Monday Morning Update 4/14/25

Top News

UnitedHealth Group demands repayment from practices to which it loaned money following the cyberattack on its Change Healthcare business.

Its Optum division is warning practices that they must repay in full or risk having the amount withheld from their reimbursements.

UnitedHealth says that $3 billion of its $9 billion in interest-free loans was repaid by mid-October. The loans were offered following the February 2024 breach that sidelined Change’s clearinghouse services for nine months.

CEO Andrew Witty told the Senate Finance Committee last year that practices would have 45 days after their cash flows returned to normal to repay the loans.

Reader Comments

From Actionless Figure: “Re: LinkedIn. It used to be resumes and insight. Now it’s mid-tier health IT execs posting AI action figures like they’re getting their own McKinsey Happy Meal.” Agreed. You would think that the effortlessly generated, decidedly unclever graphics were Nobel prizes.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Pay and employee retention aren’t as important in health system IT satisfaction as you might think.

New poll to your right or here: What’s your biggest red flag when evaluating a health IT vendor? Leave a poll comment for a choice that I didn’t list.

Second-grade teacher Ms. P from Dallas, TX thanks HIStalk donors and matching funds contributors for fulfilling her DonorsChoose request for science and engineering kits and tools. A snippet from her message, which included classroom photos such as the one above:

I wish you could have seen my student’s faces when they got to see and use all the amazing things we got! You helped make learning impactful and long term by providing us with these hands on resources. These materials took my lessons to another level and engaged all my learners.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Live Webinar: April 15 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Navigating ACO Quality in 2025: Lessons Learned and Future Directions.” Sponsor: Healthmonix. Presenters: Michael Lewis, VP of customer success, Healthmonix; Steven Tyson, senior account executive, Healthmonix.  Accountable care organizations (ACOs) must stay ahead of evolving quality requirements and reporting changes. Join us for an in-depth discussion on lessons learned from past ACO implementation, key areas for improvement, and the impact of Medicare Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs).

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

A ProPublica article reports that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana was found to have committed fraud by approving breast cancer surgeries but withholding full payment, leading to a $421 million jury award to New Orleans-based Center for Restorative Breast Surgery, which was started by the two surgeons above. The insurer’s former CEO argues prior authorization only confirms medical necessity, not a guarantee of payment: “Let me be clear: The authorization never says we’re going to pay you.” The article also notes that company executives had arranged special payment deals with the center for cancer treatment for their wives. The jury foreman concluded, “We would have given more if we had been asked for more. That’s how egregious the fraud was.” The insurer has appealed the verdict and its business practices remain unchanged.

People

Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP (HHS) joins Mayo Clinic as chief AI implementation officer.

Donna Woelfel, RN, MSN (MultiCare Health System) joins Kaiser Permanente, Northern California as CNIO.

Announcements and Implementations

Researchers develop a conversation-based, diagnostic-focused language model that outperformed primary care physicians in accuracy and was rated by patient-actors as having superior conversational quality.

A new cybersecurity report from KLAS, Censinet, and industry groups finds that most organizations are better at responding to breaches than preventing them. The biggest gaps are in supply chain risk management, asset management, and medical device security.

The authors of the ASTP-commissioned SAFER guides – a self-assessment framework for the safety and effectiveness of an EHR implementation – describe new updates to the toolkit that incorporate best available current evidence and clinical practice. Usability has been improved and content streamlined to emphasize the highest risk, most commonly occurring issues.

Other

Not healthcare-related, but relevant. The Department of Justice charges former Nate CEO Albert Saniger with investor fraud after he allegedly misled backers about the company’s AI capabilities. Despite raising $40 million on claims that its “skip the checkout” tool was fully AI-driven, Nate secretly routed 100% of transactions through call center workers in the Philippines. Maybe he meant “AI” to stand for “affordable individuals.”

Sponsor Updates

• A Black Book Research survey of pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing executives finds that there is mounting momentum for reshoring US healthcare manufacturing.
• Artera announces that its Staff and Insights AI Co-Pilot Agents have been adopted by more than 100 leading healthcare organizations across the country and are generating significant customer satisfaction.
• Surescripts announces that its technology and data infrastructure systems have earned certified status by HITRUST for information security.
• Vyne Medical publishes a new case study titled “University of Wisconsin Health Transplant Program Automates 80% of Fax-to-EMR Process for Increased Accuracy.”
• Nym names Tarra Kline and Dani Hulahan medical coding and compliance auditors, Lior Segev software engineer, William Empey and Blake Cain customer success managers, and Mary Price Montagnet growth development representative.
• PerfectServe offers a new case study featuring Cardiology Consultants of Toms River titled “Enhancing Cardiology Care with Medical Answering Service.”
• Rhapsody publishes a new customer story titled “Axia Women’s Health saved $300,000, replacing a standalone API engine with Rhapsody Corepoint.”
• SmartSense by Digi will exhibit at HISHE’s annual Hawaii Healthcare Technology & Facilities Engineering Expo May 8 in Waikiki.
• WellSky will present the keynote at the virtual Home Care Association of Florida AI Summit April 14.

Blog Posts

• Celebrating 4,000 Subscribers: The Meditech Blog is serving a healthy dose of innovation in 2025 and beyond (Meditech)
• Adapting to Change with Innovative Flexibility (Netsmart)
• EHR Implementation: The need for strong governance and effective, knowledge-based planning (Nordic)
• A Comprehensive Checklist for EMR Implementation (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• What is Consumer Identity and Why Does it Matter to Health Systems? (Praia Health)
• Highlights from RLDatix Connected Healthcare Summit 2025 (RLDatix)
• It’s Good to Be HITRUST (Surescripts)
• Understanding Tariffs: Impacts on Hospitals & the Healthcare Sector (Symplr)
• So Many Buzzwords, So Little Time: Demystifying the Modern AI Toolbox (VisiQuate)

Contacts

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