Morning Headlines 9/30/19

Province gives up on single e-health records provider for doctors’ offices

Canada’s New Brunswick Medical Society will close Velante, the for-profit company it created in 2012 as the sole EHR provider for the province’s doctors, few of whom signed up for the system.

Federal Law Enforcement Action Involving Fraudulent Genetic Testing Results in Charges Against 35 Individuals Responsible for Over $2.1 Billion in Losses in One of the Largest Health Care Fraud Schemes Ever Charged

The Department of Justice charges 35 defendants for fraudulently billing Medicare $2 billion by running phony telemedicine companies whose doctors ordered unnecessary cancer genetic screening tests that were processed by private labs in on the scheme.

March, October Targeted for VA Cerner Implementation

The VA will push back its Cerner go-live date from March to October at several facilities in the Pacific Northwest because of staffing and infrastructure problems.

23andMe, moving beyond consumer DNA tests, is building a clinical trial recruitment business

23andMe will work with clinical trial recruitment startup TrialSpark to offer customers enrollment in clinical trials in their areas.

Baptist Health coding jobs being outsourced to company with locations in US and India

Baptist Health (KY) lays off 37 as it outsources some of its coding jobs to AGS Health.

Morning Headlines 9/27/19

Statement on new steps to advance digital health policies that encourage innovation and enable efficient and modern regulatory oversight

The FDA releases new draft guidance documents that cover the safe and effective use of digital health technologies, using a risk-based framework under its Digital Health Innovation Action Plan that addresses provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act.

emids Announces Investment from New Mountain Capital

New Mountain Capital acquires Nashville-based healthcare technology, services, and consulting company Emids.

GoodRx Expands Healthcare Services With Introduction of GoodRx Care

GoodRx acquires telemedicine vendor HeyDoctor, enabling it to add virtual visits to its prescription drug discount website and app.

VA to Pilot New Scheduling System at Same Ohio Facility that Tested the Last Solution

The Chalmers P. Wylie Ambulatory Care Center in Columbus, OH will become the first VA facility to replace Epic scheduling with Cerner next April.

Trump Administration Puts Patients Over Paperwork by Reducing Healthcare Administrative Costs

CMS releases the Omnibus Burden Reduction Final Rule to scale back regulatory requirements that the agency projects will save providers 4.4 million hours and $8 billion over the next 10 years.

Morning Headlines 9/26/19

WELL Health Announces Agreement to Acquire EMR Service Provider OSCARwest

Canadian primary care and software company Well Health Technologies acquires consulting firm OSCARwest EMR Services.

How Best Buy plans to expand into home healthcare services, remote monitoring to help seniors age in place

Best Buy expects to take in $50 billion in revenue by 2025, a move that will be driven in large part by a more aggressive push into senior-focused home healthcare services.

AI-Powered Digital Health Company Eko Closes $20 Million Series B to Continue the Fight Against Heart Disease

Digital stethoscope and ECG technology company Eko raises $20 million in a funding round led by Artis Ventures.

UK HealthCare resumes diverting ambulance patients to other hospitals

After a similar situation several days ago, UK HealthCare once again diverts ambulance patients due to unspecified issues with its computer system.

Morning Headlines 9/25/19

Amazon launches Amazon Care, a virtual medical clinic for employees

Amazon launches a Seattle-area pilot of Amazon Care, a virtual primary care clinic for its employees that includes a nurse house call option.

Ping An Good Doctor Has Become the First Online Healthcare Platform with More Than 300 Million Registered Users

China’s Ping An Good Doctor – which offers online consultations, hospital referrals, appointments, second opinions, and prescription delivery – reaches 300 million registered users, which represents one in three internet users in China.

Request for Information (RFI) For Patient Access to Health Data Issued by the New York eHealth Collaborative

New York EHealth Collaborative issues an RFI for patient-facing software that can access and aggregate patient medical records and support patient-provider messaging.

Provider groups ask Congress for help on info blocking

CHIME, AMIA, MGMA, AHIMA, AMA and two other groups ask Congress to modify ONC’s proposed implementation of the information blocking provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act.

Morning Headlines 9/24/19

Software issue fixed, UK HealthCare no longer diverting patients

UK HealthCare resumes normal operations after a software update caused its patient registration system to crash at three hospitals for several hours on Monday.

Heal makes first acquisition to expand its doctor house calls into NYC

App-based house call and telemedicine company Heal acquires New York City-based Doctors on Call for $15 million.

Fitbit’s 2-day surge hits 19% on reports the company is seeking a sale — and its bankers are eyeing a Google takeover (FIT)

Fitbit’s stock increases on the news that it has engaged investment bank Qatalyst Partners to advise it on a sale, with Alphabet named as a potential suitor.

