News 9/8/15

Top News

CMS unveils its first plan to address health equity in Medicare, focusing on patient populations that experience disproportionately high rates of disease, barriers to accessing care, and lower quality of care. The program, which aims to reduce these disparities over the next four years, will prioritize efforts according to six specific areas:

• Expanding the collection, reporting, and analysis of standardized data.
• Evaluating disparity impact and integrating equity solutions across CMS programs.
• Developing and disseminating promising approaches to reduce disparities.
• Increasing the ability of the healthcare workforce to meet the needs of vulnerable  populations.
• Improving communication and language access for individuals with limited English proficiency and persons with disabilities.
• Increasing physical accessibility of healthcare facilities.

The announcement follows last week’s news of a HHS proposed rule, Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities, that the agency hopes will hopes will promote equal access to healthcare and coverage across its services and affiliated programs.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

The summer doldrums are behind us, which means the healthcare IT news will be flying fast and furiously between now and the holidays. Take advantage of special rates on HIStalk Practice sponsorships (HIStalk sponsors get an extra discount) to make sure your message stands out. Contact Lorre for details.

Fall fundraisers are in progress, with local schools looking to raise money through the usual assortment of holiday giftwrap, frozen cookie dough, and magazine subscriptions. I had to chuckle when I came across this $8 family medical journal. Paper is definitely dying a slow death in the world of healthcare record-keeping.

Webinars

September 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Need to cleanse, unify and manage the provider data in your EMR master file and other IT systems?” Phynd’s Unified Provider Management platform allows healthcare organizations to maintain a single, verified, customized profile for each provider across legacy IT systems. This 30-minute presentation will explain how Phynd’s system can help synchronize internal provider information in real time; create provider interoperability among systems; and manage, update, and analyze provider information with workflow tools to improve revenue cycle and clinical communication.

September 22 (Thursday) 12:00 ET. "Just Step on the Scale: Measure Ongoing EHR Success and Focus Improvements Using Simple but Predictive Adoption Metrics." Gene Thomas, CIO of Memorial Hospital of Gulfport, will share how his organization used an EHR adoption assessment to quickly target priorities in gaining value from its large Cerner implementation. Thomas and Heather Haugen, CEO of the Breakaway Group, will also share real-life results that prove the need for a disciplined approach to setting and measuring key success factors. Commit to taking that scary first step and step onto the scale, knowing that it will get measurably better every day.

Announcements and Implementations

MacPractice offers Updox integrated fax and document management services.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Los Angeles-based ZendyHealth looks to bring Priceline’s business model to healthcare. The startup has created a platform that allows users to pitch their prices for diagnostic services and treatments (Botox injections, teeth cleaning, CT scans, etc.) that participating providers can either accept or reject. Company founders believe it will give providers a way to fill empty appointment slots, and consumers a chance to find affordable care.

In other healthcare price transparency news, the local business paper profiles OkCoPay, a Seattle-based startup that has rolled out its up-front healthcare pricing app in 16 cities. The company, which is looking to raise its first seed round, offers premium listings and marketing tools to physicians and dentists for a monthly fee, and is in the process of developing online tools providers can use to manage their own listings.

Government and Politics

OCR selects FCI Federal to conduct its second round of HIPAA audits, which will include covered entities and business associates. OCR noted earlier this year that it will audit 150 of the 350 selected covered entities and 50 of the selected business associates for compliance with the Security Standards, 100 covered entities for compliance with the Privacy Standards, and 100 covered entities for compliance with the Breach Notification Standards.

The Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority makes available up to $10 million in grant funding to Pennsylvania HIOs interested in helping connect practices and hospitals to its statewide P3N HIE. The application period runs through June 30, 2016.

Research and Innovation

University of Illinois scientists develop a temporary “tattoo” (patch would be more accurate) that measures blood flow rates and skin hydration by responding to temperature changes in the wearer’s body. Users can upload pictures of their tattoos to an accompanying smartphone app that then translates the temperature data into a health report.

People

Ann Fisher-Jackson (March of Dimes) joins Keystone IT as director of marketing.

The Greater Houston Healthconnect names Deepak Chaudhry (Nexus Health Systems) CTO. 

Founding Rochester RHIO Executive Director Ted Kremer announces he will step down effective October 16. Associate Director Jill Eisenstein will serve as interim ED while the nonprofit works to fill the vacancy by early 2016.

Kerryanne Shuler (Athenahealth) joins MedEvolve as SVP of RCM and analytics.

