Morning Headlines 9/1/22

InterWell Health, Cricket Health, and Fresenius Health Partners Complete Three-Way Merger, Creating Premier, Value-based Kidney Care Provider

Tech-enabled kidney care companies Cricket Health, InterWell Health, and Fresenius Health Partners finalize their $2.4 billion merger and begin operating under the InterWell brand.

MindCare Solutions Group, Inc. Announces Acquisition of Psych360

Telepsychiatry company MindCare Solutions Group acquires hybrid mental healthcare provider Psych360 for an undisclosed sum.

TECHealth Debuts With Full Range Of Services For Emergency Medicine Providers

The Emergency Center launches TECHealth to offer emergency medicine providers staffing, EHR software, and freestanding emergency room partnerships.

Morning Headlines 8/31/22

Software Firm Everbridge Is Exploring Potential Sale

Critical event management technology company Everbridge reportedly considers putting itself up for sale, causing its share price to jump in after-hours trading.

Healee lands $2M to grow customizable telehealth solution in the U.S.

White-label digital health technology startup Healee raises $2 million in a seed funding round led by Nina Capital.

Genesis Growth Tech (GGAA) to Combine with Biolog-id in $312M Deal

Medical product RFID tracking vendor Biolog-ID announces plans to go public in a $312 million SPAC merger.

$1 billion digital-health startup Wheel cut 17% of its staff in August. Read the CEO’s full memo announcing the layoffs.

White-label telemedicine and staffing company Wheel reportedly lays off 17% of its staff.

Morning Headlines 8/30/22

Fulcrum Equity Partners Announces $13M Series A Growth Equity Round for Olio Health

Olio Health, which specializes in care coordination software for post-acute care, raises $13 million in a Series A funding round.

Psych Hub Expands the Nation’s Go-To Mental Health Education & Navigation Platform

Psych Hub, a digital mental healthcare education and navigation resource for providers and patients, raises $16 million and announces plans to offer provider-patient matching.

Theranica Secures $45 Million Series C Funding Round

Migraine-focused digital therapeutic company Theranica raises $45 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to $86 million.

Morning Headlines 8/29/22

NHS cyberattack causing ‘total chaos’ in hospitals could take a year to recover

An August 5 ransomware attack on software vendor Advanced that took down England’s 111 service along with mental health and community systems may not be resolved for several weeks, hospital employees are told.

PRL Launches Nationwide Expansion Adding Strategic Advisory Services

Specialty practice- and ambulatory surgery center-focused RCM company PRL rebrands to Koha Health and adds strategic advisory services.

Hackers have laid siege to U.S. health care and a tiny HHS office is buckling under the pressure

Politico points out that the HHS Office for Civil Rights can’t keep up with enforcing HIPAA and helping healthcare organizations better protect themselves against cyberattacks due to a lack of funding, staff, and other resources.

Morning Headlines 8/26/22

Alma Raises $130M in Series D Funding led by Thoma Bravo to Advance its Mission to Simplify Access to High Quality, Affordable Mental Health Care

Mental healthcare network development company Alma raises $130 million, bringing its total raised to $220.5 million.

Breakthroughs for All: Delivering Equitable Access to America’s Research

The White House eliminates the optional 12-month journal article paywall embargo for federally-funded research projects, requiring journal publishers to make the articles and their associated data promptly available at no charge starting in 2026.

MediCardia Health Inc. with Human Longevity Inc. to Deploy Nation’s First Remote Monitoring Platform for Precision Medicine

Cardiology virtual care vendor MediCardia Health and aging-related genomics company Human Longevity launch a platform that uses extracted EHR data for patient risk assessment and remote patient monitoring.

Morning Headlines 8/25/22

Amazon is shutting down its telehealth service, Amazon Care

Amazon decides to shut down Amazon Care, its employer-focused virtual care company, after determining that it is not a “complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers” the retail giant has been targeting.

