What You Should Know:

– The U.S. has seen a consistent decline in primary care clinicians since 2014 due to fewer clinicians entering the workforce, increased rates of burnout and decreased direct patient care, according to the latest evidence report from the Primary Care Collaborative and Robert Graham Center.

– The report, Health is Primary: Charting a Path to Equity and Sustainability reveals the United States has seen a consistent decrease in the number of primary care clinicians since 2014, caused by a decline in the number of clinicians entering primary care, burnout leading to retirement, and decreased direct patient care time. In 2019, there was a net loss of 10 clinicians per 100,000 people across the United States. Spending on primary care fell from an average of 6.2% in 2013 to 4.6% in 2020. 

Multifaceted Approach to Rebuild Primary Care

Experts recommend a multifaceted approach to rebuilding primary care that outlines steps policymakers, providers, and employers can take, including:

– Offering more primary care training opportunities and incentives for clinicians to select primary care as a specialty,

– Collecting accurate and transparent workforce and primary care financing data,

– Establishing a hybrid primary care payment option alternative to fee-for-service for accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and more broadly across public and private programs, 

– Crafting solutions to mitigate the primary care barriers of high deductible health plans, and

– Supporting today’s primary care workforce by lowering administrative burdens and building diverse teams to address the range of patient primary care needs.

Having access to a regular source of primary care is associated with fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations, lower odds of dying prematurely, and lower healthcare costs. Data from MSSP, Medicare’s largest ACO program serving 11 million beneficiaries, consistently indicates that primary care-focused ACOs (more than 75% of clinicians are primary care) provide higher-value services on a population basis, producing more than twice the savings as hospital-based ACOs. In 2022, MSSP saved Medicare $1.8 billion.

Factors Contributing to Primary Care Access Issues

The report examines the supply and demand factors that contribute to primary care access issues. It also considers innovations such as direct primary care, telehealth, and retail clinics that aim to provide more equitable access but may pose unintended community-level financial burdens and access issues. Despite increased uptake of these care options, one-in-four U.S. residents currently do not have a relationship with a primary care clinician, and 40% of adults in the United States failed to have a primary care visit in 2019. These trends have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that the situation may be more dire than the report’s data reflect.

“High-tech healthcare grabs the headlines, but high-touch, personalized primary care with tech support keeps people healthier at a lower cost,” said Ann Greiner, president and CEO of PCC. “If we are serious about improving the health of everyone in every community, policymakers need to step up to strengthen primary care, making it attractive to clinicians and delivering what patients want – comprehensive team-based care.”

What You Should Know:

– Banner Health forms a strategic partnership with Phoenix-based evolvedMD to place mental-health providers at Banner’s primary-care clinics, making it easier for people to receive mental health services they may need.

– The integration of mental health services in primary-care settings will be phased in at Banner Medical Group sites throughout metro Phoenix, starting in the East Valley at Banner’s East Mesa and Queen Creek locations.

– Under the program, a licensed behavioral therapist works with the patient’s primary care providers to provide mental health expertise, psychiatric consultation, ongoing clinical support, case management and insurance support and navigation.

What You Should Know:

• Emory Healthcare (EHC) today announced a partnership with NeuroFlow to support and improve the delivery of psychiatric services for both patients and providers at their Brain Health Center and several sites across Georgia.
• NeuroFlow, which offers a cloud-based registry and enterprise platform to help facilitate collaborative care, will support EHC clinical services’ data-driven approach to patient care, with a sharpened focus on improving communication between care teams, including primary care providers, behavioral health specialists and care coordinators.
• The implementation of NeuroFlow in Emory Healthcare’s primary care clinics will begin in May 2023, with plans to expand to additional clinics throughout the year.

Increasing Access to Behavioral Health Services

The strategic partnership will seek to complement and scale Emory’s new collaborative care model (CoCM) within its primary care clinics. The CoCM is part of Emory’s Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH) Program, which was formed by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences to help meet significant access demands for behavioral health services in the EHC network. CoCM is embedding licensed specialists called behavioral health care managers (BHCMs) to work in EHC primary care clinics alongside primary care clinicians to provide psychotherapy onsite and serve as liaisons with psychiatric consultants.

Through NeuroFlow, Emory patients are given 24/7 access to self-directed content that reinforces psychotherapy guided by the program’s BHCMs and provides care teams with frequent measures of patient progress. This engagement between office or telehealth visits supports traditional care and can lead to faster recovery, better overall outcomes and fewer readmissions.

“This collaboration introduces the type of technology needed to assist our healthcare providers and patients in bridging the gap between mental and physical health,” says William McDonald, PhD, chair of Emory’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “While our teams already practice collaborative, integrated care, this partnership serves as a driving force to expand and enhance these endeavors throughout the Emory ecosystem, ultimately resulting in improved outcomes and reduced costs.”

Trend #1:  Consolidation of IT Procurement

In recent years, changes to the health systems in countries such as the US and UK, for example, are making standalone hospitals a thing of the past.  Today, many hospitals are already part of healthcare networks combined with primary care clinics, allied care providers, insurers, and other agencies working together to coordinate and deliver a range of care services within their communities.  This is evident in the US with the insurgence of both IDNs and ACOs, in France with the development of GHTs, and in the UK with the growth of ICSs (Integrated Care Systems).  The mandate of these healthcare networks is clear – to improve patient experiences and population health outcomes while simultaneously reducing costs.  And a crucial factor influencing this mandate is increasing levels of digital transformation.   

