Well that's a bad look as the Senators contemplate filling in the House gaps in the VA Bill
Monday Morning Update 2/21/22
Top News
Spok reports Q4 results: revenue down 8%, EPS –$0.86 versus –$2.44.
From the follow-up announcements and earnings call:
- The cloud-based Spok Go, which was introduced in February 2020, will be discontinued and the company will take a $15.7 million impairment charge. Spok says the product’s traction has been limited because of COVID-19, challenges in recruiting and retaining software engineers, and the company’s need to reduce costs and headcount.
- The company will maximize revenue from its legacy product, Spok Care Connect Suite.
- Spok will cut its management team by half and its workforce by one-third in the next 60 days.
- The company will increase its dividend and repurchase $10 million of its shares.
- The company continues to seek a buyer. One interested party is Acacia Research Corporation, whose primary business is buying struggling companies and then filing patent infringement lawsuits to force the purchase of licenses (aka a “patent troll.”) Acacia’s acquisition partner is activist hedge fund Starboard Value, best known in health IT circles for leveraging its tiny position in Cerner into board seats and a “cooperation agreement,” then selling off CERN shares as soon as the price went up as a result.
- Acacia proposed in August 2021 to acquire all outstanding Spok shares for $10.75 in cash. Shares are now at $8.65, valuing the company at $171 million. Spok turned down a $12 per share offer from B. Riley Financial two years ago.
- President and CEO Vincent Kelly says the board’s decisions were influenced by Oracle acquiring Cerner, Stryker acquiring Vocera, and Hillrom (and then Baxter) acquiring Voalte.
Reader Comments
From ViVE Sponsor: “Re: ViVE conference. The attendee list shows 3,000 people, only [low number omitted] of them providers.” Unverified, so I’ve omitted the number. I’ve emailed the conference’s generic email address for press inquiries since that’s the only contact I can find and will update with any response I get. The conference website says it expects 4,000 attendees (it said a year ago that attendance could top 5,500). Readers keep asking me about registration breakouts for ViVE and HIMSS22 that I don’t have, so tell me if you know or if you saw the same list. Meanwhile, the HIMSS22 exhibit hall is looking pretty full with about 800 “real” booths (excluding meeting place, pavilions, interoperability showcase, etc.) and 898 exhibiting companies. I’m hoping that, unlike HIMSS21, it will be worth my time and money to attend.
From TikTokDoc: “Re: videos. Doctors should use them for patient education. Good idea?” TikTok probably isn’t the ideal platform due to its limits on video length, but I can see doctors recording short, generic YouTube videos for patients who have new diagnosis or who need specific information about drugs, procedures, or lifestyle recommendations, then sending those patients a link after their encounter (the videos could be made private on YouTube or not, depending on practice’s goals). I like the idea of recording a quick video recapping the visit and to-do items for the patient’s later review, but malpractice fears probably make that unlikely. I wonder how many telehealth visits are recorded by the patient using screen-capture apps?
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Few poll respondents include certification or fellowship credentials on their business cards or email signatures, including two-thirds of the folks who have earned them. LinkedIn is full of credentials that I would have to look up (or in reality, ignore) – some that I’ve seen recently in profile titles (not just in a list) are CCEP, CHPS, CHC, FACP, CDH-E, CRCR, CVAHP, CHPC, GRCP, CSPO, NEA-BC, PMHNP-BC, LP/NREMT-P, and CSSM. I’ve hired and been hired based on minimum educational level, but I’ve never hired anyone or been hired because of a certification. Actually, that’s not entirely true – Epic certification is required for many health IT jobs and is harder to earn and keep than some of the credentials that are issued by member organizations. I’m curious to hear from readers – what health IT job descriptions have you seen in which a specific certification or fellowship is required?
New poll to your right or here: What were the negative aspects of your most recent PCP visit within the past 12 months?
Best thing I saw in the internet this week: “Everyone who confuses correlation with causation eventually ends up dead.”
Last chance – if your company is exhibiting or participating in ViVE, send me your information to be included in my conference guide. Some of the activities I’ll be listing for attendees to consider include sponsorship of the welcome reception, happy hours, live podcasts, presentations and demos, evening receptions, and strategy sessions.
Webinars
None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Real-world data platform network TriNetX acquires Advera Health Analytics, which offers pharmacovigilance software for drug safety concerns.
Radiology workspace vendor Sirona Medical acquires the AI capabilities and related employees of Nines, which offers an AI diagnostic solution for respiratory diseases and a triage system for intracranial hemorrhage. Nines will retain its teleradiology business.
The Columbus business paper runs an excellent profile on AndHealth. I interviewed founder and CEO Matt Scantland last week.
Sales
- Emory Healthcare expands its Sectra enterprise imaging system by adding digital pathology.
- Rush University System for Health offers its employees the Transcarent app for finding health information and health coaching as part of its medical plan.
People
David Pickering, MBA (Indiana University Health) joins St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as VP for clinical applications.
Announcements and Implementations
Cleveland Clinic lists its top 10 medical innovations for 2022, whose only health IT entries are AI-powered sepsis detection and analytics for early diagnosis of hypertension.
Government and Politics
The VA moves two of its 130 instances of VistA to AWS in a pilot project.
