News 1/25/23

Top News

In Canada, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton implements a “digital first, no fax policy” after an audit by Ontario’s privacy commissioner finds that misdirected faxes caused 563 privacy breaches in 2020.

A hospital staffing error led to patient health records being faxed to primary care physicians who had changed their numbers.

The privacy commissioner concluded, “Fax machines have no place in modern healthcare delivery.”

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Care.ai. The Orlando-based company is bringing the transformative power of ambient intelligence to healthcare, enabling healthcare organizations to become smart-care facilities. Its technology platform leverages advanced sensors and AI to create a neural network that reimagines clinical and operational workflows to power more human care. Deployed in over 1,500 healthcare facilities,Care.ai partners with health systems and long-term care facilities with a unique, integrated solution, including ambient monitoring and inpatient virtual care including virtual nursing and virtual sitting. Thanks to Care.ai for supporting HIStalk.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Innovaccer lays off 245 employees, 15% of its workforce.

Amazon Pharmacy announces RxPass, a $5 per month flat fee, cash-only subscription for Prime customers that delivers all of the generic prescription drugs they take from a list of 50. Patients in eight states are not eligible for reasons that the company did not state.

Sales

• Orlando Health selects hospital-at-home remote patient monitoring technology from Biofourmis.
• Meditech will embed clinical direct messaging capabilities from MedAllies within its Expanse MaaS EHR.
• The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will offer Medicaid beneficiaries access to the Philips Pregnancy+ patient education and support services app.
• Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (TN) will implement Epic.

People

Colorado-based HIE Quality Health Network promotes Marc Lassaux to executive director and CEO.

Sarah Bennight joins Carenet Health as VP of product marketing and sales enablement.

AMC Health hires James Considine, MBA (Philips) as COO.

MRO Corp. names Matt Wildman (Fortified Health Security) chief commercial officer and Moliehi Weitnauer (Cotiviti) chief product officer.

Harry Totonis, board chair and former CEO of ConnectiveRx, returns to the CEO role in replacing Jim Corrigan.

Tegria promotes Jennifer Montlary, MEd to SVP of marketing and communications.

Announcements and Implementations

Amberwell Health (KS) goes live on Meditech Expanse at its Hiawatha and Highland facilities.

University of Maryland Medical System and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield will pilot the use of Curation Health’s provider-plan collaboration platform for value-based care.

Government and Politics

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority will review the planned $1.5 billion acquisition of healthcare software vendor EMIS Group by an affiliate of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum UK.

The FTC asks a federal judge to hold pharma bro Martin Shkreli in contempt for failing to pay a $65 million fine and violating a lifetime ban from working in the pharma industry. Shkreli finished his stint in prison last May and launched a new company, Druglike, just two months later. The business bills itself as a “a Web3 drug discovery software platform co-founded by Martin Shkreli.”

Other

Researchers at Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale determine that less than 33% of the pharmaceuticals most heavily advertised on television between 2015 and 2021 had high levels of therapeutic value. Pharma companies spent a combined $16 billion on advertisements for the 73 drugs analyzed in the study.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes a new e-guide, “2023 MIPS Improvement Activities.”
• Baker Tilly releases a new Healthy Outcomes Podcast, “Corporate compliance for healthcare providers.”
• HeiligHart Hospital in Belgium upgrades its Agfa HealthCare IMPAX PACS system to Agfa’s cloud-based enterprise imaging.
• Bellin Health (WI) adds ProviderMatch digital appointment scheduling capabilities to its KyruusOne provider data management platform.

Blog Posts

• Why 85% of Americans with Smartphones Expect Mobile Patient ESignature Options (Access)
• Trusted RCM Partnerships: Look Beyond the Problem to Achieve Long-Term Goals (AGS Health)
• Patient Segmentation: How – and Why – You Should Be Analyzing Your Patient Population Segments (Artera)
• The Point-of-Care Reimagined: Giving Providers Actionable Data (Arrive Health)
• Happiness, recruitment, and retention (Nordic)
• This Nurse Needed Work-Life Balance. Thanks to a New Career in Sales, She Found It. (Bamboo Health)
• CMS National Healthcare Directory RFI Blog Series: Provider Response (CareMesh)
• Celebrating Our Healthcare Heritage: 2022 CereCore Employee Awards (CereCore)
• Public health from the global perspective (Oracle Cerner)
• Improving Data in Healthcare: The Discussion We Should Be Having (Clearsense)
• “It’s the best thing that has happened to me.” (Current Health)

Contacts

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