News 10/15/25

Top News

OutcomesAI announces $10 million in seed funding.

The company’s Glia software combines AI voice agents with licensed nurses to handle nursing workflows.

Founder and CEO Kuldeep Singh Rajput, PhD was founder and CEO of Biofourmis, which was merged with CopilotIQ in October 2024.

Reader Comments

From Spigot: “Re: healthcare conference. Interesting keynotes, eh?” The best part is always the brochure straining to justify why the speakers have anything to do with healthcare, beyond being has-been celebrities whose agents offered an affordable glad-hander. They are inevitably described as visionary entrepreneurs, resilient leaders, and universal storytellers whose wisdom will somehow inspire the healthcare community. Maybe McEnroe will share his insights from narrating “Never Have I Ever,” which like McEnroe himself has no healthcare relevance but was wickedly funny (as was this collection of Emmitt Smith’s oratorical fumbles). Here’s the one relevant similarity: as in healthcare, people and organizations are most motivated to do whatever benefits them most, so Becker’s must have flashed cash and perks.

A Reader’s Notes from Nashville Healthcare Sessions

Panel on the investing landscape in healthcare

Julie Yoo, General Partner, a16z

• Diagnostics has been a challenging area to invest and be successful in, but there are opportunities, especially with companies taking a platform approach.
• She’s bullish on robotics as an investment opportunity.
• She said even in challenging sectors, there are investment opportunities. For example, the OBBB Act will significantly impact Medicaid eligibility, and that creates opportunities for companies who make it easier to navigate Medicaid eligibility and redeterminations.
• Every company in their portfolio is using an AI-based software development solution.
• She commented on the changes in the investing environment since the pandemic. Seven companies since 2020 have reached $100 million ARR in five years or less, whereas none did that before 2020. She says the current environment pushes companies to broaden their targets to multiple verticals (providers, payers, and employers).

Vijay Patel, Managing Partner, CVS Health Ventures

• Also taking a hard look at robotics.
• He’s thinking about investments not just in terms of health tech but also tech that enables healthcare delivery. An example is an AI company CVS Health just invested in that assists call center agents; they are also seeing value in tech investments on behind-the-scenes aspects of healthcare delivery, like supply chain.

Conversation on employer-based healthcare

Mercedes Ikard, Senior Director, US Benefits Operations, The Walt Disney Company

• Disney spends $1 billion annually on healthcare benefits and wellness programs in the US. They have 80,000 primary care visits a year and provide care for families, not just employees.
• They have disease management programs that provide care managers and coaches to navigate healthier living. They do things like offer culinary classes to employees to promote healthier eating.
• Pharmacists are an integral part of the care team for their employees and coordinate with physicians, nutritionists, etc.

Panel on the shift to ambulatory care

Jeff Snodgrass, President & CEO, AMSURG

• Taking procedures off the inpatient-only list and moving more of them to ASCs has knock-on effects of moving other procedures to the ambulatory setting. Seeing this trend in orthopedics and cardiology especially.
• Example: when total shoulder replacements are inpatient-only but partial replacements are not, providers are incentivized to schedule partial replacements at the hospital because they don’t want the inconvenience of operating at two places in a day. Bringing total shoulders to the ASC brings partials with them.

Eric Evans, CEO, Surgery Partners

• Bringing 500 new surgeons into their ASCs each year. The surgeons are attracted to lower bureaucracy and better control over their schedules.

Renee Buckingham, President, Primary Care Organization, Humana CenterWell

• Rural settings are seeing significant strains on healthcare labor, not just for physicians but also medical assistants and nurses.

