Healthcare is one of the fastest-growing segments of the digital universe, with data volumes expected to grow by 48 percent annually. Healthcare applications will be the principal driver of this data growth, with EHR penetration in the US already reaching more than 80 percent and expected to reach 95 percent by 2020.
In addition, the healthcare space has matured to the point where EHR replacement has become commonplace, and up to 50 percent of health systems are projected to be on second-generation technology by the year 2020.
So why are these data points an important consideration?
Healthcare organizations have been facing
the major challenge of storing and securing patient information. This is not
just the problem with the providers, but for payers and patients too. While
transitioning to complete digitization of practices, healthcare leaders,
specifically CIOs, often find it a daunting task to identify the areas where
they need to scale up their technological approach.
EHRs are likely the necessary evil for
healthcare. No doubt they solved so many problems; however, they opened gates
to other problems. The complications with the legacy systems compel hospitals
to shift to modern technological solutions.
Right now, the story of mergers and acquisitions in the space is also like an adventure movie. According to KLAS Research, the number of EHR vendors dropped from more than 1,000 to around 400 now — the reason being the rise in mergers and acquisitions.
Where does the actual problem lie?
The journey of shifting from legacy systems
to advanced technology is also ripe with its own set of complications. As the
landscape is molded by M&As, consistent EHR replacements are not rare
sights.
In this scenario, organizations face two
major problems:
Legacy systems have
to be maintained so that organizations are able to access the read-only PHI.
The cost of
migrating data from one EHR to another is unreasonably high.
Moreover, since these EHR replacements are directly linked to the retention of the data from the legacy systems for about a decade. Most states require Protected Health Information (PHI) to be retained for about seven to 10 years.
How is data archival the solution we need now?
Transitioning between EHRs require a
holistic approach to keep their data secure, and the best way here is data
archival. Data archival is a simple process of archiving the entire data from
legacy systems into a unified platform so that it can be kept secured for a
long duration. It is the perfect solution to the above-stated two problems: it
is easier and can be done at one-tenth of the price.
For instance, in the case of legacy systems, the EHR vendor can charge up to $10,000 a month for keeping the system running even after the transition. However, in the case of data archival, this entire process is fast, cheap and much more efficient. Also, it eliminates the necessity of keeping the legacy systems running.
The archiving process serves multiple
functions and has the following major advantages over other data-retention
processes:
It allows legal
decommissioning of the legacy systems
It ensures the
integrity of the vital healthcare data
It creates the
opportunity to realize opportunities for immediate Return on Investment (ROI)
It minimizes the
risk of maintaining the historical data
It develops a
centralized repository for all your legacy systems’ data
And many more …
What is the perfect data archival strategy?
The procedure of data archival mainly
consists of two major steps: identifying the need for data archival and
adopting the best archival solution. It is important to analyze the need first
and then take action. It is a complex process and involves complex compliance
requirements to be fulfilled.
So what is needed to be done now? Here is the list of essential prerequisites to be considered and followed religiously before archiving your crucial healthcare data:
Understand your healthcare data
The first step is to understand your EHR and legacy system data. One organization might be focusing on archiving the data from a single EHR while the other might be looking for a solution that can archive the data from multiple data sources. Everyone’s data needs are different and, thus, requires a different data archival approach.
Familiarize yourself with your state regulations
Every state has its own regulations to archive the data. The state of California might need you to archive your data for six years, while the state of Minnesota might have a span of more than 30 years. These regulations need to be considered and understood efficiently before investing in a data archival solution.
Chalk out your technological requirements
The next and
most important step is to identify the extent and the varieties of
technological features your organization might need. Every organization has
different needs which should be analyzed and understood well in advance. Based
on these insights, the final decision can be made about any data archival
solution and its abilities.
The road ahead
The space of healthcare is among the most diverse and ever-changing fields. New mergers, efforts towards making the practice data-driven, empowering providers with access to every single bit of data about their patients, and whatnot; these factors have compelled organizations to keep shifting towards a better option — a better EHR. And in this story, the ultimate goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible. It is important to ensure that organizations get rid of all their legacy system headaches instantly. With data archival, it is finally possible.
Delivery
of care options have evolved quickly over the last decade, as more patients have
become comfortable with remote care and connected health services. And while
it’s often assumed that younger generations are more eager to adapt to the
changing healthcare landscape, services enabled by technology are being adopted
by all generations – but often for different reasons.
The Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers
It’s
estimated that by 2020, roughly 40
percent of the U.S. population will be over 50.
