Monday Morning Update 10/7/24

Top News

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan tells a Madison TV station at a Wisconsin event that it’s too early to tell whether FTC will involve itself in Particle Health’s antitrust lawsuit against Epic.

Khan says that she has heard concerns about Epic from entrepreneurs and startups that are trying to enter the healthcare space.

She noted that FTC doesn’t usually get involved in litigation between companies, but adds that it’s “it’s too early for us to say” whether FTC will file an amicus brief that could help the court make a decision.

Reader Comments

From Circumspect: “Re: comments last week of Oracle Health EVP Seema Verma. Can you run her quote from the Forbes piece since it is paywalled?” She said in the article in discounting KLAS’s report of Oracle Health losing clients to Epic:

It takes more than an EHR on its own to solve the full scope of problems that healthcare networks face, which include everything from staffing, supply chain issues, finances, patient engagement, and security. Epic will never be in the business of solving these problems, and KLAS’s short-sighted research doesn’t take these challenges into account. It’s like counting yards run in football without accounting for touchdowns.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Poll respondents say that Particle Health has a weaker argument than Epic in its lawsuit.

New poll to your right or here, inspired by the reader’s question above: Which company is better positioned to solve the most pressing problems of health systems, Epic or Oracle Health?

I used Google’s NotebookLM to turn my write-ups of last week’s biggest health tech news items into a five-minute podcast. The result isn’t perfect, but auditory learners might digest it more easily. What do you think?

Sponsors: tell me about your participation in the CHIME Fall Forum and/or HLTH and I’ll include your company in my guide.

Webinars

October 24 (Thursday) noon ET. “Preparing for HTI-2 Compliance: What EHR and Health IT Vendors Need to Know.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Tyler Higgins, senior director of product management, DrFirst. Failure to meet ASTP’s mandatory HTI-2 certification  and compliance standards could impose financial consequences on clients. The presenters will discuss the content and timelines of this key policy update, which includes NCPDP Script upgrades, mandatory support for electronic prior authorization, and real-time prescription benefit. They will offer insight into the impact on “Base EHR” qualifications and provide practical advice on aligning development roadmaps with these changes.

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

Sales

• Indiana University Health will implement Epic, replacing Oracle Health.

People

Taylor Davis, MS, MBA (CareLuminate) joins Pivot Point Consulting, a Vaco Company as executive partner for client success.

Announcements and Implementations

Amazon sent me to a book that I didn’t know about, “Coded to Kill: A Techno-Medical Thriller,” which was written by Michigan Medicine CEO Marschall Runge, MD, PhD. The storyline is a hospital whose EHR is about to become a national standard, which a “former NSA honcho” sees as a tool that can help him gain power. It gets OK reviews, which probably makes it worth $0.99 for the Kindle version.

Government and Politics

HHS OCR imposes a $240,000 money penalty against Providence Medical Institute (CA) for a ransomware attack in early 2018 that affected the PHI of 85,000 people.

A federal judge revokes the bail of Ruthia He, the founder and CEO of telehealth company Done Global, for failing to disclose to authorities that she possessed documents that would have allowed her to return to China. She and and the company’s clinical president were were charged in June 2024 with fraud for selling $100 million worth of Adderall and other stimulants via monthly subscriptions to cash-paying customers, often for no legitimate medical purpose. The company has reportedly moved the business to China to allow it to continue operating. 

Other

A news site in India warns readers that while ChatGPT can interpret a paper prescription from a photo – a process for which it provides step-by-step instructions – its results should be checked with a medical professional before taking action.

Pediatric ED physician Jonathan Reisman, MD writes in a New York Times opinion piece that he has always assumed that AI and other machines would eventually outperform humans at the technical parts of medicine, but he has since seen his expected job security evaporate as tools like ChatGPT became better than doctors at patient communication.  He ruminates that pre-written scripts have always been used in communication, including in medical school training for delivering bad news. He concludes that it doesn’t really matter whether doctors feel compassion or empathy toward patients, only that they act like they do.

Sponsor Updates

• Arcadia adds J2 Interactive and Socially Determined to its data solutions marketplace.
• Wolters Kluwer Health releases the results of its third “Pharmacy Next: Health Consumer Medication Trends” survey.
• Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast, “Interview with Zeev Neuwirth, MD.”
• RLDatix will exhibit at the ASHRM 2024 conference through October 8 in San Diego.
• Verato and Zen Healthcare IT will exhibit at the Civitas Annual Conference October 15-17 in Detroit.
• Waystar will exhibit at the HFMA New Jersey & Metro Philadelphia Annual Institute October 9-11 in Atlantic City, NJ.

Blog Posts

• The Power of AI: Fueling Organizations and Elevating People, Part I (Netsmart)
• EPR training: Getting it right from the outset and throughout (Nordic)
• How CIOs Can Communicate Technical Debt Internally (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• Nurses of Note 2024: The Associate Chief Nursing Officer (PerfectServe)
• Centralizing Medical Staff Data: Transforming Safety, Efficiency, and Speed to Service (QGenda)
• FNP-C vs. FNP-BC: Which Family Nurse Practitioner Certification is Right for You? (SnapCare)
• Why is HFMA Peer Review Such a Big Deal for Healthcare Products & Services? (TruBridge)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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