Ryan Howells

Is your digital health strategy strengthening rural systems—or quietly draining them? The Executive Quick Start Guide outlines how to build rural first regional digital health networks that: ✅ Expand specialty access without exporting patients ✅ Use telehealth, eConsults, and RPM with clear escalation rules ✅ Align multiple organizations around shared outcomes Designed for leaders responsible for regional alignment, not one-off pilots. 📘 Explore the guide https://lnkd.in/gNTPnxMn #RegionalHealth #HealthcareStrategy #RuralHospitals #Telehealth #PopulationHealth #DigitalHealth #RuralHealth #HealthcareLeadership #eConsults #RemotePatientMonitoring #SpecialtyCareAccess

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Healthcare organizations operate within tightly connected funding, regulatory, and operational environments. When external approvals or funding timelines are disrupted, even briefly, the impact can extend far beyond policy discussions. Service continuity may be affected, certain care models may need to pause, and administrative workflows can slow down to remain compliant. While core patient services often continue, supporting functions such as oversight, reporting, and reimbursement coordination may experience delays or uncertainty. Key considerations that emerge during such periods include: • Increased compliance and documentation risk • Temporary disruptions to service based reimbursement models • Slower administrative guidance and oversight • Greater pressure on revenue cycle and operations teams • Need for stronger coordination across clinical, operational, and financial functions These situations reinforce the importance of governance, preparedness, and risk aware decision making. Sustainable healthcare operations depend not only on innovation and growth, but also on the ability to maintain compliance, financial stability, and clarity during periods of uncertainty. www.medroombs.com #HealthcareOperations #HealthcareLeadership #MedicalBilling #RevenueCycleManagement

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Healthcare technology investment continues rising, but many implementations fall short of expected outcomes. Organizations that achieve measurable results define success metrics before deployment, not after. Our latest guide outlines metrics across four dimensions: clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, financial performance, and technology adoption. These frameworks help organizations validate ROI, surface adoption gaps, and ensure technology creates value rather than complexity. Read the complete metrics guide: https://lnkd.in/db4ShvZA #HealthcareIT #TechnologyROI #HealthcareMetrics #HOM #RCM

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Long Tail Health Solutions and CMSA Atlanta present: The Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Integrating Case Management, Utilization Review, and Human Collaboration. This educational webinar will be hosted by Heaven Provo, MBA DNP RN FCM CAHIMS and Ben Parkison Date: January 27th Time: 6:00-7:30p EST Continuing Education Credits: One CE Credit for Nurses, SW's and Certified Case Managers, pending. Based on her recent article submission to CMSA, Heaven Provo, MBA DNP RN FCM CAHIMS brings valuable insight on relevant topics in our industry today: Artificial intelligence (AI) offers significant potential to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and personalization across healthcare, particularly within case management (CM) and utilization review (UR). However, realizing these benefits requires a strong ethical foundation that ensures AI supports healthcare professionals. Ethical AI integration depends on core principles such as transparency, fairness, accountability, and equity. This includes using representative, bias-mitigated datasets; ensuring algorithmic explainability; protecting patient privacy, consent, and autonomy; and establishing robust oversight and regulatory structures. Big thanks to Nadine Carter, DNP, FNP-C, BC-ADM, ACHPN and Anna Llewellyn for making this possible.

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🔍 What Is CMS RHT & How States Can Leverage It🔍 📌 CMS’s Regional Health Transformation (RHT) initiative is an opportunity for states and healthcare systems to drive innovation, improve equity, and transform care delivery across regions. Through RHT, CMS provides guidance, technical assistance, and flexible funding models to support state-led transformation efforts, including coordinating care across settings, expanding telehealth, addressing social determinants of health, and promoting value-based payment models. 📌 How States Can Apply / Participate ✅ States typically submit proposals or letters of interest to CMS during solicitation periods. ✅ Applications often require a clear transformation vision, stakeholder alignment (including hospitals, payers, and community partners), and measurable goals (such as quality, access, and cost). ✅ States must outline how they will use technical assistance, data sharing, interoperability, and payment model shifts to support their transformation. ✅ Successful state programs often integrate Medicaid, public health, community-based services, and cross-sector partnerships. 📌 By tapping into CMS RHT, states can accelerate health system modernization and align incentives for better health, lower costs, and more equitable access. https://lnkd.in/g5XjgPhW #HealthPolicy #Medicaid #HealthInnovation #Telehealth #PublicHealth #HealthcareTransformation #KWAdvancedConsulting #Policy

