Morning Headlines 10/9/23

VA to share health info with private-sector medical systems

The VA and 13 health systems pledge to share data to improve veteran healthcare.

LGI Healthcare Solutions Acquires Boston Software Systems.

Canada-based health IT company LGI Healthcare Solutions acquires healthcare automation vendor Boston Software Systems.

DEA extends pandemic telehealth rules for prescribing controlled substances

The DEA will continue to allow providers to prescribe select controlled substances via telemedicine through the end of next year.

New Generative AI-Native Health Company RhythmX AI Announces Precision Care Platform for Doctors to Deliver Hyper-Personalized Care to the Right Patient at the Right Time

Investment firm SAIGroup funds and launches RhythmX AI, which analyzes longitudinal data to make recommendations to doctors.

Morning Headlines 10/6/23

Alpha II, LLC Announces Strategic Acquisition of RCxRules

RCM technology vendor Alpha II acquires RCxRules, which provides revenue cycle automation.

US mental health startup Headway raises $125 million at $1 billion valuation

Headway, which connects patients to in-network therapists, raises $125 million a Series C round that values the company at $1 billion.

Nonprofit service provider Blackbaud settles data breach case for $49.5M with states

Blackbaud will pay $49.5 million to settle claims brought by 50 attorneys general pertaining to a 2020 ransomware attack affecting 13,000 nonprofits including hospitals, universities, and religious organizations.

Netsmart Advances Substance Use Disorder Solution Offerings Through Acquisition of Netalytics

Behavioral health IT vendor Netsmart will acquire Netalytics, an addiction treatment and practice management company based in South Carolina.

Morning Headlines 10/5/23

Athelas + Commure: Merging to Create a $6B Healthcare Infrastructure Company

Remote patient monitoring and RCM vendor Athelas acquires Commure, parent company of PatientKeeper, and announces an undisclosed amount of funding from General Catalyst.

ProHealth Care and Optum Launch Strategic Relationship to Enhance the Health Care Experience for ProHealth Patients

Optum will take over the RCM, IT, informatics, analytics, and inpatient care management operations of ProHealth Care in Wisconsin.

Cortica Closes $40 Million Series D Extension Led by CVS Health Ventures, LRVHealth, and Other Strategic Investors, Bringing Round Total to $115 Million

Tech-enabled autism and neurodivergent care company Cortica raises $115 million in an extended Series D funding round led by CVS Health Ventures.

Morning Headlines 10/4/23

UC San Diego Awarded $9.5 Million to Enhance Cybersecurity in Health Care

University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers will use a $9.5 million award from the HHS-affiliated Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health to develop protocols and solutions that can prevent or reduce the severity of ransomware attacks.

Automated healthcare? Plenful emerges from stealth with $9M to streamline medical admin

Pharmacy-focused workflow automation startup Plenful launches with $9 million in funding.

AHIMA Acquires HCPro

The nonprofit American Health Information Management Association acquires for-profit HCPro, which offers educational and compliance-related RCM resources for healthcare professionals.

Morning Headlines 10/3/23

Health Data Analytics Institute (HDAI) Announces $31 Million Funding Round to Scale Predictive Risk Platform

Health Data Analytics Institute raises $31 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to nearly $50 million.

‘Restructuring historical financial obligations’: Heywood Hospital files for bankruptcy

Heywood Healthcare (MA) files for Chapter 11, citing operational and business challenges that have included a “costly and lengthy” EHR implementation.

Providence Unveils Praia Health, Its Fourth Incubated Technology

Providence’s Digital Innovation Group announces GA of its Praia Health patient identity and engagement software.

Morning Headlines 10/2/23

AHA Responds to Senate RFI on Health Data Privacy

The American Hospital Association asks Congress to withdraw HHS OCR’s December 2022 rule that prohibits hospitals from tracking their website users using third-party technology.

Biogen shutters digital health group, nixes Apple study, as part of cost cuts

Biotech firm Biogen shuts down Biogen Digital Health and lays off 150 employees as the company cuts costs and restructures.

