Weekender 1/28/22

Weekly News Recap

• The DoD goes live on MHS Genesis in Texas, increasing its overall deployment level to 38%.
• NextGen Healthcare’s Q3 results beat earnings expectations.
• ADHD therapy app vendor Akili Interactive announces plans to go public via a SPAC merger at a valuation of $1 billion.
• ViVE announces COVID attendance requirements for its March 6-9 conference in Miami Beach.
• Change Healthcare is considering selling some of its assets to avoid competitive concerns about its acquisition by UnitedHealth Group.
• Cerner lists golden parachute payouts of $11 million to $22 million for executives who could lose their jobs after Oracle’s acquisition.
• IBM signs a deal to much of its Watson Health business to private equity firm Francisco Partners at a rumored price in the $1 billion range.
• Analysis finds that two-thirds of payers have implemented provider directory APIs as required by CMS since last summer.

Best Reader Comments

Unless you already own a large share of an existing practice or have concierge connections, you [as a physician] can’t go solo anymore. Your compensation is dictated by bureaucratic rules; working harder doesn’t increase your compensation. So why work harder for the man? The professional class had the same experience a couple decades after the creation of the professional class post WWII. The solution is the same as it was then: Tune in, turn on, drop out. (IANAL)

I wish those [Cerner] golden parachutes functioned like anvils. (bob)

It’s hard to disagree with letting an individual doctor and patient determine their course of treatment. But in aggregate, that strategy has resulted in obscene amounts of duplicated, costly spending. For example, the US has insanely high prescription drug prices among developed countries. Specialty drugs for oncology are a disproportionately large part of that overspend and there has been billions of dollars spent on new oncology drugs that don’t work better than alternative treatments. Even the fact that patients see cancer drugs advertised on TV is itself insane and unique to the US. Since much of oncology treatment is billed to Medicare, ultimately the US taxpayer, and really the younger US taxpayer, pays for this enormous waste. Just a reminder to readers, 2030 is when the Medicare trust is going to be gone, and benefits will get cut or payroll taxes will go up. (IANAL)

Unfortunately, healthcare has tolerated vendors with 1990s fat client architectures, machine virtualization dependence, and other technical debt that removes any Cloud advantage, and won’t perform for AI. Rather than re-architecting the application, some are simply balling the whole mess up into a massive, expensive container that can’t spin up/down, there is still no “Cloud-scale.” Many are also seeing Artificial Intelligence as a further revenue opportunity – and their customers will be trapped into a single-threaded, horsepower-dependent model. For example, it will be interesting to see if Oracle re-platforms Cerner to increase performance and make it Cloud-agnostic, or if it is simply a one-way ticket to buying the Oracle Cloud – what’s your bet? (Jay)

Watercooler Talk Tidbits

Readers funded the Donors Choose teacher grant request of fourth-year teacher Ms. G in Chicago, who asked for math bingo games for her elementary school class. She says, “Math Bingo was a hit, to say the least! Classmates were challenging one another while laughing and enjoying their time together. The multiplication and division machine also helped me collect data, notice patterns of strengths and weaknesses, and allow me to further help students through differentiation.”

A former photojournalist who is now a nurse at MUSC documents the care of COVID-19 patients with the permission of the hospital, the patients, and their families.

Cleveland Clinic thanks the 20 US Air Force clinicians who are working side by side with its COVID-overwhelmed caregivers.

Fans of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, which eliminated the Buffalo Bills from the playoffs in an overtime win Sunday, donate $400,000 to Buffalo’s Oishei Children’s Hospital.

In Case You Missed It

• News 1/28/22
• EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 1/27/22
• HIStalk Interviews Eric Rosow, CEO, Diameter Health
• News 1/26/22
• Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 1/24/22
• Monday Morning Update 1/24/22

Get Involved

Sponsor
Report a news item or rumor (anonymous or not)
Sign up for email updates
Connect on LinkedIn
Contact Mr. H