Firmament Backs Healthcare Revenue Integrity Technology Platform Panacea Healthcare Solutions

Firmament makes an undisclosed investment in Panacea Healthcare Solutions, a revenue cycle software and services company that recently acquired competitors Holliday & Associates and First Healthcare Compliance.

Epic’s Judy Faulkner dresses as Amelia Earhart for global conference

Epic announces a new Cosmos “look-alikes” feature that will enable providers to diagnose rare diseases more quickly using its database of 149 million patients.

Morning Headlines 8/24/22

Babylon Disrupted the UK’s Health System. Then It Left

Struggling Babylon Health cancels its last NHS contract eight years early, saying that the projects aren’t profitable enough to continue in a cost-cutting environment.

HITRUST Selected for TEFCA Security Certification

The Sequoia Project selects HITRUST as the certifying body for organizations looking to prove compliance with TEFCA security requirements for designation as Qualified Health Information Networks.

Sanford breaks ground on transformative Virtual Care Center

Sanford Health (SD) begins construction on a 60,000 square-foot Virtual Care Center that will serve as a hub for the health system’s virtual clinics and telemedicine services.

Morning Headlines 8/23/22

Signify Health stock surges 32% on reports Amazon is bidding for the company

The shares of home healthcare company Signify Health jump on the news that Amazon is reportedly interested in acquiring the company, along with CVS Health and UnitedHealth.

Recuro Health’s Acquisition of Competitive Health Adds End-to-End Integrated Benefits to its Digital Medical Home and Portfolio of Digital Health Solutions

Virtual care company Recuro Health acquires Competitive Health, which offers digital health programs to employers.

Akili wraps up $1B deal with Palihapitiya-led SPAC

Akili Interactive, which has developed an FDA-approved video game to treat children with ADHD, goes public via a merger with Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp.

Morning Headlines 8/22/22

VA data shows Oracle Cerner EHR hit with nearly 500 major incidents since initial rollout

VA data obtained by FedScoop under the Freedom of Information Act shows that the VA has had at least 45 days of Oracle Cerner downtime and 498 major incidents since its first rollout in September 2020.

Alpha II, LLC Accelerates Revenue Cycle Management Solutions with Acquisition of Health EFilings

RCM software vendor Alpha II acquires Health EFilings, which offers analytics and automated MIPS reporting.

Russian hackers plan to release data stolen from McKinney hospital onto dark web

Methodist McKinney Hospital (TX) refuses to pay hackers to retrieve 360 gigabytes of data stolen in a recent ransomware attack.

Morning Headlines 8/19/22

Upfront acquires PatientBond; expands capabilities for market-leading personalized patient access and engagement platform

Patient engagement and access platform vendor Upfront acquires PatientBond, which offers patient relationship solutions.

Idaho Health Data Exchange files for bankruptcy, with $4 million owed to creditors

The Idaho Health Data Exchange has filed for bankruptcy after accumulating $4 million in debt since launching in 2009, despite receiving an $8 million federal grant in May.

Impact Advisors Acquires Chicago-Based C2 Healthcare

Impact Advisors acquires business intelligence consulting firm C2 Healthcare.

Motivo Health closes $14M Series A to solve shortage of mental health therapists

Motivo Health, which has developed an online marketplace to help aspiring mental health therapists obtain licensure, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 8/18/22

Eir Partners invests in ClaimLogiq, the Leader in Healthcare SaaS Payment Integrity Solutions

Eir Partners announces a growth recapitalization investment in ClaimLogiq, a payer-focused payments company that recently acquired natural language processing-enabled medical claims and coding vendor SyTrue.

AliveCor Announces Series F Financing to Help Expand Offerings to Key Healthcare Industry Stakeholders

Heart health technology vendor AliveCor secures an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series F round led by GE Healthcare.

KeyCare Expands Nation’s Only Virtual-First Care Platform Built with Epic via $24M Series A Investment

Epic-enabled virtual care startup KeyCare, launched by health IT veteran Lyle Berkowitz, MD raises $24 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 8/17/22

CDC to regain control of US hospital data after Trump-era seizure, chaos

CDC will regain control of hospital-reported COVID-19 data when the government’s contract with TeleTracking ends on December 31.

