Healthcare Provider Data Research, Marketing Tools, Tips, Advice, and Opinion

Provider Data Sources Reference

Last week (May 3, 2024) CarePrecise published a dynamic new healthcare data resource, entitled the Provider Data Sources Reference Guide (or just "PDS" for short). By "dynamic" we mean that it will be continually updated, and it will grow with new entries relating to free and fee-based provider data sources.

Navigating public and private data sources is challenging and time consuming, and it's something that the CarePrecise resources team has been doing for decades. Opening our expertise to the public is built into the DNA of our company. We take pride in being the most open and transparent healthcare provider data vendor, and the Provider Data Sources Reference Guide is just the logical next step.

Our resources team accepts submissions for entries in the PDS, which are reviewed for quality, pertinence, and value of content. Direct links to the sources are included on the page, where possible.

Using the on-screen tools, listings can be sorted and filtered by Category (such as Physicians, Hospital/Medical Facility, Mental Health, etc.), and by Free, Fee-based, or Limited use sources.

The PDS is a companion to the CarePrecise U.S. Healthcare Administration and Information (USHAI) resources guide, which contains links to medical associations, healthcare IT, cost reduction, patient guidance information, and much more. Both public and proprietary sources are included, and the USHAI guide also accepts submissions from the industry. Note that submissions must come from the source of the information; submissions that come from a public relations agency or other third party are not considered for publication. Both the USHAI and the PDS consider limited commercial content of high quality, with inclusion at the discretion of CarePrecise.

Go here to submit a provider data source for the PDS reference guide. Go here for commercial submissions to the companion USHAI guide.

3D Views of Healthcare Locations

Google Maps has just released a fascinating new capability. Their new 3D Area Explorer offers the ability to create immersive, interactive views of any point of interest. Like a 2D map, locations are pinned, and the view can be rotated on various axes to explore the locations. This would be useful in applications like "find a provider" apps that would be able now to show the user around an unfamiliar building or facility compound, making it easier to find their destination and building entrance.

Combined with data from CarePrecise, such as HealthGeo, which contains latitude and longitude for U.S. providers, these clinicians and facilities, or a cluster of them, such as medical offices around a hospital, can be viewed as an interactive 3D map.

The Power of Physician Databases

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare in the United States, access to accurate and comprehensive provider data is crucial for improving patient outcomes, optimizing resource allocation, advancing medical research, and communication between providers and innovators. Clinician data stands at the forefront of this revolution, offering a treasure trove of information that empowers stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem. From pharmaceutical companies seeking to collaborate with key opinion leaders to healthcare organizations aiming to enhance their referral networks, the value of physician and other prescribing clinician data cannot be overstated.

The Backbone of Healthcare Insights

Physician data serves as the backbone of healthcare insights, providing centralized repositories of information on medical professionals, including their specialties, affiliations, contact details including email addresses, and clinical interests and treatment patterns. These databases are meticulously curated, drawing from authoritative sources such as federal provider data maintained by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), medical licensing boards, professional associations, and healthcare institutions. Good physician databases can offer a comprehensive view of the healthcare landscape, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions and to reach out for strategic partnerships.

Driving Medical Innovation

Innovation in healthcare relies heavily on collaboration and knowledge sharing among medical professionals. Authoritative physician data fosters these connections by facilitating networking opportunities and identifying experts in specific fields. Pharmaceutical companies, for instance, leverage physician databases to identify potential investigators for clinical trials, gather insights on prescribing patterns, and engage with thought leaders to advance their research agendas. By streamlining the process of connecting with relevant healthcare providers, these databases accelerate the pace of medical innovation and drug development.

Enhancing Patient Care

Effective patient care hinges on seamless coordination among healthcare providers and access to timely, relevant information. Physician databases enable healthcare organizations to build robust referral networks, ensuring that patients receive the specialized care they need. Primary care physicians can quickly identify specialists based on their expertise and proximity, leading to shorter wait times and improved patient satisfaction. Access to comprehensive physician profiles allows clinicians to make well-informed referrals, resulting in better treatment outcomes and continuity of care. 

Accurate fax numbers for pharmacies facilitate delivery of prescriptions where prescribers do not subscribe to an ePresciption system, and contact information for the prescribers is crucial when a pharmacist needs clarification, or has potentially life-saving information on a drug interaction that may have escaped a prescriber's notice.

