Morning Headlines 6/25/19

UnitedHealth buys PatientsLikeMe, which faced Trump administration scrutiny over Chinese investor

UnitedHealth adds newly-acquired PatientsLikeMe to its research and development group.

President Donald J. Trump is Putting American Patients First by Making Healthcare More Transparent

President Trump signs an executive order requiring hospitals to publicly disclose what patients can expect to pay for services in easy-to-read formats, and giving stakeholders more access to data that will help in pricing transparency efforts.

CentralReach Acquires Pathfinder Health Innovations

Applied behavior analysis EHR and practice management vendor CentralReach acquires competitor Pathfinder Health Innovations.

Morning Headlines 6/24/19

Healthcare software provider Phreesia files for a $125 million IPO

Phreesia, which offers online appointment scheduling, revenue cycle, health risk screening, and check-in kiosks, files for a $125 million IPO.

Jobs in danger as Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital plans e-records transition

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (FL) will replace Cerner with Epic, which is used throughout Hopkins Medicine.

Electronic Health Records at 26 Hospitals Hit by Two-Hour Outage

Hospital operator Universal Health Services says 26 of its facilities were taken offline for two hours Friday due to Cerner data center problems.

Flatiron Health Expands its Headquarters in Manhattan’s Soho

Oncology EHR and research company Flatiron Health will nearly double its Manhattan office space and add 200 jobs by the end of the year.

Morning Headlines 6/21/19

CityMD and Summit Medical Group Announce Plans to Merge to Deliver an Unparalleled Patient Care Experience

Private equity firm Warburg Pincus will buy NJ-based, 900-provider multi-specialty practice Summit Medical Group and merge it with its 120-location CityMD urgent care holding.

Leading Health and Technology Organizations Release Common Cancer Data Standards to Enable Sharing Across EHR Systems and Improve Patient Care

The American Society of Clinical Oncology, Mitre, and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Foundation develop an open source set of common cancer data standards and specifications that can be incorporated into EHRs via FHIR.

AHN Partners with Mercy Virtual to Enhance Critical Care Services at Community Hospitals through Innovative Telemedicine Program

Allegheny Health Network (PA) will roll out telemedicine services from Mercy Virtual, a subsidiary of the Mercy health system in St. Louis, at its four hospitals over the next 12 months

Morning Headlines 6/20/19

THL snaps up Francisco Partners’ Nextech in more than $500 mln deal

Private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners acquires EHR and practice management vendor Nextech in a $500 million deal.

eSolutions Acquires RCM Software Vendor Practice Insight

RCM vendor Esolutions acquires competitor Practice Insight for an undisclosed sum.

Echo, the medication management app, has been acquired by LloydsPharmacy-owner McKesson

McKesson acquires UK-based prescription delivery and medication management app startup Echo.

VirtualHealth Raises Series B Funding to Revolutionize HealthCare with Unified Data

Care management company VirtualHealth wraps up a $15 million Series B funding round that brings its total raised to $25 million.

Morning Headlines 6/19/19

Sanofi and Google to develop new healthcare Innovation Lab

Drug maker Sanofi and Google will establish a virtual innovation lab that will use analytics to understand diseases and to extract patient insights to understand which treatments work best.

Social Impact Startup Aunt Bertha Secures $16 Million in Series C Funding

Community-based organization referral platform vendor Aunt Bertha raises $16 million in a Series C funding round.

Fueling the next phase of our growth: What’s next at Collective Health

Collective Health, which offers a health benefits management system for self-insured employers, raises $205 million in a Series E funding round.

Morning Headlines 6/18/19

CMS proposes to update e-prescribing standards to reduce provider burden and expedite access to needed medications

CMS issues a proposed rule that will give providers the option to complete prior authorizations electronically and in real time so that patients can be assured their Medicare Part D prescriptions will be filled before going to the pharmacy.

New opioid treatment center ‘OneFifteen’ opens in Dayton

Stakeholders host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opioid addiction treatment center OneFifteen, soon to be a campus of tech-enabled recovery and social services launched by Kettering Health Network, Premier Health, and Verily.

Rite Aid Partners with Adobe to Drive Digital Transformation

Rite Aid will leverage Adobe’s Experience Cloud to gain better insight into customer preferences and habits, and to help its pharmacists better connect customers to the store’s health and wellness offerings.

