News 8/2/24

Top News

Teladoc Health reports Q2 results: revenue down 2%, EPS –$4.92 versus –$0.40, beating Wall Street expectations for earnings but falling short on revenue.

News of the company’s nearly billion-dollar quarterly loss sent shares down hard in after-hours trading. They closed Thursday down 9%.

TDOC shares have lost 71% of their value in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $1.5 billion versus the $42 billion it hit in February 2021, not long after it paid  $18.5 billion to acquire Livongo. From the earnings call:

• Newly hired CEO Chuck Divita says the company’s technology is essential to growth, citing member-to-provider matching engine, its patient interaction database, and its investments in data science and AI.
• The loss includes a $4.64 per share write-down, $790 million, due to sliding share price and challenges in its BetterHelp virtual mental health unit, some of that due to high customer acquisition costs and prohibitive out-of-pocket costs for patients.
• The company will no longer provide long-term financial guidance due to uncertainty about BetterHelp.

Reader Comments

From Roy G. Biv: “Re: ambient documentation and billing.  I’m not surprised about the discrepancy between the MD’s perception of billing and what is found in the notes. That is why AI can be so valuable in proper billing if it is trained to read the full EHR documentation and map to CPT codes from the language and procedures.” I’m usually not a fan of finding new ways to increase charges, but it seems fair to follow the rules in tying doctor-patient conversations to billing codes to reflect reality. It’s a rare win for both the white coats and the suits – the doctor saves time and enjoys reduced cognitive load while the bean-counters justify paying for it via more accurate (i.e., higher) charges. 

From Giddy Lee: “Re: UT Medical Center. Looking for an SVP/CIO five months after hiring one.” Lynnette Clinton’s LinkedIn doesn’t say she has left, but it sounds like they are posting that job. I don’t recall ever seeing an SVP/CIO position that reports to the SVP/CFO since that’s usually a small-hospital thing where IT is viewed as an expense in need of being managed.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Two private equity firms will take R1 RCM private at a valuation of $8.9 billion.

Eye practice software vendor Eye Care Leaders sells itself to new owners and renames the company Sightview Software. A bankruptcy court approved the sale of the company for $14.5 million to an insurance company in May 2024. Both the software vendor and the insurer have connections to investor and claimed former billionaire Greg Lindberg, who is awaiting an appeal for his federal conviction for bribery and wire fraud.

Identity solutions company HID acquires RTLS asset management system vendor Vizzia Technologies.

CompuGroup Medical promotes the son of its founder, Daniel Gotthardt, Dr. Med, to CEO. He was previously SVP and chief medical officer. Current CEO Michael Rauch, who was promoted from CFO just over a year ago, will leave the company.

MultiPlan replaces its EVP/CFO with Doug Garis (Oracle Health & Life Sciences), who shares his previous employer with MultiPlan President and CEO Travis Dalton.

Sales

• Ochsner Health will implement DeepScribe’s ambient documentation across its 46 hospitals and 370 health and urgent care centers.
• Carti Cancer Center (AR) implements Zen Healthcare IT’s Zen Insight Integration Monitor for Mirth Connect alerting and monitoring.

People

Iris Telehealth hires Glenn Wada (Blue Ocean Go To Market Partners) as chief growth officer.

Upstate Medical University names John Kairys, MD (Jefferson Health) as CMIO.

Announcements and Implementations

The Sequoia Project launches a Surescripts-funded pharmacy workgroup that will address the integration of pharmacy data and clinical services.

KONZA National Network announces Birth Connect, which will provide alerts to OB/GYNs when a birth parent who is under their care has delivered a baby. The technology will link the medical records of birth parents and newborns to solve problems such as delayed notification, loss of the infant’s medical record when they are given a full name, and providing a more complete view of birth outcomes for quality initiatives. Hartford HealthCare was the development and pilot site.

The American College of Cardiology publishes a guide for remote patient management.

