Patient Kiosk News

Kaiser income nearly triples

From Healthcare Dive News

Kaiser Permanente Dive Brief:

Kaiser Permanente nearly tripled its net income in 2019 to $7.4 billion due in large part to its investment portfolio, the nonprofit integrated health system reported on Monday. That’s up from $2.5 billion in net income in 2018.
Oakland, California-based Kaiser reported operating income of $2.7 billion and other income of $4.7 billion. Nearly two-thirds of Kaiser’s net income came from investment performance rather than its core operations.
Kaiser said the performance allows the organization to continue to make key capital investments back into the company and community. But the financials come as nonprofit healthcare operators across the country face rising scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers for mounting profits and their tax-exempt status.

Read Insight – From Healthcare Dive News

More Kaiser News

https://patientkiosk.io/kaiser-news-unexpected-passing-of-kaiser-permanente-ceo-bernard-tyson/

https://patientkiosk.io/chf-case-study-patient-check-in-kaiser-permanente/

VA – Wilkie on Byrne Departure

From FedScoop

The removal of Deputy Secretary James Byrne “will not impact at all” the massive migration project at the VA, according to Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie

The project is a massive migration of the electronic health records of millions of veterans from the outdated Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) platform to a cloud-based commercial Cerner system. The department is working in partnership with the DOD to ensure seamless interoperability between the two as active service members retire and depend on VA health services.

While Wilkie didn’t directly address if the launch of the modernized EHR is still scheduled for late March, he said “I expect us to be able to launch this. The mission goes on.”

Meanwhile various entities and groups are preparing to directly confront the VA should the new check-in kiosks do not meet Section 508 guidelines, ACAA and ADA 2010. Currently over 4000 units in the field are NOT accessible to blind veterans, and that is not including all other types of disabilities.

Clearwave – Healthcare Tablet for Patients & Staff

Excerpt from Digital Journal

Click for full size image

Clearwave, a self service check-in solution company, announces Clearware Connect. The system enables patients to be booked in and, applicable to the U.S, for-profit healthcare system, for payments from patients to be made.

From the site — In addition to our in-practice kiosks, Clearwave offers tablets for your patients to use, expanding the number of check-in options for your patients. Clearwave Connect is our flexible tablet solution that fit practices of any size, specialty, and budget.

Key Benefits Tablet Kiosk Check-in

Flexible Form Factor
The tablet can fit any size office and any specialization. Whether handed out to reduce Kiosk lines or placed on the front desk, the tablet can go anywhere the practice needs it

Better Patient Interaction
Patients can now go back and review their responses and make form edits during the check-in process

Great User Experience
The Clearwave Connect tablet offers the same intuitive and seamless check-in experience as the kiosk offering a familiar experience independent of the hardware

Secure Payments
The integrated payment collection allows patients to pay co-pays and outstanding balances directly from the tablet

The advantages of the new patient tablet check-in system include:

Multiple options for patient check in, including the use of tablets, kiosks or Mobile Pre-Check™. Each allows for patient self-service registration.
Insurance eligibility verification, with the system providing real-time, accurate responses to insurance checks.
Secure payment collection, enabling patients can swipe their credit card at the tablet or kiosk.
Co-pays and outstanding balances can be automatically collected.
Data collection and integration.
Clearwave offers thirteen different languages and customizeable forms.

VA Patient Check-In Kiosk News – RFI Issued

Background on VA RFP

Connected Health (CH) is about extending the reach of the health care system beyond the traditional brick and mortar walls and empowering patients to assume a greater role for managing their own health. Access to care and an exceptional Veteran experience are listed as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) top priorities. VA CH initiative is aligning virtual care technologies to create a seamless, unified experience for Veterans by:

• Identifying patient needs to drive the next generation of tools.
• Translating Veteran needs to information and services.
• Developing Health Information Technology (IT) solutions to meet Veteran needs (e.g. reminders, secure email, and video visits)
• Tailoring across platforms to optimize reach (e.g. smart phone, feature phone, web and Veterans Point of Service Kiosk Tablets)

The Veterans Point of Service (VPS) program office is responsible for managing the current VA Point of Service Initiative, known as VetLink, and the future replacement patient kiosk Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solution. VPS under the Office of Veterans Access to Care completed national deployment of ≈ 6,300 vKiosk devices to approximately 161 VA Medical Centers (VAMC) and their Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) nationwide in 2014. The legacy vKiosk devices have met the end of their device life-cycle. This effort is not a 1:1 refresh of all the currently deployed vKiosk devices, only 4,200 patient tablet kiosk units tablets will be purchased. Currently branded vKiosks and the Government- off-the-shelf (GOTS) VetLink proprietary software are provided by Vecna Technologies, Inc.

