Morning Headlines 12/17/25

FDA Eliminates Major Barrier to Using Real-World Evidence in Drug and Device Application Reviews

FDA updates its policy to accept de-identified real-world evidence to support drug and device application reviews, allowing the use of previously excluded registries, insurance claims, and EHR data.

GI Partners, TA Associates to launch Netsmart sale process in early 2026, sources say

The private equity owners of Netsmart will reportedly seek a buyer for the company for the second time.

Enjoin Acquires Pediatric Resource Group, Broadening its Expertise in APR-DRG Assurance, Clinical Documentation Integrity & Physician Advisor Solutions to Serve Children’s Hospitals

Clinical documentation improvement company Enjoin acquires Pediatric Resource Group, which offers pediatric clinical documentation integrity and physician advisory services.

Wyden Calls on Health Tech Companies to Add Privacy Features Letting Patients View and Control Access to Their Medical Records

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) urges EHR vendors to adopt privacy features that give patients the ability to view and control access to their medical records.

Morning Headlines 12/16/25

Auxira Health Raises $7.8M in Seed Funding

Cardiology practice extension company Auxira Health raises $7.8 million in seed funding.

Sentact Acquires Performance Health Partners and Vizient Patient Safety Organization to Drive Patient Safety At-Scale

Sentact acquires event and incident management company Performance Health Partners and Vizient’s Patient Safety Organization.

Medical Software Company Agrees to Pay $500,000 to Resolve Allegations of Causing Medically Unnecessary Breast Cancer Screening Claims

PenRad Technologies will pay $530,000 to settle federal allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by inadvertently causing providers to bill Medicare and MassHealth for medically unnecessary breast cancer screenings.

Morning Headlines 12/15/25

VA Electronic Health Record Modernization: Critical Actions Needed to Support Accelerated System Deployments

A GAO report says that the VA must address several previously raised issues to support its accelerated Oracle Health rollout.

Mass General Brigham Announces New AI Company to Accelerate Clinical Trial Screening and Patient Recruitment

Mass General Brigham spins out AIwithCare, an AI-powered tool that matches patients to clinical trials.

Ritten Announces $35M Series B Investment Led by Five Elms Capital

Behavioral health IT vendor Ritten raises $35 million in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $52.5 million.

Morning Headlines 12/12/25

Texas Files Antitrust Suit Against Epic Systems Over Health Data

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton files an antitrust and consumer protection petition alleging that Epic maintains monopoly power and that the company misleads Texas children’s hospitals about its parental access rules.

HHS health IT chief hints at a new approach to EHR certification

Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and National Coordinator Thomas Keane, MD, MBA tells STAT he’s hoping his office will soon do away with 34 certification criteria for EHRs and modify seven, with an eye to regulating EHR interoperability APIs in the coming months.

The State of Enterprise AI

OpenAI’s “State of Enterprise AI” report names healthcare as one of the fastest-growing business sectors for ChatGPT use.

Morning Headlines 12/11/25

Cincinnati startup HerMD secures exit months after co-founders buy back business

Virtual health and wellness clinic Joi + Blokes acquires HerMD, expanding its virtual care reach to all 50 states.

MMH Announces Strategic Revenue Cycle Partnership to Support Future Growth and Strengthen Team Member Network

Margaret Mary Health (IN) will outsource its revenue cycle operations to Revology, laying off 55 employees in the process.

Competition Bureau obtains a court order to advance investigation into Well Health’s acquisition of Healwell

Canada’s Competition Bureau obtains a court order allowing it to move forward with its investigation of Well Health’s acquisition of Healwell, and if that acquisition has stifled competition within the AI transcription market.

Morning Headlines 12/10/25

Spare Tire raises $3M to save healthcare organizations from document downtime

Spare Tire, which offers on-demand access to inpatient historical data for workflow continuity during unplanned EHR downtime, raises $3 million in a Series A funding round.

Seattle startup Casera emerges from PSL to help hospital managers clear bottlenecks with help from AI

Casera launches out of Pioneer Square Labs with $1 million in funding to help hospitals improve patient flow via its case manager digital agent.