Telemedicine

Mount Pleasant Retirement Village implements TripleCare’s telemedicine solution for after-hours care across its multi-facility campus in Monroe, OH.

Houston Clinics implements the Aeon Clinical Laboratory and Authentidate telehealth platform to deliver remote mental health and rehab treatment to up to 10,000 patients at eight facilities. It is the first roll out of the combined solution since the two companies announced their intent to merge late last month. Houston Clinics hopes to roll the technologies out to 160 clinics in the near future.

Other

The Washington Post takes an intimate look at the growing role medical actors play in training future physicians in the art of conducting gynecological and urological exams. Retired salesman and US Army veteran Jim Sandloop, who has subjected himself to 1,000 such experiences, jokes that,“If this is their first examination, they’re going to be trying to stare a hole through the wall over here, because their world’s about to end as they know it.”

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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HIStalk Practice Interviews Clive Fields, MD Co-Founder, VillageMD

Clive Fields, MD is co-founder of VillageMD, a Deerfield, IL-based consulting firm that specializes in assisting primary care practices with business development, value-based contracting, and analytics-driven decision-making.

What prompted you to help found the company?
The past few years, and as far as the eye can see, will pose both challenges and opportunities for primary care physicians. The move to value-based payment and the increasing focus on wellness, prevention, and management of chronic illness is exactly what PCPs have been trained for. Success in those areas will not be easy. It will require organizational changes, the adaptation of technology, and access to capital that most physicians have no experience with. VillageMD was founded to help physicians meet those needs. Our goal is to provide PCPs with all the tools necessary to drive improved quality and cost efficiencies through the healthcare system.

What type of practices seem most attracted to the VillageMD model?
We are currently in discussions with physicians in every type of model you can imagine – independent groups seeking to remain independent, small groups looking to grow, and hospital-employed groups interested in accelerating their change to value-based contracting. We originally focused on independent physician groups interested in growing in a local market. For those we offer a complete PM solution including a robust population health infrastructure. Allowing physicians the time to do what they do best – taking care of patients – is driving this type of group to VillageMD. Large hospital groups are struggling with change just as are independent physicians. Those groups are interested in technology, work flow and our payer experience as they move towards population-based change. On the surface, the hospital-based and independent physicians seem completely different, but similar clinical goals in managing a population successfully are attracting them to VillageMD.

Our initial client was an independent group in Houston. Over the last two years we have seen that group move almost all of their commercial and Medicare patients into value-based arrangements, while at the same time growing the group size and adding two additional locations. We have also helped the Houston group grow a citywide, affiliated primary care network. In August, we announced a relationship in the Indiana market with a large hospital system providing a population health infrastructure to a large group of employed physicians. We will work to help this group move to successful implementation of value-based contracts, while at the same time helping them grow a larger geographic footprint for both their employed and affiliated physicians. We have an executive team in the Illinois and New Hampshire markets, and anticipate announcing new relationships in the near future.

How are physician practices using analytics to improve outcomes and increase access?
For physicians to be successful in this new payment model, clinical pathways will have to be focused on populations not individual patients. These should all be informed and measured with data. Nothing will ever replace the value of a physician-patient relationship, but to extend reach beyond the traditional exam room will require the use of analytics. We currently use analytics to identify utilization trends, improve quality metrics, and increase patient attribution. Physicians need to know who their patients are, what contacts they are having with the healthcare system, and what opportunities can be reasonably predicted that will improve their clinical outcomes.

How does this utilization differ from what was done just five years ago? Where do you see analytics taking primary care in the future?
For most of my career, patient contacts were limited to scheduled clinical appointments. The use and availability of data lets me identify quality gaps and clinical opportunities, and reach out proactively to help them meet their needs. Being able to identify a group of patients with poorly controlled diabetes and reach out to them with education and support, not one at a time but as a group to improve their diabetic metrics, is both clinically effective and administratively efficient.

The future in medical technology and analytics is really exciting. I believe we will see disease management and population-based data completely integrated into the EHR. The processes we use now to identify and contact high risk-patients will become automated, driving improved and efficient outcomes. This is the advance that needs to happen to move from the electronic documentation of a medical record to truly using an EHR to manage a population of patients. At VillageMD, we are moving in that direction, integrating a risk stratification tool into the EHR so that it is available at the point of contact between a physician and patient.

