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.

Morning Headlines 1/30/19

Breaking Down Barriers Between Clinical Trials and Clinical Care: Incorporating Real World Evidence into Regulatory Decision Making

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD outlines several ways in which the agency will use digital systems to make healthcare more efficient and patient-focused.

Doctor booking app Zocdoc will start charging a new patient fee despite objections from some providers

Patient scheduling website Zocdoc will start charging physician subscribers for each new patient who books an appointment, abandoning the flat-priced subscription model that has been in place since 2012.

Queenslanders’ health at risk from electronic medical record software, clinicians say

In Australia, Queensland Health’s nearly $1 billion Cerner ieEMR EHR project continues to struggle with mislabeled specimens, missing data, medication errors, and missing test results.

Zebra Technologies to Acquire Temptime Corporation

Zebra Technologies will acquire healthcare temperature monitoring solutions vendor Temptime.

Morning Headlines 1/29/19

Leading Hospital Supply Chain Management Solution Rebrands as Syft®

Management Health Solutions celebrates its twentieth anniversary by rebranding to Syft.

Investcorp Announces Acquisition of Health Plus Management

Global investment company Investcorp acquires practice management business Health Plus Management for an undisclosed amount.

New App Displays What Original Medicare Covers

CMS launches the What’s Covered Medicare app to give members easier access to program resources and coverage information.

Cork-based healthcare group secures contract for 15 US hospitals

Ireland-based healthcare supply chain software company Genesis Automation signs its first US health system deal with 15-hospital Novant Health (NC).

HIV Status of More Than 14,000 People Leaked in Singapore Data Breach

Health Ministry officials in Singapore say an American man who formerly worked in the country leaked the records of over 14,000 HIV patients.

Morning Headlines 1/28/19

ResMed Inc. Announces Results for the Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2019

Sleep apnea equipment and connected health vendor ResMed’s Q2 results fall short on revenue, sending shares down an alarming 19 percent for a market cap of $13.5 billion.

Phynd Technologies, Inc. Announces Completion of Series B Funding

Phynd raises $8 million in a Series B funding round, with three of the four investors representing health systems.

Aetna, Anthem, Health Care Service Corporation, PNC Bank and IBM announce collaboration to establish blockchain-based ecosystem for the healthcare industry

IBM announces a collaborative that will use blockchain technology to process claims and payments more efficiently, exchange health data more easily, and maintain more accurate provider directories.

University of Iowa hospitals reviewing parent-child records access

University of Iowa Health Care administrators consider revising a practice that prohibits parents of children over 12 from viewing their medical records.

Lead a revolution in Veterans’ healthcare records modernization as a Deputy Chief Medical Officer in the Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization

As its transition to Cerner gets underway, the VA seeks candidates to become deputy chief medical officers in St. Louis, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

Morning Headlines 1/25/19

Hospitals Are Asking Their Own Patients to Donate Money

Hospitals are running nightly “wealth screening” analytics on inpatients who they then deem affluent enough to ask for donations before discharge.

Rhode Island Docs Alarmed by Subpoenas

The Rhode Island Health Department charges four Rhode Island Hospital ED physicians with medical misconduct after they voluntarily report errors that caused wrong scans to be ordered.

EBSCO Health Acquires HealthDecision

Healthcare content company Ebsco Health acquires HealthDecision, a clinical decision-support and shared decision-making software vendor, for an unspecified amount.

U.S. Uninsured Rate Rises to Four-Year High

The US uninsured rate rises to a four-year high of nearly 14 percent thanks to higher premiums, less competition, elimination of the individual mandate, and shortened enrollment periods.

Morning Headlines 1/24/19

Nextech Acquires SRS Health, a Specialty EMR Solution for Orthopedic Practices

Health IT company Nextech expands its ambulatory reach with the purchase of orthopedic EHR vendor SRS Health.