AngelEye Health Secures Additional $9 Million to Accelerate Innovation in Neonatal and Pediatric Care

Digital pediatric and neonatal patient and family engagement company AngelEye Health raises $9 million in a Series C funding round.

Morning Headlines 12/9/25

EQT Partners lines up $1 billion CitiusTech exit

EQT Partners hopes to sell its 40% stake in CitiusTech for $1 billion.

Palomar Health, UC Pact Outlined

A Joint Powers Authority arrangement between Palomar Health and UC San Diego Health will give Palomar clinicians access to UC’s Epic system.

Paradigm Health Acquires Flatiron Health’s Clinical Research Business and Forms Strategic Partnership to Rebuild Clinical Research Ecosystem

Clinical trial software and services vendor Paradigm Health acquires Flatiron Health’s tech-enabled clinical research solutions.

Morning Headlines 12/8/25

ECU Health partners with Artisight to bring Smart Hospital technology to eastern North Carolina

ECU Health will implement Artisight’s smart hospital platform, initially focusing on telehealth services for neurology and intensive care across five hospitals.

Nova Scotia’s One Person One Record patient information system goes online at IWK Health Centre Saturday

Nova Scotia Health’s IWK Health Centre becomes the province’s first facility to go live on what will become an enterprise roll out of Oracle Health.

FDA Launches TEMPO: A First-of-Its-Kind Digital Health Pilot to Expand Access to Chronic Disease Technologies

The FDA launches a pilot that creates a risk-based regulatory pathway for chronic disease digital health devices, giving manufacturers enforcement discretion while they gather and publish real-world performance data.

Morning Headlines 12/5/25

VA staff flag dangerous errors ahead of new health records expansion

Media outlets report that the VA remains on track to expand its Oracle Health EHR rollout to 13 more medical centers in 2026 despite problems reported by clinicians at all six go-live sites.

Lightbeam Health Solutions Acquires Syntax Health, Expanding Value Based Contracting and Incentive Design Capabilities

Population health management company Lightbeam Health Solutions acquires Syntax Health, which offers value-based care contracting software.

US health department unveils strategy to expand its adoption of AI technology

HHS develops a strategy to coordinate the use of AI across its divisions, enhance employee efficiency, and innovate in the areas of public health and patient care.

Morning Headlines 12/4/25

Artera Secures $65M Growth Investment and Reaches $100M CARR

Healthcare AI agent developer Artera raises a $65 million growth investment and expects to reach $100 million in contracted annual recurring revenue by the end of the year.

Cerbo and OptiMantra Announce Merger Under New CEO Jeff Hindman

Cerbo and OptiMantra, both vendors of EHR and practice management software for healthcare and wellness practices, merge and hire a new CEO.

People are Uploading Their Medical Records to AI Chatbots

The New York Times reports that people are downloading their medical records from provider patient portals and then uploading them to ChatGPT and other online AI tools seeking medical advice and interpretation.

Morning Headlines 12/3/25

ACCESS Model expands access to technology-supported care in Original Medicare

A new, 10-year CMS model called ACCESS will test whether an outcome-aligned payment approach can expand access to technology-enabled chronic care management in Original Medicare starting in July 2026.

Avandra Acquires DatCard Systems and Sorna Corporation to Create World’s Largest Medical Imaging Platform to Support Patient Care and Breakthrough Medical Research

Avandra, which is developing a federated network for medical imaging and clinical data for pharma and AI innovation, acquires DatCard Systems, which offers DICOM distribution solutions, and Sorna Corporation, whose technology supports automated medical data distribution.

Uptiv Health Secures Strategic Investment from The 81 Collection to Redefine Infusion Care Across Select Geographies

Tech-enabled infusion therapy provider Uptiv Health will use new funding to enhance its digital platform, incorporate AI into its workflows, and expand into new markets.

Morning Headlines 12/2/25

MiCare Path Closes Fourth Funding Round and Acquires Compwell, LLC to Accelerate National Expansion and AI-Powered Virtual Care

Virtual care company MiCare Path announces new funding and the acquisition of Compwell, which offers care management and virtual assessment services.