As health organizations and care networks regularly depend on the use of digital tools, a larger portion of IT software continues to be sold as either part of regional tenders or as a piece of an enterprise strategy.  This has created the emerging role of C-suite health executives as portfolio managers focused on increasing growth, enhancing productivity, and reducing care costs within the organizations they lead.  And when it comes to IT procurement processes, decision-making influence has now shifted from departmental users to C-suite health executives or central stakeholders (i.e., CIOs, CEOs, government, etc.) creating tension between these groups when it comes to streamlining purchasing options and the reduction of IT vendor contracts.

Speaking directly to CIOs, many have emphasized to us the myriad of organizational benefits to IT vendor consolidation such as reduced costs, greater purchasing power, improved IT vendor management, increased vendor quality, and efficient processes.  However, they have also highlighted several key challenges such as the time, resources, and project management efforts required to make IT vendor consolidation changes within an enterprise. Some departments or physician practices acquired within a network do not want to change to a different vendor, so getting their agreement to roll under one centralized contract can be a difficult process.  

Many health IT buyers have also shared their perspectives with us on the changes to their roles over the years that coincide with the growth of the digital economy.  For example, CIOs today are no longer just overseers of IT operations and services.  They are now acting as key business strategists, working alongside other C-level peers and the board of directors to create business models necessary to thrive and survive in this new era.  They manage IT investment processes and frame questions around the potential effectiveness of these opportunities and alternatives.  

As a result of this multifaceted role shift, C-level health IT decision-makers also place value on the need to work with IT vendors that offer future-proof technology, access to third-party partnerships, and innovation to continuously support the changing needs of their organizations.  In conversations with healthcare IT decision-makers, many have confirmed their need to constantly keep the theme of potential IT vendor mergers and acquisitions at the back of their mind when making any purchasing decisions.  

Trend #2:  Reducing Data Siloes while Improving Interoperability and Analytics  

With the growth of diverse healthcare ecosystems, this evolution continues to be a significant contributor to functional data siloes affecting care delivery services.  Added pressures of value-based care and cost-effective population health management are forcing healthcare organizational structures to rethink how they utilize data to support and assess their care delivery paradigm.

Speaking to CIOs, they have made it clear that incomplete patient information at the point of care is a constant problem.  Much of patient health data management is still largely siloed, even with information available through EHRs.  Data siloes can easily form in any department where data is stored creating the potential for providers to miss out on critical patient information.  And most IT decision-makers agree that full EHR interoperability and data standardization remain the holy grail that fuels their drive for employing different strategies within their organizations to access a patient’s complete medical history.  This is a major challenge with almost every healthcare system in existence today simultaneously utilizing EHRs from multiple vendors. 

While health systems are prioritizing their efforts to improve interoperability between EHRs and siloed patient data, healthcare IT vendors are also following the trend.  And many organizations are adopting new international standards like FHIR that lay out how healthcare information can be exchanged.  

Healthcare IT decision-makers we spoke to have also mentioned how a patchwork of health information exchanges is attempting to fill data gaps with some EHR vendors such as Epic, athenahealth, and eClinicalWorks, for instance, creating private exchange networks to allow more data sharing between different health organizations with similar platforms.  Our conversations with IT buyers also highlight that having appropriate tools to do in-depth data analysis that produces actionable insights is what creates value over and above simply collecting and storing data from different systems.  And while EHRs store the bulk of the patient information, these solutions fall short of providing built-in user-friendly analytics tools for measuring things like patient health outcomes or tracking KPIs; thereby reducing timely and efficient reporting capabilities.  This shortfall has led to organizations adopting external DIY business intelligence software (i.e., Tableau, PowerBI, etc.) to fill the data analysis gap.   The use of external BI software requires additional manual data handling processes which in turn consume greater staffing resources.  

While the notion of universal interoperability is a daunting proposition for many healthcare IT buyers to address with current disparate vendor solutions on the market, most agree that once achieved, both health systems and patients stand to gain.  And that a key element of this journey is recognizing that any interoperability and data analysis solution needs to be built around EHRs with IT purchasing decisions focused on key drivers such as improving patient care, enhancing clinical staff workflow efficiencies, and reducing data fragmentation. 

Trend #3: Ensuring Cloud Success with New Approaches to IT

To achieve digital transformation within healthcare organizations today, investment in cloud migration is a priority.  Moving databases, applications, IT resources, and workloads from legacy infrastructure to a cloud environment bring new opportunities for assembling siloed data, increasing interoperability, and improving patient outcomes.

In recent years, healthcare IT leaders have told us about the many benefits of cloud migration within their organizations, such as easier access to data across care settings, reduced capital expenditure costs for maintenance of in-house infrastructure equipment, and improved data and systems backup cover in case of emergency or natural disaster.  They also have mentioned how cloud computing enables greater flexibility and scalability for organizations needing more storage capacity or changes in the deployment of applications based on demand spikes or workload.  The scalability that comes with cloud migration also offers the opportunity to employ advanced technologies such as AI/ML to run analytics on big data which provides greater insights into patient needs or advances clinical research into effective treatments. 

