News 2/16/24

Top News

Investment firm KKR acquires a co-ownership stake in healthcare payments and analytics vendor Cotiviti from Veritas Capital for $10.5 billion. Buzz about the deal with KKR began circulating several months ago.

Reader Comments

From Beltone: “Being a well-funded, SF-based start-up doesn’t guarantee success in healthcare. Former high flyer Medallion – SaaS provider credentialing – is facing financial challenges. Laid off their US-based provider enrollment team to outsource to India, creating HIPAA and security challenges. And didn’t tell their customers. CIOs and health systems probably deserve to be told that their provider data is moving offshore and back onshore. Health systems are demanding NCQA-certified provider enrollment staffs and going offshore isn’t going to make compliance leadership happy.” The company has raised $85 million since launching in 2020, with its last funding round in 2022. At least one comment on Glassdoor suggests that the company laid off some onshore staff without warning last month.

Webinars

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

Sales

• St Vincent’s Health Australia Private Hospitals will implement Meditech Expanse at its 10 facilities in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria.
• WellSpan Health (PA) selects remote patient management technology from Biofourmis.

Announcements and Implementations

Benefis Health System (MT) will roll out Epic next month. Hospital staff say the year-long implementation project has been good for the local economy, generating 1,900 flights, 10,000 meals at restaurants, and 3,300 nights at hotels. The economic bump will continue through the first few weeks of March, when 600 consultants descend for go-live.

Nicklaus Children’s Health System (FL) implements Kyruus Connect online appointment scheduling software from Kyruus Health.

Synthesis Health launches with GA of a cloud-native PACS with AI-based reporting module. CEO Murray Reicher, MD founded and led PACS vendor DR Systems for 22 years before selling it to IBM Watson Health in 2015.

Cleveland Clinic leverages technology from Palantir to create an AI-powered Virtual Command Center, the initial iteration of which offers an enterprise view of patient throughput and capacity forecasts, staffing needs, and OR utilization and scheduling opportunities.

Government and Politics

The VA Office of the Inspector General reveals that patient medication histories are not transferring between the Oracle Health EHR used at five VA hospitals and the VistA system used at the VA’s other facilities, putting 250,000 veterans at risk of potential medication errors. Though the VA says no veterans have been harmed because of the problem, the OIG says at least one veteran wasn’t given critical medication in a timely manner due to the glitch, and that the VA hasn’t notified patients that their medication records may be incorrect.

Privacy and Security

Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago restores external email capabilities and most of its phone lines two weeks after a cyberattack on its communication systems. Its Epic system is still offline.

Other

Ozarks Community Hospital (MO) abruptly transitions its Evergreen Clinic to a telehealth assistance hub, three weeks ahead of the date originally given to clinic employees. Patients in the area can now see clinicians remotely via virtual visit at the clinic, or travel to other OCH facilities further afield.

MUSC Health (SC) pilots a telehealth triage service at two of its emergency rooms in an effort to help patients get care more quickly, resulting in the rate of patients who leave without being seen dropping to almost zero. The health system plans to add secure messaging to the telehealth service so that ED patients can communicate directly with staff.

Sponsor Updates

• CloudWave will partner with USI Insurance Services to provide cybersecurity and IT services for USI’s PrivaSafe service.
• Medical Risk Solutions reports a 40% decrease in patient call volume after implementing Healow Open Access online appointment booking software from EClinicalWorks.
• First Databank names Brad Titus technical writer, Michael Cruz senior cloud operations engineer, and Kate Struthers people operations specialist.
• Findhelp welcomes Best Buy Health, Pediatric Associates Families of Companies, Merck, and Olympic Community of Health to its network.
• Aragon’s Research Globe ranks Five9 as a leader of conversational AI in the intelligent contact center.
• Fortified Health Security hires Georganne Miller (Latitude Information Security) as security compliance advisor.
• Health Data Movers joins the ServiceNow consulting and implementation partner program.
• The Career Reconstituted Podcast features Inovalon Director of Sales Engineering Wilson Tam, PharmD.
• InterSystems earns NCQA’s Certified Data Partner designation for a second consecutive year.
• Net Health will exhibit at APTA CSM February 15-17 in Boston.

Blog Posts

• Three Reasons to Invest in Digital Check-in Technology (FinThrive)
• Celebrating Five9 Partner Ecosystem Expansion and Success (Five9)
• How the Right Health Education Solution Can Address 3 Big Healthcare Challenges (Healthwise)
• From Engines to Cars: Why We Invented Clinical AI SolutionOps (Lucem Health)
• Patient Portals: Proven Strategies for Increased Engagement (Medhost)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.