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Matthew Holt

The ACA– As Much As We Could Have Hoped For, Despite Sensible Old Men

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By MATTHEW HOLT

The Administration has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and enrolled 7 million people (give or take a million who may not have paid their premiums) into health plans under the ACA, and more into Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) isn’t as big a change as some of us would have liked, But in this moment of modest celebration let’s remember what some of the sensible old men said all along.

Sensible old men said reform couldn’t pass without bring in the Republicans. Sen. Baucus tried hard to do that, and it’s beyond clear that no Republican would have ever supported it–even a moderate like Snowe who was quitting. It passed anyway.

They said that we’d see massive rate shock. Instead plans tightened networks and rates were in general lower than they had been before.

They said that the web site debacle meant no-one would sign up and we’d go into an insurance death spiral. The web site launch was a cock up, but Medicaid expansion (where allowed) has more or less been OK, and the exchange web site(s) now more or less work(s)–outside Oregon & Maryland. By the way this backs my argument for having one Federal exchange, which you may remember was in the House bill before we ended up being forced to take the Senate version due to Ted Kennedy’s death.

One wise old man (Robert Laszewski) was still saying that the exchanges would be financial disaster for insurers the very week Wellpoint raised earnings expectations because they had more enrollees than expected.

Let’s also remember that because of the politics of the nation, the ACA is a ridiculous hodge-podge of a law requiring–you’ll recall:

a) an opt-in to what’s basically a social insurance program (hey, let’s opt-in to fire protection while we’re at it!)

b) arbitrary tax (and now subsidy) distinctions between those who get insurance via an employer and those who don’t, and

c) arbitrary access to insurance (well, Medicaid) for the poor depending on their income and which side of a randomly drawn line they live.

Continue reading…

Health 2.0 is now mHealth & Associates

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By Matthew Holt

After years of speculation about a possible name change, Health 2.0 has become mHealth & Associates. My partner Co-Chairman and CEO Indu Subaiya and I didn’t take this move lightly. We were though concerned that the tired “2.0” moniker is now thoroughly discredited by the emergence of the fully interoperable semantic Web, particularly as it’s been demonstrated in the healthcare sector in the US in recent years. In addition leading luminaries such as Chris Schroeder have finally realized the importance of the brand new smart phone devices that we’ve been ignoring for most of the last decade. And after some prompting, we were convinced by the intellectual rigor of the wider mHealth movement with its clear definition of mobile health, including the incorporation of highly portable technologies such as televisions bolted to the walls of hospital rooms.

Admittedly, while mHealth Intelligence and the mHealth Challenge roll off the tongue, we were a little stuck by what to call our main Fall conference–our organization’s best known event. But while mHealth Summit, mHealth Conference and most other variants are already in use, we think that clear market visibility will surround out new name. So instead of the 8th Annual Health 2.0 Fall Conference, this September we’ll welcome you to the First mHealth Confabulation.

Finally we wanted to acknowledge the role of  our wider movement, our team and our 75 chapters across the globe, so we have added the “*& Associates” moniker to the name. In recognition of their contributions all mHealth colleagues will now be known as Mobile Health Associates or in its shortened version, as an “mHealth Ass.” Indu has suggested that I adopt the title of “Biggest mHealth Ass.”

Will eClinicalWorks Win the Race to “Engage” the Patient?

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By Kim Krueger


Patient engagement, for better or worse, is one of those buzzwords that won’t be leaving us anytime soon.

A whole slew of companies use it to describe their products, platforms, and services, but we’re still knee deep in marketing jargon trying to figure out exactly what these tools do and how “effective” they really are.

We got a closer look at one such tool last month at HIMSS from a company that also finds itself knee deep in patient engagement.

eClinicalWorks debuted in 1999 as the Southwest Airlines of electronic health records (EHR). They offered a relatively low cost combined EHR/practice management system, which quickly made them significant players in the small practice market, adding more than 3,000 doctors in just three years.

It wasn’t until 2007 though that eClinicalWorks really broke through when then Assistant New York City Health Commissioner and future National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Dr. Farzad Mostashari selected them for installation with more than 1,300 New York City physicians as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Primary Care Information Project (PCIP).

Now, eClinicalWorks counts more than 100,000 physician users in over 50,000 facilities in addition to another 14 million users on their patient engagement tool, Healow.

Continue reading…

An Open Call for the PCORI Matchmaking App Challenge

By via The Health 2.0 Network

PCORI is pleased to announce the PCORI Matchmaking App Challenge. This initiative seeks to create research partnerships that allow innovators and patients to work together. Developers are invited to make a full functioning, ready-to-publish app that has the capability to connect patients with researchers.

