News 5/12/23

Top News

London-based, digital-first primary care operator Babylon Health will take itself private, 18 months after it went public in a SPAC merger that the CEO says was a “big mistake.”

The company just reported Q1 results: revenue up 17%, EPS –$2.53 versus –$1.71, with shares falling 84% in the past two days on the news.

BBLN shares have lost more than 99% of their value since trading began on October 22, 2001, with the market capitalization of the one-time high flyer sliding from $4 billion to $30 million.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Amenities. The Dallas-based company helps health systems grow top-line revenues and earn scalable ROI. Its Digital Membership Platform is a suite of e-commerce tools designed explicitly to: (1) Acquire new patients: Verify identity and register new patients with full EMR and patient portal accounts in under 30 seconds, with just one question. That means zero data entry, photo uploads, or duplicate accounts. (2) Upgrade tools (i.e., MyChart). Improve the design, usability, and conversion rate of critical revenue drivers like provider search, provider profiles, appointment scheduling, and proxy management. Additionally, aggregate and promote same-day care options in one simple place and maximize the visibility and usage of all access options.(3) Win patient loyalty. Create memberships designed explicitly to help keep patients in network. Build personalized experiences for members (i.e., health plan, ACO, D2E, MA, or other VBC groups) with custom networks, care options, vendor services, pricing, and more. Or, better yet, offer highly unique and market-tested features like a financial package that includes “no surprise billing” guarantee, transparent pricing, affordability scores on providers, and more. You may well know CEO Aasim Saeed, MD, MPA, who launched the company in 2021 after serving as VP of digital health for Baylor Scott & White Health. Thanks to Amenities for supporting HIStalk.

A wise company has taken advantage of my “Small Booth Special” first-year sponsorship discount for non-sponsors that occupied a 10×20 or smaller HIMSS23 booth. Get with Lorre by June 1 to shed the small-booth stigma and enjoy the same ad size as everyone else, a prime location that isn’t just a waypoint on the way to the bathrooms, and a 365-day audience of heavy hitters instead of those looking for a quiet part of the exhibit hall to make phone calls.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

National medical group Envision Healthcare is planning to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it struggles with $7 billion in debt, high labor costs, and federal legislation that has limited the company’s key business model element of surprise medical billing. KKR, which took the company private in 2018 in a $10 billion deal, will likely lose its entire investment.

Amino Health, whose platform guides members to cost-effective providers, raises $80 million in financing. The company previously pivoted from direct-to-consumer sales to focus on self-insured employers, health plans, and third-party administrators.

Lavita, whose health data marketplace platform allows people to control and monetize their digital health information for purposes such as clinical trials recruitment, raises $5 million in seed funding.

Business Insider lists the digital health market predictions of several healthcare bankers, which include:

• Behavioral health care companies will consolidate by merging.
• Companies that sell to employers will need to consolidate to improve their clinical models in an environment where companies are reducing their vendor count.
• Companies that will address healthcare labor shortages with AI will be attractive to buyers if they can prove ROI.
• Companies that address value-based care will continue to draw funding and interest.
• Startups that are struggling to reduce costs or raise money will need to consolidate to find a path to profitability, and private equity firms will sell some of their holdings even at less-attractive valuations.
• M&A, rather than IPOs or funding rounds, will dominate digital health.
• The digital health market will make a comeback within a year and well-capitalized firms are already targeting acquisitions, especially of companies that can use data to reduce waste and administrative complexity, automate standard protocols, and increase health system productivity.

Sales

• Center for Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery chooses EClinicalWorks and Healow.
• Victoria, Australia’s health department will implement Altera Digital Health’s DbMotion for a statewide HIE.

People

Henry Archibong, MS (Inovalon) joins HealthMark Group as head of interoperability and innovation.

Scott Jones, MBA (ConnectiveRx) joins Equiva Health as COO.

Athenahealth hires George Hamilton, MBA (UnitedHealth Group) as chief corporate strategy and development officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Medhost launches an interoperability solution that meets ONC’s expanded requirements with an AWS data store, FHIR APIs, and common interfaces.

A small study finds that radiologists of all experience levels who use AI-supported mammography systems are prone to “automation bias,” in which they accept the technology’s assessment even when it is wrong.

A group of 21 Ontario hospitals launches the Ontario EHub HIE with technology and services from Oracle Health.

Government and Politics

The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency officially ended at end of day Thursday. US COVID-19 deaths are at 1.1 million and continue increasing at more than 1,000 per week.

CHIME asks people to email and tweet members of Congress asking them to repeal the Section 510 funding ban on creating a unique patient identifier.

Privacy and Security

Meta files a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit that accuses the company of privacy violations for sharing the medical data of users with advertisers via its Facebook Pixel website tracking tool. Meta says it’s the website developer’s job to understand how the technology works and to decide which information to send to advertisers.

Other

ProPublica notes that federal law requires insurers to share claims-related documents with the insured person and offers a form for requesting the information. The file can include notes, phone call audio, and internal correspondence that was involved with deciding whether to pay a claim.

In Canada’s Prince Edward Island, a family physician is closing his practice because of burnout that he says was caused by the province’s dysfunctional EHR. Thor Christensen, MD touts the value of electronic records, but says the Telus system is inefficient, is unconnected to the systems other providers, and has forced him to take on technology and billing tasks that eat up his evening hours. The 39-year-old doctor says that issuing a prescription takes up to five minutes versus 15 seconds on paper. PEI chose the Telus Health system in February 2021 as the island’s single EHR.

Bizarre: a 23-year-old Snapchat influencer expects to make $5 million per month from her $1-per-minute “digital girlfriend” voice chatbot, which was created from her YouTube videos and ChatGPT.

Sponsor Updates

• Black Book Research announces the top comprehensive RCM solutions for laboratories and ancillaries based on the feedback of 2,663 healthcare and medical users.
• Care.ai joins The Leapfrog Group’s Innovators for Leapfrog collaborative as a charter member.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Experience a More Efficient EMR with V12.”
• Technology executive Philip Pead joins WebPT’s board.
• Surescripts publishes a new podcast titled “Talking the Future of Pharmacy with Rina Shah.”
• Direct Recruiters Inc. promotes Aaron Kutz, Shayla Jastrzebski, and Kim Jaber to partner.
• Divurgent partners with HIMSS as a preferred digital health technology partner.
• Healthcare Triangle will present at the 2023 MUSE Inspire Conference June 9-10 in Denver.
• Konza National Network will present at WEDI’s virtual Annual Spring Conference May 24.
• Nordic posts Episode 205 of its DocTalk podcast titled “Decentralized care supports the health of older adults,”
• Jon Lauck joins Rhapsody’s board as chair.

Blog Posts

• 3 Takeaways from the HIMSS 2023 Global Health Conference (Divurgent)
• Medicaid Updates: How Eligibility and PHE Changes Impact Urgent Care (Experity)
• Creating Education That Helps People Advocate for Their Health (Healthwise)
• UKG Dimensions Latest Release (R9 U3): What’s In It for Healthcare Clients? (Healthcare IT Leaders)
• How Value IQ + EQ Creates Sustainable Improvements (Impact Advisors)
• Building long-term ROI with BI modernization (Nordic)
• Innovating a Better Future (InterSystems)
• Surescripts Calls on the Industry to Make Pharmacists a Permanent Part of Patient Care Teams (Surescripts)
• Looking inward: How your tech stack can help improve data quality (Intelligent Medical Objects)
• Reasons to Transform Your Current Software Test Approach (Keysight)
• Demystifying Compliance: How Interoperability Solutions Can Simplify Healthcare Regulations (Medhost)

Contacts

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