News 11/13/24

Top News

McKesson, Oracle, and NextGen Healthcare’s private equity owner Thoma Bravo are reportedly vying to acquire health IT, analytics, and data vendor Veradigm. A deal is expected to be reached by Thanksgiving.

Veradigm’s market valuation is $1.2 billion.

Reader Comments

From Swede: “Re: Oracle Health Millennium. Went live in Sweden for the first time, apparently without being registered with the Swedish equivalent of the FDA.” A Sweden-based publication says that Millennium doesn’t have a certificate from the Medical Products Agency, which is required for products that perform clinical calculations. Oracle has an option to CE-mark the product in another EU country, which would make the sale and use legal.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Drug distributor Cardinal Health will acquire a majority stake in national gastroenterology practice GI Alliance at a $3.9 billion valuation. GIA’s 900 affiliated physicians work in 345 locations in 20 states, which includes 135 ambulatory surgical centers, 165 hospital networks, and 95 infusion centers.

AI-focused digital physical therapy services provider Sword Health reportedly lays off 13 of its physical therapists, about 17% of its clinicians, as the $3 billion startup prepares for an IPO next year and follows through on plans to manage more patients using AI. Former employees say that the company is using AI to conduct patient conversations and to prioritize patients. Sword announced plans in September to land more employer customers by offering outcomes-based pricing.

Sales

• In the UK, five NHS trusts go live on Agfa HealthCare’s image sharing network.
• Augusta Health (VA) chooses Meditech Expanse.

People

William Morris, MD, MBA (Google Cloud) joins Ambience Healthcare as chief medical officer.

Nick Giannasi, PhD (Datavant) is named CEO of Aspirion.

William Walders, MHA (BayCare Health System) joins The Joint Commission as VP/CDIO.

Healthcare Integrated Technologies hires Caleb Dixon, MBA (Socket Health) as chief customer officer.

Announcements and Implementations

CarolinaEast Health System (NC) will go live on Epic on November 30.

Government and Politics

The VA announces plans to eliminate co-pays for telehealth services and to fund the deployment of telehealth kiosks in communities.

A Veterans Day announcement from Epic touts enhanced interoperability with the VA that allows Epic users to screen patients to determine their available VA benefits. Epic says the connection, which went live earlier this year at Tufts Medicine and Sanford Health, has identified 100,000 eligible veterans.

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), chairman of the US House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, asks CMS to encourage the use of digital health innovations in Medicare by changing the practice expense category of the Physician Fee Schedule.

Sponsor Updates

• Wolters Kluwer Health publishes a new case study, “Sentri7 Drug Diversion boosts detection at large academic medical center.”
• The Groupe santé CHC in Belgium selects Agfa HealthCare’s enterprise imaging for its medical imaging department.
• The Slice of Healthcare Podcast features Arcadia CEO Michael Meucci.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare” podcast, “Pharmacy Benefits 101: DMP & MTM, Explained, with Nash Albadarin, PharmD.”
• The “2024 KLAS Emerging Solutions Top 20” report features Care.ai’s Smart Care Facility Platform.
• CliniComp celebrates its 41st anniversary.
• Consensus Cloud Solutions will present and exhibit at the HIMSS Gulf Coast Conference November 14 in Mobile, AL.

Blog Posts

• New Remote Monitoring Codes for 2026 (AdvancedMD)
• Optimizing Healthcare Efficiency and Revenue through Utilization Management (AGS Health)
• Harnessing the power of an avalanche of healthcare data (Altera Digital Health)
• Where Are Hospitals in Executing Strategic Priorities for 2024? (Ascom)
• The Key to Fewer Denials: Unlocking Automation with Advanced Real-Time Eligibility (Availity)
• OCR Doubles Down: Risk Analysis Now a Key Enforcement Priority (Clearwater)
• Data is at the Heart of Population Health (Dimensional Insight)

Contacts

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