News 6/22/15

Top News

The Texas Medical Board files a motion in federal court to dismiss Teladoc’s lawsuit against the state, which claims Texas violated antitrust laws through its attempts to bar the telemedicine company’s operations. The board noted that it is within its legal rights to preclude Teladoc’s business even though the new regulation may have an overall anti-competitive effect on healthcare within Texas.

Webinars

June 30 (Tuesday) 11:00 ET. “Value Based Reimbursement – Leveraging Data to Build a Successful Risk-based Strategy.” Sponsored by McKesson. Presenters: Michael Udwin, MD, executive director of physician engagement, McKesson; Jeb Dunkelberger, executive director of corporate partnerships, McKesson. Healthcare organizations are using empowered physician leadership and credible performance analysis to identify populations, stratify risk, drive physician engagement, and expose opportunities for optimized care. Attendees will learn best practices in laying a foundation for developing a successful risk-based strategy.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

UK-based retail health clinic business Mee Healthcare closes up shop, with insiders pointing to mismanagement as the root cause. Launched in 2011 by Cherie Blair, wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and one-time US senatorial candidate Gail Lese, MD the company had hoped to open 100 clinics within Sainsbury’s supermarkets by 2016.

Anthem reveals a $54 billion takeover bid for Cigna, confirming rumors that have been swirling for weeks around Cigna’s potential sale. Talks apparently broke down over the future role of Cigna CEO David Cordani, whom Anthem wanted to put in a number-two position behind its CEO, Joseph Swedish. The news is part of a larger consolidation trend amongst the payer market: Cigna has been eyeing Humana, while United Healthcare has explored merging with Aetna.

Announcements and Implementations

Atlantic Dialysis Management Services (NY) selects Web-based compliance education tools from BridgeFront to assist its 700 employees with HIPAA, OSHA, and  general and HR compliance training.

Ageless Men’s Health clinic transitions away from paper via implementation of Azalea Health’s EHR at its 34 nationwide locations.

MacPractice integrates BirdEye’s reputation management and marketing tool into its PM and clinical software.

Government and Politics

ONC releases a report on provider experience with HIEs in six states, concluding that their value lies in easier access to “actionable” data at the point of care. The five physician/physician association representatives surveyed noted eight main use cases for HIE, including meeting Meaningful Use requirements, medication history and reconciliation, access to state registries, care summaries, and interstate exchange.

The American College of Physicians offers the Senate Finance Committee 18 suggestions in response to the committee’s call for policy changes to improve care for chronic-disease patients. Healthcare IT-related items include improving the functionality of EHRs, creating codes to provide reimbursement for diabetic care management and e-consults, and committing federal funds to research the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of telemedicine activities.

Telemedicine

The ACP recommendations above line up with the American Telemedicine Association’s recommendations made to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s telehealth working group, which include making telemedicine more available to patients with chronic conditions, and making the technology easier to access in Medicare Advantage and alternative payment programs.

An American Well/QuantiaMD survey of 2,016 primary care physicians finds that 57 percent of physicians are willing to conduct telemedicine visits with patients. Thirty-one percent remain uncertain, meaning there’s a big chunk of the market still up for grabs. Physicians cited work-life balance, increased earning opportunity, and improved outcomes as top reasons for offering video consults. Sixty percent also noted they’d be more likely to refer patients to a hospital that offered them a chance to consult with specialists via video.

Research and Innovation

The American Academy of Pediatrics launches an EHR network to aggregate clinical data from pediatric offices for comparative effectiveness research. Studies on asthma and psychotropic medication, and pediatric hypertension are part of the study, which researchers hope will “improve the analysis of secondary data, supplement routinely collected EHR data with prospective data collection, and use CDS to support health care decision-making.”

A survey of 415 physicians finds that only 15 percent typically discuss wearables or apps with patients, despite the fact that an average of 40 percent believe patients could benefit from using them. The disconnect may be due to the fact that physicians are only “mildly satisfied” with current wearables based on their ease of use and clinical utility of data generated. Respondents gave the Microsoft Band highest marks in both categories.

People

Leavitt Partners and the Brookings Institution collaborate to form the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative. Former HHS Secretary Gov. Mike Leavitt (R-Utah) and former CMS Administrator and FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, MD will co-chair the new nonprofit.

Other

MIT will turn its Hacking Medicine program into a nonprofit institute that will develop methodologies to determine the value of digital health programs and products. The Hacking Medicine Institute will form its first working groups in October under the leadership of Zen Chu, MIT senior lecturer and faculty director of Hacking Medicine.

Healthcare and local government representatives will gather next month in Wise, VA to demonstrate the efficacy of using drones to deliver medical supplies to a free health clinic held annually at the Wise County Fairgrounds. 

