Monday Morning Update 7/7/25

Top News

Symplr acquires the Smart Square staff scheduling system from AMN Healthcare for $75 million.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

A majority of poll respondents attribute Best Buy’s exit from its Current Health business as being due to its underestimation of healthcare’s complexity.

New poll to your right or here: Will insurers follow through on their pledge to streamline prior authorization? My take: only if it makes them more money. What I expect:

• They will use FHIR to quickly render only those PA decisions that involve high-volume, inexpensive items since they get an immediate labor reduction payback.
• Complex but urgent items will still require review by their own clinicians, whose relevant credentials may be skimpy and whose job is more to say “no” than “yes.”
• Policies related to patient transitions between insurers will be loaded with exceptions.
• Note that insurers pledged to address PAs in 2018 by (a) reducing PA requirements for providers who have a good performance history and who demonstrably adhere to evidence-based medicine, and (b) automating the process using national standards.
• CMS issued a rule in January 2024 that required payers to publish a prior authorization API by January 1, 2027, although the insurers will be given three days to respond to urgent requests and seven calendar days for standard requests.

Sponsored Events and Resources

July 22 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Innovating the Consumer Experience Beyond the EMR with Open Standards.” Sponsor: Praia Health. Presenters: Ryan Howells, principal, Leavitt Partners and program manager, The CARIN Alliance; David LaBine, VP of software engineering, Providence Digital Innovation Group; Robin Monks, CTO, Praia Health; Kristen Valdes, CEO, b.well. As healthcare faces rising consumer expectations and tighter regulations, the high cost of maintaining fragmented, proprietary systems is no longer sustainable. While patient data access has improved, the lack of open standards continues to hinder innovation, drive up integration costs, and limit the potential of digital health beyond the EHR. This webinar will discuss how open standards like OIDC,  HL7 FHIR, and open technology requirements are essential for reducing integration burdens, accelerating development, and lowering maintenance costs. Panelists will describe how every closed integration represents a lost opportunity and will offer practical strategies for leveraging open technology as a competitive advantage that improves efficiency, ensures compliance, and strengthens patient trust.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

England-based healthcare software vendor Agilio acquires Blue Stream Academy, which offers healthcare e-learning services.

The Villages Health, which offers healthcare services to the 150,000 residents of The Villages retirement community in Florida, files Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will sell itself to Humana’s CenterWell health services business. TVH reportedly owes the federal government nearly $400 million in Medicare overpayments.

People

Franciscan Alliance promotes Joseph Schnecker, MD, MMM to CMIO.

I missed this earlier. Nebraska Medicine promotes Michael Ash, MD to CEO. Ash, who is also a pharmacist, was chief medical officer for Cerner for 11 years and chief transformation officer of the health system for eight years.

Announcements and Implementations

Researchers find that prescription costs for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries didn’t go down following implementation of a real-time prescription benefit tool.

Other

OpenAI hires a forensic psychiatrist to assess the emotional impact of ChatGPT use. Mental health experts have raised concerns about people relying on AI as a therapist, pointing to cases in which chatbots were linked to mental breakdowns and suicides.

Contacts

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