News 10/16/24

Top News

Walgreens Boots Alliance reports Q4 results: revenue up 6%, EPS -$3.48 versus +$0.21, beating analyst expectations for both and sending shares sharply up.

WBA shares have lost 57% of their value in the past 12 months.

The company announced that it will close 1,200 of its 8,000 drugstores over the next three years. CEO Tim Wentworth said in the earnings call that the company is focused on “monetizing non-core assets to generate cash,” naming VillageMD as an example, to focus on its core retail pharmacy business.

Reader Comments

From Kim: “Re: the NotebookLM podcast you created. I enjoyed listening to the 5-minute weekly news summary and found it easier to digest than reading. Lately the amount of information has been overwhelming so I very much appreciated the summary at the end.” The AI-generated podcast that recaps the top five news item from the week (chosen by me) took me just a couple of minutes to create. I created a poll for readers to express their interest or lack of it. I’m happy to do it regularly if enough readers are interested.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

HLTH USA attendees – consider connecting with HIStalk sponsors that are participating.

Webinars

October 24 (Thursday) noon ET. “Preparing for HTI-2 Compliance: What EHR and Health IT Vendors Need to Know.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Tyler Higgins, senior director of product management, DrFirst. Failure to meet ASTP’s mandatory HTI-2 certification  and compliance standards could impose financial consequences on clients. The presenters will discuss the content and timelines of this key policy update, which includes NCPDP Script upgrades, mandatory support for electronic prior authorization, and real-time prescription benefit. They will offer insight into the impact on “Base EHR” qualifications and provide practical advice on aligning development roadmaps with these changes.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

CVS Health will exit its infusion business and close or sell 29 related regional pharmacies. The company bought infusion company Coram for $2.1 billion in 2013.

UnitedHealth Group reports Q3 results: revenue up 9%, EPS $6.51 versus $6.24, beating expectations for both, but shares dropped sharply on the news. CEO Andrew Witty said in the earnings call that health system partnerships will provide significant opportunities. The company reported that the Change Healthcare cyberattack will cost it $705 million.

UK-based health tech market intelligence form Signify Research receives an $8 million investment from UK investment company BGF.

MDisrupt, which offers a health technology expert marketplace, receives a $1 million milestone-based investment from the American Heart Association’s newly created venture arm.

Practice management system vendor ClinicMind acquires ChiroDominance, which offers a marketing system for chiropractic offices.

People

Matthew Michela, MBA (Curve Health) joins Flywheel as CEO.

The Christ Hospital Health Network names Joyce Oh CIO and digital transformation officer.

RLDatix names Dan Michelson, MBA (InCommon) as CEO.

Industry long-timer David Wattling, who held leadership positions at Courtyard Group and Telus and served on the boards of several companies, died October 1. He was 69.

Symplr Chief Nursing Officer and former hospital executive Karlene Kerfoot, PhD, RN died Tuesday.

Announcements and Implementations

WhidbeyHealth (WA) goes live on Meditech Expanse with consulting assistance from Tegria.

In New York, Columbia Memorial Health, Glens Falls Hospital, and Saratoga Hospital will go live on Epic early next month, rounding out Albany Med Health System’s implementation.

Oracle Health introduces Clinical Data Exchange for the automated exchange of claims processing data between providers and payers.

Jupiter Medical Center (FL) implements Epic with help from Cordea Consulting Solutions.

Digital identity vendor AllClear ID launches Health Bank One, an app that allows people to collect their medical records — including images —  and then ask questions about the information, with answers provided by GPT-4o. The system processes digital and hard copy records from all providers, payers, and pharmacies, which are required to provide the information by the 21st Century Cures Act. A subscription costs $14.95 per month and a 30-day trial is free.

Government and Politics

The VA Fayetteville Coastal Health Care system in North Carolina opens a Virtual Health Resource Center to offer veterans assistance with digital health tools offered through the VA’s Connected Care program and VA clinicians training on how to incorporate them into care workflows. The VA offers 47 VHRCs across the country.

Privacy and Security

RCM, compliance, and coding vendor Gryphon Healthcare notifies 400,000 individuals of a third-party data breach that may have exposed patient information.

UMC Health (TX) restores its EHR after a ransomware attack several weeks ago forced it to divert ambulances and enact downtime procedures. UMC is still working to restore its patient-facing systems and internal patient care programs.

Sponsor Updates

• Clinical Architecture staff volunteer at the Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, serving 1,947 households in the Indianapolis area.
• AGS Health announces that Everest Group has named it a leader in revenue cycle management operations for the fourth consecutive year.
• Arcadia publishes a new report, “The healthcare CIO’s role in the age of AI.”
• Artera debuts three new products at its Heartbeat Customer Conference.
• AvaSure honors the 2024 AvaPrize winners for virtual care excellence.
• Capital Rx announces that co-founder and CTO Ryan Kelly and SVP of Strategy Josh Golden have been named to the Class of 2024 BenefitsPro Luminaries in the Innovation & Technology and Education & Communication categories, respectively.
• Consensus Cloud Solutions will exhibit at the Arizona Hospital Leadership Conference October 16-18 in Tucson.
• CloudWave will present at and sponsor the HIMSS Central and Southern Ohio conference October 18 in Dublin, OH.
• DrFirst will exhibit at the NAACOs Fall Conference October 16-18 in Washington, DC.
• Netsmart announces the implementation of the 360X electronic closed-loop referral management standards with LifeWorks NorthWest (OR).
• AdvancedMD announces its Fall 2024 Product Release, with 30 updates and features that include new two-way patient messaging capabilities.
• Goliath Technologies partners with 1E to offer health IT end users a combined solution for EHR performance review and management.

Blog Posts

• Top seven considerations for leaders prioritizing patient engagement (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• 2024 MIPS Update – Once Per Reporting (AdvancedMD)
• Enhancing Healthcare Efficiency: Tackling the Challenges of Clinical Administrative Burdens (AGS Health)
• Rethinking burnout (Altera Digital Health)
• Key Takeaways from the CDO Era: How Health Systems Can Drive Real Innovation (Amenities Health)
• Unlocking the Power of Clinical Analytics: Insights from Lee Clark, CEO ASO Data Services (Ascom Americas)
• Improving Clinical Data Quality to Strengthen Patient Care Summaries and Outcomes (Availity)
• The Importance of a Flexible Biosimilar Strategy (Capital Rx)
• How to Win the Epic Staffing Game (CereCore)
• Can Data and AI Help Reduce Physician Burnout? (Dimensional Insight)
• Beyond the Resume: How to Stand Out in an Interview (Direct Recruiters)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 10/15/24

Resilience Lab Expands Care Delivery for Treatment-Resistant Depression and Other Moderate and Severe Mental Illnesses with the Acquisition of Options MD

Resilience Lab, a digital healthcare company that matches patients with virtual and in-office therapists, acquires virtual mental healthcare provider Options MD, including its proprietary clinical intake and AI-powered clinical decision support software.

Gryphon Healthcare, LLC Notifies Individuals of Data Security Incident

Medical billing company Gryphon Healthcare notifies 400,000 individuals of a third-party data breach that may have exposed patient information.

UMC’s electronic health record systems restored over two weeks after ransomware attack

UMC Health (TX) restores its computer systems after a ransomware attack in late September forced it to divert ambulances and enact downtime procedures.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 10/14/24

As a longstanding supporter of virtual health care, an article published this week in JAMA caught my attention. It addresses the issue of disability rights and accessibility in virtual healthcare.

I’ve been involved in discussions of accessibility in health tech for more than two decades, watching features evolve from those that are requested by software customers as “enhancements” for young EHR products to those that are mandated by federal certification requirements. Some of these are fairly straightforward, such as ensuring appropriate contrast for text, ensuring that color is not used as the sole indicator of something being an alert or concerning value, and compatibility with screen reader technology. Others are a bit more nuanced and generate discussion, but those conversations taper off when people realize they aren’t going to get around a certification requirement.

At one point in my career, I was working entirely in the realm of certified EHR technology and began to take these things for granted. Only when I moved into consulting and working with technology startups did I realize how some vendors lacked an understanding of basic usability principles, let alone accessibility standards. I can’t count the number of conversations I’ve been in where I’ve had to explain that the requirements are linked to specific health conditions, such as red-green colorblindness or macular degeneration, and that health tech companies should probably try to do the right thing regardless of whether they have a regulated product or solution. I understand that adding features adds to development costs, but often it costs the same to develop a product that’s compliant as it does to ignore the needs of end users. Font and color / contrast are good examples of this.

