Morning Headlines 5/1/23

Comparing Physician and Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Responses to Patient Questions Posted to a Public Social Media Forum

Researchers find that licensed healthcare professionals preferred ChatGPT 3.5’s responses to patient questions over those that were written by doctors 80% of the time, judging the computer responses to be more empathetic.

VA’s health record ‘reset’ has budget fallout

VA Secretary Denis McDonough tells a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that the agency will need to tweak its $1.86 billion EHR Modernization program budget request by $400 million due to its suspension of new implementations.

CUSP Citizen Petition to Protect Patients

The Center for US Policy petitions FDA to declare Bamboo Health’s NarxCare software a misbranded medical device that should be recalled, claiming that its opioid risk score for patients is being used inappropriately to prevent pain patients from obtaining appropriate opioids.

Morning Headlines 4/28/23

EVisit + Bluestream Health

Virtual care platform vendor EVisit acquires Bluestream Health, which offers digital front doors and virtual workflow tools.

Teladoc (TDOC) Reports Q1 Loss, Tops Revenue Estimates

Teladoc Health reports Q1 results: revenue up 11%, EPS –$0.37 versus –$0.47, beating analyst expectations for both.

McMorris Rodgers Calls for Termination of Oracle Cerner Electronic Health Record System

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) calls for the VA to terminate its contract with Oracle Cerner, calling it a “complete failure” that has harmed patients and employee morale.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions Acquires Human API

LexisNexis Risk Solutions acquires Human API to create a seamless method of delivering health records for life insurance underwriting and care coordination.

Morning Headlines 4/27/23

UK’s TympaHealth sounds out $23M to expand its hearing diagnostics startup

London-based TympaHealth will use $23 million in new funding to begin marketing its digital ear and hearing healthcare platform to primary care providers, retailers, and pharmacies in the US.

VA’s new EHR hits another outage, as agency reconsiders FY 2024 request for project

The VA’s Oracle Cerner system experiences a nearly four-hour outage when one of its databases became unresponsive due to a failed background process.

Amazon closing Halo health division, lays off staff while offering hardware refunds

Amazon announces that it will shut down its Halo health wearables division at the end of July.

Morning Headlines 4/26/23

Tegria Acquires Meditech hosting and services firm Sisu Healthcare IT Solutions

Tegria acquires Sisu Healthcare IT Solutions, which offers Meditech-certified hosting and services.

Virtual nursing startup raises $1.5M to pivot and address hospital staffing crisis

Nurse Disrupted will use $1.5 million in new funding to expand its virtual nursing services to hospitals.

GE HealthCare Technologies Non-GAAP EPS of $0.85 beats by $0.06, revenue of $4.71B beats by $80M

GE HealthCare reports Q1 results: revenue up 8%, adjusted EPS $0.85 versus $0.96, beating expectations for both but sending shares down 9%.

GoodRx Expands Executive Team With New Interim CEO

GoodRx co-founders Doug Hirsch and Trevor Bezdek transition from co-CEOs to chief mission officer and chairman, respectively, upon the appointment of Scott Wagner (GoDaddy) as interim CEO.

Morning Headlines 4/25/23

CompuGroup Medical Buys Majority Stake in German Digital Healthcare Platform m.Doc

Germany-based CompuGroup Medical acquires patient communication software vendor M.Doc, also based in Germany, for an undisclosed sum.

ClaimsXten Becomes Lyric, Welcomes Raj Ronanki as Chief Executive Officer

Claims payment and editing software business ClaimsXten rebrands to Lyric and names Raj Ronanki (Elevance Health) CEO seven months after its sale by Change Healthcare to TPG for $2.2 billion.

Children’s Mercy Kansas City, GE HealthCare Launch Nation’s First Pediatric Hospital Operations Center to Improve Patient Care

Children’s Mercy Kansas City opens a 6,000 square-foot Patient Progression Hub, which uses AI-powered technology from GE HealthCare to monitor patient flow, manage staffing, and coordinate care.

Morning Headlines 4/24/23

VA suspends rollout of Oracle Cerner electronic health record system as part of major ‘reset’

The VA pauses its Oracle Cerner implementation indefinitely until issues at its live sites are resolved, and stresses that “everything is on the table” as it negotiates the scheduled five-year extension of the original 2018 contract.

Oracle Appoints Seema Verma to Lead Oracle Life Sciences

Oracle hires former CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH as SVP/GM of life sciences, which includes leading the Oracle Cerner Enviza business.