An increasingly common trend within medium to large-scale healthcare settings is to have full EHR or aspects of these systems connected to the cloud, followed by other software such as HR, payroll, and various enterprise applications related to workflow efficiencies, training, or learning.  And while there is growing appetite amongst C-suite executive decision-makers to develop widespread cloud-adoption plans, the journey is often cumbersome and slow-moving at best.  Only around 15% of health systems we have spoken to, for example, have completed the migration of their EHR to the cloud. The complexity and bureaucracy of health systems or regional procurement contribute to long adoption cycles, with some deals taking up to five years for implementation.  

When considering cloud success, health IT leaders agree that a well-thought-out strategy and plan for migrating applications is a necessity.  And along with that plan, IT leaders also need to examine their departmental structures and reorganize their technology teams to ensure that they align with the overall cloud strategy.  Re-organizing workers will empower staff to make use of the enhanced capabilities that cloud computing will provide.

According to several IT buyers we have spoken to, cloud capabilities of software solutions play a significant role in their purchasing decisions along with the protection of patient’s health data from security breaches.  They will only consider cloud providers who ensure sensitive data is stored securely while adhering to industry regulations. 

Trend #4:  Improving Patient Safety

Patient safety challenges are constantly evolving and within health systems, these challenges are exacerbated by other issues such as staff shortages, workforce burnout, and misinformation about treatments.

Quality improvement issues are paramount for hospitals and health systems to achieve their patient safety goals and health information technology can provide the tools to standardize workflows, improve insights, and aid clinicians and health staff to reduce barriers to equitable care.  

Clinical Decision Support (CDS) solutions are an important add-on to EHRs, providing the potential to limit patient care errors and improve adherence to medicines.  CDS provides medication reconciliation with the potential to cross-check prescriptions, reduce adverse drug reactions, and assist with ensuring compliance with practice guidelines.  

Health IT buyers have told us they recognize that health information technology is a significant tool for ensuring care quality and safety.  However, when choosing which technology to invest in, buyers agree that health organizations need to be selective as some solutions have limited evidence in improving patient safety outcomes.  When choosing potential solutions to purchase, key factors that tend to be considered most often amongst buyers are the quality and frequency of alerts, clinical flags, or reminders, the tracking and reporting abilities of consultations and diagnostic testing, and most importantly, the availability of complete patient data.  

Trend #5: Decreasing Clinician Burnout 

Clinical workforce burnout is a significant issue within the health industry affecting healthcare professionals.  Burnout is a result of long-term exposure to occupational stressors and can depend on several factors including workload pressures, inefficiencies, or moral distress.  

Healthcare professionals are susceptible to burnout from IT solutions such as EHRs and CDS.  EHR usability issues can potentially result in an increase in task loads, which consequently limits the amount of available working or cognitive memory for medication decision-making and patient communication.  This limitation contributes to clinician burnout.

CDS software can also increase clinician frustrations and lead to burnout.  CDS is a significant module of some EHRs, and while the software is designed to reduce medication errors or support decision-making, it can also cause other issues such as delays in treatment.  CDS impacts clinicians in several ways, including changing their workflow and volume of tasks, causing alert/alarm fatigue, contributing to loss of autonomy, and the build-up of anxiety due to medical/legal ramifications of potential clinical decision errors.  

For a significant number of health IT buyers, reducing clinician burnout is a major reason why an EHR solution would be reassessed or possibly replaced with a new system.  And when considering purchasing new software, buyers are prioritizing features that improve efficiency and would support the displacement of existing solutions.  Examples of such features include integrations with software applications providing voice dictation or speech-to-text capabilities, improved drug safety, and better integration with billing and practice management.   

And there you have it – five significant trends driving IT purchasing decisions of health buyers.  Which trends excite you the most?

About Rohinee Lal

Rohinee joined Signify Research’s Custom Research & Consultancy team in early 2022. She brings over 24 years of experience collecting, analyzing, & presenting market intelligence across various industries including pharmaceuticals, medical devices & digital health. She has a master’s in medical Anthropology from the University of British Columbia (Canada).

What You Should Know:

– Independent primary care provider Aledade and health insurer Humana announced a ten-year collaboration to connect independent primary care physicians in Humana’s network with the tools they need to thrive in value-based primary care. 

– Building on their existing relationship, the two companies plan to phase in the 10-year term for current and new state-wide agreements, which include a pathway to full risk. The collaboration with Humana will continue to grow as new practices and prospective markets join Aledade’s nationwide network.

Collaboration Focus

The two companies have been working together since 2019 in a limited number of markets, where they were able to increase primary care visits and bring impressive results, reducing inpatient hospitalizations by 5% and reducing readmissions by 12%, according to shared company data. To date, more than 100,000 patients in Humana’s network now receiving care from an Aledade-enabled physician.

In the first four years of their collaboration, Aledade and Humana will:

– Increased primary care visits,

– Reduced inpatient hospitalizations by 5%, and

– Reduced readmissions by 12%.

“Through this value-based relationship, Aledade and Humana are making a decade-long commitment to bringing better care to patients, better support to community-based primary care, and lower costs for society,” said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, co-founder and CEO of Aledade. “Making a lasting change in our health care system requires a long-term commitment, and that’s exactly what Humana and Aledade are doing for patients all across the country.” 