A controversial startup that charges $8,000 to fill your veins with young blood and halted operations after an FDA warning now says it’s back up and running

Ambrosia resumes its “rejuvenating” blood transfusion service in San Francisco and Tampa, FL after shutting it down in February due to an FDA warning letter.

Morning Headlines 6/17/19

Nashville company ups IPO to more than $1 billion

Change Healthcare raises the amount of its IPO again, this time to $1.2 billion.

Accumen Acquires Halfpenny Technologies

Lab, imaging, and clinical optimization company Accumen acquires clinical data exchange vendor Halfpenny Technologies for an undisclosed amount.

Patients frustrated over computer system outage at Abrazo Health Hospitals

Patients complain that the Cerner system of Abrazo Community Health Network (AZ) has been down for several days, which the hospital says was caused by a Cerner upgrade.

Cisco and American Well are teaming up to let you talk to your doctor from your TV

Cisco is working with telemedicine vendor American Well to develop a device that will enable consumers to access virtual consults from their televisions.

Bribes and Backdoor Deals Help Foreign Firms Sell to China’s Hospitals

A New York Times investigation finds that GE, Siemens, Philips, and Toshiba are bribing poorly paid Chinese hospital officials to buy their medical equipment.

Morning Headlines 6/14/19

Allscripts is buying ZappRx, a prescription drug start-up

Allscripts will buy specialty drug prescription prior authorization platform vendor ZappRx, according to reports, as it moves toward diversifying its EHR business.

General Electric wants to sell its stake in more than 100 start-ups

GE Ventures looks for a buyer for its stake in 100-plus startups that include 27 healthcare companies, as parent company GE attempts a turnaround.

Dassault Systèmes and Medidata Solutions To Join Forces To Accelerate the Life Sciences Industry Innovation For Patient-Centric Experience Through End-to-End Collaborative Platform

French company Dassault Systèmes will acquire clinical trials software vendor Medidata for $5.8 billion.

Sutter secretly sharing patients’ private info with Google, others, Sacramento lawsuit alleges

Two people file a class action lawsuit claiming that Sutter Health is sharing patient medical information with Facebook, Google, and Twitter so those sites can target Internet advertising.

Morning Headlines 6/13/19

Congress Questions Leadership of VA Health Record Overhaul

Lawmakers continue to express frustration with a lack of leadership over the VA and DoD’s EHR projects, calling the proposed Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization Program Office more of a concept than a concrete step towards joint governance.

Queensland Health chief’s secret concerns about hospitals digital upgrade revealed in recordings

In Australia, Queensland Health Director-General Michael Walsh admits having to publicly praise the systemwide rollout of the Cerner IEMR project despite hearing end-user complaints about software glitches, costs, and skyrocketing stress levels.

Hospital to pay $300,000 in damages in medical records case

A jury awards Amy Pertuit $300,000 after determining that Medical Center Enterprise (AL) knew about and took no action against employee Lyn Diefenderfer, MD after she illegally accessed Pertuit’s medical records and passed PHI along to the lawyer of another patient involved in a custody battle with Pertuit.

Morning Headlines 6/12/19

Humana and Epic to Enhance Patient, Provider and Payer Collaboration

Epic will integrate Humana’s real-time prescription benefits checking tool within its e-prescribing workflow.

EQT to Sell Press Ganey

Swedish investment firm EQT will sell healthcare advisory and analytics company Press Ganey to a consortium of funds managed by Leonard Green & Partners and Ares Management affiliates.

Genome Medical Raises $23 Million in Series B Financing to Advance the Adoption of Genomics in Everyday Medical Care

Telegenomics company Genome Medical raises $23 million in a Series B round led by Echo Health Ventures.

French tech giant Dassault is nearing deal to buy health software company Medidata

Dassault’s interest in acquiring clinical trials software company Medidata is intensifying, with insiders reporting that a deal is imminent.

Morning Headlines 6/11/19

Connecticut and Illinois Open Investigation into Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp Data Breach

Attorneys general from Connecticut and Illinois launch an investigation into the cause of the American Medical Collection Agency breach, which may have exposed the data of 20 million people.

DLH Announces Acquisition of Social & Scientific Systems

Health and human services tech company DLH acquires Social & Scientific Systems, a public health research organization, for $70 million.

The AMA has a new president-elect

The AMA names allergist and immunologist Susan Bailey, MD president-elect.

