Economics

This channel highlights factors that impact hospital and healthcare economics and revenue. This includes news on healthcare policies, reimbursement, marketing, business plans, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain, salaries, staffing, and the implementation of a cost-effective environment for patients and providers.

New Category I CPT code issued for AI-enabled coronary plaque analysis software
The news comes just days after CMS confirmed these technologies would start receiving expanded Medicare coverage in November. HeartFlow and other AI vendors have already shared their excitement over the decision.
AMA survey: Prior authorization causes many patients to abandon care, raises healthcare costs
Prior authorization is frustrating to clinicians, but a new survey from the American Medical Association shows it also frustrates patients to the point of abandoning care. The survey showed many more insights regarding PA impact on care.
Industry Watcher’s Digest
Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.
US healthcare is flush with venture investments in AI: Silicon Valley Bank report
The past five years have been boom times for AI startups courting venture investors in healthcare, and the good times just keep rolling.
$Eko Health, the California-based healthcare technology company known for its advanced stethoscopes, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a new artificial intelligence (AI) offering designed to detect low ejection fraction (EF).$
Eko Health raises $41M to expand footprint of its AI-powered stethoscopes
Now that the company has gained FDA approval for multiple algorithms, Eko Health aims to reach as many patients as possible with its AI-powered devices.

Collaborative analytics effort helps Advocate bend cost curve

BOSTON—Big data is not the end but the means to the end, said Tina Esposito, vice president of Advocate Health Care’s Center for Health Information Services in Chicago, speaking at the Big Data Healthcare Analytics Forum on Nov. 20.

December 1, 2014

Penn Medicine uses predictive analytics to reduce sepsis mortality

BOSTON—Penn Medicine set out to decrease its sepsis mortality index since the rate of incidence was increasing and the organization’s SMI was higher than the median of the University HealthSystem Consortium.

December 1, 2014

Strategies for physician-led ACOs

BOSTON—Physician-led accountable care organizations are overtaking hospital-led ones, said James Colbert, MD, instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and consultant for ACO Learning Network at The Brookings Institution, at the Big Data Healthcare Analytics Forum on Nov. 21.

November 26, 2014

Health IT executives talk big data

BOSTON—How are larger organizations approaching opportunities in big data and health analytics? Executives from Boston Children’s Hospital, UMass Memorial Health and Partners HealthCare shared their thoughts at the Big Data Healthcare Analytics Forum on Nov. 21.

November 26, 2014

Carolinas HealthCare uses analytics to prepare for future

BOSTON--Leadership at Carolinas Healthcare System looked at HIMSS Level 7 facilities in an effort to find out how they could get there as quickly as possible, said Michael Dulin, MD, PhD, chief clinical officer for analytics and outcomes research, speaking at the Big Data Healthcare Analytics Forum on Nov. 20.

November 26, 2014

Quality, safety focus no longer an option

BOSTON—The changing healthcare landscape means providers must “remake the delivery system to survive and succeed in the new healthcare world,” said Robert M. Wachter, MD, the Lynne and Marc Benioff Endowed Chair in Hospital Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, speaking at the Big Data Healthcare Analytics Forum on Nov. 20.

November 26, 2014

Seizing opportunities in big data

BOSTON—Healthcare data are diverse, and range from claims to EMR data to genomic, lab, imaging and continuous physiological data. How to deploy big data analytics in healthcare and successfully move technology into practice is on the mind of Suchi Saria, assistant professor in computer science at Johns Hopkins University, who spoke at the Big Data Healthcare Analytics Forum on Nov. 21.

November 25, 2014

A call for healthcare systems engineering

BOSTON--“Healthcare is a mess” and the industry sorely needs more systems engineering to bolster patient and provider safety, said Jeanne Huddleston, MD, medical director of the health systems engineering program at the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, at the Big Data Healthcare Analytics Forum on Nov. 21.

November 25, 2014

Around the web

Health Exec

These health systems have the biggest digital health portfolios

U.S. health systems are increasingly leveraging digital health to conduct their operations, but how health systems are using digital health in their strategies can vary widely.

Health Exec

Toylike robot pleases counseling clients where humanoid counterpart struggles to connect

When human counselors are unavailable to provide work-based wellness coaching, robots can substitute—as long as the workers are comfortable with emerging technologies and the machines aren’t overly humanlike.

Health Exec

Medsender, Patagonia Health team up to aid public health efforts against COVID-19

A vendor that supplies EHR software to public health agencies is partnering with a health-tech startup in the cloud-communications space to equip state and local governments for managing their response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Economics

New Category I CPT code issued for AI-enabled coronary plaque analysis software

AMA survey: Prior authorization causes many patients to abandon care, raises healthcare costs

Industry Watcher’s Digest

US healthcare is flush with venture investments in AI: Silicon Valley Bank report

Eko Health raises $41M to expand footprint of its AI-powered stethoscopes

Around the web