What You Should Know:

– Rising to meet the formidable challenge of the timely diagnosis of dementia, research scientists from Regenstrief Institute, IUPUI and the medical schools of Indiana University and the University of Miami are conducting the Digital Detection of Dementia study, a real-world evaluation of the use of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool they developed for early identification of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in primary care, the setting where most adults receive healthcare. . Individuals identified as cognitively impaired will be referred for diagnostic services.

– The AI tool called a passive digital marker, is a machine learning algorithm the researchers developed, trained and tested. The tool uses natural language processing to cull unstructured information in combination with structured data from a patient’s electronic health record. These could include mention of memory issues, a notation of vascular concerns, comorbid conditions, or other factors potentially linked to dementia.

AI-Driven Research To Identify Undiagnosed Dementia

Few primary care practices are designed for the timely detection of Alzheimer’s disease. The limited time that primary care clinicians have to spend with patients, the need to focus on the health problems which brought the patient to the clinic, as well as the stigma of dementia are the major reasons for the lack of recognition of the condition, according to Dr. Boustani. In addition, he notes, there is no demand from the public for dementia diagnoses, most likely driven by the stigma of dementia, lack of public knowledge about the benefits of early recognition of Alzheimer’s, and issues related to health insurance coverage.

“Between 50 to 80 percent of dementia cases are unrecognized by the healthcare system in the U.S. And, if you include patients living with mild cognitive impairment, that number might actually climb to higher than 80 percent of cases that are not recognized,” said Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine faculty member Malaz Boustani, M.D., MPH, senior author of the Digital Detection of Dementia study protocol paper, published in the peer-reviewed journal Trials. “In this new study, we are evaluating the practical use of our tool when used alone and when used with an accompanying patient-reported outcomes survey.

“Unfortunately, the lay public believes there’s nothing you can do if you find out you or a family member has Alzheimer’s disease, but that is not true. Over the past 20 years we have developed, validated and been operating a comprehensive collaborative care model for dementia that reduces the disease burden for the patient, reduces caregiver stress and reduces inappropriate hospitalizations, keeping people living at home longer and lowering overall costs to them and to the healthcare system,” he said.

The first aspect of the Digital Detection of Dementia study is a clinical trial, already underway in Indianapolis enrolling patients seen in primary care clinics at federally qualified health centers affiliated with Eskenazi Health. The participants in this trial are expected to be predominantly people who are Black and reside in urban areas. The second clinical trial of the study commences early in 2023 in Miami, Florida, at the University of Miami primary care clinics. The participants are expected to be predominantly Hispanic and include a high percentage of rural residents.

Each trial is the same and has three arms: (1) usual primary care approach; (2) the specially designed passive digital marker relying on artificial intelligence; and (3) the novel passive digital marker plus a specially designed patient-reported outcomes survey.

Patients in all three arms will be followed for two consecutive years to determine how many new cases of Alzheimer’s disease were recognized and documented in patients’ electronic health records.

The 7,200 anticipated study participants (3,600 in Indiana and 3,600 in Florida) must be 65 years old or older, have had at least one visit to a primary care practice within the past year and be able to communicate in English or Spanish. Electronic health record data from at least the past three years must be available to be enrolled in the study. Individuals residing in a nursing home or with serious mental illness are not eligible.

“Through this project, we hope to prove that these approaches can be successfully implemented in the real world, leading to benefits for both patients and their families,” said cognitive neurologist James E. Galvin, M.D, MPH, a professor of neurology at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. “Combining a patient-reported outcome with a passive digital marker is an innovative and highly sensitive way to detect mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, yet a low burden to patients and clinicians for ease of use.” Dr. Galvin developed the patient-reported outcomes tool.

Both the passive digital marker tool and the patient-reported outcomes tool are low-cost. The Digital Detection of Dementia study will confirm their suitability for use in primary care practices as well as their scalability.

It is estimated that the prevalence of dementia in primary care in the U.S. is about 6 percent of patients but only 2 percent of patients are recognized by the healthcare system as having the condition. The researchers believe the use of their passive digital marker, possibly in tandem with the patient-reported outcomes tool, will potentially double the number of cases identified, improving the lives of more individuals living with dementia and their caregivers.

What You Should Know:

– WELL Health is acquiring CloudMD’s Cloud Practice entity which includes OSCAR1 based Juno EMR and ClinicAid billing Software applications as well as three primary care clinics located in the province of British Columbia.

– The combined entities serve more than 2,500 healthcare practitioners across Canada and represent WELL’s entrance in the Alberta and Saskatchewan markets for its EMR and billing products. 

Leveraging Technology to Empower Healthcare Practitioners

WELL Health Technologies Corp., a digital health company focused on positively impacting health outcomes by leveraging technology to empower healthcare practitioners and their patients globally, is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cloud Practice Inc. and three clinics  from CloudMD Software & Services Inc.

The three primary care clinics being acquired in the Transaction currently have a total staff of 20 physicians operating out of two clinics in Vancouver, BC and one clinic in Surrey, BC.  These clinics are owned by subsidiaries of CloudMD, with all of the shares of these entities being acquired as part of the Transaction. These three clinics will be integrated into WELL’s existing primary care clinic network under WELL Health Canada.

