Change Healthcare announced that it has applied its Claims Lifecycle Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to its claims management suite with the introduction of Assurance Reimbursement Management™ Denial Propensity Scoring and Revenue Performance Advisor Denial Prevention. With performance enhanced by Claims Lifecycle AI, providers of any size can now proactively identify problem claims that could result in denials, and remediate potential issues before the claims are filed.

The AI infused in these applications can now help customers predict denials, optimize claims submissions, and provide actionable recommendations that enable providers to better mitigate denials before a claim is submitted. The results can be dramatic.

“We continue to build powerful AI solutions with accuracy on the foundation of our Intelligent Healthcare Network™,” said Nick Giannasi, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief artificial intelligence officer, Change Healthcare. “Our network is unparalleled in its scale and breadth of claims data. And making these AI-infused solutions available in the workflow of existing Change Healthcare solutions means that providers don’t need to purchase additional third-party applications or services, undergo training, or change their billing solutions to quickly reduce denial propensity.”

While studies have shown that the majority of denials are preventable, Change Healthcare’s analysis of 2018 data spanning more than 500 million service lines showed that Change Healthcare Claims Lifecycle AI could identify and flag up to 35% of denials prior to submission. This represents $6.2 billion in forecasted allowed amounts and millions in potential administrative savings from reduced re-work and appeals.

“This is the first application of artificial intelligence to predict and reduce denials that operates at scale,” said Marcy Tatsch, senior vice president and general manager, Revenue Cycle Management, Change Healthcare. “Bringing all of these capabilities together and preventing a significant burden is a real game-changer for revenue cycle management, which, until now, has been a more retroactively focused process.”

The Change Healthcare Claims Lifecycle AI service has been trained on more than 500 million service lines making up over 205 million unique de-identified claims data, which were de-identified consistent with customer contracts and applicable laws, that touch $268 billion in charges, which is unparalleled in its scope. The service leverages the company’s Intelligent Healthcare Network data from more than 2,200 payers, 5,500 hospitals/health systems, and across 900,000 physicians.

Claims Lifecycle AI for denials is now activated within Change Healthcare’s claims management suite, including Assurance Reimbursement Management (for hospitals and health systems, billing services, and other providers) and Revenue Performance Advisor (for physician practices, labs, home health, medical billing services vendors, and other providers). These solutions address the claims management needs for the entire provider ecosystem—from small to large practices, laboratories, durable medical equipment providers, and nursing homes up to hospitals and health systems.

Additionally, channel partners using the Intelligent Healthcare Network from Change Healthcare will be able to access these new claims management capabilities via the Change Healthcare API Marketplace.

About Change Healthcare
change Healthcare is a leading independent healthcare technology company that provides data and analytics-driven solutions to improve clinical, financial and patient engagement outcomes in the U.S. healthcare system. We are a key catalyst of a value-based healthcare system, accelerating the journey toward improved lives and healthier communities. Learn more at changehealthcare.com.

Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies that Ethicon has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. FDA for its VISTASEAL open and laparoscopic Dual Applicators (35 cm and 45 cm), three next generation airless spray devices that combine biologics with device technology to address mild to moderate surgical bleeding.

These biosurgery products are the first to emerge from a recently forged long-term strategic partnership between the global device maker and Grifols, a world leader in the production of plasma-derived medicines. Grifols developed the Vistaseal Fibrin Sealant (Human), and Ethicon’s devices are designed to deliver the two biological components of the product.

Beyond VISTASEAL, the partnership with Grifols will provide a supply of thrombin for Ethicon’s current products. In the future, it will mean even more advances in the field of adjunctive hemostats with the goal of reducing complications and improving the standard of care.

“Ethicon’s biosurgery portfolio offers a broad array of technologies that address intraoperative bleeding, which is among the most difficult challenges facing surgeons and their patients,” said Oray Boston, President, Worldwide Biosurgery, Ethicon. “Our partnership with Grifols will leverage our strengths in device technology with Grifols’ strengths in plasma-derived medicines to expand our portfolio and accelerate innovation in the fast growing field of biosurgery.”