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Seamless data migration is a high-risk yet vital part of Epic EHR implementation. With clear data governance, FHIR-based interoperability, and expert validation, organizations can improve care delivery, efficiency, and adoption. ClinDCast supports this with proven frameworks, automated validation, and secure methodologies, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and smooth go-live. Key Takeaways a) Start with strategy – Define scope early and align IT & clinical teams to avoid delays. b) Data quality matters – Clean, validated data improves performance and adoption. c) Use Epic expertise – Certified specialists and tools reduce risks and speed migration. read complete blog: https://lnkd.in/dqMQdhcW #epic #epicdatamigration #datamigration #electronichealthrecords #epicimplementation #epicconsulting

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Ochsner Digital Medicine CEO Dan Shields will participate in the opening panel discussion at Cambridge Healthtech’s Inaugural Innov8 Health conference next week in Boston. The panel, “Reimagining Healthcare Delivery—From Concepts to Scalable Realities,” will dive into crucial questions about the future of care delivery. Shields will be joined by Gil Addo, Kara Ellinger, David Guidry, and moderator Andy Molnar. Together, they will discuss what’s working and what’s not working with emerging tech-focused approaches in healthcare delivery. They’ll also cut through the AI hype and demonstrate how it can help, not hinder. Lastly, they will dive into who is paying for these new approaches. The future of care delivery is being built now. Ochsner Digital Medicine is helping to shape that future by driving innovation and improving outcomes through technology. We hope to see you next week to discuss the next era in healthcare.

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Innovative insights from Joe Diver FACHDM, Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Signature Healthcare, MA, at #CHIME25 today! 💡 This discussion, "Making the Connection: Building Inclusive Data Networks Across Healthcare," highlighted practical insights on rural, urban, and system-level interoperability in fragmented, resource-variable environments. #DigitalHealth #Interoperability #HealthcareInnovation #MEDITECH CHIME American College of Health Data Management

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Tomorrow, Russell Teague teams up with healthcare industry leaders Jeff Hatfield, Mel J. Tobias, MBA, PMP®, Phil Gansz and Timothy Freedman at the HIMSS Georgia Chapter/GHA symposium to discuss best practices for EHR implementations. The panel will discuss how a proper security strategy can turn potential disruptions into seamless transformations. #HealthcareInnovation #EHR #HealthcareSecurity

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Healthcare doesn’t have to be fragmented. When data, systems, and stakeholders are connected through a unified platform, the entire ecosystem benefits—from faster payments to smarter care decisions. The graphics below break down how members, providers, and payers each gain value. Explore how data convergence drives clarity, efficiency, and better outcomes: https://lnkd.in/eTzhkyQm #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #ValueBasedCare

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Payer-Provider Collaboration Breakdown: Black Book Survey Reveals Critical Challenges in Healthcare Alignment https://lnkd.in/emQjGk9j Poll of 273 Healthcare Leaders Uncovers Escalating Challenges in Prior Authorization, Data Exchange, and Value-Based Contracting. May 5, 2025 (Yahoo! Finance) A new survey from Black Book Research reveals that deep fractures remain in payer-provider collaboration, with hospitals and health plans struggling to align on core priorities like prior authorization, data exchange, and value-based contracting. The report, released today, draws on first-quarter responses from 273 executives across the healthcare spectrum, including 225 leaders from health plans, managed care organizations, and payers, and 48 hospital and health system executives overseeing managed care relations and contracting. Despite widespread agreement that payer-provider collaboration is critical to improving outcomes and reducing waste, the survey exposes three persistent roadblocks and significant differences in how payers and providers rank their urgency. #1: Prior Authorization Frustration Nears Breaking Point Hospitals overwhelmingly identified manual, disjointed prior authorization workflows as the top source of administrative burden and care delays: 93% called it a top-two operational obstacle. 88% reported routine delays exceeding five business days. Only 11% have most of their payer contracts integrated with real-time electronic prior auth tools. Meanwhile, just 29% of payers say they've implemented electronic prior auth tied to EHRs. And only 17% believe their PA processes are fully aligned with clinical decision-making. #2: Value-Based Care: A Shared Vision, Divided Execution "Both payers and providers express commitment to value-based care, but the mechanics are still misaligned," said Doug Brown, Founder of Black Book Research. 84% of hospitals say they lack access to the analytics needed to succeed in VBC arrangements. 75% are in upside-only contracts and say they're ready for more risk-if data sharing improves. Just 6% of providers consider their current value-based contracts fair or sustainable. On the payer side, 80% rank VBC execution as a strategic priority. However, only 21% have established joint oversight or governance structures with providers. #3: Interoperability Still Missing in Action Years into the digital health push, bi-directional data sharing between payers and providers remains frustratingly inconsistent: 93% of providers say they lack real-time visibility into their patients' utilization outside their system. 82% still rely on faxes, phone calls, and email to communicate with health plans. Fewer than 1 in 4 hospitals report receiving any form of automated, structured data feeds from payers. 97% of payers are actively collecting clinical data-but less than a third push that information back to providers in usable form. Story Continues...

