News 2/4/22

Top News

Healthcare investment firm Patient Square Capital will acquire acute care telemedicine platform vendor SOC Telemed for $3 per share, about $300 million. That is a 366% premium to the company’s closing share price Wednesday before the announcement.

SOC went public via a SPAC merger in November 2020, with shares opening at $10.

TLMD shares had dropped to around 60 cents prior to the acquisition announcement, with a market cap in the $65 million range

SOC Telemed’s Q3 earnings report from November 2021 showed a loss of $11 million on revenue of $27 million.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor NeuroFlow. The Philadelphia-based company provides best-in-class technology and care services for the effective integration of behavioral health. NeuroFlow’s HIPAA-compliant platform supports over 14 million users across 300 health systems, payors, and organizations, helping them capture behavioral health insights and take action to proactively manage individuals and populations holistically. I noted that co-founder and CEO Christopher Molaro, MBA graduated from West Point and served as a US Army platoon leader deployed to Iraq. Thanks to NeuroFlow for supporting HIStalk.

I found this YouTube video from NeuroFlow that explains how the company’s technology supports organizations that embrace the collaborative care model.

Webinars

February 9 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “2022 – Industry Predictions and Medicomp Roadmap.” Sponsor: Medicomp Systems. Presenters: David Lareau, CEO, Medicomp Systems; Jay Anders, MD, chief medical officer, Medicomp Systems; Dan Gainer, CTO, Medicomp Systems. The presenters will provide an update on the health IT industry and a review of the company’s milestones and insights that it gained over the past two years. Topics will include Cures Act implications, interoperability, AI, ambient listening, telehealth-first primary care, chronic care management, and new Quippe functionality and roadmap.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Advisory CPA firm Baker Tilly, US acquires health IT consulting firm Orchestrate Healthcare. Baker Tilly says it will continue to invest heavily in digital health to support providers who need to control costs and adopt new business models while continuing to deliver high-quality care. The company has 3,150 healthcare organization customers. The 120-employee Orchestrate offers services for EHR implementation. analytics, IT security and health IT staffing.

Relaxation app vendor Calm acquires Ripple Health Group, which offers a care coordination platform. Ripple’s CEO will serve as co-CEO with Calm’s founder and the combined companies will develop a replacement for its Calm for Business app.

Change Healthcare reports Q3 results: revenue up 10%, adjusted EPS $0.36 versus $0.34, meeting earnings expectations and beating on revenue. Its acquisition by UnitedHealth Group remains on track for sometime after February 22 and before its deadline of April 5.

Shares in Meta (Facebook) tanked 26% Thursday after the company reported its first-ever decline in quarterly user count and it warned of expected weaker revenue growth. The resulting $230 billion loss in market value was unprecedented. Meanwhile, Amazon’s shares jumped 17% in after-hours trading after it reported strong earnings and another increase in Prime annual pricing to $139, increasing its market value by around $250 billion.

Sales

• UCI Health will use Epic-integrated digital health solutions from Biofourmis to establish a virtual care for remote patient monitoring and hospital-at-home initiatives, replacing its legacy system.

People

Drug discount management platform vendor Kalderos names industry long-timer Brent Dover (Commure) as CEO.

Nym Health, which offers autonomous medical coding, hires Or Peles (Tasq.ai) as SVP of R&D.

Behavioral health EHR/PM vendor Kipu Health appoints Andy Eckert, MBA (Zelis) as board chair.

Real-world oncology data platform vendor COTA promotes Paige Whitney to SVP of life sciences.

Impact Advisors hires Randy Notes, MPH (RSM) as managing director of its margin improvement practice.

Eisenhower Medical Center (CA) hires Ken Buechele, MBA (Bronson Healthcare Group) as VP/CIO.

Availity hires Nathan von Colditz (McKinsey & Company) as chief strategy officer.

Janice Wurz (Scottsdale Institute) joins Garner as executive partner.

Pam Arora, MBA (Children’s Health) joins the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) as president and CEO.

CliniSys, which just acquired Horizon Lab Systems and merged with Sunquest Information Systems, names industry long-timer Mark Spencer (Abbott Informatics) as SVP of global strategy.

Announcements and Implementations

Memorial Health System Cancer Center (OH) implements Sonifi Health’s interactive platform, which offers on-demand movies, relaxation content, educational programs, and live programming.

A study finds that patient-generated behavioral health data can be reliably submitted via NeuroFlow’s app and was associated with a 50% reduction in suicidal thinking.

MedStar Health goes live on a patient experience platform from B.well Connected Health.

MyConnectSolutions adds virtual care capabilities to its MedConnect platform, powered by Bluestream Health.

Walmart will offer customers the ability to order lab tests from Quest’s QuestDirect online. Their order will be approved by a doctor when required and the company will then either mail the customer an at-home test kit or direct them to a Quest patient service center, depending on the test’s requirements. The patient can share their results with their doctor via Quest’s MyQuest portal.

Other

I ran across MedLion Clinic, which provides a glimpse into the commoditization of virtual primary care. The company’s “unlimited” plan costs $13 per month and offers customers in about half the US states 24×7 texting with an assigned doctor, scheduled video visits weekdays 9-6, management of both acute and chronic conditions, ordering of prescriptions and labs, and access to $1 medications.

The New York Times looks at the use of surveillance tracking by some cities in Japan to find people with dementia who wander, which is the leading cause of its missing persons cases. The country has adopted an “age in place” focus that leads to more wandering incidents. Digital solutions include security cameras, shoe-worn tracking devices, and QR tracking codes on the person’s fingernail. Caregivers initiate the registration process with a medical review required for approval, but individuals themselves are not required to give permission.

Sponsor Updates

• ReMedi Health Solutions publishes a free guide titled “The Health System’s Guide to Cerner in 2022.”
• Black Book names PerfectServe its top client-rated secure communications platform for 2022.
• Fortified Health Security names Ryan Jackson (Churchill Mortgage) billing specialist.
• Kyruus recaps its 2021 customer growth in which it added 25 provider organizations and increased revenue by 150% following its acquisition of HealthSparq.
• Health Data Movers promotes Brandon Camp to director of the project management office, and Michael Martin to director of interoperability.
• Lumeon completes SOC 2 Type II Certification for its Care Journey Orchestration platform.
• Meditech will host its virtual 2022 Home Care Symposium March 21-25.
• NTT Data retains its leader position in Everest Group’s annual Intelligent Automation in Healthcare Report.

Blog Posts

• How Holistic Data Helps Protect Patients and Enhance Clinician Experience (Philips Capsule)
• Study Shows Lower ED Readmission Rates with GetWell Loop (GetWell)
• The Emerging Role of a Chief Digital Officer in Healthcare: A Conversation with Craig Richardville – Part II (HCI Group)
• Vaccine & Testing Programs: Six Imperatives for HR Professionals (Healthcare IT Leaders)
• Happyology at Impact Advisors: How It All Got Started (Impact Advisors)
• If 95% of cyber-attacks are due to human error, why have only 24% of clinicians been trained to avoid them? (Imprivata)
• How to create a problem list governance strategy (Intelligent Medical Objects)
• Combating Cyberattacks: How Payers and Providers Are Managing Digital Identity Authentication (LexisNexis Risk Solutions)
• Are You Ready for the Updated CMS ECR Mandate? (Medhost)
• A Guide to Medicare Physical Therapy Caps in 2022 (MWTherapy)
• Offsetting the looming physician shortage (Nuance)

Contacts

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