Those
in the older generations are typically associated with an aversion to
technology, assumed to value in-office engagements with medical providers and
clinging to antiquated methods of treatment.
Although
older generations grew up in a face-to-face generation where doctors regularly
made house calls, that doesn’t mean they balk at connected health services. In
fact, Baby Boomers and the Greatest Generation (those that grew up in the
Depression era) are more digitally connected than ever and benefit from remote
visits too. Many don’t realize that Boomers have been using technology since
PCs were introduced in the workplace the early 1990’s, long before the launch
of today’s iPhones and Androids. And while modern technology may be relatively
new to the Greatest Generation, the group has shown to be the fastest-growing
adopters of smart phones.
While
neither group is digitally native, many welcome alternative care options such
as connected health. For one, a large portion of the nation’s $2.7 trillion in
annual healthcare expenditures are related to chronic disease, which afflicts
older patients more than younger ones. Plus, connected health options are less
expensive than in-office visits. However, cost isn’t the only factor they
consider.
Most
Boomers are still in the workforce and looking to balance the end of their
careers with caring of aging parents. Connected health can save money and time associated
with office visits. And those in the 75-85 age group – the Greatest Generation
– prefer not to travel to see a doctor post-surgery if they could use two-way video
or a phone call. This is coupled with the fact that transportation is the
biggest impediment to seeing doctors or following up post-surgery for extended
care for chronic illness.
Transportation
challenges or disrupted routines are just a few of the barriers to getting a
patient proper care – and it’s costly. Of roughly 1.3
million hospital transfers from nursing homes each year, the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimate that 45 percent are
unnecessary. The introduction of remote care could be paramount, offering
patients a minimally disruptive alternative to receive necessary care that
would decrease long term issues.
Millennials and Generation Zers
Millennials
currently make up a quarter of the country, and Gen Zers are coming up quickly
behind them. While the younger set may be less dependent on the healthcare
system now than their Baby Boomer and Greatest Generation precedents, it’s
becoming more apparent just how much influence they have on the industry.
Having
spent their lives plugged into technology, millennials and Gen Zers are widely
referred to as the on-demand generations. They want immediate results in all
aspects of life and are driving huge strides in technological healthcare
advancements, including self-service options and remote delivery.
So,
it should be no surprise that they often prefer
quick service retail clinics and acute care facilities and
are largely interested in connected health alternatives. For these generations,
it’s all about online access, immediate results and keeping costs low. Many of
them prefer urgent cares to primarily care physicians and see doctors most
often for acute issues or maternity care. In fact, a majority of millennial
respondents in a recent
Patient-Provider Relationship Study cited that making a visit
to the doctor’s office is a last resort.
Consumers of all ages increasingly
embrace technology-enabled healthcare options
In
short, today’s patient, regardless of age, is more engaged in their health care
and not just relying on their doctors’ orders. Nearly everyone takes to the
internet to try and figure out their ailments via search engine before heading
to a doctor’s office.
And while
millennial and Gen Z patients may be leading the charge as connected health
patients, it’s possible that elder generations aren’t – and shouldn’t – be too
far behind. Based on their vast adoption of modern technologies, remote care
can be a useful tool in reducing unnecessary visits to a physician’s office and
may curb an emergency trip to the hospital as well. While it is still important
for patients to have some face time with their doctors, technology is creating
easily accessible and positive alternatives for all ages.
By Navaneeth Nair, vice president of product, Infinx.
Navaneeth Nair
Recently, major U.S. health
insurance companies have begun implementing prior authorization processes.
These insurers do not possess the specialized knowledge needed to determine
medical necessity, so they have to shift the responsibility to providers in
order to minimize instances of fraud and abuse.
However, shifting prior
authorization responsibility back to the practitioners can be troublesome. Many
providers do not have the necessary staff headcount needed to handle the
seemingly endless number of phone calls needed to obtain manual insurance
verifications.
That may lead providers to seek
completely automated solutions as a solution, but—despite all the advances in
artificial intelligence (AI)—machines simply cannot do everything. The true
purpose of AI is to help people make better decisions rather than
completely automate tasks and remove the human element.
Decision-making in the healthcare
industry absolutely requires the intelligence and empathy that can only come
from people and not machines. As a result, it is more accurate for providers to
look to “augmented intelligence,” which is the enhanced capabilities of human
clinical decision-making coupled with AI’s computational methods and systems as
defined by the American Medical Association.
