Morning Headlines 10/3/23

Health Data Analytics Institute (HDAI) Announces $31 Million Funding Round to Scale Predictive Risk Platform

Health Data Analytics Institute raises $31 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to nearly $50 million.

‘Restructuring historical financial obligations’: Heywood Hospital files for bankruptcy

Heywood Healthcare (MA) files for Chapter 11, citing operational and business challenges that have included a “costly and lengthy” EHR implementation.

Providence Unveils Praia Health, Its Fourth Incubated Technology

Providence’s Digital Innovation Group announces GA of its Praia Health patient identity and engagement software.

Morning Headlines 10/2/23

AHA Responds to Senate RFI on Health Data Privacy

The American Hospital Association asks Congress to withdraw HHS OCR’s December 2022 rule that prohibits hospitals from tracking their website users using third-party technology.

Biogen shutters digital health group, nixes Apple study, as part of cost cuts

Biotech firm Biogen shuts down Biogen Digital Health and lays off 150 employees as the company cuts costs and restructures.

Syra Health Corp. Announces Pricing of Upsized Initial Public Offering

Digital health vendor Syra Health launches an IPO in an effort to raise $6.7 million.

Large Michigan healthcare provider confirms ransomware attack

McLaren Health Care confirms it was the victim of a ransomware attack, and is working to determine if any stolen data has been posted to the dark web.

Morning Headlines 9/29/23

Hospital execs to Lamont, lawmakers: Seal the Yale-Prospect deal

Two hospitals ask the state to expedite their acquisition, with a recent cyberattack leaving them unable to pay bills, but Yale New Haven Health is questioning whether it wants to buy hospitals that use such outdated technology.

Nuance Announces the General Availability of Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot to Further Improve Healthcare Experiences, Outcomes, and Efficiency

Nuance renames DAX Express to DAX Copilot.

Federal Budgetary Effects of the Activities of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation

CBO says that CMMI, which tests new payment models and was projected to produce savings when it was formed in 2010, actually increased federal spending by $5.4 billion through 2020.

Morning Headlines 9/28/23

Virgin Pulse and HealthComp Announce Intent to Merge to Create Comprehensive Employer Health Platform

Member engagement and wellness app vendor Virgin Pulse will merge with HealthComp, which provides health benefits administration.

Nuance Announces the General Availability of Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot to Further Improve Healthcare Experiences, Outcomes, and Efficiency

Microsoft-owned Nuance renames DAX Express — which creates clinical documentation using conversational, ambient, and generative AI — to DAX Copilot.

Tendo to Acquire MDsave, Creating Leading Platform for Patient Engagement and Shoppable Care

Patient engagement software vendor Tendo will acquire healthcare marketplace operator MDsave for $150 million.

Morning Headlines 9/27/23

Datavant Leads in Health Data Exchange: Surpasses Digital Connections to 70,000 Hospitals And Clinics, Acquires Healthjump

Datavant acquires Healthjump.

CommonSpirit Unaudited Financial Report

The140-hospital system says that last year’s ransomware attacked cost it $160 million and it still doesn’t know how much its insurer will pay.

Newcastle Hospitals says computer error lost patient letters

The hospital says a computer system caused 24,000 patient letters, some including clinical results and recommendations, to remain unsent.

Important information to know: Nuance Communication data breach

WVU Medicine announces that the information of some radiology patients was exposed in a breach of Nuance Communications.

Morning Headlines 9/26/23

Costco members now have access to $29 online healthcare visits

Costco partners with Sesame to offer members in all 50 states same-day virtual primary care visits for $29, a lab panel and virtual follow-up for $72, and online mental health visits for $79.

Collaborative Intelligence to catalyze the digital transformation of healthcare

Authors recommend using AI for collaborative intelligence in which humans work in concert with algorithms and are responsible for ensuring their accuracy, completeness, and freedom from bias, with technology evaluated as part of the work it assists rather than on its own.

ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak

Open AI announces that it is rolling out ChatGPT capabilities to conduct voice conversations and analyze photos.

