Morning Headlines 1/16/25

Iron Health Acquired by Metronomic Inc.

Maternal healthcare-focused digital health company Metronomic acquires Iron Health, which offers Ob/Gyn practices add-on services including virtual visits, messaging, and care coordination and outcomes tracking.

UnitedHealth hid its Change Healthcare data breach notice for months

TechCrunch reports that Change Healthcare, which experienced a debilitating ransomware attack last February, has hidden its data breach notice webpage from search engines.

HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles HIPAA Case Against Memorial Healthcare System Over Patient Access to Records

Memorial Healthcare System (FL) will pay $60,000 to settle allegations that it violated HIPAA by taking nine months to provide a patient with access to his medical records.

Morning Headlines 1/15/25

Leading US health systems launch the Truveta Genome Project, creating the world’s largest and most diverse database to discover the science of humanity

Several health systems launch the Truveta Genome Project, which will create a database of genotypic and phenotypic information.

Health Care Service Corporation Co-Leads Solera Health Series E Financing to Expand Access to Quality Digital Health

Solera Health, which offers employers and payers access to curated digital health programs, announces $40 million in new funding.

UK’s latest unicorn Cera raises $150M to reduce NHS strain with AI healthcare platform

UK-based digital-first home healthcare provider Cera raises $150 million in financing, valuing the company at over $1 billion.

Morning Headlines 1/14/25

New Mountain Nears Deal to Acquire Access Healthcare

New Mountain Capital is reportedly prepping to acquire RCM vendor Access Healthcare in a $2 billion deal.

Qventus Announces $105 Million Investment, Series D Led by KKR

Healthcare operations optimization software company Qventus announces $105 million in new funding.

Health Catalyst Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Upfront Healthcare Services

Salt Lake City-based health data and analytics vendor Health Catalyst will acquire patient engagement-focused Upfront Healthcare Services.

Morning Headlines 1/13/25

Walgreens shares soar 27% on big earnings beat, as drugstore chain cuts costs

Shares jump on the news of Walgreens Q1 results: revenue up 7.5%, EPS –$0.31 versus –$0.08, beating expectations for both.

MultiCare Capital Partners Invests in Layer Health to Accelerate Deployment of Responsible AI in Healthcare

Automated chart review vendor Layer Health announces new funding from MultiCare Health System’s investment arm.

Datavant is on the M&A hunt as the $7B health data company bulks up before a potential IPO

Datavant, which has made 11 acquisitions since 2017, is reportedly looking to buy one or two more companies in early 2025.

US Department of Health and Human Services: Strategic Plan for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Health, Human Services, and Public Health

HHS publishes a strategic plan for the use of AI in healthcare, focusing on four areas that will help the department responsibly develop and use the technology within its programs.

Morning Headlines 1/10/25

Hippocratic AI Completes $141MM Series B Financing Round Led by Kleiner Perkins, Valuing the Company at $1.64B

Healthcare AI agent developer Hippocratic AI will use $141 million in new funding to help it begin marketing its solutions to payers and pharmaceutical companies and to expand into additional global markets.

Bluesight Expands Compliance Capabilities and Strengthens Platform through Acquisition of Protenus

Inventory management, procurement, and compliance vendor Bluesight acquires Protenus, a healthcare compliance analytics company based in Baltimore.

Qualified Health Launches with $30M Seed Funding to Develop the Infrastructure for Generative AI in Healthcare

Qualified Health, which offers healthcare AI governance infrastructure, raises $30 million in seed funding.

Amwell divests virtual psychiatric care business to Avel ECare in all-cash transaction

Amwell sells its virtual psychiatric care service to Avel ECare for $21 million in cash.

Innovaccer aims to become healthcare’s AI powerhouse with $275M Series F

Innovaccer announces $275 million in a Series F funding round, bringing its total raised to $675 million.

Morning Headlines 1/9/25

Transcarent To Acquire Accolade

Transcarent, which offers a member-focused benefits navigation, clinical guidance, and virtual care platform, will acquire personalized healthcare platform developer Accolade for $621 million.

Red Rover Health Raises $4 Million in Funding to Grow Healthcare App Store Platform

Healthcare app integration company Red Rover Health raises $4 million in seed funding.

Warburg Pincus explores $5 billion-plus sale of Modernizing Medicine, sources say

Private equity firm Warburg Pincus is reportedly considering selling Modernizing Medicine, which it first invested in eight years ago and considered selling in 2022.

MDaudit Announces Strategic Growth Investment from Bregal Sagemount and Primus Capital

Medical billing company MDaudit announces new funding from Bregal Sagemount and Prime Capital.

Net Health Acquires Alinea Engage to Further Optimize Patient Engagement and Outcomes in Rehab Therapy

Wound care and rehab therapy software company Net Health acquires rehab therapy-focused automation and patient engagement software vendor Alinea Engage.

Morning Headlines 1/8/25

NeuroFlow Announces Strategic Deal to Incorporate Intermountain Health’s Sophisticated Behavioral Health Risk Model into NeuroFlow’s Analytics Suite

Behavioral health technology and analytics vendor NeuroFlow acquires a behavioral health analytics module developed by Intermountain Health.

Highlander Health Announces Inaugural Investment of Target RWE

Evidence generation platform vendor Highlander Health, launched in September 2024 by oncologists Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD and Brad Hirsch, MD, acquires real-world datasets company Target RWE.

Onrad Inc. Acquires Direct Radiology in a Move That Expands Capabilities, Enhances Quality and Outcomes

Teleradiology services company Onrad acquires the 80-radiologist Direct Radiology practice from Philips, making it the largest independent teleradiology vendor in the US.

Providence Ventures spins out, forms Allumia Ventures

Health tech venture capital firm Providence Ventures spins off from Providence to form Allumia Ventures.

HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles 8th Ransomware Investigation with Elgon Information Systems

Massachusetts-based Elgon Information Systems will pay $80,000 to settle federal allegations related to its failure to prevent a March 2023 ransomware attack that would up exposing the protected health information of 31,000 patients.

Morning Headlines 1/7/25

Virtual visits to play an increased role as a part of Marshfield, Sanford merger

Sanford Health (SD) and Marshfield Clinic Health System (WI) expect to offer additional virtual care services to their respective patient populations as a result of Sanford’s recently finalized acquisition of Marshfield.

AirStrip Technologies Adds Clinical Decision Support Capabilities with Strategic Acquisition of DECISIO Health

Clinical surveillance and alarm management company AirStrip Technologies acquires Decisio Health, which specializes in clinical decision support and remote patient monitoring software.

FDA Issues Comprehensive Draft Guidance for Developers of Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Medical Devices

The FDA publishes draft development and marketing recommendations for developers of AI-enhanced medical devices, with comments due April 7.

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.