'Samantha Brown points out that, “Healthcare, like every other industry, gets caught up in the idolatry of the ‘innovators.’”' I…
News 5/17/23
Top News
Connected health company Validic acquires Cox Communications subsidiary Trapollo, which offers technology and services that help healthcare organizations care for patients at home.
The companies had previously partnered to support a West Coast IDN’s personalized care program.
Cox will become an investor in Validic as part of the acquisition.
Reader Comments
From Vera Dime-a-Dozen: “Re: MDRX, formerly Allscripts and now Veradigm. Were supposed to restate their 10K on May 8, but it has been postponed to mid-June as the internal audit continues to identify issues.” The company says in a recent SEC filing that it hopes to file the 10-K by June 14, but can’t guarantee it. The company announced on March 22 that the year-end audit and 10-K filing would be extended because of “internal control deficiencies related to revenue recognition.” Veradigm expects the audit to have a revenue impact of $40 million that will require restating its 2021 financials.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Gmail suddenly started sending legitimate incoming emails to spam a few weeks ago, I noticed yesterday, including entries from the Rumor Report and Contact forms. I added some inbox rules that should fix that, but let me know if you didn’t receive a reply that you expected.
Attention HIStalk sponsors that are participating in the MUSE Inspire conference June 7-10 in Aurora, CO — send me your details and I’ll include them in my online list of sponsor activities there. I see some sponsor names sprinkled among those companies that have booths in the sold-out exhibit hall of the conference’s 40th anniversary.
Webinars
None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.
Acquisition, Funding, Business, and Stock
Healthcare pricing transparency startup Cascade Health raises $1.7 million in venture funding. It has developed healthcare pricing APIs and an AI-powered chatbot that answers patient questions about procedure pricing and insurance coverage. Co-founders Ana-Maria Constantin and Pulak Goyal hail from Microsoft.
People
Divurgent CEO Ed Marx announces on LinkedIn that he has left the company after one year and will work as an independent consultant. The company made no announcement, but its leadership page shows that founder Colin Konschak, RPh, MBA, who stepped down from the CEO job in May 2022 but remained board chair, is again serving in both roles.
Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer of Intelligent Medical Objects, resigns to take a one-year professional break.
CereCore promotes Peyman Zand, MBA to chief strategy officer.
HCTec hires Bill Lewkowski (Lewkowski Associates) as VP of strategic client services.
Rhapsody names Jeff Chiumiento (Rocket Software) as CFO.
Jason Prestinario, MS (Komodo Health) joins Particle Health as CEO.
Jane Casey, RN, MS (Humber River Hospital) joins Tampa General Hospital as VP of CareComm Operations, its clinical command center.
Zyter|TruCare names Kevin Riley, MBA (Salesforce) as president and CEO.
John George (Validic) joins Gozio Health as chief sales officer.
Sales
- Piedmont Healthcare (GA) will launch a remote patient monitoring program using RPM software from Telemetrix and devices, care management, and coaching from Remote Care Partners.
- The University of Mississippi Medical Center selects remote patient monitoring software, services, and resources from AMC Health.
Announcements and Implementations
CHIME opens registration for its Fall Forum November 9-12 in Phoenix, AZ for its provider members.
The West Hawaiʻi Region of Hawaiʻi Health Systems will go live on Epic June 1 through a Community Connect partnership with The Queen’s Health System.
Hendrick Health (TX) launches a wayfinding app developed by Gozio Health.
A Connected Health Initiative survey finds that 89 million Americans use a wearable device, with fitness tracking being the most common use followed by sleep and weight monitoring. Nearly all of the users are sharing data with their healthcare provider or are willing to, while 40% of those with a chronic condition say that the device has simplified their health management. More than half of HSA/FSA participants who don’t have a wearable say they would be more likely to buy one if they could fund the purchase from those accounts.
Government and Politics
Minnesota lawmakers are planning make a single exception to the state’s proposed patient-to-nurse hospital staffing ratio regulation for Mayo Clinic, which threatened to pull billions of dollars worth of investments out of the state in protest over the bill and another involving price transparency. House Speaker Melissa Hortmann says the exception is justified because “Mayo is different” and “an asset that is known all over the world.” Draft legislation would exempt hospitals that aren’t in the Twin Cities, that use an electronic nurse acuity system, and that have 40% of patients coming from out of state, requirements that only Mayo in Rochester meets.