Electronic Health Information Exchange:Use Has Increased, but Is Lower for Small and Rural Providers

An analysis from the US Government Accountability Office points out that TEFCA may help small and rural providers overcome some barriers that keep them from exchanging health information at the rate of their larger, more metropolitan counterparts.

Morning Headlines 4/21/23

Augmedix Secures Strategic Financing from HCA Healthcare and Redmile Group

Ambient medical documentation company Augmedix secures a $12 million investment from HCA Healthcare, which will help with product development as it pilots Augmedix technology in emergency rooms at two of its hospitals.

ADHD prescription startup Done pivoting to in-person care following DEA rule change

Online ADHD prescription company Done pivots to a hybrid care model care in light of the May 11 expiration of the Public Health Emergency, after which physicians must see certain patients in person before prescribing controlled substances.

SA Health investigating 30-hour data outage that left hospital staff in limbo

In Australia, SA Health officials begin investigating a 30-hour computer systems outage and why backup systems were not turned on.

Morning Headlines 4/20/23

Electrical failure causes electronic medical record system Sunrise to be offline at South Australian hospitals

SA Health reverts to downtime procedures after a structural fire in the South Australian government’s data center causes service disruptions to several systems, including the health system’s Sunrise EHR.

Third Way Health Raises $1.55M in Pre-Seed Funding for End-to-End Medical Practice Front Office Solution

Front-office practice management startup Third Way Health raises $1.55 million in pre-seed funding, which it will use to launch US operations via pilots with practices in California and New York.

Settlement reached with telehealth company Visibly over accusations of deceptive business practices

Online eye exam company Visibly will pay $500,000 to the FDA to settle allegations that it misrepresented customer satisfaction rates and satisfaction guarantees, marketed its tests without required clearance or approval, and claimed that its tests were as accurate as in-person exams.

Morning Headlines 4/19/23

Memora Health Announces $30M Investment To Scale Intelligent Care Enablement Platform With New Health System Partners

Automated care management software vendor Memora Health raises $30 million, bringing its total funding to $80.5 million.

VA electronic health record system hit with five-hour incident

Oracle Cerner-powered EHR systems used by the VA and DoD experience a five-hour service disruption marked by latency issues and freezing within certain workflows.

Scan.com, which gives patients direct access to private medical imaging services, raises $12M

Shortly after launching in the US, London-based medical imaging referral startup Scan.com raises $12 million in a Series A investment round.

Morning Headlines 4/18/23

Best Buy lays off hundreds of store employees as shopping trends shift

Best Buy will lay off hundreds of store workers, citing a shift in consumer shopping habits and a desire to prioritize its health business and Totaltech membership program.

Global Healthcare Exchange Announces Plan to Acquire Prodigo Solutions

GHX will acquire UPMC-backed supply chain and data enablement technology company Prodigo Solutions.

Microsoft and Epic expand strategic collaboration with integration of Azure OpenAI Service

Epic integrates Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service with its EHR, offering end users ChatGPT-enhanced workflows in the initial areas of drafting message responses and self-service reporting.

HHS Launches New Cybersecurity Awareness Resources

HHS develops new resources for cybersecurity best practices to help healthcare organizations secure their digital networks.

Morning Headlines 4/17/23

VA Pauses Rollout of $16 Billion Health Record System

The VA pauses its $16 billion roll out of Oracle’s Cerner EHR software as it renegotiates its contract with Oracle.

Weight-Loss Telehealth Startup Calibrate Health Cuts 18% of Jobs

Calibrate Health lays off 18% of its workforce as it pivots from a direct-to-consumer online obesity drug prescriber to a telemedicine company that offers its weight-loss services to employers.

Froedtert, ThedaCare plan to merge, hope to launch combined health system by end of 2023

Wisconsin’s Froedtert and ThedaCare, both Epic customers, will merge by the end of 2023 to create an 18-hospital system with $4 billion in revenue.

Morning Headlines 4/14/23

Arcadia Raises $125 Million in New Financing from Vista Credit Partners

Health data analytics firm Arcadia announces $125 million in financing from Vista Credit Partners.

Verisma and ScanSTAT Announce Merger, Providing the Strength and Know-How that HIM Departments Need for the Path Ahead

Release of information vendor Verisma acquires competitor ScanStat.

Celebrating a New Season at Spring Health

Digital mental healthcare company Spring Health, which markets its platform to employers and payers, raises $71 million, bringing its total funding to $366.5 million.