Bleeding-related complications and perioperative fluid and air leaks adversely affect patient outcomes and increase healthcare costs. Studies show patients suffer from a growing number of comorbidities and other factors that increase the risk of surgical bleeding.1,2 An estimated 32 to 68 percent of cases in open surgery procedures experience disruptive bleeding events.3

Ethicon is working to standardize the use of adjunctive hemostats and sealants by offering the most appropriate product for each bleeding and leak site and situation. It is the only medical device company that provides a full range of both primary and adjunctive hemostats that address surgical bleeding.

The company’s current biosurgery portfolio includes the SURGICEL Family of Absorbable Hemostats, which is backed by more than 50 years of proven safety and efficacy and includes the latest addition, SURGICEL Powder, which provides efficient control of continuous oozing bleeding on broad surfaces. The portfolio also includes EVICEL Fibrin Sealant, which provides sustained hemostasis, demonstrated in high-risk patients, with effective clot formation regardless of patient coagulation profile and the SURGIFLO Hemostatic Matrix, which provides a matrix for platelet adherence to accelerate the formation of the platelet plug aiding in fibrin clot formation.

About Ethicon
Ethicon, part of Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies, has made significant contributions to surgery for more than 100 years from creating the first sutures, to revolutionizing surgery with minimally invasive procedures. Our continuing dedication to Shape the Future of Surgery is built on our commitment to help address the world’s most pressing health care issues and improve and save more lives. Through Ethicon’s surgical technologies and solutions including sutures, staplers, energy devices, trocars and hemostats and our commitment to treat serious medical conditions like obesity and cancer worldwide, we deliver innovation to make a life-changing impact. For more information, visit www.ethicon.com.

About Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies
As the world’s most comprehensive medical devices business, we are building on a century of experience, leveraging science and technology, to shape the future of health care. With unparalleled breadth, depth and reach in surgery, orthopaedics, vision and interventional solutions we are working to profoundly change the way care is delivered. We are in this for life.

NewYork-Presbyterian recently held a dedication ceremony to celebrate the establishment of The Hauser Institute for Health Innovation, in recognition of the visionary philanthropy of longtime supporters Rita E. Hauser and Gustave M. Hauser. The Hausers have given more than $50 million to NewYork-Presbyterian in support of the Hospital’s innovation programs in health information technology and telemedicine since 2011.

“With the Hausers’ extraordinary support, NewYork-Presbyterian is transforming the way health care is delivered, using technology to put patients’ needs first and expand access to our world-class care,” said Dr. Steven J. Corwin, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian. “We are deeply grateful to Rita and Gustave Hauser for their foundational leadership and partnership in making NewYork-Presbyterian a national leader in telemedicine.”

“We believe in the importance of harnessing technology to improve people’s lives, and we are delighted to support NewYork-Presbyterian’s efforts to expand access to their world-class care,” said Rita Hauser on behalf of the couple. “NewYork-Presbyterian is using advanced technologies to fundamentally change the way that health care is provided, making it more convenient and accessible to all.”

The Hausers’ vision and extraordinary generosity led to the creation of NYP OnDemand, NewYork-Presbyterian’s award-winning suite of telemedicine services, designed to expand access to the hospital’s world-class care. Today, NYP OnDemand, in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, has grown to include more than 46 programs and allowed leading providers to care for patients during more than 230,000 visits.

The Hauser Institute for Health Innovation will have a profound impact on how care is delivered now and in the future by supporting innovation and pioneering research to benefit patients and bringing thought leaders together to advance knowledge in the digital health field. A key focus will be expanding telemedicine services deeper into the communities NewYork-Presbyterian serves to provide high-quality, convenient and affordable care with an emphasis on preventive health and wellness.