Communicating Vital Information to Doctors

The process of updating physicians on advances in their areas of practice relies heavily on good physician contact information. Up-to-date, accurate physician databases, with practice addresses, phone and fax numbers, and email addresses, from a reliable vendor are the basis for communication. Companies use authoritative these data resources to update their own in-house databases, keeping the lines f communication open and effective.

Informing Healthcare Policy

In an era of evidence-based medicine, data-driven insights are indispensable for shaping healthcare policy and regulation. Physician databases provide policymakers with valuable information on physician demographics, practice patterns, and geographic distribution, enabling them to identify areas of need and allocate resources effectively. By analyzing trends in physician workforce dynamics, policymakers can develop strategies to address shortages in underserved areas, promote diversity in healthcare, and support initiatives aimed at improving access to care for underserved populations.

Ensuring Data Accuracy and Privacy

While physician databases offer immense benefits, ensuring data accuracy and privacy is paramount. To maintain the integrity of these databases, data providers employ rigorous validation processes and adhere to strict privacy regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the United States. Additionally, data anonymization techniques are often employed to protect sensitive information and preserve patient confidentiality. By prioritizing data quality and security, stakeholders can harness the full potential of physician databases while safeguarding patient privacy.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Physician Databases

As technology continues to evolve, the future of physician databases holds tremendous promise. Advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning are poised to revolutionize data analytics, enabling stakeholders to extract deeper insights and predictive analytics from vast datasets. Integration with electronic health records (EHRs) and interoperability standards will further enhance the value of physician databases by providing real-time access to patient information and care coordination tools. With data coming in from so many sources in government and the healthcare industry, intelligent tools for merging information into a “single source of truth,” such as the CarePrecise Collection™ healthcare provider dataset, are key. CarePrecise developed its QoRelate™ record collection and linkage intelligence to build a range of data modules that can be used in any relational database environment across the industry.

Media Release: ScribeFax Announced

The following media bulletin was released 10/9/2023.

Database Reveals Hidden Clinician Fax Numbers

SUMMARY

ScribeFax™, comprehensive database of fax numbers for physicians, physician assistants, dentists and other prescribing clinicians, is now available from CarePrecise LLC, a vendor of authoritative healthcare provider data. ScribeFax is created using advanced data mining, compiling monthly updates from millions of clinician, clinic, and other medical facility records to reveal hard-to-find fax numbers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CarePrecise LLC, a supplier of healthcare provider data since 2008, has announced the release version of ScribeFax™, the company’s comprehensive database of U.S. physicians, dentists, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, and other prescribing clinicians’ fax numbers. The enhanced clinician fax database has graduated from beta to full production version, and is now available for download from the company’s web site.

ScribeFax is a unique resource, offering not only fax numbers reported by physicians and others, but also correct fax numbers to replace tens of thousands of unreported, hidden, incorrect, or obfuscated numbers. The database also includes the complete public NPI registry data, including robust contact information, specialties and licenses, in a format that can be easily used in ordinary database software, such as Access, part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite, FileMaker Pro, or any of the database management software like MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, or other database systems.

Healthcare providers self-report their fax numbers to the NPI Registry, where they become part of the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) federal database. Fax numbers are not a required data point, and many providers choose not to report them, fearing abuse. This causes problems for businesses needing to communicate vital information to clinicians, including health plans, electronic prescription transmission services, and suppliers. Contacting by phone to request a fax number wastes many thousands of hours, making the ScribeFax directory an essential tool for fax communications.

In preparing each monthly update to ScribeFax, CarePrecise uses a testing methodology to flag the “good” and “bad” fax numbers, and adding new correct numbers found using advanced data mining technology. “Bad” numbers are included so that users can clean their in-house data. Where multiple fax numbers are found for a single medical practitioner, a prioritization scheme determines the best number to ensure correct delivery.

ScribeFax, like the company’s related product, the ScriptFax™ enhanced pharmacy fax database, is designed to save millions of hours of manual fax number collection across the healthcare industry, and has found wide adoption even in its beta version. Both products are now in full release, and are available for immediate download at CarePrecise.com. Subscriptions to monthly or quarterly updated releases are available.

Michael Christopher, Partner and Chief Data Analyst
CarePrecise LLC
Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
877-782-2294 x9

Effects on Data of a Government Shutdown

UPDATE: An agreement reached for continuing funding has ensured that normal collection and dissemination of federal healthcare data will continue through at least the upcoming October update of CarePrecise data packages.