Morning Headlines 9/23/19

CCH responds to ransomware attack

Campbell County Health (WY) goes on diversion and transfers some patients out after a Friday ransomware attack.

Former hospital employee accused of gaming drug dispensing systems

A former hospital pharmacy technician is charged with stealing 13,000 doses of controlled substances after she found a bug in its automated dispensing cabinet that allowed her to withdraw doses for inactivated nursing unit names.

Senior Healthcare Executives Bet on RubiconMD, Join Leadership Team

E-consult company RubiconMD names Fred Ronnau (CareAllies) CTO and Sarah Alexander (Lumeris) COO.

Morning Headlines 9/20/19

Texas Health Care Fraud and Opioid Takedown Results in Charges Against 58 Individuals

The Justice Department charges 58 people in Texas, including three EHR hackers, for participating in Medicare fraud schemes and operating pill mill clinics that doled out 6.2 million pills at a cost of $66 million.

Queensland Health headaches continue as suppliers aren’t paid on time

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles takes heat for spending $92 million on supply ordering software that crashed hours after launch.

Telemynd Readies Plan For Mini IPO

Behavioral telehealth and analytics company Telemynd hopes to raise over $8 million in an IPO of its common stock.

Morning Headlines 9/19/19

Robin Healthcare Raises $15 Million to Build Digital Assistant for Doctors, Launches Partnerships with Leading Health Systems, and Adds Siri Co-Founder Tom Gruber as Advisor

AI-powered clinical documentation company Robin Healthcare raises $11.5 million in Series A funding led by Norwest Venture Partners.

DeepMind’s health team joins Google Health

Alphabet’s AI-focused DeepMind subsidiary officially becomes a part of Google Health.

Review under way into major Queensland hospital software crash

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles assures the press that a full review into last week’s five-hour Cerner EHR outage at 14 hospitals is underway.

Warburg snaps up Qualifacts in $300 mln-plus deal, following larger bet for WebPT

PE Hub reports that Warburg Pincus has acquired behavioral health and human services EHR company Qualifacts for over $300 million.

Morning Headlines 9/18/19

Millions of Americans’ Medical Images and Data Are Available on the Internet. Anyone Can Take a Peek.

A ProPublica investigation identifies 187 Internet-accessible, unsecured servers that hold the medical information of 5 million Americans.

OrbCare is Bankrupt and Looking for a Buyer After Misrepresented Finances and Debt

Toronto-based specialty practice EHR, PM, PACS, and AI chat bot vendor OrbCare is reportedly nearing insolvency just six months after announcing a $2 million seed round.

Rush Health Systems and Ochsner Health System Announce Strategic Partnership

Rush Health Systems will gain access to Epic and telemedicine capabilities through a new partnership with Ochsner Health System.

Navigating Cancer, the Leader in Oncology Patient Relationship Management, Receives $26 Million in Oversubscribed New Funding

Oncology-focused patient relationship management vendor Navigating Cancer raises $26 million in a Series D round of financing.

Morning Headlines 9/17/19

Firefly Health Closes $10.2 Million Series A Funding Round to Expand New Primary Care and Patient Experience Platform

Primary care startup Firefly Health raises $10 million in a Series A funding round and names Jonathan Bush executive chairman.

VA Launches VITAL Training Ahead of First Electronic Health Records Rollout

The VA launches an 18 month-long EHR training program for 76 providers ahead of the Cerner system’s 2020 roll out at VA facilities.

Cerner Announces New Chief Marketing Officer

Former Medtronic executive Darrell Johnson joins Cerner as its first chief marketing officer.

HMS Acquires VitreosHealth

HMS acquires predictive analytics company VitreosHealth for $36.5 million.

Morning Headlines 9/16/19

Livongo Reports Second Quarter Financial Results

Livongo says it will lose $40 million on the year after reporting Q2 results: revenue up 156%, adjusted EPS –$0.46 vs. -$0.31.

Varian and Oncora Partner to Accelerate Precision Medicine in Radiation Oncology

Cancer powerhouse Varian will invest an unspecified amount in Philadelphia-based Oncora Medical, which offers precision radiation oncology software.

Tyler & Company Seeks CIO for Penn State Health

Penn State Health system (PA) enlists an executive recruitment firm to help it find a Cerner-savvy SVP/CIO.

Morning Headlines 9/13/19

Healthy.io Raises $60 Million in Series C Funding and Receives FDA Clearance for Smartphone-Based Test to Diagnose Chronic Kidney Disease

Healthy.io raises $60 million and receives FDA clearance for the use of its smartphone-based ACR test to be used in diagnosing chronic kidney disease.

