Morning Headlines 1/15/21

Broad Coalition of Health and Technology Industry Leaders Announce Vaccination Credential Initiative to Accelerate Digital Access to COVID-19 Vaccination Records

Health and technology leaders announce the Vaccination Credential Initiative, which hopes to provide digital access to COVID-19 vaccination records using the open SMART Health Cards specification.

Healthcare Specific AI Platform Lumiata Raises Series B Funding

Lumiata – which applies AI to 120 million patient records to predict patient outcomes, clinical costs, and risks for providers and payers – raises $14 million in a Series B funding round.

Healthtech firm Accolade is buying telemedicine start-up 2nd.MD for $460 million, sources say

Health benefits navigation company Accolade acquires 2nd.MD for $460 million to offer its users easier access to second opinions.

QGenda Acquires Shift Admin

Provider and resource scheduling system vendor QGenda acquires Shift Admin, which offers shift-based specialty scheduling for emergency medicine, urgent care, and hospital medicine.

Morning Headlines 1/14/21

Modernizing Medicine Announces Acquisition of Orthopedic Healthcare Technology Company, Exscribe, Inc.

Modernizing Medicine acquires orthopedics-focused EHR vendor Exscribe.

Developer of Popular Women’s Fertility-Tracking App Settles FTC Allegations that It Misled Consumers About the Disclosure of their Health Data

Period and ovulation tracking app developer Flo Health settles allegations by the FTC that it shared user data with third party marketing and analytics firms without user consent.

Mental health tech firm NeuroFlow raises $20M Series B, led by one of its customers

Mental health monitoring software startup NeuroFlow raises $20 million in a Series B round led by customer Magellan Health.

Morning Headlines 1/13/21

ONC Releases Draft USCDI Version 2 and SVAP Approved Standards for 2020

ONC releases United States Core Data for Interoperability Draft Version 2 for public comment.

Amwell Announces Launch of Proposed Public Offering

Telemedicine vendor Amwell, which raised nearly $750 million in its IPO last September, files paperwork with the SEC for a public offering of 11.3 million shares.

Central Logic Acquires Acuity Link for Intelligent Transport & Announces New Bed Visibility Capability, Advancing Mission to Enable Health Systems to ‘Operate as One’ through Improved Access and Orchestration

Central Logic acquires Acuity Link, a developer of communications and logistics management software for healthcare transportation.

HHS Invests $8 Million to Address Gaps in Rural Telehealth through the Telehealth Broadband Pilot Program

HHS allocates $8 million to the three-year Telehealth Broadband Pilot program, which helps rural providers assess broadband capacity and implement virtual care.

Morning Headlines 1/12/21

Dina raises $7 million for its AI-powered at-home care platform

Dina will use $7 million in Series A funding to further enhance its AI-powered virtual assistant and home care coordination software, as well as its staff screening and check-in technologies.

Moxe Announces Funding to Accelerate Growth

Madison, WI-based payer-to-provider health data exchange vendor Moxe raises an undisclosed amount of funding.

Komodo Health Acquires Mavens, Creating the First Data-Driven Enterprise Platform for Life Sciences

Health data and analytics company Komodo Health acquires Mavens, a cloud-based technology company focused on biotech, rare disease, and specialty pharma markets.

Morning Headlines 1/11/21

After SPAC merger, Clover Health president eyes membership growth this year

Shares in Medicare Advantage insurer Clover Health began trading Friday on the Nasdaq after it went public in a reverse merger with an SPAC.

CareDx Agrees to Acquire TransChart and Expands EMR Connectivity to Over 90 Centers

Transplant testing, lab, and software vendor CareDx acquires TransChart, which sells a transplant center EHR.

Carrum Health Raises $40 Million to Transform Healthcare Delivery and Lower Costs through First-of-Its-Kind Digital Marketplace

Carrum Health, whose marketplace connects employees of self-insured companies with company-screened, bundled-price surgery providers, raises $40 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 1/8/21

Harris builds its perinatal portfolio with the acquisition of Clinical Computer Systems, Inc.

Harris acquires Clinical Computer Systems, Inc., which offers Obix perinatal software.

Advanced ICU Care Announces Corporate Rebrand as Hicuity Health™

Tele-ICU services vendor Advanced ICU Care renames itself Hicuity Health.