Syra Health Corp. Announces Pricing of Upsized Initial Public Offering

Digital health vendor Syra Health launches an IPO in an effort to raise $6.7 million.

Large Michigan healthcare provider confirms ransomware attack

McLaren Health Care confirms it was the victim of a ransomware attack, and is working to determine if any stolen data has been posted to the dark web.

Morning Headlines 9/29/23

Hospital execs to Lamont, lawmakers: Seal the Yale-Prospect deal

Two hospitals ask the state to expedite their acquisition, with a recent cyberattack leaving them unable to pay bills, but Yale New Haven Health is questioning whether it wants to buy hospitals that use such outdated technology.

Nuance Announces the General Availability of Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot to Further Improve Healthcare Experiences, Outcomes, and Efficiency

Nuance renames DAX Express to DAX Copilot.

Federal Budgetary Effects of the Activities of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation

CBO says that CMMI, which tests new payment models and was projected to produce savings when it was formed in 2010, actually increased federal spending by $5.4 billion through 2020.

Morning Headlines 9/28/23

Virgin Pulse and HealthComp Announce Intent to Merge to Create Comprehensive Employer Health Platform

Member engagement and wellness app vendor Virgin Pulse will merge with HealthComp, which provides health benefits administration.

Nuance Announces the General Availability of Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot to Further Improve Healthcare Experiences, Outcomes, and Efficiency

Microsoft-owned Nuance renames DAX Express — which creates clinical documentation using conversational, ambient, and generative AI — to DAX Copilot.

Tendo to Acquire MDsave, Creating Leading Platform for Patient Engagement and Shoppable Care

Patient engagement software vendor Tendo will acquire healthcare marketplace operator MDsave for $150 million.

Morning Headlines 9/27/23

Datavant Leads in Health Data Exchange: Surpasses Digital Connections to 70,000 Hospitals And Clinics, Acquires Healthjump

Datavant acquires Healthjump.

CommonSpirit Unaudited Financial Report

The140-hospital system says that last year’s ransomware attacked cost it $160 million and it still doesn’t know how much its insurer will pay.

Newcastle Hospitals says computer error lost patient letters

The hospital says a computer system caused 24,000 patient letters, some including clinical results and recommendations, to remain unsent.

Important information to know: Nuance Communication data breach

WVU Medicine announces that the information of some radiology patients was exposed in a breach of Nuance Communications.

Morning Headlines 9/26/23

Costco members now have access to $29 online healthcare visits

Costco partners with Sesame to offer members in all 50 states same-day virtual primary care visits for $29, a lab panel and virtual follow-up for $72, and online mental health visits for $79.

Collaborative Intelligence to catalyze the digital transformation of healthcare

Authors recommend using AI for collaborative intelligence in which humans work in concert with algorithms and are responsible for ensuring their accuracy, completeness, and freedom from bias, with technology evaluated as part of the work it assists rather than on its own.

ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak

Open AI announces that it is rolling out ChatGPT capabilities to conduct voice conversations and analyze photos.

Morning Headlines 9/25/23

Veradigm Inc. Announces Receipt of Nasdaq Delisting Notice and Intent to Appeal

The company says it will file its three overdue financial reports in Q4.

AMIA Announces the 2023 Signature Awards Recipients

AMIA recognizes the accomplishments of several informatics leaders.

FTC Challenges Private Equity Firm’s Scheme to Suppress Competition in Anesthesiology Practices Across Texas

The FTC’s lawsuit includes the company’s private equity owner in what may be a new strategy to hold healthcare company owners accountable.

Morning Headlines 9/22/23

AMA Future of Health issue brief: Commercial Payer Coverage for Digital Medicine Codes

The American Medical Association says that lack of alignment and adoption of CPT codes for digital medicine limits their use.

Value-based payments are making it harder to see your primary care doctor on short notice

Jeffrey Millstein, MD says that value-based care has made it hard to get short-notice appointment with PCPs who are refocusing on managing populations and meeting payer metrics.

Diligent Robotics Closes $25 Million to Advance Systemwide Expansions of Socially-Intelligent Service Robots, Empower Healthcare Professionals

The company expects to triple its Moxi healthcare robot market footprint of 22 health systems using $25 million in new funding. 

