Good for the blokes at Craneware. If you’re going to sell your company to be over-leveraged and sold-off piecemeal, leaving…
News 5/21/25
Top News
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals acquires 23andMe’s Personal Genome Service, Total Health and Research Services businesses, and Biobank and related assets for $256 million at bankruptcy auction, beating out a bid from co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki.
23andMe retains its Lemonaid Health telemedicine business, though it, too, may be sold off at a later date.
Regeneron has stressed that it will ensure the security of its newly acquired consumer genetics data.
Reader Comments
From Tom B. William: “Re: Epic’s latest courtroom win. The company has scored recent wins against patent troll GreatGigz and Decapolis, with the latter win on behalf of a customer. I’d love to know how much money is annually budgeted by Epic for such matters.” Readers, feel free to weigh in with your best guess. I can only assume that the sum is more than some health IT companies spend on line items like sales and marketing. As I mentioned in 2022 after Epic triumphed over GreatGigz in a suit involving Christus Health, “Epic has historically been one of few companies willing to do whatever it takes to defend itself, and in this case, the involvement of one of its customers is likely to unleash its legal dogs.”
Sponsored Events and Resources
Live Webinar: June 18 (Wednesday) noon ET. “Fireside Chat: Closing the Gaps in Medication Adherence.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Ben G. Long, MD, director of hospital medicine, Magnolia Regional Health Center; Wes Blakeslee, PhD, vice president of clinical data strategies, DrFirst; Colin Banas, MD, MHA, chief medical officer, DrFirst. Magnolia Regional Health Center will describe how its Nurse Navigator program used real-time prescription fill data from DrFirst to identify therapy gaps and engage patients through timely, personalized outreach. The effort led to a 19% increase in prescription fills and a 6% drop in 30-day readmissions among participating patients. Attendees will learn why prescribing price transparency is key to adherence, how real-time data helps care teams support patients between visits, and how Magnolia aligned its approach with value-based care and population health goals.
Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
New Mountain Capital combines portfolio RCM companies SmarterDx, Thoughtful.ai, and Access Healthcare to create AI-powered healthcare revenue management company Smarter Technologies. New Mountain Executive Advisor and industry veteran Jeremy Delinsky will serve as CEO of the new business.
Sales
- Medical University of South Carolina Health selects Glytec’s diabetes and insulin management technology.
People
Inovalon promotes Karly Rowe to president of its provider business unit.
Valerie Mondelli, MBA (RevSpring) joins Iodine Software as chief commercial officer.
Glooko promotes Mark Clements, MD, PhD to chief medical and strategy officer.
Announcements and Implementations
TruBridge adds Microsoft’s Dragon Copilot AI-powered clinical workflow assistant to its EHR.
Dayton Children’s Hospital (OH) implements Abridge’s ambient documentation software.
Government and Politics
VA EHR Modernization Program Executive Director Neil Evans, MD explains that next year’s slate of 13 implementations will occur in waves of facilities chosen for their pre-existing relationships, with many patients receiving primary care at one facility and specialty care at another. Go lives will occur next year at sites in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Alaska.
Privacy and Security
Kettering Health (OH) reverts to downtime operations, canceling all elective procedures and diverting ambulances in the wake of a ransomware attack discovered Tuesday morning. Hackers have threatened to publish patient data on the dark web if the health system doesn’t meet their demands within 72 hours.
Other
Researchers at the the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Dentistry develop an app that connects dentists to health information exchanges so that they can more easily access a patient’s medical history.
Sponsor Updates
- Black Book Research’s new study reveals the world’s leading cities in achieving seamless health record exchange and EHR optimization.
- Arcadia publishes a new white paper titled “10 strategies to lead in value-based care.”
- AvaSure wins Oracle Customer Excellence Awards for multi-cloud excellence and CTO of the year.
- Clearsense publishes a new white paper titled “How Application Portfolio Management Accelerates M&A Value in Healthcare.”
- Clinical Architecture, First Databank, and InterSystems will sponsor and Elsevier will exhibit at the AMIA Clinical Informatics Conference May 20-22 in Anaheim, CA.
- CloudWave will exhibit at the New England HIMSS 2025 Annual Spring Conference June 5 in Norwood, MA.
- Altera Digital Health announces that Latrobe Regional Health in Australia has integrated its Sunrise EHR with Provation’s anesthesia information management system.
Blog Posts
- Transforming Denials Management through Automation and Analytics (AGS Health)
- Five9 Celebrates Eleven Honorees Named to 2025 CRN® Women of the Channel List (Five9)
- The Future of TheraOffice is Now: Experience Our Brand-New, Modernized Platform (Netsmart)
- The role of EPRs in dementia care: How Bolton NHS Foundation Trust is enhancing early detection and patient Support (Altera Digital Health)
- How service line analytics is transforming operations (Cardamom)
- Assumed Breach Simulation: Lateral Movement Explained (Clearwater)
- Key Takeaways from Reuters Digital Health 2025 (Dimensional Insight)
Contacts
Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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I don’t have any idea of what Epic’s budget is for dealing with patent trolls, and to what extent they use in-house counsel vs. hiring out. But I am aware of one Epic staff meeting several years ago where they had a ‘Troll Hunting’ segment where the in-house counsel gleefully shared the details of their victory over another patent troll. I don’t think anyone particularly likes being sued, but the lawyer speaking was licking their chops at the prospect of permanently shutting down said patent troll.
It occurs to me that Epic might not have a budget for battling patent trolls. Look at the characteristics of this organization:
– Privately held;
– Known to be aggressive in defending IP;
– Limits opportunities for ex-employees through non-competes and other means;
– Has deep pockets.
I suspect Epic views patent trolls as cancerous to their business model. Worth the fight, in other words.
Now, Epic might spend a lot of money on a given suit or a given quarter. They might decide, “hey, that’s a bit too much, let’s reign that in little.” But that’s after-the-fact review and not an actual budget. It would also be a contingent review and thus evaluated on the basis of any perceived gains made.