COVID-19 has highlighted the need for virtual care strategies and has set the tone for future care as it helps to solve many of the current and future challenges health systems face with capacity, value-based initiatives, and cashflow.

Remote Patient Monitoring solutions are maximizing care delivery value by delivering quality care beyond just reducing the number of patients in healthcare systems. Consumers are becoming accustomed to the ease, convenience, and benefits remote offerings deliver.
 

Join experts across the provider, regulatory, and technology space for a discussion on: 

• How health systems are currently responding to COVID-19 with remote monitoring;
• How remote patient monitoring (RPM) can and will be used with telehealth services in the virtual care model of the near future;
• How the current and future policy and reimbursement changes will impact RPM and telehealth delivery;
• How health systems are using technology to create a strong revenue stream amidst financial uncertainty;
• Health systems’ immediate and long-term plans for RPM post-COVID-19 and ongoing demonstrations of scale and ROI.

Peter Rasmussen
Chief Clinical Officer Cleveland Clinic 
American Well Joint Venture Physician at Cleveland Clinic 
and former Medical Director of Distance Health

Peter A. Rasmussen, MD, is the Chief Clinical Officer of the Cleveland Clinic + American Well Joint Venture and the Medical Director of Digital Health at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Rasmussen is also a practicing physician at the Cleveland Clinic. As Medical Director of Digital Health, he is charged with guiding the Clinic’s overall digital health strategy and implementation of their digital medicine portal “Express Care Online” which is the Clinic’s virtual portal for on-demand, scheduled and new remote consultation services.

Robert Jarren
Managing Member, Omega Concern

Robert Jarrin is the Managing Director of the Omega Concern and is based in Washington, D.C.. Jarrin’s areas of responsibility include federal wireless health policy, healthcare legislative affairs, FDA regulatory oversight of converged medical devices, FCC mobile health (mHealth) efforts, CMS telehealth and RPM reimbursement and ONC regulation of health information technology. Externally, Jarrin serves on the Innovation Advisory to the American College of Cardiology. He is an advisory member of the Digital Medical Payment Advisory Group for the American Medical Association. And, he is an adjunct professor at George Washington University and Georgetown University in D.C..

Drew Schiller
Co-Founder and CEO, Validic

Drew Schiller co-founded and serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Board Director at Validic, the leader in technology for personal health data and remote patient monitoring. Drew is a Board Member of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Health & Fitness Technology Division and a member of the CTA Board of Industry Leaders. Drew also contributes to advancing the industry through CTA policy efforts and his involvement with the CTA Health & Fitness Technology Standards. Drew serves on the Board for the eHealth Initiative (eHI) and participates in the eHI Policy Steering Committee.

eHI Comment Letter on CMS Interim Final Rule entitled Policy and Regulatory Revisions in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. 

Download below. 

Please join us to hear how privacy policies and regulations have changed in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Julie Barnes, of Maverick Health Policy, will speak with eHI Vice President Alice Leiter about the many ways federal health agencies are navigating patient data privacy in light of the coronavirus crisis, including adjustments related to data sharing for public health purposes and the relaxation of telehealth enforcement. 

Presenters: 

Julie Barnes, JD 
Founder & Principal

Julie Barnes is a health care policy expert and attorney with years of experience helping the private sector navigate federal government activities that impact health. Ms. Barnes is a strategic adviser to organizations that need guidance about federal health policies and how to develop relationships with policymakers and influential advocacy organizations. As a former policy analyst, health care litigator, and Capitol Hill staffer, Ms. Barnes informs business strategy and investments in a myriad of health care areas, including health information technology, data privacy and interoperability, value-based care, transparency, health insurance and new payment models, and federal health programs. 

Alice Leiter, JD
Vice President & Senior Counsel

Alice is a health regulatory lawyer with a specialty in health information privacy law and policy. She previously worked as a Senior Associate at the law firm Hogan Lovells, where she worked with clients on Medicare and Medicaid pricing and reimbursement. Alice spent several years as policy counsel at two different non-profit organizations, the National Partnership for Women & Families and the Center for Democracy & Technology. She currently sits on the DC HIE Policy Board, as well as the boards of Beauvoir School, Educare DC, and DC Greens, the latter of which she chairs. She received her B.A. in human biology from Stanford University and her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. Alice and her husband, Michael, live in Washington, D.C. with their four children.