Other
Netsmart earns top user satisfaction rankings among behavioral health technology vendors, according to a Black Book survey of 2,847 end-users.
UF Health launches tele-pharmacy kiosks from MedAvail Technologies at three of its ERs. Newly discharged patients can virtually consult with a pharmacist and pick up medications within about five minutes.
A Black Book survey of health system IT leaders finds that Care.ai is the top emerging ambient intelligence solution. The company has deployed AI solutions for infection prevention and control, patient and protocol monitoring, workforce optimization, and virtual care in 1,500 organizations.
A researcher warns that companies are rolling out AI-powered search tools for academic databases and research journals without understanding the opportunities and limitations of those tools. The author calls for evidence-based groups to audit individual search tools and publish their suitable uses so that research projects aren’t skewed.
Sponsor Updates
- Ellkay, which participates annually in the Go the Distance for Autism biking event, seeks donations to help it meet its fundraising goal of $35,000.
- Artera expands its online learning center, Artera Academy, to include an improved user dashboard, integrated events hub, and more accessible learning resources.
- Baker Tilly releases a new Healthy Outcomes Podcast, “The current state of cybersecurity in the healthcare industry.”
- Nordic publishes a podcast titled “Designing for Health: Dr. Adam Wright.”
- Bamboo Health will exhibit at the Medicare Star Ratings, HEDIS, Quality Assurance & Risk Conference June 5-7 in Chicago.
- Biofourmis will sponsor the Hospital @ Home Leadership Summit June 5-6 in Boston.
- CloudWave will exhibit at the NRHA Annual Rural Health Conference through May 19 in San Diego.
Blog Posts
- Specialty Pharmacists Get a Seat at the Table (Surescripts)
- Happy Birthday to Advanced Reporting & Analytics! (AdvancedMD)
- Revenue Integrity: Healthcare’s Growing Need (AGS Health)
- The Modern Odyssey: How do I find a ‘good doctor?’ (Amenities)
- Looming crisis: managing Medicaid redetermination as the PHE ends (Arcadia)
- Three Lessons for Optimizing Corporate Events (Ascom)
- The Butterfly Effect: Azara 2023 Annual User Conference Highlights (Azara Healthcare)
- How high-fidelity data could drive better predictive care and research insights (Philips Capsule)
- Creative Staffing Coordination for Budget-Friendly Epic Implementations (CereCore)
- How CCM Can Help Your Urology Practice (ChartSpan)
- Connecting to Greater Possibilities and Providing Care Anywhere (CHIME)
Contacts
Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.
MDRX Veradigm — PE Playbook. This has Apollo Global written all over it. This is how they steal shareholder value and bring public companies private.
{See Avaya Saga. 3 delayed 10ks, then Chapter11 and Apollo ownership while shareholders wiped out}
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4578338-avaya-stock-wipes-out-shareholders-in-bankruptcy
HIT is ever changing. Organizations need different talent at different times. This is not a space/career that can expect great talent to stay in one place. And frankly, that has as much to do with changing needs of organizations as it does a talent needing to bring their energy to the next challenge/problem that needs to be solved/opportunity.
Everyone making organizational changes needs to be celebrated. This space is not easy. We are each other’s toughest critics. I deeply respect everyone.
But.. There are somet hings that sometimes may possibly be considered TMI or crossing the line. Even if one is a great leader or a well intended person.
Sooo.. Maybe, just maybe, we should keep writing a book about hot sex on the lowdown. Or hold back on posting a pic of a relative, who is also a nurse holding a syringe of Botox in a celebration for nurses day. I believe the shot with the relatives legs spread open in an exam room (not an exam, just sexually suggestive pose) as potentially where I hit my personal limit. Maybe I’m just a prude. I don’t believe I am but maybe I need to ponder that.
Re: Ed Marx update, a slight clarification of your sharing his announcement. He has not left Divurgent, he transitioned from CEO to a Board Advisor – his LinkedIn post is his announcement of leaving a “traditional career path.”. He is and will always be a superhuman contributor to the evolution and transformation of our industry in ways that can’t and shouldn’t be contained to any one label! This transition is (in my opinion) an attempt to try to organize all of his many impactful contributions to our industry into an entity that can embody them into one place, which should open up possibilities for us all to see more of him. Thank you for sharing the update, just wanted to help improve the accuracy of your reporting!