Morning Headlines 4/13/23

Recuro Health Closes $47 Million Series B Financing Led By Arch Ventures

Virtual care services company Recuro Health secures $47 million in a Series B investment round.

98point6 nabs $32M to pivot from provider to licensor

Telehealth company 98point6 raises $32 million less than two months after selling its self-insured employer business and physician group to Transcarent.

Health Data Cloud Leader 1upHealth Raises $40 Million Series C led by Sixth Street Growth

FHIR-based health data vendor 1upHealth announces a $40 million Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to $75.5 million.

Scene Health Secures $17.7 Million Series B Financing Led by ABS Capital Partners

Medication adherence vendor Scene Health, formerly known as Emocha, raises $17.7 million in a Series B funding round.

Morning Headlines 4/12/23

Former Outcome Health Executives Found Guilty of Fraud

A federal jury convicts three former executives of waiting room advertising company Outcome Health, which was valued at one time at over $5 billion, of several fraud charges involving inflating the number of ad impressions to advertisers and investors from 2011 to 2017.

Oshi Health Raises $30M Series B Funding to Scale Access to Its Virtual Multidisciplinary Digestive Care

Virtual digestive care provider Oshi Health raises $30 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total raised to $60 million.

Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing (HTI-1) Proposed Rule

HHS and ONC issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking  with changes to the Cures Act and ONC’s certification program.

DHA preps for MHS Genesis follow-on contract

The Defense Health Agency begins researching a support contract for MHS Genesis as its original 10-year, $5.5 billion agreement ends.

Veritas, Carlyle End Talks on Cotiviti Stake Sale

Veritas Capital rejects Carlyle Group’s offer to purchase a 50% stake in its Cotiviti healthcare technology business, which Veritas-backed Verscend Technologies acquired in 2018 in a deal valued at $5 billion.

Morning Headlines 4/11/23

Availity to Acquire Utilization Management Solution and Business Unit from Olive

Confirming earlier rumors of a sale, healthcare automation vendor Olive sells its payer-facing prior authorization business to health information network Availity.

Cerner Enviza Collaborates with FDA to Develop Innovative AI Tools for Drug Safety and Real-World Evidence Studies

Cerner Enviza and John Snow Labs will work with the FDA to develop AI solutions that extract relevant data from clinical notes within EHRs so that the agency can better understand the effects of medications on large populations.

Culbertson Memorial Hospital hit by cyber-attack

Culbertson Memorial Hospital (IL) recovers from a cybersecurity incident last week that forced it to take its computer systems offline.

CommonSpirit Health Provides Cyberattack Notification of Data Breach

CommonSpirit Health issues an update on last year’s ransomware attack, which wound up impacting over 100 facilities in 13 states and compromising patient data stolen from two file share servers.

Morning Headlines 4/10/23

Pear Therapeutics Files for Chapter 11 and Will Seek to Sell Assets Through Sales Process

Pear Health, which offers prescription-based digital therapeutics, files Chapter 11 bankruptcy, lays off nearly all of its employees, and seeks buyers for the business or its assets.

Virtual SUD Provider Workit Lays Off 100 Employees in Anticipation of DEA Crackdown

Virtual substance abuse disorder provider Workit Health will lay off 100 employees, anticipating that the DEA will reinstate a pandemic-relaxed rule that requires patients to undergo an in-person visit before having controlled substances prescribed via telehealth.

Study: ChatGPT Has Potential to Help Cirrhosis, Liver Cancer Patients

According to a study conducted by Cedars-Sinai, ChatGPT is effective at translating medical information about cirrhosis and liver cancer in a way that patients and caregivers can comprehend.

Morning Headlines 4/7/23

VA’s new EHR ‘not ready’ for next go-live, extending pause in rollouts

The VA postpones its Oracle Cerner go-live at VA Saginaw Health Care that was planned for June, saying that the software isn’t ready for the next wave of deployments.

Microsoft, hospital group use court order to disrupt ransomware attacks aimed at health sector

Microsoft, the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and software firm Fortra obtain a court order that allows Microsoft to seize the Internet infrastructure that Russia-based ransomware hackers use to launch healthcare attacks.

Wisconsin Supreme Court: Health care systems cannot charge fees for electronic records

The Wisconsin Supreme Court rules that Ciox inappropriately billed a UW Health patient $110 for giving her an electronic copy of her medical records.