News 9/15/15

Top News

A nearly year-long OIG audit reveals a laundry list of missteps by CMS in managing contractors charged with developing and overseeing Healthcare.gov. The audit, which focused on the 20 contracts most integral to the exchange’s operation, found inexperienced employees in charge of contracts valued at over $100 million, failure of a revolving door of employees to document who was in charge of what project at what time, unauthorized work orders that amounted to millions of dollars in cost overruns, and the inability of the agency to provide auditors with routine documents. OIG’s efforts highlight the fact that accountability for the mismanagement seems to be nil, given that former agency leads Kathleen Sebelius and Marilyn Tavenner have left for greener pastures; and that there’s no evidence CMS contracts are being handled better as a result of lessons learned from the initial debacle.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

The first official day of fall is just around the corner, 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.

Webinars

September 22 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Just Step on the Scale: Measure Ongoing EHR Success and Focus Improvements Using Simple but Predictive Adoption Metrics.” Sponsored by The Breakaway Group. Presenters:  Heather Haugen, PhD, CEO and managing director, The Breakaway Group; Gene Thomas, VP/CIO, Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. Simple performance metrics such as those measuring end-user proficiency and clinical leadership engagement can accurately assess EHR adoption. This presentation will describe how Memorial Hospital at Gulfport used an EHR adoption assessment to quickly target priorities in gaining value from its large Cerner implementation, with real-life results proving the need for a disciplined approach to set and measure key success factors. Commit to taking that scary first step and step onto the scale, knowing that it will get measurably better every day.

September 22 (Tuesday) 5 p.m. ET. “Laying the Groundwork for an Effective CDS Strategy: Prepare for CMS’s Mandate for Advanced Imaging, Reduce Costs, and  Improve Care.” Sponsored by Stanson Health. Presenters: Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH, SVP and chief clinical transformation officer, Cedars-Sinai; Anne Wellington, VP of informatics, Stanson Health. Medicare will soon penalize physicians in specific settings who do not certify that they consulted "appropriate use" criteria before ordering advanced imaging services such as CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, and PET. This webinar will provide an overview of how this critical payment change is evolving, how it will likely be expanded, and how to begin preparations now. A key part of the CMS proposal is clinical decision support, which will help meet the new requirements while immediately unlocking EHR return on investment. Cedars-Sinai will discuss how they decreased inappropriate utilization of diagnostic tests and treatments, including imaging.

#HIStalking Tweet Chat

Frank Fortner (@iatricFJF) will host the next #HIStalking tweet chat on Thursday, September 24 at 1pm ET. Stay tuned for discussion topics. Check out past chat recaps here.

Announcements and Implementations

Lehi, Utah-based Solutionreach launches the Limelight real-time digital scheduling solution for physician practices.

Houston-based Boson Health implements cloud-based medical answering service and mobile paging technologies from TelmedIQ across its network of dialysis clinics and kidney health centers.

Telemedicine

Medical savings company SelectAccount taps Doctor on Demand to provide telemedicine services via its WalletDoc health resource management platform.

Government and Politics

HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell announces $500 million in ACA funding to help health centers provide primary care services. Nearly $150 million will go to health centers for construction, expansion, or renovation. The remaining $350 million will be allocated to 1,184 centers to increase access to services. The funding builds on a similar round of health center financing announced in August.

Other

Professors (among other illustrious titles) Hardeep Singh, MD and Dean Sittig propose a Health IT Safety measurement framework to serve as a starting point for much-needed HIT-related patient-safety measurement, monitoring, and improvement. The proposed framework calls for new measures and monitoring in three areas: concerns that are unique to technology; concerns created by the misuse of health IT; and the use of HIT to monitor risks, care processes and outcomes, and to identify potential safety concerns before they can harm patients.

Bloomberg looks at the role wearables play in Big Pharma’s efforts to bring drugs to market faster, citing the mass amounts of data researchers are able to glean from clinical trial participants equipped with devices like the FitBit. Such data could potentially help streamline trials, and eventually prove to payers that new-to-market treatments are effective. The VA plans to launch a study on back pain incorporating wearables next February, though it hasn’t yet decided on a specific device. Lead researcher John Piette explains that the wearable data will be combined with pain assessments to develop an algorithm that will determine a veteran’s need for more or less treatment.

The American Academy of Nursing makes the case for capturing of behavioral and social determinants of health in EHRs as part of the industry’s greater interoperability goals. It recommends that vendors provide mechanisms for documenting IOM-recommended social and behavioral determinants of health, mapped to standardized terminologies and physicians. Physicians should “take a stand on adopting the SBHD common assessment standard, and use the information as the foundation to collaborate in developing a plan of care that is individualized for each patient across the continuum of care.”