Intelerad Acquires PenRad Technologies, Inc., Expanding Breast Imaging and Lung Screening Capabilities

Enterprise medical imaging vendor Intelerad acquires PenRad Technologies, which offers productivity tools for breast imaging and lung screening.

SpendMend Acquires Pharmacy Procurement Software Pioneer, Trulla

Hospital cost management system vendor SpendMend acquires Trulla, which sells pharmacy procurement software.

Morning Headlines 8/16/22

NextGen Healthcare Announces Intention to Become a Qualified Health Information Network

NextGen becomes the first ambulatory-focused vendor to apply to become a TEFCA-enabled Qualified Health Information Network.

Babylon Denies Acquisition Rumors

UK-based digital healthcare company Babylon denies it is contemplating putting itself up for sale as it wrestles with sinking share prices after going public nearly one year ago.

CareHarmony Secures $15 million in Series A Funding Led by Maverick Ventures

Chronic disease management software and services company CareHarmony raises $15 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 8/15/22

Digital health unicorn Truepill conducts third round of layoffs in 2022

Truepill, which offers white-labeled, API-connected virtual pharmacy and telehealth solutions as well as home diagnostic kits, reportedly conducts its third round of layoffs this year.

Growth Report: Oracle Cerner continues to expand client relationships

Oracle Cerner announces it executed 161 new, extended, or expanded contracts from April to June 2022, including 11 new clients.

Signify Health to lay off 489 people, including 45 in Connecticut

Signify Health, the value-based home health provider reportedly being pursued by CVS Health, notifies the State of Connecticut’s Department of Labor that it will lay off 489 people beginning October 1.

Morning Headlines 8/12/22

GHX Launches Lumere Consulting Services to Accelerate the Clinically Integrated Supply Chain

Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) Lumere launches a consulting service to help hospitals with their cost-saving and clinical variation programs.

Abridge Secures $12.5M in Funding and Launches Enterprise Solution to Combat Physician Burnout in Healthcare and Help Patients Stay on Top of Their Health

AI-powered medical documentation vendor Abridge raises $12.5 million in Series A funding.

Peraton to Serve as Defense Health Agency’s Enterprise Information Technology Services Integrator

The Defense Health Agency’s Military Health System awards a subsidiary of government contractor Peraton a 10-year, $2 billion contract for digital transformation services.

Morning Headlines 8/11/22

Biofourmis Raises Additional Funding from Intel Capital in Series D Extension and Names Top Healthcare Leaders to its Board

Intel Capital invests $20 million in analytics-powered virtual care company Biofourmis, extending its Series D round to a final $320 million.

Kansas City Medical Information Technology Company Agrees to Pay $1.8M to Resolve Racial Discrimination Alleged by US Department of Labor

Cerner will pay $1.86 million to 1,870 job applicants to resolve federal allegations that it discriminated in hiring black and Asian applicants between 2015 and 2019.

VHA Launches New Playbook Outlining Digital Health Care Needs For Patients

The Veterans Health Administration publishes a Digital Healthcare Playbook to help the private sector better understand what the VA wants in future healthcare technology systems and devices, and to serve as an internal review of its current software utilization.

Morning Headlines 8/10/22

Availity to Acquire Diameter Health, A Leader in Clinical Data Interoperability

Health information network management company Availity will acquire Diameter Health, which specializes in data optimization and interoperability, marking its second acquisition of the year.

CPSI Announces Second Quarter 2022 Results

CPSI announces Q2 results: revenue up 21%, EPS $0.21 versus $0.42, with shares down 15% in the past 12 months.

Tens of thousands of tablets VA distributed for telehealth appointments go unused

An audit of the Veterans Health Administration’s video connect program – budgeted at $14.5 million – finds that 51% of the 41,000 patients who were loaned tablets for telehealth appointments in 2021 never used them for that purpose.