News 2/24/21

Top News

Google Health expands the pilot of its EHR search and data presentation tool, which it has named Care Studio.

The system provides a centralized view and search capability of patient information that is stored one or more EHRs.

Ascension was the pilot site, for which Google earned the attention of Congress a year ago for how the company intends to use and protect patient information. Google has made assurances that it does not own patient data, doesn’t sell it, and won’t use it for advertising purposes.

Clinicians from unnamed sites in Nashville, TN and Jacksonville, FL will use an early release of Care Studio and provide feedback about its usability, usefulness, and workflow integration.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor RCxRules. The Burlington, VT-based company, founded in 2010, helps healthcare organizations succeed with both value-based care and fee-for-service billing models. Its unique, predictive rules engine ensures compliance with healthcare’s complex regulatory and reimbursement rules. Integrating with leading EMRs and PM systems, RCxRules software addresses issues before they affect revenue, delivering claims with the most accurate financial and HCC data — every time, guaranteed. Thanks to RCxRules for supporting HIStalk.

Listening: a grab bag of obscure 1960s psychedelia, which is mostly new to me. The naively optimistic flower children who formed forgotten bands 50-plus years ago are now dying off without fanfare. Little-known groups I’ve discovered: The Fallen Angels, Kaleidoscope, and The Peanut Butter Conspiracy (in addition to one of my all-time favorites and not obscure at all The Love). I am contemplating a foray into collecting LPs and 45s for the first time since I suspect a lot of this trippy vinyl is moldering in basement junk boxes and deserves better. It is sweetly sad to think of someone’s great-grandma passing away in her 80s without her family knowing that, if only for a few weeks, she was a sun-drenched Renaissance faire goddess with flowers in her hair, whose heartfelt, unskilled folkie crooning soundtracked the personal summer of love for thousands or millions of people who are struggling, as she did, to reconcile the sunny days of youthful exuberance and seeming immortality with the realization that the clock is running out. “Legacy” is an uncomfortable topic for me since I envy artists whose work will continue to be discovered and appreciated by new generations.

I ran across the best acronym-based group name ever, the Paediatric International Patient Safety and Quality Community, aka PIPSQC (“pipsqueak.”)

Odd grammatical quirk, almost entirely heard in 20-somethings: pointlessly expanding “thank you” to “thank you so much.”

Webinars

February 24 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Maximizing the Value of Digital Initiatives with Enterprise Provider Data Management.” Sponsor: Phynd Technologies. Presenters: Tom White, founder and CEO, Phynd Technologies; Adam Cherrington, research director, KLAS Research. Health systems can derive great business value and competitive advantage by centrally managing their provider data. A clear roadmap and management solution can solve problems with fragmented data, workflows, and patient experiences and support operational efficiency and delivery of a remarkable patient experience. The presenters will describe common pitfalls in managing enterprise information and digital strategy in silos, how to align stakeholders to maximize the value of digital initiatives, and how leading health systems are using best-of-breed strategies to evolve provider data management.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Tech-enabled insurance startup Oscar Health plans to raise over $1 billion through its IPO, scheduled to take place next week. Like competitor Clover Health, the Alphabet-backed company has yet to show a profit, despite having raised $1.6 billion since launching in 2012. Analysts, however, are quick to predict a $6.7 billion valuation.

Precision medicine technology vendor Tempus will collaborate with Texas Oncology-owned Precision Health Informatics to advance clinical research and personalize patient care. Both are for-profit companies.

Sales

• Jackson Hospital and Clinic (AL) will implement CPSI subsidiary TruBridge’s RCM software and services.
• Mercy Iowa City selects Spok Go clinical communications software.

Announcements and Implementations

Southeast Health (AL) implements Epic.

RxRevu develops SwiftMx, giving providers access to medical price transparency and coverage information via EHRs from vendors like Cerner.

General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital (MO) employees prepare to go live on Cerner as part of the DoD’s MHS Genesis Cerner roll out.

