News 8/31/15

Top News

Monroe, LA-based telecommunications company CenturyLink receives $500 million from the FCC’s Connect America Fund to bring broadband to 1.2 million rural households across 33 states. “The Connect America Fund, along with our significant capital investments over the years, help make deploying rural broadband more cost effective,” says John Jones, CenturyLink senior vice president for public policy and government relations. “We believe the high-speed connectivity we will provide will bring many benefits to rural communities, including economic development and better access to education and healthcare services such as distance learning and telemedicine.” The company extended telemedicine coverage to its employees via MDLive early last year.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

It’s hard to believe HIMSS16 is less than six months away. The time crunch due to an April conference followed by one in February means the talented Lorre has been busy for some time with HIStalkapalooza planning. We’ve booked nearly all of the available sponsorship spots for the big event (once again featuring Party on the Moon) except the top one. The “Rock Star CEO” package includes a bunch of invitations, an on-stage role, all-access passes, and a swanky private lounge in the House of Blues Las Vegas for entertaining prospects and guests. Contact Lorre.

Thanks to the following sponsors, new and renewing, that recently supported HIStalk Practice. Click a logo for more information. Email Lorre if your company is interested in benefiting from one of our sponsorship packages.

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.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Updox debuts Direct email, patient surveys, digital faxing, appointment reminders, and a patient portal for Greenway Health’s Prime Suite and Intergy solutions.

Centro de Salud Medico Duarte (PR) implements IPatientCare’s EHR at its family medicine practice in Puerto Rico.

Greenway Health adds ViiMed, developer of the Surgical Coordinator Console for surgery provider groups, to its Marketplace of partner products.

Government and Politics

Wisconsin State Assemblyman Warren Petryk pens his support for the state’s likely ratification of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, making it the 12th state to join after Iowa. Petryk, who helped draft the legislation, sees the compact as vital to the state’s ability to more easily attract qualified physicians to its rural areas including his own district.

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) tours Chicago-based healthcare tech incubator Matter in an effort to better understand the role up-and-coming entrepreneurs are playing in healthcare’s shift to value-based care. As a member of the Senate HELP Committee, Kirk has been working to draft the Healthier Innovations for America Bill, the Senate’s counterpart to the House’s 21st Century Cures Act. Kirk had the opportunity to chat with Matter CEO Steven Collens and the founders of MedMatch, a new technology for hiring medical professionals, and mental health app SuperBetter.

Vermont joins the rest of the nation in allowing the electronic prescription of controlled substances, a move seen by many as key to fighting opioid abuse. Surescripts CEO Tom Skelton was quick to follow up the news with a call for physicians to visit www.getEPCS.com, a resource developed by the company that aims to educate MDs on how to leverage healthcare technology for EPCS.

The DoD will partner with private industry and academia to fund a new Silicon Valley-based innovation center focused on developing “flexible hybrid electronics,” including advanced sensors for use in new wearable devices and health-monitoring technologies.

People

Renowned neurologist and author Oliver Sacks passes away at the age of 82 after battling cancer. Sacks is perhaps best known (at least for those of my generation) for his 1973 book Awakenings, which was then turned into a 1990 movie starring Robin Williams. Sacks seems to have been one of the first physicians to turn his expertise towards the intellectual limelight, a role his peers (and his father) were not entirely comfortable with, and which undoubtedly paved the way for media-friendly physicians like Dr. Oz and Eric Topol, MD.

Former Green Bay Packer and 1997 Super Bowl champ John Michels, MD joins Physician Partners of America affiliate Texas Pain Relief Group.

Research and Innovation

Just in time for Greenway Health’s Engage UGM comes new Black Book Research findings that put the company’s EHR at the top of the rankings for primary care EHRs, as well as customer satisfaction for the subsets of general practice and family practice. PCC ranked first in pediatrics, while AmazingCharts took top marks for geriatric primary care. Another interesting finding from the study: 70 percent of PCPs who implemented their first EHR before 2012 are more satisfied than those who implemented within the last two years. Perhaps vendors have felt compelled by market forces and government regulations to soup up their solutions with too many click-inducing bells and whistles, leading to lower customer satisfaction stats.

Telemedicine

ATA is accepting presentation abstracts for its 2016 meeting and tradeshow, happening May 14-17 in Minneapolis. Submissions are due September 14.

