News

Healthcare’s Precision Medicine Imperative

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, April 08, 2021.

When it comes to healthcare in the U.S., we expect services that cater to our individual needs from a system that operates under a one-size-fits-all, trial-and-error model — one that results in missed diagnoses, protracted illnesses, and premature death while wasting up to $935 billion annually.

The financial toll of this outmoded approach pales in comparison to the human toll. More than 128,000 people in the U.S. die each year from taking medications as prescribed — four times the number of people killed by prescription painkillers and heroin combined, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Medium»

Carrot Health CEO Named 2021 Health Care Hero by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal

Posted in Press Releases on Monday, April 05, 2021.

MINNEAPOLIS – April 5, 2021 – Carrot Health, a leading provider of healthcare solutions powered by consumer and claims data, announced today CEO Kurt Waltenbaugh was named one of 2021’s Health Care Heroes by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Waltenbaugh, who was recognized in the Health Entrepreneur category, was honored for his substantial achievements at the helm of Carrot Health and the impact he and the company have had on the Minneapolis/St. Paul Community.

Recognizing that 2020 was an unprecedented year, the Business Journal launched the Health Care Heroes awards to honor the healthcare workers who have gone above and beyond in their efforts to fight the global COVID-19 pandemic while continuing to provide care for non-COVID patients. The program recognizes Twin Cities’ individuals who have put innovation, care, dedication, and compassion to work to improve the human condition. Honorees were announced on April 5* by the Business Journal and will be recognized during a virtual event on June 10 and in a June 11 special print edition.

MSPBJ Announces First-Ever Health Care Heroes Honorees

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, April 05, 2021.

2020 was an unprecedented year. Health care workers have gone above and beyond in their efforts to fight a global pandemic while continuing to provide care for non-Covid patients. Meanwhile, researchers, entrepreneurs and manufacturers specializing in the health care sector continue to develop new products and services to improve access and outcomes.

To honor their work, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has launched our Health Care Heroes awards, recognizing individuals in the Twin Cities for putting innovation, care, dedication and compassion to work to improve the human condition. We received over 115 inspiring and impressive nominations for the inaugural year of this project, making the judging extremely difficult.

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal»

Carrot Health Using Voting Records, Home Data to Gauge Health

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, April 05, 2021.

The secret to good health? Get enough sleep, eat well — and maybe vote regularly, according to Carrot Health, a Minneapolis firm that's working to better understand what are often called the social determinants of health and has collected data on millions of Americans.

The firm's approach is attracting attention: Carrot has already landed four of the country's top 10 health plans as its clients, CEO Kurt Waltenbaugh said.

The firm seeks to better understand the social factors that make people unhealthy and the barriers that prevent them from getting well. To do that, it needs a whole lot of data.

Minne Inno»

Self-Scheduling and COVID-19: Necessity Adds to Health Care’s Patient Matching Woes

Posted in Client News Coverage on Friday, March 26, 2021.

The explosive popularity of telehealth to ensure ongoing access to care as COVID-19 ravages the nation brings with it an equally rapid rise in patient self-scheduling—an upward trajectory accelerated by the need for streamlined methods of scheduling vaccinations.

Born of necessity, self-scheduling has nonetheless added to the already dismal state of patient matching. Desperate for appointments, many patients inadvertently create multiple medical record numbers as they work through the schedule system, wreaking havoc on health care organizations’ electronic master patient index (EMPI) and EHR systems, as well as the ongoing quest for a 1% or lower duplication rate.

For The Record»

Leveraging Lab Insights To Improve Short- and Long-Term Response To COVID-19

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, March 18, 2021.

When I founded hc1 a decade ago, I believed that every patient should be treated as a unique individual. We built the hc1 Platform because we saw that if every individual’s laboratory data–which drives 70% of the diagnostic and therapeutic decisions–could be organized intelligently, we could unlock an unprecedented level of clinical decision support to personalize and improve care for all patients.

We knew that the platform would effectively lay the foundation for targeted pharmacogenomics and precision prescribing techniques. What we did not know at the time was that the decision to place our stake in the promise of lab insights would ultimately help drive an improved public health response to an unprecedented crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Electronic Health Reporter»

Carrot Health Surpasses 25 Million Individual Scored Lives and 400 Million Claims/Encounter Records, Solidifying its Position as Top Health Consumer & SDoH Analytics Provider

Posted in Press Releases on Tuesday, March 16, 2021.

Achieving key milestones further solidifies its position as the healthcare industry’s leading provider of data and analytics for social determinants of health

MINNEAPOLIS – March 16, 2021 – Carrot Health, a leading provider of healthcare solutions powered by consumer and claims data, announced today that the Carrot MarketView® platform has now delivered individual-level social determinants of health (SDoH) scores for more than 25 million managed lives.

Carrot Health’s robust integrated dataset — the first and largest in healthcare — now encompasses more than 400 million claims/encounter records. Carrot MarketView aggregates more than 80 data sources to provide the nation’s leading health plans, including four of the top 10 plans, with insights into how best to engage members and manage their health, as well as to identify and drive growth opportunities.

