Morning Headlines 8/12/21

Elektra Health funnels new $3.75M round into helping women navigate menopause

Elektra Health raises $3.75 million in seed funding to further develop its telemedicine and support service for menopausal women.

CVS Health launches first nationwide virtual primary care solution

CVS Health launches its Aetna Virtual Primary Care program for self-funded employers in partnership with Teladoc Health.

Sharecare enters home health market with acquisition of CareLinx, augments comprehensive platform with network of over 450,000 tech-enabled caregivers

Digital health and wellness company Sharecare acquires CareLinx, a tech-enabled, home-based care business, for $65 million.

Medstreaming and M2S Announce New Brand Fivos Health

Clinical workflow company Medstreaming and its M2S subsidiary, which specializes in clinical data registries and data services, merge their solutions under the Fivos Health brand.

Clearlake, Insight Sell Appriss Unit For $1.8 Billion

Clearlake Capital and Insight Partners sell Appriss Insights to Equifax for $1.8 billion, retaining parent company Appriss and its Appriss Health business unit.

Morning Headlines 8/11/21

AI For Population Health And Medical Imaging Gets A Boost With $230 Million Acquisitions

Nanox, an Israeli medical imaging systems vendor, acquires Zebra Medical Vision for $200 million, and USARAD and its Medical Diagnostics Web business for $30 million.

Olive enters the clearinghouse business and eliminates traditional transaction fees to align incentives with customers

Olive acquires RCM vendor Healthcare IP, adding clearinghouse and claims management to its healthcare automation services.

Doximity shares jump after digital health company says revenue doubled in first report since IPO

Doximity saw its shares jump by as much as 10% after the networking and telehealth company released its first earnings report, touting Q1 revenue of $72.7 million versus an anticipated $63.6 million.

Morning Headlines 8/10/21

Premier Inc. Brands Technology and Services Platform “PINC AI™”

Premier groups its Performance Services business and benchmarking, analytics, reporting, and clinical technologies under the new PINC AI brand.

Founders of Heal Raise $3.8 Million for New Health Tech Start-Up: HeyRenee

Heal’s co-founders raise $3.8 million to launch HeyRenee, a digital healthcare platform designed to better coordinate care for the underserved, elderly, and those with chronic conditions.

HHS’ ‘Frequent and Significant Changes’ to COVID Data Reporting Left Hospitals Behind

A Government Accountability Office report points out that HHS hampered its collection of hospital capacity data during the initial phases of the pandemic by frequently changing reporting methods without consulting stakeholders.

Cricket Health Secures $83.5 Million Series B Funding Round Supported by Industry-Leading Clinical Outcomes

Tech-enabled kidney care company Cricket Health raises $83.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Valtruis, bringing its total raised to more than $120 million.

ASGN Incorporated Announces Acquisition of Enterprise Resource Performance, Inc.

Technology and professional services company ASGN acquires Enterprise Resource Performance, a health IT consulting firm that caters to organizations within the federal government.

Morning Headlines 8/9/21

Allscripts Announces Second Quarter 2021 Results

Allscripts announces Q2 results: revenue up 1%, EPS $0.15 versus –$0.05; adding in its earnings call that quarterly revenue in the core clinical and financial segment was flat, while the Veradigm analytics business delivered double-digit gains that it expects to continue.

Introducing Cadence, A New Health Tech Company Redefining Remote Care for the Nation’s Largest Health Systems

Remote patient monitoring vendor Cadence launches with $41 million in funding and a deal to deliver remote care to 100,000 chronic patients of LifePoint Health.

Verifiable secures $17M for its API that manages healthcare provider information

Verifiable, which offers a provider credentialing, network enrollment, and onboarding platform that is accessible via APIs, raises $17 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 8/6/21

Mercury Healthcare Launches as the New Brand for Healthgrades Enterprise Software, Technology and Data Analytics Company, Formerly Known as Healthgrades

Healthgrades splits its business, creating a software company that will be called Mercury Healthcare and selling its Healthgrades.com doctor marketplace media business to RV Health.

Relatient Merges with Radix Health to Extend its Lead in Patient Engagement & Access; Announces $100M+ Growth Investment

Patient engagement vendor Relatient announces a $100 million investment and plans to merge with Radix Health, which offers patient-provider matching, schedule optimization, referral automation, and patient self-service tools.

Real Time Medical Systems Secures $20 Million In Series C Funding

Real Time Medical Systems, which offers a collaboration platform to connect hospitals to post-acute care partners, raises $20 million in a Series C funding round.