As we all adjust to teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic, eHI is working to bring members more virtual learning opportunities.

Catherine Pugh, eHI's Assistant VP, Policy joined eHI CEO Jennifer Covich Bordenick to provide an update on recent federal policy changes related to health IT, digital health, and COVID-19.

Watch the full video here and download the slides below.

Additional resources:

eHI Explains: The CARES Act 

CMS Fact Sheet on Provider and Practitioner Flexibilities to Fight COVID-19

In the wake of the current situation with COVID-19, physicians and other healthcare providers are rapidly adopting workflows for telehealth to triage incoming patients to determine and evaluate risk, reduce non-emergent office visits, remotely monitor patients and more.

Join us for a panel discussion on implementing telehealth workflows to meet the need for quick change and continuity of care. Presenters include a CTO for a county health system, a physician, and a provider of telehealth technology.

Presentation slides are at the bottom of this page.

Speakers:

Mark Filiault​ - CIO, CT Orthopaedic Specialists

Mark Filiault is the Chief Information Offficer at CT Orthopaedic Specialists, one of the largest and most respected orthopedic groups in New England.

Andi Hila - Director of Strategy Consulting, Updox

Andi Hila is Director of Strategy Consulting at Updox, where he also previously led product efforts for Patient Engagement solutions. Prior to Updox, Andi served in Product Management roles for Explorys and IBM Watson Health, with a focus on data analytics products for the population health, provider, and payer markets. Andi has a B.S. in Health Information Systems and Economics from The Ohio State University.

Cathy Kuhn, PharmD, BCACP, FAPhA - Director of Strategy Consulting, Updox

Cathy Kuhn, PharmD, BCACP, FAPhA, is director of Strategy Consulting for Updox and serves as “voice of the clinician” for Updox solutions and services. She is past president of the Ohio Pharmacists Association and current president of the American Pharmacist’s Association’s (APhA) Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management and APhA board member.

Eric Weidmann, MD - Chief Medical Officer, eMDs

Eric Weidmann, MD, is a family medicine specialist in Austin, TX and has been practicing for 32 years. His significant medical experience includes practice management, managed care contracting, cost of care oversight, healthcare networks, liability mitigation, device interfaces and fault tolerant systems. A graduate of University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Eric is passionate for ACCME accredited medical education and primary care-based research via Primary Care Network (PCN) and is currently the Board Chairman of PCN.

eHI Virtual Lunch Series: A Conversation with Rachel Nelson from ONC

As we all adjust to teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic, eHI is working to bring members more virtual learning opportunities.

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve scheduled more webinars – and now we’re launching a series of short, virtual conversations with health IT leaders.

Join eHI CEO Jennifer Covich Bordenick for a conversation with Rachel Nelson, Branch Chief, Policy Analysis and Implementation, Regulatory Affairs Division at ONC as we launch this virtual series. Jennifer will be discussing the ONC information blocking final rule with Rachel and taking participant questions.

You can watch the full video here and download the slides below. 

Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act

Background: On March 27th, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES)
Act. The legislation is the third bill Congress has passed to address the spread of COVID-19 and is the
largest economic stimulus bill in U.S. history. The $2-trillion bill includes provisions to boost the economy
and provide support to those fighting COVID-19.

Download to read eHI's summary of the CARES act. 

Previous work has specifically described the potential for using telemedicine in disasters and public health emergencies. No telemedicine program can be created overnight, but U.S. health systems that have already implemented telemedical innovations can leverage them for the response to COVID-19. 

