News 10/25/24

Top News

The Department of Defense will award Leidos a three-year, $1.13 billion sole-source contract for MHS Genesis / Oracle Health integration services.

Leidos will be paid an additional $263 million for a nine-month maintenance period if DoD decides to issue bids for a new integrator after the three-year term.

Deliverables of the new contract include cloud migration and process documentation.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare telephone call automation vendor Infinitus Systems raises $51.5 million in Series C financing.

Healthcare workflow and task automation startup Penguin Ai emerges from stealth mode. The four co-founders have data and AI technical leadership experience with UnitedHealth Group. Industry long-timer Peter Longo is heading up sales.

Sales

• HCA Healthcare will implement ambient documentation from  Athelas/Commure, which acquired Augmedix in July 2024.
• Billings Clinic- Logan Health will expand its use of its Oracle Health EHR to all 30 of its hospitals, replacing Meditech at the former Logan Health sites. The systems merged in September 2023.

People

Healthmonix names Paul Grant (EMDs) as VP of sales.

BayCare Health hires Lynette Clinton, MBA (UT Medical Center) as CIO. She was VP of applications at BayCare until December 2023, when she took the SVP/CIO job at University of Tennessee Medical Center.

Tiffani Misencik (Greenway Health) joins MultiPlan as chief growth officer.

Lisa Dykstra (Lurie Children’s Hospital) joins CHIME as CIO strategic advisor.

Announcements and Implementations

WellSpan Health uses an AI agent from Hippocratic AI to boost colorectal cancer screening in underserved, at-risk people who are not actively engaged with the health system. Engagement rates and home test kit opt-ins were significantly higher for Spanish-speaking patients versus English speakers, which the health system attributes to language barrier elimination, convenience, and the ability to conduct higher-quality calls than human agents who are held accountable to call productivity targets.

ProPublica exposes a “denials for dollars” practice in which health insurers outsource prior authorization review work to companies that are incentivized to deny claims. Cigna-owned EviCore by Evernorth uses an AI algorithm, called “the dial” by insiders, to adjust denial rates based on the financial guarantees that it has promised an insurer. The algorithm rejects more requests if savings aren’t sufficient or increases approvals if complaints arise. The article also describes a lawsuit that was brought against Carelon, which is owned by Elevance Health, that alleges that the company intentionally limited its fax machines to accept no more than 10 pages so it could then reject those claims for not having complete documentation.

Optum Rx implements Rx PreCheckPrior Authorization, which uses Surescripts technology to reduce PA approval time for 25 specific drugs from 8.5 hours to under 30 seconds.

Government and Politics

KFF Health News reports that Kooth, a digital mental health app vendor whose California state funding has been threatened, covered $15,000 in travel expenses for state officials to visit its London headquarters. Mental Health Commission Director Toby Ewing, who has been placed on administrative leave following whistleblower complaints, supported preserving Kooth’s $271 million contract despite low usage of its app, which has facilitated just 2,800 coaching sessions.

The government of Saudi Arabia institutes a licensing initiative that will facilitate the use of medical software by eliminating the requirement that companies operate physical factories.

The FDA names Michelle Tarver, MD, PhD director of its medical device division. She replaces Jeffrey Shuren, MD, JD, who is retiring.

Other

A local group raises concerns about the planned acquisition of Jenny Stuart Health (KY) by Deaconess Health System. A member of Save Jennie Stuart says that the 194-bed hospital seeks new ownership because of “a recently purchased artificial intelligence boondoggle” from an unnamed vendor that cost $8 million. The hospital wants to implement Epic, which Deaconess uses.

Florida nurse Katelyn Watts, RN, DNP develops a human trafficking screening tool for Epic, which in her three-month doctoral project resulted in the identification of five trafficking victims and the arrest of three suspected traffickers.

Sponsor Updates

• Netsmart adds VNS Health’s predictive analytics for Hospice Visits in the Last Days of Life into its MyUnity EHR.
• St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Philippines implements Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EHR.
• Ellkay, Consensus Cloud Solutions, Waystar, and Surescripts will exhibit at NextGen Healthcare UGM October 27-30 in Nashville.
• Avia Marketplace recognizes EVisit in its “Top Virtual Nursing Companies” report for 2024.
• Five9 opens a new office in San Francisco.
• Impact Advisors releases a new episode of “The Impactful Advisor” podcast, “Impactful AI.”
• Konza National Network will present at the NCQA Health Innovation Summit October 31-November 2 in Nashville.
• FinThrive earns claims management certification for Oracle Health Patient Accounting.
• The Digital Health Hub Foundation’s Digital Health Awards recognizes Linus Health as the best in class winner in the longevity category for its digital screening solution for mild cognitive impairment, and NeuroFlow as the winner in the mental and behavioral health category.
• Meditech releases a new “This Week Health” podcast, “Clarion Hospital shares care coordination success.”
• MRO joins the CHIME Foundation as a Premier partner.

Blog Posts

• A Sneak Peek into the eClinicalWorks 2024 National Conference (EClinicalWorks)
• Elevating Health Literacy: Empowering Patients to Act on Their Understanding of Trusted Health Information (First Databank)
• Top Technology Investments for Healthcare Organizations (FinThrive)
• Third-Party Risk Management in Healthcare: The “Must-Haves” (Fortified Health Security)
• The Buck Starts Here: Front-End RCM’s Contribution to Claims Denials (Inovalon)
• 3 Ways an EHR Enhances Hospital Disaster Preparedness (Medhost)
• Modern Efficiencies for a Modern Audit Team: MRO Experts Share How to Reduce Risk (MRO)
• AI in Physical Therapy: The Future of Operations and Patient Care (Net Health)

I received just one sponsor’s information about their participation in the CHIME Fall Forum in San Diego November 4-8, so I’ll just insert it here:

Ellkay is a recognized healthcare connectivity leader, serving as the single partner to healthcare organizations for their data management and interoperability solutions. Ellkay empowers hospitals and health systems, diagnostic laboratories, healthcare IT vendors, payers, and other healthcare organizations with cutting-edge technologies and solutions. Since 2002, Ellkay’s system capability arsenal has grown to over 58,000 practices connected and 750+ EHR/PM systems across 1,100+ versions. Schedule a meeting or contact Auna Emery, VP of marketing at Auna.Emery@ELLKAY.com.

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