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2023 Impact Report: Celebrating Our Collective Accomplishments and Exploring Healthcare Changes on the Horizon

Posted on by Jaime Conlan

The last year ushered in transformation – both for our organization and the thousands of organizations we serve. From welcoming Jeff Smith as our new chief executive officer to furthering achievements with our customers, we were excited to plant seeds together that will grow in 2024 and beyond.

Our recently released 2023 Impact Report reflects these key insights to empower us toward a more accessible vision of whole person care. Explore how we worked alongside our customers to make a nationwide impact with success stories from our customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Nevada, an interactive map of our solutions’ footprint and how we plan to continue this forward momentum.

Five Healthcare Trends for 2024

The healthcare landscape is poised for revolutionary change. Our report explores an in-depth outlook of the 2024 trends shaping this transformation, including:

  1. Intelligence Assistance (IA) to precede Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  2. Connecting patients to the right care at the right time, without driving up costs
  3. Continual evolution and adoption of value-based care (VBC)
  4. Prioritization of social determinants of health (SDOH)
  5. Flexibility with telehealth and brick-and-mortar care

Explore more of these insights in the Annual Impact Report.

Coast-to-Coast Impact

With over 1 billion patient encounters across our Smart Signals™ network, we’re proud to empower smarter healthcare decisions nationwide. Explore our interactive map and learn more about where Bamboo Health’s solutions are providing real-time insights.

Customer Stories, New Solution Offering + More

From care coordination to crisis support, our solutions expanded physical and behavioral healthcare access and deepened support nationwide. Here are just a few of the highlights you can learn more about in the report:

  • How Bamboo Health’s OpenBeds® system generated 2,172 referrals for behavioral health in Nevada
  • How our newest solution, Discharge Summaries, can provide timely patient context during healthcare setting transitions
  • How Massachusetts Community Health Centers reduced ED readmissions by 47%

Insights From Our CEO

“Many of us have witnessed our loved ones facing physical and behavioral health challenges, often complicated by unaddressed comorbidities until it becomes too late. Picture engaging individuals during these pivotal moments, seamlessly connected across the healthcare ecosystem, considering their complete wellbeing, and guiding them toward the right next step. This is Bamboo’s vision — to enhance outcomes by collaborating with our healthcare partners, ensuring that the positive impact we create today resonates even more strongly in the lives of those with both physical and behavioral health needs tomorrow. We aim to translate hundreds of millions of pivotal moments into the right next step of care.”

Read more from Jeff Smith here.

Want to learn more? We’re always available to start a conversation with you at our Contact Us page.

Pings™ Reduces ED Burden by 47% for Massachusetts Community Health Centers

Posted on by Jaime Conlan

Care coordination challenges threaten patients and providers along the care continuum with critical consequences for emergency departments (EDs). As patients struggle to access primary care providers and longitudinal care, increasingly they turn to EDs as a last resort, burdening EDs and leading to potential gaps in care. Providers like the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (Mass League) face this ED challenge. Additionally, Mass League must support the diverse needs of their large patient populations despite having insufficient funds dedicated to improving information technology, resulting in adverse impacts on quality, efficiency and cost of patients’ care

The Challenges: Managing a Vast Patient Population

  • Increase visibility into ED visits for over 1 million patients with a diverse range of chronic issues
  • Improve care coordination across 300 access sites
  • Reduce instances where patients visit EDs unbeknownst to their providers
  • Address social determinants of health considerations for 52 community health centers (CHCs)
  • More effectively manage federal funding for direct patient impact

The Solution: Better Whole-Person Care for Over 400,000 Patient Lives

After receiving a federal grant from the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) to support its health centers with improved information technology, Mass League needed a partner to advance interoperability, increase data usage and enhance patient and provider experience. They selected Pings to meet these goals, utilizing real-time notifications sent to care teams when their patients experience care events across Massachusetts. With Pings, Mass League directly improved patient outcomes.

“It’s our job to help our community health centers offer better value-based care. Considering many of their patients lack private health insurance, this is also important to Medicaid. With Pings, care managers can track patients’ journeys across the continuum far better than ever before. This saves the health centers time and reduces costly care gaps while improving the quality of care the patient receives.”

Susan Adams, PMP, VP, Health Informatics, The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers.

Pings helps monitor over 400,000 patient lives across 13 CHCs, with several more CHCs in the process of implementation. Thanks to the transitions of care data provided by Pings, Massachusetts achieved profound patient outcomes:

  • 47% reduction in 30-day readmissions among ED patients
  • 20% reduction in 30-day readmissions among hospitalized patients
  • 33% increase in follow-up visits for hospitalized patients within 30 days of discharge

Learn more about Mass League’s use of Pings in this case study.

