Morning Headlines 10/5/20

CorroHealth emerges as a leader in healthcare reimbursement solutions, following merger of four industry players

Four health IT companies are acquired by private equity firm The Carlyle Group and will operate under the single brand of CorroHealth – TrustHCS (coding services), Visionary RCM (coding services), T-System (emergency documentation technology), and RevCycle+ (coding solutions).

VA on the fence about homegrown patient portal

The VA tells a House subcommittee that it is considering retiring the My HealtheVet portal in favor of Cerner’s MyVAHealth, but that move would cost $60 to $300 million since it isn’t included in its Cerner contract.

HHS Renews $10.2 Million Contract For Controversial COVID-19 Data Tracking Company

HHS issues a second $10 million contract to TeleTracking Technologies for its HHS Protect COVID-19 hospital data collection system, even as Congressional committees are investigating the circumstances under which the company was awarded the no-bid first contract.

Clinical Trials Hit by Ransomware Attack on Health Tech Firm

Clinical trials software vendor EResearch Technology is hit by a ransomware attack, forcing contract research organizations – some of which are managing COVID-19 vaccine trials – to revert to paper.

Morning Headlines 10/2/20

Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs: Views on Usefulness and Challenges of Programs

A GAO report finds that lack of integration of state prescription drug monitoring program tools with EHRs is the key challenge in PDMP use for patient care, with lookups requiring 3-5 minutes without integration versus 2-15 seconds with.

Nordic Acquires Tasman Global

Nordic acquires Netherlands-based EHR consulting firm Tasman Global, which expands the company’s reach into Europe and Asia.

Third time’s the charm? VA sets new date for initial electronic health record rollout

The VA plans to go live with a first round of Cerner EHR capabilities on October 24 at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, WA, with a second round scheduled for next spring.

Phreesia Acquires Co-Developed Patient Care Applications by Merck and Geisinger

Patient intake platform vendor Phreesia acquires two workflow applications that were developed by Geisinger and drug company Merck.

FastMed Becomes the First Independent Urgent Care Operator to Launch Epic

FastMed Urgent Care goes live on Epic at its 29 Arizona locations, the first independent urgent care operator to do so.

Morning Headlines 10/1/20

CORHIO and Health Current Join Forces and Announce Intent to Form New Regional Organization

Colorado-based CORHIO and Arizona-based Health Current announce plans to merge, potentially creating the largest HIE in the Western United States.

Private equity firm’s healthcare SPAC SCP & CO Healthcare Acquisition files for a $200 million IPO

Blank-check company SCP & CO Healthcare Acquisition files for an IPO of up to $200 million.

Nebraska Medicine to resume appointments, procedures after battling cyberattack

Nebraska Medicine resumes all appointments, procedures, and surgeries after making “significant progress” in recovering from a cyberattack on September 20.

HHS Announces Funding for Health Information Exchanges to Support Public Health Agencies – STAR HIE Program Funds Five Organizations to Improve Interoperability of Health Data

GaHIN, Health Current, HealthShare Exchange, KHIN, and Texas Health Services Authority will receive a combined $2.5 million from the HHS STAR HIE Program to better support public health agencies in their response to emergencies like COVID-19.

Apple Accused of Delaying Masimo Legal Fight to Gain Watch Sales

Masimo contends in a court filing that Apple is trying to delay a legal fight over allegedly stolen blood-oxygen monitoring technology in its latest Apple Watch so that it can gain more market share.

Morning Headlines 9/30/20

HHS Launching Initiative to Track Physician Use and Burdens of Health IT

HHS and ONC launch a program with the American Board of Family Medicine to measure the use and potential burdens of health IT by office-based physicians.

As insurers move this week to stop waiving telehealth copays, patients may have to pay more for virtual care

UnitedHealthcare and Anthem will end their virtual visit benefit Thursday, after which patients will once again pay co-pays, co-insurance, and deductibles for virtual visits that are not related to COVID-19.

JLL Partners strikes deal to buy Thoma Bravo’s MedeAnalytics

PE Hub reports that private equity firm JLL Partners will purchase MedeAnalytics from Thoma Bravo, which acquired it in 2015.

Morning Headlines 9/29/20

Healthcare giant UHS hit by ransomware attack, sources say

Universal Health Services experiences a ransomware attack that has locked computer and phone systems at several facilities across the country.

Startup Hims Nears a Deal to Go Public Via Oaktree SPAC

Online health and wellness company Hims prepares to go public through a merger with Oaktree Acquisition Corp., which is raising $75 million to help fund the deal.

CloudMD Acquires Majority Interest in Innovative U.S. Based Provider of Cloud Based Practice Management and Electronic Health Records with US$4.9M in Sales

Canadian health IT vendor CloudMD will acquire a majority stake in Lynchburg, VA-based EHR, practice management, and RCM vendor Benchmark Systems from AntWorks for $4.4 million.

