News 6/3/16

Top News

Forbes revises the estimated net worth of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes from $4.5 billion to $0. The magazine named her the youngest self-made female billionaire in 2015. (Judy took the number-three spot this year.) Its estimate of her wealth is based on her 50-percent stake in Theranos, which Forbes values at $800 million. As Lorre mentions in her latest HIStalk Connect post, Holmes owns common stock, so there won’t be much left by the time investors cash out on preferred shares of the $724 million they invested.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

This week on HIStalk Practice: CMS opens up the CPC+ program to eligible primary care practices enrolled in Medicare ACOs. MGMA’s latest physician compensation survey shows continued uptick in primary care pay. ONC develops transparency dashboard to help providers comparison shop for healthcare IT. Care Management Solutions of Louisiana implements EQHealth Solutions population health management tech. Curmudgeonly bookstore owner gives Mr. H a run for his pet peeve money. Direct Urgent Care founder Caesar Djavaherian, MD offers thoughts on price transparency and the benefits of EHR-integrated digital stethoscopes.

This week on HIStalk Connect: Nokia completes its acquisition of Withings. CB Insights reports 2016 is on track for a record year in digital health deals and funding. Lorre reviews Paul Kalanithi’s memoir, “When Breath Becomes Air.” Houlihan Lokey’s Dmitry Krasnik shares his growth predictions for healthcare IT. Proskriptive’s Michael Hollenbeck shares his journey from sales leadership to startup founder.

Here is video from HIStalk Connect’s first meetup, held last week in Pasadena, CA. The event featured Stacy Bamberg, CEO of Veristride, who shared the journey of a young startup in developing a healthcare data analytics platform leveraging IoT via an insole wearable. Email Lorre if you’re interested in having HIStalk Connect sponsor your next meetup.

Webinars

June 28 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Your Call Is Very Important.” Sponsored by West Healthcare Practice. Presenters: Cyndy Orrys, contact center director, Henry Ford Health System; Brian Cooper, SVP, West Interactive. The contact center is a key hub of patient engagement and a strategic lever for driving competitive advantage. Cyndy will share how her organization’s call center is using technologies and approaches that create effortless patient experiences in connecting them to the right information or resource. Brian will describe five key characteristics of a modern call center and suggest how to get started.

Contact Lorre for webinar services. Past webinars are on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

MedAssets-Precyse acquires Salt Lake City-based analytics and consulting firm Equation for an undisclosed sum. MedAssets and Precyse were acquired by Pamplona Capital Management last year; full integration of the companies is expected to wrap up this year.

EarlySense secures a $25 million funding round led by Israel-based Bank Hapoalim. The company, which has offices in Israel and Massachusetts, has raised $100 million so far. Its under-the-bed monitoring sensors are used in healthcare settings and as part of consumer health products like Samsung’s SleepSense tracker.

Patient rehab tech firm Moving Analytics raises $1.1 million in funding led by Launchpad Digital Health. The Los Angeles-based company will use the money to further develop its home-based cardiac rehab tool and to develop a complementary COPD product.

Sales

Presbyterian Healthcare Services (NM) signs a three-year contract with MedeAnalytics for enterprise analytics services. PHS consists of eight hospitals, a statewide health plan, and multispecialty physician group,

Announcements and Implementations

DirectTrust gives consumers secure-messaging access to its network of 58,000 healthcare organizations and 1.2 million email addresses.

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center reports positive results from its Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program, which included adoption of population health management software from Enli Health Intelligence. Outcomes included a 60-percent increase in foot exams and a 100-percent increase in Pneumovax screenings over a 12-month period.

Medical University of South Carolina deploys Epic’s integration of Vidyo virtual visit software into Hyperspace and MyChart Web and mobile apps.

St. Joseph Medical Center joins the Greater Houston Healthconnect HIE.

People

Dave Jansen (Sagacious Consultants) joins The Wilshire Group as senior consultant.

Noel Allender (Jacobus Consulting) joins Leidos Health as Epic practice managing director.

Bobby Tuli (Healthgrades) joins Geneia as head of product management.

Government and Politics

ONC launches a new website focused on improving health IT vendor transparency that gives providers an opportunity to review mandatory cost and system limitation disclosure statements on products in the marketplace.

ONC awards Boston Children’s Hospital $275,000 as part of a $625,000 cooperative agreement announced at HIMSS that will help create a FHIR App Ecosystem. Boston Children’s will be tasked with developing an online app discovery site, which ONC hopes will simplify the process of publishing health IT apps, and the ability to discover and compare them.