Miscellaneous tidbits

• Tom Hale, CEO, ŌURA: the biggest change they see with ŌURA users is that they drink less alcohol.
• Eduardo Conrado, President, Ascension. Health system has $25 billion in revenue, 95 hospitals, 26 joint ventures. Focusing on growing its ambulatory presence (e.g., AMSURG acquisition). Serves 2.5 million commercial lives, 1.5 million Medicare lives, and 1.15 million Medicaid or uninsured lives.
• David Dill, Chairman & CEO, Lifepoint Health. 60 acute hospitals, 50 rehab hospitals, 30 behavioral health facilities 350,000 surgeries and 1 million ED visits annually

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

RCM vendor R1 will acquire Phare Health, which offers AI solutions for inpatient coding and clinical documentation improvement. R1 will fold the startup into its R37 AI lab, which it launched earlier this year with Palantir.

A Miami publication profiles Gameday Men’s Health, which operates 400 testosterone and erectile dysfunction clinics nationwide. The company, which doesn’t accept insurance and therefore requires no billing capabilities, built its own EHR using Lobbie software that offers no-show prediction, outcomes tracking, workflow reminders, and an upcoming mobile app for patient scheduling and messaging.

WellTheory, which offers virtual care management services for autoimmune conditions, raises $14 million in Series A funding.

Sales

• Advocate Health’s Atrium Health Medical Group (NC) selects WellBeam’s post-acute care coordination software.
• Northwell Health (NY) will implement Abridge’s ambient AI technology across its 28 hospitals.

People

Adria Jackson, PhD, MBA, RN (Flourish & Thrive Labs) joins the Veterans Health Administration’s Eastern Oklahoma VA Health Care System as chief health informatics officer.

Counterpart Health names Blaine Lindsey (AnsibleHealth) VP of enterprise growth and partnerships.

Ascertain hires Molly O’Neill, MS (Aegis Ventures) as chief commercial officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Jennie Stuart Health (KY) goes live on Epic after merging with Deaconess Health (IN).

AGS Health launches AI-powered RCM workforce solutions for tasks related to insurance eligibility verification, prior authorizations, denials management, and appeals.

Infinx makes a strategic investment in Voxology AI and adds the company’s AI scheduling agents to its contact center software.

Inovalon adds DoseMe’s precision dosing software to its VigiLanz Pharmacy Surveillance application.

Teladoc Health adds a hospital workplace safety tool to its monitoring solution that analyzes audio and video to identify hostile facial expressions, threatening gestures, aggressive language, and entry into restricted areas.

LiveData launches an analytics tool that provides visibility into OR performance such as room usage, case booking efficiency, and identification of bottlenecks.

Other

Thanks to AMIA for citing Dr. Jayne’s HIStalk piece in its Informatics Smart Brief on the potential of AI scribes to restore joy in medicine. My key takeaways from Dr. Jayne:

• Some studies have found that use of AI scribes doesn’t always reduce after-hours “pajama time.”
• Some employers are reclaiming any AI-created time savings by assigning doctors additional after-hours work.
• Pajama time measurements may be unreliable. They may track only documentation hours rather than all activities, may not detect when an EHR application is open but idle, or may fail to distinguish specific tasks.

Sponsor Updates

• Altera Digital Health announces that Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust achieved significant time savings across its wards by introducing automated vital signs integration into its Sunrise EHR.
• A Black Book Research survey names Verisma the top provider of release-of-information services.
• Modern Healthcare ranks Cardamom #6 in its Best Places to Work in Healthcare 2025.
• CereCore publishes a new case study titled “Cybersecurity Advisors Bring New Hope to Orgs Without Security Officials.”

Blog Posts

• Medical Coding Automation Journey: From Assistance to Autonomy (AGS Health)
• From the Top: Former Health System CIO & CNO Share Keys to Clinical-IT Collaboration (Symplr)
• Reclaiming medicine’s human element with ambient listening (Altera Digital Health)
• DEIcency: Reframing human decency in the workplace (Cardamom)
• The Perennial Cybersecurity Problem: Tool Proliferation and the Talent Crisis (Clearwater)
• How to obtain Rx data and what to do with it (Judi Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Monday Morning Update 10/13/25

Top News

Pharmacy operations software vendor Foundation Health raises a $20 million Series A round.