Morning Headlines 9/28/20

Allegheny Health Network, Innovation Works Announce New Startup Accelerator Focused on Health Care Technologies and Life Sciences

Allegheny Health Network (PA) and a Pittsburgh investor create AlphaLab Health, an innovation hub that will provide seed funding to companies that are involved in diagnostics, therapeutics, medical devices, and health IT.

‘Big ripple effect’: Cybersecurity issue causes problems across Neb. Med network

Nebraska Medicine officials say normal operations should soon resume across its Epic network, shared by several other hospitals across the state, as it works to recover from last week’s cyberattack.

CloudMD Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Snapclarity Inc., an Enterprise Mental Health Platform, Expanding Telehealth Offering to Include Mental Wellness

Canadian health IT vendor CloudMD will acquire mental health assessment and care coordination vendor Snapclarity for $2.5 million.

Morning Headlines 9/25/20

Trump Administration Plans Crackdown On Hospitals Failing To Report COVID-19 Data

Internal government documents suggest that CMS will threaten to stop paying the 76% of US hospitals that aren’t sending COVID data daily and will also add new reporting requirements for influenza.

The Dark Overlord Member Receives 5 Years Prison Term in the U.S.

The extradited UK national is also ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution for stealing and selling information from businesses, including hospitals.

HHS Announces Health IT Awardees Focused on Data Sharing to Support Clinical Care, Research, and Improved Outcomes

HHS and ONC award $2.7 million to four health IT acceleration projects.

Morning Headlines 9/24/20

HIPAA Business Associate Pays $2.3 Million to Settle Breach Affecting Protected Health Information of Over 6 million Individuals

CHSPSC, a management services provider and business associate of Community Health Systems, will pay $2.3 million for failing to secure its systems following an FBI warning that a cyberhacking group had gained access to the information of 6 million patients.

GoodRx closes up 53% in market debut

The prescription discount vendor’s first-day market close values the company at $20 billion. 

NHS Covid-19 app: How England and Wales’ contact-tracing service works

The delayed release of the app on Thursday will support exposure notification, a check-in barcode scanner for business and public venues to help with contact tracing, a postcode-based risk-level checker, a symptom reporting tool, instructions for obtaining a coronavirus test, and isolation countdown timer.

Mary Lanning working around medical record system outage

Mary Lanning Healthcare (NE) and several other hospitals work around downtime of Epic due to an unspecified security incident at Nebraska Medicine, which provides access to Epic and whose own systems have been down since Sunday morning.

Morning Headlines 9/23/20

FDA Launches the Digital Health Center of Excellence

The Center will provide expertise and advise FDA on modernizing digital health policies and regulatory approaches.

Microsoft launches Cloud for Healthcare in general availability

The managed service will includes Dynamics 365, Azure, 365, Teams and its new EHR connector, and Healthcare Bot Service for developing self-assessment tools.

A call for social informatics

A JAMIA article calls for creating an informatics subfield that focuses on social determinants of health.

NCDHHS Launches SlowCOVIDNC Exposure Notification App; Available for Download Today

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services launches SlowCOVID19, a contact tracing app that uses the Exposure Notification System from Google and Apple.

Morning Headlines 9/22/20

Orthopedic Clinic Pays $1.5 Million to Settle Systemic Noncompliance with HIPAA Rules

Athens Orthopedic Clinic (GA) will pay the HHS Office of Civil Rights $1.5 million to settle potential HIPAA violations related to a 2016 data breach by The Dark Overlord.

Carlyle Makes Strategic Growth Investment in TriNetX; Acquires Majority Stake in Leading Global Health Research Network

The Carlyle Group will acquire a majority stake in global health research network TriNetX.

Teladoc accuses Amwell of infringing on its telehealth patents

Teladoc accuses Amwell of infringing on patents related to its digital scope, stethoscope, and some telemedicine carts.

Nebraska Medicine addressing ‘security incident’ impacting IT systems

Nebraska Medicine reverts to downtime procedures after an unspecified security incident on Sunday takes its IT systems offline.

Morning Headlines 9/21/20

Olive Adds $106MM to Transform Healthcare Payments with AI Workforce

Healthcare robotic process automation vendor Olive raises $106 million in an equity investment, increasing its total to $220 million.

University Hospital New Jersey hit by SunCrypt ransomware, data leaked

Hackers dump online nearly 50,000 administrative and patient-related documents stolen in a ransomware attack earlier this month on University Hospital New Jersey.

HealtheMed Raises Seed Capital, Announces the Launch of Its Telemedicine Platform for Medicaid Populations

HealtheMed raises an undisclosed amount of seed capital to scale its remote patient monitoring technology for Medicaid patients in Minnesota.