Cloud Practice is a medical software application company with products including Juno EMR, a cloud based EMR solution based on OSCAR1, and ClinicAid, a medical billing software used by healthcare practitioners who don’t need access to a full EMR. Outside of WELL who is the largest provider of OSCAR1 EMR products and services, Juno EMR represented the largest remaining asset and market share available in the OSCAR1 based EMR industry.  Both Juno EMR and ClinicAid represent WELL’s entrance into the Alberta and Saskatchewan markets for its EMR and medical billing related lines of business.  Both assets will be integrated into WELL’s Provider Solutions Business Unit, under WELL’s existing EMR and Billing platforms.

Financial Details

The consideration to be paid by WELL in connection with the Transaction is $5,750,000, with $5,100,000 to be paid in cash at closing, and the balance subject to customary post closing adjustments and holdbacks. Closing of the Transaction is expected in Q4 2022 and is subject to standard closing conditions. INFOR Financial Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor and Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP acted as legal advisor to CloudMD.

“This transaction demonstrates our dedication to expanding and strengthening WELL’s Canadian healthcare offering through disciplined capital allocation.  This acquisition will also enable our EMR and billing divisions to enter new markets in the Canadian Prairies where we look forward to supporting healthcare practitioners’ access to new digital health innovations,” said Hamed Shahbazi, CEO and Founder of WELL.

What You Should Know:

This week, The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) responded to a Request for Information (RFI) from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health on the HHS Initiative to Strengthen Primary Healthcare. The letter submitted on 8/1 calls for improved healthcare access, equity and outcomes to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH).

– The OASH requested input from healthcare groups and the public on what the federal government could do to strengthen primary health care in the United States, a priority of the Biden Administration.

Recommendations for Strengthening Primary Healthcare through U.S. Government

In the letter, HIMSS provided 9 key recommendations that it believes would improve primary care:

1. Primary care settings should address the social determinants of health (SDOH) by collecting, exchanging and reporting SDOH data

2. Support programs that fund personal health navigators to help underserved communities understand and access benefits that will improve their health status, and overcome SDOH-associated challenges

3. Ensure availability of, and access to, health services research tailored to primary care settings

4. Explore data visualization as a tool in Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems for primary care providers to rapidly identify trends, provide actionable insights into gaps in care and reduce provider burden

5. Ensure telehealth and remote patient monitoring services are available in primary care settings, particularly those in rural and urban settings

6. Continue collaboration among agencies to construct a plan for improving broadband service in underserved areas

7. Educate clinical staff on a standardized approach for, and the value of, information sharing between facilities

8. Continue to create resources for primary care providers and local organizations to distribute to patients and communities to improve health literacy and digital health literacy

9. Leverage HIMSS’s internationally recognized digital health tools, our maturity models and Digital Health Indicator as frameworks for achieving highly successful patient encounters

What You Should Know:

VillageMD announced its plans to open its first primary care clinic in Chicago through the acquisition of Primary Care Medical Associates at 1460 N. Halsted Street, Suite 202 in Chicago.  

As part of the acquisition, Dr. Robert Perlmuter and providers will join Village Medical offering comprehensive primary care across a broad range of physician services, along with 24/7 care through telehealth and virtual care. The addition marks the 45^th Village Medical office in the nation.

Village Medical patients will have access to same-day appointments and virtual health visits with a Village Medical provider. Additionally, Village Medical patients can take advantage of Village Medical at Home, which provides in-home primary care visits with experienced primary care providers.

Village Medical patients also benefit from VillageMD’s patent-pending docOS™ operating platform, which integrates data and technology to give physicians a 360-degree view of their patients’ health profiles and can help identify gaps in care.

What You Should Know:

Health insurer Humana has selected Salesforce to deliver a more connected, personalized healthcare experience for its members.

– Through a new multi-year agreement, Humana will capitalize on infrastructure and capabilities offered by Salesforce Health Cloud to create an integrated health experience for its members.

Health insurer Humana has inked a new multi-year agreement with Salesforce to deploy Salesforce Health Cloud to help power its Enterprise Clinical Operating Model (ECOM), a new care management technology platform that will facilitate integrated care coordination between its members, care teams, and provider communities.

Building Care Coordination Platform for Members

Healthcare is delivered beyond doctors’ offices — people now receive healthcare via telemedicine, primary care clinics, and home health. Because of this, Humana is building a care coordination platform that its trusted multidisciplinary care team can access to stay aligned on its members’ needs to receive care and stay healthy.

This implementation with Salesforce and API-led connectivity using MuleSoft will provide Humana’s care teams with the ability to easily collaborate by offering a single, central view of each member’s complete clinical history and insight into social, environmental, and lifestyle factors impacting that same member’s health.

Establish Joint Healthcare Innovation Lab

In addition, Humana and Salesforce will collaborate on the development of transformative healthcare solutions through a joint Healthcare Innovation Lab, based in Humana’s Boston studio_h, where the companies will co-create and co-innovate with the goal of solving today’s healthcare challenges.

“Humana’s journey towards integrated care is so important to delivering the best possible health outcomes for our members. As part of this important work, we’re advancing interoperability so providers and participants in a member’s care team have connected, simplified healthcare experiences that inherently gives them the freedom to serve the member,” said William Fleming, President of Clinical and Pharmacy Solutions at Humana. “By improving team collaboration and helping to coordinate the care of our members, we can allow them to focus on their health, instead of updating each doctor and clinician they see.”