Inside Inbound Health’s sudden shutdown

Hospital-at-home company Inbound Health, which was spun out of Allina Health three years ago, shuts down amidst regulatory uncertainty.

Aledade Secures $500 Million Credit Facility from Ares to Support Growth

Value-based primary care management company Aledade announces a $500 million credit facility to support its continued growth.

LA-based medical billing company to relocate HQ to CT, add 150 jobs; gets tax rebate deal

Gebbs Healthcare Solutions will relocate its headquarters to Connecticut and hire 150 additional employees over the next seven years.

Morning Headlines 12/1/25

Best Buy (BBY) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Best Buy blames Medicaid and Medicare Advantage payments for exiting Best Buy Health with a $192 million impairment charge.

Accelerating Science with Human+AI Review

NEJM AI tests a fast-track manuscript review process that involves both AI and humans.

RI Doctor Claims AI Medical Firm Fired Him After Raising Concerns About FDA and HIPAA Compliance

A Brown University Health doctor sues Sully.AI, claiming that the company failed to pay him and terminated him for warning about making unsupported claims about HIPAA and FDA compliance.

NSW’ $969m single digital patient record at risk of cost overruns

An auditor’s report finds that New South Wales left key costs out of its $650 million USD Epic project.

Morning Headlines 11/26/25

Hospitals to move away from paper records to new digital systems

New Zealand’s health minister announces a 10-year investment plan to convert the 65% of hospitals that use paper records to digital systems.

Medical software provider Well Health under investigation by Competition Bureau

Canada’s competition bureau is investigating whether recent acquisitions by Well Health Technologies have reduced competition in the AI transcription market.

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Unveils the Genesis Mission to Accelerate AI for Scientific Discovery

The White House launches the Genesis Mission, a national effort to use AI to transform scientific research.

Morning Headlines 11/25/25

Geisinger Health, Nuance reach $5M settlement over data breach

Geisinger Health and Nuance propose to pay $5 million to settle a class action lawsuit that stems from a 1 million person data breach by a Nuance employee who had been fired two days earlier.

Catalyzing Health AI by Fixing Payment Systems

The authors argue that misaligned payment models are the primary barrier to broad healthcare AI adoption, suggesting that CPT adoption bottlenecks be resolved, integration overhead addressed, and pricing models aligned with AI cost structures.

Exclusive: DOGE ‘doesn’t exist’ with eight months left on its charter

Reuters reports that DOGE disbanded eight months ahead of its scheduled end, also noting that Acting DOGE Administrator and former health tech executive Amy Gleason is now an advisor to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Morning Headlines 11/24/25

Vohra Wound Physicians and its Owner Agree to Pay $45M to Settle Fraud Allegations of Overbilling for Wound Care Services

The company pushed its doctors to perform surgeries, also altering its EHR to bill Medicare for the higher-paying procedure and to generate false supporting documentation.

Accuracy of Smartwatches in the Detection of Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review and Diagnostic Meta-Analysis

Researchers find that all smartwatches except for Google’s Fitbit do a good job of detecting atrial fibrillation.

Memorial Sloan Kettering posts $62M loss as Epic system costs mount

The health system has spent $169 million, which it says was a planned expense, implementing Epic in the first three quarters of the year.

Eli Lilly Reaches $1 Trillion in Value, Buoyed by Demand for Its Weight Loss Drugs

The drug maker becomes the first healthcare company to be valued at $1 trillion.

Morning Headlines 11/21/25

GE HealthCare to acquire Intelerad, advancing cloud-enabled enterprise imaging across care settings

GE HealthCare will acquire medical imaging software vendor Intelerad for $2.3 billion.

Powered by AI, VA is improving Veteran care experience

The VA is piloting new ambient AI scribe technology at 10 medical centers and plans to expand implementation to all medical centers in 2026.

With a $2.5B Valuation, Function Becomes the New Standard for Health and Launches Medical Intelligence Lab

Function, which offers lab test memberships, raises $298 million in a Series B funding round that values the company at $2.5 billion.