Morning Headlines 6/6/24

Direct Recruiters, Inc., a Starfish Partners Company and Health Innovations, LLC Join Forces to Revolutionize Healthcare Staffing and Analytics

Direct Recruiters announces that it will acquire Health Innovations, a staffing firm specializing in placing clinical executives and analytics leaders.

Eko Health scores $41M to detect heart and lung disease earlier and more accurately

Smart stethoscope developer Eko Health raises $41 million in Series D funding, bringing its total raised to $165 million.

Solarity Announces Strategic Growth Investment from TA

Automated clinical data processing vendor Solarity announces an undisclosed amount of funding from TA Associates.

Morning Headlines 6/5/24

Sword Health Introduces Phoenix, the First AI Care Specialist and Raises $130 Million in a Mix of Primary and Secondary Sale, Increasing Valuation to $3 Billion

Sword Health, which offers AI-powered digital support solutions for issues related to musculoskeletal problems, physical therapy, and pelvic therapy, raises $130 million.

Cybersecurity Event Update

Ascension restores EHR access in its Florida, Alabama, and Austin markets, and hopes to make the system available to the entire organization by June 14.

WM to Acquire Stericycle, a Leader in Medical Waste Services, for $7.2 Billion

Waste Management will acquire Stericycle, which specializes in medical waste disposal, compliance training, and secure information destruction, for $7.2 billion.

AssureCare Acquires Cureatr and SinfoniaRx Technology

AssureCare acquires the medication management technologies of Cureatr, which abruptly shut down last October, and of Cureatr affiliate SinfoniaRx Technology.

Morning Headlines 6/4/24

TouchSource Acquires Healthcare Business and Patient Room Network From True Sync Media

Digital signage and wayfinding technology vendor TouchSource acquires True Sync Media’s healthcare business, which sells waiting room display solutions and content.

General Catalyst-backed Jasper Health lays off staff

Jasper, which offers tech-powered support to cancer patients, reportedly lays off half its staff.

BD to Acquire Edwards Lifesciences’ Critical Care Product Group for $4.2 Billion to Expand Smart Connected Care Solutions and Become an Advanced Monitoring Technology Leader

BD will acquire the critical care monitoring solution group of Edwards Lifesciences, which includes AI-enabled clinical decision support tools, for $4.2 billion in cash.

Morning Headlines 6/3/24

OCR Updates Change Healthcare Cybersecurity Incident FAQs

HHS OCR provides specific information related to breach notification responsibility from the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

Wrongful death lawsuit alleges baby dies as a result of Springhill Medical Center’s negligence during cyberattack

A woman whose baby died in childbirth during a cyberattack says that the hospital is refusing to pay its previously agreed-on settlement.

Google Is Using A.I. to Answer Your Health Questions. Should You Trust It?

Google’s AI Overviews, which displays AI-generated search result summaries before showing the individual links, can provide health information that is incorrect or that uses unreliable sources.

Demands were sent to 4 hospitals/systems re: AI products for use in healthcare facilities

An investigative reporter finds that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has used the state’s consumer protection laws to demand that Houston Methodist, Parkland Health, Children’s Health, and Texas Health Resources provide his office with their AI-related contracts, policies, and disclosures.

Morning Headlines 5/31/24

Cybersecurity Event Update

Ascension says it has restored EHR access in one of its markets.

NHS computer issues linked to patient harm

Half of NHS trusts say that they have documented EPR-caused patient harm, including three deaths and 126 instances of serious IT-caused harm.

Thankfully Business Insider Is Not Responsible for Healthcare Modernization

Oracle EVP Ken Glueck calls a recent negative BI article “clickbait,” declares Epic’s Judy Faulkner to be “the single biggest obstacle to EHR interoperability,” and says that Epic will fail and Oracle Health will succeed.

Morning Headlines 5/30/24

Virtual Therapeutics, Akili Interactive Enter Into Definitive Merger Agreement to Establish Leading Digital Health Company

Virtual Therapeutics, which offers game-based mental health apps,will acquire game-based cognitive treatment vendor Akili for $34 million in cash.

HHS names acting chief AI officer as it searches for permanent official

HHS taps national coordinator for health IT Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP as acting chief artificial intelligence officer – in addition to his existing role — while it searches for a permanent replacement for Greg Singleton.

