News 5/27/22

Top News

Healthcare cybersecurity vendor Clearwater signs a definitive agreement to acquire competitor CynergisTek for $17.7 million in cash.

CTEK shares, which were trading at around $0.60 on the NYSE American small-cap market before the announcement, were down 65% in the past 12 months and were 91% off their 2017 all-time high.

Reader Comments

From Lollygagger: “Re: Arnot Health. Has an ongoing technical issue that is affecting ambulatory offices and the patient portal.” The health system says its downtime, which has persisted for more than a week, is not related to malicious activity.

From Kermit: “Re: Jamcare Medical. An interesting niche. Wonder how they handle the documentation?” Jamcare Medical, which seems to be a non-profit, provides medical services such as crisis intervention and drug intervention to music festivals and concerts, which it says avoids unnecessary medical transports and legal involvement for their promoters. Basic service includes a team to help management overdoses and behavioral health issues; its middle-tier offering provides the complete first aid response team, a first aid booth, and around-the-clock grounds surveillance to prevent problems such as “dehydration, fights, and slips and falls;” while its premium package adds an onsite or online physician.

From Long-Time Fan: “Re: medication adherence. We are building a solution and seeking beta partners such as payers, manufacturers, and health systems, anyone who has a vested interest in helping people with chronic conditions take their medications regularly. Do you know of specific organizations that are open to new adherence solutions?” I do not, but I’ll invite readers who have that interest, or know who might, to email me and I’ll forward the information (this is a early-stage company that isn’t quite ready to make a public splash).

From Pajeet Pete: “Re: Ascension. Gerry Lewis is out, replaced by Gagan Singh.” Gerry is still listed on the executive team page and hasn’t changed his LinkedIn, but Gagan’s LinkedIn shows that he was promoted from chief data officer to SVP/CIO this month. A layoff discussion board entry says Lewis left as of May 13. He was also CEO of Ascension Technologies, whose web page now lists Singh as SVP/CIO. They outsourced a lot of IT work offshore, which continues to draw discussion board vitriol.

From Mark: “Re: wearables. A recent panel concluded that a problem is keeping the devices charged.” Experts say that one of the biggest compliance challenges for remote patient monitoring is that the devices needed to be recharged, leading to hopes that someone will figure out how to power them from body heat or kinetic energy.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Walmart and CVS will stop accepting controlled drug prescriptions from online ADHD providers Cerebral and Done, which face a federal review of their compliance with controlled substance prescribing. Both ADHD companies also mail out prescriptions directly to their customers, which seems to be a touted feature, so it isn’t clear what percentage of their prescription volume goes through the drug chains. It’s an interesting situation:

• The business model of the companies was always at risk since pandemic telehealth waivers will eventually expire.
• A federal probe will likely review the rigor of the process – or lack of it — by which the companies declared after a brief telehealth conversation that a patient had ADHD that required Adderall or Ritalin.
• Contracted or employed doctors generated every one of those diagnoses and prescriptions, so their licenses are on the line regardless of what the company told them to do.
• Should observers be correct in their speculation that the company was complicit in selling drugs to people who used fake IDs or duplicate mailing addresses, the crackdown on telehealth patient vetting could be significant.
• The companies can’t survive without generating prescriptions, so they are certain to strengthen their prescribing guidelines. Cerebral is already phasing out prescribing of controlled substances.The percentage of their resulting drop in business – which will be huge – will signal how much of it was inappropriate.
• Other services still advertise “anxiety meds from your couch” and easy access to antidepressants, which may be reviewed by states who receive a wake-up call about what Cerebral and Done were doing even though non-controlled substances are involved.

Change Healthcare reports Q4 results: revenue up 8%, adjusted EPS $0.39 versus $0.42, beating revenue expectations but falling short on earnings.

Broadcom will acquire cloud services vendor VMware for $61 billion.

A leaked presentation from Silicon Valley VC firm Sequoia Capital says that the market boom is over, predicts that recovery will not be quick, and warns its portfolio companies that they should review projects, R&D spending, and marketing expenses to prepare for cutting costs to avoid a “death spiral.”

I’ve written previously about Miami-based MSP Recovery, which recovers inappropriate Medicare payments for which Medicare does not have primary payment responsibility. The company announced last fall that it would go public via a SPAC merger at a valuation of $33 billion, $23 billion of which would have flowed to the pockets of founder and CEO John Ruiz, who also runs a law firm that represents MSP in claims. The money-losing company, which claimed it would generate $5 billion annual profit by 2026, began trading on the Nasdaq Tuesday, then lost 60% of its value in its first few minutes of trading after opening at $10 per share. MSPR shares have continued their journey south, now trading at $2.56. Trial lawyer Ruiz just bought a $25 million house in Coral Gables, FL, owns another estate he bought for $49 million from the founder of Leon Medical Centers, and zips above mere mortals in his personal jet, a Boeing 767.

