News 2/3/16

Top News

CMS establishes the Rural Health Council to oversee the agency’s work on improving access to care in rural areas, supporting the economics of providing that care, and making sure the “innovation healthcare agenda” is a good fit for rural communities. Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt gave quite a bit of airtime to the role telemedicine will play in the council’s work, including the forthcoming Frontier Community Health Integration Project and the just-published final rule on Medicaid home health requirements that, for the first time, allows for a face-to-face encounter to occur using telemedicine.

Webinars

None scheduled in the next few weeks. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Prestige Healthcare Management Group partners with an unnamed investment group to help it grow via future acquisitions. Founded in 2002 by dermatologist Larry Jaeger, the New York City-based company provides business management and administrative services to physician practices.

People

The Pennsylvania EHealth Partnership Authority appoints Kelly Thompson the authority’s interim executive director, effective April 18. Thompson, the authority’s former chief counsel and privacy officer, takes over from Alix Goss, who resigned late last month. I interviewed Goss last fall about the authority’s work to connect Pennsylvania physicians to its HIE.

Announcements and Implementations

Amazing Charts integrates Caremerge’s chronic care management tools into its EHR and PM platform.

Mediware Information Systems develops MediLinks 2016, a Web-based tool for rehabilitation therapy physicians. The accompanying press release is vague on details; though it does allude to the tool’s appointment-scheduling and care-planning capabilities.

Telemedicine

Austin, TX-based Chiron Health releases telemedicine software billing and reimbursement tools to help automate insurance eligibility each time a video visit is scheduled. The new Chiron Rules Engine pulls patient insurance data directly from a practice’s PM system.

Government and Politics

AMA announces its support for the bipartisan Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act. Introduced today, the bill looks to expand the use of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring services in Medicare. “This legislation has the potential to remove barriers to new healthcare delivery models that promote coordinated and patient-centered care, says AMA President Steven Stack, MD. “Importantly, the bill aims to maintain high standards whether a patient is seeing a physician in an office or via telemedicine.”

Research and Innovation

I knew waking up at 5:30 this morning would work in my favor: Researchers from 23andMe and San Jose State University find that specific genes are associated with being a “morning person” – someone who is irritatingly perky before the day has really begun – and a “night owl” – those who prefer to unleash their productivity during the overnight hours. Researchers also found that morning people are less likely to be depressed or obese. I’m going to have to be a little bit of both once the biggest health IT conference of the year rolls around … as a friend likes to tell me, “Sleep is for the weak, especially during HIMSS.”

Other

Over 700 physicians share their healthcare technology gripes via the #LetDoctorsBeDoctors Twitter campaign. The tweets break down into three main areas of frustration:

• 80 percent of healthcare providers complained about workload and excessive time spent on documentation.
• 53 percent were concerned about EHR distraction and said EHRs prevent quality care.
• 20 percent said EHRs prevent them from doing that they were trained for – and they’re ready to call it quits.

The tweets were flying during today’s EHealth Initiative event in Washington, DC. I’m pretty sure that’s anti-clickster and AMA President Steven Stack, MD on the right.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Stop Leaking Revenue in your Private Practice; 3 Areas Where You’re Probably Losing Money (AdvancedMD)
• Leaving No Stones Unturned – Post Live Revenue Challenges & Tools to Help (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)

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 2/2/16

Top News

Teladoc and American Well are the top funded on-demand healthcare companies (at $245 million and $141 million, respectively), according to a new Accenture study that looks at the rise in investments for such companies over the last several years. Funding for the booming market segment is expected to quadruple from over $200 million in 2014 to $1 billion by the end of next year.

Webinars

None scheduled in the next few weeks. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Announcements and Implementations

Green Circle Health adds 10 care chronic care and wellness management programs to its digital patient engagement platform. The programs use Bluetooth technology to gather, monitor, and share vital signs from wearables and medical devices, as well as recommend actions to take based on analysis of the data.

