Dermatology EMR Adding Specialties

What's your time worth?...is the question posed by the developers of an EMR for dermatologists.  

The highly fragmented EMR market boats 1,000 options.  EMR developer Modernizing Medicine has focused its Electronic Medical Assistant (EMA) on visual-oriented specialties that lend themselves to a touch-based platform.  Preferring the “big fish, small pond” approach, their EMA development path focused on covering small and midsized specialty practices.  First offerings covered dermatology, ophthalmology and optometry.  This fall products for plastic and orthopedic surgeons will be introduced. 

>> Read more, View EMA demo

Modernizing Medicine co-founder and chief medical officer Micheal Sherling, a practicing dermatologist, said their number one goal for EMA is to save doctors time and, as a result, money.

Source:  MedCity News

Where is the Money Going?

Today, the media is buzzing about the latest Institute of Medicine report - The Healthcare Imperative:  Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes addressing US healthcare spending.  Checkout the infographic that highlights the report's issues and opportunities. 
Source:  Institute of Medicine

Retail Clinic Visits Up Four-Fold

American consumers have apparently enjoyed the convenience of retail clinics since they began appearing in pharmacies, supermarkets and malls in 2000.

A follow-up study recently released by Health Affairs provides an indication of the growth of patient visits to US retail clinics.  Using data from the 3 largest clinic operators (Minute Clinic, Take Care, Little Clinic), the study reveals that customer retail visits between 2007-2009 grew from 1.48M to 5.97M.  

Other findings include:

• 64.5% did not have a primary care physician 
• Majority of customers had insurance (70.5%) 
• 44.4% of visits occurred when physician offices were closed 
• Visits by age 64+ customers doubled vs. the initial study  

 According to study co-authors, Ateev Mehrotra and Judith Lave:

“It will be interesting to track demand at retail clinics after the Affordable Care Act is implemented…if wait times for appointments with primary care physicians increase nationwide, demand for the clinics might increase.”

Source:   Health Affairs blog, Chris Fleming

Urgent Care Update...

-Alliance Urgent Care to be Acquired

-Concentra Expands Footprint in KY

Capital Group Holdings announced that it will acquire privately owned Alliance Urgent Care, an organization operating six clinics in the greater Phoenix, AZ area.  Alliance will be renamed OneHealth Urgent Care to be consistent with the branding of Capital Group's telehealth subsidiary, OneHealthPass ™ (OHP).  OHP is designed to become an industry standard telehealth platform for the management and administration of patient-centric telemedicine programs.  Dr. Michael Blumhoff, Alliance CEO, will continue as CEO of the OHP Urgent Care group once the deal is finalized. -->  >>Read more

Urgent Treatment Clinics (UTC) with seven medical centers in the Lexington, KY area is Concentra's latest acquisition.  The Urgent Treatment Clinic name will be preserved according to Concentra, the national provider of urgent care services and subsidiary of Humana, Inc.  Former UTC owners, Dr. Fadi Bacha and Dr. Larry Burns, have been retained by Concentra and will continue providing patient care to residents of Lexington and its surrounding communities.  >>Read more 

CompHealth Sizes Up Merger Activity

Monday's announcement that Aetna will buy Coventry Health Care underscores the trend in health care consolidation.  CompHealth, a Salt Lake City-based health care staffing firm, offers an interesting visual to illustrate the industry's merger activity based on a 2011 survey.  >>View: Healthy Growth?

Some of the findings for 2012:

• 75% of hospitals and health systems considering merger or acquisition
• 52% of merger deals valued < $50M
• Top reason for deal cancellation:  Culture Incompatibility

Source:  EMR Daily News

More Consolidation to Boost Govt Share

On the heels of the Wellpoint acquisition announcement of Amerigroup, Aetna has agreed to buy Coventry Health Care Inc. in a deal expected to close mid-2013.

"Integrating Coventry into Aetna will complement our strategy to expand our core insurance business, increase our presence in the fast-growing government sector and expand our relationships with providers in local geographies," according to Mark T. Bertolini, Aetna's chief executive.

The acquisition is expected to increase Aetna's share of government business to more than 30% from 23%.  >>Read more

U.S. HealthWorks Acquired by Dignity

U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group, the largest independent operator of occupational health & urgent care centers, was acquired by Dignity Health, formerly Catholic Healthcare West.  

