There was a recent report pointing to increased Medicare costs when patients returned to traditional Medicare, of course assuming that…
Monday Morning Update 5/1/23
Top News
Researchers find that licensed healthcare professionals preferred ChatGPT 3.5’s responses to patient questions over those that were written by doctors 80% of the time, judging the computer responses to be more empathetic.
A study limitation is that the patient question and the physician response came from public Reddit postings rather than from actual patient interactions.
However, I would also note that the Reddit responses presumably came from doctors who had sufficient time and empathy to respond without personal benefit in the first place, which makes me think real-life responses would exhibit significantly less empathy and thoughtful thoroughness in giving ChatGPT an even wider lead.
Reader Comments
From Zingaro: “Re: collaborative software groups. Have you heard of examples where Meditech Magic standalone clients joined a regional Cerner collaborative?” I’ll invite readers to chime in, and if you are willing to share your experience, provide your contact information offline and I’ll forward to Zingaro.
From Joint Pain: “Re: HIMSS23. Thanks for giving a shout-out to our company as one of the small-boothed folks who nonetheless worked hard at the conference.” I know how it feels to stand in near isolation in a 10×10 booth that is off the beaten track in the exhibit hall’s nether regions, not inexpensively, I might add. I’ll also make this offer – if your company exhibited at HIMSS23 in a booth that was 10×20 or smaller, I’ll give you a first-year HIStalk sponsorship discount that will cover 365 days instead of your three on the show floor. Contact Lorre since I’m just blurting this out without thinking in assuming that she will figure out details.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Poll respondents who attended HIMSS23 gave it decent scores. Some offered constructive criticism to beef up the health equity track, improve food and beverage options, and book more inspiring keynote speakers. I think that other than the carpet gaffe, they did a good job.
New poll to your right or here: Which HIMSS23-related recordings have you consumed for at least two hours? I’m asking as someone who has spent zero minutes and is questioning whether that makes me an outlier, given that it seemed like half the people at the conference were chasing the other half with cameras or microphones. I just don’t have the attention span to watch or hear self-indulgent interviewers and interviewees saying nothing useful when five seconds of skimming a transcription (had they made one) would have sent me fleeing. I will check out the official session recordings when they come out, although my attention span wanders there, too.
Webinars
None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own. I
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Teladoc Health reports Q1 results: revenue up 11%, EPS –$0.37 versus –$0.47, beating analyst expectations for both. TDOC shares have lost 21% of their value in the past 12 months versus the Dow’s 3% gain, valuing the company at $4.3 billion.
Sales
- Parkview Health chooses Sectra’s imaging cloud subscription service.
- North Carolina HHS contracts with Optum for provider enrollment, credentialing, and data management.
- Horizons Mental Health Center will implement Netsmart’s CareFabric platform, including the MyAvatar behavioral health EHR, as it transitions to a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic.
People
Kaiser Permanente promotes Nari Gopala, MBA to chief digital officer for its health plan and hospitals.
Genevieve Morris, MA, formerly of UnitedHealth-acquired Change Healthcare, joins UnitedHealth Group-owned Optum as VP of interoperability strategy, medical network.
Rahul Goyal, MD (Malaffi) joins Elsevier as chief medical officer.
Brian Parrish (Craneware) joins CVS-owned ActiveHealth and HDMS as chief marketing officer.
Announcements and Implementations
Artera launches self-service analytics for creating patient engagement data dashboards.
Centre for Neuro Skills goes live on Meditech Expanse.
A Sphere study finds that two-thirds of providers believe that improving patient payment collections is a top priority, with interests in specific technologies such as text message payments, point-of-service kiosks, card on file processing, and incorporating check-in and payment into digital front doors.
Government and Politics
The Center for US Policy petitions FDA to declare Bamboo Health’s NarxCare software a misbranded medical device that should be recalled, claiming that its opioid risk score for patients – which is calculated from state prescription drug monitoring program data using what CUSP says is non-transparent methodology — is being used inappropriately to prevent pain patients from obtaining appropriate opioids.
Other
A New York Times opinion piece says that private equity is ruining the country by taking advantage of loose regulations to bankrupt acquired companies while making their own executives billionaires. A showcase example is Carlyle Group’s acquisition of nursing home chain ManorCare that was funded by piling debt onto to the chain – not to the private equity firm – then flipping its real estate to allow Carlyle to recover its investment while sticking the chain with paying high rents. Then came layoffs, cost-cutting, and poor resident care that ended up bankrupting the nursing home company, after which Carlyle avoided the resulting wrongful death lawsuits by claiming that it was an advisor, not an owner.
