Morning Headlines 6/4/19

Biden Cancer Initiative Announces the Oncology Clinical Trial Information Commons

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer initiative will include data from nine organizations including IBM Watson Health and Ciitizen as part of a new clinical trial data sharing platform.

Quest Diagnostics Statement on the AMCA Data Security Incident

Quest Diagnostics notifies customers of a data breach at its billing services vendor, American Medical Collection Agency, that could potentially affect 12 million patients.

Best Buy takes new steps to grow its healthcare business

Best Buy acquires personal emergency response and telemedicine company Critical Signal Technologies.

Morning Headlines 6/3/19

EHR Developers are Aligned with Goals of Cures NPRM, Hope ONC will Remove Ambiguity and Reassess Timeline

The vendor members of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association raise “significant concerns” in draft comments about proposed federal rules covering interoperability.

Troubled microbiome startup uBiome to lay off some employees, refund payments from federal insurers

Microbiome testing vendor UBiome’s interim CEO warns employees of pending layoffs in the wake of federal investigations that have also prompted the company to refund government payments for its tests.

Kan. Hospital Agrees to Pay $250K To Settle False Claims Act Allegations

Coffey Health System (KS) will pay HHS $250,000 to settle claims that it falsely attested to conducting security risk analyses as required by the Meaningful Use incentive program.

Morning Headlines 5/31/19

Tempus raises $200M at a $3.1B valuation

Precision medicine platform vendor Tempus raises $200 million in a Series F funding round that values the Chicago-based company at $3.1 billion.

Cerner’s initial quarterly dividend exceeds original estimate

Cerner initiates a $0.18 quarterly dividend, its first and $0.03 greater than it originally mentioned in February.

Apprio Announces New Commercial Health Division, ApprioHealth, to Meet the Specialized Needs of Hospitals and Health Systems

Government health IT contractor Apprio creates a new commercial healthcare division to market its RCM services to hospitals and health systems.

Welkin Health Raises $17.5 Million in Series B Funding from Altos Ventures

Patient relationship management vendor Welkin Health raises $17.5 million in a Series B round, bringing its total funding to $30 million.

Morning Headlines 5/30/19

Allegheny Health Network’s computers go down, delaying some procedures

Allegheny Health Network’s Epic system goes down Wednesday morning due to an unspecified network issue that has affected all seven of its Western Pennsylvania hospitals.

Talkspace announces $50M Series D, expands services to over 5M lives

App-based therapy company Talkspace raises $50 million in a Series D round.

Tennessee, 15 Other States Reach $900,000 Data Breach Settlement

Indiana-based Medical Informatics Engineering will pay $900,000 to settle a multistate lawsuit brought against it last year by 16 state attorneys general over lax security practices that led to a 2015 breach that compromised the data of 4 million patients.

Golden Gate Capital to Buy Stake in Billing-Services Firm

Bon Secours Mercy Health will sell its Ensemble Health Partners RCM business to Golden Gate Capital for $1.2 billion.

Morning Headlines 5/29/19

Medically Home® Group Raises $10 Million Towards Its Virtual Hospital Series B Funding

Cardinal Health makes a $10 million investment in home medical monitoring technology and monitoring services vendor Medically Home Group.

Banner Health launches Banner Innovation Group

Banner Health (AZ) launches an Innovation Group, bringing together its incubators and innovation and digital business leadership team to support and commercialize homegrown technologies and services that benefit the patient experience.

MISSION Act’s new community care program ready for prime time, VA says

After three years and $7 million, the VA continues to struggle with the development, implementation, and certification of a new IT system that will manage the MISSION Act’s caregiver program.

NextGen Healthcare, Inc. Reports Fiscal 2019 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results

NextGen Healthcare CEO Rusty Frantz says the company’s Q4 results exceeded revenue expectations thanks to growth in bookings and deal size, and the launch of integrated ambulatory care software.

Morning Headlines 5/28/19

Physician burnout costs the US health care system approximately $4.6 billion a year

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic (MN), AMA, Stanford University, and the National University of Singapore determine that physician burnout costs the US healthcare system $4.6 billion a year, or $7,600 per employed physician.

