News 3/14/25

Top News

A federal court upholds an injunction that prohibits senior care EHR vendor PointClickCare (PCC) from blocking Real Time Medical Systems (RTMS) from its systems.

The injunction, which was granted in July 2024, found that PCC violated the 21st Century Cures Act by using an unsolvable CAPTCHA to block RTMS’s web-scraping bots that collect skilled nursing data for analytics.

RTMS alleges that PCC took the action after ending discussions to acquire RTMS and instead developed a competing product.

Circuit Court judges agreed that PCC’s actions were anticompetitive and were not justified by its stated cybersecurity concerns.

Reader Comments

From Skeeter: “Re: VA. Is the GAO just beating a dead horse at this point? Yet another report highlights the VA’s failure to follow up on GAO’s previous recommendations related to EHR modernization, which include clarifying the project’s total cost, master schedule, or performance targets.” Meet the new report, same as the old report. Its recommendations are clear and necessary for project completion, even as the VA dodges discussions of cost, timelines, and performance targets that it is unlikely to meet. Oracle Health isn’t going anywhere, thanks to (a) a lack of viable alternatives; and (b) its no-bid selection under Jared Kushner in the first Trump administration, which likely shields it from budget cuts. Oracle has also ingratiated itself with the federal government in ways Cerner never could have, such as making former CMS Administrator Seema Verma the EVP/GM of Oracle Health. Plenty of verbal vaporware has been dispersed from all sides, none of which has scared VA leadership enough to force real commitments or change. Congressional frustration at spending up to $50 billion with little to show for it so far is palpable, most of it aimed at the VA and not Oracle Health, which the DoD implemented just fine.

From AnInteropGuy: “Re: Veradigm. Has performed a RIF, effective Friday. Not sure how many, but the Payer and Life Sciences units have been affected.” Unverified, but entirely likely.

From Barn Burner: “Re: Mark Cuban. Says companies who are buying insurance should hire a healthcare CEO to make benefits decisions rather than allowing an HR leader or insurance broker to run the program.” Cuban observes that healthcare is the only industry where a employer company’s CEO and CFO are blocked from accessing their expense data (such as prescription claims) to help make benefits decisions. Contracts bar executives from discussing pricing or supply with drug manufacturers, who themselves can’t see claims data. He also faults pharmacy benefit managers for not pressuring manufacturers and payers, advocating instead for a pass-through PBM that charges fixed administrative fees rather than profiting from hidden rebates and discounts.

From Slinky: “Re: Epic ERP. I interviewed with Neal Patterson for a position at Cerner in the 1990s. I asked why the company’s plans for Health Network Architecture didn’t include a patient accounting systems. His response was, ‘Why would I want to go spend millions of dollars on a me-too product and think that I can be successful starting with zero percent market share?” That was probably a sound short-term decision as CEO of a publicly traded company, but not so good for future-proofing since patient accounting shortcomings cost Cerner a lot of customers.

From Doggedly: “Re: CHIME. They are taking the HIMSS direction and creating a vendor-friendly media company.” CHIME is looking for a sales pro “with a hunter mentality” to “drive engagement with healthcare technology vendors.” It states HIMSS-like aspirations to “position CHIME as the premier media and research partner for healthcare technology vendors.” I don’t find this objectionable since it’s targeting salespeople. However, it’s a reminder that member organizations love revenue and largely generate it by charging supplier members for access to potential buyer members in publications and conferences, which usually makes “news” synonymous with “PR fluff.” I started HIStalk because HIMSS Media was where seldom was heard a discouraging word about vendors, i.e. the target audience for selling ads and conference booths.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Spare a minute to fill out my reader survey and you’ll be helping me make HIStalk better (or maybe prevent me from making it worse).

Thanks to Dan for letting me know that my “subscribe to updates” option wasn’t working. Fixing the issue changed the link, so click here to get email updates.

I’ve hit a weekly rhythm with these LinkedIn carousels. Let me know if you have ideas for other uses of this fun format.

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Infinx. Founded in 2012, Infinx provides scalable, AI-driven solutions to optimize the financial lifecycle of healthcare providers across all functions of patient access and revenue cycle management. Our cloud-based software, powered by AI and automation, is leveraged by experienced consultants and billing specialists across the US, India, and the Philippines. We help 172,000 healthcare professionals across 4,000 facilities capture more revenue, stay ahead of changing regulations and payer guidelines, and focus on patient care. Thanks to Infinx for supporting HIStalk.

Here’s a good Infinx explainer video that I found on YouTube.

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.

EBook: “7 Performance Benchmarks Every Medical Practice Must Know.” Sponsor: UnisLink. This free EBook lists seven critical KPIs for revenue cycle efficiency, how to calculate each one, steps to improve, and benchmarking data.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

TruBridge announces Q4 results: revenue up 2%, EPS –$0.38 versus –$2.92. TBRG shares have gained 206% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $415 million.

Scotland-based Craneware reports record results, which it attributes to US hospitals refocusing on efficiency following the presidential election.

Sales

• New Mexico Health Care Authority chooses Findhelp to power a statewide closed-loop referral system.
• Citizens Memorial Hospital will implement the closed-loop referral system of Unite Us, which it will integrate with Meditech Expanse.

People

Symplr hires Mike Valli (Optum) as chief commercial officer and Scott Sbihli, MBA (Inovalon) as chief product officer.

Announcements and Implementations

A new KLAS report on physician message burden notes that 59% of patients are using technology to communicate with their provider’s office before and after visits, which has driven message volume up and EHR satisfaction down. Recommend solutions:

• Have staff triage and manage messages that don’t involve clinical decision-making.
• Provide dedicated time for clinicians to manage charting and messages.
• Limit message length and the number of messages a patient can send in a given time period.
• Don’t let patients send messages if they haven’t had an appointment in more than one year.
• Auto-delete old messages.
• Use a single platform for all message types and improve remote access to charts.
• Provide message search and filter functions.
• Use automated messages to let the patient know their message was received and when they can expect a response.

Government and Politics

Two US representatives reintroduce the Patient Matching and Transparency in Certified Health IT Act of 2025, directing the HHS secretary to convene stakeholders to establish patient matching standards and track match rates. The bill also requires ASTP to develop a minimum data set for patient matching as part of EHR certification.

Sponsor Updates

• CMS approves UnisLink as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry for the 2025 MIPS reporting program.
• Black Book Research’s latest analysis features the top six customer-rated virtual care platforms in 2025.
• Wolters Kluwer Health announces that it is integrating its UpToDate clinical decision support solution with the healthcare agent service in Microsoft Copilot Studio.
• Health Data Movers releases a new episode of its “Quick HITs” podcast titled “Optimizing Medical Technology: Cost Savings, AI, and the Future of Healthcare with Ramana Sastry.”
• Healthmonix names Emily Krysa-Hobson sales development representative.
• Linus Health announces that its leaders, staff, and affiliates have authored 72 peer-reviewed publications and presented at 75 conferences since 2019.

Blog Posts

• Reflections on HIMSS 2025: Insights, Innovations and the Path Forward (FinThrive)
• Oracle Health EHR Slow? Not So Fast (Goliath Technologies)
• Transforming Stroke Care (Impact Advisors)
• Preventing Harm to Achieve Harmony: How Patient Safety Software Transforms Care (Inovalon)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Contact us.