Industry Experts Share Insights on Improving Behavioral Health and Physical Health Integration 

Posted on by Jaime Conlan

The ongoing mental health and substance use crises persist with little clinical progress. Financial incentives tied to value-based care are essential to address this issue. With the prevalence of mental health conditions increasing 30-50% since 2020, the time is now to improve healthcare integration and align physical and mental health resources, including substance use disorder.  

Recognizing this imperative, Bamboo Health’s Chief Clinical Officer Nishi Rawat led healthcare executives in a discussion about the path forward for greater integration between physical and behavioral healthcare. The panel titled ‘Bridging the Gap: Improving Behavioral Health and Physical Health Integration’ combined expertise from Dr. Nishi Rawat, chief clinical officer at Bamboo Health, Dr. Lynn Simon, president of healthcare innovation and chief medical officer across community health systems, Dr. Virna Little, co-founder of Concert Health and Dr. Ravi Kavasery, deputy chief medical officer at Blue Shield California.   

The panel discussed key actionable insights, including the need for financial incentives to integrate physical and behavioral health and current challenges inhibiting whole person care. 

Financial Incentives Hold Key to Solving Access Issues 

Payment parity is necessary to fix broken models and address access issues. Without payment parity, it is challenging to consider how to expand access for both behavioral and physical health needs. Reimbursement rates must also change to incentivize healthcare providers – assessments can’t be reimbursed due to hospital billing systems, and reimbursement rates, in general, are low.  

As an alternative to the current reimbursement challenges, value-based care models may help provide improvements to both clinical and financial outcomes (according to Dr. Simon), although there still may be barriers to success (e.g. access). Dr. Rawat emphasized several implementation challenges: 

  • The imbalanced relationship between payers and behavioral healthcare providers, specifically disparities in reimbursement
  • Lack of in-network care (¾ of members blame their insurer when they can’t access care)
  • Lack of objective and systematic quality measures
  • Lack of useful technology (not even interoperability and data exchange)
  • Lack of clinician readiness as a result. 

Whole Person Care Remains a Hot Topic for Integration 

If physical health and behavioral health are not better integrated, mental health and SUD care will continue to fall by the wayside. This means that emergency departments will also continue to face the burden. Each of the panelists offered several definitions and factors when we refer to ‘integration’: 

  • “Collaboration and communication, specifically as it relates to coordinating care among providers. For us, we’re working on the primary care side to support our PCPs with access to behavioral health providers (remotely). But we are also tackling the issue on the acute side with assessment and placement support – this isn’t quite as integrated but the focus is attempting to deal with the challenges of overwhelmed emergency departments and help with care coordination and follow-up.” – Dr. Simon 
  • “We need to better define integration and its core components. Shared training, a shared care plan and shared accountability for physical and behavioral health providers.” – Dr. Little  
  • “Integrated care is about managing every touch point where a patient touches the ecosystem of care delivery and using it as an opportunity to coordinate and provide care across the entire spectrum of behavioral, physical and mental needs.” – Dr. Kavasery  

Implementation of better integration can also be challenging with fewer staff. Dr. Kavasery suggested one training opportunity for dealing with fewer staff would be to widen the means of access for people to become healthcare providers. Additionally, he recommended offering training in evidence-based therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to help address staffing shortages in behavioral health and expand expertise. Training individuals in a more collaborative model can enhance both accountability and measurability. 

Hospitals and Emergency Departments Face Burden 

It’s impossible to discuss integration without acknowledging the need to solve ED overwhelm. EDs are overwhelmed with lack of staff and patients experiencing wide-ranging behavioral issues that may require more longitudinal care. Dr. Little shared a recent anecdote of a patient with suicide risk who was in the ED for two weeks. Although the hospital provided some level of care, Dr. Little noted that this person could have benefitted from the support of community health and primary care resources. However, that access was not available.  

To minimize these downstream effects in the EDs, it’s essential to enhance support for primary care and community health providers by adjusting reimbursement rates and incentivizing care. Health systems, payers and behavioral health providers must collaborate now to make these necessary payment changes possible. Without change, EDs will continue to experience overwhelm and provider burnout, leading to less access to care, and ultimately, higher suicide risk and prevalence of untreated mental and physical health conditions. We cannot afford to continue waiting. 

