Telemedicine advocates want more

With help from Mohana Ravindranath and Darius Tahir

HUNGRY FOR MORE TELEMEDICINE: The two-year bipartisan budget deal signed into law this month contains several provisions advancing telemedicine, but advocacy groups are already thinking ahead about how to expand reimbursement further.

…. The CHRONIC Care Act language in the agreement expands coverage for remote chronic care management and for victims of stroke and renal failure. Lobbyists have since turned their sights to getting Medicare to pay for treating opioid abusers and for remote care of patients in nursing homes, among other uses. A House Energy and Commerce Committee package unveiled last week includes two provisions that could allow the remote prescription of controlled substances to treat addiction.

… Industry advocate Health IT Now is also pushing for legislation in coming months that would make it easier for nursing homes to be reimbursed for remote care, Catherine Pugh, the group’s governmental affairs leader, tells Morning eHealth’s Mohana Ravindranath.

… The Alliance for Connected Care, meanwhile, backs legislation to allow the HHS secretary to waive restrictions on the originating site of care if telemedicine is found to improve quality without reducing cost, or reduce cost without impairing quality, executive director Krista Drobac told POLITICO.

Read the rest of Mohana’s coverage here.

DOCTORS! EARN MONEY IN YOUR SPARE TIME DOING WHAT YOU HATE! CMS is inviting physicians to participate in a one-year study of burdens associated with quality measures. The agency announcement (h/t Modern Healthcare) says CMS intends to study clinical workflows and data collection methods using different submission systems, with the goal of understanding physician challenges in collecting and reporting quality data, and recommending changes to lower burdens.

…If you’re eligible for MIPS, and participate successfully in the study, you’ll “earn full credit for the 2018 MIPS Improvement Activities performance category,” CMS says. Applications are due by March 23. Apply here.

Tweet of the Day: Adrian Gropper @agropper We can have interoperability without surveillance if TEFCA is scaled back to regulate only patient-directed and transparent EHR interfaces. … @PatientPrivacy @ONC_HealthIT

Welcome to Morning eHealth, where we’re juggling our HIMSS schedule and evaluating the relative virtues of interviews, keynote talks, panel discussions and wandering the exhibition hall in slack-jawed wonder. Send suggestions (no PR, please) to [email protected] or share the past HIMSS experience that made you most contented @ravindranize, @athurallen202, @DariusTahir, @POLITICOPro, @Morning_eHealth.

GOVERNORS OFFER HEALTH CARE BLUEPRINT: A bipartisan group of governors released a health care blueprint Friday to try to break the political stalemate over reforming the health care system. The seven-page document, released ahead of the NGA meeting, lays out principles for improving affordability, increasing value-based care and promoting state innovation. The plan was released by Govs. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), John Kasich (R-Ohio), Bill Walker (I-Alaska), Tom Wolf (D-Pa.) and Brian Sandoval (R-Nev.). More here.

DO EHR IMPLEMENTATIONS AFFECT BOND RATINGS?: Yes and no. And maybe. Scholars from Harvard and the University of Texas tried to answer that question by examining 32 hospitals before and after EHR implementation from 2011 to 2015. Seven had a bond downgrade, seven had a bond upgrade, and 18 had no changes. There was no difference in the likelihood of bond rating changes or in changes in net income from service to patients following EHR go-live when compared to control hospitals, according to the study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Its catalyst was news accounts of hospitals having financial problems after implementing EHRs, author Adam Wright said. The authors were also intrigued by Epic founder Judy Faulkner’s claim that her EHR improves hospitals’ financial performance. Of course, bond ratings is only one measure of financial performance.

…. Epic spokesperson Megan Roh responded that while her company hadn’t reviewed the study, “Using data from independent sources such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s we have seen that on average, Epic customers have improved operating margins and overall financial health after implementation.”


… MISCOMMUNICATION CAN LEAD TO DRUG PRESCRIPTION ERRORS: In another JAMIA study published online over the weekend, Wright and co-authors found that about 12 percent of the prescriptions in a sample contained undelivered comments that were intended for pharmacists. Many comments contained information about the dose, route or duration of the prescription, some of it with serious patient safety significance.

RIGGI TO THE RESCUE: The American Hospital Association has named a longtime FBI official to a newly created role focusing on cybersecurity in healthcare. John Riggi, who served in various roles at the FBI over a 28-year career, will join AHA as a senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk, the 5,000-member association announced. “Cybersecurity is on the top of every health leader’s mind,” said AHA CEO Rick Pollack in a news release. “John is nationally recognized as one of the best experts out there.” At the FBI Cyber Division, Riggi led a program to develop partnerships with health care to investigate and exchange information related to criminal cyber threats. He was also a liaison to the White House’s Cyber Response Group.

ROBOT LOVE: Pillo Health announced Friday that it is partnering with Orbita to create and manage interfaces for Pillo, a companion robot dedicated to health care. Pillo does things like remind elderly people to take their medications, and captures data from inside their homes. Pillo will make “its” debut on the HIMSS 2018 exhibit floor.

WHAT WE’RE CLICKING:

The Atlantic: Supreme Court Epic Systems judgment could hurt millions of wage earners

Healthcare Informatics: Consultant’s view of how state-managed opioid efforts create a morass of health IT headaches

Modern Healthcare: CHIME task force members say data analytics could help beat opioid crisis

Tincture:Q&A with Dell Medical School’s founding dean

Techcrunch: Want to attract venture capital? Run a cancer immunology startup