Sales

• Health and Social Care Northern Ireland chooses Tegria and Cloud21 – in which Tegria holds an investment — for its decade-long Encompass program in which Northern Ireland will become the first UK country to implement an EHR that spans acute care, mental health, community care, and social services. Tegria invested an unspecified sum in London-based digital health consultancy Cloud21 in March 2022.
• Wise Health System (TX) will implement a care-at-home program using the Hospital@Home program of Biofourmis.
• Zing Health selects Availity’s network for answering provider questions about patient health plan coverage and payments.
• India’s Narayana Health signs a digital technology collaboration agreement with Honeywell that will emphasize sensor-based applications for patient monitoring and fire safety.

People

SyTrue hires Chad Wege (Apixio) as VP of product.

Azara Healthcare promotes Matthew Iezzi to VP, national accounts commercial.

Kalderos hires Jared Crapo as chief of staff.

Scott Weingarten, MD (Cedars-Sinai) joins Medicare value-based care provider Vytalize Health as chief value officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Drummond Group launches a pediatric health IT certification program.

NCH Healthcare System (FL) will go live on Epic next week in a $65 million project, replacing Cerner.

Lyniate launches a AWS cloud deployment model for its Corepoint integration engine.

NextGen Healthcare launches Health Data Hub Insights, a data warehouse and analytics solution.

Hoag Hospital (CA) pilots Hoag Compass, an internally developed, IOS-only mobile app for consumers that includes appointment scheduling, provider messaging, health records review, lab results reporting, and prescription refills. Users who pay $50 per month for the premium plan also gain access to personalized care plans, urgent care support, an on-demand care team, and access to an executive lounge at the Hoag On-Demand Care and Innovation Center.

A new KLAS report finds that health systems and vendors aren’t delivering the patient engagement tools that many patients want. Providers and vendors fall short of expectations for self-scheduling and prescription refill requests, but have overdelivered on technologies in which patients have limited interest, such as pre- and post-visit communication, patient education, and satisfaction surveys. While most patients are satisfied with virtual visits, they would like to gain a better understanding of the kinds of issues that aren’t best managed by telehealth, be sent an email link before the virtual visit, and spend less time waiting for the clinician to join. Few patients use patient portals regularly, and those who do are more interested in scheduling appointments, requesting refills, and messaging providers than using provider-benefiting services such as updating insurance information or paying bills.

Government and Politics

Australia’s state of Tasmania will spend $106 million to trial a statewide EHR and patient record viewer in a four-year project that will connect all public and private providers. The state’s overall digital health plan calls for spending $336 million over 10 years.

Miruna Sasu, PhD, MBA, president and CEO of real-world oncology data vendor Cota Healthcare, says that FDA could facilitate the use of real-world data by capturing it cleanly in the EHR so that it looks similar to clinical trial data instead of trying to clean it up afterward.

The VA launches Mission Daybreak, a $20 million challenge program to develop suicide prevention solutions, including the use of digital footprint data and technology that improves access to the Veterans Crisis Line.

Other

The lab manager of the VA’s Walla Walla, WA medical center says its newly implemented Cerner system saves employees three hours per day by digitally tracking specimens. He says his goal was to ignore the negative narrative about Cerner and instead spend time preparing for the implementation.

A GHX survey of senior healthcare leaders finds that staff shortages and burnout is their top concern, with 80% of them planning to use automation to reduce manual labor.

Sponsor Updates

• Baker Tilly awards a $10,000 Wishes Grant to Turner’s Heroes, a nonprofit pediatric cancer patient support and research organization.
• In the Netherlands, Northwest Clinic expands its enterprise imaging contract with Agfa HealthCare to include the company’s Rubee for AI platform.
• AGS Health publishes a new white paper, “The Evolution of Coding: Understanding How Technology is Assisting Us.”
• Ascom Americas adds Forerunner Technologies to its mobility partner network.
• CereCore wins a Silver Stevie Award for its achievement in customer satisfaction.
• Cerner VP and CMO Lu de Souza, MD and Lead Physician Executive Mehul Steth, MD are named Fellows of AMIA.
• CHIME and WEDI launch the “Think Before You Click” campaign to help consumers prevent the loss of health information.
• Clearwater founder and Executive Chairman Bob Chanut, author of “Stop the Cyber Bleeding,” will deliver three Online MS in Cybersecurity Badge Courses for Quinnipiac University.
• RCxRules  publishes an infographic titled “Overcoming Staffing Challenges.”
• TechVibe Radio features ConnectiveRx SVP of Product Development Mary Beth Sirio.
• Dina names Mary Naylor, PhD, RN (Pennsylvania School of Nursing) to its Board of Directors.
• Divurgent names Debbie Rieger (Gold Coast Health Plan) payer principal.
• EClinicalWorks publishes a new customer success story, “Advocate Aurora Health: Helping a Regional Nonprofit with Population Health Solutions.”
• FDB names Kristina Shausmanov (FIFA) quality management data analyst.
• Mach7 Technologies will exhibit at SIIM22 June 9-11 in Kissimmee, FL.
• Meditech congratulates the more than 90 customers that have been recognized with 2022 Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Awards.
• Nordic will present at the EHealth 2022 Virtual Conference + Tradeshow June 1-2.
• OneMedNet names Robert Golden, CPA (Cohen, Bender & Golden) to its Board of Directors.
• Magenta Care Continuum joins the Olive Library to revolutionize the risk adjustment process.
• Symplr partners with Susan G. Komen to raise $1 million in the fight against breast cancer.
• Premier joins the Biden administration’s Healthcare and Public Health Sector Joint Supply Chain Resilience Working Group to drive greater resiliency in the US healthcare supply chain.
• ReMedi Health Solutions will present at the Healthcare IT Institute June 12-14 in San Antonio.
• Talkdesk donates over $25,000 to various charities as part of its annual Digital Showdown: Innovations in CX event.
• Wolters Kluwer Health will publish the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases’ four specialty journals.