Making the emergency department utilization, SDOH connection

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, March 08, 2021.

Overreliance on geographic or population averages to quantify and measure social determinants of health (SDOH) can send healthcare organizations down a costly and inefficient path when it comes to designing interventions to improve outcomes and reduce costs. Because these averages tend to mask the discrete patient experiences, their use can result in programs that fail to fully address the barriers representing the greatest potential for improving health outcomes — and healthcare organizations’ returns on investment.

Managed Healthcare Executive»

Hayes CTO Discusses AI-Enabled Revenue Integrity at Health Datapalooza 2021

Posted in Press Releases on Tuesday, February 23, 2021.

Ritesh Ramesh discussed the role of augmented intelligence in achieving revenue integrity to help healthcare organizations regain solid financial footing post-COVID-19.

Wellesley, MA — February 23, 2021 — Cloud, data, and augmented intelligence (AI) have critical roles to play in solving key business problems around operational and financial areas for healthcare organizations as we enter 2021 and beyond. That was the message shared by Hayes CTO Ritesh Ramesh during a rapid-fire panel focused on Patient Care in the Era of COVID – Data and Systems during the virtual 2021 Health Datapalooza and National Health Policy Conference, hosted by AcademyHealth.

Perspectives: Will People Return to Senior Care Facilities After the Pandemic? (Part I)

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, February 16, 2021.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article posing that the pandemic is reshaping how Americans care for senior family members, and that more families will opt to keep loved ones at home, rather than relying on senior care facilities. While the pandemic has and will certainly continue to reshape the senior care industry, what might the industry look like in the coming years and after the pandemic?

To find out, we asked senior care industry professionals for their thoughts, insights, and predictions. We’re pleased to share them with you now.

iAdvance Senior Care»

Revenue Integrity Moves Center Stage in 2021: Five Trends That Will Drive Adoption of More Holistic Strategies

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, February 09, 2021.

There will be little nostalgia associated with placing 2020 in rearview mirror for most health care stakeholders. Especially on the financial front, the year has left provider organizations with unprecedented challenges that will likely follow them well into 2021.

One report released in September 2020 suggested that for-profit hospitals will continue to see a financial decline for another 12—18 months. In tandem with those challenges, health care organizations face mounting compliance concerns related not only new COVID-19 guidance and telehealth, but also the introduction of new Evaluation and Management (E&M) codes. Add an uptick in audit activity to the mix, and it stands to reason that revenue integrity must become a top priority.

Integrated Healthcare Executive»

6 Contact Tracing Apps To Help Your Business Open Safely

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, February 01, 2021.

There are various considerations in reopening offices and bringing employees back to work safely, especially now that COVID-19 infections are once more soaring in various areas. If your office is open, then COVID-19 contact tracing solutions are necessary tools in preventing further transmission because they let office managers identify who may be infected or contagious and react appropriately.

PC Magazine»

Conscious Entrepreneurship: May I introduce Kurt Waltenbaugh

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, February 01, 2021.

“Conscious entrepreneurship” is at the heart of being an entrepreneur. As entrepreneurs, we must be conscious of the world around us and the impact of our actions. For example, at Carrot Health, we are acutely aware there is power — and potential consequences — in using data modeling. For example, Optum (UnitedHealth Group) used models based on historical medical spend to identify future risk. The models were biased against populations with limited access to a doctor (i.e., lower spend), such as BIPOC communities. As an unintended consequence, the models tended to recommend more services to white members than BIPOC members. Failing to understand the bias in your data can result in critical mistakes and, in this case, perpetuate systemic racism.

Continue Reading»

2021 Medicare Advantage Plan Intelligence: An Early Look

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, January 28, 2021.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in recent months predicted both lower premiums and richer benefits for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans in 2021. Specifically, CMS anticipated a decrease in average premiums of more than 34% from 2017 levels while plan choice, benefits, and enrollment increased—making the average monthly premium the lowest in 14 years.

But while CMS accurately depicted the indisputable trend of moving toward lower costs and higher value in MA offerings, it did not tell the whole story. To do that, we consolidated and reported on all Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) benefit data nationwide released by CMS. This provides a much clearer picture on how these trends impact individual members vs. across member populations.

Electronic Health Reporter»

2021 E&M Changes: Avoiding pitfalls with the right technology-enabled strategy

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, January 12, 2021.

As part of its goal to reduce administrative burdens on physicians, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has introduced a final rule for Evaluation and Management (E&M) coding changes that go into effect in January 2021. Extensive revisions to the guidelines aim to minimize the amount of time physicians spend on documenting visits—prioritizing the documentation of information pertinent to patient care, creating resource-based reimbursement, and achieving less need for audits.

The move reflects a positive step forward in terms of patient care and administrative burden, yet documentation readiness hinges on a clear understanding of how the changes impact current practices. Rather than focusing on a checklist of conditions for reimbursement, documentation must prioritize a holistic view of patient care to align with the framework supporting E&M codes going forward.

Physicians Practise»