CommonSpirit Health uses VeeMed’s tele-ICU physician services across its Dignity Health and Catholic Health hospitals.

Jupiter Medical Center implements Artifact Health’s mobile app for physician queries.

A new KLAS report looks at the EHR experience of medium to large home health agencies, finding that MatrixCare Home Health leads the market, while Epic Dorothy follows closely as used mostly by health system-owned agencies. Homecare Homebase is widely used, but receives the lowest rating for quality of support. WellSky’s customers report lower satisfaction as the company grows and acquires, while users of Netsmart’s acquired products (Homecare Advisor and Homecare) say development has slowed as the company focuses on its MyUnity Enterprise platform.

DirectTrust publishes an implementation guide for sending ADT event notifications via the Direct Standard.

Government and Politics

TeleICU provider RemoteICU sues HHS for not allowing US-licensed physicians who live outside the US to bill Medicare for telehealth services.

In Canada, New Brunswick’s auditor general says that the province’s EHR rollout failed, where $21 million was spent on a system that fewer than half its physicians are using and that does not integrate with hospital systems. The New Brunswick Medical Society partnered with private company Accreon to create Velante to sell the software, then kept pumping money into the failing program and adding switchover subsidies until the exclusive deal ended in 2019. Velante is closing and the software vendor, Intrahealth Canada, will take over support.

COVID-19

J&J says it will ship 20 million doses of its single-shot vaccine in the US by the end of March if it receives FDA’s emergency use authorization, earlier than expected.

Other

HIMSS said early this month that it would provide more information on HIMSS21 on February 19. I didn’t see any specific announcement, but the FAQ now says that registration will open in early March. HIMSS will also run an extra-cost, single-day “CIO Summit” that will be followed by a “curated CIO experience” now that CHIME has pulled out. Exhibitor count is at 410 versus 1,300 at HIMSS19.

St. Margaret’s Health-Spring Valley (IL) reverts to paper-based processes after its IT team discovers a data breach, forcing it to shut down all of its Web-based systems.

An AMA article touts the use of Xcertia app development guidelines — developed by AMA, HIMSS, and other groups — even though the Xcertia project was shut down in August 2020. HIMSS said at the time that the effort would continue with oversight by a HIMSS work group.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD shares the product enhancements that will be made available during its Winter 2021 Release.
• Black Book Market Research includes Impact Advisors among the top-rated RCM services and optimization consultants.
• Cone Health (NC) expands its use of PatientPing’s real-time event notification software to include community providers.
• PeriGen affirms that its technology supports the US Surgeon General’s call to action to improve management of maternal health.  
• CereCore relocates its Nashville headquarters to, in the near future, better accommodate its workforce and partners.
• Cerner releases a new podcast, “How diverse, community-based hospitals are a lifeline to saving clinical research.”
• The Chartis Group publishes a new brief, “Partner with Purpose: How to Build a Winning Playbook to Guide Health System Partnership Strategy.”
• Columbus CEO includes CoverMyMeds Senior Manager of Employee Engagement Lachandra Baker in its Future 50 initiative.
• Wolters Kluwer Health highlights the top four challenges facing CMS Administrator nominee Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
• Quil becomes a HealthShare Exchange MarketStreet partner.
• Medical Marketing & Media includes OptimizeRx SVP and Principal of Agency Channels Angelo Campano to its “40 Under 40” list.

Blog Posts

• How Healthcare Leaders are Leveraging Patient Engagement Software to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines (AdvancedMD)
• What if? (Ascom)
• ECR 2021 – Explore the on-line opportunities (Agfa HealthCare)
• The Shift to Home Health Care – and Setting Your Organization Up for Success (CarePort)
• Epic Testing: Tips for Taking Testing Virtual (CereCore)
• Understanding Social Determinants of Health and Their Integration with EHRs (ChartLogic)
• Engaging hard-to-reach patients (EClinicalWorks)
• 5 Reasons Why You Need to Prioritize Prescription Price Transparency (RxRevu)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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