Stat reports that health tech vendors are worried about the trend of states enacting consumer privacy laws that, unlike HIPAA, give people control over how their data is collected and managed, which will increase regulatory compliance costs. The possible alternative outcome is developing a national standard for managing patient data.
Other
The Atlantic looks at “Why America Has So Few Doctors” even as an aging, ever-sicker population now has COVID-19 to deal with few primary care doctors available to see them. Reasons:
- US medical education is the longest and most expensive in the developed world, with programs requiring a minimum of eight years of school (degree plus medical school).
- Those years in college leave graduates hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, encouraging them to pursue whichever specialty pays the most.
- Residency spots and federal funding for them are limited.
- Physicians and physician groups have an economic incentive to claim a physician oversupply to constrain the number of medical school seats.
- Physician groups fight proposals that would allow lower-level clinicians, such as nurses, to do lower-level tasks.
- The medical establishment has made it hard for foreign doctors to practice in the US, especially those from Mexico and Canada whose practice is limited by NAFTA.
Sponsor Updates
- USPTO awards Volpara Health a patent for its method of detecting and quantifying breast arterial calcifications in mammograms.
- Redox releases a new podcast, “WebMD’s Ann Bilyew on Why Scale Matters in a Shifting Market.”
Blog Posts
- 2022 Healthcare Consumer Acquisition Trends to Watch (PatientBond)
- The Importance of Interoperability Rules Compliance for Payers, Providers (Symplr)
- Healthcare: It’s Down to Our Genes (Premier)
- Building Confidence Around Using Helpful Technology (Quil Health)
- Overcoming HCC Challenges in 2022: Provider Burnout, Staffing Challenges, and Coding Gaps (RCxRules)
- 3 things to expect at HIMSS22 (Spok)
- How Accredo Shaved 2 Days Off Its Turnaround Time for Specialty Prescriptions (Surescripts)
- A force to be reckoned with: How Force Therapeutics uses engagement to improve patient care (Talkdesk)
- Do You Have a CAHPS Early Warning System in Place? (Twistle)
- 3 Big Tips for Running a More Organized Front Desk (WebPT)
- 3 Ways Health Plans Can Ensure Risk Adjustment Compliance (Wolters Kluwer Health)
- What Will 2022 Bring for Virtual Care? (VitalTech)
- New CMS 2022 Guidelines: Delivering SAFER Care to Drive Better Outcomes (Zynx Health)
Contacts
Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.
Both ViVE and HIMSS registrations are increasing every day. The January to February attendance jump at HIMSS was more than double. The ViVE list is very solid and should keep growing as we get closer. I have noticed many digital registrations have switched to in-person.
Interesting that you share your thoughts focused on what appears to be simply the numbers of registrations for both surViVE and HIMSS. If I’m incorrect in that assumption, i apologize.
Your view is totally valid, if you’re an investment banker, VC firm or a small HIT firm looking to get larger through collaboration/merging or capturing stage 2-3 investments.
Few of the major players seem to be participating….at least from a booth perspective. But, admittedly, they may be attending, without a booth presence, simply to assess what this now “profit-center” for both CHIME and HLTH may look like.
Kinda stinks the CHIME CIO Forum has become almost an afterthought now that HLTH has grabbed the reigns. It appears that this new event has simply overwhelmed the CHIME staff. Information provided to members/partners is either late, incomplete, a total surprise with no info provided (e.g., the requirement to purchase a $1600 badge for HLTH simply to participate in the CIO Forum), or incorrect.
Seems they’re “building the plane as it heads down the runway”. CHIME has kinda jumped into the “deep end of the pool” and sort of appears they simply don’t possess the staff knowledge, staff numbers nor skill set, capable of managing an event of this size and complexity for both members and partners. I sincerely feel bad for them, they’re very nice folks.
I know the VA is …well the VA. But why would you migrate a platform that you’re in the process of sunsetting?!
Cynical Answer: There is no internal faith in Cerner as a product or the implementation as a project and this is contingency planning for the possibility of VISTA remaining thier system for a while.
Slightly Less Cynical Answer: Its just typical government inefficiency but doesn’t really mean anything and certainly isn’t the strangest thing the VA has ever done.
Non Cynical Answer: Even if it goes perfectly the Cerner rollout will take a long time and the VA can’t just not maintain VISTA for the years it takes the stragglers to get on Cerner. They need to do a minimum of work and give thier VISTA staff stuff to do.
Which night is the Epic reception being held at HIMSS22? Anyone know? And what’s up with Meditech – going to be there but not hosting an event?
I once had requestd additional Epic certifications and had a manager tell me that the industry didn’t really look at Epic Certifications. I really had to try hard not to laugh at her, but I’m sure she knew that I knew she was lying to me. Epic still makes certifications hard and expensive to get oth as revenue, and to try to support their Epic Boost boondoggle. Customers, meanwhile are okay with ppreventing the FTEs from getting additional certs becuase then they can go out the door for more money. Several Epic customers have actually told incoming empliyees that they can get certified as part of them coming to work there, then screw them over after the implementation is over, or all of a sudden there’s a policy change, or etc.
RE: Best thing I saw in the internet this week: “Everyone who confuses correlation with causation eventually ends up dead.”
The last time I checked the death rate was one per person.
Did you hear that giant gust of air over your head?