VA strives to provide high quality, effective, and efficient clinical and business capabilities, along with IT services to those persons who are responsible for providing care to the Veterans at the point-of-care. In addition, VA strives to provide high quality health care to Veterans throughout all points of their experience in an effective, timely, and compassionate manner. VA depends on a strong business backing, information management and IT systems to meet mission goals

In 2020 VA is seeking a Contractor to demonstrate feasibility of a replacement self- service tablet patient check-in solution designed especially for the healthcare industry. VHA is seeking a viable solution that can be easily transferred from one commercial vendor to another.

Subsequent, national roll-out to all VA health care facilities will only occur following the acceptable completion of Pilot 1 at Spokane, Washington (henceforth referred to as Spokane) and Pilot 2 at Columbus, Ohio (henceforth referred to as Columbus) followed by the completion of two acceptable small phased approach deployments in VISN 20 and in VISN 10. While the national deployment schedule isn’t defined, it is expected that national deployments will move through a phased roll-out, VISN by VISN over an estimated 12 to 18-month period.

VHA envisions an advanced level of interoperability with tablets and/or mobile apps that will allow Veterans to conveniently transact with the Federal Government.

Editor Notes: stimated units is 4,200

EHR Epic News – Epic No Longer supporting Google Cloud

From CNBC

Account representatives from Epic Systems, one of the largest providers of medical record systems, have started calling customers with a clear message: We will not be pursuing further integrations with Google Cloud.

Epic’s reps told customers the company would instead focus its energies on Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. They said the company decided to halt development with Google Cloud because it wasn’t seeing sufficient interest among its health system customers to warrant the investment.

The calls have come in the past few weeks, said three people with knowledge of the matter, and were directed to Epic’s hospital customers that use Google’s cloud-based technology either for medical research, data storage or for their basic IT operations, including file-sharing. These people declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak for their organizations on the matter.

Read full article From CNBC

States Are Ready to Build New Health Insurance Exchanges

Nearly a decade ago, many states failed to create their own independent state-based health insurance marketplaces. Today, they are ready to try again.

When President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) was passed nearly a decade ago, the goal was for states to launch their own certified health insurance exchanges. These exchanges were intended to offer individuals and small businesses the opportunity to compare policies and choose from a range of affordable plans. They were supposed to be easily navigable and simplify enrollment. On top of the generous federal financial support that states received to build their exchanges, federal subsidies were also promised to those looking to enroll.

Nearly ten years later, there are only 13 state-based marketplaces in operation, according to a survey by Kaiser Family Foundation. When states attempted to launch their marketplaces in 2013, they did not work out as intended. Websites did not work, data could not be accessed, and call centers were overwhelmed. Furthermore, states spent millions of dollars on quick fixes that were ultimately unsuccessful. As a result, most states abandoned their plans to build independent exchanges and adopted the federal marketplace, Healthcare.gov. Today, 32 states rely on this federal platform, while six use a federal-state partnership.

However, at least six states – Maine, New Mexico, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon and Pennsylvania – are ready to try again. These states are either creating their own marketplaces or seriously considering doing so. Officials in these states are confident that they will be successful the second time around, as they are equipped with better knowledge of the process than before. In recent years, vendors have also developed better software and other technology to support health insurance exchanges.

“A lot of kinks have been worked out, and the ability to set up marketplaces that run effectively and efficiently has gone up,” said Jeanne Lambrew, commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services in Maine. Lambrew and other state officials are hoping to launch an independent exchange in Maine by 2021.

Pennsylvania also hopes to launch its own marketplace in 2021. “We know our markets and our consumer and our carriers best,” said Jessica Altman, the state’s insurance commissioner. “We believe we can leverage that information to make the experience of seeking health insurance more consumer-friendly and provide plans that are more affordable.”

States like Maine and Pennsylvania that are still in the planning process can follow Nevada’s example. Nevada’s independent marketplace – Silver State Health Insurance Exchange – launched in September 2019. “Nevada spent two years working with our colleagues in other state-based exchanges,” said Janel Davis, spokesperson for the state exchange, “looking at the mechanics of their operations to understand not only what would be required for Nevada’s own implementation, but also to understand what efficiencies could be achieved.”

Indeed, as states move towards creating their own marketplaces, interested vendors should expect solicitations for system development, as well as for operations and maintenance. GovWin is currently tracking over 20 upcoming opportunities related to health insurance exchanges. The complete list of these opportunities can be found here.

Source: GCN

Amazon EHR compatible speech-to-text translator

Amazon EHR News

Amazon has begun offering Transcribe Medical to Amazon Web Services customers, and the company says the virtual medical scribe will allow health care providers to devote more time to patients. The software transcribes conversations between health care providers and patients and inputs the information into EHRs, and it is compatible with Amazon’s Comprehend Medical language processing program.

CNBC (12/2)

Amazon EHR News Key Points

Amazon is introducing a virtual medical scribe so doctors can spend more time with patients and less time at the computer.
Transcribe Medical is being introduced at re:Invent and is available to AWS customers.
AWS says it’s now possible for doctors to get their notes transcribed in real time with a high degree of accuracy.

