News

Wellesley, MA — August 27, 2020 –– Finding new revenue opportunities and avoiding claims denials has taken on greater urgency as hospitals and other healthcare organizations face growing reimbursement shortfalls in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is why Hayes, makers of the industry’s leading integrated compliance and revenue integrity platform for the nation’s premier healthcare organizations, has launched Revenue Optimizer to equip healthcare organizations with actionable insights that help eliminate barriers to revenue integrity and manage overall financial performance.

THE CORONAVIRUS pandemic has underscored that the field of epidemiology, which focuses on discovering the causes of disease outbreaks and tracing the spread of illness, is an academic discipline with real-world relevance. When policymakers propose solutions to the COVID-19 outbreak, they often base their recommendations on advice from epidemiologist.

Epidemiologists, sometimes referred to as "disease detectives," are trained to recognize, control and mitigate the proliferation of disease within a population and often work in academia, government or the nonprofit sector. They also sometimes work for corporations that require guidance on occupational and environmental health and safety measures. 

U.S. News and World Reports»

Little by little, we’re working towards a National Patient Identifier.  For those not familiar with the topic, the US government in a section of the federal budget has banned HHS from even working with the private sector to develop a national patient identifier.  However, the House of Representatives thanks to leadership from Representative Bill Foster (D-IL) and Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) have passed a bill to remove this ban.

“On behalf of our patients and caregivers, Intermountain Healthcare applauds House passage of the Foster-Kelly Amendment and looks forward to a future in which patients can accurately, safely, and consistently be matched to their health data across the care continuum,” said Ryan Smith, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Intermountain Healthcare.

Reimbursement is becoming increasingly complex for today’s providers. And while it is fair to say that a certain amount of missed revenue has always been part of the bottom-line equation, healthcare organizations simply cannot afford to leave money on the table in the current market climate.

Already operating within razor-thin margins, today’s hospitals and health systems must now address current and future reimbursement and revenue risks introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent study, Strata Decision Technology estimated that 97% of health systems will lose an average of $1,200 per coronavirus case, or as high as $8,000 in some instances—even with the 2% Medicare payment increase.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. – July 31, 2020 – Just Associates, Inc., a nationally recognized leader in patient matching and health information data integrity and management, is lending its voice to Patient ID Now in support of efforts toward a nationwide patient identification strategy. The newly formed coalition of healthcare organizations is dedicated to eliminating regulations that create barriers to public-private collaboration on solutions to the intractable problem of inaccurate patient identification.

Carrot believes in enabling a future where each of us has no barriers to leading our healthiest lives. Unfortunately, health in this country is distributed very inequitably. In the Twin Cities we have communities with a 30-year gap in mortality: Medina at ~90 years, Frogtown in St. Paul at ~60 years.

That distribution is often based on lines drawn by racism. Take food insecurity. Those who struggle to get enough to eat report the highest levels of poor health – exacerbating nearly every medical condition.

In Minnesota, the ‘average’ person has much better access to food than the national average – only 75% of the national risk. Until we look at the data by race – in North Minneapolis, a family has 1.6x the likelihood of food insecurity, compared to the nation as a whole.

Medical Alley»

Indianapolis, Indiana - July 20, 2020 - The award-winning CV19 Lab Testing Dashboard™ powered by hc1^® has added the industry’s only side-by-side view of COVID-19 viral and antibody testing, as well as local-risk and age-group trending at the national, state, county and sub-county levels. Already well-established as a critical, hyperlocal, free resource for SARS-CoV-2 viral testing trends, the complimentary dashboard provides local lab testing insights including the hc1 Local Risk Index™ (LRI), COVID-19 viral and antibody testing rates, as well as anonymized test results and key demographic filters.

Saying that telehealth has moved front and center amid the COVID-19 pandemic is an understatement. With the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) now reimbursing for remote care models, adoption of telehealth is rapidly advancing as physicians strive to overcome barriers to continuity of care and maintain operations amid stay-at-home orders.

Notably, one analysis found that from March 14 to April 1, daily telehealth claims for upper respiratory infections using ICD-10 diagnosis codes from private insurance increased nearly 12 times from the daily average over the previous month. In this case, upper respiratory infections were chosen to reflect COVID-19-related illnesses prior to the introduction of a diagnosis code for COVID-19.

