Healthcare Innovation’s Top 10 Stories of 2019 | Healthcare Innovation

 This past year again offered a variety of fascinating developments in healthcare and health IT.

As it often is, this past year was one of new developments, emerging trends, and compelling stories of innovation. With that, here are the top 10 read stories from 2019.


Massive Rule Drops at HIMSS19: CMS, ONC Propose New Regulations to Transform the Future of Interoperability and Patient Access

Through two immense proposed rules released on the first day of the HIMSS19 conference in Orlando, federal health officials pulled an array of levers that fall under the core aim to improve interoperability and patient access to data. The two proposed rules—one from CMS and one from ONC are separate, but at the same aligned as the two agencies within HHS look to further advance the nation’s healthcare interoperability progress.

Apple Buying Epic Would Sure Be “Epic,” But is it Realistic?

Health IT observers surely raised their eyebrows upon seeing comments in January from CNBC’s Jim Cramer on why Apple should acquire EHR giant Epic Systems.

Cramer, the host of Mad Money, dropped a bombshell: "Apple should acquire Epic Systems,” he said. "Not only would this deal be good for the company, I think it's exactly what Apple's stock needs to get its mojo back." After reading Cramer’s remarks, Managing Editor Rajiv Leventhal reached out to a few industry sources who spoke about the possibility—or lack thereof—that this acquisition could actually happen.

Physician Groups Are Taking on Value-Based Contracts—and Learning Big Lessons

Even as some physician organizations are just now preparing to take the plunge into value-based contracting, others have been forging ahead into the tall grasses of the value-based healthcare world, and are racking up results. But the path forward is a complex and challenging one. What are those medical group leaders learning? Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland takes a deep dive into this area for the January-February print magazine cover story.

The 2019 Innovator Awards First-Place Winning Team: Millennium Physician Group

Leaders of the first-place winning team in the 2019 Innovator Awards Program, Millennium Physician Group, discuss how they have cracked the code on success in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), leveraging data to better care-manage their highest-risk patients.

First in U.S. Healthcare: UC San Diego Health Appoints a Medical Director of Cybersecurity

In July, senior clinician and IT leaders at UC San Diego Health broke new conceptual ground, when they appointed an emergency physician with accreditation in clinical informatics to be the health system’s medical director of cybersecurity—in their understanding, the first such appointment in U.S. healthcare. Christopher Longhurst, UC San Diego Health’s chief information officer and associate chief medical officer, and the newly appointed medical director of cybersecurity, Christian Dameff, M.D., spoke with the publication regarding the new role, and its context.

CMS Proposes New MIPS Framework for 2020

CMS announced in July that it would be making major policy changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program, in the form of a proposed rule, with the overarching goal to further reduce clinician burden. One key focus was to create a simpler way for clinicians to participate in CMS’ pay-for-performance program, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). The rule was finalized in November.

Epic, Cerner Continue to Dominate U.S. Hospital EHR Market, KLAS Finds

A report released in early May from KLAS Research revealed that EHR behemoths Epic Systems and Cerner continue to corner the U.S. hospital EHR market. For the second year in a row, Cerner signed the highest number of new hospitals, but large private sector hospitals are almost exclusively choosing Epic technology.

Walgreens, Microsoft Ink Strategic Deal to “Transform Healthcare Delivery”

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced in January they would be joining forces on a major seven-year healthcare partnership that will aim to “deliver innovative platforms that enable next-generation health networks, integrated digital-physical experiences and care management solutions.” The companies announced that they will combine the power of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s cloud and AI platform, healthcare investments, and new retail solutions with WBA’s customer reach, volume of locations, and outpatient healthcare services to accomplish their goals: to make healthcare delivery more personal, affordable and accessible.

Is CMS Making a Major Blunder on Physician Payment? Why Physician Group Leaders Are So Concerned

Shortly after the aforementioned MIPS proposed rule was released, Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland wrote an in-depth commentary taking note of why the association representing the most advanced medical groups—the American Medical Group Association—spoke out against the proposal.