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 9/14/15

Top News

CMS offers “innovator access” to its Medicare, Medicaid, and assessment data for research purposes. Entrepreneurs and innovators can apply for access via the Research Data Assistance Center as part of product-creation studies or research that creates analyses related to business needs.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Cooler temps in my neck of the woods (finally!) have put me in the mood to offer special rates on HIStalk Practice sponsorships (HIStalk sponsors get an extra discount) for a limited time. Contact Lorre for details.

Webinars

September 22 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Just Step on the Scale: Measure Ongoing EHR Success and Focus Improvements Using Simple but Predictive Adoption Metrics.” Sponsored by The Breakaway Group. Presenters:  Heather Haugen, PhD, CEO and managing director, The Breakaway Group; Gene Thomas, VP/CIO, Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. Simple performance metrics such as those measuring end-user proficiency and clinical leadership engagement can accurately assess EHR adoption. This presentation will describe how Memorial Hospital at Gulfport used an EHR adoption assessment to quickly target priorities in gaining value from its large Cerner implementation, with real-life results proving the need for a disciplined approach to set and measure key success factors. Commit to taking that scary first step and step onto the scale, knowing that it will get measurably better every day.

September 22 (Tuesday) 5 p.m. ET. “Laying the Groundwork for an Effective CDS Strategy: Prepare for CMS’s Mandate for Advanced Imaging, Reduce Costs, and  Improve Care.” Sponsored by Stanson Health. Presenters: Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH, SVP and chief clinical transformation officer, Cedars-Sinai; Anne Wellington, VP of informatics, Stanson Health. Medicare will soon penalize physicians in specific settings who do not certify that they consulted "appropriate use" criteria before ordering advanced imaging services such as CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, and PET. This webinar will provide an overview of how this critical payment change is evolving, how it will likely be expanded, and how to begin preparations now. A key part of the CMS proposal is clinical decision support, which will help meet the new requirements while immediately unlocking EHR return on investment. Cedars-Sinai will discuss how they decreased inappropriate utilization of diagnostic tests and treatments, including imaging.

#HIStalking Tweet Chat

Frank Fortner (@iatricFJF) will host the next #HIStalking tweet chat on Thursday, September 24 at 1pm ET. Stay tuned for discussion topics. Check out past chat recaps here.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Portsmouth, NH-based ProEx Physical Therapy launches Collectivity, its billing and consulting division for physical therapy practices. ProEx Director of Business Development Benjamin Barron will head up the new operation.

Announcements and Implementations

Medical education and EHR company Pri-Med develops the Panel Insight iPad app to offer PCPs personalized CME learning recommendations. Features include refresher courses based on upcoming patient appointments, clinical risk assessments, CME credit tracker, and benchmark reports.

21st Century Oncology will equip its patients in the US and Latin America with personal medical record USB drives from InfoPeHR Technologies. It is the first major sale for the Boca Raton, FL-based startup, which was founded by former Baylor and Carolinas health system executive Bernard Brigonnet.

Government and Politics

Behavioral economist Shlomo Benartzi looks at how Healthcare.gov’s subpar design and overwhelming number of options leads consumers to choose plans that aren’t the best fit for their medical needs or budgets. He suggests that the use of metal labels for plans, which often confuse consumers into thinking low monthly payments also equate to low deductibles, should be scrapped in favor of labels that refer to a consumer’s expected medical needs, such as Low Medical Use, Medium Medical Use, or High Medical Use plans. “[U]nless consumers are given effective decision-aids,” he explains, “they will be unable to choose the plan that best fits their medical needs.”

Telemedicine

Texas-based telemedicine vendor Chiron Health joins Athenahealth’s More Disruption Please Marketplace.

Research and Innovation

A Vermont Medical Society survey finds that nearly all of its 117 respondents agree that “documentation and administrative issues” interfere with their abilities to serve patients well, while just under a third say they don’t have enough time to spend with their patients. Eighty-six percent of survey-takers also find reporting quality measures to be burdensome, thanks in part to lack of consistency across public and private payer requirements.

A study of eight primary care clinics and three community mental health centers shows that integrating behavioral health and primary care further burdens EHRs. Providers developed workarounds to deal with double documentation and duplicate data entry, scanning and transporting documents, and reliance on physician or patient recall for missing EHR data, and use of freestanding tracking systems. The study’s authors conclude that EHR vendors need to work more closely with end users to develop integrated care delivery functions including those that better track patients with emotional and behavioral problems over time and settings, and integrate teams working from shared care plans.