Morning Headlines 9/21/23

Epic Systems’ growth means new roads, many changes for Verona

Epic begins construction on its sixth campus and considers building a seventh, with its planned 2024 headcount of 13,300 employees nearly matching that of the entire population of its home town of Verona, WI.

UpHealth subsidiary files for bankruptcy after unfavorable court ruling

UpHealth Holdings, which offers digital-first care management services and virtual care infrastructure, files Chapter 11 bankruptcy following a court’s ruling that it must pay an investment bank its $31 million fee for arranging its 2021 SPAC merger.

Musk’s Neuralink to start human trial of brain implant for paralysis patients

Elon Musk says his startup has received approval to begin human trials of its brain-computer interface implant for paralysis, which will take six years to complete.

AI Startup Corti Raises $60 Million to Take on Microsoft in Health Care

The Denmark-based company, whose voice assistant listens to doctor-patient conversations and makes recommendations based on similar conversations, is valued at $260 million.

Morning Headlines 9/20/23

Oracle Transforms Care Delivery with Next-Generation Millennium EHR and Generative AI Capabilities

Oracle announces “the new Oracle Health EHR platform” at its annual conference, which it says will use the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to offer a modern interface and intuitive processes.

Avel eCare Expands Hospitalist and Senior Care Telemedicine Services with Acquisition of Fident Health

Telemedicine services company Avel ECare acquires Fident Health, a virtual hospitalist business based in Texas.

Bright Health Group Continues to Make Significant Progress Towards ACA Insurance Business Wind-Down

Bright Health announces it has paid 80% of its final ACA insurance business risk adjustment obligations, leaving $380 million still owed to CMS as it continues to close out that business.

Bankrupt Digital Health Company Babylon Sells UK Assets for Just $620,000

Forbes reports that now insolvent digital health company Babylon’s sale of its UK assets fetched a paltry $620,000.

Amenities Health Closes Series A, Raising a Total of $10M to Modernize Health System Digital Front Doors

Amenities Health, a patient acquisition and digital front door software startup based in Dallas, raises $6.25 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 9/19/23

MedSitter Announces Rebranding, Changes Name To Collette Health

Virtual patient observation and analytics company MedSitter rebrands to Collette Health.

Veradigm Inc. Provides Audit Update and Updates Financial Guidance for 2023

Veradigm reports that it is taking longer than anticipated to correct accounting errors that have led to de-listing warnings from Nasdaq, and will thus file yearly and quarterly reports later than expected.

Oracle Brings Generative AI Capabilities to Healthcare

Oracle adds new generative AI-powered Clinical Digital Assistant capabilities to its EHR solutions.

Morning Headlines 9/18/23

Summus Raises $19.5 Million to Expand Solutions Solving the Access Problem in Specialty Care

Summus, which offers virtual access to specialty consults, raises $19.5 million.

VA wraps first-wave EHR fixes, but employees ‘strongly disagree’ it’s ready to move forward

Though the VA has completed its first round of EHR fixes, at least one facility already live on the software is still experiencing frequent outages that force it to revert to downtime procedures.

No ransom to hackers, says Claxton-Hepburn, Carthage Area Hospital CEO

Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center (NY) and Carthage Area Hospital (NY) resume nearly normal operations while they determine if hackers were able to obtain any significant data during a ransomware attack several weeks ago.

Morning Headlines 9/15/23

Senators call on DOD to explain whether its medical records system is causing recruiting delays

Several senators question whether or not the DoD’s new MHS Genesis EHR has caused delays in processing new military recruits.

NHS still reliant on paper notes and drug charts despite electronic upgrades

Seventy-five percent of NHS trusts report they still rely on paper patient notes and drug charts, despite government initiatives to eliminate paper prescribing by 2024 and to implement digital health records at 90% of trusts by the end of 2023.

Apple introduces the advanced new Apple Watch Series 9

The newly announced Apple Watch Series 9 adds the ability to use Siri to request on-device health and fitness information, such as data from connected monitors, and to log health data such as weight and meds.