Founder, CEO, and pharmacist Umar Afridi, MPharm was co-founder and CEO of Truepill, a B2B digital pharmacy company that was acquired by Ireland-based LetsGetChecked in August 2024 for $525 million.

Reader Comments

From Dagger: “Re: last week’s news. The center of gravity is shifting. Microsoft’s deal with Harvard for medical content signals a shift toward clinically credible AI. The Qualtrics acquisition of Press Ganey consolidates patient-experience data under enterprise analytics. Policymakers are questioning who sets AI guardrails. The real competition now isn’t between EHRs, but between ecosystems that own both the data and the trust.” I’m most interested in HHS’s disdain for CHAI and other private efforts to lead or regulate some aspect of healthcare. HHS’s CMS itself supports (directly or otherwise) groups such as The Joint Commission and other accreditors, NCQA, URAC, NQF, CAP (proficiency testing), HL7, and IHE/HIMSS. Inside HHS, one might question ASTP/ONC’s EHR certification program role now that Meaningful Use money is long gone, market requirements exceed the certification ones, and vendors who sell non-certified EHRs may have competitive advantage due to lower costs and lack of developer exposure to ASTP/ONC information blocking requirements (although the customers of those vendors remain liable for information blocking as providers, which might influence their EHR choices). Slightly related, that might be another of many arguments for physicians to switch the the Direct Primary Care model where patients pay a monthly membership fee – if you don’t submit claims, check eligibility, or make referrals electronically, HIPAA doesn’t apply to you because it’s an outdated administrative privacy law, not a privacy law, even though most consumers don’t realize that. Ditto consumer wearables and data held by employers and life insurance companies – HIPAA doesn’t apply.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Poll respondents gave “digital transformation” the top spot in overused health tech terms. However, it’s a great descriptor for a nail salon. 

New poll to your right or here: Which health system goal carries the most weight when making technology investments?

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

AirStrip secures a $50 million growth credit facility from OrbiMed plus an additional equity investment, which it will use to expand its clinical surveillance, decision support, and remote monitoring solutions across health systems.

Government and Politics

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. uses a post on X to directly criticize CHAI and any non-governmental efforts to regulate the use of healthcare AI.

Senators press Deloitte and three other companies over widespread errors in Medicaid eligibility systems, raising concerns that beneficiaries will lose coverage when work requirements are implemented.

Austin Diagnostic Clinic (TX) restores parental access to children’s medical records under a settlement with Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office found that the clinic’s EHR was automatically revoking parental access when patients turned 12.

Senators consider a bill that would require healthcare facilities and plans to include a “human override” option in AI-driven clinical decision tools, ensuring that clinicians can reject AI recommendations without penalty. Covered entities would also be required to accept clinician feedback on AI-powered clinical decision support and would be prohibited from sharing data about clinician overrides that would identify a particular practitioner.

Other

A Pulitzer-winning climate publication covers Epic’s geothermal network, which it says is one of the largest geothermal heating and cooling networks in the world. The system includes 6,100 boreholes, and drilling started last month on another 2,400. Epic’s buildings use one-fourth of the amount of energy of typical office buildings from a combination of the geothermal system, high-efficiency lighting, and extra insulation and weatherization.

Sponsor Updates

• RLDatix staff raise $1,500 for SickKids Hospital at the Heatwave Volleyball Tournament.
• Ellkay, Navina, and Artera will exhibit at the Athenahealth Thrive Summit November 3-5 in Nashville.
• ReferWell appoints Charles Steller to its Board of Directors.
• Waystar will sponsor the CORE Combined Conference October 15-17 in New Orleans.