It seems the industry is looking to hospitals and health systems to lead the way in population health management, but I’m convinced primary care has an integral role to play. What are your thoughts?
In America we all benefit from the finest hospitals and specialty care in the world, and no change in our healthcare system should diminish that. Unfortunately, the focus on specialty care has created a fragmented and expensive system that is not economically sustainable. I believe a similar focus on improved outpatient care, in the areas of wellness, prevention, and chronic-disease management, is where the next evolution of our healthcare system will occur. No one is better suited for that role than PCPs. Controlling a patient’s diabetes and avoiding renal disease blindness and other complications should be our clinical goal. Unfortunately, the system has been focused on managing rather than avoiding those outcomes. Successful value-based contacting and population management will drive resources to those physicians skilled in the prevention of disease complications, not only in the treatment of them.

Some would argue that primary care is hard put to dig itself out of the fee-for-service trenches. How do you see healthcare technology propelling the shift towards value-based care?
The healthcare system is struggling with the move away from fee-for-service medicine, including primary care. Those physician groups that are able to make decisions quickly and use data to pivot away from failures and towards success are in the best position. Organizations with streamlined administrative structures that allow physician voices to be heard in every aspect of the organization will do well in the future. The increasing use of technology continues to identify areas where PCPs can make an impact. Utilization, quality, and patient satisfaction metrics continue to identify the PCP as the lever that can most impact all three areas.

What’s next on your clients’ plates with regards to healthcare IT projects now that Meaningful Use is winding down and ICD-10 will soon be upon us?
Our clients continue to use IT to identify areas physicians can use data to improve clinical outcomes. The integration of utilization and risk stratification data into chronic care management and transition care management program is high priority. A consistent focus is moving information out of the IT department and to the place a physician can best use it – an office visit, telephone encounter, or e-visit.

What will the next five years hold for VillageMD?
The future is incredibly bright. The move to value-based reimbursement requires skillsets not currently present in most physician groups. We believe our experience, management team, and track record of success can provide those skills for many groups in the future.

Do you have any final thoughts?
Change is hard, and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t been through it. Now is the time for PCPs to use their unique position in the healthcare system to drive the kind of results we all strive for, across populations, insurance status, and disease states. The future has never been better for PCPs.

Contacts

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

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Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 9/4/15

Top News

Essentia Health is one of 11 Minnesota-based providers that will use State Innovation Model grant funding to ramp up data analytics efforts. The health system will use $313,000 to hire a data analyst who will focus solely on population health. The funds will also pay for Epic’s Healthy Planet software, which the new analyst will use to identify needs and trends found in Essentia’s Epic EHR.

Webinars

September 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Need to cleanse, unify and manage the provider data in your EMR master file and other IT systems?” Phynd’s Unified Provider Management platform allows healthcare organizations to maintain a single, verified, customized profile for each provider across legacy IT systems. This 30-minute presentation will explain how Phynd’s system can help synchronize internal provider information in real time; create provider interoperability among systems; and manage, update, and analyze provider information with workflow tools to improve revenue cycle and clinical communication.

September 22 (Thursday) 12:00 ET. "Just Step on the Scale: Measure Ongoing EHR Success and Focus Improvements Using Simple but Predictive Adoption Metrics." Gene Thomas, CIO of Memorial Hospital of Gulfport, will share how his organization used an EHR adoption assessment to quickly target priorities in gaining value from its large Cerner implementation. Thomas and Heather Haugen, CEO of the Breakaway Group, will also share real-life results that prove the need for a disciplined approach to setting and measuring key success factors. Commit to taking that scary first step and step onto the scale, knowing that it will get measurably better every day.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Dexter, MI-based consulting firm Tactical Strategies expands its healthcare IT services to include clinical analytics, and risk management and measures for population health management initiatives.

Analytics vendor MedeAnalytics sells a majority interest in the company to Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm that includes GHX, Hyland Software, SRS Software among its healthcare investments.

Announcements and Implementations

Western Connecticut Health Network chooses Cerner’s Millennium EHR, will upgrade its Soarian revenue cycle applications, and implement Cerner’s HealtheIntent population health management system.

ZeOmega announces that a managed Medicaid plan has expanded its use of the company’s Jiva population health management tool as part of its roll out of a new dual-eligibles program for its underserved members in 16 states and Washington, D.C.

People

Medecision promotes Kathy D’Amario to SVP/CTO.

Government and Politics

The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association develops the Community Health Dashboard to give users insight into key population and health statistics for each of the state’s 40 Senate districts or 100 House of Delegates districts. “Starting in September, we are meeting with all the delegates, senators and challengers,” explains Riverside Health System spokesman Peter Glagola. Riverside is one of six hospitals represented in the dashboard. “Our goal is to educate the legislators about Riverside Health System and what we do to keep our communities healthy and how legislation influences our business. We will be using the dashboards in our meetings with the legislators.”

