What's the difference between value-based care and value-based payment? How can we attribute outcomes and cost savings to specific innovations in care delivery? Does anyone really know what they're doing? What do the patients think? Who needs to be at the table to figure this all out? On this episode, guest-host Janae Sharp asks Don Lee and Shahid Shah about the VBP Forward Conference happening in Buffalo on February 20th and 21st. And we try to break down what's really happening in the move fro...
Jan 28, 2019•41 min
Mergers and acquisitions activity in healthcare ranked third behind energy and media entertainment in terms of total deal volume in the first half of 2018. And from what we can tell, things didn't slow down after that. Of course, you have the big deals like CVS-Aetna, Cigna-Express Scripts, and Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway-JP Morgan . And the much-hyped entrance from tech giants like Apple. But we're also seeing a ton of consolidation in specialty practices, software companies and more. The rise of...
Jan 16, 2019•47 min
On this episode, we talk with François de Brantes , Senior Vice President of Commercial Business Development at Remedy , about the future of value-based payment. François shares with us the importance of transparency, measurement, and responsibility and tells us why payment reform is such an effective lever to drive change. You'll hear about models that have been successful, how employers are driving change, and what you can expect from the next generation of value-based payment. In addition, Fr...
Dec 30, 2018•1 hr 1 min
Selling is hard. Whether you're selling an idea, service or product, you've got to get to the core of the issue quickly or you'll lose your audience. And the challenge is notoriously exacerbated by the risky, regulated and complex healthcare system you're selling into. That's why we're talking with Dom Cappuccilli from The Clean Sell . Dom's a storyteller turned sales guy who's been successful in both inside / direct sales and enterprise sales. Dom shares some of his most important lessons from ...
Dec 19, 2018•44 min
This episode is part of our in-depth coverage of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems Consortium (HITS) 2018 conference in Nashville, TN that took place September 18-20th. ... On this episode, we wrap-up our coverage of the HITS 2018 conference . We talk with HITS board members Dr. Kelly Reynolds and Savannah Hatt about what we learned at the 2018 conference, what's next for the HITS Consortium, how you can get involved, and what to expect from the HITS 2019 conference in Buffalo, NY. S...
Dec 12, 2018•44 min
This is a crossover episode with David Shifrin from The Future of Health Podcast and Health:Further . We cover three main topics that have been coming up a lot on our podcasts: Care Transitions Anytime a patient is moved from one care delivery location to another you need to have contextualized data exchange. If care coordinators don’t have the right data, how could the patient? How can technology help educate patients and increase discharge instruction adherence? Telehealth for post-discharge f...
Nov 29, 2018•52 min
The social determinants of health (SDOH) are a hot topic in the healthcare industry. And rightly so: "Social, economic, and environmental issues have been shown to influence the length and quality of life by 50%, according to community health research. In comparison, only 20% is tied to the clinical care provided to community residents." Virginia Gurley, Sr. Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at AxisPoint Health But SDOH is not a new concept - it's just modern terminology for something cal...
Nov 15, 2018•47 min
If you're a medical practice, 4 major industry waves are rocking your boat. New demands bring new opportunities for fast practices that can quickly get physician alignment around a strategy that will maintain physician autonomy and increase reimbursement. Equally as important, the patient expectation has changed. They demand convenience and flexibility and want to interact with their care in new and innovative ways. Physicians can accept this, or ignore it at their own peril. I'm fortunate to be...
Nov 06, 2018•49 min
Virtual Care. Telehealth. Telemedicine. Whatever you call it, there are very real benefits to patients and health systems when you do Virtual Care right. But there are many obstacles too. On this episode, we talk with Courtney Stevens, Director of Virtual Care at Henry Ford Health System and Brian Young, Director of Healthcare Solutions Marketing at Vidyo about how to develop a Virtual Care strategy, gain buy-in from clinicians and patients, deliver service and measure success along the way. The...
Nov 01, 2018•59 min
This episode is part of our in-depth coverage of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems Consortium (HITS) 2018 conference in Nashville, TN that took place September 18-20th. Check out all our HITS 2018 episodes here , and look for more throughout the month of October. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) measures a patient's satisfaction with the quality of their care during their stay at the hospital. It measures things like staff communication an...
