News 10/18/24

Top News

Epic asks a federal court to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit that Particle Health brought against it, citing these arguments:

• Particle’s customers violated patient privacy by accessing records for non-treatment purposes and Epic says that the lawsuit is intended to distract the industry from that issue.
• Particle accuses Epic of anticompetitive behavior, but limits its argument to payer software, which Epic says includes other interchangeable products and services that are not mentioned in the complaint.
• The lawsuit fails to prove that Epic’s actions served no purpose other than anticompetitive behavior.
• No illegal agreements were cited to support claims of a conspiracy.
• Particle doesn’t show market harm, just its own.
• The complaint’s tortious interference claims are not valid because Particle can’t prove that Epic had wrongful intent or made false statements.

Reader Comments

From My2cents: “Re: Qardio. I’m reading on Reddit that they went under, but haven’t seen anything in the news. The app seems to be unavailable in the Google Play and Apple stores.” CEO Mike Alvarez left the consumer ECG and blood pressure app company to become CEO at Glooko last month. The company’s website lists several executive team members who are no longer there, including its founder and CTO. Redditors report buying devices recently only to find that the app is not available and support is unresponsive.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

I received a HLTH email update that touts their celebrity keynoters. I’m impressed that HLTH says that their talks are neither paid nor sponsored, although I question the healthcare relevance in some cases. On the list: Lance Bass, Kesha Carter, Halle Berry, Chelsea Clinton, John Legend, Lenny Kravitz, Jill Biden, Maria Shriver, and musical guest Busta Rhymes. Today I learned that Lance Bass’s manufactured former musical group NSYNC is correctly capitalized since it’s an acronym of the last character of the first name of each original member, of which Lance wasn’t one or else I suppose it would have been SYNCEN, which is actually kind of cool. Also TIL that Busta almost certainly holds the healthcare conference record for being arrested.

Dr. Jayne’s critique of LinkedIn made me ponder what will happen to Meta after Facebook inevitably implodes into MySpace II. I’m an infrequent user, but it seems to have become a pointless platform whose most active users are tech-challenged, sloppy-writing boomers and Gen X’ers and the scammers who swarm to them. The algorithm has seemingly been tuned to a higher level of revenue-seeking desperation given the ads, group suggestions, and rage bait that it pushes more prominently than updates from actual connections. I hope Facebook users don’t migrate to Reddit since that’s the only place left that doesn’t make me feel stupider for having read it.

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.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Virtual digestive care clinic operator Oshi Health raises $60 million in a Series C funding round.

Healthie, which offers EHR and scheduling systems for health and wellness providers, raises $23 million in a Series B funding round.

Biotech research center The Broad Institute of Cambridge, MA lays off 87 employees, almost all of them in software and IT. Microsoft ended its contract with the company in July 2024.

Shares of insurer Elevance Health fall sharply after the company reported lower-than-expected earnings, which it attributes to rapidly increasing healthcare cost trends in its Medicaid business. It also reported a membership decrease of 3% due to the restarting of eligibility redeterminations that had been paused during the pandemic. Other insurers have reported similar problems with higher-than-expected medical costs in their government lines.

Hospital medication tracking technology vendor Bluesight acquires Sectyr, which offers 340B audit and compliance tools.

Sales

• Lee Health (FL) will expand its virtual nursing program using infrastructure from Caregility.

People

Pivot Point Consulting hires Scott Sims, MBA (Kyndryl) as SVP of business development and recruiting.

Amwell names Mark Hirschhorn, MBA (Tapestry Health) as CFO.

Announcements and Implementations

Oracle announces Oracle Health Clinical Data Exchange for claims processing data exchange between providers and payers.

CVS Health’s Aetna announces SimplePay Health, a health plan for self-insured clients in which members pay a fixed co-pay for services that are priced as a bundled payment; can use the Personify Health (formerly Virgin Pulse) app to search for the lowest-cost, best-outcome providers; owe nothing at the time of service; and receive a credit card-like monthly statement that can be paid using zero-interest line of credit. Coupe Health acquired SPH, formerly known as SimplePay Health, in November 2021. Coupe Health’s parent is venture capital firm Stella Health, which is owned by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota.