Simplify ASC Acquires PhyBus Revenue Services

Ambulatory surgery center health IT company Simplify ASC acquires PhyBus Revenue Services for an undisclosed sum.

Rennova Completes Agreement to Separate its Software and Genetic Diagnostics Interpretation Divisions Into Innovaqor, Inc.

Hospital and practice operator Rennova Health sells its Health Technology Solutions and Advanced Molecular Services Group divisions to Innovaqor.

Computer Network Incident Update

Greater Baltimore Medical Center begins restoring its EHR after a December 6 ransomware attack forced it to take several systems offline.

Morning Headlines 1/7/21

Optum Acquires Change Healthcare for $13 Billion

UnitedHealth Group-owned Optum will acquire Change Healthcare and combine it with its OptumInsight software and analytics business.

TigerConnect Acquires Critical Alert, Ends 2020 with Second Major Acquisition

Care team collaboration software vendor TigerConnect acquires Critical Alert, best known for its nurse call, alarm, and event management medical devices and software.

Intraprise Health Acquires HIPAA One

Cybersecurity and risk management software vendor Intraprise Health acquires HIPAA One, a Utah-based company specializing in security, privacy, and compliance software and services.

.

Morning Headlines 1/6/21

Cedar Gate Technologies Acquires Enli Health Intelligence

Value-based care performance management company Cedar Gate Technologies acquires population health IT vendor Enli Health Intelligence.

New Resources to Help Health IT Developers Understand ONC Cures Act Final Rule Requirements

ONC publishes Cures Act developer resources, including a summary of compliance dates and an API resource guide.

BerryDunn Expands Healthcare Industry Offerings with VantagePoint Merger

Healthcare compliance, consulting, and credentialing firm VantagePoint Healthcare Advisors merges with assurance, tax, and consulting firm BerryDunn.

Hinge Health has raised $310M Series D at a $3B valuation

Hinge Health, a telemedicine company specializing in chronic back and joint pain, raises $310 million in a Series D funding round.

Morning Headlines 1/5/21

Haven, the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan venture to disrupt health care, is disbanding after 3 years

Boston-based Haven, which launched in 2018 with the goal of improving healthcare costs and outcomes for employers, notifies its 57 employees that it will shut down by the end of February.

Color announces $167 million in Series D financing to help build public health infrastructure across the U.S.

Population health technology company Color raises $167 million in a Series D funding round led by General Catalyst, bringing its total financing to $278 million.

Allscripts Closes Previously Announced Sale of CarePort Health Business

Allscripts wraps up its sale of care coordination business CarePort Health to WellSky for $1.35 billion.

Morning Headlines 1/4/21

Intrado Acquires Asparia

Multi-vertical technology services business Intrado acquires patient intake and engagement software vendor Asparia.

Maricopa County Vaccine Operations ‘Dramatically Slowed’ By Arizona System Glitches

Maricopa County, AZ blames vaccine rollout delays on the state’s vaccine management system, which it says didn’t email people to schedule their vaccination appointments, sent them to sites outside the county, has no text messaging option, locked people out who tried to use their Cox email address, and failed to show certain locations.

Firstsource Solutions Acquires PatientMatters

India-based business process management company Firstsource Solutions acquires Florida-based RCM vendor PatientMatters for $13 million, and will combine it with its MedAssist brand.

Morning Headlines 12/31/20

Telehealth: The Right Care, at the Right Time, via the Right Medium

UCLA Health describes in a NEJM Catalyst article how providers should developing triage processes that recognize telehealth’s benefits and limitations.

Stanford Medicine mistakenly vaccinated non-clinical affiliates over weekend

Stanford Medicine, fresh off protests by medical residents that its COVID-19 vaccination priority algorithm excluded them, deals with its second vaccine controversy in a week when rumors of “excess” doses caused non-clinical employees to line up at vaccination stations, where staff decided to give shots to anyone who was wearing a Stanford badge in ignoring the policy that only frontline workers in high-acuity settings should be injected.

PointClickCare Technologies Announces Closing of Collective Medical Acquisition

The long-term and post-acute care technology vendor completes its acquisition of Collective Medical, which offers a real-time care notification, activation, and collaboration platform.

Morning Headlines 12/30/20

Health-Costs Transparency Rule for Hospitals Upheld on Appeal

A federal court rejects AHA’s appeal, forcing hospitals to post their payer-specific negotiated charges on their websites starting Friday.

