News 9/21/22

Top News

Zócalo Health will use $5 million in seed funding to launch its virtual primary care services for Latino patients in Washington, Texas, and California by the end of the year.

Co-founders Erik Cardenas and Mariza Hardin both hail from Amazon Care.

HIStalk Practice Musings

I’ve been on a bit of a history kick lately, having read “The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra” and “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania” in recent weeks. Despite knowing the tragic ends of both books, I got swept up in the suspenseful narratives created by authors Helen Rappaport and Erik Larson, leaving me eager to learn more about the global stage of the first World War. (If you read “Dead Wake,” do yourself a favor and read Larson’s footnotes for even more anecdotal observations.) I’d also love to learn more about Russian history. Please contact me with any book suggestions you may have.

My opinion of Walmart Health continues to swing back and forth. Having experienced optometry, primary care, and dental services several times over, I’ve certainly experienced enough care through the retail clinic – mostly just fine and always affordable. My recent visit to their dental practice in the company of a family member was in keeping with past experiences: The clinic called several days ago to cancel an appointment in October due to staffing issues – something that has happened nearly every time I’ve had a dental appointment. Fortunately, they were able to fit us in several weeks earlier than the cancelled appointment. Upon arrival for a morning appointment, I noticed that the lobby was filled with patients who had yet to be checked in. Walmart Health staff seemed to be scrambling to power up Epic check-in tablets. Ours wasn’t the first appointment of the day, so I wondered if technology issues had plagued the clinic for awhile. Once in the dental chair, the hygienist insisted she couldn’t find any record of our past visits. The dentist, however, was able to locate them. The culprit was the practice’s recent transition from Zotec’s dental software to Epic, which the hygienist was not thrilled about. She told me that the software they were given to train on was markedly different from what they went live on. She also complained about the updates Epic apparently likes to make every so often. In a nutshell, she told she just wants software that she doesn’t have to think about, that just lets her do her job. Hopefully, they’ll get the kinks worked out soon. I wonder if they’ll transition primary care from Athenahealth to Epic in the near future so that medical records are in one place.

Webinars

September 22 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2023 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, marketing director, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, marketing manager, IMO. The yearly update to ICD-10-CM is almost here. Prepare your organization for a smooth transition, and avoid any negative impacts to your bottom line, with an in-depth look at the upcoming changes. Listen to IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders discuss the 2023 ICD-10-CM coding changes. This webinar will review additions, deletions, and other revisions to the ICD-10-CM code set and how to make sure you get properly reimbursed.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

People

Athenahealth names Stacy Simpson (Genpact) chief marketing officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Transitions Care, which offers primary care, symptom management, and end-of-life care, implements virtual care management software and services from TimeDoc Health to support its chronic care management programs.

QHSLab announces GA of a digital screening tool for primary care patients who may be suffering long-COVID symptoms.

Research and Innovation

KLAS Research publishes an analysis of physician satisfaction with EHRs based on specialty, with pediatric and family medicine physicians expressing the second- and third-highest levels of satisfaction. Ophthalmologists are the least satisfied with their systems. Researchers hope the findings may shed light on physician burnout and retention in light of satisfaction with an organization’s technology.

The National Quality Forum publishes a report identifying five recommendations for how EHRs can enable effective care communication and coordination for patient care and quality measurement. They include: collect and share standardized data, optimize usability for patients and caregivers, optimize usability for clinicians, develop novel EHR data elements to improve measurement, and leverage EHR data to fill care measurement gaps. The report was put together by a 31-member committee that met virtually 10 times over the course of 24 months.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 9/19/22

Top News

Telemedicine vendor Peak stops offering its ketamine-based psychedelic therapy for drug-resistant depression and anxiety to new patients, and will cease operations at the end of November. Peak is among the handful of telemedicine companies that launched during the pandemic and its relaxed telemedicine policies. A Rolling Stone profile found that the company had prescribed ketamine to at least two patients without diagnoses of depression.

Webinars

September 22 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2023 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, marketing director, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, marketing manager, IMO. The yearly update to ICD-10-CM is almost here. Prepare your organization for a smooth transition, and avoid any negative impacts to your bottom line, with an in-depth look at the upcoming changes. Listen to IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders discuss the 2023 ICD-10-CM coding changes. This webinar will review additions, deletions, and other revisions to the ICD-10-CM code set and how to make sure you get properly reimbursed.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Personal health record app startup MyDigiRecords secures an undisclosed amount of financing from investor Terry Dunn. The company’s consumer-facing app will initially focus on immunizations. The company plans to add medication management and appointment scheduling features in the coming months.

