Morning Headlines 11/7/19

Compugroup shortlisted in Agfa Gevaert unit sale: sources

Reuters reports that Compugroup Medical is one of two top bidders for Agfa’s health IT business.

Health Records on iPhone now available to veterans across the US

Nearly a year after announcing the project, the VA gives veterans access to their medical records via Apple’s Health Records app.

HCAP Partners Announces New Investment in TCS Healthcare Technologies

Private equity firm HCAP Partners makes an undisclosed investment in managed care software vendor TCS Healthcare Technologies.

Morning Headlines 11/6/19

Medical E-Records Provider Scores $19.5M IP Verdict in Miami

A federal jury orders behavioral EHR vendor ZenCharts to pay rehab EHR provider Kipu Systems $19.5 million in damages for stealing its trade secrets.

800 jobs may be headed back to Wake Forest Baptist. Hospital to bring billing services in house, rehire employees

NThrive will eliminate 839 jobs in central North Carolina following Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s decision to bring registration and billing back in house after signing a seven-year outsourcing deal with the vendor in 2017.

Failure to Encrypt Mobile Devices Leads to $3 Million HIPAA Settlement

University of Rochester Medical Center (NY) will pay $3 million to settle OCR charges resulting from the 2013 loss of an unencrypted flash drive and the 2017 theft of an unencrypted laptop.

Healthify Raises $16 Million to Integrate Health and Social Services

Social services coordination software vendor Healthify raises $16 million in a Series B round led by SV Health Investors.

Walgreens explores going private in what could be largest LBO in history

Walgreens is reportedly talking to some of the world’s largest private equity firms about taking the company private in a leveraged buyout.

Morning Headlines 11/5/19

Allscripts Announces Third Quarter 2019 Results

Allscripts reports Q3 results: revenue up 3%, with adjusted EPS of $0.17.

JPMorgan Tests Its Amazon-Berkshire Health Venture on Bank Employees

JPMorgan and Amazon will offer employees in select states access to deductible-free health plans administered by their Haven healthcare business.

Google Health is finally opening up about its plans, and they’re all about search

Google Health VP David Feinberg says the company hopes to develop a search bar that will assist doctors in pulling relevant content from their EHRs, as well as to improve healthcare search results for consumers.

Morning Headlines 11/4/19

Trump Administration Delays Rule Forcing Hospital-Cost Transparency

CMS delays a requirement that Medicare-accepting hospitals share their secretly negotiated insurance rates in machine-readable format and online.

Fitbit to Be Acquired by Google

Google will acquire Fitbit for $2.1 billion in cash, saying it will bring together the best hardware, software, and AI to build wearables.

The Brooklyn Hospital Center Notice of Data Security Incident

The Brooklyn Hospital (NY) says it discovered ransomware in its systems in July 2019 and found that in September 2019 some of its patient data cannot be recovered.

DAS Health Acquires Automated Medical Systems

Health IT reseller DAS Health acquires competitor Automated Medical Systems.

Morning Headlines 11/1/19

UnitedHealth, an insurance giant, just scooped up patient monitoring start-up Vivify Health

Optum acquires remote patient monitoring startup Vivify Health.

Exclusive: ‘Inappropriate’ email reveals Queensland Health’s ploy to avoid political scrutiny of hospital IT outages

Australian media outlets report that senior Queensland Health officials ordered staff at the region’s hospitals to avoid performing upgrades to digital systems – including Cerner’s problematic IEMR software – while parliament is in session so as to avoid embarrassing scrutiny from politicians.

Audacious Inquiry and The Sequoia Project Announce National Collaboration to Support States in Disaster Response Through the Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies (PULSE)

Audacious Inquiry will work with The Sequoia Project to expand availability of the Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies (PULSE) during disaster response efforts.

WMH announces 35 layoffs, reduction of services

Williamson Memorial Hospital in rural West Virginia attributes layoffs and the closure of several clinics to extreme delays in collections and an absence of cash flow stemming from its Meditech implementation several months ago.

Morning Headlines 10/31/19

Surescripts hit with another e-prescribing monopoly lawsuit

Falconer Pharmacy in New York files a class-action lawsuit against Surescripts, alleging that the company, along with co-conspirators McKesson and Allscripts, has forced the pharmacy to use its e-prescribing network to avoid higher rates as a “non-loyal customer.”

Premier Inc. Acquires Medpricer to Optimize Savings in Purchased Services

Group purchasing organization and consulting firm Premier Inc. acquires Medpricer, a developer of purchased services management technology, for $35 million.

Parthenon invests in MRO

Private equity firm Parthenon acquires an ownership stake in release-of-information vendor MRO.

Huron Announces Partnership with Medically Home Group, Inc.

