Morning Headlines 2/27/23

Biden Proposal Would Ban Online Prescribing of Certain Drugs

The White House proposes a crackdown on telehealth-related prescribing of some medications when the COVID public health emergency ends on May 11.

Gebbs Healthcare Solutions Acquires CPa Medical Billing

Medical billing and coding vendor Gebbs Healthcare Solutions acquires CPa Medical Billing, which offers RCM technologies and services to FQHCs and physician groups.

Vytalize Health Closes $100M to Support Value-Based Care Transformation

Value-based primary care optimization company Vytalize Health secures $100 million in funding, bringing its total raised to $175 million.

Morning Headlines 2/24/23

Teladoc (TDOC) Reports Q4 Loss, Tops Revenue Estimates

Teladoc Health reports a $13.7 billion loss for FY 2022, and mixed revenue and earnings results for Q4, prompting the company to consider near-term layoffs and restructuring.

Premier Inc. Acquires 100 Top Hospitals Program

Premier Inc. acquires the “Top 100 Hospitals” program from Merative, formerly IBM Watson Health, which it will integrate with its PINC AI technology and services brand.

Chartis Establishes the Chartis Center for Burnout Solutions

Chartis acquires DES Health Consulting, whose workforce assessment tool will be offered as the Chartis Center for Burnout Solutions.

Morning Headlines 2/23/23

New Releases: SDOH Toolkit and Learning Forum Sessions for the Health IT Community

ONC publishes the “Social Determinants of Health Information Exchange Toolkit” to serve as a resource for healthcare stakeholders as they consider incorporating social determinants of health into the design of health IT systems.

Scoop: Olive AI plans to divest second major business line

Healthcare automation vendor Olive AI reportedly considers selling its payer-facing prior authorization business.

Amazon closes deal to buy primary care provider One Medical

Amazon closes its $3.9 billion acquisition of membership-based primary care provider One Medical, which has 200 clinics in 26 markets.

Morning Headlines 2/22/23

AGS Acquires Offshore Patient Access BPO Unit from Availity

AGS Health acquires the India-based patient access outsourcing business of Availity, which adds 200 team members to AGS Health’s 11,000 RCM experts.

Ventra Health Announces Acquisition of Deras Global

RCM services provider Ventra Health acquires Deras Global Services, a Philippines-based provider of RCM services for hospital-based physician specialties.

Aledade Adds More Than 450 New Practices for 2023, Making It the Largest Network of Independent Primary Care in the Country

Independent primary care practice management company Aledade acquires value-based care analytics vendor Curia for an undisclosed sum.

Morning Headlines 2/21/23

LVHN reports cyberattack from suspected Russian ransomware group

Lehigh Valley Health Network (PA) refuses to pay the ransom demanded by the Black Cat group, which launched a cyberattack on an LVHN computer system that supports one of its physician practices.

Winners revealed in VA’s $20M Mission Daybreak Grand Challenge to reduce Veteran suicides

The VA awards a combined $11.5 million to the 10 winners of its Mission Daybreak Grand Challenge, which aims to discover new suicide-prevention solutions including those that incorporate digital health.

Scribes linked to 27% lower burnout rate in primary care

Primary care physicians who use scribes report lower levels of burnout, improved workflow satisfaction, and less time spent documenting in the EHR.

Morning Headlines 2/20/23

Reported HIPAA complaints and breaches shot up from 2017 to 2021: HHS

HHS OCR reports that it does not have the financial resources it needs to investigate mounting HIPAA breaches and complaints, both of which increased between 2017 and 2021.

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare resumes normal operations, but questions loom

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (FL) announces that it has fully restored its computer systems and services 13 days after an unspecified security incident forced it to downtime procedures.

Lightbeam Health Solutions Is Relocating Its HQ from Las Colinas to Cypress Waters in Coppell

Population health management company Lightbeam Health Solutions relocates its headquarters from Las Colinas, TX to nearby Coppell, expanding its office footprint by 50% in anticipation of growth.

Morning Headlines 2/17/23

Avaya Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy After Cloud Subscription Accounting Woes

Unified communications and collaboration services vendor Avaya, whose healthcare offerings include solutions for virtual care, collaboration, and patient access technology, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in six years.

