Morning Headlines 6/14/24

Ascension cyberattack caused after employee accidentally downloaded malicious file

Ascension confirms that its May 8 ransomware attack was launched by a malicious email opened by an unsuspecting employee.

VA awards second option period to Oracle Health in support of Federal Electronic Health Record modernization contract

The VA extends its contract with Oracle Health for a second term of 11 months with an eye to deploying the EHR at new sites in 2025 once reset goals have been met.

Founder/CEO and Clinical President of Digital Health Company Arrested for $100M Adderall Distribution and Health Care Fraud Scheme

Federal agents arrest the CEO and clinical president of ADHD telehealth provider Done on charges of distributing Adderall, healthcare fraud, and obstruction of justice.

Morning Headlines 6/13/24

Veterans Health Administration creates new office to streamline tech initiatives

The VA creates a new Digital Health Office to unify the Veterans Health Administration’s technology initiatives, including those related to health informatics, AI, population health, and connected care.

Brightside Health Expands into Substance Use Disorder, Virtual Intensive Outpatient Treatment

Virtual mental healthcare company Brightside Health acquires Lionrock Recovery, which offers virtual intensive outpatient addiction treatment services.

Canary Speech Secures $13 Million in Series A Funding to Change How the World’s Top Healthcare Organizations Screen for Mental Wellness and Cognitive Health

Canary Speech, a health IT company specializing in the development of AI-powered vocal biomarkers, raises $13 million in a funding round led by Cortes Capital.

United States Sues Telehealth Providers and Executives for Unfair and Deceptive Conduct

Cerebral will pay $7 million to settle federal complaints of a variety of deceptive business practices, though the DoJ and FTC will continue to pursue Cerebral founder Kyle Robertson and several business associates for their role in subsequent, similar practices at telehealth companies launched after Cerebral shut down.

Koda Health Secures New Funding to Expand Advance Care Planning Capabilities

Koda Health, an advance care planning software startup spun out of Texas Medical Center, closes an oversubscribed seed funding round.

Morning Headlines 6/12/24

Oracle Announces Fiscal 2024 Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Full Year Financial Results

Oracle reports Q4 results: revenue up 3%, adjusted EPS $1.63 versus $1.67, missing Wall Street expectations for both.

NeuroFlow Acquires Owl, Creating the Largest End-to-End Platform for Behavioral Health Measurement and Engagement Across the Care Continuum

NeuroFlow, whose system helps risk-bearing healthcare organizations surface and support behavioral health needs, acquires Owl, which offers a measurement-based care platform.

HealWell AI to Acquire VeroSource Solutions and its Cloud-based Health Data Interoperability Platform to Help Large Enterprises Adopt AI-Powered Population Health Capabilities

In Canada, preventative care-focused digital health company HealWell AI acquires healthcare data software vendor VeroSource for $24.5 million.

Morning Headlines 6/11/24

CityMD Agrees to Pay over $12 Million for Alleged False Claims to COVID-19 Uninsured Program

CityMD, a VillageMD-owned chain of urgent care practices in New York and New Jersey, will pay $12 million to settle allegations that the company submitted false payment claims to a federal COVID testing program for uninsured patients.

Med-Metrix Announces the Acquisition of HBCS, Further Strengthening the Company’s End-to-End RCM Capabilities

RCM software and services vendor Med-Metrix acquires Hospital Billing & Collection Service, a competitor based in Delaware.

Biden-⁠Harris Administration Bolsters Protections for Americans’ Access to Healthcare Through Strengthening Cybersecurity

The White House partners with Microsoft and Google to offer rural hospitals free and low-cost cybersecurity resources.

Morning Headlines 6/10/24

Oracle $16 Billion VA Health Software Scores Badly in Internal Report

An internal VA report finds that less than 20% of its Oracle Health users believe that the system helps them deliver high-quality care and just 13% believe that it helps keep their patients safe.

Anterior grabs $20M from NEA to expedite health insurance approvals with AI

Prior authorization automation startup Anterior raises $20 million in a Series A funding round.

Mount Sinai Health System named 2024 Hearst Health Prize winner

Mount Sinai Health System wins the 2024 Hearst Health Prize for its NutriScan AI application that identifies malnutrition in hospitalized patients by analyzing EHR data.

Morning Headlines 6/7/24

Healthcare software firm Waystar raises $968 mln million in IPO, sources say

Waystar reportedly raises $968 million in its IPO, giving it a valuation of $3.69 billion.

Walmart shut down its healthcare clinics after losses reached nearly a quarter of a billion dollars

Endpoints News reports that Walmart lost $230 million last year alone on its Walmart Health clinics before announcing their closure a few weeks ago.