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#AI in rural healthcare isn’t about innovation headlines. It’s about giving time back to clinicians. ⏳🩺 Hillsboro Health (Hillsboro Area Hospital) is rolling out Oracle Health Foundation EHR, plus a Clinical #AI #Agent that turns patient conversations into structured notes automatically. No extra typing. No late-night charting. Just cleaner workflows and more focus on patients. On top of that, Seamless Exchange helps unify scattered patient data into one longitudinal record, something rural providers really need. Sometimes the most powerful tech isn’t flashy, it’s the kind that quietly removes friction. Is documentation the clearest, most immediate win for AI in healthcare? Source: https://lnkd.in/eBRwwAnj #HealthTech #AIinHealthcare #DigitalTransformation #RuralCare #EHR

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This week, the White House announced the Health Tech Ecosystem initiative and the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Framework. These are significant steps towards liberating our clinical data from its traditional silos. To build a national health tech ecosystem, we will need to achieve widespread adoption of a FHIR-based API infrastructure. Additionally, we must focus on acquiring, optimizing, and delivering high-quality data that is secure, suitable for its intended use, and ready for artificial intelligence applications. This effort should include comprehensive, longitudinal patient histories, standardized data that meets national standards, and the contextualization and harmonization of both structured and unstructured data. #HealthTech #Interoperability #FHIR #CMS #ClinicalData #ValueBasedCare #DigitalHealth #Availity #AIinHealthcare #DataOptimization #HealthcareInnovation https://lnkd.in/eFnGSP8f

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We’re excited to announce a strategic partnership with VHHA Solutions to accelerate care delivery transformation across Virginia. Through this collaboration, ThinkAndor®, the #1 multimodal agentic AI software infrastructure for healthcare™, is now an endorsed platform supporting hospitals, health systems, and non-acute providers across the care continuum. Together, we’re enabling organizations to: • Pioneer tech enabled chronic condition care across Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) with the Access Clinic • Transform rural health populations with a proven technology platform for Rural Health Transformation • Extend specialty and virtual care into rural communities • Support hospital-at-home and transitional care programs • Reduce clinician burden while improving outcomes ThinkAndor® delivers a unified AI-first infrastructure that scales across care settings without adding complexity. We’re proud to support VHHA members in advancing care delivery. https://hubs.la/Q0440sTT0

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How should healthcare organizations fund their next phase of growth without compromising balance sheet strength? From debt issuance and facility upgrades to technology investments and liquidity enhancement, today’s capital decisions carry long-term implications. In Kaufman Hall’s newest article, Bradley Dills outlines how leaders can evaluate traditional and alternative capitalization strategies to select the approach that best supports their organization’s future. Read the article 👉 https://lnkd.in/gCDU7hKm

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Proud to sponsor and attend the CCSQ Virtual Conference as CEO of Sky Solutions. We share CMS and CCSQ’s mission to transform healthcare quality—and we help deliver it through digital transformation powered by low-code platforms like Salesforce, Pega, and ServiceNow, combined with AWS Bedrock, generative AI, and conversational AI. With experience supporting 5 major health payers and 4 CMS centers, Sky is driving smarter, faster, AI-powered solutions across federal health. #DigitalTransformation #GenerativeAI #CCSQ #CMS #HealthcareInnovation #SkySolutions #LowCode #AWS #HealthIT

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