Research and Innovation

The Institute for Family Health and HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley partner to create the Kingston, NY-based Center for Health Information Technology Research to Promote Population Health in Primary Care. The new center will use a two-year, $1.26 million grant from the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program to train six primary care-focused researchers in identifying effective methods for using healthcare IT to improve outcomes and reduce health disparities.

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to think that Epic has been in the population health management business for some time. CEO Judy Faulkner sustained the idea when she told attendees at this year’s Epic UGM that customers had exchanged 18 million patient records in July alone. Faulkner stressed the importance of “huge” data in announcing Epic’s new Cosmos Research Network, which will enable users to contribute de-identified patient data for research purposes.

Black Book Rankings notes in its latest study that 84 percent of primary care practices in the midst of replacing their EHR are giving preference to vendors with population health tools and analytics.

Other

Fun Friday Fact (just in time for game-day weekend): Googling “fun fact” will result in just that, with a link to the original content.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD announces the six winners of its video contest.
• Nordic brews up an EHR IPA to raise funds for veterans and the unemployed during Epic’s UGM in Madison.
• PerfectServe releases a new case study featuring IPC Healthcare’s Memorial City practice.

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 9/3/15

Top News

CMS announces $67 million in ACA funding to help consumers sign up for health plan coverage at Healthcare.gov and state partnership exchanges during the 2016 open enrollment period. The agency will allocate the Marketplace Navigator funds to 100 organizations in 34 states. The chosen organizations will use the funds to hire and better equip trained specialists in assisting consumers with health plan selection, financing options, and the application process.

Webinars

September 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Need to cleanse, unify and manage the provider data in your EMR master file and other IT systems?” Phynd’s Unified Provider Management platform allows healthcare organizations to maintain a single, verified, customized profile for each provider across legacy IT systems. This 30-minute presentation will explain how Phynd’s system can help synchronize internal provider information in real time; create provider interoperability among systems; and manage, update, and analyze provider information with workflow tools to improve revenue cycle and clinical communication.

September 22 (Thursday) 12:00 ET. "Just Step on the Scale: Measure Ongoing EHR Success and Focus Improvements Using Simple but Predictive Adoption Metrics." Gene Thomas, CIO of Memorial Hospital of Gulfport, will share how his organization used an EHR adoption assessment to quickly target priorities in gaining value from its large Cerner implementation. Thomas and Heather Haugen, CEO of the Breakaway Group, will also share real-life results that prove the need for a disciplined approach to setting and measuring key success factors. Commit to taking that scary first step and step onto the scale, knowing that it will get measurably better every day.

Announcements and Implementations

Smart-thermometer company Kinsa launches a wireless in-ear thermometer that connects to a companion smartphone app via Bluetooth. The app includes the new Guidance feature, which looks at historical data, current temperature, and symptoms to provide recommended actions.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Nashville-based Shareable Ink rebrands to Shareable as part of a shift by somewhat new CEO Hal Andrews to refocus the company’s strategy around its clinical documentation solution. Andrews explains the technology behind the company’s initial product, a pen that could convert handwritten notes into digital files, has evolved into a larger platform with EHR integration capabilities.

The local business paper profiles Mango Medical, a Hawaii-based company that helps physicians set up cloud-based practices across the islands. The company has helped ease many of the business burdens physicians face when opening up a new practice, such as establishing them on Drchrono, the company’s EHR of choice. CEO Timothy Duerler is also considering outsourcing coding to India. ““If that goes well …” he explains, “I think that’s what makes or breaks private practices, because if you’re seeing the patient but not getting them to insurance companies and getting them paid for, then it’s such a narrow margin in private practice. If you’re not efficient you can’t pay your bills.”

People

William Winkenwerder Jr., MD (Winkenwerder Strategies) joins the Cureatr Board of Directors.

Julian Cohen (Breakthrough) joins Teladoc in the new position of general manager and president of Teladoc Behavioral Health.

Telemedicine

DocChat officially launches its telemedicine app and platform, touting a pilot study in rural nursing homes that reduced trips to the ER by 95 percent. The company is similar to its more mainstream competitors, targeting services to employers and individuals. Founder Steve Okhravi, MD is perhaps best known for founding the New York City-based chain of Emergency Medical Care clinics, which naturally offer DocChat services.