U.S. HealthWorks which operates 172 centers in 16 states was previously a portfolio company of Altaris Capital Partners and Three Arch Partners.  It will be a wholly owned for-profit unit of Dignity.  

As the nation’s fifth largest hospital chain, the acquisition jumpstarts Dignity’s efforts to extend its reach beyond California, Arizona and Nevada to a national level.

How Does Health Care Compare to...?

A recent PriceWaterhouse Coopers report suggests that several service industries are shaping health care consumer expectations. Whether it's better use of technology or customer service strategies, non-health care service sectors (e.g.:  Retail, Banking, Hospitality) have the edge.  Case in point:

Source:  Health Research Institute, PwC 

Introducing...Orthopedic Urgent Care Centers

In the hope of increasing immediate care and decreasing health care costs, Florida-based Dr. Alejandro Badia developed and launched OrthoNow, a franchised orthopedic care center.  Centers will address emergency orthopedic needs and send injured patients to an adjacent ambulatory surgery center for treatment.  

Frustrated by a system resulting in "delays in referrals, incorrect dates and wasted tests", Dr. Badia sought a more efficient approach to orthopedic health care delivery. Dr. Badia, CEO of OrthoNow, envisions secure data sharing across the network to establish benchmarks, measure performance and identify paths for improvement.  Additionally, aggregated clinic data could prove beneficial in reviewing critical business aspects.  >>Read more

6 Niche Markets for Telemedicine

Expansion of telemedicine programs at the federal, state and local level continues with the market forecasted by Pike & Fischer to reach $3.6B by 2014, up over 300% from the 2009 level.  Recently introduced legislation, the “Veterans E-Health & Telemedicine Support” (VETS) Act of 2012” (H.R.6107), aims to increase veteran health care access as the bill expands the current VA state licensure exemption.  
While telemedicine works its way into primary care, it has gained acceptance in a number of medical specialties:

Radiology – most established telemedicine niche

Dermatology – mirrors system used by teleradiology

Behavioral Health – leverages technology to aid returning soldiers

Correctional Health Care – means to cut costs

Ocular Health – used for screenings for diabetic retinopathy

Pediatric Sub-specialties – helpful for underserved patient populations

Source:  MedCity News - Stephanie Baum  >>Read more

New Social Media Site Spotlights PTs

$5M Venture Capital Backs Start Up

Move over Sermo…Hello Therapydia, a new health care online community created to connect physical therapists.  The site's goal is to mobilize all US PTs using social media to address key industry issues and elevate the profession.  It aggregates relevant content from 300 sites and offers a free assessment tool to aid PTs in building a professional branding online.  Site expansion will include patients, referring physicians and related wellness practitioners to benefit site users with potential referrals and patient engagement.  
Therapydia is backed with $5M from Peterson Ventures, de Anda Capital and Western Technology Investment.

PIC & New Investors Eye Expansion

Urgent care chain, Physicians Immediate Care (PIC), is now better equipped to increase its Midwest presence thanks to new investors LLR Partners, Wellpoint and former Walgreen's executive, Stanley Blaylock.  
Investor and new PIC President & CEO, Mr. Blaylock, expects the chain to grow from its current 20 clinics to over 100 in the next six years --- notably in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.  Dr. John Koehler, one of the founders of PIC, will remain with the company as shareholder and Chief Medical Officer.  He and the investors recognize the growth potential of urgent care and according to Dr. Koehler, it is in "the sweet spot of what needs to be done in terms of controlling costs and increasing [insurance] access." >>Read more

Hill-Rom Reaches Outside DME

...Acquires Aspen Surgical
Hill-Rom, a hospital bed and equipment supplier since 1939, enhanced its existing surgical platform with the acquisition of privately-held Aspen Surgical for $400M.  Aspen Surgical is a leader in surgical and specialty medical products including scalpels, operating room disposables and instruments and wound care products.  
Hill-Rom's move should be a positive one as growth of the disposable medical supplies market is anticipated based on aging demographic patterns, extended insurance coverage by Affordable Care Act, and rising incidence of disease and disorders.  The market is forecast to increase 4.3% annually to $47B in 2016.

"With the addition of Aspen Surgical, Hill-Rom is well positioned for growth and geographic expansion in our surgical business, particularly in the safety product segments," said John J. Greisch, President and CEO of Hill-Rom.