There are reasons other than documented health conditions to develop in certain ways, one being the needs of an aging workforce. Now that I’m past a certain age, I would wholeheartedly support efforts to help early-career solution developers understand the various physical changes that come with age. They may not be enough to qualify as a “diagnosis,” but for many of us, the likelihood that we can get meaningful work done on a 13-inch laptop versus a 24-inch monitor is low. I’m more sensitive to bad ergonomic configurations than I was 20 years ago, that’s for sure. For me, some of these factors are merely an inconvenience, but for patients and clinicians who have additional needs, these factors serve as barriers to the giving and receiving of quality care.

The JAMA article notes that this summer brought new federal regulations that cover the accessibility of websites and mobile apps for state-run and federally funded health programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and public hospitals. However, it notes that “disabilities are diverse” and the lack of one-size-fits-all solutions means that many resources are simply inaccessible. It goes on to specifically explore the inaccessible nature of many virtual health solutions, including “incompatibility with screen-reading software, a lack of captioning, and interfaces that are difficult to navigate.”

I recently tried to explore a virtual health solution using my phone, but couldn’t even request an appointment because the calendar interface that was selected by the developers prevents you from keying in your date of birth. Instead, you were supposed to scroll back month by month to your date of birth, which in the case of some people in my household, would have required 600 swipes. How’s that for welcoming people over 50 to the platform? Frankly even if I were much more youthful, I wouldn’t want to use such a horrible user interface.

The accessibility requirements extend to entities that accept Medicare, Medicaid, or other government funds, including small independent care providers. Those types of entities have three years to meet the requirements, where larger organizations have two years to do so. Third-party solution providers will need to gear up to meet the needs of their clients on the appropriate timeline, since failure of an organization to comply violates the law. I’ll be interested to see how quickly technology providers begin promoting themselves as “WCAG compliant” since it’s version 2.1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines that are required in the new regulations. Bonus points to the first exhibitor I see at HLTH that promotes this designation.

I’ll admit that I don’t know the details of compliance since it’s not an area that I’m working in. But in thinking of all the third-party or homegrown chatbot and patient portal solutions that are out there, I’m betting that consultants are at the ready to assist as organizations work to assess where they stand. I’m also wondering whether this might push some smaller practices to begin to assess the pros and cons of opting out of Medicare (which many are already considering) versus having to replace technology solutions. I have a number of colleagues who have transitioned their practices to Direct Primary Care models where they don’t interact with public funding at all, and if people are on the fence about that change, I bet something like this might just be the thing that pushes them over.

Although I do love me some good Federal Register reading, I’m not exactly feeling it tonight. I’m hoping readers who are experts in this area might consider pointing me to some summary resources, or even send me their comments to share in a future post.

I would also be curious to know whether the patients who these regulations are intended to help think that the regulations are adequate or if more needs to be done to improve accessibility on a faster timetable. I’m also curious whether any part of these regulations address the diverse needs of healthcare providers or whether they’re entirely patient-centric.

If you’re with a third party that is addressing these requirements or is already compliant, I would enjoy hearing how the process worked for you and what the relative effort was like. It’s important for all of us to understand the work that goes into healthcare IT to make it work for everyone who uses healthcare services.

What’s your take on accessibility in virtual care? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Readers Write: The Uncomfortable Truth About Healthcare Data

The Uncomfortable Truth About Healthcare Data
By Mike Green

Mike Green, MBA is chief information security officer of Availity.

Cyberattacks have become an all-too-common occurrence, with no industry immune from their effects. In healthcare, the stakes have reached unprecedented levels, with the FBI recently identifying the sector as the top ransomware target.

Consider that in 2023, healthcare data breaches that impacted 500 or more records were reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at a rate of 1.99 per day. The results of that equate to a whopping 364,571 healthcare record breaches every day and 133 million records exposed or impermissibly disclosed in 2023 alone.

Data like this, combined with lessons learned from previous cyberattacks, reveal the uncomfortable truth that healthcare data is increasingly vulnerable. Hardware, software, and the information that runs through it are more interconnected than ever. The vital nature of healthcare’s digital infrastructure, combined with increased cyber threats, magnify the vulnerability of this connectedness further.

Reflect on this year’s example in which a major clearinghouse experienced one of the worst cyberattacks in the history of the US healthcare sector, affecting up to one-third of the U.S. population. What makes this incident stand out is the company’s crucial role as a healthcare clearinghouse.

As digital super-highways, healthcare clearinghouses connect the healthcare ecosystem, routing billions of electronic transactions between health plans and providers and streamlining administrative processes that are associated with claims, prior authorizations, and provider payments. Yet today, under HIPAA, the closest thing to an information security standard is a catch-all “reasonable efforts” expectation. Such a standard, or lack thereof, was wholly inadequate to protect hundreds of thousands of providers and millions of patients across the interconnected healthcare landscape from this unprecedented cyberattack.

Members of Congress have caught on, announcing the proposed Health Infrastructure Security and Accountability Act in late September, which aims to direct HHS to craft a new set of minimum cybersecurity standards for healthcare providers, health plans, clearinghouses, and business associates. As calls for change such as this highlight, to truly improve cybersecurity across the US healthcare system and prevent this from happening again, the industry—and clearinghouses in particular—must do more to safeguard and swiftly recover with minimal disruptions.

The following best practices can help bolster cybersecurity posture and speed recovery time for healthcare organizations that are impacted by attacks.

• There is a pressing need to establish mandatory cybersecurity standards for all clearinghouses. The days of “please see attached HITRUST certification” are gone. That is simply not enough, and the false sense of security provided by these certifications is dangerous. These standards should be updated regularly to address evolving threats. Clearinghouses should be required to disclose the scope of their information security programs and demonstrate compliance with highly specific security standards, such as the US Defense Information Systems Agency Provisional Authorization Impact Level 2 (DISA IL2), which maintains cloud computing security requirements and the National Institute of Standards and Technology SP 800-171, a standard for safeguarding sensitive information on federal contractors’ IT systems and networks.
• Clearinghouses should also comply with SOC-2, a security framework that was developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). SOC-2 specifies how organizations should protect customer data from unauthorized access and is built around five Trust Services Criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Not all healthcare organizations comply with SOC-2 criteria. Clearinghouses should be required to fully implement these cybersecurity standards, adjusting criteria over time to keep pace with evolving threats.
• It is crucial to implement stringent disaster recovery and business continuity standards. These standards should include annual reviews by boards of directors and mock cyberattack exercises to ensure preparedness. Clearinghouses must demonstrate the capability to recover from disruptions swiftly, with recovery times measured in hours and days, not weeks and months. Moreover, Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point Objectives should be shared with clients annually, with these metrics audited by credible third parties.
• Streamlining the administrative processes for providers is also essential. Simplifying and standardizing the enrollment process for electronic data interchange (EDI) with Medicare and Medicaid will reduce redundant requirements and enhance efficiency. Establishing a unified, automated EDI enrollment system across all Medicaid and Medicare programs will further ease the administrative burden on healthcare providers, saving time and money while ensuring the ability to run practices through a disruption of service to the primary clearinghouse.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to addressing cyber threats in healthcare, the establishment of such clear standards and accountability measures can help better ensure the resiliency and security of the entire digital infrastructure. Strengthened cybersecurity practices can also instill confidence in the integrity of the healthcare ecosystem, which connects patients, providers, payers, and other stakeholders alike.

HIStalk’s Guide to HLTH 2024

Amenities Health

Booth 4038

Contact: Aasim Saeed, founder and CEO
aasim@amenitieshealth.com
832.607.5778

Amenities Health is a leading digital front-door platform focused on helping health systems to strengthen patient loyalty and boost revenue. At HLTH 2024, we’ll showcase an interactive demonstration of how health systems are enhancing their patient portals, mobile apps, and websites with the Amenities platform. Our solutions streamline digital interactions, accelerating patient registration, improving care search and scheduling, and offering memberships that drive deeper patient engagement.

Artera

Booth V-4127

Contact: Elyssa Jaffe, director of events
elyssa.jaffe@artera.io
904.536.7790

Visit us at our booth! Our team will be available throughout the event (booth V-4127) to share insights, best practices, and demonstrations. Schedule and attend a meeting with an Artera team member and earn a $25 Amazon gift card. As an added bonus, you’ll be entered to win an iPad Pro in our post-event raffle.