The Initiative

We are inviting developers to create an app that brings together patients, stakeholders, or researchers, and move toward collaborative research. These apps must integrate with already established research networks, and preferably integrates social media and robust user profiles. The developer is also encouraged to include an advanced search option and customizable displays.

Reviewers will include technology experts, PCORI staff members, and members of PCORI’s multi-stakeholder Advisory Panels. Reviewers will consider how well each developer facilitates connections that allow equal access to people from different backgrounds and with varying health interests and research experience, as well as considering creativity and the past experience of the developers.

The rewards are substantial, with PCORI awarding first place with $100,000, second place with $35,000, and third place will take home $15,000.

How to Apply

To enter your team for the Challenge, please go to the pre-registration form.

PCORI and Health 2.0 will host an hour-long informational webinar on Wednesday, April 30, at 1 p.m. (ET) to present the challenge goals and guidelines. We will describe the motivation behind and purpose of the Matchmaking App Challenge; explain the submission guidelines, judging criteria, and other conditions of the challenge; and answer questions from potential applicants. Registration for the webinar is now open. Questions and answers will be posted after the event.

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CareCloud CEO Albert Santalo Talks IPO and the EHR Market

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By Kim Krueger

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XThHGrQyo1Y[/youtube]

Matthew Holt sat down with CareCloud President and CEO Albert Santalo to discuss the latest news from the Miami-based cloud practice management and EHR services provider. CareCloud got started in 2009 and since then has raised $55 million in angel and private venture funding and grown to 270 employees.

Currently, about 5,000 doctors use CareCloud for their practice management services with about a quarter of those doctors also using the CareCloud EHR. Santalo expects that number to grow to about 12,000 by the end of the year, explaining in three points why he thinks the market is primed for CareCloud’s cloud-based, integrated practice management and EHR system.

While Santalo’s grin says more than his answer when asked about a potential IPO, he shares some interesting thoughts on practice consolidation, meaningful use requirements, and the cloud in in-patient settings in this interview recorded at HIMSS last month.

 

HxRefactored: Win Complimentary Passes During HIMSS 2014!

In the spirit of HIMSS 2014 and improving the health experience, we want to give two attendees the chance to take what they have learned from HIMSS and take it to the next level. That’s why we are giving away TWO FREE passes to the HxRefactored conference!

All you have to do is:

Box & Dignity Health Name Five Semi-Finalists in Patient Education App Challenge

By Kim Krueger

Back at the Seventh Annual Health 2.0 Fall Conference in September, Box launched a Patient Education App Challenge with Dignity Health and The Social+Capital Partnership.

It was an appropriate launch pad to say the least, being like-minded as we are when it comes to our opinions regarding the cloud. Yet, as we know, health care is still relatively new to the cloud, and the entry of major cloud (and now HIPAA compliant) vendors like Box is a big deal.

Phase one of Box’s entry into the health care vertical has been largely centered on getting a diverse client base securely onto the cloud. Device companies, big pharma, life sciences, biotech, and health insurance companies are using Box just as cloud tools should be used — for storing, sharing, collaborating, and enabling mobility.

As most of us know from varied personal and professional use of the cloud, easy access to every piece of collateral in a remote or collaborative working environment increases velocity and enables relationships.

The Patient Education App Challenge is part of Box’s move into a phase two of sorts: “strategic data liquidity or care coordination in the cloud” as Box’s Managing Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences Missy Krasner called it.

The challenge developed out of talks between Dignity Health, the nation’s fifth largest hospital system, and Box around how hospitals can better deliver the huge amounts of content generated within any given hospital division. It launched with the Box API as a foundation for innovative opportunities to deliver appropriate materials to patients in engaging ways.

Continue reading…

Healthwise Adds Informed Medical Decisions: Don Kemper Interview

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By Matthew Holt

Today venerable health content creator Healthwise merged with the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation which was previously funded by (and had an exclusive relationship up until last month with) Health Dialog. I asked Healthwise CEO–and old friend of Health 2.0–Don Kemper what was happening and what it meant. I also snuck in a smidgen of snark about a conference we worked on together five years ago.–Matthew Holt

Matthew: Don, you’re merging Healthwise with the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation. So I know the two organizations are both non-profits but as a poorly informed outsider I always thought of you as rival content creators, with Healthwise selling your content and services to insurers and providers and Informed Medical Decisions being funded by Health Dialog which then got to use and sell the content and decision support aids it created to its customers. Am I wrong?

