News 6/21/23

Top News

Healthcare shift-bidding platform vendor CareRev will reportedly lay off one-third of its corporate workforce, about 100 employees, following the departure of founder and CEO Will Patterson, RN. He resigned after admitting to colleagues that he delivered an investor Zoom pitch – which resulted in a $50 million Series A round — while taking LSD.

Patterson announced in January 2023 that the company would focus on expanding its technology platform, which would require laying off an unstated number of employees. 

Reader Comments

From Amicus Briefly: “Re: Oracle Cerner layoff. A physician says in a private member group that its whole clinical team was eliminated, including nurse and physician executives.” Unverified since the company hasn’t said a word on that topic, but I haven’t seen that claim elsewhere. Layoffs in big, far-flung companies are often hard to quantify otherwise since those involved don’t have easy ways to compare information. It’s easier in a one-office business because you see the empty cubes or watch out the window to see who’s being marched out. Those who should eventually notice are the company’s customers, whose interests are not necessarily aligned with those of shareholders.

Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 2 ET. “The End of COVID Public Health Emergency is Here. Is Your Rev Cycle Ready?” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Vanessa L. Moldovan, commercial enablement + insights program manager, Waystar. This webinar will describe the proactive steps that are needed to avoid increased rejections and denials. It will cover regulatory waivers and flexibilities, major shifts in telehealth, changes to reimbursement, and the impact of the end of the PHE on Medicaid coverage.

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Gradient Health, which offers AI developers a library of 350 million raw and labeled medical images from 1,000 partner hospitals for system training, raises $2.75 million.

The founders of India-based vanity drug telehealth vendor Mojocare admit — following an investor-commissioned forensic audit after the company laid off 80% of its employees — that they were falsifying sales. A report says that the “judgment-free wellness platform” vendor was selling products to companies that were owned by the relatives of the founders, then restocking the delivered products, inflating its gross merchandise value. The money-losing company raised $21 million in a Series A funding round in August 2022 after reporting that its revenue had increased 38-fold. The two founders have no healthcare experience.

Sales

• In England, Leeds Teach Hospitals NHS Trust will implement Flatiron Health’s real-world data for oncology research.

People

Evergreen Healthcare Partners promotes John Evans to SVP of operations.

Announcements and Implementations

Malaysia’s Health Ministry will implement an expanded, cloud-based EHR nationwide in 2026.

Silver Cross Hospital expands its use of Kyruus ProviderMatch to include scheduling of primary care, gastroenterology, and cardiology.

Microsoft opens a public preview of Azure OpenAI Service that allows running models on client-owned data, eliminating the need for training.

Government and Politics

A Tennessee news site reports that Vanderbilt University Medical Center has notified some of its patients that it has sent their medical records to the state’s attorney general, who it says is investigating VUMC’s billing for transgender care services for patients who are covered by state-sponsored insurance. Commenters question the legality of providing the records under HIPAA and how VUMC chose the patients whose records it sent. HHS advises under its HIPAA “Court Orders and Subpoenas” guidance that providers can share PHI under a court order, or in the case of a subpoena, if the patient has been notified in advance to give them the chance to object or seek a protective order. The cited VUMC communication refers to a “civil investigation” in which the patient records were “requested.” The AG’s chief of staff says that the office is “surprised that VUMC has deliberately chosen to frighten its patients like this,” adding that its billing investigation involves only VUMC and certain providers, not patients.

Contacts

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