Blog Posts

• A little bot can spark big change: How RPA can bring better outcomes to organizations (Altera Digital Health)
• How employers can take back control of unnecessary pharmacy spending (Judi Health)
• 5 Ways to Strengthen the Cyber Conversation with CFOs (Fortified Health Security)
• Babies aren’t born with cell phones; your EHR didn’t get the memo. (Nordic)
• The Strategic Value of Autonomous Coding for Health Systems (Nym)
• Behind the Scenes: How We Build Trust into Every Line of Code (Surescripts)
• The Evolving Role of the Healthcare CIO (Symplr)

Sponsor Spotlight

A better patient payment experience starts with a smarter Epic integration. TrustCommerce brings over 15 years of experience helping Epic clients implement secure payment solutions that streamline workflows and improve financial outcomes. Our team ensures smooth onboarding, reliable support, and best-practice implementation. When it comes to payments, the right partner delivers more than technology, it delivers trust, efficiency, and lasting value across the entire care journey. Learn more. (Sponsor Spotlight is free for HIStalk Platinum sponsors).

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Sponsorship information.
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News 10/10/25

Top News

Amazon Pharmacy will fill prescriptions from kiosks in One Medical clinics and is talking to health systems about broader use.

Patients are sent a QR code in the Amazon app that is scanned at the kiosk to pick up the custom-labeled medication.

Reader Comments

From Made in the USA: “Re: H1-B visas. How are companies in this space being affected? My employer relied on H1-B employees heavily for years. They even restructured a major division in a way that nobody’s responsibilities changed whatsoever, but people got split into one role or the other. One of the roles allowed visa sponsorship, while the other didn’t. I am curious to know if other firms also rely on visas like we did, and how they are being impacted.” I welcome feedback from the front lines.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

HIStalk sponsors who are participating in the HLTH conference October 19-22: tell me about your activities and I’ll include them in my conference guide.

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Bizmatics. Bizmatics Inc., a leading innovator in healthcare technology, empowers ambulatory medical practices to thrive in today’s evolving healthcare landscape. PrognoCIS EHR Software, our AI-integrated comprehensive suite of clinical and business productivity solutions, includes Practice Management, Medical Billing, Telemedicine, Patient Portal, and Occupational Medicine. PrognoCIS equips clinics of all sizes – from small to large and multi-specialty – with the tools they need to achieve operational efficiency, create better patient outcomes, and maximize revenue. Thanks to Bizmatics for supporting HIStalk.

I found this YouTube video that introduces PrognoCIS EHR.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Workforce solutions vendor HealthStream acquires Virsys12, which offers a provider data management suite.

Oracle releases renderings of its planned $1.2 billion, 70-acre riverfront headquarters campus in Nashville, which will include a Nobu hotel and restaurant and a public park.

Microsoft reportedly licenses Harvard Health Publishing content to provide answers to healthcare questions that are posed by Copilot users.

Sales

• University Hospital Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Institute will replace three legacy PACS with Pro Medicus’s Visage 7 imaging.

People

Seattle Children’s hires Christopher Longhurst, MD, MS (UC San Diego Health) as CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

WellSky adds an ambient listening and transcription to its home health platform and will launch a voice assistant to complete OASIS documentation in December. 

A KLAS review of credentialing technology concludes that vendor relationships matter most, but full credentialing automation is not yet available and clinician usability lags.

TigerConnect earns FDA 510(k) clearance for its cloud-native alarm management solution.

Oracle Health announces GA of its Health Connection Hub data governance and reporting console.

All nine Epic-using health systems in Louisiana go live on MyChart Central, giving patients single sign-on, cross-facility access to records, messaging, and care management.

Wolters Kluwer Health updates Lippincott DocuCare, its EHR simulator for training nurses.

A Bain & Company and KLAS report finds that providers are prioritizing ROI-driven technology and are widely adopting ambient documentation and RCM solutions. Payers are focusing on care coordination and utilization management. Only 20% of providers prefer best-of-breed tools, and two-thirds of Epic customers would choose a given Epic option over a competitor’s better product. 