Kaiser News – passing of CEO Bernard Tyson

From Healthcare Dive

Credit: Kaiser Permanente

Dive Brief:

Kaiser Permanente CEO and Chairman Bernard Tyson died unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of 60, the Oakland, California-based health system said Sunday.
Tyson was named CEO in 2013 after serving in a number of roles throughout Kaiser, including hospital administrator and chief operating officer. His career at Kaiser spanned more than 30 years.
Gregory Adams was named interim chairman and CEO by the board. Adams most recently served as executive vice president and group president for the integrated health system.

Dive Insight:

Tyson was an influential figure in the healthcare industry. The 60-year-old was Kaiser Permanente’s first black CEO, and also one of the few black CEOs in healthcare and corporate America as a whole.

In a 2014 essay, he wrote about race in this country following the death of Michael Brown by a white police officer and the unrest that ensued. “Even as a CEO, the black male experience is my reality,” he said in the post.

As many health plans were bailing from the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, Tyson pledged to stick to the plans, citing mission. He also later defended the progress the ACA made in getting more people insurance coverage.

Though the executive faced criticism from worker groups over labor practices and sweeping profits, Tyson was a respected and popular leader. During his tenure, he rolled out multiple initiatives to address social determinants of health in California and across the country, and committed Kaiser would be carbon neutral by 2020.

Many have turned to social media to the mourn the loss of Tyson, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, who said on Twitter he and his wife were “deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our dear friend and healthcare pioneer, Bernard Tyson.”

Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, said Tyson “transformed the healthcare landscape in this country and around the world, allowing people to live longer, healthier lives. I will miss him greatly.” Tyson served on the heart association’s board.

Magic Johnson, the former basketball legend turned business titan, called Tyson “a great man, visionary, and an inspiration to African-Americans in our country.”

Tyson lead one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems and health plans serving 12.3 million members and operating 39 hospitals and more than 700 medical offices. Kaiser generated operating revenue of nearly $80 billion in 2018.

Bernard, a San Francisco area native, is survived by his wife, Denise Bradley-Tyson, and his sons, Bernard Tyson Jr., Alexander and Charles.

Cleveland Clinic, American Well new telehealth company

Telehealth Kiosk News

Excerpted from Fierce Healthcare

Cleveland Clinic, American Well launching new joint venture telehealth company

The vision of The Clinic is to make Cleveland Clinic’s “service level available to every human being on Earth,” according to hospital executives. (Courtesy of Cleveland Clinic)

EPIC KIosks – UGM 2019

EPIC UGM 2019 User Conference

Epic UGM 2019 in Verona is coming up very soon! This conference is for Users Only so you need to be an invited customer to attend.

Epic UGM Planning Guide

It’s Epic’s 40th birthday this year, and they’re celebrating with another exciting year of Epic UGM.

The conference begins on Monday, August 26th, and concludes on Thursday, August 29th. Just like previous years, the conference is taking place in Verona, Wisconsin at Epic’s campus.

This year’s theme is “Summer of ‘79”, a marker of Epic’s first year of service, exactly 40 years ago. Attendees will blast into the past with the theme and decor of the conference but will look to the future to learn about the changes coming to the healthcare technology industry.

Important Registration Dates:

Currently – Registration is open!

July 18th – Early bird registration ends

August 23rd – Standard registration ends

Epic UGM Schedule:

Sunday, August 25th – Taste of Epic and First-Time UGM Orientation
Monday, August 26th – Advisory Councils, CIO Morning Breakouts, CIO Roundtables, Legal Council, International Meetup, CEO Council Welcome Dinner, Legal Council Reception
Tuesday, August 27th – Executive Address & Cool Stuff Ahead, CEO Council, Executive Breakouts, Safety Forum, Peer to Peer Sessions, Cool Stuff Breakouts, Dinner & Celebration
Wednesday, August 28th – CEO Council, Peer to Peer Sessions, Cool Stuff Breakouts
Thursday, August 29th – Forums

Tips On Having An Epic Time As An Attendee:

Plan your agenda in advance to save yourself time (and from logistical headaches) during the week of the conference. And you find yourself packed with a back-to-back schedule, carve out time for networking and exploring the stunning Epic Campus.

Download the mobile app on Apple or Android to stay up-to-date on conference sessions and to save time finding colleagues onsite.

Make a point to strike up conversations with the presenters of presentations you found most compelling. This is a great way to network and to further absorb content!

The Sunday orientation session is a valuable time to gain information and tips for the upcoming days.

If you’re a physician or pharmacist in need of continuing education credits, don’t forget that many UGM sessions qualify for CME, CNE, and CPE credits.

Is it your first year attending Epic UGM? Coordinate your travel schedule so you can attend the First-Time UGM orientation session happening on Sunday, August 25, 2019.