Huron joins virtual hospital company Medically Home Group’s Series B round of funding, and becomes the exclusive implementation partner for its hospital-to-home care services.

Outcome Health Reaches Favorable Resolution with the DOJ Related to Past Misconduct by Former Employees

Digital patient education tech vendor Outcome Health avoids prosecution by the DoJ for the past misconduct of former employees by agreeing to pay $70 million in restitution to customers.

Morning Headlines 10/30/19

Medecision acquires health delivery system transformation pioneer GSI Health

Medecision acquires population health management technology vendor GSI Health for an undisclosed sum.

eSolutions Acquires Medidal, Solidifying Position in Hospital Revenue Recovery

Revenue cycle technology vendor ESolutions acquires Medidal, which sells systems to help providers identify missed revenue opportunities in the areas of transfer DRGs, payer eligibility, and pharmacy claims.

Twistle Receives $16M Investment to Accelerate Delivery of Personalized Care Guidance Through Care Process Automation

Albuquerque-based patient engagement app vendor Twistle raises $16 million that it will use to expand its office space, increase headcount, and bring on new employees in Seattle.

Morning Headlines 10/29/19

Exclusive: Google owner Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

Fitbit shares rise 27% on the news that Alphabet has made an offer to acquire the company.

Facebook will now remind you to get flu shots and medical checkups

Facebook launches a Preventive Health tool that will remind users to get vaccines, checkups, and tests based on their demographic profiles.

Federal prisons shopping for EHR system

The DoJ’s Federal Bureau of Prisons issues an RFP for an EHR that can handle the physical, mental, and dental care of nearly 200,000 inmates.

Morning Headlines 10/28/19

VitalHub Corp. Announces Agreement To Acquire Oculys Health Informatics Inc.

Mobile healthcare system VitalHub acquires startup Oculys Health Informatics, which offers a hospital operations dashboard, for $4.2 million.

Cerner Corporation (CERN) CEO Brent Shafer on Q3 2019 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Cerner says it will no longer offer full revenue outsourcing services after a mutual agreement to end its contract with Adventist Health leads to a $170 million reduction in revenue.

Vocera Announces Third Quarter 2019 Financial Results

Vocera announces Q3 results: revenue up 6%, adjusted EPS $0.23 vs. $0.20.

Morning Headlines 10/25/19

Cerner Reports Third Quarter 2019 Results

Cerner reports Q3 results: revenue up 7%, adjusted EPS $0.66 vs. $0.63, meeting analyst expectations for both.

Northwell Health launches LabFly in Manhattan, Queens, first health system app to facilitate blood draws at home or work

Northwell Health works with health IT vendor MphRx to develop an app that lets patients schedule blood draws from their home or office.

Ransomware and data breaches linked to uptick in fatal heart attacks

A study finds that mortality rates among heart attack patients increase at hospitals that have experienced a data breach, with as many as 36 additional deaths per 10,000 heart attacks occurring annually at the hundreds of hospitals studied.

Augmedix Announces Additional $19 Million in Series B Funding

Tech-enabled remote documentation company Augmedix raises $19 million in a funding round that brings its total raised to $82 million.

Morning Headlines 10/24/19

AVIA Raises $22 Million in New Funding Round to Propel Service Expansion

Digital health innovation network and consulting firm Avia raises $22 million in a funding round led by First Trust Capital Partners.

Viz.ai Raises $50 Million Series B Round to Bring AI Powered Synchronized Stroke Care to More Patients

Viz.ai will use a new $50 million investment to expand the availability of its AI-powered, stroke-detection software.

DXC Technology Increases Presence in Conway Creating a Global Center of Excellence in Medicaid Services and Adding 1,200 Tech Jobs

IT and consulting services company DXC Technology will bring 1,200 new jobs to its facility in Conway, AR.

Amazon acquires start-up Health Navigator, its first health-related purchase since PillPack

Amazon will offer newly acquired Health Navigator’s symptom-checker and triage chatbot service to its employees as part of its Amazon Cares virtual clinic pilot.

Morning Headlines 10/23/19

Leading Talent Solutions Provider ettain group Acquires Global Employment Solutions and Leidos’s Commercial EHR Consulting Business

Recruitment and consulting firm Ettain Group acquires Leidos Health, announced in parallel with Ettain parent company NMS Capital’s sale of its Ettain stake to A&M Capital.

Medicomp Systems Secures Patent for its Method of Displaying Clinically Relevant Information Within Physician Workflows

USPTO awards Medicomp Systems a patent for its Quippe platform technology that identifies and filters relevant clinical data for presentation to clinicians at the point of care.

