News 8/30/24

Top News

PatientPay completes its acquisition of billing, statement, and payment technology vendor ClearGage.

The combined companies will have 1,600 healthcare organization clients and 1.2 million patient digital wallets.

Reader Comments

From Not So Vendor Neutral: “Re: Epic. I’ve heard from multiple sources that Epic is making deals for cash and equity as part of its Workshop program, where they give access to Epic resources while promoting those vendors to their customer base.” An Epic spokesperson provided this response to my inquiry:

We undertake a significant amount of R&D to co-develop products with Workshop vendors for the benefit of our provider community. Rather than front-loading this expense on start-ups, we’ve entered into novel financial arrangements, including warrants in rare cases. This way, the start-ups can delay the bulk of their payment until they are successful and we can share in that success. We have no intention of company ownership.

From ExMeditech: “Re: Epic hiring only entry level people. See this from Meditech’s Neil Pappalardo from a 1991 book.” Neil said this in the book “Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond,” which was written by the late MIT professor and Meditech co-founder Ed Roberts. It’s a reminder that Epic and Meditech shared some DNA and management philosophies in the early days:

We view ourselves as a family. We always hire entry level people, whether in software or sales. We don’t hire new people into managerial slots. All of our managers have been promoted from within. We want our people to join us when they’re still young and get their training here in our culture. They don’t have much experience when they start but at least they’re malleable at that age. And they learn quickly.

From Band Saw: “Re: Oracle CloudWorld. The band Journey is playing. Does the conference draw enough old dudes who care?” “Don’t Stop Believin” is my most-detested song, and I wouldn’t expect it to sound better played by the sole remaining original member in a million-dollar corporate jukebox show for IT geeks. The band’s most recent album is from 2022, but its later works are superfluous since — like skimpily talented insects trapped in musical amber – their music is indistinguishable from the 40-year-old stuff that includes that shriek-along favorite of tipsy karaoke moms. Don’t expect comradely glances between the keyboardist and guitarist, each of whom is a 50% band owner and opposing litigant in a money dispute that caused their upcoming European nostalgia-milking tour to be cancelled, and don’t expect to hear their singer – a non-English speaker from a Philippines tribute band who they saw on YouTube and hired purely because he sounds like Steve Perry despite looking as unlike him as is possible — since the audience will insist on singing along badly. The only deceased founding member is rhythm guitarist George Tickner, who according to his 2023 obituary was a registered nurse who left the band in 1975 to “pursue his PhD at Stanford University Medical School on a full scholarship.”

Webinars

September 10 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Overcoming Hurdles in Specialty Med Access Under Medical Benefits.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Drew Hunsinger, VP of corporate business development, DrFirst; Tyler Wince, MEd, VP of product and technology specialty solutions, DrFirst. More specialty medications, which made up 80% of FDA’s new drug approvals last year, are falling under medical benefits, which challenges the patient care processes and efficiency of providers. Medication access experts will discuss how automation and unified medication management solutions can ensure better outcomes for patients and providers by addressing patient access hurdles and enhancing the ‘stickiness’ of EHRs. They will also provide insights into how regul

Sales

• Chicago-based Collaborative Bridges chooses HealthEC’s data and analytics solution.

People

EvidenceCare promotes Amy Deaton to president / COO.

Care2U promotes Lon Hecht to CEO.

Altais hires Kumar Murukurthy, MBBS (Walmart Health and Wellness) as chief information and digital officer.

Announcements and Implementations

CommonWell Health Alliance announces that Athenahealth, ModuleMD, and Solace Health are live on its new TEFCA-ready platform and QHIN that was developed with Ellkay.

University of Iowa Health Care CHIO James Blum, MD posted on LinkedIn that they have deployed Evidently’s EHR-embedded clinical decision support to all of their caregivers, of which 2,000 launched it on the first day.

Sponsor Updates

• FinThrive staff pack 576 “food paks” for Children’s Hunger Fund in Frisco, TX.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Say Hello to Easy Joint Documentation with EClinicalWorks.”
• Wolters Kluwer Health announces that 15 of its Lippincott healthcare journals received 37 Awards for Publication Excellence during the most recent APEX competition.
• Tegria, CloudWave, Nuance, and DrFirst will sponsor Meditech Live September 24-27 in Foxborough, MA.
• Fortified Health Security names Keenen Garnett (Deaconess Health System) penetration tester.
• Avoyelles Hospital (LA) adds Medhost’s Clinician Experience, Pharmacy Experience, and PDMP capabilities to its Medhost EHR.
• Meditech customer Ozarks Healthcare earns two EHR Experience Breakthrough Awards at the KLAS Arch Collaborative Summit.
• CliniComp earns “Great Place to Work” certification for the second year in a row.
• Revuud announces new board members Mark McDowell; Brian Litten, JD; and Scott Schubert, CPA.
• Surescripts CEO and pharmacist Frank Harvey recaps the company’s hosting of the Care Team Evolution Summit, in partnership with AHIP and the American Pharmacists Association, in Washington, DC last month.

Blog Posts

• Customer Obsession & Epic UGM Highlights (Health Data Movers)
• Steering Your Practice Towards Success (EClinicalWorks)
• 4 Key Customer Insights on AI Adoption (Five9)
• Irreverent, enlightening, and interesting: My experience on the OverReaction Podcast (Get-to-Market Health)
• EHR Consulting 101: Enhancing Patient Care Through Technology (HCTec)
• Leveraging Social Drivers of Health Data and Analytics for Enhanced Patient Access, Adherence, and Health Equity (Inovalon)
• The Evolution Of Telehealth: Time To Bust Some Old Myths (KeyCare)
• Achieving cost savings and elevated care with the Expanse MaaS model (Meditech)
• Wound Care Documentation: The New Rules (Net Health)
• How NeuroFlow’s Maternal Mental Health Care Pathways Support Parents at Every Stage of Pregnancy (NeuroFlow)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 8/28/24

Top News

An ASTP/ONC study finds that 60% of people who were recently diagnosed with cancer accessed their online medical records in 2020-2022, which is a big jump from 2017-2018.

Of those who were recently diagnosed, 40% accessed their records six or more times in the previous year.

Nearly all recently diagnosed cancer patients accessed their test results through a patient portal or online system, with half of them needing to use multiple platforms.

Reader Comments

From Epic Fail: “Re: Cerner. I saw some online chatter about Oracle / Cerner employees wanting to move to Epic. I don’t think that’s actually a thing.” Unless something has changed, Epic generally doesn’t hire people with industry experience. In Judy’s mind (and I love this), they would rather take a bright, high-potential new college graduate, pay them a decent salary given their lack of experience, teach them to do things the Epic way, and then move them up if it’s a good fit or out if not. They aren’t big on paying more to hire experienced people whose knowledge and habits need to be “unlearned.” Folks with recent time working for Epic, is this still generally accurate? As I’ve said many times, Epic’s most shockingly successful accomplishment is building a huge, successful company with an army of fresh-from-college industry newcomers to whom C-level hospital executives listen.

From Chaat GPT: “Re: patients using AI as an initial or second medical opinion. How does this work its way into the workflow of physicians who are already have all appointment slots booked for many months?” Doctors could face challenges as patients use AI tools like ChatGPT to get second opinions or conflicting advice. The healthcare system isn’t equipped to treat patients as equal partners within a 15-minute appointment. If just 10% of patients question their diagnosis or treatment based on their AI findings, it could overwhelm doctors. Enterprising physicians might create a second-opinion practice, gathering full patient information (thanks, interoperability), and thoughtfully reviewing it with the help of AI to explain the options or recommend new ones. Alternatively, a patient’s subjective data could be analyzed by AI before their appointment to create more informed care plans up front. I’m pretty sure that healthcare processes would look a lot different if you could ignore incremental profit motives, insurers, and malpractice attorneys (direct primary care addresses the first two). 

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Lorre accidentally uncovered a fun statistic today. HIStalk has served up more than 1 billion ad impressions in just part of its lifespan.

Webinars

September 10 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Overcoming Hurdles in Specialty Med Access Under Medical Benefits.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Drew Hunsinger, VP of corporate business development, DrFirst; Tyler Wince, MEd, VP of product and technology specialty solutions, DrFirst. More specialty medications, which made up 80% of FDA’s new drug approvals last year, are falling under medical benefits, which challenges the patient care processes and efficiency of providers. Medication access experts will discuss how automation and unified medication management solutions can ensure better outcomes for patients and providers by addressing patient access hurdles and enhancing the ‘stickiness’ of EHRs. They will also provide insights into how regulatory changes such as interoperability and prior authorization mandates will affect healthcare stakeholders.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own. 

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

McKesson will acquire business and administrative services company Core Ventures from Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute for $2.5 billion. FCS launched Core Ventures in January to house its IT, finance, managed care, and procurement divisions. FCS, which employs over 500 clinicians across 100 locations, will retain its independence and become a member of The US Oncology Network, McKesson’s practice management business for cancer care practices.

Pfizer launches PfizerForAll, a direct-to-consumer online healthcare business that offers virtual consults for select conditions, prescription and test delivery to the home, and local appointment scheduling for vaccines.

Sales

• Intermountain Health (UT) will implement Volpara Health’s AI-powered breast cancer screening software.
• Sanford Health (SD) selects Infor’s healthcare-focused finance and supply chain technologies.
• Norfolk and Waveney Acute Hospital Collaborative will implement Meditech Expanse across its three hospitals in England.

People

Divurgent hires Steve Aspling (CorroHealth) as VP of client service.

Cordea Consulting names Kaitlin Traft (Healthlink Advisors) VP of sales.

Vik Krishnan, MBA (TeleVox Healthcare) joins Instem as CEO.

Tarah Bryan, MA (Health Catalyst) joins Notable as head of marketing.

Innovative Consulting Group names Christina Krugh (Baker Tilly US) as SVP of sales.

Greg Burrell, MD (Gravie) joins Homeward as chief medical officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Regional West Medical Center will implement Epic in October through a partnership with UCHealth (CO) and Epic’s Community Connect program. The hospital settled a contract dispute with Oracle Health earlier this year over financial losses and lowered bond ratings that it contends were directly caused by its 2018 implementation of Cerner Millennium.

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center implements Cloud Payments software from TrustCommerce, a Sphere company.

Capital Rx launches Never Move Again, which allows self-funded health plan sponsors to continuously access the best drug prices without needing to re-implement their pharmacy benefit plans or issue new cards, thereby avoiding disruptions for members. It uses the company’s JUDI platform, which centralizes pharmacy benefit workflows and provides full financial transparency.

Privacy and Security

McLaren Health Care (MI) restores its computer systems following an August 5 ransomware attack.

Sponsor Updates

• Digital Health KC honors Bill Miller, CEO of CarePort Health parent company WellSky, as a corporate visionary during its Lumi Awards event.
• Creekside Family Practice (TX) schedules 90% of its monthly appointments online using Healow patient engagement capabilities from EClinicalWorks.
• Vyne Medical publishes a new customer success story, “Building Trust: Why a Major Tennessee Health System Stands Behind Vyne Medical’s Solutions.”
• Meander Medisch Centrum in the Netherlands renews its contract with Agfa HealthCare for enterprise imaging for radiology and vendor neutral archive.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast, “Prescription Rebates: Agreements, Guarantees, and More, with NPC’s John O’Brien, PharmD, MPH, and Julie Patterson, PharmD, PhD.
• Consensus Cloud Solutions will exhibit at the Wyoming Hospital Association Annual Meeting August 27-28 in Casper.