Government and Politics

A new KFF poll finds that 59% of respondents disapprove of the job performance of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, with most Republicans approving and most Democrats disapproving.

Sponsor Updates

• Black Book Research offers an analysis of how healthcare organizations are adjusting to the federal government shutdown in the areas of finance, operations, IT, and supply chain.
• Judi Health releases a new episode of “The Astonishing Healthcare Podcast” titled “Solving Pharmacy Benefits: Inside the RFP Process, with Josh Golden & Nic Bolitho.”
• Healthmonix is exhibiting at the NAACOS Fall Conference this week in Washington, DC.
• Netsmart opens a new office in Bengaluru, India.
• WellSky adds new SkySense AI capabilities to its Home Health EHR.
• MRO will present at the NCQA Health Innovation Summit October 14 in San Diego.

Blog Posts

• The future of EHRs in Wales: A turning point for digital health (Altera Digital Health)
• The Specialty Drug Surge: Can Hospitals & Specialty Pharmacies Keep Pace? (First Databank)
• Minnesota Social Care Summit: Highlights from the North Star State (Findhelp)
• CX Metrics That Matter: Optimizing Your Customer Experience for Growth (Five9)
• Lessons from the Frontlines: Navigating a Cybersecurity Crisis During Healthcare Integration (Fortified Health Security)
• Updated 2024 MIPS quality benchmarks: What providers need to know for 2024 final scores and 2025 performance tracking (Healthmonix)
• “Beautiful” for Providers? Economic Effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 on Hospitals, Health Systems & Medical Groups (Impact Advisors)
• Reactive to Proactive: Using Denial Management Software for Healthcare (Inovalon)
• Revolutionizing Patient Access: Mastering AI Search for Healthcare (Kyruus Health)
• From data to action: Leveraging technology and collaboration to advance community health (Meditech)
• You Call the Shots: NG8 Upgrade (Med Tech Solutions)

Contacts

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

News 10/8/25

Top News

The VA will add nine sites to its Oracle Health EHR rollout in 2026.

Four Michigan sites will also go live in 2026.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Survey: “What’s your take on the value of IT Managed Services?” Sponsor: CTG. Due to recent legislative changes, Healthcare organizations are under growing pressure to balance cost, performance, and innovation. CTG wants to hear from leaders like you on how IT managed services can help — or hinder — those goals in this quick, 5-minute survey. Your insights will help inform industry understanding and provide a clear picture of how IT managed services is currently being used.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Australia-based healthcare AI company Heidi raises $65 million in Series B funding and names Simon Kos, MBBS, MBA (Lumyra.AI) as chief medical officer. Heidi works with Beth Israel Lahey Health (MA) and MaineGeneral in the US.

Qualtrics, which offers customer and employee experience software, will acquire healthcare market research company Press Ganey for $6.75 billion.

Health system call center technology vendor Attuned Intelligence raises $13 million in seed funding.

Savista, which offers RCM outsourcing and technology, acquires the cancer registry business of Onco Services.

Image-guided surgery technology vendor MediView raises a $24 million Series A funding round.

Chartis acquires Healthlink Advisors.

Sales

• Community Health Network (IN) will implement TripleKey’s risk management platform.
• Tanner Health (GA) selects Robbie AI fall-prevention technology from Healthliant Ventures.

People

ReferWell names Mark Bergen, MS (Gebbs Healthcare Solutions) SVP of sales.

Susan Reagan (RLDatix) joins AssureCare as VP of sales.

Datavant names Josh Builder (CVS Health) as CTO.

Announcements and Implementations

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital moves from piloting to fully implementing Veris Health’s remote patient monitoring platform.

CommonSpirit Health implements Safety Net Connect’s advanced care planning software at its four hospitals in Los Angeles as part of a pilot program for improved recuperative care coordination.