Other

The New York Times puts physician angst over ICD-10 front and center, focusing on the expected “sea change” that has led some providers to seek extra lines of credit (some in the $4 million range) in anticipation of denied claims and delayed payments. “The number of codes is exploding,” says consultant Michael Marks, MD. “On October 1 we will be speaking a new language. It’s like switching to German after speaking English for 30 years.”

Kudos to @David_Pittman for alerting me to this New Yorker cartoon.

Sponsor Updates

• TriZetto hosts its Fall Customer Conference September 14-16 in San Diego.
• Versus Technology will exhibit at MiMGMA’s Fall Conference September 16-18 in Mount Pleasant.

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 News Weekly Wrap Up 9/13/15

Population health, precision medicine, and chronic-care management company Persivia acquires clinical-decision software vendor IHM Services for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will enhance Persivia’s inpatient offerings for infection control, chronic-care management, and quality improvement. The company, which spun out of Alere Analytics earlier this year, plans to launch a Bundled Payment Management and Analytics tool for hospitals participating in the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement payment model when it becomes mandatory on January 1, 2016. (You can read my June 2015 interview with Persivia CEO Mansoor Khan here.)

IBM Watson Health announces a population health solution that integrates Watson Health with Apple’s HealthKit and ResearchKit. The new business, which tapped former Philips Healthcare CEO Deborah DiSanzo as GM, also announced collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital and Columbia University.

Chicago-based Oak Street Health implements Lightbeam Health’s population health solution to manage value-based contracts across its 15 primary care practices in Illinois and Indiana.

Partners HealthCare and Health Catalyst will create the Partners HealthCare Center for Population Health, which will train employees of both organizations on care management and population health. Health Catalyst will license Partners intellectual property, while Partners has signed an enterprise-wide Health Catalyst subscription. Partners has been a Health Catalyst investor since 2013 and will increase its equity stake.

3M is exploring the sale or spinoff of 3M Health Information Systems, expecting to reach a decision by early next year. The business generates $730 million in annual revenue in sales of technology for coding, population health management, clinical documentation improvement, transcription, and revenue cycle management.

Send me your population health management news for potential inclusion in future weekly wrap ups.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the International Vision Expo & Conference September 17-19 in Las Vegas.
• Leidos Health will exhibit at InSight 2015 Annual Conference September 15-18 in Nashville.

Blog Posts

• Demonstrating the Power of Analytics in Population Health (Medicity)
• An “Ideal” Arrangement for Radiologists: Proving Innovation and Low Cost Can Come As a Pair (GE Healthcare)
• Coming Soon: Meaningful Use Final Rule … Will You Be Ready? (Greenway Health)
• Infusing Health Content Into an Integrated Member Engagement Strategy, Part 2 (Healthwise)
• Increase Front Desk Revenue, Step 4 of 5 (AdvancedMD)
• Quippe Increases Nursing Satisfaction at Bumrungrad International Hospital (Medicomp Systems)
• Embracing Change: Four Steps to an “A-Ha!” Moment (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.

Readers Write: ICD-10 Gets Physicians Engaged in Dallas

ICD-10 Gets Physicians Engaged in Dallas
By Robb Verna

The Greenway Health annual Engage user conference, held last week in Dallas, focused on the value of the insights shared by its 75,000 physicians out on the front lines of care. By comments from some of the 2,500 attendees, it was a well-received educational and networking event that more than met their expectations, especially on the eve of the ICD-10 transition.

Greg Wolverton, CIO of ARcare/KentuckyCare (AR), enjoyed hearing about the failures and successes of healthcare thought leaders during morning keynotes. “By the end of the conference,” he explains, “everyone on my team had a new charge to push healthcare to the next level. Exciting times are upon us for sure.” Wolverton is no stranger to change, having ushered ARcare through an EHR implementation and utilization that has earned the two-state FQHC the Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence and Stage 7 recognition from HIMSS. (You can check out the HIStalk Practice interview with Wolverton here.)

Wolverton was one of four panelists in the second day’s general session, which discussed the increasing need for providers to improve efficiency and utilize new tools and processes to meet Internet-savvy patient expectations for convenient, personalized, and individual care. They also tackled the imminent start of ICD-10 coding October 1 — definitely one of the conference’s hottest topics. “We feel comfortable that ARcare is ready for ICD-10,” Wolverton added. “We’ve been coding in ICD-9 and -10, as well as SNOMED. We feel prepared. We just hope our payers are as well.”

Gabriel de Paz, vice president of financial systems for 21^st Century Oncology (FL), the nation’s largest radiation oncology practice and one of the largest groups of urologists in the US, admitted that, “I’m concerned about what payers are going to do about ICD-10. I’m hoping for the best but I think you need to prepare for the impact and set some money aside.”