What You Should Know:

– In order to assist providers in managing their influx and connect with more patients, Innovaccer has launched the free ‘COVID-19 Management System application with free telehealth services and analytics to assess risk profiles and triage the influx at medical practices and primary care clinics

– The application is designed to assist government and healthcare organizations in providing immediate assistance to patients through remote assessments, monitoring, education, outreach, and treatment. 

Government agencies and healthcare organizations across the nation are working tirelessly to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. As America’s health system battles to prevent the virus from affecting more individuals, providers and medical staff are facing complications in managing the surge in demand for healthcare services.

To assist providers to manage the incoming patients and connect with them, Innovaccer, Inc. has recently launched its ‘COVID-19 Management System.’ The solution is designed to assist government agencies and healthcare organizations in providing immediate assistance to patients through remote assessments, virtual care, education, automated outreach, and guidance. 

Power Your Teams and Network with Immediate Capabilities to Combat Coronavirus

To protect the public and healthcare providers, the app allows providers to remotely connect with their patients through free telehealth offerings. With the integration of community and lab services into the application, providers can virtually triage their patients with CDC-based guidelines for risk assessment sent via phones and conduct follow up for symptom tracking. Additionally, the solution allows organizations to identify high-risk patients through state-of-the-art analytics to prioritize and monitor them. It tracks and manages high-risk patients and spots high-risk geographies through a real-time dashboard and task manager. 

Providers can educate their patients with prevention guidelines and other information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce anxiety and curb the exposure to the virus. With evidence-based triaging and self-assessments, providers can help their patients conduct an initial assessment of their health conditions and take the necessary steps accordingly. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a serious challenge to current healthcare infrastructure. While our providers are tirelessly treating thousands of patients every day, we want to help them in this global health crisis by expanding their reach,” says Abhinav Shashank, CEO at Innovaccer. “To help the government, healthcare organizations and all frontline healthcare workers care as one, we are launching COVID-19 Management System to enable virtual care.”

– Accenture names 11 company finalists from the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge, which seeks to support innovative approaches and solutions for improving the way people access, manage and finance healthcare in North America. 

– Selected finalists presented to an exclusive panel of judges comprised of senior executives from globally recognized health companies at one of two regional events. One was held in Boston on Nov. 7 and the second in San Francisco on Dec. 5. For those selected as a finalist, the final judging event will take place in Houston on Feb. 6, 2020.

Accenture has named 11 companies as finalists for the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge, which brings together leading-edge startups with prominent health companies to tackle some of North America’s greatest health challenges. Attracting more than 2,200 startup applicants in its first three years, the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge supports innovative approaches and solutions for improving the way people access, manage and finance healthcare in North America.  

Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge Overview

Since its inception, the Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge recognizes innovations focused on healthcare organization buyers, with criteria including solution design quality, disruptive business models and solution scalability. Among the innovative solutions being developed by this year’s finalists is a digital coaching program that uses an evidence-based methodology to monitor and motivate people working through drug addiction, as well as a solution that harnesses social determinants of health (SDoH), economic, behavioral and environmental information to help payer and provider organizations achieve profitable growth while optimizing healthcare delivery and outcomes.  

Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge Finalists

The finalists were selected by a panel of leading executives from some of the world’s largest health companies during regional events held recently at Accenture’s Innovation Hubs in Boston and San Francisco. The finalists are:  

· Capital Rx. New York City-based Capital Rx is a pharmacy benefit manager redefining prescription drug pricing for employers, unions and government entities. Capital Rx’s Clearinghouse ModelSM connects pharmacies and employers to establish a marketplace for drug pricing to reduce costs and create a better experience for both plan sponsors and patients.

· Carrot Health. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Carrot Health provides consumer data analytics to highlight SDoH, engage healthcare consumers, close gaps in care, and optimize performance for payer and provider systems. Its MarketView platform leverages a consumer database — which includes social, economic, behavioral and environmental information — and predictive modeling to deliver a 360-degree view of individual patients/members. 

· Cleo. Based in San Francisco, Cleo combines technology with human assistance to provide a support system that fills gaps within the healthcare system to help guide families through the journey of parenthood.  

· DynamiCare Health. DynamiCare Health’s digital coaching program uses an evidence-based methodology to monitor and motivate people struggling with drug, opioid, alcohol and tobacco/nicotine use. Based in Boston, DynamiCare provides a comprehensive suite of services — tailored to the individual and accessible anytime, anywhere — that address the underlying factors of use and retrains the brain, breaking the cycle of addiction.  

·  InsightRX. San Francisco-based InsightRX helps hospitals and health systems transition from one-size-fits-all drug dosing to individualized dosing based on patients’ unique pharmacology. With an end-to-end precision dosing solution, InsightRX provides tools to predict and optimize dosing regimens, reach and maintain clinical targets, measure performance, and monitor clinical outcomes. 

·  Lantum. A company that has had success in the UK’s National Health Service and now doing business in North America, Lantum provides a workforce management platform for healthcare and helps hospitals and hospital systems reduce overtime spend, improve staff utilization and retention.  