A new report from Trilliant Health titled “2025 Trends Shaping the Health Economy” contains some interesting points:

• Healthcare spending was $14,570 per person in 2023, 18% of GDP, with poor value.
• It poses the question, “How long can the US allocate more than $1 trillion each to Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the federal debt?” also noting that Medicaid spending makes up a disproportionate share of state budgets.
• The most expensive 10% of patients account for two-thirds of spending.
• Half of US adults are unable to access and/or pay for healthcare.
• “Inexplicable” price variation contributes to high costs, and negotiated rates vary wildly withing the same hospital by payer.
• The health status of Americans is deteriorating as chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, depression, and cancer rise.
• The supply of primary care physicians is insufficient and unevenly spread.
• Quality reporting and EHRs are expensive and provide low ROI.
• The UK’s NICE cost review program doesn’t recommend 75% of FDA-approved drugs, citing lack of clinical evidence and cost-effectiveness.
• Ambulatory surgery centers are capturing more surgical cases while charging less.
• Telehealth use is down, with non-behavioral virtual care declining 52% since 2020.
• The report predicts that hospital price caps are imminent unless value improves.

Government and Politics

Zus Health CEO and Athenahealth co-founder and CEO Jonathan Bush will reportedly announce this week that he is running as a Republican in Maine’s 2026 governor’s race.

Sponsor Updates

• Clinical Architecture staff volunteer with Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana.
• AdvancedMD announces AI-enhanced product updates across its EHR, practice management, and patient engagement solutions.
• Black Book Research offers an assessment of how the government shutdown is forcing sweeping furloughs and program suspensions at the FDA, CDC, NIH, CMS, and SAMHSA.
• CereCore joins the Oracle PartnerNetwork Program.
• Optimum Healthcare IT publishes an infographic titled “How Managed Services Can Reduce Your Healthcare IT Spend.”
• AGS Health, HealthMark Group, MRO, Nym, RLDatix, SmarterDx, TruBridge, Vyne Medical, and Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at AHIMA 25 October 12-14 in Minneapolis.

Blog Posts

• Implementing Automation in Appeals Management (AGS Health)
• Stop the spread: How infection preventionists can combat infodemics (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Three takes on transforming hospital admin with tech (Altera Digital Health)
• The Perennial Cybersecurity Problem: Tool Proliferation and the Talent Crisis (Clearwater)
• What Is A Net Promoter Score, And What Does It Measure? (Concord Technologies)
• Pharmacy Benefits 101: Successful Implementations (Judi Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Send news or rumors.
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Sponsorship information.
Contact us.

Monday Morning Update 10/6/25

Top News

The Cancer AI Alliance, a research collaboration of four major cancer centers, launches a platform that securely centralizes anonymized data from its members to train AI models.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Most poll respondents aren’t so loyal to their doctors that they will tolerate administrative frustration.

New poll to your right or here: What health tech term is most overused? That inspired me to check my HISsies awards from 10 years ago, where I was reminded that the most overused buzzword was “big data.”

I consummated my occasional urge this week to binge my favorite finance thriller movies: “Wall Street,” “The Big Short,” “Boiler Room,” and “Margin Call.” It was either impossible or expensive to do this before rollout of ad-supported streaming channels such as Pluto TV, Tubi, and The Roku Channel.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Uniform virtual care platform vendor Collette Health acquires the Virtual Nursing Academy, which provides education for deploying virtual nursing in health systems.

Former pharmacy chain giant Rite Aid closes its last drugstores, adding to the one-third of US pharmacies that shut down between 2010 and 2021.

People

TruBridge hires Michael Daughton, MBA (EnableComp) as chief business officer.

Lisa Dykstra, CHIME advisor and former Lurie Children’s Hospital SVP/CIO, died last week at 55.

Announcements and Implementations

England requires all GP practices to keep online consultation tools active 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, allowing patients to request appointments, ask questions, and describe symptoms without joining “the 8 a.m. scramble.” Some practices disable apps once slots fill, driving 6.6% of patients who can’t get through by phone to the ED. One practice cut appointment wait from 14 days to three, with 95% of patients seen within a week.