Telemedicine

Doctor on Demand adds psychiatric services to its telemedicine platform in 27 states. A nationwide roll out is expected this summer. The company began offering mental health services in late 2014 with the addition of psychologists.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The Pittsburgh-based Kell Group sells its medical billing services business to Beaver Falls, PA-based Healthcare Support Technologies for an undisclosed sum. Kell Group founder Donna Kell has decided to assume a RCM leadership role at Partners in Nephrology & Endocrinology (PA), leaving the remaining employees to focus on RCM services.

People

Melinda Whittington (The Kraft Heinz Co.) joins Allscripts as CFO.

Rena Brewer (Southeastern TeleHealth Resource Center) joins the Global Partnership for Telehealth as CEO. She succeeds Paula Guy, who has joined Salus Telehealth as CEO.

CareSync names Russell Dumas (Napier Healthcare) vice president of clinical operations, David Antle (BobCAD-CAM) vice president of client services, and Teri Spencer (GTE Financial) vice president of human resources. The Tampa, FL-based company has made over 100 new hires since announcing its $18 million Series B funding last fall.

Government and Politics

A group of Democrats led by Rep. Gene Green (TX) introduce a mental health reform bill as an alternative to a somewhat similar bill introduced by Sen. Tim Murphy (R-PA). The bill seeks to extend Meaningful Use incentives to behavior health providers, a provision that was cut from earlier versions of Murphy’s bill. 

CMS clarifies that it does not require documentation from physicians applying for hardship exemptions from Meaningful Use penalties for 2015: “CMS will not be reviewing documentation supporting the application on a case-by-case basis,” the agency explains. “CMS will review the application to record the category selected and use the identifying information to approve the hardship exception for each provider listed on the application. Providers should retain documentation of their circumstances for their own records, but no such documentation is required for review by CMS.”

In other CMS news, the agency issues a 15-day extension to the public comment period for its RFI seeking input on certification and testing of EHR products used for quality measure reporting.

Research and Innovation

A survey of 350 practicing physicians finds that 90 percent have experienced symptoms of burnout at some point in their career. Top causes include practice hurdles such as staff, access, and time; regulatory issues such as Meaningful Use, ICD-10, and transitioning to pay-for-performance; and psychological challenges related to decreasing compensation and too much change at too fast a pace.

Other

The local paper profiles Think Whole Person Healthcare, a new primary care facility in Omaha that features a pharmacy, classrooms, auditorium, therapy gym and amenities like a coffee bar, plus the services of 24 physicians, all of which seem to love the presence of scribes. “We don’t have to have our nose in the computer the whole time we’re talking to the patient,” says Think family physician Bill Weeks, MD “and we’re not distracted by the electronic medical record. My patients have noticed. They’ve really commented on that. They say, ‘You look so relaxed. You seem more happy. You’re more attentive.’ ”

I will never use this, ever: Flowstate develops an app to combat writer’s block, forcing writers to set a time limit and continuously type until their time is up. If no progress is made after five seconds, the app deletes all your work.

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 2/1/16

Top News

Vice President Biden convenes the first meeting of the Cancer Moonshot Task Force, a gathering of federal agency representatives that will work together to, in Biden’s words, “break down silos and bring people together who are doing the most cutting-edge work. Our job is to clear out the bureaucratic hurdles – and let science happen.” The Obama administration will ask Congress to include $755 to aid the task force in its proposed budget next week. The healthcare IT angle is subtle thus far; HHS is represented on the task force, and “patient engagement initiatives” are included in the task force’s list of to dos.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to renewing sponsor Intelligent Medical Objects for supporting HIStalk Practice. Email Lorre for details on how your company can take advantage of HIStalk Practice sponsorship.

Webinars

None scheduled in the next few weeks. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel..