Clearwater

Booth #3210 in the ScaleHealth Pavilion

Contact: John Howlett, chief marketing officer
john.howlett@clearwatersecurity.com
773.636.6449

Investments in new technology must be coupled with greater investment in cybersecurity. And not just by hospitals and health systems, but also by the health IT companies and the broader ecosystem that is a target of cyberattacks. Reputations, balance sheets, and most importantly, patient lives are at stake. Clearwater is here to help with a deep pool of experts across a broad range of cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance domains; purpose-built software that enables efficient identification and management of cybersecurity and compliance risks; managed cloud services; and a 24/7 Security Operations Center with managed threat detection and response capabilities.

Clinical Architecture

Booth V-1525

Contact: Jaime Lira, VP of marketing
jaime_lira@clinicalarchitecture.com

Visit the Clinical Architecture viosk (V-1525) located near the HLTH café on the showroom floor to get your copy of the 2024 Healthcare Data Quality Report. We will have digital copies along with a limited number of print copies available. While you’re there, let’s talk about how you are managing patient data. Clinical Architecture data quality solutions have delivered real ROI to health systems, payer organizations, life sciences enterprises, government, and others. Our terminology solutions are designed to improve healthcare data quality, provide a platform to enable the aggregation of clinical data, automate semantic normalization and interoperability, and enrich your data to make it meaningful and actionable. We are looking forward to seeing you at HLTH!

Get-to-Market Health

Contact: Steve Shihadeh, founder and CEO
steve@gettomarkethealth.net

The continued pace of transformation in healthcare creates enormous pressure on technology companies to adapt and deliver clear value. Get-to-Market Health (GTMH) was formed to address this challenge. Whether a company needs to accelerate its top-line growth following an investment round or is bringing new products to market, GTMH helps healthcare technology leaders market, sell, and create sustainable long-term relationships with their customers. We are on a mission to help optimize healthcare technology sales.

Medicomp Systems

Booth V-4425

Contact: James Aita, director of strategy and business development
jaita@medicomp.com
647.207.0080

Medicomp will showcase the latest in what can be done with AI and clinical intelligence at the point of care. Leveraging its patented Quippe Clinical Knowledge Graph, Medicomp will display the new “intelligent hybrid model” for usability, documentation, and compliance during a patient encounter. Mirroring a clinician’s thought process, the Quippe Clinical Intelligence Engine makes chart review, documentation and review, risk analysis, compliance, billing, and interoperability faster and easier than ever before. See for yourself at HLTH 2024 booth V-4425.

MRO

Booth V-1628

Contact: Brad Hawkins, national director, health plan sales
bhawkins@mrocorp.com
601.405.2470

MRO is accelerating the exchange of clinical data throughout the healthcare ecosystem on behalf of providers, payers, and users of clinical data. With a 20-year legacy and as a 10-time KLAS winner, MRO brings a technology-driven mindset built upon a client-first service foundation and a relentless focus on client excellence. For more information on how MRO is empowering providers with proven, enterprise-wide solutions to exchange clinical data of every type and scale, visit www.mrocorp.com.    

Reasons to stop by the MRO booth:  

• Ask us how we helped CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield deliver an average 63% increase in annual HEDIS quality measures.   
• Learn about our ever-growing network of providers and connectivity with over 250 health IT systems.  
• Learn how our DAV certification guarantees high data quality and compliance, facilitates reliable clinical reporting, and enhances overall operations and financial performance.    
• Ask how our Exchange Nexus solution speeds chart retrieval time from months to 24 hours.

Surescripts

Booth 2419

Contact: Kate Giaquinto, PR manager
kate.giaquinto@surescripts.com

Surescripts’ purpose is to serve the nation through simpler, trusted health intelligence sharing in order to increase patient safety, lower costs, and ensure quality care. At Surescripts, we align healthcare organizations across the nation and convene the Surescripts Network Alliance to give healthcare professionals the trusted insights they need to serve patients.   Visit us at surescripts.com.

TrustCommerce, a Sphere Company

Schedule a meeting with Chief Revenue Officer Ryne Natzke or VP of Partnerships Rick Follett here.

Contact: Ryan Natzke, chief revenue officer
rynen@spherecommerce.com

TrustCommerce, a Sphere Company, is the leading financial technology company trusted by the nation’s largest health systems. Our integrated payment platform facilitates secure, compliant patient payments. Using TrustCommerce to enhance the patient financial experience, clients can securely process payments anytime, anywhere and be connected with core software including EHRs like Epic, Veradigm, and Athenahealth.

WellSky

Contact: Mark Heron, SVP of sales
mark.heron@wellsky.com
610.662.1428

WellSky solutions connect thousands of providers across the US. The end-to-end solution set bridges acute and post-acute data, providing visibility and collaboration for the entire patient journey for providers, physicians, payers, and risk-bearing organizations. Schedule a time with us during HLTH to see how WellSky solutions help healthcare professionals efficiently and effectively coordinate patient care to better manage patients and influence their care as they move through the continuum. Contact Mark Heron at HLTH to learn more.

Morning Headlines 10/14/24

Elad Gil’s Latest AI Bet Is in Health

Ambient documentation vendor Abridge is reportedly raising a $250 million investment that values the company at $2.5 billion.

DEA poised to extend telehealth prescribing rules again

The Drug Enforcement Administration suggests that it will again extend rules that allow prescribing controlled substances from telehealth encounters.

Rhysida Leaks Nursing Home Data, Demands $1.5M From Axis

A ransomware group threatens to publish patient data from Colorado-based behavioral and long-term care provider Axis Health System unless it pays $1.5 million.

Monday Morning Update 10/14/24

Top News

Ambient documentation vendor Abridge is reportedly raising a $250 million investment that values the company at $2.5 billion.

Reader Comments

From Snarkopotamus: “Re: Particle Health and Epic. Which one comes across as the protector of patient privacy?” Clearly Epic, considering that Particle got caught and admitted selling access to patient data to companies that had no business obtaining it. However, that misses the point – Particle’s customers are not necessarily motivated by patient privacy and instead are paying a middleman to give them perhaps their first unfettered access to patient data. Therefore, as a business model, I wouldn’t expect Carequality’s dispute findings to hurt venture capital-funded Particle. As a health system, I might be appalled that Particle signed up a malpractice law firm to trawl my patient data and be glad that Epic caught them. Then I would wonder whether companies other than Epic would have been equally zealous, if this incident will give data-sharing a black eye, whether legal or HHS OCR action might result, or how the nebulous definition of “treatment” could be sharpened. Meanwhile, Particle Health CEO Jason Prestinario posted this on LinkedIn following the Carequality dispute resolution:

While the resolution sets the stage for more transparent health information exchange, it does not change our conviction in our antitrust complaint against Epic, and in fact strengthens it.  Everything we’ve seen shows that Epic’s actions during the course of this dispute served their own monopolistic business goals over the needs of customers and patients.

From Mayonnaise: “Re: [health system name omitted]. CIO to retire effective November 1 with no interim named yet. Most staff caught completely by surprise. He’s largely already done.” Unverified, so I expunged the organization’s name until I can dig further. I am dismayed that Internet Archive is down from a cyberattack and Google has removed the ability to view cached versions of a webpage, so I can’t see if the leadership page has changed.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Poll respondents aren’t buying the argument of Oracle Health EVP Seema Verma that her company is better positioned than Epic to solve the biggest problems of health systems.

New poll to your right or here: What apps do you sneak a look at >3 times per one-hour live or virtual meeting? I ran this awhile back and e-mail was the winner by far, suggesting that the respondents found it to be more interesting than the meeting.

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Goliath Technologies. Goliath is the only purpose-built health IT observability solution providing complete provider experience visibly so health IT can proactively manage a high-quality EHR experience for providers and their corresponding patient interactions. We allow health IT professionals to anticipate EHR speed and reliability issues before they impact users, troubleshoot them quickly when they do with AI-enhanced contextual data, and document the root cause of issues so they can be fixed permanently. Only Goliath provides a common set of facts so clinical and HIT teams can have productive conversations around improving EHR speed and reliability for providers. Now, both clinical and HIT can know which providers are impacted, the frequency and duration, and root cause so issues can be resolved. Goliath is a member of the KLAS Arch Collaborative and the only health IT solution with purpose-built modules for the largest EHR applications, an exclusive partnership with Oracle Cerner, and is featured in the Epic Showroom Connection Hub. Thanks to Goliath for supporting HIStalk.

Here’s a well-done explainer video for Goliath titled “Provider EHR Experience Observability.”