Blog Posts

• How state patient data privacy regulations impact health plans, HIEs and provider organizations (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Unlocking Missed Revenue Potential with Effective Contract Management (AGS Health)
• How an ACO revolutionized high-risk maternity care with data-driven strategies (Arcadia)
• Tackling the Prior Authorization Problem with Innovative Technologies (Arrive Health)
• Pharmacy Benefits 101: Prior Authorizations (Capital Rx)
• Understanding the Role of Data in Biden’s Cancer Initiative (Dimensional Insight)
• Navigating Executive Transitions: Key Considerations for a Seamless Career Move (Direct Recruiters)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Monday Morning Update 8/26/24

Top News

Publicly traded healthcare software vendor Evolent Health is reportedly considering acquisition offers from several private equity firms and insurer Elevance Health.

EVH shares are up 32% in the past year, having risen sharply since being down 44% in early July. The company’s market cap is nearly $4 billion. 

Reader Comments

From Poignant: “Re: Department of Justice looking at software algorithms for doing crime. Any chance that insurance companies might be looked at for using algorithms to issue denials and rejections?” It’s possible. One company that DoJ is looking at is RealPage, which it accuses of price-fixing in the apartment rental market by helping ling landlords set rent prices that the market will bear for 3 million apartments. DoJ says that practice thwarts competition via a coordinated effort, but RealPage says exactly the opposite in touting its ability to encourage competition. The issue and the pro-con arguments are nearly exactly the same as in healthcare payer cost management software vendor MultiPlan, which raises another red flag by taking a cut of the cost savings that are involved in recommending that payers underpay provider bills. The deputy attorney general implies that it’s a blurry line between analyzing market and competitor data to set prices versus colluding in a room: “Algorithms don’t exist in a law-free zone. Training a machine to break the law is still breaking the law.”

From Dirk Diggler: “Re: Epic and Vot-ER. Was that Epic integration announcement on Vot-ER’s site from April 2024? Wasn’t this an Epic April Fool’s phony item?” Here’s the Wayback link to the archived page. I’ve watched Epic’s April 1 announcement for years and I don’t remember this item, not to mention that it was on Vot-ER’s site and not Epic’s. The announcement mentions an “optional build” for Epic sites to integrate voter registration reminders from Vot-ER. Newsmax interviewed hard right Texas physician Kat Lindley, DO, who claims that Vot-ER provides “a script for undocumented patients on how to register to vote,” after which the host then claims that psychiatric hospitals are registering their patients and “potentially taking advantage of those folks for political purposes.” See below for Vot-ER’s response after reading the HIStalk mention last week.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Poll respondents chose the items above as most important in their decision to take a new job. Chosen by nearly none of them were advancement opportunities, a desirable relocation involved, and non-salary benefits. Bob noted that a valid option would have been seeking a job with a company where he could make a difference.

New poll to your right or here, tangentially related to last week’s poll: How does your company’s culture compare today to a year ago?

Welcome to new HIStalk Gold Sponsor CliniComp. The company is an innovative technology pioneer that has served customers globally for over 40 years with continual advancement in delivering a cutting-edge electronic health record (EHR) solution suite. CliniComp uniquely offers a System as a Service (SYaaS) model, eliminating the exorbitant cost of ownership with rapid deployment of all system components, hardware, software, and 24/7 support, as a complete package of services for the life of the customer. The company was selected in 2024 as winner for the “Best Electronic Health Record Service” in the MedTech Breakthrough Awards program, recognizing the breakthrough technology innovation of CliniComp’s SYaaS unique and superior model. The CliniComp solution is an integrated web-based EHR with an architectural framework conquering ever-evolving interoperability, scalability, adaptability, and real-time performance data challenges to provide a longitudinal patient record. Designed by clinicians for clinicians, CliniComp’s EHR provides an intuitive and seamless user interface and has earned an unrivaled record of performance and reliability with no planned downtime for decades in the most complex high-acuity hospital environments. Thanks to CliniComp for supporting HIStalk.

Webinars

September 10 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Overcoming Hurdles in Specialty Med Access Under Medical Benefits.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Drew Hunsinger, VP of corporate business development, DrFirst; Tyler Wince, MEd, VP of product and technology specialty solutions, DrFirst. More specialty medications, which made up 80% of FDA’s new drug approvals last year, are falling under medical benefits, which challenges the patient care processes and efficiency of providers. Medication access experts will discuss how automation and unified medication management solutions can ensure better outcomes for patients and providers by addressing patient access hurdles and enhancing the ‘stickiness’ of EHRs. They will also provide insights into how regulatory changes such as interoperability and prior authorization mandates will affect healthcare stakeholders.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Cognizant-owned TriZetto sues Infosys, claiming that the company stole trade secrets related to TriZetto’s Facets and QNXT health insurance software .

Government and Politics

Vot-ER Executive Director Aliya Bhatia, MPP emailed me after seeing my mention of the Newsmax piece on Epic’s integration with Vot-ER. Her key points:

• Vot-ER is non-partisan. Its 350 health organization partners include the AMA and Penn Medicine.
• “The various claims in the Newsmax piece —  that non-citizens can register through Vot-ER (they can’t), that doctors ask about political affiliation (we forbid this), that Epic made an announcement about Vot-ER (they didn’t — we simply shared the modular addition that Epic customers can incorporate into Epic’s highly configurable system) — these claims are false. The technology we use asks eligibility questions that reject non-citizens and ensures only citizens complete registration. Additionally, in states where online registration is possible, we direct individuals to the Secretary of State websites which each have clear and strict eligibility guidelines.”
• The 1993 National Voter Registration Act encourages healthcare-based voter registration. Health systems are trusted venues that serve people who may have barriers accessing registration elsewhere.

Other

ProPublica asks 500 psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists why they left health insurance networks, creating an artificial “shortage” in which half of insured Americans who have mental illness can’t access treatment unless they pay out of pocket:

• Insurance companies restricting coverage and delaying and/or denying treatment.
• The companies urge providers to reduce care even when their patients are suicidal.
• Providers struggled to stay in business as insurers paid months late or required endless hours of phone holds and faxed documentation. Some providers said they waited years for a check.
• Cigna outsourced its provider service work to a Philippines-based call center, where employees lack access to the company’s claims system and struggle with English medical terminology.
• Medicare pays mental health clinicians less than medical providers, resulting in physician assistants being paid 20% more than psychiatrists for the same office visit.

ED doctor Sam Ghali, MD notes the NewYork-Presbyterian-created Spotify playlist of 100 BPM, CPR-paced songs.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast, “Interview with Adam Carewe, MD.”
• The “Outcomes Rocket” podcast features Ann Louise Puopolo, chair of the customer advisory board at RLDatix, “The Future of Healthcare Staffing.”
• Waystar will exhibit at the EClinicalWorks Los Angeles Day Show August 28.
• VisiQuate celebrates its 15th anniversary.

Blog Posts

• Mastering Crisis Management: Tips for Mobilizing and Stabilizing Operations (Netsmart)
• Navigating health IT complexities with end-to-end solutions (Nordic)
• Evidence-based telehealth maximizes the potential of virtual care (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Prominence Gives Back: Caitlin’s Day at the University of Michigan College of Health Sciences Summer Camp (Prominence Advisors)
• Total Economic Impact Report: How Rhapsody Delivers 193% ROI for Health Tech Teams (Rhapsody Health)
• 3 Payment Partner Questions with Rick Follett, Vice President, Partnerships at TrustCommerce (TrustCommerce)
• Cementing Trust: Our AI Commitment (Surescripts)
• What are the Risks of Poor Contract Management? (Symplr)
• Choosing the Right Claim Management Solution (TruBridge)
• Taming the data deluge: Driving effective member and provider data management with accurate identity (Verato)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 8/23/24

Top News

Home testing kit vendor LetsGetChecked will acquire pharmacy fulfillment company Truepill in a deal worth $525 million.

The acquisition involves just $25 million in cash for Truepill, which was once valued at nearly $2 billion, with the remainder in shares and possible earn-outs. Both of the money-losing companies are backed by Optum Ventures.

Truepill settled DEA charges in November 2023 that it was filling huge quantities of prescriptions for Adderal from telehealth companies such as Cerebral, whose prescribers in some cases were not appropriately licensed. That was right after the company reported a data breach that exposed the information of 2.4 million patients.

Reader Comments

From 404_NotFound: “Re: MyChart and Vot-ER. Vot-ER’s Shopify site has a now-defunct URL for downloading a ‘toolkit adding non-partisan voter registration into Epic’s MyChart.’” I found an archived page above from April 2024 on the Vot-ER website that announces its Epic integration. It’s hardly a smoking gun for the claims of Newsmax that giving patients a way to register to vote creates a scenario where “millions of illegals and non-citizens passing through safety net hospitals who serve lower income and undocumented could be registered to vote.” Meanwhile, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) saw the Newsmax story and has sent letters to Epic CEO Judy Faulkner and the director of Vot-ER to say, “Specifically, as evidence non-citizens have illegally registered to vote in federal elections mounts throughout the country, I write to inquire about the steps your organizations are taking to ensure non-citizens do not register to vote under your joint effort.”

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Epic UGM attendees: what was the most important company news or announcement that you heard? Did anything change your perception of the company’s direction or strategy? Let me know.

Webinars

September 10 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Overcoming Hurdles in Specialty Med Access Under Medical Benefits.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Drew Hunsinger, VP of corporate business development, DrFirst; Tyler Wince, MEd, VP of product and technology specialty solutions, DrFirst. More specialty medications, which made up 80% of FDA’s new drug approvals last year, are falling under medical benefits, which challenges the patient care processes and efficiency of providers. Medication access experts will discuss how automation and unified medication management solutions can ensure better outcomes for patients and providers by addressing patient access hurdles and enhancing the ‘stickiness’ of EHRs. They will also provide insights into how regulatory changes such as interoperability and prior authorization mandates will affect healthcare stakeholders.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare marketplace operator Sesame will sell compounded semaglutide – the active ingredient in weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic – for $249 per month  versus the $1,000 per month cost of the brand name products. The price includes care from the patient’s choice of Sesame’s providers. The CEO, however, emphasizes that the program is temporary, as selling compounded versions of the brand-name products is legal only during an FDA-declared shortage.

AI-powered mental health chatbot vendor Slingshot AI reportedly raises $30 million in funding, valuing the company at $220 million.

The chief pharmacy officer of Walgreens lays out the company’s plans to enhance the services that are provided by its drugstores to offset declining prescription reimbursement:

• Convince the federal government to allow pharmacists to bill Medicare as providers for treating certain conditions.
• Negotiate with payers to increase compensation for providing extra services.
• Fill prescriptions from offsite fulfillment centers to give in-store pharmacists more time to work with patients.
• Allow customers to schedule testing, treatment, and vaccination appointments from a global appointment scheduler with QR code check-in.

China-based online healthcare services operator Ping An Healthcare Technology posts its first-ever profit, which it attributes to higher demand and its use of AI to assist with diagnosis, treatment, prescribing, and creating medical records. The company has delivered 1.3 billion consultations to its 440 million registered users and partners with 3,000 hospitals and 208,000 pharmacies that perform one-hour prescription delivery 24×7 in 150 cities.

Sales

• Atlantic Health will expand its use of WellSky’s CarePort Insight and CarePort Connect to improve its performance in value-based contracts.

People

Healthcare IT Leaders promotes Justin Couch, MBA to COO.