As part of the publication’s annual Top 10 Tech Trends package, this year one of the trends we examined was healthcare’s consumer-centric shift, and how the door has opened for non-traditional companies to disrupt industry norms.  The proposal calls for a simpler way for clinicians to participate in CMS’ pay-for-performance program, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), which is one of two payment tracks within the QPP. This new framework, called the MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs), beginning in the 2021 performance period, would move MIPS from its current state, which requires clinicians to report on many measures across the multiple performance categories, such as Quality, Cost, Promoting Interoperability and Improvement Activities, to a system in which clinicians will report much less, CMS officials contend.”

“Under MVPs, clinicians would report on a smaller set of measures that are specialty-specific, outcome-based, and more closely aligned to Alternative Payment Models (APMs). MVPs will connect activities  and measures from  the four existing MIPS performance  categories that are relevant  to the population they are caring for a specialty or medical  condition, according to CMS.”

Has Healthcare’s Consumerization Shift Already Begun?

For many patients—especially those in the baby boomer and Generation X cohorts—seeking medical care outside a hospital or physician’s office might seem blasphemous. In the traditional healthcare ecosystem, patients wait until they get sick to contact their care providers, then often wait days until they actually get to see said provider, then wait in his or her office to finally get face-to-face time. It’s a continuous cycle that has not changed much over time—until now.


Patients are beginning to realize that waiting days and sometimes weeks to make an appointment with a provider—a 2017 Merritt Hawkins report found that it takes an average of 24 days to schedule a new physician appointment in a large U.S. city, a 30 percent increase from 2014 data—is unacceptable and that other options do exist. What’s more, as healthcare costs continue to rise and patient payment responsibility increases, looking outside the traditional four walls for medical care has become more appealing.

“As millennials, Generation X, and baby boomers enter new life stages at the same time, there are simultaneous demands for both lower cost, convenient care delivery and better management of chronic illness and outcomes. The industry must evolve to meet the needs of these groups (and others)—both in terms of where they converge and where they deviate,” KPMG researchers wrote in the research and consulting firm’s “Healthcare 2030” report. Millennials have become the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, and the way they think of patient-provider relationships is different from how prior generations engage with healthcare.

Retail healthcare clinics, on the other hand, are becoming increasingly appealing to consumers as an alternative form of care delivery for certain conditions. A recent survey of 1,000 patients from Kyruus, a healthcare solutions company, found that nearly half of respondents said they sought care in a retail or urgent care clinic. And, 30 percent of those said they visited one of these sites after they were frustrated in their efforts to secure timely appointments with their primary care physicians.

Clearly, in many areas of the country, the traditional model for physician practice is no longer tenable. Despite the reluctance to join what many doctors consider the enemy they are forced by the reality of supply and demand to join the new model, sacrificing independence.  This is also a major factor in physician burnout, along with difficulty adapting to electronic health records.  Some will succumb to these pressure, and retire early or change careers.  This change is already showing as a physician shortage, especially in primary care, and less so in specialties.  Determinants are tied to location and demographics.  Each regional system is different.

Are providers adapting?

Of course, the other end of the healthcare consumerism spectrum is dependent on providers being able to meet patients’ shifting demands so they can keep them in their networks. But when asked how “consumer-centric” patient care organizations are today, on a 0 to 10 scale, John Matthews, principal, healthcare and life sciences strategy, at KPMG, says, “Broadly speaking, close to 0.”

Clearly, physicians are not adopting unless they are in a group or health system that markets for them. Physicians are not in a leadership role and have pushed back hard against alternatives such as Minute Clinics, CVS, and some free-standing Urgent Clinics.

The main attention getter for physicians is when their daily appointment schedules dwindle. At that point when they have empty spots in their schedule they have time to look up from their busy schedule

Only the largest health institutions such as Mayo Clinic, University systems, Cleveland Clinic and others such as MD Anderson Cancer Clinic have resources to build patient-centric models.




Healthcare Innovation’s Top 10 Stories of 2019 | Healthcare Innovation: