Monday Morning Update 12/20/21

Top News

Kaiser Health News call out Yale New Haven Health System, which for telehealth visits sends a separate bill for a $50 to $350 facility fee even though telehealth patients never set foot in any of the health system’s buildings.

The health system, warned by the Connecticut Office of the Healthcare Advocate that the state explicitly bans charging facility fees for telehealth visits, blamed a coding mistake.

Despite attributing an error, the health system still argued that the charges are justifiable because they cover the cost of the telehealth software, adding that “we do still have to keep the lights on.”

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Hard-to-change company attributes are most important to poll respondents who are seeking new opportunities, but otherwise, throwing down cash doesn’t hurt.

New poll to your right or here: How would an Oracle acquisition of Cerner change healthcare?

Webinars

None schedule soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Online mental healthcare startup Cerebral, which was recently valued at nearly $5 billion after its latest funding round and hired Olympic gymnast Simone Biles as chief impact officer, recently changed hundreds of therapists from salaried workers to hourly and made benefits eligibility contingent on hitting quotas. Patients choose company therapists from its web directory, so the new structure means that therapists have no control over the company’s minimum billed hours threshold.

UK’s business secretary will investigate complaints that Microsoft pushed British companies out of contention for NHS contracts by giving NHS free use of its Teams remote meeting software, which small competitors say is a way to gain overall IT leverage posting as a charitable act. Also complaining is Salesforce, which owns Teams competitor Slack.

Cerner shares closed at Friday $89.77, up 13% on the rumor that Oracle will acquire the company in a $30 billion deal. ORCL shares dropped 6% on the Wall Street Journal report.

Axios reports that the two founders of PillPack, acquired by Amazon in mid-2018 for $1 billion, have been demoted to consultants to the online pharmacy. Employees who reported to T.J. Parker now report to John Love, an Amazon VP who oversees Alexa shopping.

Announcements and Implementations

KLAS finds that Epic had the largest net gain in US hospitals in 2020 with 101, which gave it 19,000 new beds. Cerner lost a net of 19 hospitals and 10,000 beds. KLAS concludes that while Epic’s biggest-gaining year was 2015 when it added 144 new hospitals, “their growth has never so decisively outpaced the competition’s.” The company lost three hospitals in 2020, all due to M&A. Meditech lost 62% of the decisions made by legacy customers in 2020, with all of its new hospitals being under 100 beds. Most of those that decided not to move to forward to Meditech Expanse chose Epic instead. UPDATE: I’ve corrected the dates – KLAS’s “US Hospital Market Share 2021” report reflects data from 2020, not 2021.

Government and Politics

The Massachusetts Supreme Court rules in favor of a former Meditech employee who claims he was fired for exercising his right to file a rebuttal in his personnel file. Terence Meehan says Meditech reorganized its 12-person regional sales department in demoting three sales reps – including Meehan – to the newly created position of “sales specialists,” who sales reps rarely used because they don’t want to share commissions. Meehan says he and the other demoted employees were placed on performance improvement plans in July 2018, and when he sent his supervisor a rebuttal, the president and CEO of Meditech immediately terminated him. He filed a complaint of wrongful discharge and the court agreed with him.

Sponsor Updates

• Two member agencies of The Arc New York collaborative will implement Netsmart’s CareFabric platform.
• Redox releases a new podcast, “Extracting paternalism from the patient experience with B.well CEO Kristen Valdes.”
• The Pharmacy, IT & Me Podcast features RxRevu CEO Carm Huntress.
• Talkdesk wins the cloud-based CX solution of the year award at Customer Contact Week.
• Vocera releases a new podcast, “The Evidence for Team Member Safety and Well-being – Kedar Mate, MD.”
• Well Health has helped providers facilitate nearly 10 million vaccine appointments and send over 63 million messages related to COVID-19.

Blog Posts

• Innovate4Outcomes: Patient Advocates Come to the Table (OptimizeRx)
• 4 Ways to Improve Patient Outcomes through Health Literacy in 2022 (PatientBond)
• What Does the No Surprises Act Mean for Providers? (Symplr)
• What Role Does Good Communication Play in Your Revenue Cycle? (PMD)
• Accounts Payable Fraud and Theft: Automation to the Rescue (Premier)
• Year in Review: Top 2021 Trends in Digital Health and What They Mean for 2022 (Quil Health)
• 10 Insider Tips to Ensure Your Product Lands on a Health System’s Shortlist (Redox)
• Crack the (OR) Code to Patient Engagement (Sonifi Health)
• Can closed-loop communication help mitigate clinical lab burnout? (A closer look) (Spok)
• The Future of Health, Fireside Chat Recap (Tegria)
• Why Patient Engagement is Critical for Chronic Disease Management (Twistle)
• Where Does Telehealth Go From Here? (WebPT)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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