Ed has always gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that we see plenty of him.
Seriously? Please share a list of these many contributions (that don’t involve just talking or posting on social media) to the industry and explain why it seems that holding a job is incompatible with being so wonderfully awesome.
Five C-level jobs in eight years is good experience for advising.
The Marx-arati are well known. They are the ones who make the “Top 113” CIO lists, or directors of IT for a 25 bed hospital who call themselves a CIO and spend 80% of their time applying for awards. Ed Marx has seen a lot. No side of this industry is easy, especially for those who have moved multiple times and take the risks he has taken. There is no discounting that. BUT. SERIOUSLY. The reporting on here is fact based and precisely true. You cult followers just live in the land of excessive hyperbole and ‘demand’ exaggerated emotional superlatives. Lest you forget it’s “All about the Patient”. Posers.
I wish Ed great happiness and success. I also know his laying clients don’t want to see the exaggerated hyperbole, so the cult followers are not doing him any favors.
News breaking now but he was pushed out prior to HIMSS last month. Of more concern to that firm in the last month, is the termination of their Chief Customer Officer and departure of key sales executives (EVP, SVP, VP titles) and COO resignation. Implosion!
THIS isn’t aging well. Look at how your scolding of something so simple turned into your worst nightmare of dialogue about Mr. Marx.
Your need to DECLARE:
**He is and will always be a superhuman contributor to the evolution and transformation of our industry in ways that can’t and shouldn’t be contained to any one label!**
Let’s Dissect:
–“Superhuman” — adj/ meaning having powers ABOVE AND BEYOND those of MANKIND. What a GRANDIOSE EXAGGERATION that is CONTRARY TO EVERYTHING SERVANT HEALTHCARE ADVOCATES/LEADERS represent.
–“Can’t be and Shouldn’t be Contained to any ONE Label” — Yes. When one is SUPERHUMAN, they are not required to follow the basic rules of professional announcements and transitions. Did you expect the Announcement to Say “Because Ed Marx is SUPREMELY SUPER HUMAN he was SIGNIFICANTLY OVERQUALIFIED TO BE A CEO and HAS BEEN ANOINTED to EVANGELIZE HIS MAGICAL POWERS to the WORLD without Limits or a single label?
— Please revisit Middle School Punctuation Lessons on your use of Exclamation Points!—
***AND***
“Thank you for sharing the update, just wanted to help improve the accuracy of your reporting!”
(Again with the inappropriate use of Exclamation Point!}
ACCURACY OF REPORTING YOU SAY?
There is NOTHING MORE ACCURATE than Stating, without ANY OPINION OR COLOR, that a person UPDATED THEIR LINKED IN PROFILE and the Company that they were previously the CEO of no longer lists them as the CEO.
See, many of us have extensive experience. Some of us even more experience than Ed. When he was a surgical tech we were piloting never before deployed enterprise EMR’s. Running health systems, etc etc. But Many of us know to let our work speak for itself. And then there are even a subset of us who say “no thank you” to the C-level opportunities. We know we can’t focus on the work in those roles We know the trappings. We know the risks. And we keep plugging away in the industry. I applaud Ed for giving it a go. Yet you CAN”T PICK AND CHOOSE your visibility. This is not a curated Personal Brand Instagram Page! (Yes, I used an Exclamation Mark)!
What the heck did this poor guy do, that warrants him getting dragged in a public forum to this degree? Reads like a high-school Snapchat thread….
Oh Nellie. You are new to this space to believe he may be inappropriately maigned.
Mr. Marx is a HOLOGRAM of a leader. Looked like one. Talked like one. promoted ones self as one. But did all of the pomp and circumstance that is to surround an executive. He just didn’t do the ACTUAL job(s). For years and years and years. Too much to list.
I’ll part with simply stating the following :
Employees at THR were evaluated on performance if they were willing to dedicate their vacation time and money to travel with his group to climb Mt. Kilamanjaro. He has always been MIA from a 9-5 basis. That’s why he is an “Olympian”.
Just let this one play out. Your way too late to the game to show up and ask who is on first.
