News 1/31/25

Top News

Behavioral health technology company NeuroFlow acquires Quartet Health, which offers a free mental health provider search tool.

In a simultaneous transaction, Quartet sold its InnovaTel telepsychiatry staffing service to Iris Telehealth, a provider of telepsychiatry services for health systems and community clinics.

Quartet, which was founded in 2014, has raised $266 million, while the eight-year-old NeuroFlow has secured $58 million in funding.

Reader Comments

From You’re Soaking In It: “Re: OnMed. Auburn University’s Rural Health Initiative is helping to place OnMed CareStations in rural locations, with one local paper claiming that one in Chambers County, Alabama is ‘the nation’s most active location for healthcare services.’” OnMed gets great patient reviews there, but the newspaper article is unclear on its statement about volumes, noting just 100 consultations per month. Maybe that makes it the busiest OnMed location, which would be a solid number. Companies seem obsessed at the idea of a medical telephone booth, but its only real advantages over standard telehealth are: (a) it’s in a fixed location, though that means patients have to go there instead of connecting from anywhere; (b) it provides instant access using someone else’s internet; and (c) it offers diagnostic tools that aren’t available in patient homes. Early product literature said that the booths dispensed medications, but I don’t see that mentioned now. Summary: it seems like an innovative idea that has failed before (like the now-defunct Forward, which  blew through $500 million of investor cash before augering in). Attribute that to the usual challenges of massive upfront investment, securing locations, uncertain demand, staffing the units to keep them running and clean, and finding ROI without trying to sell memberships or services that patients are expected to pay for with their own money. It’s Redbox versus streaming — you know how that ended.

From Bifstek: “Re: HIMSS. They’re offering a $799 add-on VIP pass for the annual conference.” I also received the email about Priority Pass Upgrade, which is limited to 100 buyers. It includes daily breakfast and lunch, concierge service, access to a private lounge, and front-row keynote seating. Not worth it to me, but I’m sure some elbow-rubbers will flex their expense account. Meanwhile, Freeman’s site says that Bistro HIMSS is back —$5,000 gets a reserved 10-top table for the week, 60 lunch tickets, and two conference badges. I did it years ago and liked having tickets to offer hungry-looking visitors to our booth and to host a CMIO lunch there. Bistro HIMSS, just off the show floor, offered a decent buffet with healthy options, plus you could enjoy real food at real tables and chairs (any HIMSS attendee will tell you that real tables and chairs are the most coveted items in the convention center). It’s depressing to wait in line forever to buy wildly marked up boring food, find no available seats, and then give up and sit on the dirty convention center hallway floor. 

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

I was wandering around my local vinyl record shop when I noticed in the bins the one and only 1969 record by Tallahassee-based psychedelic band After All. I did a deep dive into that bit of music ephemera here four years ago, so of course I had to bond with the record geek owner about it. I also tried to get him worked up that SNL left Neil Young’s amazing “Rockin’ in the Free World” out of the show’s Questlove-created musical history that I just watched on Netflix, although Rage Against the Machine was a good choice in the “angry” category.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Instant Access Webinar: “Successfully Navigating Post-Acute Rev Cycle Challenges.” Sponsors: Inovalon and KanTime. Presenters: David Swenson, senior manager of sales engineering, Inovalon; Lucy Lopez, VP of product management, KanTime. Learn how to speed up your revenue cycle processes and avoid the common RCM and eligibility errors that cause delays and denials. Discover strategies to boost your bottom line: streamline eligibility verification, simplify complex processes, and optimize denial management for improved cash flow.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Khosla Ventures invests $8 million in UK-based startup C the Signs, which uses routinely collected EHR data to help primary care doctors detect 50 types of early-stage cancer. The company participated in the White House’s Cancer Moonshot accelerator last year and aims to enter the US market. Co-founder and CEO Dea Bakshi, MBBS, is a former NHS primary care physician.

Genetic testing company 23andMe says that it is running out of cash and will try to find a buyer for the second time. There’s not much left of the company that was once valued at $6 billion – its market cap is down to $90 million.

Digital ultrasound vendor Butterfly Network will issue a follow-on offering that it expects to yield $76 million. BFL shares jumped sharply on the news, valuing the company at $900 million. They are up over 300% in the past 12 months.