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

House-call app startup Heal announces it will hire up to 50 full-time family practice, internal medicine, and pediatric doctors over the next 60 days. The Los Angeles-based startup attributes the staffing need to a 300-percent growth in customers over the last three months, and plans to expand into an additional 10-15 metro in the coming months.

MGMA announces it will occupy collaborative space at the Catalyst Health-Tech Innovation hub in Denver. Opening in 2018, the 5,000 square-foot addition to MGMA’s headquarters in Englewood will take up a full city block, giving the association plenty of space to collaborate with other stakeholders on improving medical practice and patient care. Perhaps MGMA is taking a cue from AMA, which opened a “physician office of the future” within Matter’s tech startup collaboration space in Chicago.

Telemedicine

ATA updates its annual 50 State Telemedicine Gaps Analysis, looking at coverage and reimbursement, as well as practice standards and licensure. Eleven states and Washington, DC have adopted policies that improve coverage and reimbursement of telemedicine services, though Maryland and New Hampshire have adopted policies restricting it. Connecticut maintains its reputation as the state with the lowest average composite score. With regard to practice standards and licensure, state medical boards have increasingly adopted different regulations for medical practice via telemedicine, resulting in lower letter grades for more states than has been seen since the ATA’s first analysis in 2014.

In other ATA news, the association voices its support for the Clinical Opportunities for Novel and Necessary Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act. Sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), the bill identifies opportunities to improve delivery of Medicare Advantage services via remote-patient monitoring, video, and telecommunications tools.

People

Prakash Khot (Kaseya) joins Athenahealth as CTO.

Robin Moody (Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems) joins the National Rural Accountable Care Consortium as director of policy and compliance.

Government and Politics

The American College of Physicians chimes in on CMS clinical quality measures, comments on which are due today. ACP wants the agency to only approve measures available in common EHR systems and can be reasonably collected during care delivery. Internal medicine MDs also want the agency to focus on aligning quality measurement programs under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System and Alternative Payment Model pathways of MACRA (whew, that was a mouthful!).

New York leads the nation in e-prescribing of controlled substances, according new data from Surescripts. Nearly 30 percent of total prescribers have the ability to e-prescribe controlled substances, while nearly 60 percent actively do so. It’s worth noting that 93 percent of New York’s pharmacies are now able to receive these prescriptions. The state has come a long way since the end of 2015, when its providers had less than two percent enablement. The state’s upcoming I-STOP mandate, which requires that all prescriptions be transmitted electronically, likely lit a fire under the state’s healthcare stakeholders.

Other

UK-based nonprofit Doctors of the World develops a free app to help refugees find free health clinics in any given area. The Available in English, French, Arabic, and Farsi, the ClinicFinder app lists 73 clinics in 16 countries. Doctors of the World Business Development and Innovation Manager Tom McKenzie says that the majority of refugees and migrants use smartphones, and ask about WiFi as soon as they arrive in Europe. “It’s where they get every piece of information from and where they communicate with their families,” he adds. Over 10,000 providers have submitted their details for vetting and inclusion in the app.

Apparently Data Privacy Day was celebrated on January 28. The brainchild of the National Cyber Security Alliance, the day marked an opportune time to highlight OCR’s new guidance on patient rights to access health information.

The Wall Street Journal publishes a riveting profile of the van der Lindens, a family of physicians in Brazil that have identified a likely link between the Zika virus and a rise in birth defects including incomplete brain development.

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima launches its redesigned website.

Blog Posts

• Education Minimizes the Impact of Healthcare Hackers (PerfectServe)

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.

Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 1/31/16

Stephanie Mayfield Gibson, MD (Kentucky Dept. for Public Health) joins KentuckyOne Health as its first vice president of population health, and CMO of its Health Partners ACO.

Gaurov Dayal, MD (SSM Health Care) joins Lumeris as senior vice president of Health Systems and Strategy.

The Illinois Health and Hospital Association partners with analytics business Geneia to offer e-learning population health management programs to the association’s 259 members.