· Mira. Washington, D.C.-based Mira is building the next-generation health delivery network starting with preventative and urgent care. The company teams with urgent care and primary care clinics to bring affordable prices to its members, who typically can’t afford health insurance and don’t qualify for state-based Medicaid programs. 

· Orderly Health. Denver-based Orderly Health uses machine learning to identify and repair inaccuracies in healthcare provider directories, providing up-to-date information to inform healthcare decisions.  

· Paloma Health. Based in New York City, Paloma Health is an online medical practice helping hypothyroid patients better manage and treat their chronic conditions. Paloma offers over 25 million Americans diagnosed with hypothyroidism access to thyroid testing, specialized treatment, and ongoing management.  

· TCARE. St. Louis-based TCARE is an evidence-based family caregiver support program that reduces long-term care claims for Medicaid and Life/LTC insurance carriers by delaying and preventing nursing home placement.  

·  Xealth. Based in Seattle, Xealth scales digital health programs, enabling clinicians to integrate, prescribe and monitor digital health tools for patients from their electronic health record workflows. 

The final round and awards ceremony will take place at the Accenture Innovation Hub in Houston on Feb. 6, 2020. The judging panel will comprise executives from globally recognized health companies, providing the finalists with exposure and access to industry-leading companies to help bring their ideas to market. 

“The Accenture HealthTech Innovation Challenge joins healthcare organizations and startups to recognize the most promising solutions for health organizations to improve the lives of consumers, clinicians, and employees,” said Brian Kalis, managing director of digital health and innovation at Accenture. “After reviewing submitted applications, our team of executive judges have identified those services that have the greatest potential to address today’s healthcare challenges. We look forward to seeing Xealth and the other finalists present in Houston this February.”

– InSight Telepsychiatry and Regroup Telehealth announces a merger to become the largest and most comprehensive telepsychiatry service provider in the United States. 

– The merger will leverage both companies’ collective partnerships, expertise, leadership, network of providers and resources to better deliver access to care for those who need it most. 

Telepsychiatry companies InSight Telepsychiatry and Regroup Telehealth, today announced a merger agreement to become the largest and most comprehensive telepsychiatry service provider in the US. Investors in the combined company include Harbor Point Capital, HLM Venture Partners, OCA Ventures, OSF Ventures, and Impact Engine. Ziegler, a specialty investment bank, represented Regroup in the merger process. Financial details of the merger were not disclosed. The two organizations will continue to utilize their respective names and brands throughout the integration process.

Merger Creates Nation-Leading Telepsychiatry Network of Providers

The merger between InSight and Regroup brings together a robust network of providers and an impressive group of clinical and executive leaders with extensive experience and expertise across different care settings and patient populations for underserved individuals and communities. This joint effort will allow for increased delivery of mental health services across the country in response to a nationwide shortage of specialists coupled with a rising need for behavioral health services. By aligning both company’s goals, efforts, operational efficiencies and proven models, the combined company can offer scalable solutions across the continuum of care.

“InSight is excited about the merger with Regroup and the opportunities it represents. Our organizations are remarkably similar in terms of culture, values and vision for the future. By combining our passion, drive and efforts, we will continue to set the standard for telepsychiatry delivery, leading the way to unprecedented access to care to those who need it most,” said Geoffrey Boyce, CEO of InSight and the new combined organization. “This merger allows us to align our shared goals, operational efficiencies and established models to offer scalable solutions across the continuum of care.”

InSight Telepsychiatry Background

Founded in 1999 by child and adolescent psychiatrist, Jim Varrell, MD, InSight Telepsychiatry has more than twenty years of telepsychiatry experience and serves hundreds of organizations in various settings with its on-demand, scheduled and direct-to-consumer (Inpathy) divisions. Since its inception, InSight has maintained its reputation as a trusted and experienced industry thought leader by upholding a high standard of clinical care and actively advocating for increased adoption of telebehavioral health.

Regroup Telehealth Background

Founded in 2011, Regroup brings customized telepsychiatry solutions, technology and comprehensive support teams that contribute to the seamless integration of behavioral health clinicians at partner care sites. With backing from a group of funders including the Hyde Park Angels and Frist Cressey Ventures, Regroup grew quickly. Their clinicians collaborate with onsite care teams on patient care plans and workflows, yielding better behavioral care, shorter wait times and reduced barriers in settings such as primary care clinics, community health centers, hospitals and correctional facilities.

“Regroup is excited to complement our proven approach to integrated telepsychiatry with InSight’s breadth of services, including on-demand services for partners and direct-to-consumer solutions for patients seeking care at home or other care settings of their choice,” said David Cohn, Founder and CEO of Regroup. Cohn will serve as Chief Growth Officer and maintain a seat on the board of directors for the newly combined organization.

Growth of Behavioral Health Market

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adults — about 44 million — experience mental illness in a given year. In the emergency department alone, behavioral health conditions account for 1 out of every 8 visits or about 12 million visits annually.  Americans have sought or want to seek mental health services either for themselves or for a loved one; however, access is the number one challenge.

The recent acquisition reflects the competitive landscape in the telepsychiatry market. Last month, American Well has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aligned Telehealth, a leader in the provision of behavioral telehealth and telepsychiatry services to hospitals and health plans.