Yes, and….? This industry is full of hologram leaders…..mainly b/c this industry is full of hologram value. I have never met the guy, have not even heard of him, and I have put in well over a decade in the space. Maybe he is a bad apple…..there are a lot of them out there…..I don’t know, as it doesn’t have any relevance to me. Why is taking the time to air public dirty laundry about someone who obviously seems to have gotten fired relevant to you? You sound like a teenager.
It only took Divurgent a year to figure out they’d bought a product that didn’t work. That’s pretty short period of time to make the change-decision in healthcare. Regardless…Ed’ll be fine.
Stand back, as there’s now bound to be an furious effort to spin this. “Independent-Unplugged” or “Entrepreneur-Unplugged” will be next. “I knew this was my next step when I took that last job”. Or “I wanted to spend more time perfecting my tango dance.” Or “I needed to spend more time training for the Senior Olympic team.” yadda-yadda.
Healthcare companies/orgs seem to love chasing the next silver bullet, no matter how many times they’ve been shot by them. And Ed’s one of the most highly-polished silver-bullets I’ve ever met. Mostly because he spends lots of time with a handful of Goddard’s and a soft cloth making sure there’s never a spot of tarnish to be found. Yet, even with all that buffing, it’s become clear there’s no gunpowder inside. That would make him seem harmless, but for people counting on that bullet to fire…it’s a lot of wasted time/effort/money.
Don’t say I didn’t tell ya so.
MDRX – Allscripts was historically a mess. So many acquisitions and overlapping products to sell/maintain. But, they have actually cleaned things up a lot by divesting most of what they had. They are now focused on Pro, Payerpath, Practice Fusion, and the newer Veradigm payer+pharma business. They have a lot of net cash on their balance sheet and seem to be (the history is limited, because of all of the divestitures) generating a lot of cash. I am sure growth is a struggle (markets like EHR+PM are mature, RCM is very competitive, and their new payer+pharma biz is still proving itself). They had been reporting 6% organic growth, but the restatement seems like it will take that down to 2-4%.
The 606 accounting rule that seems to have tripped them up is a terrible rule. It allows companies to accelerate revenue recognition, while also delaying expenses. It tried to normalize accounting across various industries, but ended up creating more of a house of cards when it comes to accounting assumptions and their impact on reported results. Everyone had to implement it, although most have not had subsequent accounting problems. MDRX has said they do not expect the restatement to impact cash generation (which is probably the most important), but a software glitch was causing them to double count some revenue (and expenses, apparently).
This is not a recommendation about the stock. Just an attempt to explain what is going on. Given the large net cash position on their balance sheet and the cash they seem to keep generating, I would not expect management to do anything that is not in the best interest of their various stakeholders.
All you say on MDRX situation and Accounting rules is accurate — If it weren’t for you missing the most obvious of what is really going on. MDRX is Going Private for PE Equity Ownership!
A) the Accounting rules are righting what has been wrong, especially with loosely reported projections of ARR and the Subscription Economy.
B) It should NOT result in a $40m restatement. A gap that large is due to much more than just the updated rules and we all know it.
C) Just because Allscripts/whatever we call it now, is operationally much better than they historically have been, doesn’t make it normal or ok. You don’t get a gold sticker for being LESS corrupt or LESS dysfunctional than you were 2 years ago. Your accounting is still not within securities law and your still dysfunctional, even if you are less so
D) YOU MISS THE REAL PLAY. Private Equity Powerhouses are PILLAGING any software related companies that have misstepped with the accounting rules. They are getting in. Finding a board insider. And then BLACKMAILING the leaders to agree to going private and giving the PE majority equity stake. An organization doesn’t MISS 3 10k Filings without preparing to file BK or take it private or likely BOTH! Just you wait. It’s coming. They are allowed to delay up to about 6-7 mos total (it’s a combination of SEC extension guidelines). It will be announced soon…before they hit the date that forced them to restate. They will avoid restating at all costs by going private.
Why does Mr H continue to feature Ed as a featured contributor, given that his job history reads like a novel ?
Ed’s last “CIO Unplugged” article ran here five years ago.
May I suggest that the Ed Marx topic be retired? He has sought and achieved some degree of industry celebrity that makes him a slightly more fair target of criticism, but it seems like all points of view have been represented.