Kaiser Health News looks at the growing trend of private equity firms buying up eye care physician practices and the escalating costs that quickly ensue for patients, many of whom are seniors and on fixed incomes. Sixteen of the 25 biggest healthcare-focused PE firms have invested in optometry and ophthalmology practices. Economists have also noted that specialty practices acquired by PE firms typically charge 20% more than their independent peers.

Announcements and Implementations

Privia Health will implement Vim Connect, Vim’s EHR-integrated physician enablement technology, across its network of Privia Care Partners.

Research and Innovation

Researchers from the University of Cambridge Sun Yat-sen University develop a digital mask that will enable facial images to be stored securely in a patient’s medical record. The “mask” uses 3-D reconstruction and deep learning algorithms to erase identifiable features while still retaining disease-relevant details.

Sponsor Updates

• Psychiatric practice Talkiatry expands its use of EClinicalWorks technology to include Healow TeleVisits.
• Nordic posts a new episode of DocTalk titled “Remote patient monitoring for chronic disease management.”

Blog Posts

• COO Jeff Brown Celebrates PerfectServe’s 25th Anniversary (PerfectServe)
• Can Technology Really Help Solve the Hospital Worker Shortage? (TigerConnect)
• Curing the post-implementation blues (Nordic)
• A Different Point of View: Clinical Usability Requires Diagnostically Connected Data (Medicomp)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 9/14/22

Top News

Renal Care 360º secures an undisclosed amount of funding from Pharos Capital Group.The kidney care practice management and predictive analytics company partners with providers to develop custom chronic care management programs.

Webinars

September 22 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2023 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, marketing director, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, marketing manager, IMO. The yearly update to ICD-10-CM is almost here. Prepare your organization for a smooth transition, and avoid any negative impacts to your bottom line, with an in-depth look at the upcoming changes. Listen to IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders discuss the 2023 ICD-10-CM coding changes. This webinar will review additions, deletions, and other revisions to the ICD-10-CM code set and how to make sure you get properly reimbursed.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Allermi raises $1.25 million in pre-seed funding. The company offers online prescriptions for custom allergy treatments to patients in California. Shani Bocian started the company last year with her father Robert Bocian, MD an allergy and immunology specialist.

Maternal virtual care company BabyLiveAdvice raises $1.1 million in seed funding. The company’s software is built on VSee’s telemedicine technology.

Other

Spokane, WA resident Beverly Hodgins releases a new book, “Mercy and Madness: Dr. Mary Archard Latham’s Tragic Fall from Female Physician to Felon,” in an effort to accurately tell the story of the somewhat legendary Spokane physician. Initially known as a well-respected physician, child welfare advocate, and philanthropist in Spokane at the turn of the 19th century, Latham fell from grace after the death of her son. Author Hodgins, a distant relative of Latham’s, says Mary ““both gave mercy and received mercy in the end. She did have moments of what some would say is madness, after the traumas she experienced, but she persevered in the end. She never gave up.”

NHS clinics in England are among the many establishments that will close on Monday, the day of the Queen’s funeral. NHS hospitals are also anticipating numerous cancellations on that national day of mourning. 

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Enable accurate collections with insurance eligibility verification (AdvancedMD)
• One Month to Go: Come to Orlando and See for Yourself! (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 9/12/22

Top News

Akido Labs acquires Chaparral Medical Group to create a medical network that will leverage Akido’s Care Delivery Platform, including social determinants of health-focused predictive analytics. Chaparral has 36 locations in California’s Pomona Valley.

CMG founder and President Prasad Jeereddi, MD will take on the additional role of Akido’s CMO.

Webinars

September 22 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2023 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, marketing director, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, marketing manager, IMO. The yearly update to ICD-10-CM is almost here. Prepare your organization for a smooth transition, and avoid any negative impacts to your bottom line, with an in-depth look at the upcoming changes. Listen to IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders discuss the 2023 ICD-10-CM coding changes. This webinar will review additions, deletions, and other revisions to the ICD-10-CM code set and how to make sure you get properly reimbursed.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to AdvancedMD for supporting HIStalk Practice.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Direct primary care company Everside Health has raised $164 million in growth equity funding. The company, which gears its services toward employers, will use some of the financing to improve its Everside 360 technology, particularly in the area of predictive analytics and care delivery. Everside’s origins stem from DPC provider Paladina Health and its acquisitions of competitors Healthstat, Activate Healthcare, and R-Health over the last several years.