Webinars

October 15 (Tuesday) noon ET. “AI in Practice: How Privia Health Empowers Doctors to Win at Value-Based Care.” Sponsors: Navina and Athenahealth. Presenters: Dana McCalley, MBA, VP of value-based care, Navina; Michael McDonnell, strategic account executive, Navina; Francheska Feliciano, director of risk adjustment, Privia Health. The panelists will share practical insight from Privia Health’s experience that are applicable for users of any EHR, focusing on strategies to improve collaboration between clinical teams and coders, reduce administrative burden, and ensure accurate HCC capture at the point of care. The presenters will offer strategies for streamlining value-based workflows across clinical and coding teams, reducing friction and administrative burden, and improving value-based performance and risk adjustment accuracy by empowering clinicians with AI at the point of care.

October 24 (Thursday) noon ET. “Preparing for HTI-2 Compliance: What EHR and Health IT Vendors Need to Know.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Tyler Higgins, senior director of product management, DrFirst. Failure to meet ASTP’s mandatory HTI-2 certification  and compliance standards could impose financial consequences on clients. The presenters will discuss the content and timelines of this key policy update, which includes NCPDP Script upgrades, mandatory support for electronic prior authorization, and real-time prescription benefit. They will offer insight into the impact on “Base EHR” qualifications and provide practical advice on aligning development roadmaps with these changes.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare advisory firm VMG Health acquires Carnahan Group, which offers provider advisory and technology services. 

Sales

• Riverside Health (VA) will implement Abridge.

People

Matthew Smith (Medhost) joins Health Systems Informatics as VP of business development.

Sheri Stoltenberg, who founded Stoltenberg Consulting and served as its CEO since 1995, retires.

Announcements and Implementations

Abridge will include links to relevant evidence from Wolters Kluwer Health’s UpToDate clinical decision support reference in Abridge-created ambient documentation notes.

Government and Politics

A federal jury finds that consulting firm Cognizant discriminated against US IT workers by exploiting H-1B visa loopholes to favor Indian employees in hiring, promotions, and terminations. The 11-year-old original complaint noted that 12% of the US IT industry employees are from Southeast Asia versus Cognizant’s 75%. Punitive damages will be imposed later. Cognizant says it will appeal.

Bloomberg reports that a federal magistrate judge has struck down as unconstitutional the 100-year-old Texas statute that has allowed Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate businesses and non-profits, including out-of-state hospitals that provide gender-affirming care.

The Drug Enforcement Administration suggests that it will again extend rules that allow prescribing controlled substances from telehealth encounters.

Privacy and Security

A ransomware group threatens to publish patient data from Colorado-based behavioral and long-term care provider Axis Health System unless it pays $1.5 million.  

Sponsor Updates

• Redox adopts Google Cloud as part of a multi-cloud strategy.
• RLDatix sponsors the American Society for Health Care Risk Management 2024 Innovation Award presented to Advent Health.
• Sectra will exhibit at Pathology Visions 2024 November 3-5 in Orlando.
• Waystar will exhibit at the AMBA Annual Conference October 17-18 in Las Vegas.
• WellSky will exhibit at the ACMA regional conference October 12 in Richmond, VA.
• Altera Digital Health, Care.ai, CereCore, Clearsense, Clearwater, CliniComp, Divurgent, Ellkay, InterSystems, Meditech, Nordic, Optimum Healthcare IT, and Rhapsody will sponsor the CHIME Fall Forum November 4-8 in San Diego.

Blog Posts

• Best Practices, Automation, and Acceleration: 3 Key Takeaways from Noteworthy 2024 (Notable Health)
• Meaningful Automation Strategies for Empowering Clinical Staff (Netsmart)
• Beyond the Chart: EHR-Induced Burnout (and What to Do About it) (Nordic)
• Manage Your Data as a Strategic Asset (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• Maximizing Efficiency with Part-Time IT Resources (Revuud)
• How Sophia Genetics Leverages Rhapsody to Revolutionize Genomic Data Interpretation (Rhapsody)
• 6 Ways TruBridge Encoder Beats the Competition (TruBridge)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 10/11/24

Glooko Secures $100 Million Series F Financing and Appoints Mike Alvarez as Chief Executive Officer

Diabetes digital health vendor Glooko raises $100 million in a Series F funding round.

Healthcare startup Suki raises $70 million to build AI assistants for hospitals

Ambient documentation software vendor Suki raises $70 million in a Series D funding round that values the company at $500 million.

Fullscript Acquires Rupa Health

Nutritional supplement ordering technology vendor Fullscript acquires Rupa, which offers a specialty lab ordering system.

News 10/11/24

Top News

Carequality issues its final resolution on the Particle Health versus Epic dispute.

Particle is suing Epic, charging it with antitrust behavior for shutting off data to Particle customers to suppress competition in the payer software market. Epic countered by claiming that it caught Particle customers extracting data for non-treatment purposes, such as researching malpractice lawsuits, in violation of Carequality’s policies. Particle’s lawsuit remains active.

A summary of the resolution, which both companies accepted:

• Carequality found that two of Particle’s customers were accessing data for non-treatment purposes and is investigating the third company that Epic questioned. Particle had already ended its agreements with the two companies and Carequality banned them from network participation for 12 months. The company names were redacted in the published version of the resolution.
• Particle should require prospective customers to document their relationship with providers, such as copies of their business associate agreements.
• Particle had vetted the three questionable customers but failed to discover the inaccurate information that those customers had provided to it. Particle agreed to a six-month corrective action plan in which will send Carequality a list of new customers with their application documentation.
• Carequality reaffirmed that Epic can shut off data access for questionable users and determined that, contrary to Particle’s claims, it did not treat Particle any differently than other Implementers. Epic agreed to use consistent, objective criteria when it denies service and to share its Phonebook Policy and the outcomes of each entry that it reviews every month for the next 6 months. UPDATE: I originally referred to this as a corrective action plan, which it is not.
• The resolution sided with Particle on the technical issue of whether requests should be tagged as originating from Particle or should instead indicate the individual Particle customer’s ID. Epic had claimed that Particle was intentionally hiding the origina of the data requests.

Both companies declared that Carequality’s resolution was favorable to their organizations. Particle says that the resolution invalidates Epic’s original dispute filing and requires Epic to be more open and transparent. Epic says that the three Particle customers that it claimed were violating the treatment-only provision were verified by Carequality as indeed doing so and have either lost their access or face further actions.

Carequality will tighten its documentation process for new Implementers that relates to Applicant Business Rules and documentation of any claimed provider relationships.

Webinars

October 15 (Tuesday) noon ET. “AI in Practice: How Privia Health Empowers Doctors to Win at Value-Based Care.” Sponsors: Navina and Athenahealth. Presenters: Dana McCalley, MBA, VP of value-based care, Navina; Michael McDonnell, strategic account executive, Navina; Francheska Feliciano, director of risk adjustment, Privia Health. The panelists will share practical insight from Privia Health’s experience that are applicable for users of any EHR, focusing on strategies to improve collaboration between clinical teams and coders, reduce administrative burden, and ensure accurate HCC capture at the point of care. The presenters will offer strategies for streamlining value-based workflows across clinical and coding teams, reducing friction and administrative burden, and improving value-based performance and risk adjustment accuracy by empowering clinicians with AI at the point of care.

October 24 (Thursday) noon ET. “Preparing for HTI-2 Compliance: What EHR and Health IT Vendors Need to Know.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Tyler Higgins, senior director of product management, DrFirst. Failure to meet ASTP’s mandatory HTI-2 certification  and compliance standards could impose financial consequences on clients. The presenters will discuss the content and timelines of this key policy update, which includes NCPDP Script upgrades, mandatory support for electronic prior authorization, and real-time prescription benefit. They will offer insight into the impact on “Base EHR” qualifications and provide practical advice on aligning development roadmaps with these changes.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Diabetes digital health vendor Glooko raises $100 million in a Series F funding round. The company also announced that it has replaced CEO Russ Johannesson with medical device executive Mike Alvarez, MBA.

Ambient documentation software vendor Suki raises $70 million in a Series D funding round that values the company at $500 million.

Laudio publishes a book titled “Leader Inspired Work: Insights and Tools by and for Healthcare Managers,” which was authored by Laudio co-founder Tim Darling.

Nutritional supplement ordering technology vendor Fullscript acquires Rupa, which offers a specialty lab ordering system.

Sales

• Griffin Health (CT) will implement EHR-integrated personalized patient experience software from Vyne Medical.

People

Healthmonix promotes Michael Lewis, MBA to VP of customer success.

TeleTracking Technologies promotes Anita Dressel, MS to president, replacing Nigel Ohrenstein.

Anthony Leon (Trove Health) joins B.well Connected Health as RVP of sales.

Announcements and Implementations

Elsevier Health expands access to its ClinicalKey AI decision support tool to individual medical residents and physicians.

Duke Health will collaborate with NTT Data to create a technology-drive home care model that includes a virtual agent, automation, device interoperability, remote patient monitoring, and a patient app and portal.

Microsoft announces healthcare-related AI enhancements:

• Multimodal AI models that integrate medical imaging, genomics, and clinical records.
• Healthcare data solutions for Microsoft Fabric: conversational data integration, social determinants of health (SDOH) public dataset transformation, care management analytics, CMS  claim and claim line feed (CCLF) data ingestion, and data discovery and cohorting.
• A public preview of healthcare agent service in Copilot Studio to build Copilot agents for appointment scheduling, clinical trial matching, and patient triaging.

Sponsor Updates

• Findhelp customer and community success teams donate supplies to the little free food pantry at an elementary school in Austin, TX.
• Wolters Kluwer Health celebrates a decade of bringing VSim for Nursing virtual nursing education and innovation to students.
• Ellkay will sponsor the CommonWell Health Alliance Fall Summit November 4-5 in Nashville.
• Five9 publishes a new case study, “VSP Delivers Self-Service to 12M with Five9 IVA.”
• WellSky’s annual “Evolution of Care” report finds that hospitals are struggling to find post-acute care options for their patients.
• The Healthcare Market Matrix Podcast features Healthcare Growth Partners Managing Director Christoper McCord, “Navigating a Health IT Market in Flux: Key Insights as We Head Into Q4.”
• Healthmonix will exhibit at the NAACOS Fall 2024 Conference October 16-18 in Washington, DC.
• Impact Advisors will present at the OR Manager Conference October 29 in Las Vegas.
• Laudio publishes a new book, “Leader Inspired Work: Insights and Tools by and for Healthcare Managers” by Laudio co-founder and Laudio Insights President Tim Darling.
• Medicomp Systems announces the re-architecture of its Quippe Solutions to the W3C web component standard.
• Meditech staff take part in hands-on development and testing of FHIR during the HL7 International 38th Annual Plenary, WGM+, and HL7 FHIR Connectathon in Atlanta.

Blog Posts

• Sunoh.ai – A New Horizon in Pain Management (EClinicalWorks)
• Improving Collaboration Between Healthcare Providers and Payers (FinThrive)
• Healthcare Cybersecurity Threats: September 2024 (Fortified Health Security)
• Electronic Medical Records Retrieval Myths: Common Challenges and Misconceptions (Inovalon)
• Building Trust in Healthcare Data (Konza National Network)
• 6 Takeaways from Meditech Live 2024 (Meditech)
• Three Key Questions for Evaluating Healthcare Integration Engine Performance (Med Tech Solutions)
• Exploring the Future of Payer-Provider Data Exchange: Insights from MRO and CHIME’s Recent Research Report (MRO)
• Improve Patient Satisfaction by Empowering Your Rehab Therapy Team (Net Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 10/10/24

Just in time for the winter respiratory virus season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new respiratory illness resources. New Community Snapshot content shows viral activity in different ways, including overall viral activity, wastewater viral levels, and emergency department visits. The site is scheduled to be updated on Fridays, with additional data elements added over time, including hospitalization trends.

Although COVID is on the decline in my area, we are just starting to see an uptick in RSV and influenza, so don’t forget to wash your hands, stay home if you’re sick, and make sure that you’re up to date on appropriate vaccinations. Given the respiratory crud that plagues many of us during conference season, I made sure I’m current for both COVID and influenza before hitting the ground at HLTH.

From Foodie: “Re: dangers of AI in clinical documentation. Have you seen this piece about the dangers of AI-created recipes?” I hadn’t seen it, but appreciate the share. I enjoy cooking and difficult enough sometimes to get a recipe to turn out correctly even when it comes from a reputable and well-tested source, so I’m not usually a fan of recipes from food influencers. (I admit, however, that I recently transcribed a recipe for crumpets from an online chef, which resulted in the need to acquire crumpet rings, and at some point, I will be testing it out so I’m not going to say never on that one.) The article lists examples such as one where a Twitter user entered prompts that led a recipe generator to suggest mixing bleach and ammonia, which creates fumes that are incompatible with life. Food bloggers are understandably worried about AI competition and note that AI can’t explore food from a sensory perspective to determine whether the recipes it creates are good. Other recipe creators have the same concerns that many have voiced about AI, including lack of attribution when content is used to train a model and intellectual property concerns.

Speaking of food-related adventures, a Harvard medical student decided to become his own science project and consumed 700 eggs during a month-long experiment. Despite taking in a tremendous amount of cholesterol, his own cholesterol values declined during the month. It should be noted that the subject’s cholesterol values were good prior to the experiment and that he’s a young, otherwise healthy individual, which is not the case for anyone. You and I don’t hare a physician / patient relationship, but this doctor is telling you not to eat 24 eggs a day. The student embarked on the project to make a point about messaging around diets as well as to encourage greater research in the field of metabolic health.

Several recruiters have reached out to me in recent weeks to try to lure me back to the in-person adventures of the emergency department. I know from speaking with former colleagues that quite a few emergency physicians have hung up their stethoscopes in the years since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Maybe it was the feeling that your hospital felt that you were expendable and the lack of personal protective equipment. Maybe it was the idea that you weren’t ever allowed to be sick yourself or that taking a day off was unfair to the team. Maybe it was also being expected to deliver primary care when you’re not trained to do so, and not having the resources that you need to feel like you’re doing the right things for the patients in your care. Working in an emergency department can be exhilarating, but it’s also incredibly stressful and physically and mentally exhausting. There’s always the risk that you’ll miss something.

Emergency medicine has long been a proving ground for data-driven approaches to care, and a recent article from the American College of Emergency Physicians looks at the role of triage in the care of emergency patients and if it can be improved with better use of data. The authors note recent studies that estimate triage errors to be as high as one in every three patients, with vulnerable populations being at the highest risk. They propose the creation of new data-driven approaches to patient complexity that can take into account the numerous data points that are being captured on patients when they present for care as well as their histories and other elements that might be available to clinicians. They propose expanding the use of AI to synthesize available data and provide individualized risk profiles for patients at the point of care, noting that such models have been in place for several years at some institutions. It will be interesting to see how these solutions are incorporated at smaller emergency facilities and especially at those in remote areas that don’t always have in-house physicians. If you have experience with these solutions, drop me a note.

I recently ran across this study that looked at adverse diagnostic events impacting hospitalized patients. Although it has the limitation of being done in a single location, it reveals some significant findings. Researchers looked at harmful diagnostic errors, which included delays, process failures, and issues with subspecialty consultation. They estimated that a harmful error happened for one of every 14 patients, with the majority of errors being preventable. Although the authors call for additional approaches for diagnostic error surveillance, I think this work should be a call to action for error prevention as well.

In research like this, general terms such as “errors” or “harms” mask what really happens to patients in these situations. The article makes it a bit more clear: minor harms had mild symptoms or short-term impacts, while the other end of the spectrum included major harms that could have led to lifesaving surgical or medical interventions, shortened life expectancy, permanent loss of function, or even a fatality. Diagnostic errors include failure to make a clear diagnosis, misinterpretation of laboratory or other tests, incomplete workups, and other scenarios where patients don’t get the care they need.

The authors note that incorporating artificial intelligence could be helpful for the detection of “complex patterns of risk factors and clinical events that represent markers of risk or suboptimal diagnostic processes.” Tools to help with these scenarios have been around for many years, but have been slowly incorporated by care delivery organizations due to cost, lack of perceived benefit, and willingness to tolerate a higher level of risk than may institutions hold today. I look forward to seeing more solutions implemented over the coming years and for researchers to be able to quantify the number of lives saved or functionality preserved.

Is your organization using AI or other solutions to reduce diagnostic errors? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 10/10/24

Aware Health Secures $3M in Seed Funding to Expand Value-Based Musculoskeletal Solutions

Aware Health, which offers employers digital health solutions for musculoskeletal care, raises $3 million in a seed funding round led by Boomerang Ventures.

Carequality releases resolution in dispute between Epic and Particle Health

Carequality releases a redacted version of its steering committee’s resolution related to Epic’s months-long patient privacy dispute with Particle Health, which filed an antitrust lawsuit against the EHR vendor last month.

California Enacts Health AI Bill and Protections for Neural Data

A newly signed California bill requires providers to include a specifically formatted disclaimer when AI was used in patient-facing clinical communication that has not been reviewed by a licensed provider.

Healthcare AI News 10/9/24

News

WVU Medicine implements an AI-powered search system that allows employees to search for content that is contained in internal documents, such as clinical protocols, how-to guides, and tip sheets. It plans to eventually offer searching across all of its sites as well as across all Epic-using hospitals.

