What do ACOs reveal about the importance of integration?

/0 Comments/in /by

Author Name Kyle Murphy, PhD   |   Date January 22, 2014

While some health systems, hospitals, and physician practices will choose to avoid forming an accountable care organization or adopting any other ACO-like model,    they are still likely to face challenges around care coordination and collaboration as a result of consolidation in the healthcare industry.

“The structure of an ACO is complicated. It requires collaboration between separate institutions that oftentimes have trouble collaborating on their own, let alone bringing in other entities or multiple entities. Whether this works or is figured out remains an open question,” says Acupera CEO Ronald Razmi, MD.

 Read More

Eyeing tech development in 2020

/in /by

By Rick Dana Barlow, January 2014

Actor Avery Brooks expressed outrage in his characteristically poised but intense way about the lack of flying cars in the year 2000 as part of a television commercial promoting IBM personal computers. Viewers no doubt laughed or smirked.

Within five years, IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo. Still no flying cars. Perhaps Brooks continues to simmer today.

Six years ago, the housing market collapsed, automotive manufacturers and banks deemed “too big to fail” by the federal government teetered and Wall Street tumbled as the nation plunged into an economic recession. Read More

St. Vincent Health Selects Acupera to Improve Population Health and Team-based Care Delivery

/in /by

SAN FRANCISCO—January 13, 2014

Acupera today announced that St. Vincent Health, a 22-hospital system based in Indiana, sponsored by Ascension Health, is implementing a pilot project with Acupera to improve patient care through real-time population health management. Acupera is a population health analytics and clinical workflow management platform designed as an engine for team care.

St. Vincent Health is adopting leading-edge technology solutions like Acupera as part of its mission to adapt to new and emerging healthcare models like accountable care. With Acupera, St. Vincent Health will provide transitional care management to patients leaving institutional care, identify and proactively manage patients with complex chronic conditions and transition to patient-centric team care.

“Acupera enables our care teams to collaborate virtually, from anywhere, to identify and remedy gaps in patient care and ensure optimal outcomes,” said Dr. Bruce Bethancourt, chief medical officer of St. Vincent Medical Group. “Breakthrough technologies like Acupera ensure that we continue to deliver on our commitment to help patients improve their overall health with care that will make a lasting positive difference in their lives.”

Initially, St. Vincent Health is implementing Acupera at one of its physician practices within the St. Vincent Medical Group, the hospital system’s multi-specialty provider entity. With successful implementation, St. Vincent Health will continue to evaluate opportunities to expand the use of Acupera within its hospital system.

“By embracing intelligent workflow-based population health and care management technologies like Acupera, providers like St. Vincent Health are well poised to both reduce costs and positively impact long-term patient care outcomes in their communities,” said Dr. Ronald Razmi, chief executive officer of Acupera.

Health IT company’s outcomes-based care tools aim to help transition to accountable care

/0 Comments/in /by

November 18, 2013 6:01 pm by 

When health IT companies develop software for medical staff to improve outcomes, figuring out a solution that fits into workflows is a big challenge. Health IT startup Acupera has raised $2 million in bridge financing to advance its Software as a Service tool. It is using the funding to develop its population health and workflow management tool. Read More

What’s in Store for Health IT in 2014?

/0 Comments/in /by

EHRs Will Go Under the Microscope

In 2014, many large health systems will continue to re-evaluate their enterprise Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. They will also be increasingly willing to scrap those investments and start over with EHRs that better support population health management, can integrate with practice management and billing, and offer more integration of outpatient with inpatient systems.

Health systems will also need guidance on how to use the data they have to improve their business and comply with increasingly punitive federal reporting requirements. Since many health systems organizations don’t have these capabilities in-house, they will look to technology companies that offer effective solutions without being too disruptive to their current IT architecture.

The Affordable Care Act Effect

Under the Affordable Care Act, the number of Americans who enroll in healthcare plans will continue to increase. The influx of previously uninsured Americans into the healthcare system presents a unique opportunity for health IT companies to help providers become more efficient.

The prospect of increased revenues will force health systems to look for ways to increase their capacity. This might mean the acquisition of additional physician practices, increased use of physician extenders (such as Nurse Practitioners), and the use of more digital health tools.

Organizations Will Continue their Slow Shift to Value-Based Care

Healthcare providers will continue to adopt value-based contracts, but at a slower pace than predicted. The delays will be caused by the need to create an IT infrastructure that supports value-based care, and the need to alter workflows that embrace this new model.

At the same time, providers will continue to resist drastic changes to their clinical workflows and will only take incremental steps towards new practice models. This, coupled with shortage of healthcare IT specialists, will mean that health systems will need to undertake additional work and Fee-for- Service will continue to be the dominant payment model for years to come.

Healthcare Providers Will Move Ever Closer to Adopt a Community Approach to Care

Successful, innovative health systems will realize that keeping a population healthy is a community-wide effort. Frontrunners will launch initiatives that involve coordination of clinical, social, behavioral and family resources to identify and minimize risk, while increasing patient engagement.

To be successful, health systems must view their EHRs as a building block for population health management, not as the sole solution. More healthcare organizations will begin to understand that a single technology will not support all of their needs, and they may need to integrate multiple technologies to meet the new demand for their services. It’s critical to have systems in place that can integrate data from multiple sources, such as remote monitoring devices, or help make that information actionable.