Health Catalyst Acquires Oncology-Focused Health Technology Company Carevive

Health Catalyst acquires Carevive Systems, which offers cancer treatment support tools for oncology providers and life sciences researchers.

DirectTrust and Digital Therapeutics Alliance Announce Partnership to Provide Accreditation for Digital Therapeutics Industry

DirectTrust launches an accreditation program for digital health apps, which will use privacy, security, transparency, and interoperability criteria as provided by the Digital Therapeutics Alliance trade association.

Morning Headlines 6/6/24

Direct Recruiters, Inc., a Starfish Partners Company and Health Innovations, LLC Join Forces to Revolutionize Healthcare Staffing and Analytics

Direct Recruiters announces that it will acquire Health Innovations, a staffing firm specializing in placing clinical executives and analytics leaders.

Eko Health scores $41M to detect heart and lung disease earlier and more accurately

Smart stethoscope developer Eko Health raises $41 million in Series D funding, bringing its total raised to $165 million.

Solarity Announces Strategic Growth Investment from TA

Automated clinical data processing vendor Solarity announces an undisclosed amount of funding from TA Associates.

Morning Headlines 6/5/24

Sword Health Introduces Phoenix, the First AI Care Specialist and Raises $130 Million in a Mix of Primary and Secondary Sale, Increasing Valuation to $3 Billion

Sword Health, which offers AI-powered digital support solutions for issues related to musculoskeletal problems, physical therapy, and pelvic therapy, raises $130 million.

Cybersecurity Event Update

Ascension restores EHR access in its Florida, Alabama, and Austin markets, and hopes to make the system available to the entire organization by June 14.

WM to Acquire Stericycle, a Leader in Medical Waste Services, for $7.2 Billion

Waste Management will acquire Stericycle, which specializes in medical waste disposal, compliance training, and secure information destruction, for $7.2 billion.

AssureCare Acquires Cureatr and SinfoniaRx Technology

AssureCare acquires the medication management technologies of Cureatr, which abruptly shut down last October, and of Cureatr affiliate SinfoniaRx Technology.

Morning Headlines 6/4/24

TouchSource Acquires Healthcare Business and Patient Room Network From True Sync Media

Digital signage and wayfinding technology vendor TouchSource acquires True Sync Media’s healthcare business, which sells waiting room display solutions and content.

General Catalyst-backed Jasper Health lays off staff

Jasper, which offers tech-powered support to cancer patients, reportedly lays off half its staff.

BD to Acquire Edwards Lifesciences’ Critical Care Product Group for $4.2 Billion to Expand Smart Connected Care Solutions and Become an Advanced Monitoring Technology Leader

BD will acquire the critical care monitoring solution group of Edwards Lifesciences, which includes AI-enabled clinical decision support tools, for $4.2 billion in cash.

Morning Headlines 6/3/24

OCR Updates Change Healthcare Cybersecurity Incident FAQs

HHS OCR provides specific information related to breach notification responsibility from the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

Wrongful death lawsuit alleges baby dies as a result of Springhill Medical Center’s negligence during cyberattack

A woman whose baby died in childbirth during a cyberattack says that the hospital is refusing to pay its previously agreed-on settlement.

Google Is Using A.I. to Answer Your Health Questions. Should You Trust It?

Google’s AI Overviews, which displays AI-generated search result summaries before showing the individual links, can provide health information that is incorrect or that uses unreliable sources.

Demands were sent to 4 hospitals/systems re: AI products for use in healthcare facilities

An investigative reporter finds that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has used the state’s consumer protection laws to demand that Houston Methodist, Parkland Health, Children’s Health, and Texas Health Resources provide his office with their AI-related contracts, policies, and disclosures.

Morning Headlines 5/31/24

Cybersecurity Event Update

Ascension says it has restored EHR access in one of its markets.

NHS computer issues linked to patient harm

Half of NHS trusts say that they have documented EPR-caused patient harm, including three deaths and 126 instances of serious IT-caused harm.

Thankfully Business Insider Is Not Responsible for Healthcare Modernization

Oracle EVP Ken Glueck calls a recent negative BI article “clickbait,” declares Epic’s Judy Faulkner to be “the single biggest obstacle to EHR interoperability,” and says that Epic will fail and Oracle Health will succeed.

Morning Headlines 5/30/24

Virtual Therapeutics, Akili Interactive Enter Into Definitive Merger Agreement to Establish Leading Digital Health Company

Virtual Therapeutics, which offers game-based mental health apps,will acquire game-based cognitive treatment vendor Akili for $34 million in cash.