A newly signed California bill requires providers to include a specifically formatted disclaimer when AI was used in patient-facing clinical communication that has not been reviewed by a licensed provider. The communication must also contain instructions for the patient to contact an appropriate person.

HHS Assistant Technology for Technology Policy and AI leader Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP says that HHS is looking at ways to create AI models using its vast data stores, but he cautions that its data is inherently biased since it excludes people who don’t have insurance or who don’t seek care from providers.

Wyoming’s Medicaid program approves coverage of Canvas DX, an online tool that assesses autism using family-provided information and videos. Families can use the tool instead of trying to find one of the few state clinicians that can administer the ADOS test.

The American College of Radiology will participate in the FDA’s program to boost innovation in breakthrough devices. FDA has expanded the program for its cardiology device origins to include neurology, ophthalmology, and radiology.

Business

The authors of a literature review on AI in healthcare suggest that its public health impact will be limited by the “politics of avoidance,” where the US health system’s treatment-focused model ignores broader social determinants of health. They express concern that the hype around AI may overshadow more effective, evidence-based interventions like using community health workers and implementing harm reduction programs, which address root causes rather than just offering suggestions for treating symptoms.

Research

A test of GPT-4’s ability to provide clinical recommendations for ED visits – including admission status, radiology requests, and antibiotic prescriptions – finds that it performs poorly compared to medical residents. Its recommendations were often overly cautious and called for medically unnecessary admissions and orders.

A review of AI-powered, FDA-approved medical devices finds that most did not include race or ethnicity, socioeconomic data, and the ages of study participants in their submitted approval documentation. The authors conclude that the lack of consistency and data transparency may exacerbate health disparities

Other

Drug maker Eli Lilly and Company names Thomas Fuchs, DrSc as its inaugural chief AI officer, where he will be tasked with leading the company’s AI initiatives in drug discovery, clinical trials, and manufacturing. He was previously chair of the AI program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Mayo Clinic will use a $25 million donation to provide funding and work time for its clinicians to purse AI-related projects.

Four high-profile cancer centers use $40 million in tech company funding to form the Cancer AI Alliance, which will study their collective patient data to find clinical insights.

US Army researchers develop SeptiBurnAlert, which uses AI to analyze the blood samples of burn patients to detect sepsis-related components. The system predicts risk within the first 24 hours of hospitalization with high accuracy. The team has applied for a patent and hopes to bring the product to the commercial market in three years, pending FDA approval. They are also working with companies that want to product a handheld device.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 10/9/24

Nordic divests federal portion of S&P Consultants; strengthens focus on Oracle Health practice

Nordic sells the federal line of business conducted through S&P Consultants, which it acquired in 2021, to S&P founder Andy Splitz.

Reveleer Acquires Curation Health, Expanding Capabilities in Clinical Intelligence Solutions

Value-based care workflow automation vendor Reveleer acquires clinical insights company Curation Health.

Henry Ford Health Launches New Company to Advance Population Health

Henry Ford Health (MI) launches Populance, a new non-profit subsidiary that will offer providers and payers population health management software and services.

Harmony Healthcare IT Announces Acquisition of Trinisys

Data management firm Harmony Healthcare IT acquires Trinisys, which offers data management and workflow automation solutions.

Leading Health Systems Form New Organization to Transform the Development and Delivery of Health Care Solutions

Baylor Scott & White Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, Novant Health, and Providence form Longitude Health, which will “identify, develop, and scale capability-based solutions to enhance core operational functions and transform health system performance.”

News 10/9/24

Top News

ASTP says that information blocking and lack of interoperability progress is mostly due to behavior rather than technology and vows to increase oversight that includes these issues:

• Publicly accessible API documentation is not available or not usable.
• Developers are imposing fees, contractual terms, and intellectual property requirements that are not allowed.
• Some EHRs allow connection only to generic API endpoints, which makes it hard for API users to connect directly with health systems.
• Provider organizations and API developers are requiring patient access API developers to sign a HIPAA business associate agreement, which is not legally required.
• Providers and developers are not providing timely explanations when they deny data access.

ASTP reinforces that HHS OIG can fine developers, health information networks, and HIEs up to $1 million per information blocking violation, while CMS will apply disincentives to providers who have committed information blocking. 

Reader Comments

From Bol: “Re: Seema Verma. I wonder if Oracle Health gave her a line item for personal brand-boosting like HHS did?” Verma, best known for her attempts to kill the Affordable Care Act and criticism of the Medicaid program even as she was being paid by taxpayers to run those programs as CMS administrator, is second-best known for spending $5 million of taxpayer dollars on external PR consultants who were assigned to promote her “personal brand.” Maybe it worked since she ended up as the top executive of Oracle Health, which holds a $16 billion VA contract. Verma complained via X this week about the “political theater” in which members of Congress are questioning the VA’s spending and lack of success with their Oracle Health project. She advocates for aggressive go-lives, which of course would trigger milestone payments to her employer. Her entry in Wikipedia resembles a fact-checked tabloid expose.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Healthmonix. The company’s cutting-edge solutions simplify regulatory reporting and enhance performance in value-based care models. Its flagship product, MIPSpro, streamlines MIPS reporting with flexible data integration, helping healthcare providers maximize their Medicare reimbursements. MIPSpro supports the latest MIPS Value Pathways (MVPs), making it easier to align reporting with CMS priorities while improving scores and compliance. APP Impact consistently enhances APP scores by an average of 23%, ensuring organizations stay ahead in the complex healthcare landscape. For ACOs, ACO Measure Compliance solution offers actionable insights and ensures reporting compliance, improving care outcomes and financial performance. With seamless integration into popular EHRs like Epic, Healthmonix supports various data submission options, including direct EHR integration, QRDA I parsing, and standard spreadsheet uploads, ensuring flexible and accurate data reporting. Whether you’re navigating MVPs, MIPS, or APMs, Healthmonix provides the tools to succeed. Thanks to Healthmonix for supporting HIStalk.

I found this Healthmonix webinar recording from a couple of weeks ago titled “Tough Measures in 2024.”

Webinars

October 15 (Tuesday) noon ET. “AI in Practice: How Privia Health Empowers Doctors to Win at Value-Based Care.” Sponsors: Navina and Athenahealth. Presenters: Dana McCalley, MBA, VP of value-based care, Navina; Michael McDonnell, strategic account executive, Navina; Francheska Feliciano, director of risk adjustment, Privia Health. The panelists will share practical insight from Privia Health’s experience that are applicable for users of any EHR, focusing on strategies to improve collaboration between clinical teams and coders, reduce administrative burden, and ensure accurate HCC capture at the point of care. The presenters will offer strategies for streamlining value-based workflows across clinical and coding teams, reducing friction and administrative burden, and improving value-based performance and risk adjustment accuracy by empowering clinicians with AI at the point of care.

October 24 (Thursday) noon ET. “Preparing for HTI-2 Compliance: What EHR and Health IT Vendors Need to Know.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Tyler Higgins, senior director of product management, DrFirst. Failure to meet ASTP’s mandatory HTI-2 certification  and compliance standards could impose financial consequences on clients. The presenters will discuss the content and timelines of this key policy update, which includes NCPDP Script upgrades, mandatory support for electronic prior authorization, and real-time prescription benefit. They will offer insight into the impact on “Base EHR” qualifications and provide practical advice on aligning development roadmaps with these changes.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Roon, which offers vetted, verified medical information from experts, raises $15 million in a seed funding round. The startup recently added an AI-powered Instant Answer feature to its app.

Value-based care workflow automation vendor Reveleer acquires Curation Health, a clinical insights company that is based in Maryland. Reveleer secured $65 million in new financing earlier this year.

Women and family health virtual clinic operator Maven Clinic raises $125 million in a Series F funding round that values the company at $1.7 billion.

Data management firm Harmony Healthcare IT acquires Trinisys, which offers data management and workflow automation solutions.

Sales

• Ardent Health (TN) selects Glytec’s diabetes management and insulin dosing software.
• Kettering Health (OH) will offer heart failure patients the option to participate in a remote patient monitoring program that is powered by Story Health.
• Mary Washington Healthcare (VA) will implement RCM software and services from Ensemble Health Partners.
• USA Health, University of South Alabama’s health system, will implement safety solutions from RLDatix.

People

Arcadia names Aneesh Chopra, MPP (CareJourney) chief strategy officer, Dave Szela (Datavant) chief growth officer, Luke Hansen, MD (Homeward) chief medical officer, and Vignesh Elamvazhuthi, MS SVP of engineering.

Jason Stenta, MBA (Optum) joins Walgreens as SVP and chief commercial officer.

