Tech Talk

Jul 16, 2019 at 04:16 pm by Staff


AdhereHealth, Papa Partner to Address Barriers to Care

AdhereHealth, the Franklin-based technology company formerly known as PharmMD, recently announced a partnership with the award-winning companionship platform Papa to improve medication adherence by addressing barriers to care. AdhereHealth will deploy data-driven solutions to enhance Papa's personal interactions as part of the platform's "Grandkids-on-Demand" program for the elderly, blind and disabled in an effort to address social determinants of health including loneliness, food insecurity, transportation and other barriers to optimal health.

"We could not be more excited about this partnership as it extends the Adhere platform's reach into the home with Papa assisting those most in need of personal support," said Jason Z. Rose, AdhereHealth CEO. "Our analytics and clinical workflows will help direct Papa Pals to address a myriad of SDOH issues our consumers face, such as transportation to doctor appointments and local pharmacies, grocery shopping, housing chores, and other senior services."


New IPO, AI from Change Healthcare

It's been a busy few weeks for Nashville-based health tech company Change Healthcare. In late June, the company priced their initial public offering of nearly 43 million shares of common stock at $13 on the Nasdaq (CHNG), with the potential to move up to 49.3 million shares if demand warrants. The price, while lower than the initial target, is anticipated to raise up to $640 million. Another five million of tangible equity units were also offered. President and CEO Neil de Crescenzo rang the closing bell on June 27 to mark the company's entrance to the public markets.

Days earlier, Change Healthcare, which has deep expertise in revenue cycle management, announced the addition of Claims Lifecycle Artificial Intelligence technology to its claims management suite with the introduction of Assurance Reimbursement Management™ Denial Propensity Scoring and Revenue Performance Advisor Denial Prevention. With performance enhanced by Claims Lifecycle AI, providers can proactively identify problem claims that could result in denials and remediate potential issues before the claims are filed. And in other news, the company was recently awarded a six-year extension of its contract with CommonWell Health Alliance® to continue to provide clinical interoperability services.


Onlife Health, Validic Research Shows Improved Wellness Engagement with Device Usage

Brentwood-based wellness solutions company Onlife Health and Validic™, a leading provider of health data solutions for remote monitoring and virtual engagement based in North Carolina, recently released research demonstrating improved member engagement from the use of wearables and home health devices in wellness programs. The research indicates the growing importance of a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy to engage members daily on their lifestyle, behaviors and health measures as a means to improve the total health of a population.

Research demonstrated a 23.7 percent increase in new member engagement for those with connected devices, signifying the importance for health and wellness organizations to offer broad device connectivity to members. This engagement is indicative of larger outcomes-based trends; for example, as employees increased their activity each day (as measured by steps), the resulting impact was reduced claims costs and improved outcomes. Specifically, employees who averaged 5,000 to 7,500 steps daily had healthier blood pressure indicators than those with sedentary lifestyles and were less likely to have out-of-range BMIs. These employees also saw annual claims costs more than $800 lower than those of sedentary employees. Importantly, sedentary employees who increased their activity levels even by small amounts had claims costs nearly $500/year lower than those who did not change their lifestyle.


Wellview Tech Connect Launches

Wellview Health, a leading health engagement company based in Nashville, recently announced the launch of the Wellview Tech Connect proprietary integrated engagement platform. robust technology platform that enables a simplified, seamless, and enjoyable participant-driven engagement experience, while integrating key data for successful employer population health management. The proprietary platform collects and integrates data points of thousands of consumer lives, along with proprietary consumer profiling algorithms, to simplify and personalize participant-driven health engagement.


AccuReg Debuts Estimate My Cost™

Franklin-based AccuReg, a healthcare technology solutions company offering a full suite of front-end revenue cycle SaaS solutions for hospitals, recently launched Estimate My Cost™, a web-based, patient-facing tool that quickly and accurately estimates a patient's financial responsibility in advance of a clinical procedure. Company executives said the new tool empowers patients to determine their financial liability for surgeries or other complex health procedures, improves staff productivity by reducing the need to respond individually to patient inquiries and shoppers and enhances the patient financial experience.


Bridge Connector Launches New Product Division

Health tech company Bridge Connector, which moved its headquarters to Nashville earlier this year, recently announced the launch of its new, enterprise app products division. As a technology company offering "no-code" integrations to connect disparate data systems in healthcare, the new app division will expand on Bridge Connector's expertise automating workflows between platforms such as the electronic health record (EHR), customer relationship management (CRM), and many others used to manage health IT data.

Bridge Connector recently acquired ZagHop, a Nashville-based development company which specializes in Salesforce development, apps and integrations, to launch the new app products division under the leadership of former ZagHop owner and developer, Jonathan James. In his new role with Bridge Connector, James will serve as senior director, CRM applications.


EvidenceCare Unveils Urgent Care Protocols

Nashville-based healthcare tech firm EvidenceCare, a clinical decision support delivery tool for healthcare providers, recently announced the introduction of a new suite of protocols designed specifically for clinicians in the urgent care setting. The protocols, created in concert with a large health system for use within their 15 urgent care locations, cover the conditions seen most within an urgent care setting.

Prior to the introduction of the urgent care protocols, the company's primary focus was in the emergency medicine arena, where they have more than 5,000 users. The new tool organizes the nearly 200 urgent care protocols by chief complaint and treatment for resulting diagnosis for both adult and pediatric patients.

EvidenceCare's web-based platform is available to individual providers and groups and accessible via any web-enabled device. In addition, the company offers a version of its platform that integrates with a clinic's electronic health record, making the content available within the provider's existing workflow. EvidenceCare also integrates an innovative patient education tool that enhances the dialogue providers have with their patients.