Announcements and Implementations

Healthcare Growth Partners publishes a free, downloadable white paper that covers due diligence topics in health IT investment, liquidity event, or acquisition. It’s pretty packed with information in summarizing the issues that the banking and advisory firm has seen in advising and leading 140 transactions worth $5 billion. I always enjoy their reports, which cover complex business and economic topics with just the right amount of simplification for non-experts like me.

Government and Politics

The Indian Health Service will launch its first Oracle Health pilot in 2026 as it replaces its 40-year-old RPMS EHR in a 10-year, $2.5 billion project.

A federal judge in Texas blocks the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on non-compete agreements that would have taken effect on September 4, setting up a likely higher court review based on a conflicting ruling from another federal court.

Privacy and Security

A Kentucky man is sentenced to six years in prison for hacking into Hawaii’s death registry system to declare himself dead using a stolen doctor’s login, which would then allow him to avoid paying child support. The man also used stolen credentials to breach corporate and government networks, then offered to sell logins on the dark web.

Other

AMIA posts a job opening for CEO following the February 2024 departure of Tanya Tolpegin, MBA after three years in that role.

Sponsor Updates

• Availity releases a new episode of the “Availity on Air” podcast, “Embracing Innovation in Healthcare: Highmark Health.”
• Wolters Kluwer Health adds “Client Cases for Clinical Judgment” to the Lippincott Partnership for Nursing Education and Testing family of offerings for pre-licensure nursing education programs.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Cutting Costs and Improving Care Seamlessly.”
• Findhelp welcomes Somos Community Care (NY), Delta Dental of Michigan, Davis County Government (UT), and The Cornerstone Resource Center (UT) to its network.
• Healthcare IT Leaders releases a new “Leader to Leader” podcast, “Leading a Digital Transformation.”
• Optimum Healthcare IT publishes a case study titled “Optimum CareerPath Powers Switchboard, MD Growth.”
• The “InterOp Now!” podcast features InterSystems Director of Healthcare Solution Innovation Alex MacLeod, “The Future of Clear and InterSystems with Jason Sherwin and Alex MacLeod.”
• Konza National Network CEO Laura McCrary will speak at the WEDI National Conference October 11 in Washington, DC.
• Med Tech Solutions will exhibit at the NACHC CHI & Expo August 24-26 in Atlanta.
• MRO will exhibit at the E-Solutions Xchange Conference August 25-28 on Amelia Island, FL.
• NeuroFlow publishes a new case study, “The Villages Health Amplifies the Impact of its Integrated Care Program Using NeuroFlow.”

Blog Posts

• Advancing Automation: Why Embracing Change is Now a Must in Healthcare (Vyne Medical)
• The ABCs of Back to School – for Patients and Practices (EClinicalWorks)
• Informatics Pharmacists Are Forging Trust Through Times of Rapid Technological Change (First Databank)
• Why Reducing Denials and Rejections Matters More Than Clean Claim Rates (FinThrive)
• Reflections on Black Hat 2024: A Year of Alliances, AI, and Leadership (Fortified Health Security)
• Aligning Testing and Change Management: A Human-Centric Approach (Impact Advisors)
• Advancing Automation: Why Embracing Change Is Now a Must in Healthcare (Vyne Medical)
• HFMA 2024 Recap: Revolutionizing Revenue Cycles from Prior Authorizations to Peak Productivity (Inovalon)
• Patient Throughput & Early Disease Detection: Perspectives from Lisa Meyer (Lucem Health)
• What to Ask When Choosing a Healthcare Interoperability Partner (Medhost)
• What nurses want from their leadership (Meditech)
• Five Tips for Healthcare RCM Improvement and Financial Recovery (Med Tech Solutions)
• What is Value-Based Payment? A Guide to the Reimbursement Model (Net Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 8/21/24

Top News

Providence will hire an additional 2,000 staff at its IT hub in India by the end of 2025, bringing its total headcount to 3,500.

Providence India manages a variety of enterprise IT applications and innovation projects for the multi-state health system. It plans to offer services to other US providers.

Reader Comments

From EHR Door Drop: “Re: Oracle Health. Driving customers to Epic?” Oracle Health took the low road in trolling Epic UGM attendees with its vague message. Few of the hardcore Epic users who attend UGM are unaware of Cerner, having rejected it previously and having little interest in revisiting that decision. For real shock and awe, Oracle should have launched one of those fireworks-like drone shows in the skies above the UGM campfire with Larry Ellison barrel-rolling in his personal MiG-29.

From Meanderer: “Re: Epic. Announced at UGM that it will provide full consulting services.” A couple of of folks told me this. Meanwhile, I’ll register a minor grammatical quibble that Epic is spelling the UGM’s name as “Storytime” instead of the correct “Story Time” in some (but not all) graphics.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Welcome to new HIStalk Gold Sponsor Med Tech Solutions (MTS). The company creates innovative technology systems that put the unique needs of each healthcare organization at the center of its work across the full IT journey. MTS services are supported by dedicated IT Care Teams to ensure technology systems support essential clinical workflows and strategic business plans. Provider organizations and networks can count on a secure, reliable IT infrastructure, optimized clinical and business applications, and full end-user support so they can focus on patient care. Founded in 2006, MTS serves thousands of healthcare provider organizations nationwide. The company is the top-ranked IT services firm for healthcare organizations on the elite Channel Futures MSP 501 list and has been recognized as a 2023 CRN Pioneer 250 Honoree. MTS has achieved HITRUST Risk-based certification for its cloud platform, demonstrating a proactive approach to cybersecurity, data protection, and risk management. Thanks to Med Tech Solutions for supporting HIStalk.

Webinars

September 10 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Overcoming Hurdles in Specialty Med Access Under Medical Benefits.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Drew Hunsinger, VP of corporate business development, DrFirst; Tyler Wince, MEd, VP of product and technology specialty solutions, DrFirst. More specialty medications, which made up 80% of FDA’s new drug approvals last year, are falling under medical benefits, which challenges the patient care processes and efficiency of providers. Medication access experts will discuss how automation and unified medication management solutions can ensure better outcomes for patients and providers by addressing patient access hurdles and enhancing the ‘stickiness’ of EHRs. They will also provide insights into how regulatory changes such as interoperability and prior authorization mandates will affect healthcare stakeholders.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Premier announces Q4 results: revenue up 3%, EPS $0.69 versus $0.68, beating Wall Street expectations for both. PINC shares are down 9% over the past 12 months, valuing the company at $2.1 billion.

Sleep apnea-focused digital healthcare company Ognomy raises $6.8 million in seed funding.

Hospital supply chain automation company Clarium announces $10.5 million in new funding and the GA of its new Astra OS workflow software and data ecosystem.

Sales

• Akron Children’s will make the Woebot for Adolescents chat app for mental health available via clinician referral.
• Graves Gilbert Clinic (KY) selects analytics and data management services from Ancore Health.
• Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will implement Agfa HealthCare’s Enterprise Imaging Radiology Information System across its five facilities in England.
• In Idaho, Clearwater Valley Health and St. Mary’s Health will implement a shared Meditech Expanse EHR system.
• BayCare (FL) will work with chronic care management company Cadence to launch a remote patient monitoring and virtual care program for seniors.

People

Divurgent names Dean Boyd (Futura Healthcare) VP of client services.

Sara Braner (ROI Healthcare Solutions) joins Cordea Consulting as VP of sales.

Announcements and Implementations

Bingham Healthcare (ID) will use a $110,000 grant to launch telepharmacy services at its Pocatello location and teleneurology and virtual behavioral healthcare consults at Bingham Memorial Hospital’s ER.

Mayo Clinic describes its use of an artificial knee whose internal sensor monitors the user’s recovery by measuring range of motion, steps, and stride.

Government and Politics

The VA highlights the impact that telehealth services have had on patient care at its outpatient clinic in rural North Platte, NE. Patients have been able to access care closer to home across 50 specialties via virtual connection to providers in multiple states.

Other

WVU Medicine’s JW Ruby Memorial Hospital implements an EHR alert developed internally by Chris Justice, RN, that notifies physicians, pharmacists, and advanced practice providers of co-existing acute kidney injury and nephrotoxic medications. Justice says the alert has resulted in the discontinuation of more nephrotoxic medications; and a reduction in length of hospital stay, acute kidney injury severity, and number of patients requiring dialysis.

The American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) bestows its 2024 Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence to Atul Butte, MD, PhD, UCSF professor and director of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute. 

Liberty Regional Medical Center in rural Georgia hopes to offer its Mom’s Heart Matters remote patient monitoring program for pregnant and post-partum mothers to other hospitals in the state. The program, which uses technology from GoMo Health, has helped LRMC clinicians intervene before cardiac-related post-partum complications become life-threatening.

The 7,000 visitors expected to descend on Epic’s Verona campus and the greater Madison, WI, area this week for the company’s user group meeting are expected to generate $8.2 million in local spending.

Sponsor Updates

• CloudWave sponsors the Firelands Health 2024 “Caddyshack” Open golf outing benefiting cancer patient care.
• Wolters Kluwer Health announces the launch of UpToDate Digital Medication Education and UpToDate Consumer Education, two new pharmacy solutions from UpToDate Digital Architect.
• Alpha II will exhibit at the MedInformatix Summit through August 22 in New Orleans.
• The Nerds MD Podcast features Augmedix founder, Director, and Chief Strategy Officer Ian Shakil, “From Google Glass to AI Scribes: The Augmedix Journey.”
• Availity highlights prior authorization modernization on HIMSStv.
• Mount Sinai Queens (NY) expands its AvaSure implementation with two additional Telesitter cameras.
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast” titled “Dissecting Pharmacy Cost Drivers and the Value of PMPM, with Kristin Begley, PharmD, and Mike Miele, FSA, MAAA.”
• Waystar wins multiple Stevie Awards in the categories of best company of the year, best payment solution, digital automation, and AI and machine learning healthcare applications.
• Clinical Architecture celebrates its 17^th anniversary.
• Amenities Health will participate in the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Program.

Blog Posts

• The Health Equity Breach: What We Can Learn (AdvancedMD)
• Embracing the Digital Shift: The Role of AI in Enhancing Efficiency and Resource Allocation (AGS Health)
• Using healthcare IT to optimize your hospital’s pharmacy (Altera Digital Health)
• The importance of data governance in healthcare (Arcadia)
• Understanding CMMC for Healthcare Organizations (Clearwater)
• Understanding the Role of Data in Biden’s Cancer Initiative (Dimensional Insight)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Monday Morning Update 8/19/24

Top News

Epic expects all of its customers to go live on TEFCA by the end of 2025 using its Epic Nexus QHIN.

The company says that all of its hospitals use Carequality, but national participation is 70% and TEFCA “is the nation’s best opportunity to get the remaining 30% of US hospitals off the sidelines.”

Reader Comments

From Anonymouse: “Re: Anthem / Elevance Health. Another huge RIF. Word on the street is 12% of the total workforce, hitting people working on government plans and technology supporting them hardest. Behavioral Health was decimated. This follows one in February and one from September of last year, and there is due to be another one this Thursday (8/22). The hot goss is that per leadership, ‘if you’re not talking AI’ your head is on the block.” Lots of online employee chatter about this. ELV shares are up 18% in the past 12 months, valuing the health benefits company at $126 billion.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Personal connections are pretty important for landing a job. Poll respondents had less success with recruiters, LinkedIn, and social media exposure.

New poll to your right or here: Which factor would be most important in deciding to take a new job?