HHS names acting chief AI officer as it searches for permanent official

HHS taps national coordinator for health IT Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP as acting chief artificial intelligence officer – in addition to his existing role — while it searches for a permanent replacement for Greg Singleton.

Dollar General pulls mobile clinic mentions from website, partner no longer offering appointments

Endpoints reports that Dollar General has removed from its website mentions of its mobile clinics, which it operates in a partnership with DocGo, less than 18 months after launching the service.

Healthcare payments firm Waystar aims up to $3.83 bln valuation in US IPO

Waystar targets a valuation of nearly $4 billion for its US IPO, 50% more than its previous valuation in 2019.

Morning Headlines 5/29/24

Veradigm Announces Leadership Update

MDRX shares rose 16% Tuesday on news that it has replaced its interim CEO and is exploring strategic alternatives that could include a sale of the company.

2024 VA AI Tech Sprint Award Ceremony

The VA announces AI competition winners in ambient documentation and outside medical record summarization.

Cybersecurity Event Update

Ascension’s most recent cyberattack update from May 24 says that its recovery progress will be visible this week and that partners are reconnecting to its network.

Cue Health to Pursue Wind Down of the Business

Connected health vendor Cue Health, which went public in 2021 at a valuation of $2.3 billion, lays off all of its employees and files Chapter 7 bankruptcy following FDA’s warning that its COVID-19 tests are unreliable.

Morning Headlines 5/24/24

Atropos Health Raises $33M to Scale the Automation of High-Quality, Personalized Real-World Evidence Leveraging Generative AI

Real-world data and evidence platform vendor Atropos Health raises $33 million in a Series B funding round.

Interoperable Exchange of Patient Health Information Among U.S. Hospitals: 2023

ONC reports that 70% of hospitals engaged in all four domains of interoperability (send, receive, find, and integrate) in 2023, up from 46% in 2018.

CVS seeks private equity funding for Oak Street Health, Bloomberg News reports

CVS Health is looking for investors to fund growth at Oak Street Health, a chain of Medicare primary care clinics it acquired last year for $10.6 billion.

Morning Headlines 5/23/24

Boulder Secures $35 Million in Series C Funding to Provide High-Quality Addiction Medicine to Medicaid Beneficiaries

Digital addiction treatment provider Boulder Care raises $35 million in Series C funding.

Trego County hospital targeted by ransomware attack

Trego County Lemke Memorial Hospital, a 25-bed hospital in Kansas, works to recover from a May 6 cyberattack

Cue Health lays off remaining employees after FDA warning on COVID-19 tests

COVID-19 testing company Cue Health, which went public in 2021 at a $3 billion valuation, lays off all of its employees in the wake of FDA’s warning that its tests may yield false results.

Videra Health Secures 5.6M in Funding to Advance Mental Health AI Solutions Led by Peterson Ventures

Videra Health, developer of AI-powered, video-based mental health assessments, raises $5.6 million in seed funding.

Patient portal, phones still offline weeks after Palomar Health reports ‘suspicious activity’

Palomar Health Medical Group (CA) works to get its patient portal and phone lines back up and running after a May 5 cyberattack.

Morning Headlines 5/22/24

Health-tech startup Tempus AI files for a $100 million IPO

AI-enabled precision medicine software startup Tempus AI hopes to raise up to $600 million in a forthcoming IPO.

Cloud21 acquires identity management and IT services company BDS Solutions

Tegria-owned digital healthcare consulting firm Cloud21 acquires BDS Solutions, which specializes in automated identity management software for NHS organizations in the UK.

Tuesday Health Launches Revolutionary Supportive Care Solution with $60 Million of Strategic Investment from Healthcare Leaders

Tech-enabled supportive care management company Tuesday Health raises $60 million.

SamaCare Secures $17M Series B Investment to Scale Specialty Drug Prior Authorization Platform

Specialty medication prior authorization software vendor SamaCare announces $17 million in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $33 million.

Morning Headlines 5/21/24

Centivo Acquires Eden Health to Serve Escalating Demand for Affordable, High-Quality Primary Care

Centivo, which offers primary care-focused health plans to employers, acquires virtual-first, direct-to-employer provider Eden Health.

ARPA-H announces program to automate cybersecurity for health care facilities

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health announces its UPGRADE program, which will invest $50 million in the development of proposed automated cybersecurity solutions for hospitals.

Better medical record-keeping needed to fight antibiotic overuse, studies suggest

A pair of studies conducted by University of Michigan physicians finds that a lack of detailed record-keeping – specifically, information about why an antibiotic is prescribed – could drive up unnecessary and potentially harmful prescriptions.