Other

Spanish researchers develop an algorithm that enables a smartphone to detect boredom based on a user’s mobile activity, including time between calls and texts, time of day, and number of apps used. Researchers even sent bored smartphone users alerts with links to Buzzfeed articles, which they clicked on more often than people who found more constructive ways to use their time. All kidding aside, the study points out the potential for smartphones to eventually send “smarter” alerts – those received by users at times they’re more likely to act on them. I imagine such a development could prove useful in mental health apps that track anxiety or depression. 

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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News 9/2/15

Top News

ONC decertifies two versions of the SkyCare 4.2 EHR from Platinum Health Information System for failing to respond to routine surveillance requests from certifying body InfoGard Laboratories. The 48 EPs that attested to MU Stage 1 using the now-decertified products will have to undergo the onerous task of applying for a hardship exception should they choose to continue MU participation, not to mention selecting new technology. A quick Google search finds volumes of rants from dissatisfied SkyCare customers, many pointing to back-and-forth lawsuits that are likely still in litigation. ONC has pulled certification only once before, decertifying EHRMagic’s Ambulatory and Inpatient solutions in 2013 as a result of failing certification retests prompted presumably by end-user notification that the EHRs were not living up to their claims.

Webinars

September 9 (Wednesday) 2:00 ET. “Need to cleanse, unify and manage the provider data in your EMR master file and other IT systems?” Phynd’s Unified Provider Management platform allows healthcare organizations to maintain a single, verified, customized profile for each provider across legacy IT systems. This 30-minute presentation will explain how Phynd’s system can help synchronize internal provider information in real time; create provider interoperability among systems; and manage, update, and analyze provider information with workflow tools to improve revenue cycle and clinical communication.

We’re doing a September 22 webinar with The Breakaway Group, who filmed a commercial for “Just Step on the Scale: Measure Ongoing EHR Success and Focus Improvements using Simple but Predictive Adoption Metrics.”

Previous webinars are on the YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for webinar services including discounts for signing up by Labor Day.

Announcements and Implementations

PatientPay integrates TransFirst payment processing solutions into its PM and billing solution.

Health and wellness technology company OffTheScale incorporates Garmin’s Vivofit II wearable into its 12-week obesity and chronic-disease prevention program, which includes an accompanying smartphone app to help users track and share their progress. 

CRM juggernaut Salesforce launches Health Cloud, a patient relationship management tool that aggregates health data from EHRs and medical devices into one comprehensive view for providers and patients. The company is working with software vendors like Accenture and MuleSoft to integrate outside data into its platform, and plans to play nice with EHRs from Epic, Cerner, and GE. Demos begin today, with an official launch scheduled for February (just in time for HIMSS). The tool seems enterprise in nature, so it will be interesting to see if larger medical groups sign up. (Mr. H interviewed Joshua Newman, MD CMO and GM of healthcare and life sciences at Salesforce, earlier this week.)

SurveyVitals joins Athenahealth’s More Disruption Please Marketplace.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Silicon Valley-based Eko Devices receives FDA approval for its Eko Core digital stethoscope, the first of its kind to feature a HIPAA-compliant smartphone app and EHR integration. The company, which sees potential for the new device in telemedicine, will begin selling directly to physicians this week. It’s also working to develop an algorithm that can detect the presence of heart disease.

The local business paper profiles NotoVox, a Chandler, AZ-based startup that has developed an app to help physicians easily translate diagnoses and procedures into ICD-10 codes. Co-founder and pediatrician Alex Tanase, MD seems to have launched the company just a few months ago, given that its website is basically a holding page. The clock is definitely ticking for companies – young or old – to cash in on the rush to October 1.

People

Bill Lewis, MD (WellMedCare) joins GlobalMed as CMO.

Government and Politics

Cancer Care Group, a radiation oncology private practice based in Indiana, settles up with HHS to the tune of $750,000 for HIPAA violations stemming from an August 2012 incident in which an employee’s laptop was stolen, containing the unsecured data of 55,000 patients. HHS seems to want to make a strong example out of CCG, explaining in its announcement of the settlement that the group’s lack of an enterprise-wide risk analysis and device and media control policy were the main culprits.

Other

The Pennsylvania-based Independence Blue Cross Foundation announces $1.5 million in grants over the next three years for the improvement of primary care across its Blue Safety Net network of 42 nonprofit health centers. The Foundation’s funds will mainly be used to implement new care-coordination models and improve access to care through technology including mobile, telemedicine, and HIE connectivity.

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.