Mike Miliard

As part of the deal, which involves nonclinical technologies, about 540 health system staff will become Optum employees.

The list of healthcare jobs the AHIMA Foundation program can help fill and upskill is long and varied, including clinical documentation improvement specialists, data analysts, medical and clinical lab techs, privacy and security officers and more.

Castell will offer technologies and services to guide care decisions, manage patient experience, implement virtual care, address social determinants and more, building from the health system's own best practices.

Population health management vendor SPH Analytics is merging with SA Ignite, which develops tools to help providers optimize their performance scores for the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed. WHY IT MATTERS Together, the two companies will be able to offer more expansive technology for pop health and quality measurement, officials said, giving clients new tools to help them manage the transition to value-based reimbursement. The post-merger company will focus on helping provider customers meet quality measure requirements, educating them on the details of MIPS and other advanced value-based payment frameworks and offering consultative support to help clients to maximize the financial ROI of  new reimbursement models. The newly combined business serves more than 21,000 providers, including hospitals, physician practices and provider networks. THE LARGER TREND Healthcare providers have no shortage of quality measures, across a variety of federal programs, with which they're expected to comply for value-based reimbursement. This past week, for the first time, HHS announced that it will hold a Quality Summit to take a fresh look at the tangle of regulations and streamline them where necessary. Beyond these prescribed quality measures, however, more and more health systems are taking a more expansive view of population health, applying advanced analytics to stratify risk and, sometimes, using technology to help them intervene and improve the social determinants of health for those patients most at need. ON THE RECORD "This strategic alignment creates a meaningfully expanded client base and enables us to build on our impressive track record of helping clients achieve substantive and sustained results in their shift to value-based care," said Amy Amick, president and CEO of SPH Analytics, in a statement. "The SA Ignite solution set blends with our Population Care and Population Value solution lines in a highly complementary manner that will help us better serve our combined client base." “Working alongside electronic health records, our cloud-based IgniteMIPS software delivers powerful analytics that surface truly actionable improvement opportunities," added Tom S. Lee, CEO and founder of SA Ignite. "Now merged with SPH, we are able to offer our customers a broader suite of quality measures such as MIPS CQMs, HEDIS, and ACO measures, as well as cost and utilization analytics and patient level drill-down capabilities." Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.

Commonwealth Corporation, a workforce development agency that works to boost the skills of Massachusetts young adults with investments and partnerships, has released new funding to create new pilots to expand training for entry-level healthcare workers. WHY IT MATTERS The money for the pilots comes after Massachusetts' Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning issued a report and recommendations to Gov. Charlie Baker, making the case that "healthcare, information technology and advanced manufacturing are among the most vital employment sectors for Massachusetts’ future prosperity" and "should be important focal points of any meaningful effort to align lifelong learning opportunities with employer needs." Three partnerships will get as much as $200,000 each via two-year grants to help develop and new digital or hybrid competency-based training programs for entry-level healthcare workers. The money will support an initial Program Design phase and subsequent implementation, including tuition for a first cohort of students. THE LARGER TREND Despite being a world leader in the healthcare and technology industries, Massachusetts is still home to thousands of employees in entry- and mid-level healthcare jobs – home health aides, certified nursing assistants, direct care workers and others – who don't have sufficient access to education and skill-building opportunities, the Commonwealth Corporation noted. Meanwhile, many employers in healthcare and beyond are grappling with worker shortages that are hindering their ability to deliver high-quality care. The goal of this new initiative is to help upskill employees such as those with digital training programs, accomplishing the dual goal of boosting economic opportunity for workers while addressing healthcare's workforce shortages. ON THE RECORD Commonwealth Corporation illustrated the kind of worker who might benefit from these programs by describing an entry-level healthcare worker named Carla. "A single mother with a high school diploma who immigrated to the United States eight years ago, her wages are now $14 an hour, making it a struggle for her to support her family even when she works more than 40 hours a week. Despite these challenges, Carla has consistently demonstrated passion for her work, earning praise from both her patients and employer, who cite her caring approach, diligence and interest in continuing to improve her practice. "Carla would like to advance professionally, but she can’t figure out how to participate in the required training. She needs to continue to work as the sole caretaker of her two youngest children and she shares her car with her 19-year-old daughter, who attends a community college and works evenings. Carla’s circumstances make returning to the classroom an unrealistic – and unaffordable – option. "With the rising demand for community-based care, Carla’s employer also faces growing challenges filling open positions. The company wishes to build a career advancement ladder to develop the skills of staff like Carla and other promising colleagues, but it lacks the knowledge and capacity to provide in-house training. And low margins for reimbursable time make it nearly impossible to schedule sufficient training time during the work day." The hope with this new funding is to create new opportunities for employees and employers alike, and better position Massachusetts' workforce for the future of digital health. .jumbotron{ background-image: url("https://www.healthcareitnews.com/sites/hitn/files/u6245/workforce%20development%20jumbotron.png"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Focus on Workforce Development In July, we'll speak to experts about how they're managing their workforces – not just clinicians, but IT departments, data scientists, care managers, back office staff and others. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.

The e-prescribing giant says the Federal Trade Commission's complaint shouldn't be reviewed in federal court because it relies on several factual errors.

Virtustream Healthcare Cloud helped the North Carolina-based health system "future-proof" its IT system by moving mission-critical data to its hosting service.

A multi-year agreement with the machine learning company will start with a tool to identify high-risk GI patients, eventially expanding to other high-burden diseases.

The Quality Summit will convene healthcare stakeholders to explore ways the department's many quality programs can be assessed and adapted to better advance value-based care models.

Accenture's Kaveh Safavi discusses healthcare's outsized spend on labor – and how machine learning, telehealth and consumerism are transforming how work is done and who does it.