To learn more about the importance of whole person care, please contact us today.  

Health Plan-Provider Collaboration is Essential for Value-Based Care

Posted on by [email protected]

In the healthcare industry, there’s been a shift towards value-based care (VBC), a model that emphasizes the importance of delivering high-quality patient care while reducing overall healthcare costs. For value-based care to be successful, it’s not only important but essential that health plans and providers collaborate closely.

Why Value-Based Care?

Under a VBC model, healthcare providers are incentivized to achieve positive patient outcomes through care delivery. Rather than focusing on the traditional fee-for-service model, where providers are paid for services rendered often opting for volume over quality, the focus in a VBC model shifts to patients’ health. When patients have better outcomes, they’re less likely to have a costly visit to the emergency room.

Even though many organizations are shifting towards value-based care, it’s proven to be a slow process. In fact, according to a 2022 report from the Medical Group Management Association, value-based contracts only accounted for 7% of medical revenue among primary care specialties, 6% among surgical specialties and 15% among nonsurgical specialties. 

The Importance of Health Plan-Provider Collaboration

Part of this slow shift may be due to the fact that the healthcare industry needs more organizations to adopt and partner together to successfully shift to a value-based care model. One such partnership is health plan and provider collaboration. Health plans, such as insurance companies and government programs, provide the funding for healthcare services while providers, such as hospitals and physicians, deliver the care. It’s necessary that providers who want to focus on VBC partner with health plans who are willing to implement the model. If both parties opt for VBC, they can better collaborate through goal setting, payment structures and reimbursement rates. By working together, health plans and providers can ensure that patients receive the best possible care while also controlling costs.

Improved Coordination of Care

One of the key advantages of health plan-provider collaboration is improved coordination of care. By collaborating, health plans and providers can ensure that patients receive the appropriate treatment at the right time. This approach can help reduce the risk of medical errors, prevent unnecessary and costly hospital readmissions and improve patient outcomes. According to study on JAMA, Medicaid patients that experienced a coordinated care approach had lower emergency department use and follow-up visits, resulting in a savings of $4,295 per beneficiary care event.

In practice, this can present itself in a multitude of ways. For example, if a patient has a chronic condition such as kidney disease, health plan-provider collaboration can ensure that the patient receives regular check-ups with their primary care physician and isn’t missing any dialysis treatments. By managing the patient’s condition effectively, healthcare providers can prevent complications that could lead to costly hospitalizations.

Shared Accountability

Another advantage of health plan-provider collaboration is shared accountability. Under the VBC model, both health plans and providers share the responsibility for delivering high-quality care while controlling costs. By working together, health plans and providers can identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to address them.

For example, if a hospital has a high readmission rate for a particular condition, health plans and providers can work together to identify the root cause of the problem and develop strategies to reduce readmissions. This approach can lead to better outcomes for patients and lower costs for health plans.

Data Sharing

Data sharing is another key aspect of health plan-provider collaboration. By sharing data, health plans and providers can gain a better understanding of patient needs and identify areas for improvement. This approach can help reduce the risk of duplicative tests and procedures and improve the overall quality of care.

For example, if a patient receives care from multiple providers, data sharing can help ensure that each provider has access to the patient’s complete medical history. This approach can help prevent medical errors and ensure that the patient receives the most appropriate care.

Real-Time Insights & Alerts

To improve value-based outcomes, health plans and providers not only need to share patient data, but also need accurate, timely and distilled insights to make the best care decisions for their members and patients. At Bamboo Health, our care coordination and value-based care solutions help health plans and providers distill patient data into actionable insights. Our Care Gaps solution delivers immediate notifications and detailed insights to help providers and health plans find and close open gaps in care, deliver better outcomes and improve quality measures, which helps healthcare organizations move towards value-based care.

In an industry that continues to shift from volume to value, health plan-provider collaboration is essential for the success of value-based care. By working together, health plans and providers can improve coordination of care, share accountability and facilitate data sharing. Through better collaboration, and ultimately better care coordination, patients will see improved outcomes and the system will see lower costs of care overall.

Is your organization looking to leverage real-time insights to improve value-based care outcomes? Contact Bamboo Health today to learn more.

Dispelling Inaccuracies about Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs)

Posted on by Grace Keeling

As a healthcare technology company focused on delivering solutions that promote better patient outcomes by supporting clinicians at the point of care, Bamboo Health is deeply committed to addressing the opioid epidemic that has ravaged our nation for years. One way we support this effort is through our Prescription Drug Monitoring Program solutions. 

