News 7/9/25

Top News

Samsung Electronics will acquire digital health integration company Xealth.

Xealth announced an undisclosed amount of funding from Morningside Ventures earlier this year. The company spun out of Providence in 2017 to sell its platform that allows providers to prescribe digital health programs and tools.

Samsung says the acquisition will help it reach more health systems and digital partners through connected care.

Reader Comments

From Abacab: “Re: the VA. They posted an RFI on July 3 titled ‘Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) Systems Integration Support to the EHRM Integration Office.’ If they proceed, it most likely strips Oracle Health of the prime integration responsibility and shifts it to a traditional government systems integrator. Oracle has had notable failures with its Oracle Health rollout. Shifting it to an SI who has similar experience at least brings risk down substantially.”The RFI seeks input on selecting a system integrator to support the VA’s enterprise-wide rollout of Oracle Health, covering implementation, integration, management, and sustainment. My initial, non-expert assumption was that Oracle Health would remain the prime contractor, with funding and operational responsibility shifting to the integrator. Leidos seems to be a likely frontrunner given its role as prime contractor for the DoD’s Oracle Health rollout. However, a reader who has deep federal contracting experience believes that the VA may actually be looking to replace Oracle Health as the prime, not just add an integrator. They noted it never made sense for Cerner – who had never installed its system for the government and never served as prime contractor on a big federal project as far as I know — to receive a no-bid contract for both software and responsibility as prime, which of course let it keep most of the money.

From Dropsy: “Re: Becker’s Health IT & CIO Report. Amenities Health founder and CEO Aasim Saeed, MD, MPA rips them on LinkedIn for running an Epic blog post as its lead story.” I agree that it’s not real journalism to run a lead story that summarizes a vendor CEO’s company blog post. News is always sparse right after a holiday, but surely this was the most questionable choice from the 10 stories listed.

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

Health and human services technology company VitalHub acquires patient flow software vendor Novari Health for $32 million. Canada-based VitalHub’s recent acquisitions include Induction Healthcare (patient engagement and virtual care), MedCurrent (clinical decision support), and Strata Health (care coordination).

People

PointClickCare promotes James Yersh to president.

Kumar Murukurthy, MBBS (Altais) joins Optimum Healthcare IT as chief clinical officer.

Announcements and Implementations

La Paz Regional Hospital (AZ) goes live on Meditech Expanse.

Lifepoint Health and Community Health Systems implements Cadence’s new Proactive Care Engine for Advanced Primary Care Management of Medicare patients.

Hannibal Regional Healthcare System (MO) will go live on Epic this week.

Black Book Research surveys clinicians to measure how their input shapes AI product design, using eight qualitative KPIs that are tied to workflow fit, usability, and trust. Top-scoring vendors are Epic, Signal 1, Aidoc, Suki AI, Notable, and Viz.ai.

A new KLAS report on EHR clinical optimization names Nordic and Chartis as the top-performing firms.

Government and Politics

KLAS surveys 169 health system executives to understand how they are dealing with the uncertainty of federal policy, with the largest expected impact being cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. It concludes that financial pressures are forcing the organizations to “plan through the fog” by taking action now even without clear direction. A summary:

• Payment reforms are forcing organizations to reconfigure themselves, not just cut expenses, as they scale back services and expand high-margin service lines. This survival strategy creates implications for patient access.
• Most organizations plan to shift IT spending to vendor partnerships that offer quick ROI rather than cutting their IT budgets.
• Nearly 40% of the organizations are betting on AI as a way to reduce administration costs, but few have progressed beyond pilot projects.
• The organizations are reevaluating payer partnerships, Medicare Advantage growth, and contract performance. This is influencing broad organizational strategy.
• Smaller organizations are reacting similarly, but without the resources needed, leaving them with little margin for error in retooling their strategies.
• Few organizations are optimistic about government policy changes and are already being hit by financial policies and tariffs.

Other

The New Jersey Department of Health and Department of Human Services works with RWJBarnabas Health and the New Jersey Health Information Network on a pilot project that automates the filing and creation of birth certificates via data exchange between hospital EHRs and the state’s Vital Statistics Birth Registry.

Sponsor Updates

• Kyruus Health staff volunteer with Seeds of Hope in Portland.
• Healthcare IT Leaders publishes “The State of Oracle Health in 2025,” which analyzes Oracle Health’s platform and strategy using commentary from the company’s leadership and customers.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast” titled “A Look at What’s Really Driving Drug Spend, and How it Impacts Us, with IQVIA’s Michael Kleinrock.”
• The “HITea with Grace” podcast features First Databank SVP of strategy and product management Virginia Halsey in an episode titled “Virginia Halsey Spills the Tea on Smarter Medication Decision Support.”
• Fortified Health Security names Hannah Cook product manager for advisory services and Eli Herran security compliance analyst.
• Health Data Movers will sponsor the Northern Ohio HIMSS Charity Golf Classic & Collaboration Summit August 5-6 in Highland Heights.
• HIStalk sponsors Arcadia, TruBridge, Waystar, FinThrive, VisiQuate, and Infinx earn top rankings for AI-powered RCM applications based on Black Book Research’s latest survey.
• Impact Advisors partners with Montage Health on its Workday financial management and Workday supply chain management go live.
• Infinx releases a new episode of its “Revenue Cycle Optimized” podcast titled “RCM Insights – AI Agents Transform Claim Status Checks.”
• Linus Health advisors author a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease titled “Precision neurocognition: An emerging diagnostic paradigm leveraging digital cognitive assessment technology.”
• Nordic collaborates with GoHealth Urgent Care in Atlanta on its Epic implementation.
• Redox releases a new episode of its “Shut the Backdoor” podcast titled “The Healing Network – CISO Relationships in a Ransomware Era.”
• SmartSense by Digi will exhibit at the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine’s annual conference July 27-31 in Chicago.
• The G2 Summer 2025 Grid reports recognize Symplr’s access, clinical communications, provider, talent management, and workforce solutions.

Blog Posts

• The power of putting the patient on the care team (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Kansas City Social Care: Trusted Networks Support Community Wellbeing (Findhelp)
• HFMA Annual 2025: Exploring Bold Innovations in Healthcare Revenue Intelligence (FinThrive)
• Understanding and Managing Shrinkage in Contact Centers (Five9)
• Why IT Hardware Lifecycle Management is Critical for Ambulatory Clinics (HCTec)
• Medicaid Budget Cuts Test Risk Adjustment Program Readiness (Inovalon)
• The Critical Need for EHR Coaching: Ensuring Providers Can Maximize Their Systems (Med Tech Solutions)
• Leveraging FHIR and Interoperability to Transform CHRISTUS Health’s Revenue Cycle Operations (MRO)
• Digital health tech creating ‘connective tissue’ to link care settings, clinicians, and evidence (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Reducing Denials With Autonomous Medical Coding (Nym)
• Azure Virtual Desktop in Practice: What Healthcare IT Leaders Can Learn from Early Adopters (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• Driving Change With Purpose: Key Takeaways From HFMA 2025 (Tegria)

Contacts

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