– Latest Chilmark report evaluates new patient-facing AI tools, remote care platforms and telehealth solutions for impact to primary care infrastructures.

– The 33-page report covers in-depth primary care tech such as chatbots, AI assistants and symptom checkers as well as behavioral health platforms.

– Report includes 11 short profiles of major and promising vendors, with three to four vendors identified per solution type that includes product differentiators and vendor-specific impact on access, burden, and costs.

Advances in consumer-centric healthcare technologies improve access and satisfaction while alleviating the burden on the primary care system. The latest report from Chilmark Research, Primary Care for the 21st Century: Technology-Enabled and On-Demand, examines three new types of solutions that contribute to or complement the modern technology-enabled primary care practice:

1. Telehealth

2. Virtual and Remote Care Platforms (including behavioral health)

3. AI-Enabled Assistants, Symptom Checkers, and Chatbots

These new methods of delivering technology-enabled primary care offer novel ways for patients to access care directly. Providers also gain greater visibility into the patient’s life and experience, and for both sides of the care loop to communicate. If primary care barriers to access, burden, and costs are not addressed, patients will continue to move towards solutions that offer convenience, but do not help with long-term care and needs, such as retail and urgent health clinics. These technology solutions offer ways to not only improve care but to support value-based payment models that will soon be the norm.

Lead Analyst at Chilmark Research Alex Lennox-Miller notes, “The technology-enabled primary care office is still concerned with the long-term well-being of its patients. These new solutions offer different ways to engage with patients, expanding the relationship and ability to deliver care in the home and throughout the patient’s life.”

Each type of solution: Telehealth; Virtual & Remote Care Platforms; and AI-Enabled Assistants, Symptom Checkers, and Chatbots – is evaluated based on how it affects access, burden and costs for both providers and patients. The report provides important information about use cases, subcategories of product offerings, reimbursement options, and other obstacles to adoption for each type of solution.

In addition to the categorical analyses, the report includes 11 short profiles of major and promising vendors, with three to four vendors identified per solution type. Each profile includes product differentiators and vendor-specific impact on access, burden, and costs.

Primary care practice managers and medical directors looking to alleviate challenges in their own practices through technology will appreciate the report’s clear breakdown of impacts for both themselves as providers and their patients, plus the identification of leading vendors in each category. Payers, including self-insured employers, can use the report to understand the impact of covering these services both for member satisfaction as well as part of broader population health management strategies. Current and prospective solution providers of the three solution types and other solutions for the primary care market will also find this report valuable for mapping their own product strategy and evaluating their impact. 

For more information about this report, a free webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, November 12th at 1:30pm ET/ 10:30am PT. Register here to attend. 

The report is available to subscribers of the Chilmark Advisory Service or may be purchased separately.

– Amazon launches Amazon Care, a pilot virtual primary care clinic in Seattle for its Amazon employees and in-person healthcare services from Oasis Medical. Oasis Medical.

– Amazon Care offers employees access to video care, care chat, mobile care, and a care courier available Monday to Friday, 8 am to 9 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 8 am to 6 pm.

– Eligible Amazon employees and their families can request to enroll at any time during the year.

Today, Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Care, a new pilot virtual primary care clinic and in-person healthcare services for employees and their families in Seattle. To power Amazon Care, the company has partnered with Oasis Medical Group, P.C., a medical practice licensed in Washington state, to provide care through the Amazon Care app and in-person services. Oasis Medical’s clinicians are all trained in primary and urgent care.

Amazon Care: The Best of Both Virtual and In-Person Care

Amazon Care provides a mobile application that allows you to access virtual and in-person healthcare services from Oasis Medical. Oasis Medical provides the following services:

Video Care: Have an in-app video visit with a doctor, nurse practitioner, or registered nurse (“clinicians”) for advice, answers, diagnoses, treatment, or referrals

Care Chat: In-app text chat connects you to a clinician in moments for health advice and answers

Mobile Care: Your Video Care provider may recommend an in-person assessment or treatment by a registered nurse (a “Mobile Care nurse”). With your approval, the provider will send a Mobile Care nurse to your home, a designated room on the Amazon campus, or any other location in our service area that you request. The Mobile Care nurse may collect lab samples, perform some onsite testing (such as strep tests), administer common vaccines, or perform physical examinations.

Care Courier: During a Video Care visit, you may be prescribed medications consistent with our current scope of services. Many prescriptions can be delivered to you within two hours. Others can be sent to your preferred pharmacy for pick up.

Amazon Care Eligibility

Interested Amazon employees and their families can request to enroll in the pilot program at any time during the year based on meeting all of the following requirements:

– Amazon employee age 18+ (or spouse/partner/other dependents of one).

– Currently enrolled in an Amazon health insurance plan.

– Currently, live and work within Amazon Care current service locations.

Why It Matters

“We’re currently piloting a healthcare benefit designed to help Amazon employees get fast access to healthcare without an appointment, at the convenience of their schedules, at their preferred location (home, office, or virtual). Amazon Care eliminates travel and wait time, connecting employees and their family members to a physician or nurse practitioner through live chat or video, with the option for in-person follow up services from a registered nurse ranging from immunizations to instant strep throat detection,” said a company spokesman in a statement provided to CNBC reporter Christina Farr.

Amazon Care’s hours of operation are Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 9 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, from 8 am to 6 pm.