Highlights from a new KLAS recap of its recent enterprise imaging summit:

• Two-thirds of participants say they will expand their EI strategy into new service lines within two years, with likely areas including point-of-care ultrasound (POCS), scopes, pathology, and ophthalmology.
• Expanding to POCS will be challenging since workflows differ across departments and the reports and images need to be sent to the EHR.
• Attendees were split on whether study distribution via a unified worklist should be managed by the EHR or by imaging vendors.
• DICOM routing is a needed component.
• Digital pathology offers many benefits, but requires more than just buying a scanner and an image management system.
• The AI value proposition includes efficiency, enhanced detection, and increased hospital revenue with lower costs, but strong governance is needed, algorithms should be validated, and the system should be tested for bias.
• A move to cloud-based imaging is inevitable even though costs will be neutral or higher than for on-premises solutions.

Privacy and Security

OneBlood, a blood center that supplies 250 hospitals in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, warns that it is operating at reduced capacity due to a ransomware attack.

Other

The CIO of a drug manufacturer cancels a 500-employee trial of Microsoft’s Office 365 Copilot, concluding that its ability to create presentations is at middle school level and therefore not worth the cost. Copilot AI nearly doubles the cost of Microsoft 365 at an extra $30 per user per month. The CIO said the tool was good at summarizing Teams meetings, but the drug company’s legal team advised against retaining transcripts.

Sponsor Updates

• Health Data Movers posts a new episode of its “QuickHITs” podcast titled “Breaking Down Barriers in Healthcare IT: Insights from Stephanie Davis.”
• EClinicalWorks announces the results of a recent survey on the perceptions of how AI helps the healthcare industry.
• Five9 announces that its GenAI Studio has been named the Most Innovative Product at the 2024 UC Awards.
• Consensus Cloud Solutions celebrates its 25th year of providing online fax solutions.
• Arcadia earns Certified Data Partner designation in the NCQA Data Aggregator Validation program.
• Abhinandan Kamble (Persistent Systems) joins Fortified Health Security as threat analyst.
• Healthcare Growth Partners publishes the July 2024 edition of its “HGP Observations.”
• Inovalon publishes a new customer success story, “Cincinnati Children’s Uses VigiLanz Clinical Surveillance to Identify Patients with Penicillin Allergies.”
• The NEOM region in Saudi Arabia will implement InterSystems TrakCare health information system across its hospital and 41 clinics.
• The “DGTL Voices Podcast” features KeyCare CEO Lyle Berkowitz, MD “Embracing Opportunities and Being Prepared: Lessons from Dr. Lyle Berkowitz.”

Blog Posts

• How to Maximize Efficiency of an AI-Powered Medical Scribe (EClinicalWorks)
• 7 Effective Strategies to Prevent Healthcare Denials (FinThrive)
• The Importance of Implementing the ICU Liberation Bundle to Reduce the Risk of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (Impact Advisors)
• MDRO RapidAlerts Pilot: Utilizing State Health Information Exchange for Automated, Real-Time MDRO Admission Alerts (Konza National Network)
• Improving Predictability & Long-Term Care Costs with Early Detection: Q&A with Alejandro Reti, MD (Lucem Health)
• Freestone’s Journey to Rev Cycle Success (Medhost)
• Enhancing continuity of care: The benefits of partnering with an FQHC (Meditech)
• Should You Opt In To MIPS? Consider These Recent Rehab Therapy Statistics (Net Health)

Sponsor Spotlight

Discover how Bermuda Hospitals Board transformed their IT contractor management with Revuud in our exclusive Q&A with CIO Keltie Jamieson. During the conversation, Keltie reveals how Revuud streamlined their access to specialized resources, improved team efficiency, and reduced costs. Learn from their experience and insights on optimizing IT contractor management and achieving strategic goals in healthcare. (Sponsor Spotlight is free for HIStalk Platinum sponsors).

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