AMIA announces its 2024 Signature Award recipients, who will be honored at AMIA 2024 in San Francisco November 9-13.

Government and Politics

The board of supervisors of San Diego County, CA requests authorization to contract with OCHIN to implement Epic, which will be used across all Health and Human Services Agency departments in a $6.5 million project.

HHS OCR fines Maryland solo dental practice Gums Dental Care $70,000 for failing to provide a patient with timely access to their medical records. The practice didn’t provide the records even after being reminded by HHS OCR that it was obligated to do so, after which the patient filed a second complaint. The practice provided the records three years after the initial request and two months after it was notified of the $70,000 civil monetary penalty. The dentist there is Anna Gumbs, DMD, whose should have used her actual name for the practice since Googling “gums dental care” unsurprisingly returns a ton of unrelated pages.

Other

The Guardian takes an investigative dive into Indiana’s Parkview Health, whose aggressive expansion strategy is funded by some of the highest prices of any US hospital even though it is located in the country’s #1 most affordable metro area. The strategy of the health system, which has boosted revenue to $2 billion, includes taking over competing hospitals, buying up practices to increase referrals and insurer pricing leverage, buying naming rights to sports teams and venues, building expensive campuses, and buying practices and imaging centers and increasing prices as hospital-based outpatient departments. In other words, it does what most big health systems do. Insiders say that it ranks doctors by revenue metrics and bases their bonuses on increased patient volume, higher coding, and generating charges for procedures and testing. Nurses report that they are pressured to charge patients for batteries and tissues and are forced to comply with a “linen stewardship” program.

Sponsor Updates

• Inovalon launches a SaaS-based risk adjustment and analytics platform for health plans that reduces manual medical reviews by 50%.
• Arcadia announces new standards-based interoperability commitments to streamline data sharing and enhance customer value.
• A KLAS case study highlights the ways in which Surescripts technology enables greater workflow efficiency and faster approvals for prior authorizations for prescription medications.
• Redox announces that its data exchange platform has earned i1 certified status by HITRUST for all data transactions hosted on the Google Cloud Platform.
• Goliath Technologies partners with 1E to offer a complete IT observability solution that allows IT to identify and troubleshoot clinician EHR performance issues.
• Elsevier Health launches Sherpath AI, an advanced AI solution for nursing and healthcare education.
• Findhelp partners with Attane Health to support people with severe food allergies.
• Five9 will present at the MIT AI Conference October 26 in New York City.
• Fortified Health Security names Erin Martin content marketing manager.
• Healthmonix names Kate Joyce customer support specialist.
• Healthcare IT Leaders releases a new “Leader to Leader” podcast, “An Epic Journey at RWJBarnabas Health: Unlocking the Power of a Unified Patient Record.”
• MRO releases a new episode of “The MRO Exchange” podcast, “Data Quality with Frank Jackson, SVP of Clinical Quality and Payer Solutions.”
• NeuroFlow will present at the Behavioral Health Tech Conference November 5-7 in Phoenix.

Blog Posts

• Innovative partnerships: Pioneering solutions to increase clinician satisfaction (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Evolving Healthcare Operations To Unlock Patient Access (Tegria)
• Sunoh AI Medical Scribe is Transforming Documentation in Women’s Specialty Clinic (EClinicalWorks)
• From Go-Live to Thrive: The Importance of Post-Go-Live IT Support Planning and Working with a Partner Who Can Evolve with You (Impact Advisors)
• New Infection Prevention and Control Requirements: Is Your Hospital Ready? (Inovalon)
• Advancements in Liver Disease Treatment: Spotlight on MASLD and MASH (Lucem Health)
• Driving innovation in healthcare: Meditech’s global impact (Meditech)
• Rehab Therapy Burnout: Manage Stress Due to Staffing Challenges (Net Health)

Contacts

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