Make no mistake—AI is absolutely
necessary in healthcare because the industry is either swimming or drowning in
data, depending upon whom you ask. As a result, the value proposition with the
most potential is to implement a tool that can input the data, make sense of
it, and present it back to the provider in a way that allows people to use
their knowledge and empathy to make the best possible decisions.
The AI component is designed to
continuously learn and improve from all data and interactions to provide
prescriptive insights for decision making while providing an increasing
transparency into the process. Ultimately, the AI’s job is to enable
intelligent decisions by applying machine learning, natural language processing
and understanding. When decision making is more deductive based on a learning
system, it improves outcomes.
Predictive models are inherently
simple to build, but difficult to maintain, because none of our healthcare
processes remain stable enough to utilize the data and patterns that are
produced. Those aspects are always changing, so practices need a solution that
seamlessly integrates the process and constantly accesses the latest and most
relevant data.
AI should be prescriptive and not
just predictive since predicting the outcome without explain ability (black box
AI) is limiting, particularly in healthcare where we need to better understand
machine rationale before applying it.
Lastly, the human component is
required to make the decisions that robotic automation and AI cannot. Only
people with empathy and knowledge of each unique situation can tailor the
patient experience to their individual context and needs.
Simply put, prior authorization
needs to be a product of human determination with as much assistance as AI can
provide. The best possible outcomes are the result of good intelligence and
great execution.
The most significant value
proposition for AI is the ability to take mundane administrative processes like
prior authorization or revenue cycle management off the task list of staff
members who have more important things to focus on without letting machines
make critical healthcare decisions. The most valuable automation systems will
continuously learn from the data gathered from previous experiences in order to
help people make better decisions.
This “digital workforce” will not
replace human workers, but instead will accelerate employee expertise, augment
decision making, reduce manual processing costs and risk, increase consistency
of output, and develop continuous self-learning processes. These best-in-class
platforms will allow providers to manage prior authorization, coding, and
billing needs through a combination of AI and specialists.
Providers should avoid completely
automated solutions for prior authorizations and instead look to a solution
that does not remove the deep knowledge and expertise factor gained from
specialists. Many general-purpose AI solutions are nothing more than spot
analytics solutions branded as AI, which require significant investments and
deliver uncertain results.
While AI may one day evolve to the
point of completely automating the prior authorization process, providers today
should remain committed to incorporating the human factor for better decision
making and outcomes.
Vyne, a market leader in secure health information exchange and electronic healthcare communication management, announced today it has been acquired by The Jordan Company, L.P., a middle-market-focused private equity firm with original capital commitments in excess of $11 billion. This new investment supports Vyne’s commitment of providing market-leading healthcare technology and support to thousands of dental practices, hospitals and major health systems across the United States.
The acquisition of Vyne from private equity firm Accel-KKR, comes after five years of consistent top and bottom-line growth as well as a strategic acquisition to expand its product offerings. With the backing of The Jordan Company, Vyne will further expand upon its already robust technology platforms that facilitate the electronic capture, storage and submission of healthcare data in any form – voice, document, image, data, fax or electronic interface — to provide business intelligence throughout any care organization. Vyne’s proven solutions connect disconnected data to close gaps in documentation,delivering improved financial strength, operational performance and patient experience for medical and dental providers, partners and payers.
Lindy Benton
“This acquisition provides Vyne with an amazing opportunity to serve more healthcare organizations and we’re looking forward to working with The Jordan Company to continue expanding our capabilities for serving the medical and dental markets,” said Lindy Benton, Vyne President and CEO. “Vyne clients and partners will benefit from this strategic move as we grow our portfolio of solutions that help position their healthcare organizations for the future.”
“Vyne has a long and successful track record of providing software products that deliver true value to healthcare organizations.,” said Dan Williams, Partner of The Jordan Company. “We are excited to partner with Lindy Benton and the Vyne management team to use our resources to support their mission of connecting disconnected data.”
Vyne serves the dental market through its NEA Powered by Vyne business, which continues to lead the dental market with its FastAttach® solution for compliant electronic attachments, serving more than 73,000 dental practice offices nationwide.
Vyne Medical servesthe healthcare industry with the robust healthcare content management capabilities of Trace™ and secure electronic information exchange solutions in use by more than 800 hospital and health system clients nationwide.