Dollar General pulls mobile clinic mentions from website, partner no longer offering appointments

Endpoints reports that Dollar General has removed from its website mentions of its mobile clinics, which it operates in a partnership with DocGo, less than 18 months after launching the service.

Healthcare payments firm Waystar aims up to $3.83 bln valuation in US IPO

Waystar targets a valuation of nearly $4 billion for its US IPO, 50% more than its previous valuation in 2019.

Morning Headlines 5/29/24

Veradigm Announces Leadership Update

MDRX shares rose 16% Tuesday on news that it has replaced its interim CEO and is exploring strategic alternatives that could include a sale of the company.

2024 VA AI Tech Sprint Award Ceremony

The VA announces AI competition winners in ambient documentation and outside medical record summarization.

Cybersecurity Event Update

Ascension’s most recent cyberattack update from May 24 says that its recovery progress will be visible this week and that partners are reconnecting to its network.

Cue Health to Pursue Wind Down of the Business

Connected health vendor Cue Health, which went public in 2021 at a valuation of $2.3 billion, lays off all of its employees and files Chapter 7 bankruptcy following FDA’s warning that its COVID-19 tests are unreliable.

Morning Headlines 5/24/24

Atropos Health Raises $33M to Scale the Automation of High-Quality, Personalized Real-World Evidence Leveraging Generative AI

Real-world data and evidence platform vendor Atropos Health raises $33 million in a Series B funding round.

Interoperable Exchange of Patient Health Information Among U.S. Hospitals: 2023

ONC reports that 70% of hospitals engaged in all four domains of interoperability (send, receive, find, and integrate) in 2023, up from 46% in 2018.

CVS seeks private equity funding for Oak Street Health, Bloomberg News reports

CVS Health is looking for investors to fund growth at Oak Street Health, a chain of Medicare primary care clinics it acquired last year for $10.6 billion.

Morning Headlines 5/23/24

Boulder Secures $35 Million in Series C Funding to Provide High-Quality Addiction Medicine to Medicaid Beneficiaries

Digital addiction treatment provider Boulder Care raises $35 million in Series C funding.

Trego County hospital targeted by ransomware attack

Trego County Lemke Memorial Hospital, a 25-bed hospital in Kansas, works to recover from a May 6 cyberattack

Cue Health lays off remaining employees after FDA warning on COVID-19 tests

COVID-19 testing company Cue Health, which went public in 2021 at a $3 billion valuation, lays off all of its employees in the wake of FDA’s warning that its tests may yield false results.

Videra Health Secures 5.6M in Funding to Advance Mental Health AI Solutions Led by Peterson Ventures

Videra Health, developer of AI-powered, video-based mental health assessments, raises $5.6 million in seed funding.

Patient portal, phones still offline weeks after Palomar Health reports ‘suspicious activity’

Palomar Health Medical Group (CA) works to get its patient portal and phone lines back up and running after a May 5 cyberattack.

Morning Headlines 5/22/24

Health-tech startup Tempus AI files for a $100 million IPO

AI-enabled precision medicine software startup Tempus AI hopes to raise up to $600 million in a forthcoming IPO.

Cloud21 acquires identity management and IT services company BDS Solutions

Tegria-owned digital healthcare consulting firm Cloud21 acquires BDS Solutions, which specializes in automated identity management software for NHS organizations in the UK.

Tuesday Health Launches Revolutionary Supportive Care Solution with $60 Million of Strategic Investment from Healthcare Leaders

Tech-enabled supportive care management company Tuesday Health raises $60 million.

SamaCare Secures $17M Series B Investment to Scale Specialty Drug Prior Authorization Platform

Specialty medication prior authorization software vendor SamaCare announces $17 million in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $33 million.

Morning Headlines 5/21/24

Centivo Acquires Eden Health to Serve Escalating Demand for Affordable, High-Quality Primary Care

Centivo, which offers primary care-focused health plans to employers, acquires virtual-first, direct-to-employer provider Eden Health.

ARPA-H announces program to automate cybersecurity for health care facilities

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health announces its UPGRADE program, which will invest $50 million in the development of proposed automated cybersecurity solutions for hospitals.

Better medical record-keeping needed to fight antibiotic overuse, studies suggest

A pair of studies conducted by University of Michigan physicians finds that a lack of detailed record-keeping – specifically, information about why an antibiotic is prescribed – could drive up unnecessary and potentially harmful prescriptions.