Sponsor Updates

• Inovalon will host its annual Empower summit November 2-4 in Washington, DC.
• Netsmart introduces its new “Voices of Care” podcast.
• Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast featuring Matthew Denenberg, MD.
• Waystar will exhibit at the PACHC Annual Conference and Clinical Summit October 7-9 in Lancaster, PA.
• WellSky releases a new report titled “Addressing today’s healthcare workforce challenges.”

Blog Posts

• Improving Referral Workflows: A Key Driver for Improving Patient Experience and Collections (Vyne Medical)
• 6 Ways Revenue Cycle Leaders Can Balance Urgency With Empathy (Tegria)
• Single-entry point: Addressing the patient record access problem in the NHS (Nordic)
• The Strategic Value of Autonomous Coding for Health Systems (Nym)
• A Q&A with Dr. Andrew Mellin on Patient Access and the Power of a Direct Connection (Surescripts)
• From Cerner to Oracle Health: Lessons on Partnerships, Governance and the Future of AI (CereCore)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information.
Contact us.

News 10/3/25

Top News

Medicare’s telehealth flexibilities lapse due to the federal government’s shutdown, with these changes:

• Geographic restrictions are restored.
• Medicare patients won’t be able to receive services in their homes.
• An initial In-person visit will be required within the six months before a behavioral or mental telehealth service and then annually.
• Audio-only telehealth services are no longer permitted.
• The Acute Hospital Care at Home program is shut down, forcing hospitals to move those patients, some of whom have mobility, transportation, and immune deficiency limitations, to overcrowded inpatient programs. All participating patients had to be discharged or moved back into the hospital by Tuesday.
• Providers can continue to offer services to Medicare patients. They can hold those bills until the shutdown is resolved, but they are not guaranteed that Congress will authorize retroactive payments as it has in the past.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

HIStalk sponsors who are participating in the HLTH conference October 19-22: tell me about your activities and I’ll include them in my conference guide.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Survey: “What’s your take on the value of IT Managed Services?” Sponsor: CTG. Due to recent legislative changes, healthcare organizations are under growing pressure to balance cost, performance, and innovation. CTG wants to hear from leaders like you on how IT managed services can help — or hinder — those goals in this quick, 5-minute survey. Your insights will help inform industry understanding and provide a clear picture of how IT managed services is currently being used.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Fortified Health Security acquires cybersecurity firm Latitude Information Security.

Veradigm’s special investor update call offered no details on its anticipated Nasdaq relisting. The company said that its financials remain sound, but it again withheld profit metrics, citing the unresolved revenue recognition discrepancies that led to its delisting. It continues to hope to become current on SEC filings and have shares relisted sometime in 2026.

Waystar closes its $1.25 billion acquisition of Iodine.

General Catalyst’s HATCo closes its $500 million acquisition of Akron-based Summa Health, two years after it was announced. The VC firm will convert Summa to a for-profit and use it as a living laboratory for the technology products of GC’s portfolio companies.

People

TigerConnect hires Peter Stetson, MD, MA (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) as CMIO and Sheeza Hussain (Press Ganey) as chief growth officer.

NextGen Healthcare promotes Srinivas Velamoor, MBA to president and CEO. He replaces David Sides, who will remain an investor and board member.

Government and Politics

The VA updates its AI strategy, which includes:

• Rollout of AI-powered digital assistants for appointment scheduling and form submissions.
• Enhance the EHR as a “more adaptive, context-aware copilot” by adding real-time transcription.
• Automate claims processing.
• Use AI copilots and agents to handle routine inquiries and administrative tasks.
• Support staff by using AI to retrieve and summarize information from all VA sources.

HHS officials say that the administration does not support private sector vetting of AI tools in healthcare. Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill, who is a technology investor, tells Politico that the Coalition for Health AI could become a “cartel” that allows big companies to squelch startups.

