News 3/12/25

Top News

Digital physical therapy provider Hinge Health files IPO paperwork.

The company’s most recent funding round in October 2021 raised $600 million, valuing it at $6 billion.

Hinge sells its services to employers and payers. It estimates the direct and indirect costs of back and joint pain at $1.3 trillion per year.

Reader Comments

From Pomme: “Re: Epic ERP. Judy Faulkner used to tell the story of ‘Atalanta and the Golden Apples’’ to represent opportunities that Epic must ignore to stay on mission. It describes how Hippomenes won a race against Atalanta by dropping golden apples that Atalanta stopped to pick up, which slowed her down just enough to allow Hippomenes to win. ERP sounds like a bushel of golden apples. I hope she is just messing with Oracle.”

From Bill Spooner: “Re: Epic ERP.  Developing a full ERP system is not a quick and easy task. Epic needs to decide if this is right for them. It’s hard to imagine it replacing Workday or Oracle, yet it could be a smart play for smaller institutions.”

From  Brendan Keeler: “Re: Epic ERP.  The announcement is not surprising in the slightest. It is concretely related to their Health Grid strategy —  build network effects products to new verticals as a wedge / beachhead and offer a related system of record (CAPS, CTMS, ERP, LIS, pharmacy information system) that natively performs between with those network effects products. Along the same lines, they also announced a clinical trials management system. I predicted this last month.”

From Slow Green: “Re: Greenway Health. The profiles of CEO Pratap Sarker and Chief of Staff Frank Pirantino have been removed from the company’s leadership page.” Verified. The page now lists industry veteran Richard Atkin, who served as CEO from 2018 to 2022, as CEO once again. Atkin is a principal with Vista Equity Partners, which owns Greenway and tried to sell it, apparently unsuccessfully, a year ago.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Drop your knowledge bombs in my reader survey, which you can complete in a minute or two. I haven’t done one since 2021, so it needs a refresh.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: March 20 (Thursday) noon ET. “Enhancing Patient Experience: Digital Accessibility Legal Requirements in Healthcare.” Sponsor: TPGi. Presenters: Mark Miller, director of sales, TPGi; David Sloan, PhD, MSc, chief accessibility officer, TPGi; Kristina Launey, JD, labor and employment litigation and counseling partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP. For patients with disabilities, inaccessible technology can mean the difference between timely, effective care and unmet healthcare needs. This could include accessible patient portals, telehealth services, and payment platforms. Despite a new presidential administration, requirements for Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have not changed. While enforcement may unclear moving forward, healthcare organizations still have an obligation to their patients for digital accessibility. In our webinar session, TPGi’s accessibility experts and Seyfarth Shaw’s legal professionals will help you understand ACA Section 1557 requirements, its future under the Trump administration, and offer strategies to help you create inclusive experiences.

Live Webinar: March 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “How to Improve Clinical Workflows with AI Chart Summaries and Risk Predictions.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Scott Cullen, MD, senior advisor, Health Data Analytics Institute; David Clain, chief product officer, Health Data Analytics Institute. Learn how the EHR-embedded HDAIAssist tool is transforming the ability of clinicians to pull insights out the mountains of data that have accumulated in the EHR, quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. HDAlAssist, which is part of HealthVision, the intelligent health management system, combines AI chart summaries and granular risk predictions to quickly inform care planning decisions, especially for the most complex, high-risk patients.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Oracle reports Q3 results: revenue up 6%, EPS $1.02 versus $0.85, missing Wall Street expectations for both. The only healthcare-related mention was in Larry Ellison’s response to a question about AI agents. He sounded pretty stoked about it, with these snips from his lengthy answer:

• Oracle’s key differentiator in healthcare is the quality of its AI agents, which include ambient documentation and a pre-visit provider summary.
• The company is also developing an AI-powered prior authorization tool, which Ellison expects to drive healthcare sales by  reducing costs.
• He says, “We’re selling more and more healthcare systems because we have a lot of AI agents embedded in them.”

RLDatix, which offers healthcare governance, risk, compliance, and workforce management solutions, acquires downtime continuity and Meditech-focused professional services company IPeople Healthcare.

Digital health and remote patient monitoring company CoachCare acquires virtual care vendor VitalTech, its eighth acquisition in the last two years.

Virtual orthopedic care provider Vori Health raises $53 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total raised to $103 million.

People

SmarterDx names Jacob Schiftan (Viz.ai) VP of product and Tom Dougherty, MBA (Care Continuity) head of sales.