Blog Posts

• Five Ways to Improve Your FQHC’s Financial Health (BDO)
• Using tech to measure and improve the patient financial experience (Ability Network)
• How a digital, all-in-one software solution helps you grow your practice & refocus on patient care (AdvancedMD)
• How the 988 hotline will revolutionize mental healthcare (Arcadia)
• CIO Top Priorities: Embracing Digital Transformation in Healthcare (Well Health)
• Recent Nursing Criminal Case Calls for Systemic Changes in Nursing Operations (Ascom)
• What You Need to Know About Availity Essentials Plus (Availity)
• Shining a Light on Mental Health Awareness Month (Bamboo Health)
• Colonoscopy challenges: Managing the social determinants of health for colorectal cancer screenings (Bravado Health)
• How Surveillance-Level Data Monitoring Supports Safer Care in Hospitals Despite Staffing Challenges (Philips Capsule)
• Five Questions to Determine if Your EHR Solution is Meeting Your Medical Practice Needs (ChartLogic)
• Your Business is NOT Data Illiterate! (Clearsense)
• Education, training, and resources to improve Preeclampsia awareness (OBIX Perinatal Data System, developed by Clinical Computer Systems)
• Improving Mental Health in Healthcare: Three Ways to Care for Clinicians and Staff (Commure)
• End-User Role Mapping for Epic Training (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• Telehealth’s Trouble: How Virtual Care Complicates Interoperability (CoverMyMeds)
• How to Engage Patients with Care at Home (According to Our Nurses) (Current Health)
• The Best of Healthcare IT in the Heart of America (EClinicalWorks)
• Navigating a Care Delivery Tipping Point (EVisit)
• How to keep up with changing payer requirements (Experian Health)
• As Cybersecurity Strains Healthcare, the 405(d) Program and Task Group Offers Help (Fortified Health Security)
• There’s No Mystery Behind the Clinically Integrated Supply Chain – Only Teamwork (GHX)
• The Revenue Collection Revolution: Automation to the Rescue (Gyant)
• Navigating Healthcare Staffing in a New World: Q&A with Permanent Hiring Director Andrea MacMillan (Healthcare IT Leaders)
• 3 unsolved business continuity problems for hospitals (Interbit Data)
• Precise Patient Matching with an EMPI (InterSystems)
• Clinical workflows and natural language processing (Intelligent Medical Objects)
• Tips to Bring Your IDN’s Digital Experience (Actually) Under One Roof (Kyruus)
• Patient Access APIs – How Easy is Data Exchange Today? (LexisNexis)
• 5 Key Ways Medhost Contract Management Solutions Empower Your Business Office Services (Medhost)
• Community and connection: Top takeaways from the 2022 HITMC Conference (Meditech)
• Physical Therapy Staff Motivation: 4 Tips to Motivate Your PT Staff (MWTherapy)
• End-of-Life Dreams and Visions Hospice Patients May Experience – and How to Support Them (Net Health)
• 3 Ways to Overcome Integrated Behavioral Health Challenges (Neuroflow)
• Going Beyond Whole-Person Care with California’s Medi-Cal Project CalAIM (Netsmart)
• Help HCPs Keep Patients on Course with a Precision Engagement Approach (OptimizeRx)
• Ways to Win with Behavioral Health Patient Engagement (PatientBond)
• Important Qualities in an EClinicalWorks Support Partner (Pivot Point Consulting)
• Nurses of Note Awards 2022: The Dynamic Nurse IT Leader (PerfectServe)
• Three Strategies to Take Your Clinical Trials into the Future (Premier)
• How to Improve Revenue Cycle Integrity as Denials Trend Upwards (RCxRules)
• Simple health equity tips (Sonifi Health)
• To Email or Not to Email: HIPAA Considerations to Weigh Before Hitting Send (WebPT)
• Evaluating Patient Communication Platforms: Key Criteria to Consider (Well Health)
• Top 3 Things Your Healthcare Organization Can Do to Enhance Security Video (Zen Healthcare IT)
• Managing the Challenges of Sepsis (Zynx Health)

Contacts

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