Morning Headlines 9/18/20

Google-Backed American Well Stock Rises 28% in Market Debut

Boston-based telemedicine company Amwell raises $742 million in an IPO that saw shares hit a debut high of $25.90.

LifeSpeak Announces $42 Million Equity Investment To Accelerate Growth Of Digital Mental Health and Wellness Platform

Toronto-based employee mental health and wellness digital education vendor LifeSpeak raises a $42 million growth investment.

Forbes 400 2020: These Billionaires Have Gotten The Richest Over The Past Year

Epic founder and CEO Judy Faulkner is among the members of the Forbes 400 whose net worth increased the most in the past year, gaining $1.7 billion to hit $5.5 billion.

Washington and Oregon Join California in Pilot Project Using Google and Apple Exposure Notification Technology to Slow the Spread of COVID-19

Oregon and Washington join California in a pilot project that will test COVID-19 exposure notification technology developed by Apple and Google.

Morning Headlines 9/17/20

On-demand Healthcare Service, Ready, Raises $54 Million in Series C Financing

House call company Ready will use a $54 million Series C funding round to help it expand into mental healthcare, point-of-care testing, and vaccination services.

Anthem to study whether Apple Watch could help people with asthma

U.C. Irvine, Anthem, and CareEvolution will conduct a two-year study to investigate the role consumer devices can play in managing asthma.

Clearlake Capital-Backed Provation Acquires ePreop

Clinical decision support and documentation vendor Provation acquires EPreop, a developer of anesthesia quality reporting and perioperative care coordination software.

Vibrent Health Wins NIH Contract to Develop Powerful New Digital Health Solutions for COVID-19 Contact Tracing to Reduce the Risk of Infection and Help Society Return to Normal Activities

NIH grants Vibrent Health a $4 million contract to develop contract-tracing software that will also enable users to differentiate COVID-19 from the flu.

Medigate completes $30M Series B

Partech leads a $30 million Series B funding round in medical device security company Medigate, bringing its total raised to $50 million.

Morning Headlines 9/16/20

OnCall Health Raises $6M Series A to Enable Virtual Care Programs for Healthcare Brands

White-label telemedicine vendor OnCall Health raises $6 million in a Series A round led by Base10 Partners.

CareCentrix, backed by Summit, enlists Morgan Stanley to weigh options

Home and post-acute care technology company CareCentrix will assess its options after receiving interest from a potential buyer.

Here’s everything Apple just announced

Apple adds a blood oxygen monitoring feature to the newest version of Apple Watch, and will partner with three healthcare organizations to study the feature and its benefits.

Loblaw investing $75 million for minority stake in telemedicine firm Maple

In Canada, Loblaw Companies takes a minority stake in telemedicine vendor Maple through its Shoppers Drug Mart business.

Morning Headlines 9/15/20

MDLIVE Announces $50 Million Crossover Equity Investment from Sixth Street Growth

MDLive secures $75 million through a $50 million crossover equity investment from Sixth Street Growth and $25 million in debt expansion from other investors, bringing its total raised to nearly $175 million.

Industry Vet Ron Lattomus Named Director of Federal Programs at Cerner

Cerner hires Ron Lattomus (DRS Global Enterprise Solutions) to head its federal programs, including the VA’s EHR modernization project.

Carbon Health Partners with REEF to Launch 100 Pop-up COVID-19 Testing Clinics Nationwide, Expanding Access to Testing and Primary Care

Tech-heavy primary care company Carbon Health establishes 100 pop-up COVID-19 testing clinics that will eventually transition into permanent care facilities.

Morning Headlines 9/14/20

New Virtual Plus care plan in Washington

Kaiser Permanente launches Virtual Plus, a virtual-forward health plan for members in six Washington counties to get care for their non-urgent issues via phone, online chat, video, or email.

Tech Executive Pratap Sarker Joins Greenway Health as President

Greenway Health hires Pratap Sarker, MBA (Conduent) to the newly created position of president.

Exclusive: Change Healthcare shutters HQ, moves hundreds of employees virtual

Change Healthcare will close its headquarters in Nashville and transition as many as 700 employees to remote work.

Morning Headlines 9/11/20

Hyland enters definitive agreement to acquire Alfresco

Hyland will acquire Alfresco, which offers cloud-native content services solutions.

Grand Rounds Secures $175 Million Investment, Led by The Carlyle Group, to Accelerate Clinical Navigation and Virtual Primary Care

Grand Rounds, which offers self-insured employers a health navigation app, telemedicine services, and medical opinions for their employees, raises $175 million.

Radiology Partners Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire MEDNAX Radiology Solutions

Radiology Partners will acquire Mednax’s radiology solutions business, including teleradiology software used by 500 virtual radiologists, for $885 million.