The Alabama Medical Board suspends its telemedicine rules requiring initial visits between a patient and physician to be in-person. The ATA, which notes Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas have the strictest telemedicine delivery regulations, attributes the move to the state’s fear of violating antitrust laws.

UnitedHealthcare rolls out dermatology telemedicine services to its Medicaid members in Hawaii.

Other

USA Today points to the progress the City of New Orleans has made in digitizing and increasing access to its healthcare system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, paying special attention to the progress made by community clinics. The city went from 18 pop-up clinics in its most underserved neighborhoods immediately after Katrina to investing a $100 million federal grant into building a network of 70 community clinics that handle 100,000 patients annually – all equipped with EHRs and computerized billing and patient-tracking systems. "[We’re] still growing,” notes Charlotte Parent, director of the New Orleans Health Department. “No one wants to have a disaster to make changes. But we took advantage and we’re really proud of where we are after 10 years.”

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 8/28/15

Top News

Santa Barbara, CA-based BioIQ opens its East Coast headquarters in Atlanta, tapping Lisa McVey (McKesson) to head up the new office as EVP for technology and operations. The company, which specializes in technologies that connect organizations with their members, unveiled its population health management solution targeted to employers earlier this year.

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.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Xerox acquires RSA Medical, a Naperville, IL-based company specializing in predictive analytics for payers. Xerox will add RSA to its Commercial Healthcare Services business to increase its ability to support payers throughout all stages of member engagement.

Mobile messaging vendor MPulse Mobile secures $1.7 million in an investment round led by OCA Ventures. The Encino, CA-based business will use the cash infusion to ramp up sales, marketing, and client support teams. The news follows the company’s launch earlier this month of a flu vaccination messaging solution.

People

Thomas Graf, MD (Geisinger Health System) joins The Chartis Group as national director of population health management.

DaVita HealthCare Partners promotes Dinesh Kumar to SVP of clinical transformation.

Lumeris appoints Paul Kaplan, MD medical director, Brian LeDuc SVP of technology and development, and Michael Neill medical director.

Health Catalyst hires Dan Strong (Control4) as CFO, moves co-founder/EVP Tom Burton from product development to client operations, and promotes Dale Sanders to EVP of product development.

Announcements and Implementations

Vantage Oncology (CA) selects Wellcentive’s quality reporting and population health management solution for PQRS reporting.

Capitol Health Network (CA) selects population health management solutions from Sutherland Healthcare Solutions including a customized patient registry and SmartHealthConnect tool, which provides real-time data at the point of care and back-end analytics. The network will implement the new technologies across member organizations that include FQHCs, clinics, and nonprofit healthcare organizations in a five-county area surrounding Sacramento.

Population health management company ApolloMed’s ACO realizes $3.9 million in Medicare savings, beating its benchmark expenditures for the second year in a row. The organization also performed at or above the 90th percentile in multiple performance measures including 98.5 percent in medication reconciliation. The Glendale, CA-based company’s ACO works with 700 physicians and 30,000 beneficiaries in California, Mississippi, and Ohio.

Proxsys Rx launches a medication-focused transitions of care program to help providers improve CMS-mandated performance measures using its technology solutions and pharmacy support services.

Research and Innovation

The Nicholas Foundation launches the New Jersey Innovation Catalyst Initiative, a $1 million program that will help nine provider groups improve care delivery to their safety net populations. Program participants will focus on addressing social factors in health, improving access to care, and increasing patient engagement; and will also receive training on patient-centered design techniques. Successful strategies will be implemented at each provider’s institution during the last nine months of the 13-month program.

Other

Stanford’s Spectrum Center for Clinical and Translational Research and Education is accepting funding applications for investigative teams looking to tackle healthcare problems in new ways. Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded in the areas of population health, medical technologies, therapeutics, community engagement, and predictive tools and diagnostics. In addition, the Stanford Leaning Health Care Innovation Challenge will award similar funding to projects that improve the health of Stanford Health Care patients. Applications for both programs are due September 30 and September 25, respectively.

Sponsor Updates

• Medicity offers “Keeping the Data Thieves Away.”
• Nordic publishes “Super users forever! Setting up an Epic super user program and keeping it running.”
• NVoq asks “Are you ready for ICD-10? SayIt can help!”
• PerfectServe offers “Patient Centered Medical Home model – Rewards of a successful transformation.”