Clinician-to-patient communications are typically anchored
by in-person, at-home visits. Home health agencies may struggle with understanding
the benefits of technology adoption and how it will “work with” traditional
check-ins. The downside of not
implementing a communication platform unfortunately weakens an agency’s
positioning and performance amongst patients, family caregivers, and referral
sources. Without being able to safely communicate with patients via
HIPAA-compliant messaging, home health agencies may negatively impact their ability to:
Address patients’ questions and issues in a timelier
manner
Drive deeper patient engagement on a day-to-day
basis
Motivate adherence to the treatment plan and lower
the risk of rehospitalization
Earn recognition as being an innovative and
patient-centric partner in their community
Increase referrals from hospitals, SNFs, and
physicians
Introducing technology into the communications between home
health agency staff and patients may be seen as a potential interference to
building and sustaining meaningful clinician-patient relationships. However,
the use of technology – specifically a communications platform – allows nurses
to more effectively perform their clinical responsibilities and more
efficiently keep patients engaged in their own care. The benefits of using technology to strengthen
communications are many.
Engaged patients
are more invested in their outcomes:
Patients who are engaged in their care are more aware of their
day-to-day changes in their condition and more likely to ask their clinician
questions if there are emerging concerns and issues. Using a communication
platform to reach out to a home health clinician can mitigate trips to the ER
and keep a patient on track with the appropriate steps in their care.
Engaged patients
are more satisfied with their care. With easy access to their clinicians
before/after scheduled appointments, patients are more satisfied as they are
less anxious about accessing care if/when there is an immediate need. Family
caregivers also appreciate the access to expert care afterhours and on the
weekends. As a result, the family member and/or the patient is more apt to
first contact their home health clinician team instead of immediately (and
almost instinctively) heading to the ER.
Engaged
patients are boosting your bottom line.
As the PDGM model is realized in 2020, agencies are more concerned with
delivering care that is patient-centric yet cost-contained. To minimize
penalties and maximize outcomes, referral sources are prioritizing home health
agencies which can show how they are engaging patients, increasing satisfaction
scores, and lowering readmission rates especially within the initial 30 days
post-hospital discharge. With a communication platform and engagement strategy
in place, agencies are aligning themselves with these referral sources as they
share a like-minded objective – healthier and happier patients.
A communication platform can help optimize the experience for the patient and the home health agency as all stakeholders can stay in better and more frequent communication during the episode of care. Administrators can schedule and send out timely messages suited to the patient’s condition and care. Ongoing communications include appointment reminders, adherence triggers, and diet/exercise recommendations.
Patients can also safely use the platform’s HIPAA-compliant email, text, SMS, and secure message to reach their home health clinicians regarding questions or issues. The essence of the in-person clinician-patient relationship remains intact during the video-based virtual check-ins. The patient’s family members can also be included in the virtual visits to drive better understanding of the patient’s progress and next steps.
Data is key to allowing administrator the ability to assess
each patient’s level of interaction with each communication and the cadence of
touchpoints. As needed, the administrator has the flexibility to adjust the
compliance messaging to better engage (or re-engage) the patient. If there are
concerns about non-compliance, the home health agency can decide if a more
immediate intervention (e.g., call, in-home visit, or transfer to the ED is necessary.
Using a combination of messaging and video touchpoints, a
communication platform can help a home health agency increase satisfaction and
outcomes for the patient while actively reducing the number, length, and
related costs/penalties of hospital stays. The coordinated plan to engage
patients throughout the episode of care helps agencies minimize any “what if”
scenario for the future of their agency, their reputation, their staff and most
importantly, the agency’s impact in their region and community.
Vyne Medical announces an agreement with INTEGRIS Health for implementation of its Trace communication management platform. Oklahoma’s largest not-for-profit health system will implement Trace solutions across the system’s eight acute care hospitals and centralized access center.
The Trace platform encompasses voice recording, electronic faxing and image capture to automate and manage communication surrounding patient care. Data is digitized, indexed to the patient record and centralized for enterprise access and exchange. INTEGRIS will use Trace solutions to standardize and monitor key patient communication events and support its consumer financial engagement strategy.
“Trace solutions will help ensure the quality of our patient interactions prior to admission, while capturing valuable consumer insights contained in phone calls, emails, faxes and other revenue cycle communications,” said Susan Garcia, vice president of revenue cycle at INTEGRIS. “A digital audit trail of these interactions will support our goal of providing seamless service across all INTEGRIS facilities. It provides the objective data we were missing to better manage the entire patient encounter.”