Morning Headlines 5/20/24

US Acute Care EHR Market Share 2024

The KLAS report on the US acute care EHR market finds that Epic now holds a 39% market share of US hospitals, representing 52% of beds.

Payments-Company Waystar Plans to Restart IPO Pitch

Waystar is reportedly considering a June IPO after tabling those plans last year due to market conditions.

CloudMD to be Taken Private by CPS Capital

Canadian private equity firm CPS Capital will take Vancouver-based, tech-enabled workplace healthcare provider CloudMD private in a deal valued at $36 million.

Houston startup secures $10M to expand into rural communities

Hamilton Health Box, which offers hybrid primary care delivery services to rural communities, raises $10 million in a Series A funding round.

Morning Headlines 5/17/24

Lawmakers propose more scrutiny of VA’s new EHR, reauthorize VET-TEC program

The House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees introduce legislation related to the VA’s implementation of Oracle Health that calls for, among other things, the contract between the two organizations to be cancelled if the VA can’t provide metrics that show overall improvement.

Beth Israel Lahey scores $400M MassDevelopment bonds for real estate

MassDevelopment issues $400 million in tax-exempt bonds to fund Beth Israel Lahey Health’s real estate and upgrades to Epic.

Former executive for medical records firm gets probation for trying to obstruct opioid kickback probe

Three years after pleading guilty, former Practice Fusion Director of National Accounts Steven Mack is sentenced to one year of probation and 40 hours of community service, and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine for attempting to obstruct the federal investigation into the relationship between Practice Fusion and Purdue Pharma.

Morning Headlines 5/16/24

New Orleans Startup Secures $13.6M for Patient Care Coordination

Care coordination software vendor Watershed Health announces $13.6 million in new funding.

Missouri Launches Pioneering Statewide Digital Health Initiative to Transform Crisis Response and Behavioral Health Care

The Missouri Department of Mental Health and Missouri Behavioral Health Council will use technology from Chorus Innovations to develop MOConnect, a digital tool that will help coordinate care between crisis lines, crisis centers, mobile teams, and referral networks.

SmarterDx Raises $50M to Bolster Hospital Revenue Integrity and Quality with Its Clinical AI Solution

SmarterDx, which uses AI to audit and review medical claims, raises $50 million in a Series B funding round.

Morning Headlines 5/15/24

Crosby Health Raises $2.2M in Pre-Seed Funding

Crosby Health will use $2.2 million in pre-seed funding to further develop its automated clinical appeals software.

CareCloud, Inc. (CCLD) Reports Q1 Loss, Misses Revenue Estimates

Ambulatory health IT vendor CareCloud reports Q1 results: revenue down 13%, EPS –$0.02 versus –$0.28, beating earnings expectations but falling short on revenue.

Augmedix Delivers 40% Revenue Growth for First Quarter of 2024

Augmedix, which specializes in AI medical documentation, reports Q1 results: revenue up 40%, EPS –$0.12 versus –$0.14, beating expectations for both.

Morning Headlines 5/14/24

Switchboard Health Announces $6.5M Series Seed Funding

Specialty care coordination company Switchboard Health raises $6.5 million in seed funding.

HHS Announces LEAP in Health IT Special Emphasis Notice for AI and Behavioral Health Focused Projects in Fiscal Year 2024

HHS offers new funding opportunities for projects related to accelerating the adoption of health IT in behavioral healthcare settings, and to developing novel ways to evaluate and improve the quality of health care data used by AI solutions.

Avel eCare opens renovated headquarters with room to grow

Avel ECare, a telemedicine provider serving patients in 42 states, expands and renovates its headquarters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Morning Headlines 5/13/24

Cybersecurity Event Update

Ascension’s 140 hospitals in 19 states remain offline following a ransomware attack on Thursday.

#StopRansomware: Black Basta

The federal government issues a warning about the Ascension-linked Black Basta ransomware variant.

Senators call for VA to tighten performance standards in new health records contract

Three members of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee call for the VA to take advantage of its recently renegotiated contract with Oracle Health to strengthen accountability and oversight terms.

Sift Healthcare Raises $20M Series B Funding Round to Enhance AI-Powered Payment Solutions

AI-enhanced RCM company Sift Healthcare raises $20 million in a Series B funding round led by B Capital.