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 8/27/15

Top News

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton puts telemedicine in the spotlight during a campaign speech at Des Moines Community College in Iowa. “Today, our healthcare system has changed dramatically, but it’s still too difficult for families in rural America to find quality, affordable healthcare,” she explained. “Telemedicine can help – and we should streamline licensing and explore how to make that reimbursable under Medicare.” Clinton also mentioned her desire to create a “national infrastructure bank” to meet rural America’s corresponding need for greater broadband access.

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.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Patient education and engagement company StayWell works with 3M Health Information Systems to ensure its Krames Patient Education content is ICD-10 compliant.

Allscripts adds the ActX genomic decision-support app to its developer program. The app, which integrates with Allscripts ambulatory EHRs, automatically checks medications for drug-genomic interactions and  alerts physicians to potential patient risks.

ASD Center for Therapeutic Services implements billing and PM technology from Therapist Solutions at its two facilities in Connecticut.

Government and Politics

ONC’s latest Health IT Standards Committee meeting focused on final recommendations from the Interoperability Standards Advisory Task Force, which likely spent much of the preceding weeks combing through public comments left by 59 organizations. You can dive into the 27 pages of meeting notes and summaries here. A quick read through left me (and the task force) puzzled as to why not one consumer group commented on the proposed standards.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The local business paper highlights the challenges several NC-based medical groups face as participants in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Multispecialty practice Cornerstone Health Care, which didn’t hit savings targets last year, will receive $2.2 million after realizing savings of nearly $5 million on total healthcare costs of $135 million. Cornerstone President and CEO Grace Tyrell, MD attributes the group’s success this time around to a shift in business models, including keeping practices open later and on the weekends and focusing on patients with chronic conditions. “It’s about the longer journey,” she adds. “We’re starting to see some of the results of the build of some of the new care models across the board. You can’t do it overnight.”

Telemedicine

Doctor on Demand is quick to toot its own horn after CVS Health taps it (plus American Well and Teladoc) to help take its retail clinics to the next level of digital health. CEO Adam Jackson says the announcement is as big a deal if not bigger than the company’s partnerships with Anthem and United Healthcare in terms of direct exposure to consumers. As part of the deal, CVS and Doctor on Demand will refer patients to each other’s services when appropriate. Jackson also hinted that Doctor on Demand may eventually be in CVS stores via iPad, an arrangement it already has with the Wegmans grocery chain on the East Coast.

Research and Innovation

Researchers determine that a computer program can better predict the onset of schizophrenia in children and young adults than traditional screening methods and advanced screening technologies. The automated speech-analysis program, which looked for “at least one occasion of a jarring disruption in meaning from one sentence to the next” during a 45-minute patient interview, predicted with 100-percent accuracy those at-risk patients who developed psychosis over a two-and-a-half year period and those who did not.

Other

A Reuters employee inadvertently launches #ReutersReplyAllGate when he accidentally hits “reply all” and sends an email to 33,000 company employees, causing a chain reaction of hundreds of reply alls from employees telling each other to stop the insanity. The Wall Street Journal reported that, “The saga appeared to follow the typical narrative arc of a ‘reply allpocalypse,’ as pleas for mercy only made things worse.”

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.

HIStalk Practice Interviews Perry Solomon, MD CMO, HelloMD

Perry Solomon, MD is CMO of HelloMD, a San Francisco-based company that recently pivoted from offering general telemedicine services to focusing solely on digital health services for the medical marijuana industry.

What factors contributed to the decision to pivot the company from a more general telemedicine company to one specifically for medical marijuana users?
Telemedicine and digital healthcare generally are a multi-billion dollar industry, and in many ways represent the future of medicine in America. It’s already a crowed market, with thousands of startups and some very well-funded players. Even Walgreens recently got into the game with their telehealth consultations through pharmacy locations. We pivoted from this initial focus –  where we were a smaller player –  to be the first digital healthcare platform for the cannabis market. We saw a blue ocean opportunity, and we already had the platform that could be applied for a rapid start. The response was immediate and overwhelming. We are now the leading digital healthcare platform for medical marijuana patients, and we continue to innovate in that direction.