Morning Headlines 9/25/23

Veradigm Inc. Announces Receipt of Nasdaq Delisting Notice and Intent to Appeal

The company says it will file its three overdue financial reports in Q4.

AMIA Announces the 2023 Signature Awards Recipients

AMIA recognizes the accomplishments of several informatics leaders.

FTC Challenges Private Equity Firm’s Scheme to Suppress Competition in Anesthesiology Practices Across Texas

The FTC’s lawsuit includes the company’s private equity owner in what may be a new strategy to hold healthcare company owners accountable.

Morning Headlines 9/22/23

AMA Future of Health issue brief: Commercial Payer Coverage for Digital Medicine Codes

The American Medical Association says that lack of alignment and adoption of CPT codes for digital medicine limits their use.

Value-based payments are making it harder to see your primary care doctor on short notice

Jeffrey Millstein, MD says that value-based care has made it hard to get short-notice appointment with PCPs who are refocusing on managing populations and meeting payer metrics.

Diligent Robotics Closes $25 Million to Advance Systemwide Expansions of Socially-Intelligent Service Robots, Empower Healthcare Professionals

The company expects to triple its Moxi healthcare robot market footprint of 22 health systems using $25 million in new funding. 

Morning Headlines 9/21/23

Epic Systems’ growth means new roads, many changes for Verona

Epic begins construction on its sixth campus and considers building a seventh, with its planned 2024 headcount of 13,300 employees nearly matching that of the entire population of its home town of Verona, WI.

UpHealth subsidiary files for bankruptcy after unfavorable court ruling

UpHealth Holdings, which offers digital-first care management services and virtual care infrastructure, files Chapter 11 bankruptcy following a court’s ruling that it must pay an investment bank its $31 million fee for arranging its 2021 SPAC merger.

Musk’s Neuralink to start human trial of brain implant for paralysis patients

Elon Musk says his startup has received approval to begin human trials of its brain-computer interface implant for paralysis, which will take six years to complete.

AI Startup Corti Raises $60 Million to Take on Microsoft in Health Care

The Denmark-based company, whose voice assistant listens to doctor-patient conversations and makes recommendations based on similar conversations, is valued at $260 million.

Morning Headlines 9/20/23

Oracle Transforms Care Delivery with Next-Generation Millennium EHR and Generative AI Capabilities

Oracle announces “the new Oracle Health EHR platform” at its annual conference, which it says will use the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to offer a modern interface and intuitive processes.

Avel eCare Expands Hospitalist and Senior Care Telemedicine Services with Acquisition of Fident Health

Telemedicine services company Avel ECare acquires Fident Health, a virtual hospitalist business based in Texas.

Bright Health Group Continues to Make Significant Progress Towards ACA Insurance Business Wind-Down

Bright Health announces it has paid 80% of its final ACA insurance business risk adjustment obligations, leaving $380 million still owed to CMS as it continues to close out that business.

Bankrupt Digital Health Company Babylon Sells UK Assets for Just $620,000

Forbes reports that now insolvent digital health company Babylon’s sale of its UK assets fetched a paltry $620,000.

Amenities Health Closes Series A, Raising a Total of $10M to Modernize Health System Digital Front Doors

Amenities Health, a patient acquisition and digital front door software startup based in Dallas, raises $6.25 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 9/19/23

MedSitter Announces Rebranding, Changes Name To Collette Health

Virtual patient observation and analytics company MedSitter rebrands to Collette Health.

Veradigm Inc. Provides Audit Update and Updates Financial Guidance for 2023

Veradigm reports that it is taking longer than anticipated to correct accounting errors that have led to de-listing warnings from Nasdaq, and will thus file yearly and quarterly reports later than expected.

Oracle Brings Generative AI Capabilities to Healthcare

Oracle adds new generative AI-powered Clinical Digital Assistant capabilities to its EHR solutions.

Morning Headlines 9/18/23

Summus Raises $19.5 Million to Expand Solutions Solving the Access Problem in Specialty Care

Summus, which offers virtual access to specialty consults, raises $19.5 million.