Webinars

September 10 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Overcoming Hurdles in Specialty Med Access Under Medical Benefits.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Drew Hunsinger, VP of corporate business development, DrFirst; Tyler Wince, MEd, VP of product and technology specialty solutions, DrFirst. More specialty medications, which made up 80% of FDA’s new drug approvals last year, are falling under medical benefits, which challenges the patient care processes and efficiency of providers. Medication access experts will discuss how automation and unified medication management solutions can ensure better outcomes for patients and providers by addressing patient access hurdles and enhancing the ‘stickiness’ of EHRs. They will also provide insights into how regulatory changes such as interoperability and prior authorization mandates will affect healthcare stakeholders.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Sales

• Florida Orthopaedic Institute chooses HealthMark Group for release of information.

People

Stephanie Wallace (Huntzinger) joins HealthNet Systems Consulting as VP of sales and marketing.

Pivot Point Consulting, a Vaco Company, hires Nick Patel, MD (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) as physician executive partner.

Announcements and Implementations

Press Ganey expands its PX Connect Suite that includes the ability to collect patient surveys via Epic’s MyChart and NLP-powered summarization of patient comments. Early adopters were Vanderbilt University Medical Center and New York University Langone Health.

Epic posts Volume 2 of its Epic Almanac, which includes articles on the company’s use of AI, a review of its international business, photos of its offices around the world, a behind-the-scenes look at its all-hands monthly staff meetings, and fun pieces on its artwork and culinary team recipes.

Government and Politics

Hard right TV network Newsmax takes issue with Epic’s connectivity to Vot-ER that allows people to register to vote via MyChart, with the host questioning, “Is this setting up a scenario where millions of illegals and non-citizens passing through safety net hospitals who serve lower income and undocumented could be registered to vote?” Guest Katarina Lindley, DO — – a Croatia-educated Texas direct primary care operator — complains that psychiatric hospitals are registering people to vote who are incapable and also seems to veer off into other gripes as she cites an unnamed physician who she claims intentionally misdiagnoses conservative patients. UPDATE: an Epic spokesperson provided this company response:

Software provided by Epic to customers does not collect voter registration information or connect to any voter registration organization or voter registration website. There is no partnership between Epic and any voter registration organization. We are not aware of any customer configuring their instance of Epic to collect voter registration information. If a customer chooses to engage in voter registration efforts or partner with a voter registration organization, it is up to them.

Sponsor Updates

• Symplr employees help Gladiola Elementary School staff in Grand Rapids, MI, prepare for the new school year.
• ZeOmega adds Wolters Kluwer Health’s UpToDate member education solutions to its Jiva member engagement navigator platform.
• Tegria will sponsor and present at Meditech Live September 25-27 in Foxborough, MA.
• Waystar will exhibit at the MedInformatix Summit August 20-22 in New Orleans.

Blog Posts

• Implementing Epic? Don’t Overlook Fundamentals Like Change Management (CereCore)
• Bringing Vitals Records into the Future: The Impact on Your State or County (Netsmart)
• How Christus Health processed significant backlogged revenue with Nordic (Nordic)
• Prominence Gives Back: Chris’s Impact at Horsemanship Bible Camp (Prominence Advisors)
• The Secret Life of Credentialing Specialists: Detectives in Disguise (QGenda)
• How to Boost Cash Flow with Effective AR Recovery Strategies (TruBridge)
• Beyond De-Duplication: Innovative Use Cases for Master Data Management in Healthcare (Verato)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 8/16/24

Top News

The private equity owner of healthcare consulting firm Chartis sells a majority stake to private equity firm Blackstone.

Insiders say that the deal values Chartis at about $1.4 billion.

The 23-year-old Chartis has 1,000 employees.

Reader Comments

From Fine Corinthian: “Re: LinkedIn. It has become a podcast marketplace.” I would say that maybe 25% of my feed involves someone announcing that they are hosting or guesting on a podcast. Sometimes both, in the puzzling decision for one podcast host to interview another, although maybe it’s inevitable since it seems that everyone has one. For LinkedIn, if each participant publicizes it before and after, that’s a lot of content that I ignore.

Webinars

September 10 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Overcoming Hurdles in Specialty Med Access Under Medical Benefits.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Drew Hunsinger, VP of corporate business development, DrFirst; Tyler Wince, MEd, VP of product and technology specialty solutions, DrFirst. More specialty medications, which made up 80% of FDA’s new drug approvals last year, are falling under medical benefits, which challenges the patient care processes and efficiency of providers. Medication access experts will discuss how automation and unified medication management solutions can ensure better outcomes for patients and providers by addressing patient access hurdles and enhancing the ‘stickiness’ of EHRs. They will also provide insights into how regulatory changes such as interoperability and prior authorization mandates will affect healthcare stakeholders.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Precision surgery platform vendor Caresyntax raises $180 million in a Series C funding round

Sales

• Kaiser Permanente will implement Abridge’s ambient documentation product in its 40 hospitals and 600 medical offices, apparently ending its highly touted pilot of Nabla at The Permanente Medical Group.
• Northwestern Medicine will implement Nuance DAX Copilot.

People

Leidos hires Kris Mork, PhD (Guidehouse) as chief data officer.

Digital pathology AI vendor Paige promotes Razik Yousfi to CTI/CEO. Former CEO Andy Moye, PhD will leave the company.

Announcements and Implementations

Trilliant Health releases a free version of its provider directory that contains the basic information of 2.9 million US providers that has been updated and corrected by analyzing claims data.

Privacy and Security

Diagnostic testing firm Enzo Biochem will pay $4.5 million to New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut after the data of 2.4 million patients was compromised by hackers who used login credentials that had been shared among employees. One of the passwords used by the hackers hadn’t been changed in 10 years. The company didn’t notice the intrusion for several days due to lack of system monitoring.

Sponsor Updates

• HealthMark Group staff volunteer at the North Texas Food Bank during the company’s annual volunteer day.
• Bali International Hospital will implement the InterSystems TrakCare EHR platform.
• Optimum Healthcare IT expands its Workday staffing service to Canada.
• FinThrive will present at the Lone Star HFMA Summer Conference August 22 in Irving, TX.
• Health Data Movers posts a new episode of the “QuickHITs” podcast with Chris O’Connor, CEO of Yale New Haven Health.
• Optimum Healthcare IT’s ServiceNow Business Implementation services earns high customer satisfaction in a recent KLAS First Look Report.
• Fortified Health Security names Aditya Jadhav threat analyst shift lead, Todd Cronin senior penetration tester, and James Stevenson director of people and culture.

Blog Posts

• Revolutionizing Patient Care with ECW AI and Cloud-Based Solutions (EClinicalWorks)
• Social Care Networks Announced Under New York’s HRSN Waiver (Findhelp)
• Five9 and Acqueon: A Big Step in Advancing the Five9 Vision (Five9)
• Strategies for Increasing Patient & Provider Engagement with Early Detection: Q&A with Raghu Pillai (Lucem Health)
• Moving Beyond the Frame @ Meditech Live 2024 (Meditech)
• The Power of Connection: How Clinical Data Registries, ACOs, and Payers Can Collaborate for Value-Based Care (MRO)
• Valuable Updates on the Horizon for Net Health Occupational Health (Net Health)
• Capital Rx Ranks No. 411 on the 2024 Inc. 5000, Making the List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies for the Third Year (Capital Rx)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 8/14/24

Top News

Global conglomerate Hearst will acquire healthcare workforce management software vendor QGenda in a deal that is valued at up to $3 billion.

Insiders say the deal gives seller Francisco Partners a 15x return on its eight-year investment.

QGenda will become part of Hearst Health, a network of businesses that includes First Databank, Zynx Health, and Homecare Homebase, among others.

Reader Comments

From Ephemeron: “Re: acquisitions. Your sponsors seem to get acquired frequently, often by another sponsor. Have you analyzed those transactions to determine why that might be?” I haven’t, because only insiders know the genesis of the M&A, although I generally assume that the seller has come to profitable terms with the buyer in what would be consider a successful exit. As far as correlation, I like to think (having no proof whatsoever) that companies who are mentioned on HIStalk, whether sponsor or not, draw attention from potential acquirers or might be more aggressively seeking it. I suppose a third possibility is that I have enough sponsors that it’s likely that the industry consolidation dart will eventually hit a given company’s bullseye. 

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Medical device and equipment manufacturing company Stryker will acquire Care.ai, which specializes in smart healthcare facility and virtual care technologies. Stryker acquired healthcare communications technology vendor Vocera in 2022 for $3 billion. Care.ai co-founder and CEO Chakri Toleti sold his previous venture, HealthGrid, to Allscripts in 2018 for $60 million.

The Federal Trade Commission shuts down HeHealth’s Calmara, a sexual health app that offered to help “all penis owners” who suspect they have an STD by letting them scan and submit photos for AI analysis. The $10 service was panned from the beginning for lack of medical evidence, poor AI training, and unconvincing privacy policies.

Augmedix files what is likely its final quarterly report as a public company as it awaits closing of its $139 million acquisition by Commure: revenue up 27%, EPS –$0.16 versus –$0.12, falling short of analysis expectations for both. AUGX shares have lost 48% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $111 million.

CareCloud reports Q2 results: revenue down 4%, EPS $-0.14 versus –$0.37, exceeding estimates for both. CCLD shares are up 23% in the past 12 months, although down 39% from their mid-June high, valuing the company at $36 million.

Insiders report that Veradigm has received bids for a potential sale of the company following its announcement that it is seeking strategic alternatives. MDRX shares are quoted on the over-the-counter market (OTCMKTS) following their February 2024 delisting by Nasdaq for failing to file financial reports due to accounting software problems.

Doximity reports Q1 results: revenue up 17%, EPS $0.22 versus $0.15, beating expectations for both and sending shares up sharply to a 52-week high. DOCS shares are up 49% in the past 12 months, valuing the physician collaboration company at $6.6 billion.

Bankrupt Steward Health Care will sell its Stewardship Health physician group to a private equity-backed firm for a reported $245 million, subject to legal approvals. The acquiring entity, Nashville-based Rural Healthcare Group, was formed in 2022 and operates 17 clinics in North Carolina and Tennessee.

Sales

• Ascension St. Thomas (TN) will make Suki’s AI healthcare assistant software available to its clinicians and second- and third-year internal medicine residents.
• UChicago Medicine selects Loyal’s provider directory listings management software.
• Indonesia-based PT Pertamedika Bali Hospital goes live on InterSystems TrakCare.

People

Hippocratic AI names Amy McCarthy, DNP (Texas Health Resources) chief nursing officer.

Hospital for Special Surgery (NY) will welcome Ashis Barad, MD (Allegheny Health Network) as its first chief digital and technology officer on September 10, when it also will promote Elizabeth Pearlman, MBA, MPH to CIO.

Announcements and Implementations

Innovaccer announces GA of AI-powered data and analytics solutions for government health organizations.

Telehealth platform vendor Caregility adds fall risk alerting for patient rooms, powered by AI-analyzed video.

Government and Politics

A UX pilot program reduces the number of clicks needed to send an email between VA and DoD staff at the Lovell Federal Health Care Center from 35-plus to just two, a feat the IT team believes bodes well for overcoming the challenges the facility is facing with its new, joint Oracle Health EHR. Prescription fulfillment, for example, has been hampered by what end users have deemed poor software functionality.

US Air Force Colonel Thomas Cantilina, MD — deputy MHS Genesis functional champion at the Defense Health Agency and former chief health informatics officer — reflects on his time overseeing roll out of the EHR across DoD facilities as he prepares for retirement in October, noting that the entire project was more about change management than technology: “It’s easy to say, ‘If only the system did this,’ and get caught up in trying to achieve the ideal. It’s better to think, ‘How can we make what we have work a little better?’ You run into trouble when you search only for the perfect solution rather than work to improve upon what you have. Perfection is the enemy of getting better.”

Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP explains in a blog post under ONC’s new name of Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy (ASTP) how HHS’s alignment policy will require the procurement processes that it funds to consider only technology that meets HHS standards in the interest of interoperability. 

Privacy and Security

McLaren Health Care (MI) works to restore IT systems taken offline during last week’s ransomware attack, according to the health system’s August 12 update. While the majority of clinical services are running normally, some facilities are still diverting ambulances. Meanwhile, some McLaren employees (presumably those in non-patient-facing roles), complain that the health system has told them to use PTO or go without pay for their days missed while computers systems have been down.

Other

Researchers find that emergency medicine physicians are sifting through more voluminous patient notes than ever, in some cases with a “War and Peace” length of 500,000 words.

Missouri county commissioner Jason Withington, who spent 15 years as a Cerner system engineer, is not happy about Oracle’s handling of its Cerner acquisition.

Sponsor Updates

• Availity’s Growing Future Leaders group volunteers with The Giving Project at a local back-to-school pop-up shop, donating $680 worth of clothing for students in need.
• Jade-Weser will implement Agfa HealthCare’s Orbis HIS across its hospital group in Germany.
• Arcadia will present at Medicaid Enterprise Systems Conference 2024 August 14 in Louisville.
• Artera will exhibit at the NACHC CHI & Expo Conference August 24-26 in Atlanta.
• Ascom launches Telligence 7, the latest version of its nurse-call system for acute care.
• Biofourmis publishes a new whitepaper, “Unlocking Hospital Capacity with Innovative Care at Home Strategies.”
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast, “Plan Sponsors Need a Source of Truth; Get Your Data Now & Find It, with Jeff Hogan.”
• Consensus Cloud Solutions publishes a new whitepaper, “3 Reasons Healthcare Systems Should Invest in AI Technology Now.”

Blog Posts

• More practices are hiring APPs, physician burnout rates are down & nursing salaries are up (AdvancedMD)
• FY25 IPPS Final Rule: 6 Changes You Need to Know (AGS Health)
• Cybersecurity: Learning the Basics (Altera Digital Health)
• EHR Optimization: The New EHR Lifecycle (CereCore)
• Changing the Conversation about Cybersecurity in Healthcare (Clearwater)
• Dissecting the Anatomy of a Healthcare Breach: Lessons Learned (CloudWave)
• GenAI’s Role in Disability Empowerment – and How Healthcare Shows the Way (Divurgent)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Monday Morning Update 8/12/24

Top News

Walgreens Boots Alliance may sell its majority stake in VillageMD primary care clinics business as it streamlines its business to focus on retail pharmacies, according to SEC filings.

The company invested $6 billion in VillageMD in 2020 with plans to open hundreds of locations, but it says that the clinics haven’t attracted enough patients.

Walgreens also disclosed that $2.25 billion in loans that it provided to VillageMD are in default, but Walgreens will not exercise remedies while it is seeking a change in its investment.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Technologies most used are above, with those finishing lower on the list being telehealth, health tracking or self-management, and virtual health assistants.

New poll to your right or here: Which factor was most responsible for your getting your current job?

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Prominence Advisors. Prominence Advisors is the healthcare data enablement company. The Prominence team helps healthcare organizations do more with their data to make healthcare smarter. Founded by former Epic leaders, Prominence works with more than 100 healthcare organizations across the nation, including seven of the top 10 hospitals in US News and World Report. Prominence is a winner of 2023 Best in KLAS Technical Services and 2024 Best in KLAS HIT Staffing, offering award-winning data enablement services to healthcare organizations. Thanks to Prominence Advisors for supporting HIStalk.

I found an explainer video for Prominence Advisors on its website.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

TruBridge announces Q2 results: revenue flat, adjusted EPS $0.16 versus $0.40. TBRG shares rose 25% on Friday following the announcement but are down 52% over the past 12 months, valuing the company at $189 million.

AI-powered customer service technology vendor Five9 acquires Acqueon, which offers a revenue execution platform.

AMA’s Steps Forward program updates its detailed toolkit for reducing EHR inbox burden.

Former executives from Hinge Health, PMD, and Walgreens launch TrueClaim, an AI-enabled third-party administrator for self-insured companies that says it can save 7% of costs with no changes in benefits.

Announcements and Implementations

The local paper covers the virtual nurse program of HCA’s TriStar Skyline Medical Center in Nashville, which uses 100 cameras that are installed in the med-surg  and progressive care units. Contracted virtual nurses who work from home perform all admission and discharge paperwork for each patient from 6 a.m. until 2 a.m. seven days per week. HCA says it implemented the program to overcome nurse shortages and keep older nurses working without the physical workload of 12-hour and weekend shifts. I was interested that the nurse politely first says “knock, knock” over the speaker before asking permission to turn the TV and cameras on. 

Government and Politics

Massachusetts and California consider limiting private equity acquisitions of healthcare businesses, with the former proposing leverage limits and the latter considering mandatory state approval.

The government of Denmark, whose socialized health system was financially threatened by the cost of weight loss drugs, pressures Denmark-based Novo Nordisk to reduce the price to $130 per month versus the US price of $1,350 per month. The KFF Health News article notes that the drug companies are lobbying Congress to force Medicare to cover their drugs, which even with hefty discounts would cost $107 billion per year, which is just a bit less than the government’s entire Medicare Part D spending. It also observes that Wegovy, which costs $365 in Denmark and $1,400 in the US, sells for $92 in the UK. The GLP-1 companies use high US prices to convince other countries that they’re getting a deal.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issues an executive order that requires hospitals to obtain the immigration status of patients, which the state will use to bill the federal government for the cost of treating undocumented migrants.

Sponsor Updates

• Waystar staff visit Family Health Centers of Louisville to distribute 250 bags of school supplies and care items to patients.
• Healthcare IT Leaders releases a new “Leader to Leader” podcast, “IT Strategy at an Urban Teaching Hospital.”
• Clinical Architecture announces that it has been selected by AWS as an Amazon HealthLake Partner.
• Everest Group recognizes Nordic Consulting as a Major Contender in its Healthcare Industry Services PEAK Matrix Assessment 2024.
• Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast, “Interview with David Berger, MD.”
• Verato will exhibit at ESolutions Xchange August 25-28 on Amelia Island, GA.

Blog Posts

• Transparency and trust: Leveraging patient portals for better healthcare relationships (Nordic)
• Nurses of Note 2024: The Labor and Delivery Director (PerfectServe)
• Three Tips for Streamlining Peer Review in the Provider Credentialing Process (QGenda)
• The Easier Way to Manage Your Health IT Talent (Revuud)
• Stop By and See Us at Epic UGM 2024 (TrustCommerce)
• Future-Proofing Your Healthcare Procurement Strategy (Symplr)
• How Cloud-Based Encoders are Transforming RCM (TruBridge)

Sponsor Spotlight

FinThrive is advancing the healthcare economy by rethinking RCM to pave the way for a healthcare system that ensures every transaction and patient experience is addressed holistically. We stand at the forefront of healthcare excellence, dedicated to transforming financial operations for customers across the ecosystem with cutting-edge technology and strategic insights. FinThrive delivers a smarter, smoother healthcare finance experience that increases revenue, reduces costs, expands cash collections and ensures regulatory compliance. To date, we’ve recovered over $10 billion in net revenue and cash to more than 4,000 customers worldwide.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 8/9/24

Top News

Health Catalyst reports Q2 results: revenue up 4%, EPS $0.12 versus $0.05, beating analyst expectations.

HCAT shares jumped 38% on the news, but are still down 44% over the past 12 months, valuing the company at $446 million.

Meanwhile, the company closes its acquisition of care orchestration platform vendor Lumeon. SEC filings indicate that the acquisition price was $37.5 million in cash, $2.5 million in HCAT shares, and a potential earn-out of up to $25 million.

Reader Comments

From Mighty Have Fallen: “Re: Avera Health. Ending a long partnership with Meditech. Epic’s monopoly continues to grow.” Verified, at least to the extent that Avera shows up on the UserWeb login and the health system’s job openings include three Epic project managers.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

I was happy to see a new “Hey Judy” story on Epic after a two-month lapse. She says that Epic has three former rocket scientists as employees who agree that health IT is more complex. She gives a pretty fascinating look at how she programmed the first release of what became EpicCare as a computer science graduate student:

At first, I did some easy stuff, like call schedules. Then I was given a much bigger assignment. They wanted me to keep track of patient clinical information, whether the patient was seen once or hundreds of times, wherever the patient was, inpatient or outpatient. And they wanted the users to be able to define the data elements and design the screens, rather than hiring a programmer to do that … When I wrote the code for the underlying infrastructure of the clinical system that became known as EpicCare, I put the patient at the center and all the data around the patient. That philosophy has stayed with Epic over the years

A couple of nostalgic readers sent Internet photos of the Cerner logo being removed from the former Innovations campus, apparently to be replaced with that of Oracle.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

CVS reports Q2 results: revenue up 2%, adjusted EPS $1.83 versus $2.21, beating earnings expectations and falling just short on revenue. CVS shares have dropped 24% in the past 12 months. From the earnings call:

• The company lowered guidance because it expects Aetna’s Medicare Advantage medical utilization to accelerate.
• CEO Karen Lynch will take over day-to-day management of the company’s Aetna business, which is performing poorly. Aetna President Brian Kane has been let go.
• The company will cut costs by $2 billion over several years.
• It will further integrate its Signify home care and Oak Street Health Medicare primary care businesses to Aetna, MinuteClinic, and CVS Pharmacy. CVS Health acquired those businesses in 2023 for a combined $19 billion.

Roche is reportedly considering a sale of its Flatiron Health cancer data business, which it acquired for $1.9 billion in 2018. Analysts speculate that Flatiron’s sales have been constrained due to the reluctance of Roche’s pharma competitors to use its services.

Texas Children’s Hospital will lay off 5% of its 20,000 employees. The hospital did not provide specifics, but some IT employees have said on LinkedIn that they were affected.

23andMe reports Q results: revenue down 34%, EPS –$0.14 versus –$0.23, beating revenue expectations but falling short on earnings. ME shares are down 79% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $189 million. 23andMe went public via a SPAC merger in 2021, when its valuation reached $6 billion.

Sales

• Nebraska Methodist Health System will implement QGenda ProviderCloud for scheduling and time and attendance for all employees in all locations.
• Reid Health choses Abridge for ambient documentation.
• Brattleboro Retreat will implement Meditech Expanse under the Meditech as a Service cloud-hosted model.
• LSU Athletics will use smart stethoscopes and AI algorithms from Eko Health and assessment from Our Lady of the Lake Health for physical exams.

People

Michael Campana (Healthcare Triangle) joins Amitech Solutions as VP of marketing.

Announcements and Implementations

In England, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust goes live on Meditech Expanse.

Seattle Children’s has rolled out EConsults for 11 service lines, where a community provider uses EpicCare Link to request care guidance from a specialist. The hospital has completed 234 requests.

Meditech launches Traverse Exchange, an advanced, FHIR-first HIE network for its US customers.

Privacy and Security

The system disruption at McLaren Health Care was caused by a ransomware attack, according to a ransom note that was shared by an employee. The health system was also attacked by ransomware in October 2023, with the ALPHV/BlackCat group claiming responsibility. That attack exposed the information of 2.2 million patients.