How does the new business model work?
Patients buy an annual membership (priced at $49), which includes the doctor’s consultation; online follow up during the year; as well as access to deals, product advice, and other benefits. We ensure they are in compliance with all local laws, and we maintain an online medical history in our HIPAA-compliant database. Many people entering the cannabis market for the first time are looking for advice on product selection, retailer recommendations, and quality medical advice. Our focus is in the emerging demographic of non-traditional marijuana users – moms, dads, professionals, and the elderly.

Why does your website refer to “recommendations” rather than prescriptions?
Since cannabis is classified at this time by the FDA as a Schedule l drug, a physician is not able to prescribe it. A recommendation is what is required to obtain it from a dispensary.

How many states does HelloMD offer its services in? Do you anticipate expanding to more in the near future?
At the current time, telemedicine evaluations of patients for medicinal cannabis are only allowed in California and Nevada. Hopefully in the near future other states will realize telemedicine opens access to people who cannot find physicians close to them to provide this service. We plan on opening physical offices in states where telemedicine is not allowed for medical cannabis recommendations.

Did the company’s focus on technology change with this decision?
By having secure and HIPAA-compliant video conferencing, we are at the forefront of patient engagement. We will be releasing our mobile application within the next two weeks.

How do you foresee this market – telemedicine for easy and secure access to medical marijuana dispensaries – growing?
Since we are not a dispensary, we have partnered with ones that are leaders in the field of obtaining the best products that have been tested for quality and purity, so that the patients are assured that what they are putting in the body is safe and contains what is stated on the label.

As more people realize that they can get a qualified physician to evaluate them from the comfort and privacy of their home or other location convenient to them, we know that the market will expand. By creating access for people that don’t want to travel to undesirable areas of town, have transport issues, find it hard to arrange transport, are in retirement communities and are housebound, or for any other reason that they want to reach out online, we are confident that this will grow. Over the past few months we have seen an explosion of demand and don’t foresee it slowing down.

What has patient reception been like over the last several months?
Reception has been phenomenal. The feedback from patients who realize that they can see a physician without traveling, parking, waiting in an office, etc. has been nothing but positive. As I mentioned above, our key focus is increasing access for patients to help them with their medical issues by the most convenient and seamless way possible.

How do you envision telemedicine and other digital health technologies advancing patient access to cannabis treatments?
By making available evaluations of patients by telemedicine, this will increase access to care tremendously. At HelloMD, we feel that having a community of patients who can communicate with each other regarding what treatments work for their individual medical condition is also key. We are having sections of our site dedicated to feedback from patients on all aspects of their experiences with medicinal cannabis.

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 8/26/15

Top News

CVS Health partners with top telemedicine competitors American Well, Doctor on Demand, and Teladoc on several pilot projects, including offering virtual consults via its digital platforms and enabling its MinuteClinic providers to consult with telemedicine physicians. The company’s announcement comes on the heels of research that determined 95 percent of its telemedicine patients were highly satisfied with the quality of care received. The company began offering telemedicine services in late 2013 at its clinics in Texas and California.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Practice Platinum Sponsor Stanson Health, which is also sponsoring HIStalk at the Platinum level. The Los Angeles-based company provides easily implemented, intelligent clinical-decision support delivered at the point of care. Evidence-based content targets unnecessary tests and treatments while supporting Choosing Wisely and PQRS, while analytics helps organizations understand ordering patterns and identify opportunities. The company’s advanced imaging content works with any source of appropriate use criteria to reduce unnecessary imaging, inspecting 30 patient-specific data elements to minimize interruptions while tripling the inappropriate order cancellation rate compared to competitors. Cedars-Sinai Health System is saving $6 million per year after adding Stanson-powered Choosing Wisely recommendations into Epic (example: ordering an antibiotic for a patient with bronchitis issues a reminder that they don’t work for viral infections). The company also understands that patients may resist the “less medicine is sometimes better” message and has licensed content from Consumer Reports to provide them with friendly educational material. Stanson Health was co-founded by Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH (formerly co-founder and CEO of Zynx Health, now SVP/chief clinical transformation officer at Cedars-Sinai) and Darren Dworkin (SVP/CIO of Cedars-Sinai). Thanks to Stanson Health for supporting HIStalk Practice and HIStalk.

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.