Privacy and Security

The paper and digital medical records of thousands of NFL players are stolen from a Washington Redskins trainer’s car during an April break-in. The thief absconded with a backpack containing a password-protected but unencrypted laptop that had copies of player medical records and medical exam results for NFL Scouting Combine attendees dating back to 2004. The bag also contained a zip drive and hard copy records of similar documents. According to the NFL, its electronic monitoring system prevented medical records in its EClinicalWorks EHR from being downloaded. No foul play seems to have occurred thus far as a result of the breach.

Innovation and Research

CHIME concludes the Concept Blitz Round of its Healthcare Innovation Trust National Patient ID Challenge, and names two winning submissions that will each receive $30,000. The contest will now move on to the final round, which will award a $1 million prize to the winning team.

Researchers at Geisinger Health System (PA) analyze the EHRs of over 2,000 patients admitted to the hospital for overdoses during a 10-year period to look for patterns that may indicate a likelihood of death or complications. Not surprisingly, predictors of the most dire outcomes included higher prescription opioid use, concurrent chronic diseases and mental disorders, and use of other psychotropic medications.

Technology

TigerText adds Honeywell scanning and bot technology to its messaging platform, enabling care teams to verify patient identity and pull data directly from the EHR.

Clinical Computer Systems will integrate its Obix Perinatal Data System with Meditech versions 6.15, 6.16, and beyond.

Seniorlink develops care coordination and communications technology that connects ACOs, managed care organizations, and providers with caregivers.

Best Computer Systems adds DrFirst’s Backline communication and care collaboration technology to its BestRx pharmacy management system.

Sponsor Updates

• AirWatch releases the latest episode of its Echo One podcast.
• Bernoulli publishes a poster on alarm reduction it presented during the annual NPSF Patient Safety Congress last week in Scottsdale, AZ.
• Besler Consulting renews its HFMA Peer Review designation for its transfer DRG Revenue Recovery service.
• Bottomline Technologies announces new board members.
• Crain’s Cleveland Business features Direct Consulting Associates.
• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the AAOE 2016 Annual Conference June 9-12 in San Francisco.
• Extension Healthcare, FormFast, and InterSystems will exhibit at the E-Health Annual Conference June 5-8 in Vancouver.
• Glytec highlights studies presented at the AACE Annual Scientific and Clinical Congress in Orlando.
• The HCI Group EVP of Clinical Services Bob Steele is elected to the HIMSS Health IT User Experience Committee.
• Live Process will exhibit at the AAMI 2016 Conference & Expo June 3-6 in Tampa, FL.
• MedData will exhibit at the Advanced Institute for Anesthesia Practice Management meeting June 3-4 in Las Vegas.
• Navicure publishes a new resource guide, “Getting Billing Right.”
• Nordic will host the Qlik Healthcare Wisconsin Users Group Meeting June 9 in Madison, WI.
• Obix Perinatal Data Systems adds two new videos to its “Ask the Experts” series.

Blog Posts

• ICD-10: Are We There Yet? (Medicity)
• Medical Practice Optimization Simplified, Part 2 of 5 (AdvancedMD)
• How Interoperable is Your Brain? (Arcadia Healthcare Solutions)
• 7 Quality Measure Healthcare Organizations Explained (Catalyze)
• Optimizing Medical Device Management (CapsuleTech)
• Current and Future Trends in CCM (CareSync)
• Are Health Plans Heading Towards Data Lakes or Data Swamps? (CitiusTech)
• CoverMyMeds Gives Talk on EPA Best Practices at CBI (CoverMyMeds)
• Patient Wait Times Should be Your Priority (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)
• What Value-Based Reimbursement Really Looks Like (Divurgent)
• End User Training: Three Things to Know Before Your Data Migration (Galen Healthcare Solutions)
• 4 Tips on How to Involve Your Subject Matter Experts in Your EHR Implementation (Hayes Management Consultants)
• Healthcare Organizations and Their Business Associates Play the Blame Game (ID Experts)
• The Positive Impact of Giving! (Impact Advisors)
• Patient Engagement Isn’t as Hard as You Think (Influence Health)
• What is Integration and How Can Providers Benefit? (InstaMed)
• Finland Sets the Stage for Liaison Alloy Health (Liaison Technologies)
• Hospital Billing Contracts – The why, the ROI (hint: very high), and first steps (Nordic)
• Why the Future of Health Looks a Lot Like Your Mobile Phone (Orion Health)

Contacts

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