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic offers a new episode focusing on technical cutover in its “Making the Cut” video series.
• NVoq offers “The EMR Journey to Optimization and Innovation.”
• Greenway Health highlights its partnership with Talksoft.

The following HIStalk sponsors are exhibiting at HFMA ANI June 22-25 in Orlando:

• ADP AdvancedMD
• Billian’s HealthDATA
• GE Healthcare
• Greenway Health
• Leidos Health
• NextGen
• Relay Health
• TriZetto

Contacts

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

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Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 6/19/15

Top News

Westchester Medical Center Health Network (NY) signs a $500 million deal with Philips for consulting services and medical technologies, a move that Philips CEO Frans van Houten says is “part of our strategy to do population health. We have 40 of these larger deals done over the last several years." Recent contracts, valued at close to $300 million each, include Sweden-based Karolinska Hospital and Georgia Regents Medical Center.

Webinar

June 30 (Tuesday) 11:00 ET. “Value Based Reimbursement – Leveraging Data to Build a Successful Risk-based Strategy.” Sponsored by McKesson. Presenters: Michael Udwin, MD, executive director of physician engagement, McKesson; Jeb Dunkelberger, executive director of corporate partnerships, McKesson. Healthcare organizations are using empowered physician leadership and credible performance analysis to identify populations, stratify risk, drive physician engagement, and expose opportunities for optimized care. Attendees will learn best practices in laying a foundation for developing a successful risk-based strategy.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Care coordination company GSI Health receives an undisclosed amount of funding from healthcare and pharmaceutical IT investment firm Rittenhouse Ventures. GSI will use the investment to accelerate product innovation, with special emphasis on population health management. Rittenhouse Ventures Founder and Managing Partner Saul Richter will join GSI’s Board of Directors.

Oppenheimer analysts report a downward turn in the EHR vendor market caused by a reallocation of provider resources to solutions that cater more to value-based care and population health management initiatives. The firm lists Cerner, The Advisory Board Co., and Premier as companies gaining momentum in the PHM technology market.

Announcements and Implementations

ApolloMed announces its physician network has surpassed 1,000 MDs, and that its three-year-old population health management business now covers over 40,000 patients. The company provides PHM services through its Maverick Medical Group and ApolloMed ACO.

Data service company Proskriptive integrates its predictive analytics software with Yellowfin’s business intelligence platform. The new healthcare analytics tool will offer providers interactive summaries of cost, operations, and quality metrics.

Washington Hospital Services, a subsidiary of the state’s hospital association,  selects ZeOmega as its industry partner to generate awareness of the company’s HIE, population health management, and interoperability tools amongst the state’s providers.

Other

The eHealth Initiative will host the iThrive Challenge August 12-13 in Washington, D.C. The two-phase challenge seeks proposals from startups that focus on how healthcare IT can improve three areas of the eHealth Initiative 2020 Roadmap – population health management, consumer-oriented healthcare IT, and interoperability. Accepted proposals, due July 6, will have the chance to pitch their ideas at the August event.

The University of Kentucky Health Care Committee creates a strategic plan to guide UK HealthCare through 2020 that includes: development of a primary care network to better position the health system for population health and value-based care; and the utilization of Integrated technology to standardize data and better enable population health management.

Sponsor Updates

• GE Healthcare will move customers of its patient flow solutions to those offered by TeleTracking in a newly signed collaboration agreement that also includes shared analytics.
• Intelligent Medical Objects will exhibit at the AMDIS 2015 Physician-Computer Connection Symposium June 24-26 in Ojai, CA.
• Healthwise will exhibit at the CMSA 25th Annual Conference & Expo June 23-26 in Orlando.
• GE Healthcare General Manager of Monitoring Solutions Didier Deltort explains how the demand for digital talent will change the healthcare job market.

Contacts

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

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Readers Write: Population Health Management is Key to Value-Based Care

Population Health Management is Key to Value-Based Care
By Justin Lanning

A group of 35 C-level healthcare executives polled at the recent Midas+ Annual Symposium unanimously agreed that population health management is necessary as the U.S. shifts to more value-based healthcare reimbursement and delivery models.

The group of executives, which collectively represents over 80,000 beds from more than 480 hospitals, was asked to provide their perspective on population health management, starting with how it should be defined. We asked them to rank five components of a definition in order of significance.

According to this group, the most important requirements of a population health management program are that it “facilitates care across the health continuum” and that it “supports providing the highest quality of care at the lowest cost.”

What is population health? Definition components were ranked in the following order:

1. Facilitates care across the health continuum
2. Supports providing the highest quality of care at the lowest cost
3. Uses actionable insight for patient care based on a variety of data
4. Targets a specific population of individuals
5. Enables patient engagement

And healthcare executives today aren’t just talking about population health; they’re putting real emphasis behind it. Our survey found that providers are optimistic about the progress their organizations can make, with 65 percent stating they believe their organizations will deliver fully-scaled population health management programs within five years, while 16 percent report their organizations area already doing so. It makes sense – with providers compensated for successful health outcomes, it’s critical for them to focus on effective management of patient populations.