England’s computer watchdog will fine IT provider Advanced Computer Software Group $8 million for failing to prevent a 2022 ransomware attack. Hackers used a stolen password and systems were not secured using multi-factor authentication.

Sponsor Updates

• Inovalon launches Converged Stars Health Equity Analytics to help Medicare Advantage plans address healthcare disparities and improve performance.
• Revuud reports strong growth in the first half of 2024 with a 100% increase in engagement revenue and a 40% year-over-year growth in customers.
• Wolters Kluwer Health publishes a new whitepaper, “Bridging the value gap: Aligning medical and drug benefits for health insurers.”
• Healthcare Growth Partners publishes a new whitepaper, “Prepare and Prevent Common Due Diligence Issues in Health IT Transactions.”
• Laudio publishes a new case study, “MemorialCare Enhances Support for Nurse Managers, Boosts Nurse Engagement and Retention.”
• Medhost publishes a new case study, “Blue Ridge Revival: Transitioning to Rural Emergency Hospital Designation.”
• Optimum Healthcare IT publishes a new ebook titled “Securing LLMs: Essential Guide for Safe AI Integration and Implementation.”
• Medicomp Systems releases a new Tell Me Where It Hurts Podcast featuring Kat McDavitt, president and founding partner of Innsena, and CEO and founder of Zorya Foundation.
• NeuroFlow publishes a new case study, “The Villages Health Expands Access to Innovative Behavioral Health Programs Using NeuroFlow.”

Blog Posts

• ECW Users Excited to Implement AI at Their Practices (EClinicalWorks)
• Third-Party Risk Management: A Guide to More Secure Partnerships (Fortified Health Security)
• Information Blocking Disincentives for Providers: The Final Rule (HealthMark Group)
• Understanding the Medical Billing Process and How Claims Submission Works (Inovalon)
• Early Disease Detection to Supercharge Clinical Screening: An Insightful Conversation with Michelle Fortune (Lucem Health)
• International healthcare organizations embrace digital solutions and bring transformative technology to global communities (Meditech)
• What is the MDS Medical Abbreviation? (Net Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 8/7/24

Top News

OneBlood, a blood center that serves 250 hospitals in the Southeast, restores its critical software systems after a July 29 ransomware attack forced them offline.

The organization says that its processing and distribution of blood products has returned to nearly normal levels.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Guidehealth announces $14 million in seed funding. The company specializes in value-based care programs that incorporate AI-enhanced technology and clinical services. It acquired Arcadia’s managed services organization and value-based care business last year.

Orlando Health will acquire Tenet Healthcare’s Brookwood Baptist Health system (AL) for $910 million, and will enter into a 10-year contract with Tenet-owned Conifer Health Solutions for revenue cycle services for the newly acquired system.

Startup investment in Wisconsin dropped significantly last year after the boom years of 2021 and 2022, but healthcare accounted for half the dollar total.

Definitive Healthcare reports Q2 results: revenue up 5%, EPS $0.09 versus $0.08, meeting analyst expectations. DEFN shares have lost 68% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $433 million.

Sales

• Samaritan Medical Center (NY) selects Loyal’s directory listings management software.

People

Prashant Thumma (Teladoc Health) joins 3Aware as CTO.

Josh Hoders, MBA (SteadyMD) joins WellSync as SVP of growth.

Jocelyn Keegam (Health Level Seven International) joins Aetna, A CVS Health Company as VP of Aetna interoperability.

Announcements and Implementations

Baptist Anderson Regional Medical Center (MS) rolls out Epic as part of a system-wide implementation.

Government and Politics

A US Government Accountability Office review of the Veterans Health Administration’s Accessing Telehealth at Local Area Stations (ATLAS) Pilot Program determines that the agency needs to develop performance goals and measures so that it can assess the effectiveness of the program on a regular basis. Established in 2019, the program offers veterans access to telemedicine services at 24 non-VA locations in rural areas. Over the last two years, however, veterans had only visited 10 of those ATLAS sites.

A federal court orders a patent troll to pay the attorney fees of Epic, whose customers it had sued claiming patent infringement. “We will not back down to patent trolls looking to shake down Epic or our customers,” says Epic SVP Stirling Martin. Two dozen other entities, including EHR vendors, paid to settle the lawsuits that were brought by Decapolis Systems, whose claims the court assessed as “if not fully spurious, was dilatory at best.”

Privacy and Security

McLaren Health Care (MI) announces that an unspecified IT issue has taken down computers and phone lines across all of its facilities. Its websites are also down, and several of its facilities have enacted ambulance diversions. It has not yet offered updates on restoring functionality.

HHS OCR fines emergency medical services provider American Medical Response $115,200 for failing to provide a patient with their requested medical records in a timely manner.

Other

The New York Times documents New York City’s “zombie pharmacies,” vacated buildings that previously held now-closed chain pharmacies that are stuck with unbreakable, long-term leases at above-market rates. More than a million square feet of prime real estate serve empty eyesores as 222 chain pharmacies have closed since the pandemic started. The overall pharmacy count has remained the same, however, as independent drug stores have opened near the vacant buildings.

The US Navy profiles Lieutenant J.G. David Tegtmeyer, a US Naval Academy graduate who decided to pursue Navy Medicine instead of flight school. He is deputy CIO and operations manager at the Navy’s training center in Bremerton, WA, which went live in the first wave of MHS Genesis deployments.

Sponsor Updates

• CereCore releases a new podcast, “Behind the Scenes: Mayo Clinic’s Data Strategy for Transforming Patient Care.”
• AvaSure publishes a case study, “How the North Texas VA Improved Patient Safety and Reduced Costs with Virtual Sitters.”
• Capital Rx releases a new episode of The Astonishing Healthcare podcast, “Selling Pharmacy Benefits: Building Relationships & Meeting Clients’ Needs, with Nick Van Hook.”
• The Driving the Deal Podcast features Clearwater CFO Baxter Lee, “Safeguarding Healthcare – Cybersecurity Insights with Baxter Lee from Clearwater Security.”
• Revuud, which operates a healthcare IT talent marketplace, reports a 100% increase in engagement and 40% in client count in the first half of this year compared to last year.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Know Your No-Shows and Optimize Your Schedule.”
• Clinical Architecture publishes its “2024 Healthcare Data Quality Report.”
• Consensus Cloud Solutions celebrates its 25^th anniversary and the evolution of its e-fax solution.
• CloudWave publishes a new whitepaper, “Patient-Centric Incident Response in Healthcare – A New Approach: What You Need to Know.”
• Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust adds Altera Digital Health’s patient flow solution to its Altera Sunrise system.

Blog Posts

• Agfa Insights: When it Comes to Enterprise Imaging in the Cloud, Does One Size Fit All? (Agfa HealthCare)
• 6 Best Practices for Managing a Hybrid EBO Staffing Model (AGS Health)
• An ED Emergency: Why rural emergency departments are struggling (Altera Digital Health)
• Enhancing the Patient Experience Through Post-Discharge Texting: Insights from a Houston Methodist Study (Artera)
• The Role of Technology in Modern Recruiting (Direct Recruiters)
• Pioneering a New Era in Remote Work (DrFirst)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Monday Morning Update 8/5/24

Top News

The local paper describes how the CrowdStrike update problem affected Duke Health:

• 40,000 of the health system’s 60,000 devices got the bad patch, 22,000 of those went to the Blue Screen of Death, and 18,000 stayed up only because they hadn’t been rebooted.
• SVP/Chief Digital Officer Jeff Ferranti, MD, MS says that it was the first time that an IT problem required the health system to activate the hospital incident command system.
• Every affected machine had to be touched by a one of 100 IT volunteers to decrypt the drive, delete the errant file, and reboot, which he says took five to eight minutes.
• The high-priority devices were flagged with a yellow sticky note to be fixed first.
• All machines were restored within 72 hours, including those that gave the BSOD on Monday morning when some closed offices reopened.
• Clinicians were advised to use IPads or IPhones to access Epic until machines were restored.

Reader Comments

From Ye Hack: “Re: ransomware. My mother’s cardiology care was delayed when Ascension’s computers went down for weeks, and now my father is unable to donate blood thanks to the OneBlood breach. The pool of patient safety incidents is likely large.” Ransomware attack frequency is starting to take down multiple and sometimes overlapping services in the same area, such as hospitals, 911, and government. It’s probably only a matter of time before someone takes down one of the big drug chains or a drug distribution company like McKesson.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Laid off recently? It might not just be you.

New poll to your right or here: Which technologies have you used in the past year?

Listening: Tombstone Three, which I Shazamed after hearing it on a telenovela-type series Mrs. H and I were watching. I can find nothing online about this band, which then adds obscurity points for me. The music is surf rock meets Nick Cave and falls into a genre I hadn’t heard of called “dark country,” which blends traditional country music with dark, Southern Gothic-themed storytelling. I’m not a fan of country, but I’m liking this more authentic and less commercial subgenre. I’m also deep-tracking REM in a wave of guitar band nostalgia that doesn’t seem to have a place in today’s music, faves being this earworm song and this concert.

I was thinking about ambient documentation leading the AI charge in healthcare and recalled that we should be thanking Carl Dvorak of Epic for coming up with the idea in 2014, based on my 2020 interview with Nuance executive Joe Petro:

Ambient clinical intelligence is super exciting. Five or six years ago, Carl Dvorak at Epic was having a conversation with us and floated the notion of a room being able to listen. At the time, we didn’t have any necessarily tangible connection with how we were actually going to accomplish that. As conversational AI and other technologies developed, we started to get a firmer notion around what the exam room of the future could look like.

Thanks to these companies that recently supported HIStalk. Click a logo to check them out and to thank them for keeping my keyboard clacking.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

KFF News reports that University of Florida Health and a private equity-backed firm have opened three combined urgent care center and emergency room facilities in suburban areas, with doctors triaging and recommending which side of the building to go to. Consumer advocates worry that hospitals have an incentive to steer patients to the much more expensive ER service instead of the urgent care service, which charges a flat $250. UF Health’s partner is Intuitive Health, which has similar arrangements with a dozen other health systems in 10 states. A sign on the door wants patients that the doctors inside may be out of their network and that they will be charged an average facility fee of $1,491. 

People

Podimetrics hires Matthew Oefinger, PhD (Ahara Corporation)  as chief data and technology officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Telehealth hardware provider VSee Health and Ava Robotics will develop telepresence solutions for ICUs, including a robot.

Government and Politics

The Department of Justice launches a program that pays corporate whistleblowers up to 30% of the first $100 million of assets forfeited. One of four eligible areas is fraud committed by private insurers or against patients and investors.

Sponsor Updates

• Arcadia earns Certified Data Partner designation in NCQA’s Data Aggregator Validation program.
• PerfectServe releases a new Lightning Bolt case study, “How to Rapidly Deploy a Scheduling Solution Across a Large Health System.”
• The Digital Healthcare Roundtable Podcast features SnapCare co-founder, COO, and chief development officer Jeff Richards.
• Waystar will exhibit at the HFMA 2024 Mid-America Summer Institute August 5-7 in Omaha.

Blog Posts

• Initial Visit vs. SOC Comprehensive Assessment – SOC Dates Explained (Netsmart)
• Why healthcare needs a robust strategy to secure IT service desks (Nordic)
• EMRs and GenAI (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• Streamlining Form Completion: Seven Essential Capabilities Your Credentialing Software Must Have (QGenda)
• Healthcare IT Transformations: Lessons from Baptist Health and Overlake Medical (Rhapsody Health)
• 4 ways interactive technology can help anxious parents (Sonifi Health)
• How to Choose the Right RCM Company (TruBridge)
• SIIM 2024 | Visage’s Top Five (Visage Imaging)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 8/2/24

Top News

Teladoc Health reports Q2 results: revenue down 2%, EPS –$4.92 versus –$0.40, beating Wall Street expectations for earnings but falling short on revenue.