Morning Headlines 8/5/21

Clarify Health Acquires Apervita’s Value Optimization Business, Creating One Unified Value Platform for Health Plans

Analytics vendor Clarify Health acquires Apervita’s value optimization business, which offers providers and payers cost, quality, and outcomes performance analytics combined with financial insights.

EvidenceCare Acquires Physician-focused Cost Transparency Platform Healthcare Value Analytics

Clinical decision support company EvidenceCare acquires Healthcare Value Analytics, which offers physicians real-time cost-of-care benchmarking data.

Evolent Health Announces Agreement to Acquire Vital Decisions, Expanding its Depth and Breadth in Specialty Care Management

Evolent Health will acquire advance care planning company Vital Decisions for $85 million and fold it into its clinical solutions segment.

Morning Headlines 8/4/21

Delivering the Right Care, at the Right Time and Place: Renown Health Opens “Care Traffic Control Center”

Renown Health opens a Transfer and Operations Center to better coordinate care, including remote monitoring for tele-ICU and home-based programs, across 27 counties in California and Nevada.

CPSI Announces Second Quarter 2021 Results

CPSI announces Q2 results: revenue up 15%, EPS $0.42 versus $0.12, with a share uptick leading to a company valuation of $464 million.

DoJ considering lawsuit to block UnitedHealth bid for Change Healthcare

The DoJ considers filing a lawsuit that would block UnitedHealth’s attempt to acquire Change Healthcare for nearly $8 billion.

CORHIO and Health Current Introduce New Regional Organization – Contexture

CORHIO and Health Current merge to form Contexture, an umbrella organization that will oversee the respective HIEs’ work in Colorado and Arizona.

Morning Headlines 8/3/21

ChrysCapital-backed GeBBS Healthcare Acquires Aviacode

RCM vendor Gebbs Healthcare Solutions acquires Aviacode, which offers medical coding and compliance services.

Juno Medical Raises $5.4M in Seed Financing to Reimagine Primary Care for the 99%

New York City-based Juno Medical will use $5.4 million in seed financing to expand its clinic footprint, virtual care services, and price transparency capabilities.

Vestrum Health Joins CorEvitas

Registry data and analytics company CorEvitas acquires Vestrum Health, which offers data culled from retina care-focused EHRs for research, analytics, and commercialization.

Morning Headlines 8/2/21

Cerner Reports Second Quarter 2021 Results

Cerner announces Q2 results: revenue up 10%, adjusted EPS $0.80 versus $0.63, exceeding analyst expectations for both.

Exo Raises $220M in Series C Funding

Handheld ultrasound and medical imaging vendor Exo raises $220 million in Series C funding.

Epic to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all US-based staff

Epic will require all of its US-based employees to be fully vaccinated by October 1, with nearly 97% of its Verona-based staff already meeting that requirement.

Morning Headlines 7/30/21

Hughes & Company Raises $116 Million For First Private Equity Fund

Private equity firm Hughes & Company closes its first fund at $116 million, which will make investments of $5 million to $20 million in lower middle market healthcare software and technology enabled companies.

Opportunity Trifecta: ISA, SVAP and Draft USCDI Version 3 Feedback Period Now Open

ONC opens the synchronized feedback period for the Interoperability Standards Advisory, the Standards Version Advancement Process, and the draft United States Core Data for Interoperability Version 3.

WellSky® to Acquire Healthify to Enhance Social Services Care Coordination Across the Continuum

WellSky, a healthcare software, analytics, and services company, will acquire social services referral software vendor Healthify.

Morning Headlines 7/29/21

Amwell Enhances Virtual Care Platform with Two Acquisitions: SilverCloud Health and Conversa Health

Amwell will acquire digital mental healthcare company SilverCloud Health and automated virtual care company Conversa Health for a combined $320 million.

Avera Health Announces Acquisition of Avera ECare by Aquiline Capital Partners

Aquiline Capital Partners acquires Avera Health’s telehealth services company, which serves 600 sites in 32 states.

Cerner Corp. plans to sell off major Kansas City area campus after move to hybrid work

Cerner will put its nearly empty Continuous Campus up for sale as it streamlines its real estate needs to accommodate remote workers.

AdaptX Receives $6 Million Series A Funding; Announces Name Change from MDmetrix to Reflect Transformative Impact for Clinical Management

Clinical performance improvement company MDmetrix changes its name to AdaptX and secures $6 million in a Series A funding round led by Vulcan Capital.