Patient access team members will use Trace software to support daily activities at INTEGRIS hospitals and its centralized access center. Associates will record scheduling, preregistration and patient financial counseling phone calls with patients. Face-to-face recording will be implemented to record in-person patient encounters in registration, financial counseling and discharge planning. The Trace Quality Assurance solution will be used to review and score recordings.
Lindy Benton
“Forward-thinking health systems are investing to optimize patient encounters and identify new opportunities to improve consumer engagement,” said Lindy Benton, Vyne CEO and president. “We are excited to partner with INTEGRIS to reduce the cost of operations and improve KPIs by automating and leveraging data from these exchanges.”
With admitting physicians, INTEGRIS plans to automate delivery of faxed physician orders to eliminate paper and manual processes involved with faxing. Trace voice solutions will also be used to record pre-admission phone calls with physician offices. To improve communication with payers, INTEGRIS will document pre-authorization inquiries via payer portals and record payer voicemails granting approval for services. Medical records faxed to health plans will also be captured, along with the date and time stamp of delivery. Proof of these exchanges will help INTEGRIS reduce claim denials and improve reimbursement.
Cardiovascular diseases remain the number one killer of people in the world, resulting in 31 percent of all global deaths (17.9 million per year), and are the most expensive condition to treat. However, AI and machine learning technologies are being developed to make care pathways, treatment and real-time visualization of cardiac anomalies and subsequent therapy more effective. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities may provide numerous advantages over traditional analytics and clinical decision-making techniques, and cardiology is likely to benefit tremendously from these advancements as they mature.
Stuart Long
“As machine learning-based algorithms become more precise and accurate by interacting with data and programmed information, these technologies will allow care teams to gain unprecedented insights into diagnostics, care processes, treatment variability and patient outcomes, especially in regard to cardiac care,” said Stuart Long, CEO of InfoBionic, the leading digital health company that created the MoMe Kardia remote cardiac monitoring platform.
“AI algorithm-based cardiac devices can procure tremendous amounts of data, providing for the ability to match up what physicians are seeing to long-term patterns and possibly detect subtle improvements that can impact care,” noted Long.
Leveraging AI for clinical decision support, risk scoring and early alerting is one of the most promising areas of development for this revolutionary approach to data analysis. Powering new tools and systems can help make clinicians more aware of nuances, more efficient when delivering care, and more likely to curb a patient’s developing health problems.[1]
AI is ushering in new clinical quality and breakthroughs in patient care. For example, at the Cleveland Clinic[2], a customized algorithm developed by clinicians analyzes data, including blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation levels, to flag the patients that are at highest risk of deterioration. The ultimate goal is to provide front-line clinicians notice of serious cardiac events before they happen. Moreover, the precision now possible with cardiovascular imaging, combined with “big data” from the electronic health record and pathology, is likely to lead to tremendous cases of cardiac disease management and personalized therapy[3].
Healthcare consulting firm, Frost & Sullivan, projects a 40 percent growth rate[4] for AI in healthcare between 2016 and 2021, and said AI has the potential to improve outcomes by as much as 40 percent, while reducing the costs of treatment by as much as 50 percent.
Data driven medical care with connected devices is now the norm. Patient monitors, IV pumps, MRI machines, and infusions pumps all behave like computers with the ability to monitor patient conditions in real time, share data and even automatically adjust dosages. Although all of these innovations are improving in-patient care, their ability to communicate over internal computer networks has introduced new vulnerabilities to cyber attacks.
The health risks are high. Hackers can infiltrate devices and tamper with doses or even make devices show false data, leading doctors to the wrong diagnosis. Attackers can also hold electronic medical records ransom, causing delays in procedures required to treat patients.
The invisible threat
The biggest obstacle to securing medical devices is the simple fact that many of them are hidden. Hospitals often don’t have full visibility into which medical devices they have, so they aren’t aware of all the vulnerabilities. You can’t tell if your MRI is insecure if you don’t keep a full inventory of all the medical devices and all information necessary to assess the relative security risk.
Some hospitals rely on manual methods such as Excel spreadsheets to maintain an inventory of medical equipment. However, electronic files maintained by humans can’t keep pace with the growing number of the devices, and all the changes and updates that occur on an ongoing basis.
Often medical devices are added to the network without notifying security professionals and going through the necessary cautionary procedures. Many departments add equipment with the noble aim of improving patient care without notifying IT, since they are simply following the doctor’s orders and doctors are king. Something as simple as browsing for a local restaurant at a nurse’s station can put the hospital at risk if the computer isn’t adequately secured.