With an eye on pioneering the future of Health IT, Greenway Health appoints Kali Durgampudi as chief technology and innovation officer

Greenway Health names former Nuance executive Kali Durgampudi chief technology and innovation officer.

In a sign of its concerns about Atul Gawande’s new venture, Optum sues over trade secrets

Citing a direct threat to its trade secrets and confidential corporate information, Optum sues a former VP now employed by Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway-JPMorgan’s healthcare venture.

NantHealth Could Recover In 2019

Nasdaq gives NantHealth six months to increase its stock price to above $1 for 10 consecutive days, a 43-percent recovery that just might happen if the company’s clinical trials go well, and it receives FDA approval and increased CMS reimbursements for its GPS Cancer Test.

Morning Headlines 1/23/19

Hospitals Stopped Readmitting So Many Medicare Patients. Did That Cost Lives?

Medicare patient readmissions within 30 days dropped sharply after CMS started penalizing hospitals financially, but the death rate appears to have increased during the same period.

NantHealth warned over de-listing

NantHealth, whose shares have fallen to $0.70, receives a Nasdaq de-listing notice now that the stock has closed at under $1 for 30 consecutive trading days.

Manhattan’s Largest Automated Parking System Puts More Cars in Less Space

ParkPlus installs an automated parking garage at a hospital in Manhattan, giving patients the ability to retrieve their cars and pay for their space via tablets integrated with the facility’s IT system.

She scammed dozens into giving up their savings so she could stay at the Ritz

A Virginia woman is sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for scamming $5 million from 50 investors in her phony telemedicine company.

Morning Headlines 1/22/19

Health IT company consolidates headquarters into new Northwest Austin office

EHR and practice management company EMDs consolidates operations and relocates its headquarters to new office space in Austin, TX.

Kaia Health gets $10M support for AI-powered management of chronic pain

Kaia Health raises $10 million to further scale its chronic pain treatment app.

The VA Wants to use DeepMind’s AI to Prevent Kidney Disease

The VA is working with Alphabet’s DeepMind unit to develop AI software that predicts which patients will suffer from acute kidney injury.

Morning Headlines 1/21/19

Verily Study Watch Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance for ECG

Alphabet’s Verily announces that its Study Watch has earned FDA clearance as a medical device for performing on-demand ECGs.

Computer virus contained, hospital services returning to normal

Two dozen hospitals in Ontario are nearly done recovering from a Zero Day Virus that impacted administrative and clinical IT systems.

Dignity Health Northridge becomes 1st hospital to acquire earthquake warning system

Twenty-five years after suffering severe damage during the Northridge Earthquake, Dignity Health – Northridge Hospital Medical Center (CA) becomes the first hospital to pilot the government-funded Shake Alert earthquake warning system.

VA needs a contractor to help test its new EHR

The VA issues an RFI for a software testing contractor,  with 80 percent of the job focusing on Cerner.

Kettering luring more than 150 new jobs to business park

Kettering Health Network will this week open a $10 million, 17,000 square-foot command center that will enable staff to view patient status in real time using TeleTracking technology.

Morning Headlines 1/18/19

Consumer Health Tech Company Ciitizen™ Raises $17M in Series A Financing to Accelerate Data Platform Development and Commercialization

Consumer health data sharing company Ciitizen raises $17 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Gawande, still mum on plans for new health venture, pulls out of major health conference

Atul Gawande, MD cancels his keynote at HIMSS19.

GoFundMe CEO: ‘Gigantic Gaps’ In Health System Showing Up In Crowdfunding

GoFundMe reports that a third of the $5 billion raised on its platform since launching in 2010 has been used for healthcare campaigns.

Epic roll-out creates prescription refill gridlock

After going live on Epic in December, Memorial Hospital (NH) staff struggle to keep up with prescription refill requests as they transfer prescription data to the new system.

Far-reaching impact: Computer virus at HSN affects 24 hospitals across North

A “zero-day virus” forces 24 hospitals in Ontario to revert to downtime procedures while they work to bring their IT systems, including Meditech and Elekta EHRs, back online.