Morning Headlines 7/28/21

Nordic Capital in Talks to Buy Health Tech Firm Inovalon

Bloomberg reports that Europe-based private equity investor Nordic Capital is in talks to acquire health data analytics vendor Inovalon.

New tool for early identification of COVID-19 surges

Kaiser Permanente develops a COVID-19 HotSpotting Score to help providers predict COVID-19 surges up to six weeks ahead of time.

Teladoc stock drops after telemedicine company reports wider quarterly loss

Teladoc shares drop 7% in after-hours trading after the company reported a greater-than-expected Q2 loss of $133.8 million.

Morning Headlines 7/27/21

Penn Medicine Launching Center for Applied Health Informatics

Penn Medicine (PA) will launch the Center for Applied Health Informatics to develop best practices for data projects across its health system and foster informatics leadership.

Epic’s AI algorithms, shielded from scrutiny by a corporate firewall, are delivering inaccurate information on seriously ill patients

STAT sheds light on an Epic program that incentivizes customers to use its algorithms, one of which – sepsis prediction – has been found to not work as well as advertised.

Komodo Health Acquires Breakaway Partners to Improve Patient Access to Effective Therapies

De-identified patient data and analytics company Komodo Health acquires Breakaway Partners, which offers market access analytics.

Morning Headlines 7/26/21

Sema4 Closes Transaction with CM Life Sciences, Debuts as Publicly Traded AI-driven Genomic & Clinical Data Platform Company

Clinical data and genomic platform vendor Sema4, a Connecticut-based venture of Mount Sinai Health System, goes public via a SPAC merger at a valuation of around $3 billion.

System C buys medicines management specialist Wellsky

British health IT company System C acquires medication management vendor WellSky International.

Caregiver Support Company Cariloop raises $15 million in Series B funding to expand help for families and ease caregiving crisis

Digitally-enabled caregiving support company Cariloop raises $15 million in a funding round that brings its total raised to just over $24 million.

UPMC reaches $2.65 million settlement with employees over data breach

UPMC will pay $2.65 million to settle a class action lawsuit that charged it with failing to protect employee information that was stolen and used in a phony tax refund scam.

Morning Headlines 7/23/21

Moving Forward: Evaluating Next Steps for the Department of Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Modernization Program

The VA tells the House Veterans Affairs Committee that it won’t bring any more sites live on Cerner for at least six months.

Achieve Partners Backs Healthcare IT Provider to Launch Major Apprenticeship Program

Achieve Partners, which invests in skills development technologies and businesses that can create American jobs, acquires staff and consulting services vendor Optimum Healthcare IT.

Imprivata Adds Privileged Access Management (PAM) to Industry-leading Digital Identity Capabilities by Acquiring Xton Technologies

Imprivata acquires Xton Technologies and will incorporate its privileged access management solutions into its digital identity framework.

Qure4u Announces Close of $25M Growth Equity Investment to Accelerate Innovation in Digital Health Solutions

Qure4u, which offers automated patient intake, engagement, and virtual care services, raises $25 million in a funding round led by Volition Capital.

Morning Headlines 7/22/21

Carbon Health Secures $350 Million to Expand Omnichannel Primary Care Nationwide

Tech-enabled primary care company Carbon Health raises $350 million in a funding round led by Blackstone.

B.well Connected Health Secures $32 Million to Accelerate the Digital Transformation of Healthcare

B.well Connected Health, developer of health management apps for consumers, patients, and employees, raises $32 million in a Series B funding round.

CarePoint Health Opens Doors to Healthcare Innovation Center

CarePoint Health (NJ) opens a Healthcare Innovation Center within Bayonne Medical Center to bring clinicians, vendors, investors, and other collaborators together to develop new technologies.

Morning Headlines 7/21/21

WebMD Acquires The Wellness Network, Expanding Point-of-Care Services to Health Systems and Hospitals

WebMD acquires The Wellness Network, which offers advertising-supported patient education videos and broadcast channels for hospitals.

Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative Fulfills Mission; Completes Final Dissolution

The Massachusetts EHealth Collaborative dissolves and distributes its assets to six public charities, saying that it has completed its work and fulfilled its mission related to interoperability, standards development, and health IT policy.

Validation of an electronic trigger to measure missed diagnosis of stroke in emergency departments

An EHR trigger analysis of the VA’s corporate data warehouse finds that nearly one-third of patients who were admitted for stroke had been discharged from the ED with seemingly benign headache or dizziness in the previous 30 days.