MEDHOST Makes C-Suite Changes, Strengthens Revenue Cycle Product

In the last few months, Franklin-based health tech company MEDHOST has welcomed new executives and a new business division.

In May, CFO Ken Misch was promoted to president and chief financial officer. In addition to financial oversight, his new responsibilities include innovation, optimization, and growth of MEDHOST's hosted, managed, security, and cloud-based solutions and oversight of IT and human resources.

In other news from the market-leading provider of integrated EHR and other clinical, financial, and healthcare engagement solutions and services, Jason Myers has been tapped as chief information officer, and Rick Brown as chief development officer. Both of the C-suite executives were promoted from within. Myers joined the company in 2013, and Brown has been part of the team since 1990 when the company was still known as Healthcare Management Systems.

The company also recently launched MEDHOST Business Office Outsourcing division, also referred to as MEDHOST Business Services, which provides a robust revenue cycle management services to help accelerate the hospital's overall financial performance. COO Todd Redmon is leading the new division.


Urgent Care Association Opens Enrollment for Gateway2Better Network

Network to Connect Organizations for Regional and National Contract Care

The Urgent Care Association (UCA) is accepting enrollment into the new Gateway2Better Network™, which will connect participants with organizations seeking urgent care and on-demand services through contractual partnerships. The network will enable individual, regional and national healthcare organizations to join a nationwide network and secure partnerships designed to support growth, innovation and access to care.

"Through the Gateway2Better Network, on-demand healthcare organizations will become part of a large network and have the opportunity to participate in contracts they normally may not have access to, opening up opportunities to expand services and reach more patients," said Laurel Stoimenoff, CEO of UCA. "UCA will promote the network and manage the contracts, allowing participating members to focus more time treating patients with reduced efforts on new patient acquisition."


How it Works

Urgent care and on-demand organizations interested in being part of the Gateway2Better Network (G2BN) will sign a simple partnership agreement, provide credentialing documentation and build a profile for organizations to review. UCA will actively market the network as a direct-to-employer or healthcare contractor alternative, executing contracts for the network on behalf of participating organizations. The Gateway2Better Network is a UCA member benefit, so the ability to join the network is exclusive to organizational members.

Whenever a new contract becomes available to G2BN, participants will have 10 days to review and decide if they want to opt in or out. Then, G2BN will provide the partnering organization with information about the member location(s) and services offered.

"The network is designed to simplify the process of acquiring new patients for member organizations, as well as make it easier for patients to access on-demand, affordable care without worrying about out-of-network expenses," said Stoimenoff. "By aggregating our organizational members across the country, the national Gateway2Better Network will seamlessly connect government, self-insured employers and other stakeholders seeking healthcare destinations for employees or customers to our member organizations. UCA fields frequent inquiries for regional or national urgent care services. The Gateway2Better Network is a solution we can now offer them."


PATH Develops Ethical Guidelines on the Use of AI in Healthcare

PATH, the Partnership for Artificial Intelligence, Telemedicine and Robotics in Healthcare (www.pathhealth.com), has developed a set of guidelines for developing and implementing artificial intelligence applications in healthcare. "The principles were created to help developers and healthcare professionals assure patients and the public that the emerging use of artificial intelligence in healthcare will always be dedicated to providing safe, equitable and highest quality services," said Jonathan Linkous, Co-founder and CEO of PATH.

The principles include:

  1. First Do No Harm: A guiding principle for both humans and health technology is that, whatever the intervention or procedure, the patient's well-being is the primary consideration.
  2. Human Values: Advanced technologies used to delivery healthcare should be designed and operated to be compatible with ideals of human dignity, rights, freedoms, and cultural diversity.
  3. Safety: AI systems used in healthcare should be safe and secure to patients and providers throughout their operational lifetime, verifiably so where applicable and feasible.
  4. Design Transparency: The design and algorithms used in health technology should be open to inspection by regulators.
  5. Failure Transparency: If an AI system causes harm, it should be possible to ascertain why.
  6. Responsibility: Designers and builders of all advanced healthcare technologies are stakeholders in the moral implications of their use, misuse, and actions, with a responsibility and opportunity to shape those implications.
  7. Value Alignment: Autonomous AI systems should be designed so that their goals and behaviors can be assured to align with human values throughout their operation.
  8. Personal Privacy: Safeguards should be built into the design and deployment of healthcare AI applications to protect patient privacy including their personal data. Patients have the right to access, manage and control the data they generate.
  9. Liberty and Privacy: The application of AI to personal data must not unreasonably curtail people's real or perceived liberty.
  10. Shared Benefit: AI technologies should benefit and empower as many people as possible.
  11. Human Control: Humans should choose how and whether to delegate decisions to AI systems, to accomplish human-chosen objectives.
  12. Evolutionary: Given constant innovation and change affecting devices and software as well as advances in medical research, advanced technology should be designed, in ways that allow them to change in conformance with new discoveries.

The principles were developed by members of PATH with additional guidance from other leaders in healthcare and have incorporated parts of existing statements such as the Asilomar AI Principles and the Hippocratic Oath.

PATH is an alliance of stakeholders working together to improve care and build efficiencies using advanced technologies. PATH and its members are working to gain the support of decision makers and the public about the use of advanced technology in healthcare, moving the field beyond research and pilot projects, and laying out a pathway for the integration and use of advanced technologies in the worldwide ecosystem of medicine.

For more information go to www.pathhealth.com or contact Jonathan Linkous at 217879@email4pr.com or 703-861-8653

Sections: Business/Tech