Nancy Brown, practice administrator at The Veranda (GA), left the event with a renewed sense of optimism around the October 1 transition. “I left the conference feeling great about our practice’s ICD-10 readiness,” she says. “I took away just a few additional tips to implement, including a final 20-day daily email educational sequence for staff covering the basics of ICD-10 coding guidelines as they vary from that of ICD-9.”

Tiffany Waite, IT manager at Western Slope Cardiology (CO), particularly appreciated the breakout sessions devoted to ICD-10 prep. “I was really able to look at ICD-10 from a different perspective and think of things that I’m missing, which I thought I’d covered,” she explains. “I learned Windows programs I can install that will enhance Prime Suite and that I know our doctors will love. I had meaningful conversations with other providers and managers about how they do things within the system and certain things I can try back at our practice.”

Catering to the Consumer (and Population)
Panelists also discussed the challenges of meeting the desires of the emerging healthcare consumer who is accustomed to 24/7 online convenience in banking, retail, and other aspects of their lives. “Consumers are redefining healthcare,” says Allegro Pediatrics (WA) COO Josephine Young, who is also founder and head of Greenway’s pediatric user group. “It’s no longer sufficient that there’s quality healthcare. That’s a given. An office visit is a given. Now they’re looking at: ‘What else can you give me?’”

They also touched on the desire to participate in population health initiatives without incurring significant cost to gather and report data, or divulging even de-identified patient information that can inadvertently be used against them by their competition to remove a competitive advantage, especially for organizations with a significant market footprint in their area.

Looking at the World in a Different Way for a Good Cause
Artist and motivational speaker Erik Wahl brought attendees to a standing ovation after his keynote about looking at things differently to embrace and celebrate change. Wahl went from a corporate career to reinventing himself as a skilled artist who merges lightning-fast and dynamic painting strokes with his talk and multimedia presentations that inspire audiences like that in Dallas. Two of the paintings Wahl created during his hour-long presentation — of Albert Einstein, painted upside down and flipped around at the end to surprise the audience even more and the Statue of Liberty in vibrant red, white and blue – were auctioned off throughout the day. A total of $12,500 was raised for the nonprofit Rapha Clinic, which provides free healthcare services to the underserved of southwestern Georgia and eastern Alabama. Greenway Health has long supported the clinic, and hopes with its customers to enable more such clinics to be open in other areas in coming years.

“We were literally blown away by the gracious bidding of our customers, partners, and staff,” says Eric Grunden, Greenway’s vice president of professional services who sits on the Rapha Clinic board. “While the paintings are wonderful and Erik’s presentation was truly inspirational, it’s the support of our customers to serve others that really inspires us. We’re proud to be associated with people who share our commitment to serve, connect, and care, as Greenway’s motto states.”

Motivation and ‘Missing the Mark’
“These conference keynoters also motivate us in so many ways,” says attendee Mona Engle, RN, CEO and practice administrator of Drs. May•Grant Associates (PA). “You can often come to healthcare conferences somewhat defeated by how the industry is changing, but you leave on a ‘high’ knowing we are doing what we need to be doing for the betterment of healthcare and that we CAN continue on.”

“The Engage conference is one that we put on our calendars year after year,” she adds. “There are so many things that we as a private practice learn from so many different avenues. It all begins from the minute you arrive and start interacting with your peers, hearing their challenges and their successes they’re willing to share. The heart of Greenway is shared by its CEO, Tee Green. We always appreciate his candor in what the company has accomplished and how in some regards it ‘missed the mark’ the previous year, while sharing the strategic, thoughtful steps that have been put in place to correct issues and always keeping its customers as the primary focus.”

Robb Verna is director of Carrollton, GA-based Greenway Health’s Customer for Life Program.

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 9/10/15

Top News

Cox Communications acquires Trapollo, a Sterling, VA-based company that deploys and manages telemedicine and remote health monitoring programs for chronic disease management, home health, and employer health and wellness programs. The acquisition is the latest in the broadband and media company’s efforts to gain a stronger foothold in healthcare. It formed an alliance with Cleveland Clinic and became an investor in HealthSpot (also a Cleveland Clinic partner) earlier this year.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

The lazy days of summer 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.