WindRose Health Investors Commits $85 Million in Financing to Kidney Health Management Company Healthmap Solutions

Technology-enabled kidney health management business Healthmap Solutions raises $85 million from Windrose Health Investors.

Regulators approve $21M power line to serve Epic Systems’ growing needs

Utility regulators in Wisconsin approve a $21 million underground power line to accommodate Epic’s needs over the next several years.

Morning Headlines 5/27/19

VA tells Senate no on more Cerner EHR oversight

The VA opposes a bill that proposes creating an independent advisory committee to oversee the $10 billion Cerner EHR implementation project.

Why the new HHS CIO is not your usual suspect

New HHS CIO Jose Arrieta, who comes to the role with a contracting and technology background, will make cybersecurity, cloud computing, and emerging technology his initial priorities.

Change Healthcare files for $200M upsized IPO

Change Healthcare increases its planned IPO from $100 million to $200 million.

Apple bought a start-up that was working on monitoring asthma in children

CNBC reports that Apple purchased pediatric asthma monitoring company Tueo Health late last year.

Morning Headlines 5/24/19

Agfa to Consider Selling Hospital IT and Integrated Care Business

Global imaging and IT company Agfa considers selling off the health IT and integrated care parts of its European healthcare business.

Indiana Medical Records Service Pays $100,000 to Settle HIPAA Breach

Medical Informatics Engineering will pay OCR $100,000 to settle HIPAA violations stemming from a 2015 data breach that impacted nearly 4 million patients.

Amazon Is Working on a Device That Can Read Human Emotions

Amazon is reportedly developing a voice-activated wearable capable of detecting emotion that may also offer users advice on how to interact with others.

Morning Headlines 5/23/19

Zipline, which delivers lifesaving medical supplies by drone, now valued at $1.2 billion

California-based drone-delivery company Zipline announces a $190 million investment and plans to expand its healthcare-focused service to the US.

DGMC to go live with new electronic health record in September

Travis Air Force Base’s David Grant USAF Medical Center (CA) will go live on the DoD’s Cerner-based MHS Genesis in September.

Scoop: Former FDA head Scott Gottlieb rejoins VC firm

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD returns to venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates as a special partner on its healthcare investment team.

DNA-Test Startup Helix Cuts Staff, Closes Offices After Shift

Helix lays off employees and closes two of its four offices after announcing earlier this month that it will pivot from a direct-to-consumer DNA testing company to a provider-focused population health management business.

Morning Headlines 5/22/19

Interoperability among Office-Based Physicians in 2015 and 2017

ONC finds that interoperability among office-based physicians didn’t improve from 2015 to 2017 even though more doctors used information from outside sources.

Google says the new Google Glass gives workers ‘superpowers’

With help from development partner Sutter Health, Google releases an updated $999 enterprise edition of Glass, promoting the product from its Google X skunkworks division to mainstream Google.

Comcast is working on an in-home device to track people’s health

Comcast will begin piloting an in-home health monitoring device later this year in hopes of bringing it to market in 2020.

Morning Headlines 5/21/19

Facebook is mapping demographics, human movement, and network coverage to combat diseases

Facebook combines its data and AI capabilities with public and commercially available datasets to create maps that will aid public health workers in preventing the spread of disease.

After forced sale, PatientsLikeMe founder frets that U.S. policy could chill collaboration in biotech

PatientsLikeMe founder Jamie Heywood believes the federal government’s demand that the company extricate itself from its China-based investor will have a detrimental effect on future, potentially life-saving, healthcare collaborations.

Why Missouri’s The Last Holdout On A Statewide Rx Monitoring Program

Lack of action during Missouri’s latest legislative session helps the state continue its seven-year streak as the only one without a PDMP.

Nashville health-tech firm lands $7.3M in funding, with help from Jumpstart

Clinical decision-support startup EvidenceCare raises $7.3 million in a funding round led by JumpStart.

Morning Headlines 5/20/19

JP Morgan buys health-care payments firm InstaMed in the bank’s biggest acquisition since the financial crisis

JP Morgan Chase will acquire medical payments platform vendor InstaMed for more than $500 million.

Patient Hurt by Do-It-Yourself Artificial Pancreas Prompts FDA Warning

FDA warns users of do-it-yourself artificial pancreas systems that the individual components, including software, don’t necessarily work together to accurately control blood glucose levels.