But as with any major shift in an industry, there are a number of barriers to successful implementation and adoption. Survey respondents indicated the number one challenge is data management and integration capabilities, followed by a lack of financial incentives, poor coordination across care providers and the ability to create meaningful data that provides actionable insights

Ninety-five percent of an extended network of over 150 healthcare staff polled at the symposium believes their role at their healthcare organization will be impacted by an increasing focus on value-based care within the next two years. But how will providers actually make that transition? It’s helpful to look at one example that illustrates how this can come to life:

An analysis of statewide historical hospitalization data in Hawaii revealed high rates of preventable admissions due to bacterial pneumonia. Statewide data showed a pneumonia vaccination rate of 61 percent for men age 65 or higher, and a vaccination rate among Filipinos age 65 or higher of just 51 percent – much lower than the Healthy People 2020 target of 90 percent set by HHS.

Studying geographic data, Hawaii hospitals identified neighborhoods with high bacterial pneumonia hospitalization rates and high Filipino populations across the state. One hospital initiated a plan to increase vaccination among those populations through targeted community benefit activities and increased efforts to vaccinate the managed care population. The estimated potential cost avoidance for Hawaii if the target of 90 percent is reached is over $1.8 million.

Clinical decision support tools that offer consumer insights and engagement opportunities can provide critical support for providers who are looking to better manage care coordination, patient engagement, and chronic diseases, which can be too complex for staff with limited time and resources to handle on their own.

In addition, these tools address data management challenges by predicting health outcomes and providing actionable ways for clinicians to intervene and improve individual care – stated by polled executives as the as the most important driver of population health.

However, providers need to choose a trusted technology partner with proven methodologies. Our discussions with the executives at the symposium reveal that they are taking a staged approach to population health by implementing programs for targeted populations and scaling as they show success.

Justin Lanning is senior vice president and managing director, Midas+, A Xerox Company.

Contacts

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

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News 6/18/15

Top News

The House approves Bill H.R. 2570, which includes a clause that patient visits to ambulatory surgical centers will no longer be treated as patient encounters under the Meaningful Use program, and that physicians won’t be penalized for failing to fulfill MU requirements for those visits. The clause ends three years after a facility’s EHR is certified under the program.

Webinars

June 30 (Tuesday) 11:00 ET. “Value Based Reimbursement – Leveraging Data to Build a Successful Risk-based Strategy.” Sponsored by McKesson. Presenters: Michael Udwin, MD, executive director of physician engagement, McKesson; Jeb Dunkelberger, executive director of corporate partnerships, McKesson. Healthcare organizations are using empowered physician leadership and credible performance analysis to identify populations, stratify risk, drive physician engagement, and expose opportunities for optimized care. Attendees will learn best practices in laying a foundation for developing a successful risk-based strategy.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Sikka Software raises $10.5 million in Series C funding led by OrbiMed, with participation from Sierra Ventures and ATA Ventures, both previous investors. The company, which specializes in cloud-based technologies for the hearing, vision, dental, and veterinary markets, will use the investment to ramp up sales and marketing initiatives.

Announcements and Implementations

Practice Fusion optimizes its EHR for Android- and iOS-based tablets.

ClinicMind introduces revenue cycle management software for mental healthcare practices.

PokitDok introduces an identity management system designed to identify, map, match, and merge patient data for more personalized care. The HL7-compliant API is compatible with a variety of EHRs including Greenway Health, Athenahealth, Allscripts, DrChrono, and OpenEpic.

Research and Innovation

An AHIMA, eHealth Initiative, and Greenway Health study on ICD-10 preparedness finds that the majority of respondents have been preparing for the transition, yet still lag behind in terms of internal and external testing. Physician practices have fallen far behind their hospital counterparts in overall prep work. Top physician challenges include clinical workflow and productivity, vendor readiness, competing healthcare IT priorities, lack of testing, and timelines.

A team from MIT develops a USB-powered mobile stethoscope and companion smartphone app to offer health workers a cost-effective way to diagnose lung disease.  The team will use its $100,000 prize from last month’s Vodafone’s Wireless Innovation Project to field test the device.

NIH researchers develop a “placenta-on-a-chip” to study the structure and function of the placenta, and model the transfer of nutrients from mother to baby. Researchers hope the new biomedical device will enhance studies of placental processes and disorders.

Telemedicine

The New England Telehealth Consortium connects its 300th facility, Sebasticook Family Doctors (ME), to the network. The consortium launched in 2007 after receiving a $24.6 million grant from the FCC’s Rural Health Care Pilot Program, and anticipates connecting an additional 25 facilities in the near future.