They looked at how long it took late-expanding states (those that expanded eligibility after the initial implementation of ACA reforms in January 2014) to start enrollment. Though the length of time from state authorization (legislation or executive order) to enrollment varied considerably across states, once a state secured federal approval, some states began implementation very quickly.  Maine’s governor signed an executive order to implement Medicaid expansion on January 3, 2019 (her first day in office), and enrollment began just a week later. The governor of Indiana and the federal government agreed to an alternate Medicaid expansion plan on January 27, 2015, and enrollment began on February 1, 2015. Alaska’s governor used executive authority to expand Medicaid eligibility, announcing it on July 16, 2015; the expansion was implemented a month and a half later on September 1. Though these fast turnarounds were not typical of late expansion states, they demonstrate an ability to implement these programs expeditiously. 

Americans have been encouraged to limit visits to doctors and hospitals in order to ease the burden on medical staff and reduce the risk of exposure to others.

Please join our discussion to hear how a hospital in Israel and a 5-hospital health system have deployed a remote monitoring system to manage patients at home and also coordinate with public health officials.

A recording of the webinar and the presentation slides can be found at the bottom of this page. 

Speakers:

Levi Shapiro​

Founder, mHealth Israel

Levi Shapiro is Head of the Digital Health Program at Hebrew University’s BioMED MBA program. He is the Founder of mHealth Israel, a non-profit with 7,500 members, supporting the Israeli digital health technology community. He writes about healthcare and technology for publications including Jerusalem Post, holds Board positions with Israeli health technology startups and provides strategic advisory to prominent US companies. In a career spanning Beijing, Tokyo, Milan and Tel Aviv, Mr. Shapiro launched new business units (IBM), new products and services (Toyota) and a variety of technology startups. He is an investor and Board Member in Israeli health tech startups and formerly a General Partner in an Israel-based venture capital firm. Mr. Shapiro holds degrees from Tulane (BA), Cornell (Asian Studies) and MIT (MBA).​

Al Kinel

President, Strategic Interests, LLC

Al Kinel is founder and President of Strategic Interests, LLC, a consulting firm dedicated to transforming healthcare through innovation.  Al and his firm works with health systems, health plans, providers, collaboratives and vendors on strategies and initiatives to create a long-lasting, positive impact through the innovative use of IT. Al spent the formative years of his career with top-tier professional services firms and was a leader in technology management for Xerox and Kodak/Carestream Health.  At Carestream he was VP of Corporate and Government Healthcare where he managed commercial activities with Kaiser, VA, and others, and successfully lobbied to accelerate health data and image exchange.  Al is a thought-leader, community activist, and catalyst who is active at a local, state, and national level with organizations including eHealth Initiative where he serves on the Leadership Council.  As a volunteer, he initiated the concept of the Rochester RHIO, and attained alignment and funding from community stakeholders and NY State. 

Bridgette Wiefling, MD

Senior Vice President Primary Care, Advanced Solutions Institute, Rochester Regional Health

Dr. Wiefling is a practicing internal medicine physician at Rochester Regional Health.  In her current role as senior vice president, she is responsible for building a robust primary care network that is adaptive to new challenges and opportunities in health care.  She plays a critical role leading the Rochester Regional delivery system transformation under the evolution of new payment models.  She spearheads innovative strategies and technology to redesign delivery of medical services in a way that reduces cost and improves quality while integrating care across the continuum.  Dr. Wiefling has served in multiple leadership roles for the system, including chief quality officer and senior vice president and executive director of the Rochester General Medical Group. Prior to joining Rochester Regional, she was the CEO of the Anthony L. Jordan Community Center.

Uri Bettesh

Founder and CEO at Datos​

Mr. Uri Bettesh brings with him over 18 years of experience as a technology executive and a passionate entrepreneur with a proven track record of success in leading business operations and technology implementations. Uri is a visionary leader with the ability to initiate and execute innovative strategies, engage with highly professional management teams and lead to results in a fast-changing business environment. Uri brings his passion for technology to healthcare where he has demonstrated an ability to work with HMOs, leading health systems, and the Ministry of Health in Israel to deliver solutions to transform healthcare. He is now focused on bringing these capabilities to the US and other regions of the world.  Prior to Datos, he served in various executive positions, such as GM of NCR Food Drug & Mass Merchandising division, VP Product of Retalix, and more. Uri holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering and a master’s degree in System Engineering both from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.