Morning Headlines 2/22/19

Allscripts announces fourth quarter and 2018 full-year results

Allscripts announces Q4 results: revenue up 17 percent, adjusted EPS $0.20 vs. $0.18, falling short of Wall Street expectations for both.

The U.S. government and Facebook are negotiating a record, multibillion-dollar fine for the company’s privacy lapses

The FTC is in negotiations with Facebook over a multi-billion dollar fine that would put a stop to the agency’s nearly year-long investigation into the social media giant’s privacy practices.

China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise

Thermo Fisher will stop selling its DNA testing equipment to China after discovering its government is secretly collecting the DNA of a predominantly Muslim ethic group and adding it to a surveillance database.

“She Never Looks Back”: Inside Elizabeth Holmes’s Chilling Final Months at Theranos

Vanity Fair recounts the icy atmosphere at Theranos during its final months, including the eerily chipper mood and lavish spending habits of CEO Elizabeth Holmes.

Morning Headlines 2/21/19

Clearlake Capital-Backed symplr To Acquire API Healthcare

Provider management and credentialing software vendor Symplr will acquire workforce management tech company API Healthcare from Veritas Capital for an unspecified amount of money.

Unsealed testimony reveals a goal of Atul Gawande venture: ‘Make health insurance intelligible’

Jack Stoddard, COO of the Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway-JPMorgan Chase healthcare venture, reveals that one of its main goals is to make health insurance and prescription drug prices easier to understand.

Letter from the CEO: Proposal for Change

Garfield County Hospital District (WA) CEO Julia Leonard says a nearly $1 million shortfall caused by the billing inefficiencies of the hospital’s new EHR has contributed to her decision to drastically cut staff and operating hours.

Data error exposes patient information

UW Medicine (WA) notifies 974,000 patients of a data breach that occurred when internal files were inadvertently made public on the Internet via an unprotected server.

Arizona college student could die because she can’t get copies of her medical records

In Arizona, legal disagreements between bankrupt Florence Hospital at Anthem and Gilbert Hospital keep red tape wrapped around medical records, preventing many patients from moving forward with treatment elsewhere.

Morning Headlines 2/20/19

FTC Complaint: Multiple Ongoing Patient Privacy Breaches in the Facebook PHR (Groups Product)

Healthcare data expert Fred Trotter, health lawyer David Harlow, JD, MPH, and several patient advocates file a Federal Trade Commission complaint against Facebook over security problems with its Groups function.

Ochsner Health System and Pfizer Partner to Develop Innovative Models for Clinical Trials

Ochsner Health System (LA) partners with drug company Pfizer to make it easier for patients to participate in clinical trials via the use of digital tools.

China Could Use Medical Data to Blackmail Americans, Report Says

A Congressional report says that Chinese investments in US biotechnology firms potentially gives China’s government access to American patient data that could be used for nefarious purposes.

Collain Healthcare Joins Harris Computer Systems

Harris Computer Systems acquires long-term and post-acute care health IT vendor Collain Healthcare.

NHSX: new joint organisation for digital, data and technology

In England, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announces NHSX, a technology-focused initiative that will work with public and private organizations to help the NHS improve patient access and care through digital tools.

Morning Headlines 2/19/19

Missoula health care execs get $1.2M in venture capital for tech startup to better prepare patients

In Montana, PatientOne attracts $1.2 million in venture capital to hire additional staff and further develop its remote monitoring software for surgical patients.

USDA Prioritizes Investments in Telemedicine to Address Opioid Crisis in Rural America

The USDA will give funding priority to Distance Learning and Telemedicine program applicants who propose projects that provide opioid treatment services to patients in 220 at-risk rural areas.

Third Eye Health raises $7.25M to bring around-the-clock doctor support to nursing homes

Post-acute telemedicine company Third Eye Health secures $7.25 million in a Series A round led by Generator Ventures.

Morning Headlines 2/18/19

Porter Health Care System patients could get up to $5K from cyberattack settlement

Community Health Systems (TN) agrees to pay $3.1 million to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from a 2014 data breach that impacted 4.5 million patients across the country.

FTMC welcomes new chief info officer

Fisher-Titus Health System (OH) hires Linda Stevenson (Cerner) as CIO.

Fairfield Medical Center posts $22.6M operating loss from medical records overhaul

Fairfield Medical Center in Ohio attributes its nearly $23 million operating loss last year to its Cerner implementation.

Nanaimo hospital says it’s making electronic gains; doctor disagrees

Physicians in several departments at Nanaimo General Regional Hospital in Canada are still using pen and paper to document patient encounters and order medications and labs despite the launch of a new Cerner EHR at Island Health facilities three years ago.

Morning Headlines 2/15/19

Texas Health System Selects CPSI SaaS Offering, nTrust

Mid Coast Health System selects CPSI’s NTrust program, which combines the vendor’s Thrive EHR, interfaces, and maintenance services with RCM support from TruBridge.

Health tech is so old-fashioned that Google had to adapt its cloud service to work with fax machines

At HIMSS, Google offers attendees a preview of the ability to fax medical information from its Google Drive cloud-storage service.