Kode Health, which operates a gig matching service for HIM coders and hospitals, raises $27 million in a Series B funding round. 

Axios reports that venture capital firm General Catalyst is seeking buyers for a stake in its holding company, which includes Summa Health owner HATCo. Petershill Partners sold most of its GC stake earlier this month for $726 million, 62% more than it paid in June 2024. GC is one of the most active investors in digital health.

Sales

• Englewood Health chooses Agfa HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging Cloud solution.
• Johns Hopkins Medicine will implement Caregility’s virtual care platform and inpatient telehealth devices to support its virtual nursing program.
• Lady of the Sea General Hospital (LA) chooses TruBridge for EHR/RCM.

People

Avery Ashby, MS (Accenture) joins Impact Advisors as managing director of its data and AI practice.

Qventus hires Toryn Slater (Redox) as AVP of western US.

Shawn Kearl (Zipari) joins Perspecta as SVP of sales.

Announcements and Implementations

The new president of 25-bed Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center (CO) identifies the three systems that it is considering to replace TruBridge (CPSI), CorroHealth (T-System), and CompuGroup Medical (Aprima), listing these selection factors as important to an unaffiliated small facility:

• Epic is gaining market share and most doctors have trained at an Epic site, but few Critical Access Hospitals use it and some clinicians say it’s a complex system.
• Meditech use is growing among smaller hospital systems, allows the hospital to customize its implementation, offers a strong revenue cycle solution, and has lower implementation costs.
• Oracle Health is seeing growth in smaller hospitals and offers shared installations, although the CEO says that he has heard anecdotes about substandard reliability, support, and communication.

Abridge announces an ambient AI product for emergency departments that is integrated with Epic ASAP.

HIMSS and AMDIS will partner to offer educational events and awards. AMDIS signed a similar deal with CHIME maybe 10 years ago, but I don’t know if that’s still active, especially since HIMSS and CHIME have consciously uncoupled.

Government and Politics

The White House indefinitely cancels all upcoming meetings of the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee, which is an advisory group under ASTP-ONC.

Privacy and Security

The FDA warns that cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the Contec CMS800 patient monitor could allow unauthorized remote control and data theft. The device’s software also contains a backdoor that could let hackers compromise the connected network. FDA advises IT staff to unplug the monitor entirely if it’s being used for remote monitoring, or if not, to disconnect the ethernet cable and disable its wireless functions.

New York Blood Center Enterprises remains offline with no ETA following a ransomware attack Sunday. Donors are being turned away. The organization provides blood products to 400 hospitals in 17 states.

Other

A review finds that Cleveland-area non-profits paid 56 employees more than $1 million in 2023. Seven of the eight employers that did so are health systems.

Sponsor Updates

• Black Book Research’s latest survey of behavioral healthcare IT end-users finds that Netsmart ranks highest for integrated ambulatory EHR, practice management, and RCM software.
• Impact Advisors names Avery Ashby (Accenture) managing director of its Data & AI practice.
• Findhelp and The LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin will host a live recording of American Compassion: The Safety Net Podcast February 12.
• Five9 announces the winners of its New Era of CX Awards 2024, including US Radiology Specialists for its leadership and innovation using the Five9 Intelligent CX Platform’s ecosystem of partners to up-level customer and employee experiences.
• Healthmonix announces that its Emergency and Acute Care Clinical Registry has been approved as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry by CMS for the 2025 reporting year.
• Healthcare IT Leaders promotes Katie Bacon and Charlie Evans to associate client executives.
• Meditech will present at the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association Annual Meeting January 30 in Boston.
• Navina publishes a new guide, “A fresh start: 10 essential risk adjustment tips for 2025.”

Blog Posts

• Reflecting on the 26th Annual HFMA Western Region Symposium (FinThrive)
• Going Old School in the New Year: Healthcare Phone Spoofing Scams (Fortified Health Security)
• January Recap: New Year, New Momentum at HDM (Health Data Movers)
• Accelerating Clinical Trial Recruitment: Why Speed Matters and How to Achieve It in Patient Recruitment (Inovalon)
• Navigating QPP Reporting in 2025: Finding the Best Path for Your ACO (MRO)

Contacts

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