Elation Health Acquires Medical Billing Company Lightning MD to Accelerate Market’s First Primary Care All-in-One Solution

Primary care EHR vendor Elation Health acquires practice-focused medical billing company Lightning MD.

Spacelabs Healthcare Expands Clinical Informatics Capabilities with Acquisition of Predictive Analytics Company PeraHealth

Spacelabs Healthcare acquires PeraHealth and its Rothman Index patient deterioration software for undisclosed terms.

VA delays health record go-live at key Michigan site

The VA delays Ann Arbor Healthcare System’s EHR roll out, citing concerns over how well the Oracle Cerner software will interact with the health system’s “medical research mission.”

GE HealthCare Makes Push Into Artificial Intelligence

Newly spun off GE HealthCare announces plans to develop hospital software to help guide care and assign resources.

Morning Headlines 2/16/23

CPSI Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results

CPSI reports Q4 results: revenue up 12%, adjusted EPS $0.61 versus $0.58, beating analyst expectations for both.

Cyber attack exposes personal data of approximately 1 million Community Health Systems patients

Hospital management company Community Health Systems (TN) begins notifying patients of a cyberattack on its third-party cybersecurity vendor Fortra, which may have exposed patient information.

CommonSpirit Health Releases FY2023 Q2 Financial Results

CommonSpirit Health reports a $474 million Q2 operating loss, some of which it attributes to the October ransomware attack that took its systems offline for nearly a month.

Morning Headlines 2/15/23

UnityPoint ‘MyChart’ app to start charging for messages to doctors

UnityPoint Health (IA) begins charging patients between $36 and $70 for messaging their physicians via its MyChart patient portal, citing the “tremendous increase” in messaging seen since the beginning of the pandemic.

Progress on IT Security Event Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023

Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare (FL) continues to recover from a February 2 cyberattack, bringing its physician practices and urgent care centers back online and slowly transitioning back to digital documentation.

Oracle Cerner signs contract with Accenture to provide extra electronic health record training for VA clinicians

Oracle enlists Accenture to provide additional Oracle Cerner EHR training to VA clinicians ahead of implementations scheduled to resume this summer.

Morning Headlines 2/14/23

Building TEFCA

HHS, ONC, and The Sequoia Project recognize CommonWell Health Alliance, EHealth Exchange, Epic Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement Interoperability Services, Health Gorilla, Kno2, and Konza as the first set of networks to be approved to implement TEFCA as prospective Qualified Health Information Networks.

Top Senator Says Modernizing VA’s EHR ‘Is Not Optional’

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT) says the VA’s EHR Modernization Program must move forward, pointing out that issues with the new Oracle Cerner system do not outweigh the fact that the department’s legacy VistA system needs to be updated.

Johns Hopkins Winds Down Pioneering Pandemic Data Tracking

Three years after launching, Johns Hopkins University & Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center announces it will stop collecting and reporting COVID-19 data on March 10.

Morning Headlines 2/13/23

VA electronic health record modernization program director Terry Adirim to depart

Terry Admirim, MD, MPH, MBA, program executive director of the VA’s EHR Modernization Integration Office, will leave the VA to pursue other, unstated opportunities.

Healthtech firm Nomad Health lays off 17% of workforce

Healthcare staffing company Nomad Health reduces its headcount from 691 employees to 572, nearly eight months after securing an investment of $105 million.

NJ hospital admits data breach involving thousands of patients

CentraState Medical Center (NJ) announces that the December cybersecurity incident that impacted new admissions was a ransomware attack involving the data of 617,000 patients.

Morning Headlines 2/10/23

Scoop: Olive AI lays off 215 employees

Robotic process automation vendor Olive lays off a reported 215 employees, about one-third of the company.

Mindstrong’s demise and the future of mental health care

Mindstrong, which has raised $160 million in funding from high-profile investors, will wind down its virtual behavioral healthcare service and lay off 130 employees starting in late March.

Center for Health Innovation Expands with $22 Million in Gifts

UC San Diego Health will use a $22 million donation to launch a patient health and safety monitoring hub that will aggregate data from across its EHR, bedside monitors, wearables, and other enterprise technologies.

NHS tech funding falls to less than £1bn

NHS England’s technology budget has reportedly been cut in half to just over $1 billion, which will likely impact requests for electronic patient records.