News of the company’s nearly billion-dollar quarterly loss sent shares down hard in after-hours trading. They closed Thursday down 9%.

TDOC shares have lost 71% of their value in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $1.5 billion versus the $42 billion it hit in February 2021, not long after it paid  $18.5 billion to acquire Livongo. From the earnings call:

• Newly hired CEO Chuck Divita says the company’s technology is essential to growth, citing member-to-provider matching engine, its patient interaction database, and its investments in data science and AI.
• The loss includes a $4.64 per share write-down, $790 million, due to sliding share price and challenges in its BetterHelp virtual mental health unit, some of that due to high customer acquisition costs and prohibitive out-of-pocket costs for patients.
• The company will no longer provide long-term financial guidance due to uncertainty about BetterHelp.

Reader Comments

From Roy G. Biv: “Re: ambient documentation and billing.  I’m not surprised about the discrepancy between the MD’s perception of billing and what is found in the notes. That is why AI can be so valuable in proper billing if it is trained to read the full EHR documentation and map to CPT codes from the language and procedures.” I’m usually not a fan of finding new ways to increase charges, but it seems fair to follow the rules in tying doctor-patient conversations to billing codes to reflect reality. It’s a rare win for both the white coats and the suits – the doctor saves time and enjoys reduced cognitive load while the bean-counters justify paying for it via more accurate (i.e., higher) charges. 

From Giddy Lee: “Re: UT Medical Center. Looking for an SVP/CIO five months after hiring one.” Lynnette Clinton’s LinkedIn doesn’t say she has left, but it sounds like they are posting that job. I don’t recall ever seeing an SVP/CIO position that reports to the SVP/CFO since that’s usually a small-hospital thing where IT is viewed as an expense in need of being managed.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Two private equity firms will take R1 RCM private at a valuation of $8.9 billion.

Eye practice software vendor Eye Care Leaders sells itself to new owners and renames the company Sightview Software. A bankruptcy court approved the sale of the company for $14.5 million to an insurance company in May 2024. Both the software vendor and the insurer have connections to investor and claimed former billionaire Greg Lindberg, who is awaiting an appeal for his federal conviction for bribery and wire fraud.

Identity solutions company HID acquires RTLS asset management system vendor Vizzia Technologies.

CompuGroup Medical promotes the son of its founder, Daniel Gotthardt, Dr. Med, to CEO. He was previously SVP and chief medical officer. Current CEO Michael Rauch, who was promoted from CFO just over a year ago, will leave the company.

MultiPlan replaces its EVP/CFO with Doug Garis (Oracle Health & Life Sciences), who shares his previous employer with MultiPlan President and CEO Travis Dalton.

Sales

• Ochsner Health will implement DeepScribe’s ambient documentation across its 46 hospitals and 370 health and urgent care centers.
• Carti Cancer Center (AR) implements Zen Healthcare IT’s Zen Insight Integration Monitor for Mirth Connect alerting and monitoring.

People

Iris Telehealth hires Glenn Wada (Blue Ocean Go To Market Partners) as chief growth officer.

Upstate Medical University names John Kairys, MD (Jefferson Health) as CMIO.

Announcements and Implementations

The Sequoia Project launches a Surescripts-funded pharmacy workgroup that will address the integration of pharmacy data and clinical services.

KONZA National Network announces Birth Connect, which will provide alerts to OB/GYNs when a birth parent who is under their care has delivered a baby. The technology will link the medical records of birth parents and newborns to solve problems such as delayed notification, loss of the infant’s medical record when they are given a full name, and providing a more complete view of birth outcomes for quality initiatives. Hartford HealthCare was the development and pilot site.

The American College of Cardiology publishes a guide for remote patient management.

Highlights from a new KLAS recap of its recent enterprise imaging summit:

• Two-thirds of participants say they will expand their EI strategy into new service lines within two years, with likely areas including point-of-care ultrasound (POCS), scopes, pathology, and ophthalmology.
• Expanding to POCS will be challenging since workflows differ across departments and the reports and images need to be sent to the EHR.
• Attendees were split on whether study distribution via a unified worklist should be managed by the EHR or by imaging vendors.
• DICOM routing is a needed component.
• Digital pathology offers many benefits, but requires more than just buying a scanner and an image management system.
• The AI value proposition includes efficiency, enhanced detection, and increased hospital revenue with lower costs, but strong governance is needed, algorithms should be validated, and the system should be tested for bias.
• A move to cloud-based imaging is inevitable even though costs will be neutral or higher than for on-premises solutions.

Privacy and Security

OneBlood, a blood center that supplies 250 hospitals in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, warns that it is operating at reduced capacity due to a ransomware attack.

Other

The CIO of a drug manufacturer cancels a 500-employee trial of Microsoft’s Office 365 Copilot, concluding that its ability to create presentations is at middle school level and therefore not worth the cost. Copilot AI nearly doubles the cost of Microsoft 365 at an extra $30 per user per month. The CIO said the tool was good at summarizing Teams meetings, but the drug company’s legal team advised against retaining transcripts.

Sponsor Updates

• Health Data Movers posts a new episode of its “QuickHITs” podcast titled “Breaking Down Barriers in Healthcare IT: Insights from Stephanie Davis.”
• EClinicalWorks announces the results of a recent survey on the perceptions of how AI helps the healthcare industry.
• Five9 announces that its GenAI Studio has been named the Most Innovative Product at the 2024 UC Awards.
• Consensus Cloud Solutions celebrates its 25th year of providing online fax solutions.
• Arcadia earns Certified Data Partner designation in the NCQA Data Aggregator Validation program.
• Abhinandan Kamble (Persistent Systems) joins Fortified Health Security as threat analyst.
• Healthcare Growth Partners publishes the July 2024 edition of its “HGP Observations.”
• Inovalon publishes a new customer success story, “Cincinnati Children’s Uses VigiLanz Clinical Surveillance to Identify Patients with Penicillin Allergies.”
• The NEOM region in Saudi Arabia will implement InterSystems TrakCare health information system across its hospital and 41 clinics.
• The “DGTL Voices Podcast” features KeyCare CEO Lyle Berkowitz, MD “Embracing Opportunities and Being Prepared: Lessons from Dr. Lyle Berkowitz.”

Blog Posts

• How to Maximize Efficiency of an AI-Powered Medical Scribe (EClinicalWorks)
• 7 Effective Strategies to Prevent Healthcare Denials (FinThrive)
• The Importance of Implementing the ICU Liberation Bundle to Reduce the Risk of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (Impact Advisors)
• MDRO RapidAlerts Pilot: Utilizing State Health Information Exchange for Automated, Real-Time MDRO Admission Alerts (Konza National Network)
• Improving Predictability & Long-Term Care Costs with Early Detection: Q&A with Alejandro Reti, MD (Lucem Health)
• Freestone’s Journey to Rev Cycle Success (Medhost)
• Enhancing continuity of care: The benefits of partnering with an FQHC (Meditech)
• Should You Opt In To MIPS? Consider These Recent Rehab Therapy Statistics (Net Health)

Sponsor Spotlight

Discover how Bermuda Hospitals Board transformed their IT contractor management with Revuud in our exclusive Q&A with CIO Keltie Jamieson. During the conversation, Keltie reveals how Revuud streamlined their access to specialized resources, improved team efficiency, and reduced costs. Learn from their experience and insights on optimizing IT contractor management and achieving strategic goals in healthcare. (Sponsor Spotlight is free for HIStalk Platinum sponsors).

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Morning Headlines 7/31/24

Flo Health Secures More than $200M Investment from General Atlantic to Revolutionize Women’s Health; First Purely Digital Consumer Women’s Health App to Achieve Unicorn Status

England-based period and fertility app vendor Flo Health raises a $200 million investment from General Atlantic that values the company at $1 billion.

Skeptical judge sides with smaller analytics firm against giant PointClickCare over data blocking tactics

A federal judge grants analytics firm Real Time Medical Systems a preliminary injunction against EHR vendor PointClickCare for implementing CAPTCHA-controlled system access, ruling that the company violated 21st Century Cures.

VitalHub agrees to acquire MedCurrent Corporation for up to $34 million

Health and human services software vendor VitalHub will acquire clinical decision support company MedCurrent, both of which are based in Toronto.

News 7/31/24

Top News

England-based period and fertility app vendor Flo Health raises a $200 million investment from General Atlantic that values the company at $1 billion.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Yes, I monitor odd things. Epic has run its “Hey Judy” column like clockwork each month since August 2021, but hasn’t posted one for June or July.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Acute virtual care company AvaSure will acquire Ouva’s AI-enhanced care automation technology, which it has already been using as a part of its Intelligent Virtual Care Platform. Ouva will continue to operate its pediatric and wayfinding business.

Health data management and research insights company OneMedNet announces $4.6 million in new funding.

Mercy will open three primary care clinics in former Walmart Health locations in Arkansas, where Walmart is headquartered, later this summer.

Kansas City tax authorities say that Oracle Health has met the requirements for incentives that are related to the former Cerner Innovations Campus, although the company has 6,400 Missouri-based employees versus the 16,000 new jobs that were promised by Cerner before Oracle acquired the company.

Sales

• MedStar Health (MD) will use risk management solutions from RLDatix to enhance analysis of patient safety events.
• Loma Linda University Health (CA) selects specialty pharmacy-focused analytics and market access services from Loopback Analytics.
• Multi-state Sound Physicians will implement AmplifyMD’s virtual specialty care software for its tele-hospitalist services.

People

Ben Shahshahani, PhD (SiriusXM) joins Cleveland Clinic as VP/chief AI officer.

Alpha II hires Jon Danielson, MBA (Biscom) as CFO.

Erik Moore, MS (Optum) joins Bamboo Health as CTO.

Announcements and Implementations

Artera announces that a dozen FQHCs — including Livingston Community Health (CA), Moses Lake Community Health Center (WA), and Bedford-Stuyvesant Family Health Center (NY) — have implemented its patient communications software.

North Arkansas Regional Medical Center implements Sunoh.ai’s ambient listening and clinical documentation technology.

UAB Medicine describes how it is using remote patient monitoring to collect data from patients at home and alert clinicians of negative trends. Cellphone-connected blood pressure cuffs, glucose monitors, and weight scales from Withings Health are issued to patients who agree to take their measurements at least 16 times per month. 

Researchers find that 25 to 40% of people who use wearables to monitor their atrial fibrillation experience life-affecting stress and anxiety as a result.

Government and Politics

A federal judge grants analytics firm Real Time Medical Systems a preliminary injunction against EHR vendor PointClickCare for implementing CAPTCHA-controlled system access, ruling that the company violated 21st Century Cures. PCC says it implemented the requirement to prevent web scraping by bots, noting that Real Time is the only one of its 1,900 partners that objected. Real Time says that PCC threatened its access to skilled nursing data because it was launching a competing service, also complaining that Real Time is HITRUST certified and should not be required to complete CAPTCHA challenges. 

MultiPlan CEO Travis Dalton has been meeting with Senate staffers to defend the company’s use of analytics to advise payers how much they should reduce billed charges from out-of-network providers, for which MultiPlan gets a cut of the savings and the patient sometimes receives a bill for the difference.