Source:  Deanna Pogorelc, MedCity News  >>Read more

Recent M&A Activity on Par with Q2, 2011

The recently published The Health Care M&A Report reveals a busy Q2, 2012.  Preliminary figures indicate that while total acquisition dollars dipped, the absolute number of deals matched that of an active Q2, 2011 ($75B). The health care technology segment accounted for over 60% of the $61B spent on deals from April-June, 2012.  The technology segment includes medical devices, pharmaceuticals, e-Health, biotechnology.  Sectors in the health care services segment include rehabilitation, labs, managed care, physician groups, hospitals, etc.  >>Read more
Source:  Irving Levin Associates

More Health Care Deals Expected

Unless you've been under a rock, you know that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act in late June.  Analysts expect the ruling to spur consolidation of health care companies looking to cash in on an increase in Medicaid enrollment.  Wellpoint led the way with its $4.9B acquisition of Amerigroup. Antoine Gara's article (Health Care:  Obamacare M&A Trumps Weak Earnings Outlook) suggests Humana, Cigna, Aetna and UnitedHealth could follow suit.  Recent comments regarding Centene may have elevated it to the takeover target frontrunner.  

Cloud-based Service Provider Lands at MedExpress

MedExpress Urgent Care recently selected Athenahealth for its cloud-based medical billing capabilities and live and automated patient communications service. 

Athenahealth's cloud technology offers a scalable platform...one that will grow with MedExpress’ expansion - enhancing the urgent care provider’s operational productivity as well as their patient’s experience.  According to Kevin Ruffe, MedExpress CIO "By streamlining processes based on the needs of our patients, we are able to facilitate an efficient information flow that allows our health care professionals to focus on each and every patient who walks through our doors."  >>Read more

DIY Healthcare?

Consumers Say Yes and NO

With increasing buzz around eHealth, the data points from a recent Accenture survey (June, 2012) are not too surprising.  Survey results from, Is eHealth Enough to Satisfy Patients' Desire for Self-service?, indicate significant interest among consumers in online health communication.

Despite their self-serve appetite, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, a healthcare forecaster, confirms that consumers still value face time with healthcare providers. >>Read more

The Cloud - Ready for Take Off in Healthcare

Despite privacy and regulatory concerns that have restrained its use to date, cloud computing in the health care industry is on the rise. MarketsandMarkets, in a recent research report, forecasted the health care cloud computing market to reach $5.4B by 2017, a compounded annual growth rate of 20% (vs. 4% in 2011). This global estimate encompasses use in clinical (e.g.: EHR, software imaging, physician order entry) and non-clinical (e.g.: patient billing, claims management) applications.

Essentially, cloud technology enables users to use the Internet from anywhere to access computing capabilities and data hosted in another location, as opposed to onsite. The cloud enables hospitals, clinics, practitioners to share patient data across various settings and geographies to improve and expedite patient diagnosis and treatment. On the business side, it allows an IT staff or department to increase performance of their IT infrastructure while decreasing costs. >> Read more

Physical Therapy News...

Drayer Physical Therapy Institute                 Gets New Owner 

GS Capital Partners acquired Drayer, a leading care provider in the outpatient rehabilitation market, from Linden Capital Partners.

Based in Hummelstown, PA, Drayer owns or manages 80+ clinics that primarily treat sports-related injuries and orthopedic disorders.  Clinics, located across 14 states, are in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Northwest U.S.  With its new partner, Drayer's management will continue to focus on company growth, their patient-first culture and commitment to employees.

Rx for the Future?

Telemedicine – it’s not a new specialty, rather a means of delivering medical information...electronically (e.g.: telephones, website, email, webcams, etc.).  A 2010 Intel survey of health care decision makers suggests that this emerging market will transform the health care industry in the next decade.  In financial terms, a more recent study by BCC Research estimates growth of 18.6% from 2011 to 2016 to over $27B.

What’s behind the growth? Joan Voight, CNBC.com in a recent post, Telemedicine: A Prescription For Lower Health-Care Costs? cites examples of satisfied small business owners.  Along with employees enjoying the convenience of a virtual exam, health care providers are embracing the alternative delivery system. Although provider payment policies are evolving, many third party payers including Medicare and private health insurance plans are beginning to pay for online visits.  Typically, the online rate is lower than a face-to-face visit but it’s better than no reimbursement at all.