Hospital: Failure to read reports may have allowed pill thefts to go undetected

A pharmacy tech at Beverly Hospital (MA) alters computer records to cover up her theft of 18,000 pills over 13 months.

Morning Headlines 2/14/19

Veritas seeks buyer for API Healthcare, former GE workforce management unit

After acquiring Athenahealth, Veritas Capital considers selling API Healthcare, which it bought last year from GE alongside its enterprise financial and ambulatory care management units for $1 billion.

IBM Watson Health Invests in Research Collaborations with Leading Medical Centers to Advance the Application of AI to Health

IBM Watson Health will invest $50 million on research collaborations with Brigham and Women’s Hospital (MA) and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (TN) that will initially focus on how AI can improve the role of EHRs and claims data in patient safety efforts, precision medicine, and health equity.

BayCare Teams Up With Cerner, Lumeris and Salesforce to Improve Health of Senior Population

BayCare Health System (FL) will use Cerner’s HealtheIntent population health software, Salesforce’s CRM, and services from Lumeris to better care for senior patients enrolled in its BayCarePlus Medicare Advantage health plan.

Intermountain Healthcare and Trinity Health Make Growth Investment in AI Leader Jvion

Intermountain Healthcare (UT) and multi-state Trinity Health invest in predictive analytics vendor Jvion, which announced growth equity financing from separate investors last month. 

Casetabs Inc. Raises $2.5 Million From Investors

California-based surgery coordination software vendor Casetabs raises $2.5 million, bringing its total raised to over $13 million.

Morning Headlines 2/13/19

Partners Healthcare system back up following IT issue

Partners Healthcare (MA) rectifies Citrix connectivity issues that affected clinical and administrative systems at its 12 hospitals.

RTI International Launches Center for Health Care Advancement to Provide Evidence-Based Solutions to Problems in Health Care

Nonprofit research institute RTI International will develop the Center for Health Care Advancement to offer providers and payers insight into health IT, data analytics, population health, policy, delivery, and financing as they transition to value-based care.

MediQuant acquires DataEmerge, HeF Solutions

Medical records archiving vendor MediQuant acquires data extraction company DataEmerge and health data conversion business HeF Solutions.

Morning Headlines 2/12/19

Francisco Partners Acquires Qualcomm Life

Francisco Partners acquires Qualcomm Life from Qualcomm and will restore the name of Capsule Technologies, the medical device connectivity business that Qualcomm acquired in 2015.

HHS Proposes New Rules to Improve the Interoperability of Electronic Health Information

HHS proposes a new rule that would give patients instant electronic access to their health data from federally-funded providers at no cost, and that would require providers and payers to adopt technology to make this real-time data-sharing possible.

Critical Alert Systems to Acquire Sphere3® Consulting

Patient communications and nurse call vendor Critical Alert Systems will acquire nurse call analytics vendor Sphere3 Consulting.

Apple announces Health Records feature coming to veterans

Apple solidifies plans with the VA to give veterans access to their medical records via the Health Records app.

ImageMoverMD Raises $4 Million to Automatically Connect Medical Images with Electronic Patient Records

Medical image management startup ImageMoverMD raises $4 million in a financing round led by Bain Capital Ventures, Cultivation Capital, and Health X Ventures.

Morning Headlines 2/11/19

Catholic Health plows $100M into electronic records

Catholic Health (NY) will spend $100 million to implement Epic over the next 18 months – its most expensive health IT project to date.

OCR Concludes All-Time Record Year for HIPAA Enforcement with $3 Million Cottage Health Settlement

OCR wraps up its record-setting  $29 million year for HIPAA fines with a settlement from Cottage Health, a California-based hospital operator that experienced breaches in 2013 and 2015.

R1 Develops Technology and Innovation Center in Collaboration with Intermountain Healthcare

After taking on hundreds of Intermountain employees last year, RCM vendor R1 will again partner with the health system to build a technology and innovation center in Salt Lake City.

VA announces mortality data collaboration with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The VA will use FHIR-based standards to share mortality data from its VistA EHR with the CDC’s Modernizing Death Reporting project.

Morning Headlines 2/8/19

Health Catalyst Secures up to $100 Million with Financing Led By OrbiMed

Health Catalyst secures up to $100 million in a Series F round led by OrbiMed, increasing its total to $392 million.

Leidos, Mayo Clinic to collaborate on scaling transformative innovation to benefit patients

Mayo Clinic and Leidos will build an accelerator that will foster research, development, and commercialization of technologies and therapeutics.

Facebook is about to launch a tool in the US that pings you to donate blood when there are shortages

Facebook will launch a tool that will allow hospitals, blood banks, and the Red Cross to ask for blood donations; and users to receive notifications of shortages in their areas.

Morning Headlines 2/7/19

Electronic Health Records Vendor to Pay $57.25 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations

Greenway Health will pay $57 million to settle DoJ allegations that include misrepresenting the capabilities of its software during the certification process and doling out kickbacks to customers who recommended its products.

Alphabet’s Verily is building a high-tech rehab campus to combat opioid addiction

Verily, Kettering Health Network, and Premier Health will develop a campus of addiction recovery services in Dayton, OH that will use technology to analyze and measure the effectiveness of interventions.