Sponsor Updates
- Nym Health names Hallie Heffington (Summit Medical Billing Solutions) and Chermanda Jackson medical coding and compliance auditors, Omer Bar-Sela (Mobileye) implementation squad lead, Scott Rulkowski (Olive) customer success manager, and Niv Shashoua (HP) junior software engineer.
- Nordic Consulting rebrands Bails & Associates, which it acquired in 2021, Nordic ERP Services.
- Eleanor Health reduces its month-end closing time from 15 days to one day using a customized AI workflow solution from RCxRules.
- Optimum Healthcare IT names Kevin Scahill Epic HIM analyst and Rachel Clemans ServiceNow engagement manager.
- Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (TN) uses PerfectServe to streamline transfer center communications.
- Specialty medication technology company RxLightning wins a Disruptor of the Year Mira Award.
- SunStone Consulting will offer VisiQuate’s advanced revenue cycle analytics to its clients.
- Pivot Point Consulting, a Vaco company, publishes its Q2 healthcare IT market report.
- South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority expands its enterprise imaging contract with Sectra to include its digital pathology module.
- Surescripts will apply to become a Qualified Health Information Network.
- Upfront Healthcare’s latest psychographics study shows the pandemic’s impact on consumer health behaviors.
- West Monroe celebrates its 21st anniversary.Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at AONL 2023 May 1-4 in Anaheim, CA.
Blog Posts
- Freezing the squeeze on the Canadian primary care system (Nordic)
- Physicians Speak: Make Pharma Digital Marketing Clinically Relevant (OptimizeRx)
- Reducing healthcare call volume: Generative AI helps manage and divert routine inquiries (Orbita)
- Digital Health Can Drive Health Equity (Pivot Point Consulting)
- Choosing a Revenue Cycle Services Partner (PMD)
- Five Key Guidelines for Successful Workforce Planning in Healthcare (Premier)
- Buyer mindsets: What you need to know before you pitch your digital solution to a healthcare CFO (Redox)
- Writing a New Ending to the Patient Access-to-Care Story (Surescripts)
- 4 innovative ways to leverage call monitoring for increased customer satisfaction (Talkdesk)
- Addressing President Biden’s Executive Order to Support Caregivers and Improve Care (Trualta)
- Volpara Analytics Providers University of Utah Radiologists Confidence in Mammography Quality Across Locations (Volpara Health)
- Double Your Reach: Marketing Hacks for Inside and Outside Your Practice (WebPT)
- 5 Key Interoperability Insights and News from HIMSS 2023 (Zen Healthcare IT)
- How to Survive a Joint Commission Survey (Zynx Health)
- Productive Health Care Systems Nationwide Need Interoperability (Vyne Medical)
- COVID and public health: Navigating the end of the US federal emergency (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Contacts
Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.
Re: “… private equity is ruining the country …”
I agree, although it isn’t just PE that is responsible for this.
A friend of mine went through this. His company was well-run and profitable; I’ll call this the Tier 3 Company. It was eventually acquired by a much larger Tier 2 Company, which in turn was acquired by an even larger Tier 1 Company.
The Tier 2 Company had “profitability issues”, which they responded to by seizing the profits of Tier 3 Company. When later Tier 1 Company entered the picture, the issues of Tier 3 Company receded to the point of invisibility in the overall corporate picture. It just wasn’t big enough to matter.
This is bizarre and counter-intuitive!
– power with no responsibility;
– control with no accountability.
And when an acquiring entity can make the acquired pay for the acquisition? It’s Alice in Wonderland stuff.
There was an article recently, whose message was thus: 95% of all corporations acquired by SPACs, wound up as penny stocks. It’s not quite Proof in the legalistic or scientific sense, but it sure is suspicious!
Re: “… Have you heard of examples where Meditech Magic standalone clients joined a regional Cerner collaborative?”
This question is both weirdly specific, and suggests a highly unlikely course of action for a Meditech customer. I’m a Meditech customer and I know of no such examples. The customer base is large enough that someone might do it… but it would involve an unusual set of circumstances.