Agfa HealthCare appoints Omar Sunna, MBA (Microsoft) chief customer officer for North America.

Trent Green, MBA, MHA (One Medical) joins NRC Health as CEO.

Emids names Abhishek Shankar, MBA (Tech Mahindra) CEO.

OptimizeRx promotes Steve Silvestro, MLA to CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

Zoom pilots its new AI-enhanced Workplace for Clinicians technology, which was developed for in-person and virtual appointments.

ECRI lists its most significant threats to patient safety for 2025:

• Dismissing the concerns of patients, family members, and caregivers.
• Lack of governance of artificial intelligence.
• The spread of medical misinformation.
• Cybersecurity breaches.
• Caring for veterans in non-military health settings.
• Substandard and falsified drugs.
• Diagnostic error in cancers, vascular events, and infections.
• Healthcare-associated infections in long-term care facilities.
• Inadequate coordination during patient discharge.

Government and Politics

In England, former health secretary Steve Barclay says that NHS “spends too much on foreign IT systems” and should prioritize British companies instead.

The US Navy will offer sailors and their dependents free access to digital services from Talkspace as part of a new mental healthcare program that is being piloted at six bases.

Privacy and Security

Therapists at the VA’s clinical resource hubs are protesting being forced to conduct virtual mental health sessions from open cubicles. The therapists, who worked remotely until ordered to return to the office, are housed in facilities that lack private offices. VA leadership reportedly stated that “screen protectors, a white noise machine, and a headset is [sic] sufficient to ensure patient privacy in a large bullpen of cubicles.”

Business Insider reports that some states are requiring Bamboo Health to track the prescribing of abortion pills in their prescription monitoring programs that were designed for opioid tracking. Louisiana has reclassified misoprostol and mifepristone as controlled substances, which requires clinicians to log them into Bamboo’s system. Texas, Indiana, and Idaho are considering similar measures. Bamboo says that it is legally obligated to monitor the drugs in states that require it. Doctors are raising concerns about data access, as the information isn’t protected by HIPAA and can be viewed by state health departments, medical examiners, and law enforcement under certain conditions.

Other

HIMSS26 will be held March 9-12 in Las Vegas next year, according to parent company Informa Connect. ViVE, meanwhile, will take place February 22-25, this time in Los Angeles.

Consultants discover that Health New Zealand, whose annual budget is $18 billion, manages its finances using a single Microsoft Excel worksheet. The health minister recently highlighted HNZ’s fragmented digital infrastructure, which includes 6,000 apps and 100 digital networks.

Sponsor Updates

• AGS Health publishes a new white paper, “The RCM Maturity Framework: A 4-Stage Journey to Digital Transformation and Operational Excellence.”
• Wolters Kluwer Health announces that Phrase Health will integrate its UpToDate clinical decision support solution with Phrase Health’s EHR workflow optimization software.
• A new Waystar report identifies the top six RCM trends of 2025.
• CereCore releases a new podcast titled “From AI to EHR: How to Approach Healthcare Innovation Today.”
• Black Book Research shares highlights from its recent survey of AMIA members on AI-driven healthcare innovations and interoperability advancements.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast” titled “How First-Movers are Taking Control of their Health Plans in 2025, with Jeff Hogan.”
• The “Thriving Practice” podcast features Arrive Health CEO Kyle Kiser in an episode titled “From Hours to Minutes: Transforming Prior Authorizations with Arrive Health.”
• Artera exhibits at AAOS through March 14 in San Diego.
• Censinet releases a new report titled “Choosing the Right Healthcare TPRM and ERM Solution.”
• Clearwater announces new innovations in its Security Operations Center Portal and IRM|Analysis software.
• NHS Ayrshire & Arran in Scotland implements TrakCare as a Service from InterSystems.
• Symplr releases the results of its “2025 State of Healthcare Supply Chain Survey” in a new e-book.
• MRO introduces automated HEDIS data retrieval.

Blog Posts

• People-First Tech Strategy Demands More from EHR and Gen AI (CereCore)
• Digital Health Rewired 2025: A supported, connected and flexible approach from Altera Digital Health (Altera Digital Health)
• Cybersecurity Essentials for Rural and Critical Access Hospitals (CloudWave)
• Glimmers From HIMSS: Announcements, Recognition, and Collaboration Shine Bright in Glittery Las Vegas (Surescripts)

Contacts

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