VA wraps first-wave EHR fixes, but employees ‘strongly disagree’ it’s ready to move forward

Though the VA has completed its first round of EHR fixes, at least one facility already live on the software is still experiencing frequent outages that force it to revert to downtime procedures.

No ransom to hackers, says Claxton-Hepburn, Carthage Area Hospital CEO

Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center (NY) and Carthage Area Hospital (NY) resume nearly normal operations while they determine if hackers were able to obtain any significant data during a ransomware attack several weeks ago.

Morning Headlines 9/15/23

Senators call on DOD to explain whether its medical records system is causing recruiting delays

Several senators question whether or not the DoD’s new MHS Genesis EHR has caused delays in processing new military recruits.

NHS still reliant on paper notes and drug charts despite electronic upgrades

Seventy-five percent of NHS trusts report they still rely on paper patient notes and drug charts, despite government initiatives to eliminate paper prescribing by 2024 and to implement digital health records at 90% of trusts by the end of 2023.

Apple introduces the advanced new Apple Watch Series 9

The newly announced Apple Watch Series 9 adds the ability to use Siri to request on-device health and fitness information, such as data from connected monitors, and to log health data such as weight and meds.

Morning Headlines 9/14/23

Aspirion Acquires Infinia ML, an established leader in AI and Machine Learning

RCM technology vendor Aspirion acquires AI-powered intelligent document processing platform vendor Infinia ML

VA Going ‘Back to the Drawing Board’ for EHRM Deployment Schedule

The VA will develop a new deployment schedule for its EHR Modernization program, likely resuming in the summer of 2024 provided the scheduled March 2024 roll out of the Oracle Health system at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center goes well.

Carenostics helps clinicians prioritize at-risk patients

Carenostics,a clinical decision support software startup initially focused on chronic kidney disease, raises $5 million in seed funding.

Morning Headlines 9/13/23

Bain & Company and KLAS study finds 80% of US healthcare providers are accelerating spending on IT and software with AI top of mind

A study of 200 provider executives finds that most health systems increased their spending on software and IT significantly in the past year, with revenue cycle management and clinical workflow optimization being the top investment areas.

Senate confirms deputy secretary at VA

The Senate confirms Army veteran and VA Chief of Staff Tanya Bradsher as deputy secretary, where she will be responsible for the VA’s Oracle Cerner implementation.

HSHS, Prevea restore health records system

Hospital Sisters Health System and affiliate Prevea Health restore their Epic system after a cyberattack forced both organizations to downtime procedures two weeks ago.

Morning Headlines 9/12/23

Oracle comes up short on revenue but touts AI cloud contracts

Oracle’s quarterly revenue falls short of analyst expectations, with Cerner’s revenue growth slowed by its “accelerated transition” to the cloud.

Cano Health Announces Plans for Regaining Compliance with NYSE Stock Price Criteria

The NYSE puts troubled primary care company Cano Health on notice for listing noncompliance, given that the average closing price of a share of its Class A common stock was less than $1.00 per share over a consecutive 30 trading-day period.

Thoma Bravo Weighs $1 Billion Private Credit Loan for NextGen Acquisition

Private equity firm Thoma Bravo considers arranging $1 billion in private financing for its acquisition of ambulatory health IT company NextGen Healthcare.

CT hospitals unsure if patient records were breached in cyberattack

Prospect Medical Holdings is working to determine if patient information within its 16 hospitals was breached in a ransomware attack by the Rhysida group more than a month ago.

Morning Headlines 9/11/23

Walmart Explores Buying Majority Stake in ChenMed

Walmart reportedly considers acquiring a majority stake in Medicare Advantage primary care clinic operator ChenMed.

US indicts nine alleged members of Russian cybercrime gang that targeted hospitals

The Department of Justice indicts nine men with ties to a cybercriminal group that has accumulated $100 million in ransomware payments from US hospitals.

Ranking Member Cassidy Seeks Information from Stakeholders on Improving Americans’ Health Data Privacy

HELP Committee ranking member Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA) solicits solutions to protecting patient privacy related to wearables, smart devices, and apps, none of which are covered by HIPAA.