PDMPs were created to track the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances such as opioids. They were designed to provide healthcare providers with a tool to identify and prevent potential prescription drug misuse or diversion. By enabling prescribers and pharmacists to access real-time data on a patient’s dispensation history, PDMPs help identify patients who may have dangerous drug overlaps and combinations. 

While states run their own PDMPs, robust integration solutions and interstate data sharing solutions enable data to flow beyond individual states and also make accurate, distilled insights available at the point of care or dispensing, within the clinical workflow via an EHR or pharmacy management system. The interstate data sharing solution, PMP InterConnect, is run by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) with Bamboo Health as its technology vendor and enables interoperability for 52 of the 54 PDMP’s. Our PMP Gateway solution powers direct integration of PDMP data to 500 EHRs, PMS systems, e-prescribing platforms, and health information exchanges (HIEs) covering most prescribers and dispensers nationwide, a critical integration that allows the clinician to view controlled substance history populated directly within the patient’s medical record alongside their other vital health information. 

Despite this progress and action to address the opioid epidemic, recently, there have been some myths propagated about PDMPs and their effectiveness. Let us look and dissect these inaccuracies. 

“PDMPs are siloed.” The facts: 

  • PDMP data and analytics can be accessed through direct integration into electronic health records (EHR) or pharmacy management systems (PMS). Integration allows for one-click access to a patient’s multistate PDMP data within the patient’s health record, giving controlled substance insights right alongside the patient’s other health data. 
  • Most prescribers and dispensers across the country access this integration through our PMP Gateway solution, which provides a single point of access to healthcare providers in 46 states and territories. New studies from ONC found that more prescribers are accessing PDMP data directly within their workflow. The percentage of physician prescribers who accessed the PDMP through their EHR over a portal or secure website increased by 62% between 2019 and 2021. Read this blog to learn more.  
  • Currently 30 states and jurisdictions fund PMP Gateway, allowing clinicians free access to the integration solution. 46 states and territories allow for integration via PMP Gateway, with three additional states and territories with integration approval pending, meaning the vast majority of prescribers and dispensers nationwide can integrate PDMP data directly within their workflow.

 “PDMPs don’t work.” The facts:

  • Recent evidence from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found decreased misuse of prescription opioids, decreased deaths, and increased treatment for substance use disorders from 2007 to 2018.  
  • PDMPs have allowed the medical community to improve what was a prescription drug misuse crisis. Now the crisis has evolved to involve heroin and fentanyl. We could have been facing a dual crisis of both prescription and illicit opioids if PDMPs had not been stood up to help manage prescription-controlled substance misuse. PDMP use and innovation must continue while also exploring more ways we can prevent use of illicit drugs and help those who use them get access to care and recover. 

 “PDMPs aren’t modernized.” The facts:

  • PDMPs have achieved groundbreaking success based on their ability to rapidly deliver integrated access to data at point of care. Within the last seven years, PDMPs have shifted from a manual, web-portal based system to reaching most US providers through direct integration. 
  • Many states support their health information exchanges (HIEs) by providing free PDMP access via state-sponsored integration, making PDMP data accessible to more clinicians regardless of how they prefer to get the information. 
  • Bamboo Health continues to innovate with its customers. We’ve established industry-leading patient matching standards to ensure prescribers and dispensers have accurate data for their patients. In addition, we worked with customers for enhanced features such as indicators, intuitive data graphs, peer-to-peer messaging, and enhanced clinical tools. In addition, PDMPs are expanding to incorporate additional data such as naloxone administration, opioid treatment participation (with patient consent), non-fatal overdoses, and more.  
  • We work closely with our state and health system customers, taking feedback and incorporating new filters, indicators, and tools within our solutions so that clinicians can see a full range of information to inform patient care. 
  • NABP, as part of its commitment to interstate data sharing, has established a robust governance process with participating states who provide insight and advice on the ongoing evolution of PMP InterConnect. 

PDMPs are an essential tool in the fight against the opioid epidemic. Bamboo Health is committed to working with healthcare providers and organizations to ensure that PDMPs remain an effective part of a comprehensive strategy to save lives and promote better patient outcomes and do so in a way that promotes interoperability. 

By Nishi Rawat, MD, MBA, Chief Clinical Officer, Bamboo Health

The Rise and Efficacy of PDMP Technology

Posted on by [email protected]

Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) play a pivotal role in controlled substance prescribing and dispensation. Prescribers, dispensers and state agencies rely on accurate prescription data to combat our country’s opioid crisis and save millions of lives. As the industry learns more about PDMP and EPCS (electronic prescribing of controlled substances) use, the efficacy and importance of this technology comes to the forefront of the conversation. 

