PwC's Health Research Institute (HRI) outlines 12 defining healthcare trends to watch in 2018 that will be distinguished by persistent uncertainty and risk. 2018 will be distinguished by persistent uncertainty and risk for the US health industry. 2018 is likely to mirror 2017 - a year marked by raucous debates over health and tax reform and a series of crises triggered by natural disasters - in terms of volatility, according to the latest research from PwC's Health Research Institute
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Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Stitch Health Launches Care Coordination Platform for Healthcare Teams
Today Stitch Health, which aims to make it easy for healthcare teams to provide incredible patient experiences, unveiled their new care coordination platform for providers to work better together. The company's HIPAA-compliant, cross-platform (desktop, iOS, and Android), searchable by a patient, and integrates with existing electronic health records (EHRs). The platform offers tools for three categories of healthcare work: team communication, patient engagement, and patient management.Stitch
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Magellan Health Forms Collaboration for Cardiovascular Health
Magellan Health has announced a new collaboration with Accountable Cardiac Care of Mississippi (ACCOM) and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, leveraging a new, clinical best practice model in efforts to address cardiovascular health and improve cost, quality and outcomes for members in northeast Mississippi. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in this state, accounting for more than one-third of all deaths.According to the Mississippi State Department of Health,
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3 Key Areas An Automated Prior Authorization Solution Must Address
Editor's Note: Co-written by Scott Herbst, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Provider Solutions and Ryan Miller, Senior Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at Availity.Prior authorizations may be as popular among providers as ants at a picnic, but they have become a common and necessary part of the reimbursement process. As a result, being able to manage prior authorizations efficiently is critical to maintaining a healthy revenue cycle and avoiding issues such as
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PCHAlliance Releases New Guidelines for EHR-Integrated Patient Generated Health Data
The Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance), a non-profit formed by HIMSS has released the latest version of the Continua Design Guidelines (CDGs) to enable the secure, private, reliable and accurate sharing of patient generated health data (PGHD) with healthcare providers, built-on HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) specifications. The Design Guidelines now support the integration of personal health data from 26 vital signs sensors and 40 health, medical and fitness
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Cigna Acquires Brighter to Expand Digital Health Engagement of Consumers
Health insurer giant Cigna has announced the acquisition of Brighter Inc., a SaaS-based digital health plan platform and engagement service provider to leading health services organizations. The acquisition of Brigther's digital health plan platform will build upon the already successful relationship between Cigna and Brighter by accelerating the development of Cigna’s mobile and desktop platforms and creating new end-to-end experiences that connect health consumers and providers with the
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drchrono EHR Integrates With FlexScanMD to Help Medical Practices Track Product Inventory
Mobile EHR provider drchrono has announced its new integration partnership with the leading provider of cloud-based, medical inventory management, FlexScanMD. The new integration between drchrono and FlexScanMD allows medical practices to seamlessly track the products they stock, dispense and sell. Although inventory management is highly critical to many medical practices, it is often handled manually due to the lack of communication between a practice’s inventory management software, EHR and
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Orion Health and Koble Group Form Multi-State Public HIE
The Iowa Health Information Network (IHIN) announced it has signed a Software as a Service agreement with the Koble Group, a Minnesota state-certified Health Information Organization (HIO) operating on a robust platform for sharing data, powered by Orion Health. The addition of IHIN to the Koble Group Amadeus platform is a significant step forward in Koble Group’s efforts to create a multi-state HIE that works to cost-effectively share resources and exchange crucial health information across
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Health IT Company ABILITY Network Raises $545M in Debt Financing
ABILITY Network (ABILITY), a health information technology company that simplifies the complexities of administrative and clinical processes has raised $545 million in debt financing. The proceeds will be used to replace existing debt at lower rates and extended maturities, fund cash to the balance sheet for growth and pay a dividend to shareholders. The new debt financing, along with ABILITY’s strong performance, returns leverage ratios to the same level as when Summit Partners and Bain
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ALKU Acquires Health IT Consulting Firm Holland Square Group
Specialized staffing firm ALKU has acquired Holland Square Group, a Nashville, TN-based provider of health IT consulting and staffing solutions to providers, payers, and suppliers of healthcare technology and services. The acquisiton will help expand and diversify ALKU’s specialized service offerings to the health IT market, as well as establish a market share in the health IT consulting market.“We immediately recognized the unique opportunity that combining with Holland Square Group represents
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