Don: You aren’t completely wrong—but then not overly well informed either. We have always thought of ourselves as sister organizations rather than rivals. We have collaborated well in advocacy efforts to promote the role of the patient. Health Dialog has had a near exclusive relationship with the Foundation until recently. Health Dialog has been a long-term client of Healthwise, too—just not an exclusive one. When the restructured Health Dialog-Foundation relationship dropped the exclusivity requirement it allowed us to proceed with the merger discussions.

Matthew: Now that change occurred for Informed Medical Decisions and you two can merge, what do they have that Healthwise hasn’t got, and vice versa?

Don: The Foundation has three things that will add greatly to the Healthwise mission:

1. Medical Evidence—Their assessment of medical evidence in key areas goes deeper than we have been able to go. Whereas we have often waited for treatment guidelines to change before reflecting the changes in our content, their medical editors are often involved in making the guideline changes. Getting that information into the patient’s hands six months earlier could make a life or death difference.

2. Value Demonstration—The Foundation has developed research relationships with many health services researchers around the country. By setting up and evaluating demonstration sites for shared decision making (SDM) they have proven how SDM improves decision quality and reduces the use of expensive but preference-sensitive treatments.

3. Practice Change Management—The Foundation has gained a great deal of experience in helping clinicians build SDM into their workflow. Those learnings will help as we integrate patient engagement into the mainstream of care.

What they get from us is “reach.” People now turn to our information, tools and solutions over 340 times a minute. (180 million times a year). Fifteen percent of US physicians can now prescribe Healthwise patient instructions through their EMRs.

Healthwise has invested heavily in the technology needed to integrate into EMRs and has excelled at building broad-based solutions that fit within a health plan’s or health system’s workflow. It would have been hard for the Foundation to have matched that without us.

Matthew: So how will this actually work. How many people do you have, how many do they? Who gets to keep their jobs? Is this a real merger or a takeover?

Don: This is a merger made in heaven. No one will be out of work. Continue reading…

Conversa Wants to Fill the Gap

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By Matthew Holt

Conversa is a brand new company, aiming to fill the space between physician visits with easy and useful communications between doctors and patients. The logic is that most health care happens outside the exam room, but most of the effort of automating health care has been put into recording what happens in the medical setting, with little feedback or follow up from patients (HealthLoop is another company aiming at this space).

Why are we featuring Conversa? Well somewhat unusually for a Health 2.0 startup they come with buckets of experience. CEO West Shell was at the helm at Healthline, Product Head Phil Marshall built lots of tools at WebMD and Chief Marketer Anna-Lisa Silvestre was behind the roll out of probably the biggest patient portal ever at Kaiser Permanente.

I got all three of them on the video-line to tell me about Conversa.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVD2f1VK24M&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Learn more about Conversa’s launch here.

Building for Providers? Proceed with Caution

By Kim Krueger

"Provider" modeling Google Glass circa 1991

There was a moment, ever so brief, where Google Glass seemed like nothing more than a glorified headband. Admit it. You too saw early users matching their Glass color to their shoes. And if you didn’t, I saw two, which is two too many for the both of us. How Google Glass was going to make a significant impact on the world of Health 2.0 was beyond me until I brushed up on my nineties pop culture with a little help from the boss.

More than twenty years ago, “Terminator 2” had a Google Glass prototype for providers. Of course their “provider” was one extremely fit future “governator” who answers to Arnold, but the glasses were perfect for modern day health care professionals. They were equipped with automatic identification of surroundings, facial recognition, and decision support. In a nutshell, that’s all providers really need, right?

It definitely sounds like the “ideal information system” that Dr. Prentice Tom, Chief Medical Officer of CEP America, described at the Second Annual Silicon Valley Innovation and Technology Summit (hosted by the Northern California HIMSS chapter). His wish list for the perfect piece of tech demanded that it be mobile, have voice recognition, NLP, push relevant information, increase efficiency, and facilitate action and communication over documentation. Problem solved? Not so fast.

The program at the Innovation Summit featured two provider keynotes and two provider-filled panels, which naturally raised some key points surrounding provider and systemic adoption of Health 2.0 technologies. First, thanks to Dr. Tom’s early reference to Google Glass – he did have a giant picture of it onscreen as he described his ideal information system – the event left the distinct impression that providers want Google Glass. No other providers directly referenced Glass, but it became an implied solution for every problem raised thereafter.

Continue reading…

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