Ada Health names Patrick Wetherille (Everyday Health) COO and Jacob Plummer (Datavant) chief commercial officer, and CTO Graham French to the additional role of chief quality officer.

Greenway Health hires Paul Ford, MSIT (Inovalon) as CISO.

Announcements and Implementations

Baylor Scott & White Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, Novant Health, and Providence form Longitude Health, which will “identify, develop, and scale capability-based solutions to enhance core operational functions and transform health system performance.”

TrustCommerce, a Sphere company, announces that its Cloud Payments product is now certified on all major US payment processing platforms.

Community Health Systems (TN) adopts Denim Health’s conversational AI as a part of inbound call workflows at its Patient Access Center.

Athenahealth launches AthenaOne for Behavioral Health.

UMass Memorial Health – Harrington reduces all-cause 30-day readmissions of CHF patients via its remote monitoring program that uses technology from Brook Health.

HLTH USA will feature college-uneducated healthcare experts Halle Berry and Lenny Kravitz at its upcoming conference. Next up in medical grand rounds: “Multifactorial Approaches to the Pathophysiology and Intervention of Polymicrobial Translocation in the Gastrointestinal Microbiome: Implications for Systemic Inflammatory Responses and Personalized Therapeutic Modalities,” featuring Pauly Shore and musical guest Marilyn Manson.

Government and Politics

Epic sues Epic Staffing Group, indicating in its complaint that the healthcare and life sciences staffing services company  company started using Epic-focused names in 2022 despite knowing that Epic had held the rights for those names for 40 years. Epic Staffing Group, the country’s 22nd largest healthcare staffing firm, was acquired by a venture fund owned by Hyatt Executive Chairman Tom Pritzker in 2022.

Other

UC Davis Children’s Hospital researchers determine that virtual access to family-centered rounds in the NICU increase parent attendance, particularly among minorities, families living in underserved areas, and those without a college education. Researchers will next study the effects of adding professional interpreters to the virtual family-centered rounds.

Sponsor Updates

• Ascom Americas staff collect cash donations and supplies to send to Western North Carolina for Hurricane Helene relief efforts.
• Mercy Health renews its medical imaging contract with Visage Imaging for an additional eight years.
• Dimensional Insight VP of Marketing Kathy Sucich will chair the Tech & AI Stage at Reuters Total Health October 8-9 in Chicago.
• Sant Boi Hospital in Barcelona, Spain implements Agfa HealthCare’s enterprise imaging software.
• Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in England adds knowledge-based medication administration to its Altera Sunrise implementation.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast, “Navigating Flu Season! A Quick Update on Vaccines and Such, with Libbi Green, PharmD.”
• CereCore releases a new podcast, “Streamlining Success: How OHH Achieved An 11-Month Epic EHR Transition.”
• The HealthBizCast Podcast features Clearwater CFO Baxter Lee.
• Consensus Cloud Solutions will sponsor the HIMSS North Carolina Conference October 10-11 in Wrightsville Beach.

Blog Posts

• Streamlining Success: How OHH Achieved An 11-Month Epic EHR Transition (CereCore)
• The Increased Risk of Ransomware (AdvancedMD)
• Leveraging Advanced Technologies in Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management (AGS Health)
• AI and cybersecurity: How safe are your systems? (Altera Digital Health)
• Workforce enablement tools for actionable health data (Arcadia)
• Proven Strategies for Boosting Learner Engagement: LMS, Analytics, and More (Divurgent)
• Journey Mapping: Your Key to Understanding Experiences (Tegria)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 10/8/24

Eleanor Health Raises $30 Million to Transform Delivery of Substance Use Disorder Care

Hybrid outpatient addiction treatment provider Eleanor Health raises $30 million in a Series D funding round led by General Catalyst.

Brooklyn Heights firm raises $15M to save patients from chronic googling

Roon, a medical information website curated by clinical experts, announces $15 million in funding.

Health-Care Software Company Sues Staffing Firm Using Same Name

Epic sues healthcare and life sciences staffing company Epic Staffing Group for trademark infringement.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 10/7/24

I had several friends attending the Becker’s Health IT + Digital Health + Revenue Cycle conference last week in Chicago. In sending me some impressions and notes, they all mentioned conversations around the topic of whether health systems should be able to monetize patient data.

Key areas where organizations might use de-identified patient data include generative AI, genomics and precision medicine, and pharmaceutical drug discovery. When I’ve discussed this with fellow physicians in the past, the question of ethics was usually at the top of the list. In recent months, however, the focus seems to have shifted to whether organizations can truly protect patient data, and whether or not there is a risk of it becoming re-identified by someone intent on doing harm.

Putting on my patient hat, the first issue I have with using patient data beyond the actual patient care is that of consent. Organizations may claim that they received patient consent, but did they really? Most large health systems are giving patients multi-page documents to read when they arrive. Those documents include a multitude of topics, from data sharing to billing assignment to consent for treatment. I’d be hard pressed to find 10 patients in the lobby at my local academic medical center who know definitively whether they have signed a consent for dissemination of their de-identified data or not.

At my last mammogram visit, the facility didn’t even offer me copies of the Notice of Privacy Practices or Consent for Treatment documents to review. The registration clerk simply pointed to a signature pad and said, “Now you’re going to sign indicating you received this and agree to it” and became irritated when I asked for copies of the documents prior to signing.

In my book, consent that is obtained in that manner is in no way a valid consent of any kind. Not to mention, the patient really has no other choice but to consent, in many cases. With insurance companies building narrow networks, patients may not really have a choice as to where they receive treatment and end up agreeing to whatever is put in front of them because they need care. One never hears the word “coercion” uttered when patients are at the check-in desk, but that’s essentially what is happening.

Another major issue for patients is the general lack of understanding of what HIPAA covers and doesn’t cover. Most people don’t know that consumer devices collect clinical information, but it’s not at all protected, and companies can do whatever they want with it for the most part. There have been recent concerns following shakeups at genetic testing company 23andMe as far as to what will happen to their data in the event of an acquisition or changes in leadership. With changes in state abortion laws, there are increasing worries about period tracker apps, fertility tracking apps, and other ways of capturing reproductive data. Between those two catalysts, I’m hoping that patients become more aware of the fact that their information is just out there. We all know that no one reads the terms and conditions when they sign up to use a new app.

Changing to my clinical informatics hat, I absolutely agree with the concerns around organizations’ inability to protect patient data. Recent cybersecurity events have shown that they struggle to protect fully identifiable data used for direct patient care, so what makes us think they’re using an equivalent level of rigor for de-identified data? There are plenty of articles out there that describe how easy it is to re-identify patient data, going back as far as 1997 from what I could identify with some quick searching. There are plenty of data-rich sources that are publicly available, such as voter registration lists.

Several colleagues posted to a local physician forum after they received data breach notifications stemming from the Change Healthcare hack. The words used by these physicians, who were impacted as patients, caught my attention. They were “crushed” and “stunned” that their information could have been impacted. It was an eye-opener for them, I guess. 

We have all worked for, and been patients at, the same healthcare system over the last couple of decades. I know that my data has been impacted at least a half dozen times, including when a research coordinator had a non-encrypted laptop in the trunk of her car and it disappeared. It made me think that our organization probably does a bad job of making physicians aware of these incidents, when in reality, we are going to be a point of contact for concerned patients whether we like it or not. I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but at this point in the game, we need to all assume that none of our healthcare data is private or truly protected.

Speaking of privacy and confidentiality, fall is when many organizations require completion of annual compliance training updates. Although I’ve been through HIPAA and other compliance training in several dozen organizations over the last decade, I have yet to see one that addresses the fact that ease of access with phones and tablets has led to physicians accessing patient information in all kinds of places and with minimal privacy protections. I was sitting in a restaurant booth with a colleague a couple of weeks ago. She was waiting for some lab results on a patient and kept pulling out her phone to check and see if they were back. She generally has a hard time disconnecting from the office due to her specialty, and in a matter of minutes, I saw her entire patient schedule, several other patients’ labs, and some imaging go by.

I made sure I paid detailed attention to my salad while this was going on, but was flabbergasted that she thought it was OK to do this. Maybe she felt safe because I am a fellow physician, but given her overall track record of how she uses her phone, I would guess that she does this in other environments.

I mentioned it to her and she shrugged it off, saying she was sure “no one is looking at my phone” and justifying her behavior due to being in a high-stakes surgical subspecialty and needing to check in on patients. But it’s a snapshot into the cavalier attitude that many in healthcare have around protecting patient information. I’m sure she once watched a video that said “screens should be pointed away from prying eyes” but maybe making mention of specific environments where clinicians access patient data on their phones might be more impactful.