UPMC Starts Telemedicine Company to Fight Infectious Disease

UPMC (PA) commercializes the infectious disease telemedicine services it has provided to patients over the last five years with the formation of Infectious Disease Connect.

Health at Scale lands $16M Series A to bring machine learning to healthcare

Optum invests $16 million in San Jose, CA-based precision care delivery startup Health at Scale.

Morning Headlines 5/17/19

Local Investment in Training Drives Electronic Health Record User Satisfaction

A large clinician survey finds that training is the #1 predictor of positive user EHR experience.

The Joint Commission Enters Next Generation of Quality Measurement, Offers Accredited Hospitals Real-Time Quality Metrics

Joint Commission will give accredited hospitals real-time access to their quality measures that are submitted via its ECQM reporting process.

VA’s Byrne hints at acceleration of health record upgrade

Acting VA Deputy Secretary Jim Byrne tells lawmakers at his confirmation hearing that the possibility of shortening the Cerner implementation timeline will become a strong possibility once its initial operating capabilities are assessed.

Haven, the new health venture led by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan, just lost its No. 2 exec

Citing personal reasons, Haven COO Jack Stoddard tenders his resignation.

Morning Headlines 5/16/19

Scientists Say They’ve Created a Smartphone App That Can Hear Ear Infections

Researchers at the University of Washington found Edus Health to commercialize their EarHealth app, which is capable of diagnosing ear infections with accuracy similar to that of an in-person exam.

Hospitals on alert to fix potential security risk

Microsoft issues a security update for all customers, even those using software that is no longer supported, after discovering a zero-day vulnerability in older systems with Remote Desktop Protocol that make them prime targets for ransomware attacks.

The Physicians Foundation Announces Interoperability Fund to Improve Health Information Exchange in Six States

Working with medical societies in six states, the Physicians Foundation announces an interoperability fund to help physicians connect to their local and regional HIEs.

Morning Headlines 5/15/19

Cerner to Work With DrFirst to Connect to State Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs

Cerner will connect its systems to state prescription drug monitoring program databases using DrFirst.

Erlanger working with tech companies to launch new era of artificial intelligence to identify, treat strokes

Erlanger Health System (TN) works with AI-focused health IT startups Viz.ai and Neural Analytics to develop and pilot software and apps capable of detecting blood clots in the brain.

Seattle Children’s spin-out MDMetrix raises $3M to unlock data from medical records

Seattle Children’s Hospital analytics and data visualization spin-off MDMetrix raises $3 million.

Morning Headlines 5/14/19

AliveCor’s FDA-cleared 6-lead ECG aims to detect more than the Apple Watch

AliveCor gains FDA clearance for a new ECG device that, when it debuts in June, will be the first consumer-grade product to monitor heart activity on six different leads. 

MiraMed and Medac Join to Create Leading Revenue Cycle Management Platform in Anesthesia Market

Business process outsourcing company MiraMed merges its Anesthesia Business Consultants subsidiary with anesthesia practice management and billing vendor Medac.

Dr. Geeta Nayyar to bridge medicine, business, and health information technology as chief medical officer for Greenway Health

Greenway Health names Geeta Nayyar, MD (Femwell Group Health) CMO.

Morning Headlines 5/13/19

Patient health information needs to be readily accessible

David Brailer, MD, PhD – the country’s first National Coordinator – urges support for HHS’s proposed interoperability rules.

$6 million billing loss leads to another internal investigation in Escambia County EMS

Escambia County, Florida launches an investigation into its emergency medical services to figure out who authorized the purchase of billing software from ESO Solutions, glitches from which forced the county to write off $6 million before it was turned off for good.

Littlejohn to take majority stake in Outcome Health

Private investment firm Littlejohn acquires a majority stake in point-of-care patient education and marketing company Outcome Health, which is continuing to recover after investor lawsuits, layoffs, and media scrutiny over its sales tactics.

After burning through $1 billion, Jawbone’s Hosain Rahman has raised $65 million more

Failed wearables company Jawbone rises from the ashes as Jawbone Health with a $65 million investment that will propel its subscription-based, clinical-grade wearables offering.