This March, about 40,000 attendees will come to our hometown of Orlando, Florida, for HIMSS20, the annual conference of the largest nonprofit health IT organization. More than 1,300 companies are expected to present their latest improvements and add their voices to the ongoing and everchanging conversation surrounding digital health.
For 2020, HIMSS made it its mission to evolve and remain competitive compared to other rising conferences, such as HLTH, which is gaining significant traction, and consumer technology events like CES expanding into healthcare. According to a statement from Terri Sanders, senior vice president for enterprise marketing and communications at HIMSS to FierceHealthcare, we should expect a continued focus on industry leaders, innovators and change-makers who are improving healthcare and health delivery.
To help you get the most out of HIMSS20, our #HIMSSanity veterans picked out the topics and sessions you won’t want to miss.
Cost Transparency at the Point of Care
Patient access often depends on affordability, and technology increasingly plays a significant role in providing visibility into affordability at the point of care. AssistRx partner Surescripts is hosting sessions on the importance of informed prescription cost conversations at the point of care and how these conversations can increase adherence and reduce clinician burnout from administrative rework.
When physicians have access to real-time, patient-specific benefit information, they can make informed prescription decisions that facilitate patient affordability and primary adherence. Recognizing these two factors are critically important to improving patient uptake, visibility and treatment outcomes, we’ve incorporated direct API connections with more than 800 payers and PBMs to provide this information in as quickly as 30 seconds.
To get the latest industry knowledge on the impact of these informed conversations, make sure to attend, “Well, That Was Awkward: The Rx Cost Conversation” by adding sessions LS07, LS23 or LS33 to your calendar.
Tech and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
At HIMSS19, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma presented her views on creating an interoperable, patient-focused health IT system. Shortly before this statement, in her keynote address at the annual interoperability forum hosted by HHS’ ONC, she called for an end to the fax machine in physician offices by 2020.
Too often, prior authorizations–often sent via fax–are denied and the process to get a patient onto therapy is delayed due to missing, illegible or incomplete information on these forms. The resulting back-and-forth places an administrative burden on healthcare providers and defers access to crucial medications. e-PA solutions that guide healthcare providers through the process and return decisions and additional payer or PBM questions in near-real time are upending old processes, and bringing healthcare provider offices out of the fax-machine era to the betterment of providers and patient experiences.
Seema Verma’s keynote session (212) will be held on Wednesday, March 11 at 5:30 p.m. alongside her co-presenter Don Rucker, M.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). With 2020 upon us, we look forward to participating in conversations surrounding technologies that will make her goal a reality.
Moving Forward with HHS
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will also have a significant showing at HIMSS. With more than ten sessions led by HHS, the department is showing its devotion to transforming the healthcare landscape through technology. Sessions include “A HIPAA Update from the HHS Office for Civil Rights” (session 119), “Maximizing Value from Big Data: A Federal View,” and more.
Our team can offer a unique perspective on HHS’s digital health progress, having recently played a role in the department’s, “Ready, Set, PrEP” program, which provides PrEP medications at no cost to thousands of individuals who qualify. The program leverages our therapy initiation tool iAssist and branded engagement sites to provide free drug for patients who lack prescription drug coverage and are at risk of contracting HIV. We’re excited to take the opportunity at HIMSS to learn more and discuss the department’s other initiatives.
Each year, HIMSS drives the conversation on innovation in healthcare and what we can expect moving forward. These sessions and many others align with our mission to improve lives through access to therapy, and we’re proud to be able to align our latest innovations with what HIMSS sees to be the next steps in the future of healthcare technology.
AssistRx will be at the conference to discuss our insights on these topics and beyond. With the Orange County Convention Center in our backyard, we’re ready to meet with the attending influencers and innovators on-site or host a facilities tour in our offices.
Schedule a meeting by emailing us at events@assistrx.com.