News 4/25/25

Top News

Eli Lilly sues four telehealth startups — Mochi Health, Willow Health, Fella & Delilah Health, and Henry Meds — for selling compounded versions of its $1,000-per-month GLP-1 weight loss drug Zepbound.

The FDA has reminded compounders that the practice is allowed only while a drug appears on its shortage list. FDA declared the Zepbound shortage over on December 19, 2024. It gave compounders 90 days to comply during the enforcement discretion period that ended on March 19, 2025.

Lilly says that the companies are sidestepping its patents by offering customized or vitamin-fortified doses, a tactic that has been used with other compounded products. It seems to be focusing on companies that are manufacturing such products on a large scale.

Lilly sold $16 billion worth of Zepbound and its diabetes twin Mounjaro last year.

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Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Kansas City-based HEI Global Health, a provider of revenue cycle solutions for healthcare systems, will open its first international branch office in Dubai. CEO Aaron Habben founded the company 20 years ago after spending several years at Cerner.

Pennsylvania high school student Max Kopp, who turned a science fair project on needle-free glucose monitoring into his startup VitaSense, launches a website to share his lessons learned and to mentor students in science and entrepreneurship.

Sales

• Valley View (CO) will implement Epic under UCHealth’s Community Connect program, apparently replacing Meditech.

Announcements and Implementations

AdvaMed, a non-profit medical technology trade association, publishes an AI roadmap that includes these recommendations, and others, for HHS:

• Ensure data protection without stifling innovation.
• Evaluate whether HIPAA needs to be updated to reflect AI.
• Develop guidelines for patient notice and authorization when their data is used to develop AI.
• FDA should continue to be the lead regulator for safety and effectiveness.
• FDA should implement Predetermined Change Control Plans for Medical Devices (PCCP) for AI devices to enhance pre-market efficiency.
• FDA should promote standards and issue guidance to promote common understanding between FDA and manufacturers.
• Congress should consider legislative solutions to address the budget neutrality requirements for Medicare.
• CMS should develop a payment pathway for algorithm-based healthcare services.
• CMS Innovation Center should test alternative payment models for AI technologies.

A new KLAS Arch Collaborative report finds that virtual EHR training now matches in-person methods as measured by Net EHR Experience Scores for both physicians and nurses, while cutting costs and scaling more effectively.

Government and Politics

A New York assemblyman who is also a pharmacist proposes a bill that would require hospitals to send a patient’s full electronic medical records to their insurers for pre-authorization, replacing faxes and mailed forms. Insurance companies and employers support the move, while hospitals worry that payers would use the more comprehensive information to deny more claims.

Axios reports that DOGE-directed layoffs at FDA have left it unable to keep its drug databases and NDC directory updated as affected employees are using their remaining government time to hunt for jobs. A significant HHS layoff is set for June 2. FDA drug reviewers have also reported that their work is on hold because they no longer have access to academic journals.

A Kansas anesthesiologist pleads guilty to healthcare fraud for exploiting his role as a telehealth contract doctor to mine company portals for patient information that he then used to submit fraudulent orders for DME, pain creams, and genetic tests. Scott Roethle, MD made $674,000 from five companies that paid him $30 per order, which cost cost Medicare $1.5 million.

In Canada, medical researchers and lawyers urge strengthening privacy laws and consider moving EHR data in-country to protect it from US-based AI training, saying that the data is housed on American cloud services that could be vulnerable if the Trump administration wants to access the information.

Other

Tennova Healthcare’s six Tennessee hospitals go offline when Oracle Health engineers accidentally delete a critical database storage component of its Cerner system.

Sponsor Updates

• Black Book Research uncovers nine under-the-radar AI innovations set to transform healthcare revenue cycle management.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast” titled “Judi Health: Going Beyond Pharmacy and into Medical Claims, with AJ Loiacono and Dr. Sunil Budhrani.”
• Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise Suite earns ISO 9001 recertification for 2025-2028.
• Ellkay will exhibit at the American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives Annual Conference May 2-5 in Atlanta.
• Health Data Movers and Symplr will sponsor the CHIME Innovation Summit Southeast April 30-May 2 in Jacksonville, FL.
• Healthmonix names Marina Verdara (Tebra) account manager.
• Impact Advisors releases a new episode of its “Impactful AI” podcast titled “Clinicians Take the Lead!”
• Infinx CMO Radhika Tandon will speak at the HFMA Nor Cal Chapter Women’s Event April 25 in Pleasanton, CA.
• Lincata announces that its LincTV plug-in device designed for Epic’s MyChartBedside is now available in Epic Toolbox and will showcase it at XGM.
• Optimum Healthcare IT publishes a white paper titled “Transforming Operations and Care with the Cloud.”
• Linus Health will present at the virtual League Connect Digital Summit May 7.
• Med Tech Solutions publishes a new white paper titled “Proven IT Strategies Improve Care Delivery and Build a Foundation for Growth.”
• First Databank and Surescripts will present at the NCPDP 2025 Annual Technology & Business Conference May 5-7 in Scottsdale, AZ.

Blog Posts

• Hope, Healing, and Hastings the PAT Dog (Altera Digital Health)
• Not All Text Messages Are Created Equal (Some Are Driving Communication Barriers in Healthcare) (Artera)
• AI Agents: Integrating AI into Customer Service (Five9)
• The Hidden Challenges of Epic Implementation During M&A (Healthcare IT Leaders)
• Mastering Record Retrieval: Smarter MRR Strategies for Risk Adjustment Success (Inovalon)
• Celebrating HIP Week: How MRO Supports Health Information Professionals with Automated Clinical Data Exchange (MRO)

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