Judge signs off on Concord Hospital’s acquisition of LRGHealthcare

The bankrupt two-hospital, 162-bed system says it was paying $342,000 per month – 9% of its total revenue – to run Cerner.

Y. Michele Kang joins Washington Spirit ownership group

The founder and CEO of health and human services software vendor Cognosante buys a stake in the professional women’s soccer team.

Morning Headlines 12/29/20

Health startup seeks to bring COVID-19 vaccine tracking to Apple Wallet

Los Angeles County chooses Healthvana to allow people to present proof of COVID-19 vaccination as stored in Apple Wallet and to receive reminders when their second shot is due.

Home DNA test unicorn 23andMe raises nearly $85M

The company was laying off employees a year ago in citing declining consumer demand.

‘Toxic Individualism’: Pandemic Politics Driving Health Care Workers From Small Towns

Healthcare workers are moving away from their rural communities after being harassed by their neighbors for providing public health advice, challenging rural hospitals that were already struggling to fill clinical positions during the pandemic.

Morning Headlines 12/28/20

EverCommerce Acquires Updox, Industry Leader in Virtual Care and Communications Solutions

Service sector business software vendor EverCommerce acquires Updox, which offers healthcare solutions for faxing, electronic forms, video chat, and secure messaging.

Sumner Regional Medical Center experiencing outage issues as result of Nashville explosion

The Gallatin, TN hospital goes back to paper records when network outages caused by the Nashville RV explosion disrupt its EHR access.

Frieden honored for his lifelong work helping people with disabilities

Lex Frieden, MA, professor of health informatics at UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics, was named the 2020 Katie Beckett Award recipient for his lifelong work advancing the rights of people with disabilities.

Morning Headlines 12/24/20

Two Owners of New York Pharmacies Charged in a $30 Million COVID-19 Health Care Fraud and Money Laundering Case

The two owners of several New York pharmacies are indicted on federal charges for healthcare fraud and money laundering, accused of using Medicare’s emergency override COVID-19 codes and edits to submit $30 million in claims for cancer drugs that were never ordered or administered.

Leaky Server Exposes 12 Million Medical Records to Meow Attacker

A hospital EHR vendor in Vietnam exposes 12 million unprotected records that contained the medical and financial details of 80,000 patients of 18 medical facilities, and immediately afterward the misconfigured database was deleted in a so-called “meow” attack in which a hacker-dispatched bot erases an exposed database as a security lesson to its owner.

Trump commutes 20-year sentence in massive health care fraud run out of Florida

President Trump commutes the 20-year prison sentence of Miami Beach businessman Philip Esformes, who was convicted in April 2019 for his involvement in a $1 billion healthcare fraud case.

Morning Headlines 12/23/20

HMS to be Acquired by Veritas Capital-Backed Gainwell for $37.00 Per Share

Medicaid technology vendor Gainwell Technologies will acquire publicly traded HMS, which offers cost and outcomes systems, for $3.4 billion in cash.

Azara Healthcare and SPH Analytics’ Population Health Division Announce Merger

Community Health and physician practice population health technology vendor Azara Healthcare merges with the population health division of SPH Analytics.

Astria Health bankruptcy plan gets closer to approval as objections resolved

Washington-based Astria Health resolves Cerner’s objections to its bankruptcy reorganization plan, in which Cerner said it was owed $10.7 million that the health system it wasn’t said it wasn’t paying because its problems with Cerner billing caused at least $150 million in damages.

Morning Headlines 12/22/20

Mass General Brigham apologizes to employees for rocky vaccine rollout

A crush of sign-ups takes down employee COVID-19 vaccine appointment systems at Mass General Brigham and Tufts Medical Center.

Rio Grande Hospital Workers Turned Down the Vaccine. A Senator and a Sheriff’s Deputy Lined Up Instead.

A Texas hospital that was among the hardest hit with COVID-19 says that so many of its high-priority employees declined to receive the vaccine that it instead vaccinated a state senator, a sheriff’s deputy, and a community pharmacist and his daughter as it used all of its allocated 5,850 doses.

Joni Ernst Sparks Backlash for Getting COVID Vaccine After Spreading Conspiracy

US Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), who previously accused doctors of falsifying COVID-19 deaths for money and claimed that only 6% of reported COVID-19 deaths are actually caused by the infection, draws ire for tweeting out a photo that shows her receiving one of the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine.