Morning Headlines 1/6/25

Telehealth Company Pays $386,000 to Resolve Allegations of Overbilling for Medicare Telehealth Time

Meditelecare will pay $386,000 to settle federal allegations that it knowingly overbilled Medicare for virtual psychotherapy sessions that didn’t meet minimum time requirements using falsified time records.

Veradigm interim CFO gets another term extension

Veradigm extends the six-month contract of interim CFO Leland Westerfield for the second time after having fired its CEO and CFO in December 2023 for failing to comply with financial reporting.

2025’s Top-Rated EHR Vendors Across 40 Medical & Surgical Specialties: Black Book Insights Into Innovation and Client-Centric Excellence

Black Book reports its top EHRs for specialty practices for 2025, also naming as top innovation leaders ModMed, NextGen Healthcare, Netsmart, ClinicMind, Epic, and RXNT.

Morning Headlines 1/3/25

Watsonville hospital says data of some patients may be at risk after cyber attack

Watsonville Community Hospital (CA) begins notifying patients that their data may have been compromised in a late November ransomware attack.

DoD announces completion of pilot to identify medical AI vulnerabilities

The DoD’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office finds 800 potential vulnerabilities and biases during a recently concluded large language model pilot that compared three LLMs and their ability to enhance military medical care as a part of clinical note summarization and an advisory chatbot.

Implementation of Billing for Patient Portal Messages as E-Visits in a Large Integrated Health System

A Mayo Clinic analysis finds that patient portal messaging dropped 8.8% from the previous year after the health system implemented billing for select e-visits.

Morning Headlines 12/31/24

UnitedHealth’s Army of Doctors Helped It Collect Billions More From Medicare

Patients who switched to UnitedHealth’s Medicare Advantage plans and were seen at the company’s owned and affiliated practices saw an immediate 55% rise in sickness scores as its software pushed doctors to consider often irrelevant or incorrect diagnoses to boost payments.

Will AI Help or Hurt Workers? One 26-Year-Old Found an Unexpected Answer.

A study finds that use of AI boosted the scientific output of the top 10% of researchers, had little impact on less-accomplished ones, and was disliked by 82% of scientists overall because it took away the parts of their job they enjoyed most.

Siemens reviewing Healthineers majority stake, CFO tells Handelsblatt

Siemens says the synergies of its 75% ownership of Siemens Healthineers don’t justify its $47 billion investment, leading it to review the business’s prospects and announce its intentions toward the end of 2025.

Morning Headlines 12/30/24

HIPAA Security Rule to Strengthen the Cybersecurity of Electronic Protected Health Information

HHS OCR issues a proposed update to the HIPAA security rule.

Equasens: strategic acquisition of Calimed, a SaaS software expert for private practitioners and surgeons

France-based medical professional software vendor Equasens acquires Calimed, which sells practice management systems to specialty practices.

Health Tech Company Laying Off 430 – Missouri Workers Impacted

GetInsured by Vimo, which operates healthcare marketplace shopping and enrollment websites in seven states, files a WARN act notice that it will lay off 430 US workers.

Morning Headlines 12/27/24

Digital health companies got pummeled by Wall Street in 2024 as industry adapts to post-Covid slowdown

A CNBC analysis of 39 publicly traded digital health companies finds that two-thirds lost value in 2024 ,with high-profile stumbles by Teladoc Health, Progyny, GoodRx, Dexcom, and 23andMe.  

Adoption of “hospital-at-home” programs remains concentrated among larger, urban, not-for-profit and academic hospitals

Researchers find that CMS’s four-year-old program that encourages a home alternative to hospital admission will need to offer different incentives to expand to smaller, rural, and non-teaching hospitals.

Providers Used Medicare Part D Eligibility Verification Transactions for Permissible Purposes

An HHS OIG investigation finds minimal improper use of Medicare Part D prescription eligibility transactions by providers after CMS tightened controls.

Avel eCare Announces the Acquisition of Hospital Pharmacy Management to Enhance Pharmacy Telemedicine Services

Telemedicine provider Avel ECare acquires Hospital Pharmacy Management, which offers remote pharmacy order verification and hospital pharmacy management.

Morning Headlines 12/24/24

Health care AI, intended to save money, turns out to require a lot of expensive humans

The cost effectiveness of AI in healthcare is questioned due to the need for humans to overcome implementation and maintenance challenges as well as to monitor for algorithm performance degradation over time.

App Registration, Delay No More

ASTP says it has received reports that Certified API developers are obstructing patient access to their electronic health information through cumbersome registration practices, which may be non-conformities under the Health IT Certification Program.

Seer Medical, which received $30m from Victoria’s venture capital fund, enters administration

Australia-based Seer Medical, whose at-home epilepsy monitoring equipment was recalled in August in the US and Australia, files bankruptcy.

Health NZ’s IT cutbacks: Faults could ‘snowball’, report warns

A report concludes that the proposed layoff of 1,100 data and digital employees by Health New Zealand is likely to impact patient care, extend the time required to resolve system failures, and increase the risk of cyberattacks.

Morning Headlines 12/23/24

US hospital operator Ascension says 5.6 million affected in medical data breach in May

The 140-bed health system’s May ransomware attack compromised the medical and insurance information of 5.6 million people.

Commure Acquires Memora Health, a Digital Care Navigation Platform, to Enhance Intelligent Care Navigation

Commure says that its acquisition of Memora Health will strengthen its suite of patient engagement, clinical documentation, revenue cycle management, and RTLS solutions

Medical Records Co. Wants Rival’s Antitrust Suit Tossed

Epic asks a federal court to dismiss Particle Health’s antitrust lawsuit, saying that it’s a revenge lawsuit that fails to prove anticompetitive behavior.

VA begins early-stage planning for the next Federal Electronic Health Record rollout in mid-2026, continues ongoing improvement efforts at existing sites

Four Michigan facilities will go live on Oracle Health in 2026.

Morning Headlines 12/20/24

Verily’s plan for 2025: Raise money, pivot to AI, and break up with Google

Alphabet’s Verily will reportedly shift focus in 2025 to offering AI tools, data aggregation, and privacy systems for healthcare providers and startups.

Oura Secures $200 Million in Series D Funding

Finland-based smart ring maker Oura raises $200 million in a Series D funding round that values the company at $5 billion, with glucose biosensing company Dexcom participating in the round.

Confido Health secures $3M to put AI-powered digital workers on healthcare’s front lines

Confido Health raises $3 million in funding to continue rollout of its no-code AI agents for appointment management, insurance verification, and care coordination in specialty practices.

Morning Headlines 12/19/24

House Bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Delivers Report

The House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence publishes its findings and recommendations, which include five recommendations to improve the safety, security, and trustworthiness of AI in healthcare.

VA EHR in better shape to resume go-lives in FY 2025 after ‘incremental’ fixes

VA officials decline to share specific go-live dates for 2025 implementations of the department’s stalled Oracle Health-based EHR, but do stress that career VA employees who’ve been with the EHR modernization program from the beginning will continue their work under the incoming administration.

Aspirion Expands Revenue Cycle Management Capabilities Through Strategic Acquisition of Boost Healthcare

RCM company Aspirion acquires Boost Healthcare, which specializes in tech-enabled revenue recovery and advisory services.

Morning Headlines 12/18/24

Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Protecting Care Access

ASTP publishes the HTI-3 final rule, which addresses information blocking, adds a definition of “reproductive health care,” and protects patients from legal action where an actor limits the sharing of their electronic health information that may relate to reproductive healthcare.

Texas Tech University System data breach impacts 1.4 million patients

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center announces that a September ransomware attack compromised the information of 1.4 million patients, some of which has been put up for sale by hackers on the dark web.

Kahuna Workforce Solutions Receives Funding from Memorial Hermann Health System

Memorial Hermann Health System invests in Kahuna Workforce Solutions, which offers skills and competency management solutions.

The Innovation Design Unit: Unveiling the future of inpatient care

Nebraska Medicine opens the 17-room Innovation Design Unit at University of Nebraska Medical Center, enabling clinical staff and researchers to design, test, and validate advanced care models, new technologies, and facility designs.

Morning Headlines 12/17/24

Healwell to Acquire Orion Health, Creating a Global Market Leader in Healthcare Data Interoperability & Artificial Intelligence, and Launches $50 Million Bought Deal Financing

Toronto-based Healwell AI will acquire global healthcare technology company Orion Health, based in New Zealand, for $116 million.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers Files Lawsuit Against Change Healthcare for Critical Failures to Protect Consumer Data and Prevent Against Harm from a Widespread Cyberattack

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers sues Change Healthcare for allegedly violating the state’s consumer protection and data security laws during the ransomware attack in February 2024 that exposed the information of hundreds of thousands of residents.