Discussion of a government shutdown that could affect the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) – a primary source for U.S. healthcare data – has raised concerns that the regular updates of CarePrecise datasets may be impacted. Our pledge is to provide the most recent data as released from our sources, which are largely within The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Postal Service, among other government agencies. Should a government shutdown occur, it was announced a few days ago that a large portion – perhaps 42% – of personnel in the HHS will be furloughed. In this event, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare are not expected to be impacted from the perspectives of most patients, providers, and payers, beyond brief delays in reimbursements. However, it is not known at this time how the furloughs will affect processes related to delivery of healthcare data updates. Should any delays occur, CarePrecise will alert all of our data subscribers with what we know.

It is important to point out that there have been 21 government shutdowns since the days of the Ford Administration, and four of these have taken place since CarePrecise began leveraging federal data for the benefit of our customers. The longest, and perhaps most dramatic of these, was the seventeen-day shutdown that occurred in October 2013. No impact on CarePrecise data delivery was felt during any of these previous shutdowns. We note also that much of the responsibility for data production within the federal government falls to contractors. In many, if not most, cases, contractor agreements will not immediately be affected, and work may be expected to continue.

The criticality of current, accurate, standardized data in healthcare has sustained strong bipartisan support since the leadership of HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

It is also noteworthy that, since its founding in the 2008/2009 federal fiscal year, CarePrecise has never missed a data distribution. Whatever happens, CarePrecise will distribute the data as soon as digitally possible.

HIPAA Prevents State LEOs from Grazing for PHI -- Doesn't It?

h/t to Samantha Holvey's concise and timely weekly Whealth Care newsletter for addressing a question that is probably on every HIPAA-savvy reader's mind of late: "Can State Attorneys General just randomly scan out of state health records to see whether one of their residents may have committed a health care 'crime'?" This might apply to potentially pregnant patients seeking reproductive diagnosis and treatment, or parents of transgender minors seeking gender-affirming care not available at home.

Having been engaged with HIPAA since its earliest days, I was prepared to repeat my customary, reassuring, "HIPAA is better privacy protection than we had before" speech, but I quickly realized that this time, I was not so sure. See, when we were implementing the three pillars of HIPAA (Privacy | Security | Transactions and Code Sets), back in the aughts, people were most concerned about organizations within the industry misusing the data, or letting it leak out for commercial exploitation.

Very few were worried about a malevolent government. The pre-HIPAA government guardrails that had been erected were still in place, and HIPAA itself was relatively neutral on the matter. Or at least, we implementers were relatively complacent. We thought that, occasional abuse aside, law enforcement organizations would go through existing legal channels to obtain patient records in pursuit of fraud, theft, controlled substance misappropriation, or malpractice.

Now, state after state is passing laws that not only criminalize healthcare procedures that have been common practice for decades, they extend that criminality to procedures performed in states whose own laws preserves their legality. Private citizens can earn bounties by revealing someone has crossed a state line to pursue such treatment. Or even helped fund such an excursion.

And while CMS has published regulatory guidance that explains what sorts of inquiries are already unacceptable under HIPAA, they have also released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to tighten the federal regulations against potential state governmental fishing expeditions. The comment period on the NPRM has closed. Can federal regulations be far behind? HIPAA history says not to be too confidents. Some NPRMs were allowed to languish for years. Other draft regulations were never formalized into a Final Rule.

Transitioning from AI Gee-Whiz to B2B Results

We at CarePrecise are as fascinated as anyone about the miraculous capabilities -- and astounding failures -- of the new Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence tools now battling it out in cyberspace. But we've been around too long not to reserve some skepticism about the hype cycle. The other day I was chatting with an LLM about a new medical device. It initially pointed me to the manufacturer's site and some related promo material, but when I told it I'd rather read content from actual users of the equipment it suggested some sites I generally prefer not to use. When I asked instead for Facebook Groups, it gave me a list of suggestions with very specific Group names.

None of which turned out to exist.

So, when pressed for different information than it had been providing, my chatty AI tool employed a very human tactic: MSU.

This suggests to us that perhaps the best way to effectively use AI will be to point it to data you know is good -- specifically, your own data about your customers and prospects.

This approach is already taking root in pharmaceutical marketing. Directing AI tools toward rich, highly accurate reference data will, we think, become a key component in making the new technology produce credible, and actionable, results.