Morning Headlines 6/10/19

Medisanté Enters U.S. Market and Chairs the Direct-to-Cloud IoT Activity Work Group in the Personal Connected Health Alliance

Switzerland-based medical Internet of Things vendor Medisanté enters the US market with the opening of an office in Bridgewater, NJ.

KRMC website shut down since April, possible security breach

Kingman Regional Medical Center (AZ) works to rebuild its website, down since April 8, after discovering that its configuration enabled unauthorized users to view information entered by KRMC patients.

NSA Cybersecurity Advisory: Patch Remote Desktop Services on Legacy Versions of Windows

NSA takes the unusual step of issuing a call for Windows 7, Windows XP, and Server 2003 and 2008 users to install a Microsoft-issued patch as a preemptive measure against the BlueKeep vulnerability.

Morning Headlines 6/7/19

Champion Healthcare Technologies Receives Investment from The Riverside Company

The Riverside Company acquires medical device tracking software vendor Champion Healthcare Technologies from Jump Capital for an undisclosed sum.

Bain Capital, 5 others in race to buy CitiusTech

Industry insiders say Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, and several other investment firms have advanced to a second round of negotiations for the purchase of health IT consulting, services, and software company CitiusTech.

OmniSYS Acquires Automated Pricing Solution Provider, Rx-Net

Pharmacy technology vendor OmniSys acquires Rx-Net and its ProfitMax automated prescription pricing software.

ChartSpan Raises $15 Million Series A Round led by BIP Capital

Chronic care management company ChartSpan will use its $15 million funding round to expand its services beyond the Southeast.

Morning Headlines 6/6/19

Carbon Health Secures $30 Million Series B Funding To Reimagine The Consumer Healthcare Retail Experience And Accelerate Expansion Into New Markets Nationwide

San Francisco-based primary and urgent care company Carbon Health raises $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Brookline Growth Partners.

LabCorp discloses data breach affecting 7.7 million customers

LabCorp joins the roster of companies impacted by the American Medical Collection Agency breach, notifying nearly 8 million customers that their personal and financial data may have been exposed.

Hospitals to get extra cash for using robots and AI to replace humans

The NHS has promised financial incentives to providers who use AI for diagnostics, screenings, and outpatient appointments as part of a systemwide effort to meet productivity targets.

Morning Headlines 6/4/19

Biden Cancer Initiative Announces the Oncology Clinical Trial Information Commons

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer initiative will include data from nine organizations including IBM Watson Health and Ciitizen as part of a new clinical trial data sharing platform.

Quest Diagnostics Statement on the AMCA Data Security Incident

Quest Diagnostics notifies customers of a data breach at its billing services vendor, American Medical Collection Agency, that could potentially affect 12 million patients.

Best Buy takes new steps to grow its healthcare business

Best Buy acquires personal emergency response and telemedicine company Critical Signal Technologies.

Morning Headlines 6/3/19

EHR Developers are Aligned with Goals of Cures NPRM, Hope ONC will Remove Ambiguity and Reassess Timeline

The vendor members of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association raise “significant concerns” in draft comments about proposed federal rules covering interoperability.

Troubled microbiome startup uBiome to lay off some employees, refund payments from federal insurers

Microbiome testing vendor UBiome’s interim CEO warns employees of pending layoffs in the wake of federal investigations that have also prompted the company to refund government payments for its tests.

Kan. Hospital Agrees to Pay $250K To Settle False Claims Act Allegations

Coffey Health System (KS) will pay HHS $250,000 to settle claims that it falsely attested to conducting security risk analyses as required by the Meaningful Use incentive program.

Morning Headlines 5/31/19

Tempus raises $200M at a $3.1B valuation

Precision medicine platform vendor Tempus raises $200 million in a Series F funding round that values the Chicago-based company at $3.1 billion.

Cerner’s initial quarterly dividend exceeds original estimate

Cerner initiates a $0.18 quarterly dividend, its first and $0.03 greater than it originally mentioned in February.

Apprio Announces New Commercial Health Division, ApprioHealth, to Meet the Specialized Needs of Hospitals and Health Systems

Government health IT contractor Apprio creates a new commercial healthcare division to market its RCM services to hospitals and health systems.

Welkin Health Raises $17.5 Million in Series B Funding from Altos Ventures

Patient relationship management vendor Welkin Health raises $17.5 million in a Series B round, bringing its total funding to $30 million.