Oct 25, 2018•27 min
This episode is part of our in-depth coverage of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems Consortium (HITS) 2018 conference in Nashville, TN that took place September 18-20th. Check out all our HITS 2018 episodes here , and look for more throughout the month of October. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned with air quality in the hospital environment. The obvious ones are related to patient safety, but as we move toward a more consumer-directed healthcare system and as CMS continues ...
Oct 25, 2018•10 min
This episode is part of our in-depth coverage of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems Consortium (HITS) 2018 conference in Nashville, TN that took place September 18-20th. Check out all our HITS 2018 episodes here , and look for more throughout the month of October. Benjamin Franklin told us that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) cost U.S. hospitals as much as $45 Billion per year . We've covered many of the ways you can combat HAI...
Oct 17, 2018•15 min
This episode is part of our in-depth coverage of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems Consortium (HITS) 2018 conference in Nashville, TN that took place September 18-20th. Check out all our HITS 2018 episodes here , and look for more throughout the month of October. ... Hospital cleaning is one of the most important activities in Infection Prevention and Control . However, chemical cleaners that aim to kill all of the microbes aren't always as effective as you might think. At least not ...
Oct 17, 2018•21 min
This episode is part of our in-depth coverage of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems Consortium (HITS) 2018 conference in Nashville, TN that took place September 18-20th. Check out all our HITS 2018 episodes here , and look for more throughout the month of October. Adapted from Jason "The Germ Guy" Tetro's Opening Keynote at HITS 2018 Have you ever written the perfect checklist? You left no stone unturned and accounted for every possible step that needed to occur. You trained your staf...
Oct 11, 2018•40 min
When it comes to healthcare conferences, it's easy to get stuck in an echo chamber. Too often it's the same ideas about the same topics from the same people. That's why I found last year's Quality Talks event so refreshing. NCQA brought together a varied set of speakers and topics that were guaranteed to offer a fresh perspective to anyone who attended - they certainly did for me. Plus, as a 1-day event, it was easy to get in and get out without disrupting my entire week, and the deep, TED-style...
Oct 08, 2018•19 min
The patient journey has changed drastically in the past 5 years and it's having an outsized impact on healthcare marketing. You know about the "Google-effect", but did you know that 83% of patients are not going to the hospital website to research doctors and services? And now with Alexa, Apple Car Play and Android auto, voice-first is adding a brand new wrinkle. In short, there are many ways for your patients to find you and if you aren't managing the digital landscape, then you're missing out....
Oct 02, 2018•59 min
Robotic surgery is a loaded term. Just reading the words can bring Hollywood-inspired images of fully autonomous robot doctors to mind. But that's not what's happening in the industry today. The "robots" are merely tools used by doctors, just like a stethoscope or a scalpel. And they have some interesting use cases and value propositions to health systems. For example, they can act as a great equalizer by helping young surgeons perform subtle movements that would otherwise take them years to per...
Sep 19, 2018•57 min
Unanticipated high out-of-pocket prescription costs negatively impact patient safety and may lead to increased healthcare spending later. According to the Truven Health Analytics-NPR Health Poll for Prescription Drugs (June 2017) , the most cited reason by respondents who did not fill their prescription was cost (67%). Prior-authorization is another hurdle, and when it's required, according to today's guest, medication adherence drops precipitously. In general, medication treatment failures due ...
Sep 12, 2018•53 min
We've talked extensively about the problem with provider directories . It's a fundamental issue in healthcare administration and many of our processes are built on top of it. I've called it healthcare's ultimate death by paper cut. Now, we're starting to see new solutions in the market. Last week we looked at an open-source industry solution . This week we're looking at the statewide effort in California. California's Senate Bill 137 (SB-137) , the "toothiest" provider directory law to date, set...
Sep 04, 2018•57 min
We've talked extensively about the problem with provider directories . It's a fundamental issue in healthcare administration and many of our processes are built on top of it. I've called it healthcare's ultimate death by paper cut. Today we're going to talk about solutions. On this episode, I talk with Gunjan Siroya, Principal Partner at Netspective , about RosterSource . It's an open source industry platform that enables physician roster data exchange across systems and organizations, securely ...
Aug 22, 2018•1 hr 2 min
$11.1 Billion. That's how much, according to the 217 CAQH Index, the healthcare industry could save by transitioning to fully electronic administrative transactions. The transactions are for things like claim submission, eligibility and benefit verification, pre-authorization, etc. These are clearly defined standards and many of them are widely adopted. This is real interoperability in healthcare and it's in place today. Yet, not everyone is participating. Why is that? How can we expand adoption...
Aug 15, 2018•59 min
Controlling the transmission of infections isn't one person's job and it can't be measured with a few key performance indicators. It's breaking down barriers to allow for collaboration between all interested parties. And that's exactly what's being done at the Healthcare Infection Transmission System (HITS) Conference this September 18-20th in Nashville, TN . Today I'm joined by Dr. Christine Greene, Principal Research Investigator for the Sanitation and Contamination Control unit of the Applied...
Aug 08, 2018•44 min
How do you get everyone to stick to the strategy? With doctors, CEOs, and Congress all trying to move healthcare forward, where is the progress? This week's discussion dives deep into the components of making change happen. From shared understanding to aligned incentives, Stacey Richter from the Relentless Health Value Podcast and I explain why change is so hard and how to get everyone working towards a common goal. 0:43 Everything in the industry is viewed very differently by different parties....
Aug 02, 2018•56 min
What a patient does at home during the time between doctor visits has the largest effect on the outcome of their care. The instructions doctors and nurses give patients at the point of care varies greatly and give health systems an opportunity. Stacey Richter, Co-President of Aventria Health Group and host of The Relentless Health Value podcast joins me to talk about her new company QCHealth and how patient education can have a huge affect on quality metrics. 2:04 Are we defining patient educati...
Jul 26, 2018•52 min
Patients are buying health insurance based on misleading information. Incomplete or incorrect provider directories can obstruct patients from accessing care. Additionally, the healthcare industry is building its administrative workflows on top of this bad provider data, creating all types of inefficiency. Today on the podcast I'm joined by Dara Price-Olsen and Tammy Weaver to discuss the LexisNexis and AMA collaboration on Provider Directories. We hear a story early on showing how easy it is to ...
Jul 19, 2018•56 min
Even the best doctors in the world can have their patients stolen away by savvy online marketing. Practices are doing their patients a disservice by not doing everything they can to prevent that from happening. In this episode, I sit down with Garrett Smith, CEO of InboundMD and author of Book Now! Internet Marketing for Healthcare Practices, to discuss how everyone from large practices to solo docs can improve their online marketing. Garrett lays out an easy-to-use checklist to rev your marketi...
Jul 08, 2018•1 hr 1 min
Having a great product is not always enough to be news worthy. It is much easier to get noticed at a conference when you know what journalists are looking for. On this episode, Shahid and I get a behind the scenes look at how to hack healthcare news. Jeff Byers, Associate Editor at Healthcare Dive, tells us how he spots trends, how to pick which conferences to attend and shares dozens of tips for how to get your company's story placed above the fold. 1:25 How you can reach out to get PR before a...
Jun 29, 2018•47 min
Software that supports EMR needs to change and evolve at the same pace as medicine. Getting clinicians on the front lines the tools they need to make decisions is a team effort. On this episode, Shahid and I sit down with Dr. Betty Rabinowitz to talk about her new position as CMO at NextGen and how her team plans to improve the lives of those who practice medicine and those they care for. 1:16 Dr. Betty's journey from primary care to startup to Nextgen CMO. 4:40 How the physician perspective can...
Jun 26, 2018•47 min
In the rush to implement EHR and meaningful use, did we forget about interoperability? Congress thinks there should be more to show for the billions of dollars already spent on EHR. Now, they've asked the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to give guidance for the future. On this episode, Shahid and I sit down with Niam Yaraghi to discuss what TEFCA is and what it means for interoperability and the business of healthcare. The problem with all this is that no one can clearly articulate what...
Jun 23, 2018•51 min
Electronic health records were built to help organize notes but only recently have developers begun to tap their true potential. Providers can now be aided at the time of service with actionable healthcare intelligence to support a variety of initiatives. From decision support to adverse event prediction, Adam Klass gives us a glimpse of how VigiLanz is improving care and saving doctors time. This episode was recorded at the Health IT Expo . You can find more of our coverage of the conference he...
Jun 20, 2018•14 min