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

Vince Ciotti and Frank Poggio presented an engaging and refreshing opinionated HIStalk webinar yesterday on the DoD HER bid and how it affect Cerner, Epic, and everybody else. They also spent a good bit of time offering advice to Siemens clients looking to break out into new vendor territory. Their slides alone are worth a look. HIStalk readers can also take advantage of the recorded presentation above.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Health WildCatters welcomes the third class of startups to its Dallas-based accelerator program, pointing out that female entrepreneurs lead half of the fledgling companies. Participants receive $30,000 in seed money with the potential for up to $250,000 in further funding. Plano, TX-based participant Insight Optics seems to be the only company specifically targeting physician practices, with mobile-imaging IT that enables PCPs to record fundus exams and forward results to ophthalmologists for review.

Telemedicine

SkyMD integrates DoseSpot e-prescribing technology into its specialty-specific telemedicine software, achieving Surescripts certification along the way.

Ghana’s Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Union brings telemedicine to 100,000 cocoa farmers as part of a pilot project that will be conducted in three regions of the west African nation. The union will conduct the pilot alongside a mobile clinic program launched earlier this year.

Announcements and Implementations

The Medical Society of New Jersey offers its members discounted pricing on MedXCom cloud-based nightcall technology, accessible via smartphone app. MedXCom was founded in 2010 by three New Jersey-based physicians, including former Meridian EMR VP Michael Rothkopf.

Worksite health clinic chain Premise Health sees success with partners Greenway Health and EHealth Exchange in establishing bi-directional data exchange between its Portland-based Intel Corp. clinics and area providers who utilize Greenway and Epic systems, including Providence Health & Services, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, and The Portland Clinics. Over 26,000 data sets of patient information have been exchanged via CCDA thus far, prompting the roll out of a similar program in Arizona.

Government and Politics

CMS releases 2014 quality and financial performance results for Pioneer ACOs and MSSP participants. Both groups showed improvements in 27 out of 33 quality measures, yet delivered fewer savings in 2014 than in 2013, declining from $417 million to $411 million. AMGA President and CEO Donald Fisher was quick to point out there’s definitely room for improvement: “We appreciate the tremendous efforts our medical group members have made to improve the care for their Medicare patients through the Shared Savings Program and the Pioneer ACO Program. Some of them have been able to share in savings while improving patient care, while others, despite their significant investments in improved care processes and quality initiatives, have not realized any shared savings. These results point to the need for continued refinements to the ACO program framework, and AMGA is committed to working with CMS and Congress to pave the way for medical groups to succeed as ACOs.”

Research and Innovation

Researchers find low utilization of 20 glucose-tracking smartphone apps by Spanish-speaking diabetics, a statistic made all the dire when the number of Spanish apps is considered – just 35 percent of those in the Apple and Google app stores are available in that language. In addition to an overall greater need for health literacy and education in Spanish, researchers conclude that developers increase glucometer connections to the apps and improve reminder alerts.

Other

St. Louis Public Radio highlights the stumbling blocks faced by President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, including inadequate funding for enrollment and the unknown role Medicaid and Medicare will play in reimbursing participants for genetic sequencing once precision medicine is here to stay. The biggest hindrance may come from EHRs, according to Washington University’s Professor Sarah Gehlert, who notes that low-income patients may not have an existing or cohesive enough EHR to contribute to the cause. “This million-person group needs to be representative,” she explains, “and it needs to include people who are experiencing disparities.”

USA Today shines its healthcare spotlight on Las Vegas-based Turntable Health, a practice that “doesn’t feel like a funeral home, like most doctor’s offices,” according to one patient. The primary care clinic has received its fair share of press thanks in large part to the viral marketing of its founder, Zubin Damania, MD (aka ZDoggMD), and its role in the city’s Downtown Project, a $350 million initiative created by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh that is working (some would say sluggishly) to create an arts and tech hub on the Strip. (I didn’t realize the Millenial-friendly practice is managed by primary care chain Iora Health. You can check out my interview with CEO Rushika Fernandopulle, MD here.)

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD offers “PRM Software Capabilities, part 2 of 2.”
• Stanson Health will exhibit at UHC’s annual conference in Orlando and will participate in its Member Innovation Expo and Reception on October 1.
• Culbert Healthcare Solutions offers “The Defining Moments Leading Up to ICD-10.”

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.