News 10/3/25

Top News

Medicare’s telehealth flexibilities lapse due to the federal government’s shutdown, with these changes:

• Geographic restrictions are restored.
• Medicare patients won’t be able to receive services in their homes.
• An initial In-person visit will be required within the six months before a behavioral or mental telehealth service and then annually.
• Audio-only telehealth services are no longer permitted.
• The Acute Hospital Care at Home program is shut down, forcing hospitals to move those patients, some of whom have mobility, transportation, and immune deficiency limitations, to overcrowded inpatient programs. All participating patients had to be discharged or moved back into the hospital by Tuesday.
• Providers can continue to offer services to Medicare patients. They can hold those bills until the shutdown is resolved, but they are not guaranteed that Congress will authorize retroactive payments as it has in the past.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

HIStalk sponsors who are participating in the HLTH conference October 19-22: tell me about your activities and I’ll include them in my conference guide.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Survey: “What’s your take on the value of IT Managed Services?” Sponsor: CTG. Due to recent legislative changes, healthcare organizations are under growing pressure to balance cost, performance, and innovation. CTG wants to hear from leaders like you on how IT managed services can help — or hinder — those goals in this quick, 5-minute survey. Your insights will help inform industry understanding and provide a clear picture of how IT managed services is currently being used.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Fortified Health Security acquires cybersecurity firm Latitude Information Security.

Veradigm’s special investor update call offered no details on its anticipated Nasdaq relisting. The company said that its financials remain sound, but it again withheld profit metrics, citing the unresolved revenue recognition discrepancies that led to its delisting. It continues to hope to become current on SEC filings and have shares relisted sometime in 2026.

Waystar closes its $1.25 billion acquisition of Iodine.

General Catalyst’s HATCo closes its $500 million acquisition of Akron-based Summa Health, two years after it was announced. The VC firm will convert Summa to a for-profit and use it as a living laboratory for the technology products of GC’s portfolio companies.

People

TigerConnect hires Peter Stetson, MD, MA (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) as CMIO and Sheeza Hussain (Press Ganey) as chief growth officer.

NextGen Healthcare promotes Srinivas Velamoor, MBA to president and CEO. He replaces David Sides, who will remain an investor and board member.

Government and Politics

The VA updates its AI strategy, which includes:

• Rollout of AI-powered digital assistants for appointment scheduling and form submissions.
• Enhance the EHR as a “more adaptive, context-aware copilot” by adding real-time transcription.
• Automate claims processing.
• Use AI copilots and agents to handle routine inquiries and administrative tasks.
• Support staff by using AI to retrieve and summarize information from all VA sources.

HHS officials say that the administration does not support private sector vetting of AI tools in healthcare. Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill, who is a technology investor, tells Politico that the Coalition for Health AI could become a “cartel” that allows big companies to squelch startups.

Privacy and Security

Meta will use conversations with its AI products for targeted advertising. Its upcoming privacy update also authorizes using data that is captured by its smart glasses and its AI image generator to target ads on Facebook and Instagram, with no opt-out option offered.

Other

Medical school professor Robert Wachter, MD provides interesting analysis of the “AI knowledge war” among OpenEvidence, Wolters Kluwer’s UpToDate, and Epic. Notes:

• UpToDate’s medical literature content is overseen by thousands of human experts.
• OpenEvidence quickly became popular because it could analyze a full clinical case and provide an immediately useful and accurate AI “curbside consult.” Wachter says that is comparable to the difference between a Google search result and getting more in-depth, human-like answers from a GPT.
• UpToDate just added some AI capabilities, but its expert-curated approach to evidence still contrasts with OpenEvidence’s direct literature search. According to Wolters Kluwer’s chief medical officer, those experts add value because they “understand the intersection of evidence, real-world patient care, the fact that there isn’t a randomized study for everything, and they have judgment.”
• Epic’s Art and Cosmos have access to huge amounts of EHR treatment and outcomes data that UpToDate and OpenEvidence don’t have, although Wachter is not yet convinced that their results will be more helpful in patient care.
• He sees Epic’s big advantage as allowing doctors to ask specific questions without typing in the patient’s situation, which could offer “the capacity to transform the practice of medicine.”

Keep the pumpkin-everything products — my most-anticipated fall treat is Mr. Autumn Man.

Sponsor Updates

• ISG Software Research 2025 Data Platforms Buyers Guide ranks InterSystems as an overall leader.
• AGS Health wins a UiPath AI25 Award for its use of agentic AI automation to assist providers in managing the rising rate of healthcare claim denials.
• Inovalon announces that its advanced analytics and real-world data capabilities are now available on Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud for Healthcare & Life Sciences.
• Surescripts releases a new report that details key drivers of clinician burnout, including administrative burdens and inefficiencies.
• Kyruus Health gives its customers the ability to manage provider and practice profiles on Healthgrades and its syndication partners.
• Symplr creates a Nurse Executive Advisory Council, which will be chaired by Symplr Chief Clinical Officer Susan Grant, DNP, RN.
• Waystar closes its acquisition of Iodine Software.
• Ellkay sponsors the Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (NJ) Golf Outing.
• DrFirst announces the 2025 Healthiverse Heroes Award Winners, including HIStalk sponsor Elsevier.
• Findhelp welcomes new customers UAB Medicine (AL), The Lockhouse Group, and the University of Oklahoma Health Campus.

Blog Posts

• Enabling clinicians to be clinicians (Altera Digital Health)
• Data Accessibility is Key to Healthcare Analytics (Dimensional Insight)
• From Fragmented to Fast: Future-Proofing Healthcare CX with AI and Agent Collaboration (Five9)
• CISO Brief: Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2025 (Fortified Health Security)
• TEAM is mandatory. Success isn’t. What hospitals must do now to prepare. (Healthmonix)
• Best Claims Management Software for Hospitals: What to Look For (Inovalon)
• Strengthening Rural Care: What States Need to Know About the CMS Rural Health Transformation Program (Konza Health)
• Celebrating Our Inaugural 2025 Care Access Champions: Announcing Our Medical Group Winners (Kyruus Health)
• Charting healthcare’s future through partnership: Highlights from Meditech Live 25 (Meditech)
• How Proactive Healthcare IT Support Prevents Costly System Failures (Med Tech Solutions)

Contacts

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