Clinical Trial Technology Startup SignalPath Announces Successful Close of $18M Series B Funding Round

Clinical trials platform vendor SignalPath raises $18 million in a Series B funding round.

Agfa Gevaert expects multiple bids for healthcare IT unit: sources

Reuters reports that digital imaging company Agfa has begun accepting bids for its health IT business.

Morning Headlines 10/22/19

UPMC moving forward to make former South Side hospital into an IT hub

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will turn a shuttered outpatient center into an IT center.

Cleveland Clinic, American Well Partner to Launch Digital Health Company

Cleveland Clinic will expand its relationship with American Well to include a new digital health company, The Clinic, that will offer patients access to Cleveland Clinic providers through American Well’s technology.

Humana and Microsoft announce multiyear strategic partnership to reimagine health for aging populations and their care teams

Humana will use Microsoft tools including Azure Cloud, Azure AI, and Azure API for FHIR to develop predictive analytics, natural-language understanding capabilities, and on-demand and virtual medical services for its members and their providers.

Partners HealthCare Creates New Investment Funds to Accelerate Innovation in Medicine

Partners HealthCare funnels $80 million into two new investment funds that will support young companies that develop new technologies and medications based on inventions originating from Partners researchers.

Morning Headlines 10/21/19

Cerner to Acquire AbleVets Further Expanding Strategic and Technical Expertise in U.S. Federal Health Market

Cerner acquires healthcare security-focused government IT contractor AbleVets for undisclosed terms.

Mission Health data breach: e-commerce site contained ‘malicious code’ for 3 years

HCA-owned Mission Health (NC) notifies an unspecified number of consumers that its online store contained malicious code that was sending their payment information to an unauthorized person from March 2016 through June 2019.

Norton Healthcare, UofL Physicians & School of Medicine partner together for the kids

Norton Healthcare, UofL Physicians – Pediatrics and the University of Louisville School of Medicine will integrate their EHRs as part of a new partnership that will take effect in February.

Tower Health cutting 32 Pottstown Hospital jobs

Tower Health (PA) will eliminate jobs at two of its hospitals in a move that representatives say supports its recent Epic installation and the enhanced technology now available on its nursing units.

EverCommerce To Integrate AllMeds and iSalus Healthcare

EverCommerce will integrate subsidiaries ISalus Healthcare and AllMeds, both of which provide healthcare technology to physician practices, and open a new facility in Tennessee later this year.

Morning Headlines 10/18/19

Microsoft and Nuance join forces in quest to help doctors turn their focus back to patients

Nuance and Microsoft will co-develop ambient sensing and conversational AI software to enable physicians to pay more attention to their patients instead of on administrative tasks.

Google appoints former Obama health official Karen DeSalvo to new chief health officer role

Google hires Dell Medical School professor and former National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD as its first chief health officer.

More than 190,000 without power as nor’easter lashes Maine

A Nor’easter takes down the EHR and other systems Thursday morning at hospitals that are part of Northern Light Health in Maine.

Change Healthcare kicks off process for Connected Analytics unit

Change Healthcare is reportedly looking to sell its Connected Analytics unit, which markets Ansos staff scheduling software, in a deal that could value the unit at between $250 million and $330 million.

Morning Headlines 10/17/19

NFL, players taking strides to address pain management

The NFL is rolling out a prescription drug monitoring program as part of its more focused efforts on monitoring pain management and medications.

I Ran the VA Under President Trump Until He Fired Me. Our First Trump Tower Meeting Was a Job Interview Unlike Any Other

Former VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD releases “It Shouldn’t be This Hard to Serve Your Country,” a book about his 13 months working in the Trump Administration.

VFW Post 6786 First Site in Innovative Initiative Giving Veterans Access to VA Health Services Close to Home

The VA launches a multi-site pilot program that will give veterans access to telemedicine services using Philips technology at local VFW Posts.

Morning Headlines 10/16/19

Northwell Health extends partnership with comprehensive Allscripts Sunrise™ platform through 2027

Northwell Health extends its Allscripts Sunrise contract through December 2027.

Cerner workers to become Adventist Health employees

Cerner will lay off 350 California employees following Adventist Health’s decision to bring its revenue cycle operation back in house from Cerner RevWorks.

Introducing AncestryHealth®: Actionable Health Insights for You and Your Family

Family history vendor Ancestry launches AncestryHealth, which will sell a $149 profile of genetic screening results that are matched to specific medical health conditions, plus a costlier membership-based service that provides deeper screening and quarterly screening updates.

Queensland Health’s IT problems can be overcome, new eHealth head says

In Australia, the new head of EHealth Queensland says its struggling Cerner implementation can be turned into a showcase project, but urges all of the state’s health bodies to help in getting new sites live while optimizing existing ones.