Morning Headlines 1/17/19

Definitive Healthcare Acquires HIMSS Analytics

Definitive Healthcare acquires the data services business and assets of HIMSS Analytics.

PerfectServe Acquires Telmediq, #1 KLAS Rated Vendor for Secure Communication Platforms

Clinical communications and collaboration company PerfectServe acquires competitor Telmediq for an unspecified amount.

Apple should buy private digital health records operation Epic Systems, says Jim Cramer

CNBC’s Jim Cramer says Apple needs to make a “big, splashy acquisition” in the EHR space to breathe new life into its downtrodden stock, and back up claims that it will revolutionize healthcare.

Medtronic debuts first apps to let heart patients monitor their pacemakers

Medtronic gives patients the ability to pull data from their pacemakers via its new MyCareLink Heart app.

Morning Headlines 1/16/19

Cliff Illig Retires from Cerner Board of Directors

Cerner co-founder Cliff Illig retires from the company’s board “to focus on outside interests.”

Microsoft signs a huge deal with Walgreens, as Amazon’s growing interest in health care looms large

Walgreens signs a deal for its 380,000 employees to use Microsoft technology. The companies will also work together on R&D for patient engagement and chronic disease management software.

DOD’s health data exchange running on bridge contract

The DoD hopes to resolve a contract dispute between two vendors for maintenance of its Defense Medical Information Exchange, a system that supports data-sharing between MHS Genesis, legacy systems, and 53 external HIEs.

Parallon Technology Solutions is Now CereCore

EHR and technology services vendor Parallon Technology Solutions renames itself CereCore.

Morning Headlines 1/15/19

U.S. Digital Service has an ambitious agenda at the VA

The US Digital Service is building an interface as part of the VA’s EHR Modernization project to help patients easily access their health records during the projected 10-year switch from VistA to Cerner.

NHS England digital chief moves to digital GP company

NHS England’s first Chief Digital Officer, Juliet Bauer, leaves to become an executive at Livi, an NHS contractor for telemedicine services.

Premier Health Signs Definitive Agreement for Acquisition of Cloud Practice Inc., a National Medical Software Application Company

In Canada, primary care-focused health IT company Premier Health acquires EHR and RCM vendor Cloud Practice for $5 million.

Morning Headlines 1/14/19

2018 M&A in Review: The Growth of Mega Mergers

The average acquired health system had annual revenue of $409 million in 2018, according to a new Kaufman Hall report on mega-mergers, that also found expansions were prompted more by improving business than patient care.

Offshoring over 1,000 health care jobs? That’s coming soon at Dallas-based Tenet

Tenet Healthcare (TX) tells investors it will look across the enterprise – including its Conifer Health Solutions billing and United Surgical Partners International ambulatory services divisions – to offshore over 1,000 jobs in the next 12 to 18 months.

Man gets 10 years for cyberattack on Boston Children’s Hospital

The US District Court in Boston sentences Martin Gottesfeld to 10 years in federal prison and orders him to pay $443,000 in restitution for his role in the 2014 cyberattack on Boston Children’s Hospital and nearby Wayside Youth and Family Support Network.

Early research on Apple’s Health Records service suggests patients generally like it

UC San Diego Health patients report high levels of satisfaction with using Apple’s Health Record feature to connect to and share their health data with family and friends.

Morning Headlines 1/11/19

Change Healthcare Makes Strategic Investment in MDsave

Change Healthcare makes a strategic investment in MDsave, a healthcare price comparison startup that offers consumers discounted services when booked through its website.

PatientPing to Double in Size in 2019

Boston-based PatientPing will hire 100 employees over the next 12 months in an effort to double its staff.

PSI’s Acquisition of QuarterLine Strengthens its Position as a Health IT Leader

Federal health IT vendor Planned Systems International acquires competitor QuarterLine for an unspecified amount.