It will be interesting to see how patient privacy, consent, and monetization of patient information plays out over the coming years. In the meantime, think twice before you’re hitting the EHR during your kids’ soccer game.

What do you think about the monetization of patient data? Does your organization have a stance? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

HIStalk Interviews Bill Grana, CEO, HCTec

Bill Grana, JD, MBA is CEO of HCTec.

Tell me about yourself and the company.

I have been in tech for nearly 30 years as an entrepreneur and business operator, beginning in the first dot-com era. A lot of my experience over that time has been in the healthcare provider arena.

HCtec is an IT services firm that is focused exclusively on health systems and other healthcare specialty providers. Our reason for existing is to improve the health of the communities that our clients serve by optimizing and making their IT functions better.

What health tech trends are you seeing?

AI is obviously capturing a lot of media attention. That is probably followed somewhat closely by cybersecurity issues, where we saw some significant events just this year. But AI is capturing a lot of the buzz. Although I usually believe that things tend to unfold from a technology perspective a little bit more slowly than what people often think, my general instincts in this case are going to be wrong. AI is here, and its impact — not just in healthcare, but in many other industries — is going to be real.

We have a significant call center offering. Health systems outsource their call center and their service desk to us, Clearly that will be impacted by automation and AI. That also extends to other aspects of IT and to the EHR. You can see scenarios where EHR analysts, whether they be Epic or otherwise, will have much of the work that they do become automated over time. I’m typically not one to believe that there will be a major landslide in technology adoption, but I think it will come more quickly than many people think.

I’m also a big believer in robotics and the coupling of AI with robotics. That will have impact not just within healthcare, but in lots of other industries. When I say robotics, my vision is humanoid-like robots, not factory assembly line robots. I hope to see that within my lifetime, and I think that it’s just a matter of time before that becomes a reality in the business world and in our personal lives as well.

What kind of AI help do health systems ask for?

We don’t necessarily have a defined practice in that area. We have done a fair amount of work in the data and analytics arena. What we are seeing is that health systems are pouring the foundation, from a data management and data architecture perspective, so that they can take advantage of some of the promise of what AI has to offer. I’ll call it preliminary foundation work as opposed to actually helping to support and implement AI systems.

Will health systems buy off-the-shelf robots or hospital-specific ones, and will they require a services component?

They will be functional or use case specific. When I show up for my annual visit with my primary care doctor and I check in, much of that whole process has already become automated. But then the time that I spend with the medical assistant who weighs me — which is always a little bit of a scary proposition — takes my blood pressure, and asks me about all the medications or supplements that I’ve been taking and my general health since my last visit, you certainly could imagine that a humanoid-like robot could be doing all that work. From just a technology perspective, I don’t think we are that far away from those use cases being presented.

Is consumer-facing technology such as the digital front door still on the front burner of health systems?

That absolutely remains a focus for the clients that we work with. Making it easy for their patients, their customers if you will, to interact with the health system. That could be making appointment sand much of the interaction. The foundation is the patient portal to ask questions of their providers and receive reminders about upcoming appointments or health screenings that are needed. That first phase is already in place for many systems. When I interact with the various providers that I see, much of it is digital.

Will use of that technology be evenly distributed?

I think it will become fairly ubiquitous. Virtually everyone has a smartphone in some form or fashion today, and the cost of the technologies too has been driven down as they have matured. I don’t necessarily see a world from a technology perspective relative to healthcare where you have a division between have and have nots. Now that’s a totally separate issue when you’re talking about just access to care. That that remains a real challenge in many parts of our country that are significantly underserved from a healthcare perspective.

What expected and actual benefits have health systems seen from shifting technology to the cloud?

There’s one recent example that comes to my mind. We supported a client who was moving their Epic instance to AWS, one of maybe five or six examples of Epic on the AWS cloud. They are getting the benefit of not having to support all the overhead and infrastructure that comes with physical data centers, but there’s also a big security benefit. Taking your applications and infrastructure to cloud doesn’t mean that you are completely immune to cyber risks, but it definitely makes it easier to manage those risks.

How will the availability of technology expertise change from the shift to cloud as well as return-to-office mandates?

We are seeing a lot of flexibility, including in our own business. In some cases, fully remote teams and maybe leadership that comes into the office on a periodic basis. In almost all cases, some sort of hybrid system where people are expected to show up in the office two or three days a week and then work from home the remainder of the time. 

I have very mixed feelings about that. I guess I’m some somewhat old school and in the latter stages of my career, but I’m still a huge believer in the power and the value that comes from people getting together in a room and working through problems. Not that it can’t happen through tools like Zoom that we’re on today, but it’s more challenging. But I also leave open the possibility that maybe generationally, I’m beyond being able to see how you do that effectively.

Do customers ask specifically for remote help for go-live support and major projects to reduce travel costs? Or do you convince them that their chance of success is better if you’re allowed to send resources to their location?

It’s still limited in terms of the requirements, and clearly it depends upon the type of work that’s being done. You still see a lot of at-the-elbow support being provided in person, although we also do a fair amount of remote backup support. That has made our business easier, because pre -COVID, we typically needed to find consultants who were either in physical proximity to the clients or willing to get on a plane every week to go see those clients. Now that that has become less of a requirement, it makes finding that talent somewhat easier than it was previously.

Will return-to-work mandates change the available pool of consulting talent?

To me, it’s just such a personal thing. Some people desire interaction with their work colleagues more than others and will seek out opportunities that are either exclusively in office or some sort of hybrid arrangement. Others are fully comfortable working in a remote environment and as a virtual team member.

I have a son who will be 25 years old here shortly who is a software engineer for a health tech company. He really enjoys his job, but two years into it, he is craving the ability to actually work in an office. The company that he works for is fully remote. It’s located in a place that, for a single 25-year-old, is not the most attractive geography to move into. He has realized that there are probably some things that he’s missing, especially early in his career, from a mentorship perspective and observation perspective, that he just can’t get working fully remote. I think about my own career and how different it would have been if I hadn’t had the relationships and the mentors in a face-to face manner that I did when I was his age.

Will people who work remotely find themselves not promotable or not experienced in the right areas compared to their in-office co-workers?

That’s a really interesting question for people who want to move onward and upward. Will they find themselves limited by the fact that they are working remotely? Time will tell. It probably depends on the organization and the culture of that business as well. Plenty of very successful companies are working fully remote, and people have the same sorts of opportunities to advance their careers as they otherwise would if they have to come into the office in a more traditional way.

What are the new challenges and opportunities for health tech companies as broad business conditions change?

Many product companies missed the mark, but were able to get going when money was free and everyone was a genius. Irrespective of industry, those that don’t have clear product market in this financing environment are going to have a hard time taking it to the next level. Those that maybe haven’t demonstrated a ton of market penetration or revenue success, but do have strong product market fit, will be able to access capital and be successful in the markets that they’re focused on. Another way to say it is that good companies are not going to have any problem continuing to grow and do good things, and those that were able to get started because of the low interest rate environment that we were in are going to fall to the wayside.

What factors will be important in the company’s next few years?

We are excited about our positioning, even with the advent of AI and maybe certain aspects of what we do being fully automated. As we look into the future, technology is only going to play a greater role in healthcare than what it does today. We equate that to opportunity in our business. 

The key theme for us is growth, whether that is revenue growth or the number of clients. Growth is something that we talk about constantly. Our vision is to be the recognized leader in the healthcare IT services market as measured by three things — client satisfaction, client retention, and the financial performance of our business. We think that we will get there, first and foremost, by working to deeply understand the needs the IT services needs of our clients, their challenges, and their key strategic initiatives. That starts with relationship building and establishing credibility and trust. In a pure services business, that’s even more important than in a product or software business. 

We will work then to address our clients’ needs through our own service capability or the capabilities of our partners, We have never set out to be all things to the market from an IT services perspective. We believe in strategic partnerships. We have strong delivery practices, definitely a culture and commitment to high quality service. By doing that, we’ll see improvement in our client organizations, whether it be from an operational perspective, clinical perspective, or, in financial performance, which is critical for many of our health system clients. You read that half of all health systems today are still in the red at an operating level. Bringing them back to the black is part of what we’re trying to help them do. If we do those things well, we ought to thrive and continue to see meaningful growth in our business.

We feel very blessed — and I don’t typically like to use that word – and excited for the opportunity that we have to help our clients leverage and improve their technology environments in a way that helps them. Most of our clients are not-for-profit organizations. Technology could be a part of helping them realize their mission and their reason for being.