TrialCard Announces Acquisition of Mango Health

Digital prescription savings company TrialCard will acquire medication management app Mango Health.

GE’s health unit wins first FDA clearance for A.I.-powered X-ray system

GE Healthcare receives FDA clearance for its Critical Care Suite, an AI-powered X-ray device that can reduce the time between diagnosis and treatment for a collapsed lung to as few as 15 minutes.

Google and others ‘not interested in electronic patient record market’

Google Cloud Executive Advisor Toby Cosgrove, MD says that health systems have spent so much on Cerner and Epic that Google, IBM, and other companies aren’t interested in trying to launch competing EHR products.

Morning Headlines 9/12/19

It just got very hard for Amazon’s online pharmacy to access patient medication data

Surescripts ends its relationship with ReMy Health, which supplied Amazon-owned PillPack with patient prescription data collected by Surescripts.

A.I. technology could identify those at risk of fatal heart attacks, research claims

University of Oxford researchers have designed an algorithm that can detect potential signs of heart attacks years before traditional methods.

Kindbody Unveils New York City Flagship at 102 Fifth Avenue

Women’s health and technology company Kindbody opens its fourth clinic in Flatiron, NY, and announces plans to open three more by year’s end.

Morning Headlines 9/11/19

Apple announces three groundbreaking health studies

Apple will partner with several high-profile healthcare institutions to conduct studies related to hearing, women’s health, and heart health using its new Research app.

Google, Mayo Clinic strike sweeping partnership on patient data

Mayo Clinic signs a 10-year partnership with Google in which Google Cloud will provide Mayo with data hosting, cloud computing, analytics, and machine learning and AI.

Health IT firm to add 100 jobs in Lewis County

HCTec will invest over $500,000 to expand its Brentwood, TN-based consulting firm.

More trouble for Queensland hospital software after statewide issues

In Australia, Queensland Health’s $1.2 billion IEMR system goes down for several hours after a routine Cerner software patch causes “system degradation.”

Morning Headlines 9/10/19

Vim, a Healthcare Platform for Health Plan-provider Collaboration, Raises $24 Million in Series B Financing Led by Optum Ventures and Premera Blue Cross

Appointment scheduling optimization and care collaboration technology vendor Vim raises $24 million.

OCR Settles First Case in HIPAA Right of Access Initiative

Bayfront Health St. Petersburg (FL) pays $85,000 to HHS to settle a potential HIPAA violation related to its failure to provide medical records to a patient in a timely manner.

Pentagon’s New Electronic Health Records System Deployed To Second Wave of Bases

The DoD rolls out the Cerner-developed MHS Genesis system at three facilities in California and one in Idaho.

A new policy on advertising for speculative and experimental medical treatments

Google announces that it will prohibit ads for unproven or experimental medical techniques like stem cell therapy, cellular therapy, and gene therapy.

Morning Headlines 9/9/19

Ransomware hits hundreds of dentist offices in the US

Hackers breach DDS Safe, a cloud-based records retention and backup solution that is sold to dental practices, and use it to install ransomware on the computers of hundreds of dental practices.

Mountaineer docs going high tech to meet patient needs

In an effort to reduce ER visits and hospital readmissions, a team from the West Virginia University School of Public Health is preparing to launch a pilot program through WVU Medicine that will offer telemedicine services to certain Medicaid patients transitioning from long-term care to the home.

Automated deep learning design for medical image classification by health-care professionals with no coding experience: a feasibility study

Researchers find that clinicians with no experience in medical coding or deep learning can create clinical classification algorithms that perform well at diagnosis.

Morning Headlines 9/6/19

OptimizeRx to Acquire Digital Therapeutics SaaS Platform Provider, RMDY Health

Digital prescription savings and patient engagement company OptimizeRx will acquire digital therapeutics vendor RMDY Health for $16 million.

Health Recovery Solutions Closes a $10 Million Growth Investment Led by Edison Partners

Remote patient monitoring company Health Recovery Solutions raises $10 million in a Series B funding round led by Edison Partners.

pCare Acquires TruthPoint to Expand Portfolio, Bolster Rounding Capabilities

PCare, an interactive patient experience software vendor based in Lake Success, NY, acquires digital rounding and real-time patient feedback technology company TruthPoint.

athenahealth Welcomes Paul Brient as Chief Product Officer

Former PatientKeeper CEO Paul Brient joins Athenahealth as chief product officer.

CommonHealth Will Enable Android™ Phone Users to Access and Share their Electronic Health Record Data with Trusted Apps and Partners

The Commons Project, UCSF Health, Open MHealth, and other groups will develop CommonHealth, an Android alternative to IOS-only Apple Health Records.