at Greenway from 1999-2013.

NATE transfers administration of its Provider-to-Provider Trust Bundle to the California Association of Health Information Exchanges. The bundle, NATE’s first, enables Direct messaging between providers across the nation. “California has been a core contributor to NATE since its days as the Western States Consortium, and CAHIE members include inaugural participants in NATE’s Provider-to-Provider Trust Bundle,” explains CAHIE Executive Director Robert Cothren. “This expanded relationship will allow our members to work more closely with NATE to share health information with consumers, while allowing CAHIE to focus on expanding exchange among provider organizations nationwide.”

Government and Politics

CMS’s proposed revised Meaningful Use standards will be published on Friday, October 16 with a 60-day comment period following, but are available now as a pre-publication PDF. It calls for a 90-day reporting period, removes some requirements, expands interoperability-related standards, encourages the use of APIs, and makes Stage 3 optional for 2017 and mandatory for 2018.

Research and Innovation

A survey gauging the love/hate relationship physicians have with technology finds their feelings aren’t as black and white as you might think. The love: 69 percent feel data and analytics positively impact their ability to efficiently assess patients; 63 percent say they derive value and improved outcomes from chart documentation; and close to 60 percent feel they help identify and triage high-need patients, and improve workflow efficiencies. The hate: Nearly 20 percent of physicians feel EHRs have negatively impacted their profession; and 60 percent feel that data and analytics tools have negatively impacted recordkeeping time.

A 2015 cyber crime costs study ranks healthcare near the bottom of 14 industries that are typically on the receiving end of such incidents. Financial services, energy and utilities, and defense and aerospace take up the top three spots, spending a combined $79.13 million on repairing the damage done by privacy and data breaches. The study’s authors make no bones about the fact that these kinds of costs are increasing, with the US far outpacing other countries in expenditures. It also notes that the most costly cyber crimes are those caused by denial of services, malicious insiders, and malicious code.

The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks Britain as the best place to die based on quality of palliative care, affordability, health are environment, and community engagement. The US came in ninth out of 10 high-income countries, with a score of 80.8, well below Britain’s score of 93.9. You have to wonder how the Holy Grail of interoperability induced meaningful use will impact palliative care in the States.

Telemedicine

Teladoc CEO Jason Gorevic calls news that the company’s stock dropped over 20 percent last week “massively overblown,” adding that there’s still “so much growth opportunity.” Stock prices fell on the news that Pennsylvania-based payer Highmark would not renew its contract with Teladoc – a deal that accounted for $1.5 million of the company’s projected $74.8 million revenue for the year. Highmark plans to switch some customers to similar offerings from American Well and Doctor on Demand.

Other

Wisconsin National Air Guard flight surgeon and Dean Clinic (WI) physician Brad Meyers, MD gives his boots-on-the-ground perspective of EHRs in response to a rather bland AAFP summary of EHR issues, offering a candid (and refreshing) take on the impact interoperability, Meaningful Use, and ICD-10 have had on his healthcare career as an independent and employed physician:

“I try to select the right code. The years of independent practice taught me the value of proper billing and coding. Do all my colleagues feel the same way? I rather doubt it. They bill for what they feel their service is worth rather than what they actually did. How much money is left on the table due to undercoding by a generous and caring family doc not wanting to burden his patient with bills? The health system says they cannot afford scribes for primary care. If I see two more patients per day, the scribe is paid for. Keep the patient education. Improve the interoperability. Encourage the facile communications with our subspecialist colleagues and move forward with chronic disease management and care coordination. The EHR helps with all of this. But give back to the physician that which the physician does best: building relationships with patients and managing complex medical problems. Then, someday, maybe, possibly … the EHR will show itself to be what it could be – a very useful tool in the care of the patient, a practice enhancer rather than a detractor.”

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima Medical Software will exhibit at the Patient-Centered Medical Home Congress October 9-11 in San Francisco.
• The local news features Aurora Health Care’s implementation of Clockwise.MD’s online reservation system.

Blog Posts

• Prepared for ICD-10 (AdvancedMD)
• The Next Milestone in Provider Payments: Shaping the Substance of MACRA (Greenway Health)
• How the Stars Aligned for Healthwise and Health Literacy (Healthwise)
• Nordic launches Strategic Affiliate Management training program (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.