New studies from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) have found one-third of prescribers now access PDMPs via their electronic health records (EHRs), and 62% reported using EPCS often, marking a 25% increase from 2019. 

Some other insightful highlights from the report include: 

  • Between 2019 and 2021, the use of PDMP remained stable with 65% of physicians reporting they checked the PDMP “often” prior to prescribing controlled substances to a patient for the first time in 2021. 
  • The percentage of physician prescribers who accessed the PDMP through their EHR over a portal or secure website increased by 62% between 2019 and 2021. 
  • Hospitals that experienced major public health reporting challenges in 2019 were less likely to be engaged in certain types of electronic public health reporting in 2021. 
  • Most physicians who checked their state’s PDMP reported experiencing at least one benefit associated with use. 

Overall, the findings confirm a positive trend in PDMP use and prove the technology is a critical tool in fighting the country’s opioid crisis.  

This report also shines a light on why many clinicians have not consistently used PDMPs in the past – lack of data integration. Without PDMP data directly integrated into existing clinical workflows, prescribers and dispensers may forego checking the system due to administrative burdens. 

“The use of (PDMPs) and electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) technology is critical to improving opioid prescribing practices, informing treatment decisions and supporting safe and effective patient care. … It is important to ensure that integration drives value by embedding data in clinician workflows and powering actionable decision support tools to combat the opioid crisis.” – Chelsea Richwine and Jordan Everson

At Bamboo Health, we provide Real-Time Care Intelligence™ that helps care team members quickly and efficiently access PDMP data at the point of care. 

PMP AWARxE, our real-time controlled substance visibility solution, helps providers easily find and enter relevant prescription drug data to ensure patient safety at every corner. Our PMP Gateway solution integrates multi-state PDMP intelligence into existing clinical workflows, so providers have a full picture of a patient’s prescribing history – solving another common issue of not being able to access multi-state data. More than 1 million clinicians at 158-thousand facilities with PMP Gateway integration receive PDMP reports within their workflow, saving approximately 5.2 million hours every month through improved workflow efficiencies. Bamboo Health is committed to improving access to PDMP data. Our solutions provide real-time insights when providers need it most so they can efficiently ensure patient safety and maintain compliance.  

This new information from the ONC provides great insight into how critical of a role PDMP technology can be when improving prescribing and dispensing practices and reflects Bamboo Health’s mission. Data that arms prescribers and dispensers with more information at the point of care can truly help save lives. 

Bamboo Health can help your prescribers and dispensers make more-informed clinical decisions to prevent substance misuse. Most states are now funding integration via PMP Gateway for all qualified healthcare entities. Learn if your state is one of them. Want to dig deeper? Contact us today. 

Recognizing Black History Month 2023

Posted on by Grace Keeling

Bamboo Health takes pride in building a culture where every teammate feels valued to achieve our goal of making healthcare available for all. We embody this culture and mission by celebrating heritage months throughout the year, and this month, we celebrate Black History Month.

For 28 days, we reflect on and recognize the many contributions Black Americans have made to our country and the world.

Black History Month was first introduced as “Negro History Week” by Carter G. Woodson and his organization known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). The ASALH organized the first celebration of “Negro History Week” in 1926 by encouraging schools and communities across the nation to host celebrations, lectures, and establish history clubs. By the late 1960s, “Negro History Week” evolved into Black History Month on college campuses and was officially recognized in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.

This year’s Black History Month theme is “Black Resistance,” which aims to shine a light on how African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression in all its forms – including disparities in healthcare access.

Racial disparities in healthcare have been deeply affecting African Americans for centuries. To expand access to healthcare for their underserved populations, Black medical professionals worked to create hospitals, nursing schools and other medical institutions.

Since then, many great strides have been made to expand healthcare access for African Americans to ensure they get the care they deserve. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve health equity for the African American population in our country.

While health equity concerns for Black Americans spans physical and behavioral health, our country has seen a renewed focus on disparities related to mental health and substance use in recent years.

Here are some statistics showing the impact of the behavioral health crisis on African Americans in our country today:

During Black History Month, we are especially cognizant of the historically limited healthcare for African Americans. At Bamboo Health, we are dedicated to improving the state of behavioral health for underserved populations and strive to work towards health equity. Through our solutions, we can have meaningful impact for communities of color across the nation coordinating care and improving healthcare for all.

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