Conifer Health releases ConiferCore Outcomes Optimization to help providers manage the health of high-risk populations. Part of Conifer’s Value-Based Performance platform, the new care coordination technology is capable of incorporating data from over 200 wearables.

Population health management analytics firm VitreosHealth raises $5 million in a funding round led by private equity firm Kinderhook Industries. The Plano, TX-based company has raised $6.2 million since launching in 2009.

HealtheConnections receives $2.05 million as part of a greater CDC grant to combat high rates of chronic disease across six New York counties. The nonprofit will partner with healthcare organizations in each county to increase adoption of technology, community health worker engagement, practice facilitation, and referrals between providers and community-based resources.

Medication management company Diplomat Pharmacy rolls out Patient IO’s AllMetRx smartphone app to give caregivers and patients suffering from chronic diseases a way to share real-time treatment data. The app integrates with EHRs and population health management programs.

Accenture partners with Boston Scientific to develop a cloud-based digital health platform to help improve outcomes and reduce costs among patients with cardiovascular disease. Trialed at hospitals in Sweden and Finland, the Advantics Care Pathway Transformation tool includes analytics, care management, and patient engagement tools. The companies anticipate tailoring the tool to additional diseases in the near future. 

Sponsor Updates

• GE Healthcare wins Best in KLAS for staff/nurse scheduling.

Blog Posts

• Apply supply and demand to grow strategically while increasing revenue and reputation (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 1/28/16

Top News

The CDC publishes data from its 2014 National Electronic Health Records Survey, finding that 74 percent of office-based physicians are now using certified EHRs, while 32 percent are sharing patient health information with external providers. Physicians with a certified EHR were also more likely than non-certified users to share patient data electronically with behavioral health, long-term care, and home health providers. 

Webinars

None scheduled in the next few weeks. Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Announcements and Implementations

DrFirst releases a new version of its e-medication management platform, adding predictive analytics and a mobile app.

Florida Orthopaedic Institute selects a predictive rules engine platform from RCxRules to enhance its RCM processes.

People

Massachusetts General Hospital President Peter Slavin joins American Well’s Board of Directors.

Drew Hamilton (TeleTrac) joins Kareo as chief sales officer.

Telemedicine

Golub Corp. partners with Doctor on Demand to pilot telemedicine services at five Price Chopper locations in New York and Vermont, part of the company’s broader effort to build a successful chain of walk-in clinics at its affiliated Market 32 grocery stores. In the wake of HealthSpot’s bankruptcy filing, I found it interesting that Golub VP Kathy Bryant says the telemedicine push ties in nicely with the chain’s Computerized Screening health stations that can gather biometric information like temperature, weight, and blood oxygen levels.

The Garage – a curiously named health IT company based in Orlando, FL -  signs multiple contracts with providers for its Ignite telemedicine platform, which includes audio, video, and text.

Government and Politics

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs reviews a proposed ONC rule that seeks to develop enhanced oversight and accountability for its health IT certification program. No leaks yet on what the proposed rule portends for the program, which was set up last fall. I’m willing to bet (literally, since a good chunk of the industry will be in Las Vegas next month) that ONC drops the details during HIMSS.

CMS issues a final rule that requires physicians to document face-to-face encounters with Medicaid patients before ordering home health services or medical equipment. The healthcare IT connection involves the rule’s clarification that such encounters can include telemedicine for homebound patients in need of timely services. Updated Medicaid telemedicine rules are in the works.

Other

Ascension Ventures, Athenahealth, and Cambia Health Solutions will host Invest for Health on March 14 as part of the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Organizers hope to attract entrepreneurs, heathcare executives, and venture capitalists to the inaugural event. Given that the first session is entitled “Where it Hurts: What’s Wrong with Healthcare in America?” (the almost exact title of Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush’s 2014 book) it’s probably safe to assume that executives from the three companies above will headline.

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.