Morning Headlines 2/9/23

CVS Health to acquire Oak Street Health

CVS Health will acquire Oak Street Health, a Medicare-focused primary care provider based in Chicago, for $39 per share in a deal valued at $10.6 billion.

Oracle reorganized its data and AI initiatives amid a leadership shake-up, leaked internal memo shows

Oracle moves its AI and data business units within its cloud infrastructure business amidst the departure of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure EVP Don Johnson and the company’s continued focus on healthcare.

NOCD Completes Additional Funding in its Quest to End the OCD Crisis

Digital OCD therapy startup NOCD raises $34 million in a financing round led by Cigna Ventures and 7wireVentures, bringing its total raised to $84 million.

Morning Headlines 2/8/23

Imperative Care Announces Formation of Stroke Recovery Digital Health Company Kandu Health

Medical technology company Imperative Care launches Kandu Health, which offers digital support for recovering stroke patients.

Senators probe telehealth companies for tracking and monetizing sensitive health data

A bipartisan group of senators ask executives at telehealth companies Cerebral, Workit, and Monument for details of their data-sharing policies including a list of all third-party sites they’ve shared data with over the last three years.

Albertsons Companies Launches Sincerely Health™ Digital Health and Wellness Platform

Grocery store operator Albertsons launches Sincerely Health, a digital health and wellness app that offers a questionnaire-calculated health score, linking to activity trackers such as Apple Health and Fitbit, and pharmacy management.

Oracle Unit Wins Fees After Beating Patent Case

A judge rules that CliniComp must pay nearly $1 million in attorney fees after losing a 2017 patient infringement lawsuit against Oracle Cerner.

Morning Headlines 2/7/23

Feds say cyberattack caused suicide helpline’s outage

Federal officials attribute last December’s 988 mental health helpline outage to a cyberattack on Intrado, the company that has managed it since its launch in July.

Veterans Deserve Better than VistA

Oracle EVP Ken Glueck pushes back against recent Congressional efforts to potentially scrap or overhaul the VA’s Oracle Cerner-powered EHR modernization project, pointing out that the software is being successfully rolled out across the DoD, and has been installed at thousands of hospitals around the world.

Simple HealthKit Raises $8M to Transform Health Diagnostics and Follow-Up Care; Expands Portfolio to Include Solutions for Sexual Health, Tripledemic

Simple HealthKit, which offers a digital health platform encompassing diagnostics and follow-up care, raises $8 million in a Series A funding round led by Initialized Capital.

CVS Nearing $10.5 Billion Deal for Primary-Care Provider Oak Street Health

Sources say CVS Health’s plan to acquire Medicare-focused primary care provider Oak Street Health may come to fruition as soon as this week, with the deal valued at $10.5 billion.

Morning Headlines 2/6/23

Tallahassee Memorial Making Progress Managing IT Security Event

Tallahassee Memorial Hospital (FL) continues to operate using downtime procedures following “an IT security event” – reportedly a ransomware attack — that occurred late Thursday.

Duke Health enters deal to share de-identified patient data

Duke Health (NC) will sell de-identified patient data to drug companies via Nference, with which it may also create a for-profit spinoff business.

Athenahealth announces layoffs, possible office move

Athenahealth will lay off 178 employees, re-deploy 100 to more high-priority areas, and consider making changes to its office space in Watertown, MA.

Morning Headlines 2/3/23

DrFirst Acquires Diagnotes Secure Messaging and Care Coordination Platform

DrFirst acquires the caregiver collaboration tools of Diagnotes.

HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles HIPAA Investigation with Arizona Hospital System Following Cybersecurity Hacking

Banner Health will pay $1.25 million to settle HHS OCR HIPAA charges from a 2016 data breach that involved the records of nearly 3 million patients.

Democrats working on ‘comprehensive’ VA electronic health record reform bill — sources

Congressional sources say Democrats are drafting a bill that would seek to reform the VA’s EHR modernization program, rather than scrapping it as proposed by some of their Republican counterparts.

Machine learning model predicts physician turnover

Yale researchers are using machine learning to predict physician turnover, using de-identified EHR and physician data to review the amount of time they are using EHRs, their patient volumes, and their ages and length of employment.