Government and Politics

The House Appropriations Committee votes to approve a fiscal year 2016 spending bill, giving ONC just $60 million and eliminating AHRQ funding altogether, prompting industry outcry from several organizations and a #SaveAHRQ Twitter campaign. The bill would also slash mandatory funding for patient-centered outcomes research by $100 million and cut funding for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation by $6.2 billion. (I can’t help but notice that October 1 – the start of the federal government’s fiscal year – is a popular date in healthcare these days. Dare I mention it’s also the day on which I consistently turn a year older?)

Other

Humana and the American Diabetes Association collaborate to develop an educational, evidence-based diabetes curriculum for consumers in the hopes of slowing the disease’s progression. Included in the materials will be digital tools, support groups, and peer-to-peer services.

Fresh off a new funding round of $30 million, Aledade CEO Farzad Mostashari, MD, sporting a spiffy new headshot, tweets (and keynotes) from the ACO Summit in Washington, D.C. I’d love to hear from an attendee or two as to how worthwhile the event was. Registration rates ranged between $1,200 and $1,800, which would make me take a long, hard look at the bang I’d likely get for my buck.

Contacts

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

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News 6/17/15

Top News

Doctor on Demand closes a $50 million round of Series B financing led by Tenaya Capital. The company, which also announced Union Bank & Trust as its 200th employer customer, has raised $74 million to date. 

Webinars

June 30 (Tuesday) 11:00 ET. “Value Based Reimbursement – Leveraging Data to Build a Successful Risk-based Strategy.” Sponsored by McKesson. Presenters: Michael Udwin, MD, executive director of physician engagement, McKesson; Jeb Dunkelberger, executive director of corporate partnerships, McKesson. Healthcare organizations are using empowered physician leadership and credible performance analysis to identify populations, stratify risk, drive physician engagement, and expose opportunities for optimized care. Attendees will learn best practices in laying a foundation for developing a successful risk-based strategy.

Announcements and Implementations

Drug development solutions vendor Icon launches the Firecrest Patient Portal to help eligible patients view and understand clinical trial and treatment information before consenting to participate.

Nextech Systems adds personalized scheduling and electronic prescribing of controlled substances to its EHR and PM solution.

United Radiology Group (KS) selects revenue cycle management services from Zotec Partners.

Research and Innovation

A Physicians’ Alliance of America EHR survey of predominantly pediatric, family medicine, and internal medicine practices reveals that an overwhelming majority of respondents feel comfortable with the technology, and prefer electronic to paper records. Physician frustrations with charting and loss of productivity were clear: Thirty-five percent spend 60 minutes or more every day on their end-of-day charting, while 74 percent note their productivity is the same or worse. Over 20 EHRs were represented in the survey. Top systems included Allscripts, EClinicalWorks, Office Practicum, Greenway/Vitera, and PCC (a PAA partner).

A look at ACA surveys over the last five years paints a slightly optimistic picture of physician acceptance, highlighting several studies that show an aggregate uptick in ACA favoritism. It’s no secret that the majority of providers have not yet warmed up enough to give the act an overwhelming “A.” Those who do view it favorably are more likely to be primary care providers, younger, and female.

People

Deven McGraw (Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP) joins the HHS Office for Civil Rights as deputy director for health information privacy. McGraw was also former chair of the Health IT Policy Committee’s Privacy and Security Workgroup.

Telemedicine

The Georgia Partnership for Telehealth offers telehealth training through three Web-based certification courses from the National School of Applied Telehealth, formed as part of an outreach program between GPT, the California Telehealth Resource Center, HomeTown Health University, and the Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center. Students can study with NSAT to become a Certified telemedicine clinical presenter, telehealth coordinator, or telehealth liaison.

Local drug stores are getting in on the telemedicine act: Canton, MS-based Mosby’s Drug Store partners with TelehealthOne to offer customers a new walk-in medical clinic.

Government and Politics

HHS seeks software developers to become Entrepreneurs in Residence for two development projects: an FDA cancer and hematology data aggregation analysis platform and a CMS system that connects providers to their Medicare interactions.

A GAO report reveals that CMS has doled out $18 billion worth of improper Medicaid payments, $9.6 million of them related to care for 200 deceased beneficiaries. The massive discrepancy is likely tied to the fact that the Social Security Administration’s “Death Master File” website shows that 7 million dead people still have active Social Security numbers.

Other

The Tennessee Dept. of Health issues an alert to healthcare providers urging them to ask their patients about recent travel in light of the MERS outbreak in South Korea. I’d be interested to hear from Tennessee physicians as to how EHR prompts left over from the Ebola scare are helping them remember to ask such questions.

Sponsor Updates

• ADP AdvancedMD offers “ICD-10 billing & coding help – just in the nick of time.”
• GE Healthcare General Manager of Monitoring Solutions Didier Deltort explains in The Financial Times how the demand for digital talent will change the healthcare job market.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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