The Hauser Institute for Health Innovation at NewYork-Presbyterian will support the operations of NewYork-Presbyterian’s robust telemedicine programs, including:

NYP OnDemand, whose services, in collaboration with Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia, allow patients to easily communicate with physicians from a mobile phone, tablet, computer, and even self-service kiosks at select Walgreens and Duane Reade stores throughout New York City. The suite includes Express Care, which has helped to reduce emergency department visit times; digital urgent care, where patients can access emergency medicine physicians through a live video chat; virtual visits, for pre- and post-follow-up appointments with their doctor without traveling to their offices; peer to peer consults between physicians; and second opinions, to help patients make informed decisions about their treatment or the care of a loved one. The Hausers’ support also led to enhancing NewYork-Presbyterian’s fleet of Mobile Stroke Treatment Units – emergency vehicles specially equipped to bring faster care to patients who may be experiencing a stroke – with advanced telemedicine technology to allow neurologists from NewYork-Presbyterian’s hospital locations to be consulted remotely and at a moment’s notice.

• Remote Patient Monitoring, helping physicians monitor patients under their care from a distance, which can reduce the length of hospital stays and preventable re-hospitalizations.

• Clinical Operations Center (CLOC), a remote monitoring system and command center that connects clinical care programs throughout the healthcare system and provides support for the entire system. At CLOC, registered nurses can track physiologic data of patients in the emergency department in real time, as well as monitor the temperature of refrigerators that store lifesaving medicine.

• Teleparamedics for high-risk patients who leave the hospital, allowing the Emergency Management Services team who visit the patients in their homes to connect to the appropriate specialist and coordinate the patient/physician interaction in real-time during the home visit.

Gustave M. Hauser is a pioneer of the cable television communications industry and was the founding chairman and CEO of Warner Cable Communications. He then established and became chairman and CEO of Hauser Communications, Inc., a private company engaged in building and operating major cable television systems, international communications satellites and other electronic communications. He is responsible for developing many cable TV programming innovations such as Nickelodeon, MTV Music Television, The Movie Channel, pay-per-view, and various interactive services.

Rita E. Hauser, president of The Hauser Foundation, is an international lawyer and was a senior partner for more than 20 years at a major New York City law firm. She served on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board from 2009 through 2012, and on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 2001 through 2004. For two decades, Ms. Hauser chaired The International Peace Institute, a think tank for United Relations related matters. She is a director of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, serving on the executive committee, and is a member of the Global Council of the Chamber Music Society. She was a director of the New York Philharmonic Society for more than 20 years.

Innovative Health said that it has received FDA clearance to reprocess the Biosense Webster PentaRay Nav eco high-density mapping catheter for reuse.

The clearance is the latest allowing Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Innovative Health to reprocess catheters. The FDA cleared it in 2018 to reprocess St. Jude Medical’s Advisor FL, Medtronic’s Torqr and Marinr and Biosense Webster’s Decanav diagnostic catheters. The company also has FDA clearances to reprocess several ultrasound catheters, including the ViewFlex Xtra by St. Jude and all models of the Biosense Webster’s Soundstar and Acunav ultrasound catheters.

The PentaRay is a key medical device in atrial fibrillation (AF) procedures, one of the fastest growing and most expensive procedures in hospitals today, according to Innovative Health. Hospitals using the reprocessed PentaRay and other expensive single-use labeled cardiology devices can save thousands of dollars on each AF procedure, potentially opening the procedure up for more patients, the company said.

The PentaRay cardiology mapping catheter can do high-resolution mapping and cover all four chambers of the heart, which the manufacturer associates with reduced procedure and fluoroscopy time. The device was difficult to reprocess in the past because it contains microlumen technology (channels the size of a human hair), and an FDA clearance requires cleaning and testing access to all areas of the device.

Innovative Health collaborated with the FDA through the pre-submission process to seek the agency’s guidance on appropriate test methods for reprocessing this device. The company then created new protocols and standards to remove blood and Heparin from the microlumen, and testing to ensure that these efforts were effective. The company said that the new standards and processes used to reprocess the PentaRay will allow Innovative Health to reprocess other similar devices using microlumen technology, which is becoming dominant in AF ablation procedures.