Rice, Houston Methodist launch groundbreaking Digital Health Institute to transform the future of health care

Houston Methodist and Rice University establish the Digital Health Institute to develop new AI-enhanced solutions for telehealth, patient self-management, medical devices and wearables, predictive analytics, and early detection and diagnosis of conditions.

SailPoint and Imprivata Enter Strategic Partnership to Deliver Unified Identity Security and Access Management for Healthcare Organizations

Enterprise identity security company SailPoint Technologies acquires Imprivata’s identity governance and administration business.

Morning Headlines 12/16/24

American Telemedicine Association Launches Center of Digital Excellence (CODE) to Accelerate Digital Integration in Care Delivery

The American Telemedicine Association launches the ATA Center of Digital Excellence, whose big-name health system members will work to advance the integration of digital care pathways.

Cyber criminals claim they hacked 17 million patient records at PIH Health hospitals

An unidentified ransomware group threatens via fax to publish data stolen from PIH Health (CA) during a December 1 ransomware attack that continues to impact the provider’s IT systems.

Tuva Health Launches Open-Source Platform to Transform Healthcare Analytics Industry

Tuva Health, an open-source healthcare data and analytics startup, raises $5 million in seed funding.

Morning Headlines 12/13/24

Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (HTI-2) Final Rule

ASTP publishes a slimmed-down version of the TEFCA HTI-2 final rule.

1m Raises $10 million in Series A Funding to Bring Modern Risk Management Capabilities to Healthcare Organizations

Health system risk analytics vendor 1m raises $10 million in Series A funding, most of it from large health systems.

Greenlight Health Data Solutions and Pattern Health Merge to Expand Healthcare, Life Sciences and Insurance Solutions

Greenlight Health Data Solutions, which specializes in patient health record retrieval and sharing, acquires patient engagement, research, and clinical trials software company Pattern Health.

Morning Headlines 12/12/24

CoachCare Announces $11 Million Investment from Catalyst Investors, Expanding Growth Potential

Remote patient monitoring and virtual care management vendor CoachCare raises $11 million in new funding.

Dallas-Based Healthcare IT Leader Secures $53M Investment to Transform Patient Care and Expand Global Reach

SpinSci, a healthcare technology company specializing in patient engagement and access solutions, announces a $53 million investment from Aldrich Capital Partners.

Particle Health lands $10 million in funding after lobbing antitrust lawsuit against medical records giant Epic

Business Insider reports that healthcare API company Particle Health has raised $10 million.

Morning Headlines 12/11/24

Oracle Announces Fiscal 2025 Second Quarter Financial Results

Oracle reports Q2 results: revenue up 9%, EPS $1.10 versus $0.89, missing Wall Street expectations for both and sending shares moderately down.

Healthier Capital Invests in Hyro’s Responsible AI Agents for Healthcare

Healthcare conversational AI company Hyro extends its Series B round of funding, bringing its total raised to $50 million.

Walgreens shares soar 20% on reported talks to sell itself to Sycamore Partners

Walgreens is reportedly considering selling itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a take-private transaction.

Evidently Closes $15M Series A

Healthcare workflow AI startup Evidently raises $15 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 12/10/24

CompuGroup Medical enters into an investment agreement with CVC Capital Partners

CVC Capital Partners offers to acquire German health IT company CompuGroup Medical in a take-private deal valued at $1.2 billion.

Attorney General James Secures $550,000 from Hudson Valley Health Care Facility Operator for Failing to Protect Patient Data

HealthAlliance, a health system in New York’s Hudson Valley, will pay a $550,000 fine for its failure to prevent a cyberattack in July 2023 that exposed the information of 243,000 patients.

Security Alert: Munson Warns of Possible Employment & Financial Scam

Munson Healthcare (MI) warns people of a scam involving bad actors posing as Munson HR staff offering job applicants false jobs and sending them fraudulent checks for equipment purchases.

Morning Headlines 12/9/24

HHS Office for Civil Rights Imposes a $548,265 Penalty Against Children’s Hospital Colorado for HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules Violations

HHS OCR fines Children’s Hospital Colorado $548,000 for HIPAA breaches involving phishing and cyberattacks.

New Dashboard to Track Progress Toward 50 Percent Reduction in Patient and Workforce Harm

The HHS National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety develops an online patient and healthcare workforce safety dashboard incorporating hospital data from CMS and AHRQ, with plans to expand to clinic and nursing home data.

Kareo is Now Tebra – Website Transition Effective December 5

Ambulatory health IT vendor Kareo, which merged with PatientPop in 2021, officially takes on the Tebra brand name.