Announcements and Implementations

Health Leaders Group, a vendor of ophthalmology practice management and EHR software, implements MeldRx health data management technology from Darena Solutions.

Multi-specialty medical group Up Medical (CA) selects patient engagement and care management capabilities from Memora Health.

Optimis Services incorporates Kareo’s clinical and practice management software with its cloud-based EHR and practice management OptimisPT software for rehab clinics.

Research and Innovation

An MGMA data dive into the performance and practices of successful medical groups finds that better-performing practices offered more same-day appointments (and thus collecting more co-payments at time of service) than their poorer-performing counterparts.

Other

A Canadian couple takes out an ad – successfully – to find a new doctor. The newspaper’s editor says he’s never seen an ad like this one, nor the response it elicited: “It was all over Twitter and Facebook immediately. It was everywhere. It’s really a reflection of the scope of the problem that people are having getting doctors. A lot of people sympathized with that.”

Forbes posts quite a witty write-up about the electric vehicle-powered vasectomy performed at North Austin Urology in Texas. H/T to @boltyboy for tweeting about the story.

Sponsor Updates

• Quippe Clinical Lens from Medicomp Systems is added to the Cerner App Gallery.

Blog Posts

• Nurses of Note Awards 2022: The Lead Advanced Practice Provider (PerfectServe)
• How Healthcare Technology Can Optimize Nursing Workflows (TigerConnect)
• How Education Helps with Suicide Prevention (Healthwise)
• Healthcare is not aviation (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 9/7/22

Top News

CertifyOS raises $14.5 million in a Series A funding round led by General Catalyst. The company has developed APIs for provider credentialing, licensing, enrollment, and network monitoring. Its customers include VillageMD and Thirty Madison.

Webinars

September 22 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2023 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, marketing director, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, marketing manager, IMO. The yearly update to ICD-10-CM is almost here. Prepare your organization for a smooth transition, and avoid any negative impacts to your bottom line, with an in-depth look at the upcoming changes. Listen to IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders discuss the 2023 ICD-10-CM coding changes. This webinar will review additions, deletions, and other revisions to the ICD-10-CM code set and how to make sure you get properly reimbursed.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Announcements and Implementations

The Institute for Population Health, an FQHC based in Detroit, implements Carium’s virtual care platform. Smartlink Health Solutions assisted with EHR integration.

Noble adds remote patient monitoring capabilities to its mental health app to help primary care physicians better care for patients experiencing mental health issues. 

Other

STAT points out that telemedicine’s increasing ubiquity may have a dark side, given that many patients are left without providers when high- (or low-) profile telemedicine companies like Amazon Care close up shop or, like Cerebral, stop offering treatment for certain conditions. Consumers would do well to weigh the benefit of convenience against a telemedicine company’s length of time in business, partnerships with brick-and-mortar clinics, and ease of accessing medical records should the need arise to transfer to another provider.

Desperate to find a specialist after his physician’s practice closed, a Vancouver man places an ad in his local newspaper offering a $5,000 finder’s fee to anyone who can find him a new doctor specializing in neuromuscular diseases. He received numerous referrals from readers, none of whom would take his money, and has since found a new physician.

Patients in Morrisville, VT sue Lamoille Health Partners for its response to a June ransomware attack that forced its systems offline for more than a week. The patients contend the practice failed to safeguard their information, violated HIPAA, and failed to notify them of the hack in a timely manner. LHP issued a notice about the data incident August 11.

Sponsor Updates

• Microsoft publishes a case study featuring EClinicalWorks, “EClinicalWorks thrives in the cloud with Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Disk Storage.”
• PerfectServe celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Blog Posts

• 3 ways AI-enabled RPM is improving care delivery (AdvancedMD)
• Why Usability is So Critical to Healthcare IT (EClinicalWorks)
• How Better Clinical Communication Can Reduce Sentinel Events (PerfectServe)
• Can OpenNotes Be Too Open? (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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