Webinars

September 22 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Just Step on the Scale: Measure Ongoing EHR Success and Focus Improvements Using Simple but Predictive Adoption Metrics.” Sponsored by The Breakaway Group. Presenters:  Heather Haugen, PhD, CEO and managing director, The Breakaway Group; Gene Thomas, VP/CIO, Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. Simple performance metrics such as those measuring end-user proficiency and clinical leadership engagement can accurately assess EHR adoption. This presentation will describe how Memorial Hospital at Gulfport used an EHR adoption assessment to quickly target priorities in gaining value from its large Cerner implementation, with real-life results proving the need for a disciplined approach to set and measure key success factors. Commit to taking that scary first step and step onto the scale, knowing that it will get measurably better every day.

September 22 (Tuesday) 5 p.m. ET. “Laying the Groundwork for an Effective CDS Strategy: Prepare for CMS’s Mandate for Advanced Imaging, Reduce Costs, and  Improve Care.” Sponsored by Stanson Health. Presenters: Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH, SVP and chief clinical transformation officer, Cedars-Sinai; Anne Wellington, VP of informatics, Stanson Health. Medicare will soon penalize physicians in specific settings who do not certify that they consulted "appropriate use" criteria before ordering advanced imaging services such as CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, and PET. This webinar will provide an overview of how this critical payment change is evolving, how it will likely be expanded, and how to begin preparations now. A key part of the CMS proposal is clinical decision support, which will help meet the new requirements while immediately unlocking EHR return on investment. Cedars-Sinai will discuss how they decreased inappropriate utilization of diagnostic tests and treatments, including imaging.

Announcements and Implementations

PMD adds an ICD-10 conversion tool to its charge-capture app.

Medent integrates the CoverMyMeds electronic prior authorization solution into its EHR/PM platform.

Patient education media company AccentHealth launches an exam room tablet featuring interactive decision guides from Harvard Medical School.

Center for Arthritis and Rheumatism implements iPatientCare’s EHR, PM, and patient portal system.

Pursuant Health (fka SoloHealth) partners with Cleveland Clinic Wellness to offer interactive health-risk assessments and wellness coaching programs at its self-service care kiosks. The new features seem especially suited to employer and payer health and wellness programs. The Atlanta-based company launched in 2007 and seems to have gone through a low-profile rebranding this spring,

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

New York-based Excellus BlueCross BlueShield reports that a December 2013 cyber attack has exposed the demographic and medical claims data of up to 10.5 million customers including those of Lifetime Health Medical Group, which operates several clinics in the region.

Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush shares with Cohealo CEO Mark Slaughter what he would have done differently in taking the company public: “I would not have used investment banks, because they have such a strong incentive to screw you. But being public I like a lot. Being visible and transparent helps with your awareness, it helps you with your stature. It makes you be more credible and careful with the way you operate. And as a CEO, you can be rich without exiting. You can sell a few shares every month and buy a boat, or, you know, take a vacation. Before I was CEO of a company, I was theoretically rich, but not the kind that you could spend.” The full interview is actually quite entertaining. It’s always interesting to see healthcare IT go-getters riffing off of one another’s experiences.

People

Deborah DiSanzo (Philips Healthcare) joins IBM as general manager of its new Watson Health unit.

Leidos promotes Tom Aikens to deputy group president of Leidos Health.

Research and Innovation

A JAMA study of 41 certified EHRs finds that many did not perform testing with physician end users, resulting in a barrage of usability issues once the systems were clicked on in clinical settings. The EHRs were tested by an average of 14 participants of which few, if any, had clinical backgrounds.

Fast Company profiles Scott Thomas, the design brains behind the 2008 Obama campaign who is now focused on Scanadu’s much-hyped Scout medical device. Thomas is assembling a team to help with industrial design, branding, and software for the device, which measures temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and hemoglobin via a 10-second head scan and accompanying smartphone app. Lt. Dan covers the company’s ramp up to FDA approval here.

A Kaiser Permanente study of older diabetic patients from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds finds that medication adherence increases when patients order prescription refills online. While adherence increased as a whole by 4 percent, researchers found that African-Americans were less likely to refill prescriptions online, and that all ethnic and minority groups had lower statin adherence compared to their white peers. Researchers note that, “While the consistent benefit in medication adherence across racial and ethnic groups in this study is promising, we also need to better understand the reasons for differences in use of online portals across groups to help promote a more uniform use of these health technologies and tools.”

Other

EHNAC and the Healthcare Billing & Management Association partner to offer the Healthcare Network Accreditation Program for Medical Billers to companies that handle sensitive data as part of their coding and billing services.

Yelp continues to break the mold when it comes to customer reviews: Ex-inmates take to the site to review their former places of incarceration, with more than a few citing the practice as an economical alternative to therapy. “Jail did its job for me: scared the hell out of me, so I will never go back,” says Travis County Jail reviewer Jennifer Vekris. “So four stars for a great place that fulfilled its promises that were advertised.”

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.