Physicians Practice»

While the introduction of new COVID-19 reimbursement rules and regulations have brought on their share of confusion, there is one certainty healthcare organizations can bank on: oversight of incentive dollars will be a regulatory priority. In fact, federal watchdogs are not wasting any time, as reports suggest monitoring of billing and claims data is already underway to ensure that hospitals are not upcoding to take advantage of higher COVID-19 reimbursement rates.

RACmonitor»

MINNEAPOLIS AND DALLAS, June 10, 2020 --  Carrot Health, a leading provider of healthcare solutions powered by consumer data, and HealthMine, the health action engagement company, announced a strategic product integration partnership for the health plan market. By combining Carrot Health’s MarketView™ platform and consumer data analytics with HealthMine’s engagement and rewards solution that empowers individuals to take the right actions to improve their health, this partnership creates a solution enabling health plans to improve performance and member satisfaction.

The last 15 years have seen steady, continual growth in both Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment and the number of payers offering MA health plans. Yet much of that growth has gone to handful of large, national vendors—UnitedHealthcare, Humana, the Blues, CVS-Aetna—that control nearly 70% of the market Carrot Health has been analyzing its robust database of consumer information to explore how behavior is changing in light of the pandemic and—dare we imagine—the post-pandemic world.

InsureTech360»

MINNEAPOLIS – May 12, 2020 – Carrot Health, the provider of MarketView™ – the first, largest, and most complete consumer and health analytics solution for health plan growth, health and quality – today announced 2020 Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) results for its Medicare Advantage customers. A significant majority (90%) of Carrot MarketView Medicare Advantage customers gained member enrollment, compared to just 65% of their competitors, and MarketView customers grew their member enrollment at more than double the rate of their competition.

MINNEAPOLIS – May 7, 2020 – Carrot Health, a leading provider of healthcare solutions powered by social determinants of health (SDoH), announced today that Gartner, Inc. has recognized  the company in its Cool Vendors in Healthcare Technology¹ report. Carrot Health’s MarketView™ software and analytics platform generates insights for growth, quality and health using social, economic, behavioral and environmental data, helping healthcare organizations harness consumer and clinical data to deliver a 360-degree view of members and patients.

Listen to the entire podcast here»

When you’re an established, comprehensive company bringing products to market in a vertical industry such as healthcare, there’s a certain amount of expectation that runs alongside your everyday processes. That is, of course, until a pandemic comes knocking on your door.

So what happens when an industry hemmed in by HIPAA guidelines and government regulations is given the proverbial green-light to act quickly? They pivot — and they pivot with lightning speed.

In this episode, Sheila Loy discusses how HID Global took a proven, tested product and reworked parts of the platform to meet the need for infectious disease tracking that’s necessary not only in today’s COVID-19 economy, but for future disease-specific crises as well. Sheila gives us insights into:

• The importance of having a strong understanding of your market and how that can help uncover an unmet need

• Staying on track with expectations in a fast moving pivot when your company has historically long go-to-market procedures
• How to know when you have a product that is relevant in the current market — and when you need to add to, or scale back, that product to give clients the most useful end-product for their needs
• Timing and relevance and how they represent half the battle when bringing a product to market
• Why communication and internal education is key to a successful pivot — when everyone is on the same page, it’s easier to make the necessary adjustments and keep your company’s momentum moving forward

Guest Bio

Sheila Loy is the Director of Vertical Segmentation of Strategy at HID Global, a worldwide leader in providing trusted security solutions in the identity and access management space. Sheila manages the framework strategies and how HID goes to market as a comprehensive company in a vertical industry such as healthcare.

You can reach Sheila at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can also visit HID Global’s website to learn about their contact tracing and surge response solutions.

WALTHAM, Mass. – March 26, 2020– Wolters Kluwer, Health is supporting clinicians on the front lines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic with additional evidence-based resources in UpToDate® and a new interactive COVID-19 search intensity map. The map helps clinicians and public health agencies track the virus and may support clinicians in gaining predictive insights on reported cases based on clinical search activity from 1.9 million clinicians at the point of care.