“With the clearance to reprocess PentaRay, we have achieved two important things,” said Innovative Health CEO Rick Ferreira in a news release. “We have made it possible for hospitals to reduce AF ablation medical device costs by as much as 30%, and we have demonstrated that reprocessing engineering can break boundaries traditionally considered to be unbreakable. We will continue to work with hospital cardiology units, FDA and clinicians to expand cardiology reprocessing, so that these procedures can become economically viable, and therefore more successful and more widely available, while always keeping patient safety as our top priority.”

Abbott announced that its Afinion HbA1c Dx assay is now available for use on the Afinion 2 Analyzer, as well as the Afinion AS100 Analyzer. The Afinion HbA1c Dx assay is the first and only rapid point-of-care test cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to aid healthcare professionals in the diagnosis of diabetes and the assessment of patients’ risk of developing the condition.

The Afinion HbA1c Dx meets FDA’s stringent requirements for performance testing for diagnostic use claims. The test delivers accurate and precise1,2 glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) results in only three minutes, enabling clinicians to diagnose patients and help them formulate individualized care plans during a single doctor’s office visit. The Afinion HbA1c Dx assay (approved for monitoring and diagnosis) complements the Afinion HbA1c assay (approved for monitoring only), the number one point-of-care HbA1c test in the U.S. for monitoring long-term glycemic control in diabetes.3

As diagnostics continue to move to point-of-care settings such as physician office labs, the Afinion HbA1c Dx rapid assay shows how Abbott is once again setting new standards for innovation in the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes,” said Elizabeth Balthrop, divisional vice president, Cardiometabolic and Informatics, Rapid Diagnostics, Abbott. “In addition to giving physicians the certainty of diagnosis they need to make informed decisions during a patient visit, the HbA1c Dx assay gives people living with diabetes near real-time results, so that in consultation with their doctor they can make adjustments to their lifestyle and better manage their condition.”

“Rapid, reliable diabetes screening at the point of care enables healthcare providers to immediately link patients to comprehensive care that can help prevent the serious consequences of the disease,” said Richard Kahn, Ph.D., former chief scientific and medical officer of the American Diabetes Association. “In addition, point-of-care diagnosis can enhance clinical efficiencies for busy practices and, at a population level, help stem the massive economic and societal impacts of diabetes in the U.S.”

ABOUT DIABETES
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic condition that occurs when the body cannot produce insulin or use it efficiently, causing sugar (glucose) to build up in the bloodstream. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 7.2 million people in the United States have diabetes but are as yet unaware of this diagnosis. Another 84.1 million have prediabetes.4 Diabetes can cause serious consequences, including problems with blood vessels, heart, nerves, kidneys, mouth, eyes and feet.5

ABOUT THE AFINION HbA1c Dx ASSAY
The Afinion HbA1c Dx assay is FDA-cleared as a moderate complexity test for quantitative determination of HbA1c in human whole blood, used to aid in the diagnosis of diabetes and assessment of patients’ risk of developing the disease. It is also cleared for use in monitoring long-term glycemic control. The assay received FDA clearance for use on the Afinion AS100 Analyzer in May 2018.

ABOUT THE AFINION 2 ANALYZER
The Afinion 2 Analyzer is a state-of-the-art multi-assay platform that streamlines and simplifies the delivery of actionable, accurate measurements of HbA1c and ACR (albumin-to-creatinine ratio) results at the point of care. The system arms healthcare professionals with the information needed to make fast and accurate medical decisions. The Afinion 2 platform, which offers all-in-one connectivity to LIS/HIS (laboratory and hospital information systems) and a sleeker, quieter experience for clinicians and patients, was launched in May 2018 for patient management of diabetes through whole blood HbA1c testing and ACR testing in urine.

ABOUT ABBOTT
Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 103,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.