Trinity Health Announces Technology Changes and Revenue Initiatives Expected to Improve Patient Experiences

Trinity Health will offer 450 IT employees positions with its managed services partner, Leidos, as part of a multi-year restructuring effort that coincides with its transition to Epic.

Orion Health’s McCrae to take firm private – again

Orion Health Group founder Ian McCrae hopes to take the company private after a disappointing four years as a public business.

Morning Headlines 2/6/19

Cerner Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Results and Announces Plan to Initiate Quarterly Cash Dividend

Cerner reports Q4 results: revenue up 4 percent, adjusted EPS $0.63 vs., $0.58, meeting earnings expectations but falling short on revenue.

CommonWell Health Alliance Launches CommonWell Connector™Program

CommonWell announces a Connector program in which health IT vendors can connect to its services through a CommonWell integration member without joining CommonWell themselves.

VA’s Health Record Overhaul Could Get Even More Expensive, Officials Say

After learning that the VA’s EHR project could balloon beyond its estimated $16 billion, lawmakers call for a much needed interagency leader to oversee the EHR overhaul and integration efforts of the VA and DoD.

Design and build digital services for the NHS

NHS Digital publishes its front-end code in GitHub to help third parties build mockups, prototypes, and working applications that connect to NHS’s websites and services.

PerfectServe Acquires Lightning Bolt and CareWire, Reinforces Vision of Care Team Collaboration Platform

PerfectServe acquires scheduling software vendor Lightning Bolt and patient engagement company CareWire.

Morning Headlines 2/5/19

Amazon-led health venture hires technology chief to work under Gawande

The healthcare venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan hires former Zocdoc CTO Serkan Kutan to head up technology efforts.

Providence St. Joseph Health Announces New Enterprise Population Health Company, Ayin Health Solutions

Providence St. Joseph Health spins off new population health management company Ayin Health Solutions.

Slack is setting itself up for the $3.5 trillion health-care sector

Slack files a confidential IPO and adds HIPAA compliance language to its security page, leading analysts to predict a foray into enterprise healthcare messaging.

Google Has Its Own EHR Plan

Google submits a patent for an EHR that incorporates predictive analytics to give physicians a better idea of which patients need their immediate attention, and what data is most relevant to that patient’s care at that time.

Morning Headlines 2/4/19

3M Completes Acquisition of M*Modal’s Technology Business

First announced last December, 3M wraps up its acquisition of MModal’s technology business for $1 billion.

Why You Should Be Careful About 23andMe’s Health Test

The New York Times warns that 23andMe’s consumer DNA testing performs poorly in predicting the risk of developing chronic diseases because it only recognizes a few relevant genetic mutations and thus isn’t a substitute for medical office testing.

‘Flawed’ privacy in Queensland Health’s electronic medical record, expert says

A law professor questions why any doctor at Queensland Health in Australia can change the medical record of any patient in the nine hospitals where IEMR is live.

CommonSpirit Health™ Launches as New Health System

Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives complete their merger to form the 142-hospital, $29 billion CommonSpirit Health.

These 3 high-profile DOD systems have persistent operational flaws, according to testing

The DOD Office of the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation’s 2018 report finds cybersecurity vulnerabilities within MHS Genesis that lead it conclude that the EHR “is not survivable in a cyber-contested environment.”

Morning Headlines 2/1/19

eMDs Acquires Aprima, Further Strengthening Position as a Leading Healthcare Ambulatory Solutions Organization

EHR and practice management company EMDs acquires competitor Aprima.

Freshman Lawmaker Will Oversee VA’s Multibillion-dollar EHR Overhaul

Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) will take over as head of the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s Technology Modernization subcommittee.

Nordic adds Healthtech Consultants, enters Canadian market

Nordic acquires Canada-based Healthtech Consultants, increasing its headcount to over 1,000.

Harris Healthcare, Through Iatric Systems, Acquires Haystack Informatics

Iatric Systems acquires Haystack Informatics, a patient privacy monitoring startup spun out of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2014.

VA Going with Cerner Scheduling Software

The VA will scrap its successful MASS pilot of Epic scheduling and instead use Cerner at all of its facilities.

Morning Headlines 1/31/19

Secretary Wilkie: Revolutionizing VA Health Care

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie downplays the notion that the agency is moving towards privatization in his remarks announcing new standards that will allow veterans to seek care outside of the VA system.

EPAS no more as SA govt moves to reset patient records system

SA Health in Australia will make immediate changes to its Allscripts-powered EPAS project after an external report criticized the project’s lack of accountability, poorly articulated clinical benefits, underuse of expert consultants, and lack of physician involvement.

UnitedHealthcare stops sharing data with research group

Healthcare pricing transparency advocates cry foul over UnitedHealthcare’s decision to stop sharing de-identified claims data with the Health Care Cost Institute, which expects a similar move from Humana next year.

Livongo Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire myStrength to Address Behavioral Health Needs for People with Chronic Conditions

Livongo acquires digital mental health therapy startup MyStrength in an effort to bolster its chronic condition management services.