Privacy and Security

CrowdStrike customers complain that they receive error messages when they try to use the $10 Uber Eats gift card that the company offered following its global outage on July 19. Uber’s system apparently canceled the vouchers due to what it deemed to be suspiciously high usage rates.

Penn Medicine SVP for Data and Technology Solutions Mitchell Schnall, MD, PhD (who likely didn’t receive an Uber Eats gift card) recounts some of the steps his team took once they became aware of CrowdStrike’s outage, including the nearly immediate decisions to revert to downtime procedures and cancel or reschedule elective surgeries and appointments: “Imaging was interesting because we could take a CT scan on the scanner but it couldn’t go anywhere else, so we had to take the radiologist to the CT scanner to be able to read the images.”

A former organ transplant coordinator faces 22 years in prison for accessing the records of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg while she was being treated for cancer at George Washington University Hospital in 2019, then posting them to conspiracy theory and anti-semitic message boards on 4chan. Trent James Russell explained to authorities that his cat must have run across his keyboard.

Sponsor Updates

• Arrive Health employees take part in Community Give Back Week by harvesting crops at Ohio City Farm to provide healthy food to CLE’s underserved residents.
• The Sequoia Project launches a new Pharmacy Workgroup as part of its flagship Interoperability Matters program, through funding and collaboration with Surescripts.
• Arcadia publishes a new guide, “Quality management tools to balance care and rising costs.”
• Health plan XO Health selects Capital Rx as its pharmacy benefit administrator.
• Clearwater announces growing adoption of its Managed Cloud Services, which help healthcare organizations maintain data and applications in the Azure cloud with reduced security and compliance risk.
• UMethod Health incorporates Linus Health’s digital cognitive impairment detection software into its cognitive care planning solutions.
• Alpha II appoints former OmniSys CEO John King and former Availity CEO Julie Klapstein to its Board of Directors.

Blog Posts

• How to Plan for Meditech Expanse: Tips from 40+ Hospital Implementations (CereCore)
• Newborn Facility Coding: 7 Tips for Accurate Medical Coding and Documentation (AGS Health)
• Clearwater Managed Cloud Services Help Healthcare Organizations Leverage the Power of Microsoft Azure with Reduced Risk (Clearwater)
• Demystifying AI in Healthcare: The Top Seven Questions to Ask Your AI Vendor (Availity)
• Beyond Data Protection: Putting Patients First in Healthcare Cybersecurity (CloudWave)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

Monday Morning Update 7/29/24

Top News

The US State Department indicts an alleged North Korean government-backed hacker who it says was behind ransomware attacks on hospitals in Florida and Kansas, healthcare firms in Arkansas and Connecticut, and a medical clinic in Colorado.

The government is offering a reward of up to $10 million for further information on Rim Jong Hyok.

Hyok is accused of leading a hacker group that works for for North Korea’s military intelligence agency. The state department says that the group generates ransomware proceeds that are used to conduct cyber operations that target the US government and defense contractors.

Reader Comments

From Board Stiff: “Re: Cerner. Judging from the mass customer defections, its board was smarter than they seemed in unloading to Oracle at an inflated price.” Cerner’s board made some awful decisions after Neal Patterson died, starting with his replacement and capitulating to an activist shareholder who held few shares. However, they may have offset all of that by selling the company to Oracle at premium valuation just as the wheels were starting to come off. It would not have been pretty to watch CERN’s share price tank as their big clients abandoned ship, and the insiders surely knew that Epic’s dominance and Cerner’s abject failure to fix its revenue cycle software problems was a big storm on its corporate horizon. The board’s fiduciary duty is to shareholders, not customers or industry pundits, and in that regard they performed magnificently. 

From Observer: “Re: Intermountain. Becky Fox is out as chief clinical information officer, per internal memo. CDIO, CHIO, and CCIO all out in the space of a month.” Unverified, but reported by a few folks. She took the position in December 2022 and previously shared time at Atrium Health with former CDIO Craig Richardville, who just left Intermountain. CHIO Diego Ize-Luwdlow, MD exited the health system last month.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Most poll respondents report no major personal impact from the CrowdStrike attack.

New poll to your right or here: Has your employer conducted a workforce reduction that you would consider significant in the past 12 months?

Steamy doldrums will end soon as noses reconnect with grindstones and companies get back to the serious business of selling, partnering, and acquiring. Decision-maker eyeballs are glued here, so contact Lorre to support HIStalk and gain competitive position. She loves working with startups, especially when it’s a company I’ve never heard of, which suggests they could use a booster rocket.

Another housekeeping announcement: sign up for the spam-free email notices that I send when I post something new (thus usually six skinny emails per week) and you’ll know stuff before those people who just cruise over when the mood strikes.

The optometrist who conducted my annual eye exam in her Target-connected practice said that my prescription would print next door at Target Optical, which apparently believes that patients who touch their printer are violating HIPAA.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Remote patient monitoring software vendor CoachCare receives a $48 million strategic growth investment.

Healthcare Growth Partners posts its first-half 2024 health IT market review:

• M&A surged, with other positive notes being increased investment and the IPOs of Waystar and Tempus AI.
• However, share price of those two IPOs is at or below the initial offering price and some of the increased M&A involved low-quality and distressed companies.
• Transaction valuations are down 20% from pre-pandemic levels.
• Valuations of public enterprise SaaS and health IT companies dropped 35% and 50%, respectively.
• Recent take-private health IT transactions at a significant premium to share price suggest a disconnect between public market valuations and health IT market sentiment.
• Health IT companies that claim AI capabilities are attracting 20% of the investment in the sector, but almost all of their output involves back-office tools that don’t improve patient care.

People

Sonifi Solutions names Jerome Ajot, MS (EPAM Systems) as CTO.

In Canada, Brightshores Health System hires Tim Pemberton, MBA (Queensway Carleton Hospital) as VP of digital health and technology, CIO, and chief privacy officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Google, the largest customer of Amazon-acquired primary care provider One Medical, will terminate its agreement with the company. Google was an early investor in One Medical and at one time made up 10% of its revenue. One Medical clinics that operate from Google’s campuses have already transitioned to Premise Health and its broader range of services, although One Medical will remain a Google in-network provider for employees who pay for their own memberships.

Privacy and Security

Philips discovers a vulnerability in its Vue PACS that could allow unauthorized users to view or modify data and install unauthorized software. Remediation involves changing network configuration until the company develops a patch.

Other

Cell phone providers in Australia will shut down their 3G mobile networks next month, which could take some medical devices offline. The Royal Flying Doctor Service uses 3G for telehealth, security cameras, and employee duress alarms and says that some insulin pumps and pacemakers will also need to be replaced quickly. Queensland Senator Malcolm Roberts says the shutdown will be “CrowdStrike 2.0.”

Sponsor Updates

• Tegria will sponsor the MUSE International Southeast Community Peer Group August 1 in Albany, GA.

Blog Posts

• Breaking barriers: How care management can bridge the gap in health data access (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• How and When to Analyze & Update Internal & External Medical Clinic Policies (Netsmart)
• Healthcare Experts Share How to ‘Go the Distance’ with Value Analysis (Symplr)
• The Benefits of Medical Coding Services (TruBridge)
• Data security, providing patient financial care + more: Navigating cyberattack ripple effects (Waystar)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

News 7/26/24

Top News

HHS reorganizes to give ONC broader responsibility over technology, cybersecurity, data, and AI. ONC will be elevated to assistant secretary status:

• ONC will be renamed to Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC).
• National Coordinator Micky Tripathi will hold the newly titled role.
• The newly created HHS positions for CTO, chief data officer, and chief AI officer will report to ASTP/ONC.
• Cybersecurity activities will be moved from the HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration to ASTP/ONC.

Reader Comments

From Larry’s Loss: “Re: Penn State Health. Replacing Oracle Cerner with Epic.” I haven’t seen an announcement, but this reader sent along a screen shot of an internal communication. Penn State Health operates eight hospitals totaling 1,600 beds, has 20,000 employees, and generates $4 billion in annual revenue.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Unrelated, but health tech news is slow today. Redditors weigh in on trendy terms that they dislike:

• Calling everything a “journey.”
• “Lean in.”
• “I did a thing.”
• Referring to children as “littles” or pets as “doggos” or “fur babies.”
• Saying “a big ask” instead of a request.
• Referring to a long time as “a minute.”
• The means-nothing phrase “it is what it is.”
• “Curated.”
• “My bad” instead of saying sorry.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Linus Health, whose platform offers tech-powered early detection of cognitive impairment and dementias, acquires Together Senior Health, creator of the Moving Together virtual therapeutic program for cognitive decline.

Humana-owned CenterWell will open 23 senior primary care centers in former Walmart Health clinics.

Ascension will sell nine Chicago-area hospitals to for-profit hospital operator Prime Healthcare.

Sales

• Humana expands its agreement with Google to include Google Cloud and AI.
• GE HealthCare chooses Amazon Web Services for developing new healthcare applications and applying AI.

People

University of Chicago Medicine hires Yeman Collier (UT Health San Antonio) as SVP/CIO.

Announcements and Implementations

Northwell Health launches a movie and TV production company. According to Northwell, “This dedicated studio will better allow us to foster creative partnerships and establish Northwell Health as a leading voice on the issues that matter most — our health and wellness.”

Government and Politics

Jeff Shuren, MD, JD, director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, announces his retirement after 15 years in that role. 

A GAO report finds that the VA is struggling with its implementation of a replacement benefits administration system, with estimates of total cost ballooning to $7.7 billion versus the VA’s estimate of $2.5 billion in 2019. GAO warns that the project’s planned 2030 completion is unlikely to be met because of delays in other projects such as its EHR and supply chain system replacements. The GAO also notes that the VA has not implemented two of its earlier recommendations related to cost and scheduling practices. The VA blamed a $600 million in increase in implementation costs on its underestimation of the unique challenges of each deployment.

Ukraine’s health ministry reports that 3 billion records have been entered into its electronic medical records system.

Sponsor Updates

• Healthcare IT Leaders staff volunteer with Meals on Wheels Greenville to deliver meals and care packages to 240 veterans.
• EClinicalWorks will offer customers within Aledade’s network free access to Sunoh.ai’s AI medical scribe software.
• Linus Health will present and exhibit at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference July 28-August 1 in Philadelphia.
• Medhost joins Health Gorilla’s QHIN to enhance access to clinical data and participate in TEFCA.
• Findhelp welcomes Holzer Health System (OH), York County, PA, and Health First (FL) to its network.
• Madison-based publication The Cap Times profiles consulting firm Cardamom Health and CEO Vivek Swaminathan.
• Fortified Health Security publishes its “2024 Mid-Year Horizon Report.”
• The VatorNews Podcast features KeyCare CEO Lyle Berkowitz, MD.

Blog Posts

• Drug diversion prevention: The cost of non-compliance (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Transforming Rheumatology Workflows with EClinicalWorks (EClinicalWorks)
• Usability of Pharmacogenomics Medication Decision Support is Key to Its Adoption in Clinical Practice (First Databank)
• How to Get C-Suite Buy-In for Healthcare Cybersecurity (Fortified Health Security)
• Five Questions Payers Should Ask About the Payer-to-Payer API Mandated by CMS (Inovalon)
• How Medina Healthcare System saved $10,000+ per month and other wins from their Meditech implementation (Meditech)
• CMS Proposals for Healthcare Quality Reporting in 2025 and Beyond (MRO)
• The Power of a Positive Mindset When Facing Challenges in Rehab Therapy (Net Health)

Contacts

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