Privacy and Security

Meta will use conversations with its AI products for targeted advertising. Its upcoming privacy update also authorizes using data that is captured by its smart glasses and its AI image generator to target ads on Facebook and Instagram, with no opt-out option offered.

Other

Medical school professor Robert Wachter, MD provides interesting analysis of the “AI knowledge war” among OpenEvidence, Wolters Kluwer’s UpToDate, and Epic. Notes:

• UpToDate’s medical literature content is overseen by thousands of human experts.
• OpenEvidence quickly became popular because it could analyze a full clinical case and provide an immediately useful and accurate AI “curbside consult.” Wachter says that is comparable to the difference between a Google search result and getting more in-depth, human-like answers from a GPT.
• UpToDate just added some AI capabilities, but its expert-curated approach to evidence still contrasts with OpenEvidence’s direct literature search. According to Wolters Kluwer’s chief medical officer, those experts add value because they “understand the intersection of evidence, real-world patient care, the fact that there isn’t a randomized study for everything, and they have judgment.”
• Epic’s Art and Cosmos have access to huge amounts of EHR treatment and outcomes data that UpToDate and OpenEvidence don’t have, although Wachter is not yet convinced that their results will be more helpful in patient care.
• He sees Epic’s big advantage as allowing doctors to ask specific questions without typing in the patient’s situation, which could offer “the capacity to transform the practice of medicine.”

Keep the pumpkin-everything products — my most-anticipated fall treat is Mr. Autumn Man.

Sponsor Updates

• ISG Software Research 2025 Data Platforms Buyers Guide ranks InterSystems as an overall leader.
• AGS Health wins a UiPath AI25 Award for its use of agentic AI automation to assist providers in managing the rising rate of healthcare claim denials.
• Inovalon announces that its advanced analytics and real-world data capabilities are now available on Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud for Healthcare & Life Sciences.
• Surescripts releases a new report that details key drivers of clinician burnout, including administrative burdens and inefficiencies.
• Kyruus Health gives its customers the ability to manage provider and practice profiles on Healthgrades and its syndication partners.
• Symplr creates a Nurse Executive Advisory Council, which will be chaired by Symplr Chief Clinical Officer Susan Grant, DNP, RN.
• Waystar closes its acquisition of Iodine Software.
• Ellkay sponsors the Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (NJ) Golf Outing.
• DrFirst announces the 2025 Healthiverse Heroes Award Winners, including HIStalk sponsor Elsevier.
• Findhelp welcomes new customers UAB Medicine (AL), The Lockhouse Group, and the University of Oklahoma Health Campus.

Blog Posts

• Enabling clinicians to be clinicians (Altera Digital Health)
• Data Accessibility is Key to Healthcare Analytics (Dimensional Insight)
• From Fragmented to Fast: Future-Proofing Healthcare CX with AI and Agent Collaboration (Five9)
• CISO Brief: Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2025 (Fortified Health Security)
• TEAM is mandatory. Success isn’t. What hospitals must do now to prepare. (Healthmonix)
• Best Claims Management Software for Hospitals: What to Look For (Inovalon)
• Strengthening Rural Care: What States Need to Know About the CMS Rural Health Transformation Program (Konza Health)
• Celebrating Our Inaugural 2025 Care Access Champions: Announcing Our Medical Group Winners (Kyruus Health)
• Charting healthcare’s future through partnership: Highlights from Meditech Live 25 (Meditech)
• How Proactive Healthcare IT Support Prevents Costly System Failures (Med Tech Solutions)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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News 10/1/25

Top News

Specialty care coordination company Switchboard Health acquires Conduce Health, which offers AI-powered referral management and analytics software for specialty care.

I interviewed Conduce Health CEO Najib Jai, MD, MBA earlier this year.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Survey: “What’s your take on the value of IT Managed Services?” Sponsor: CTG. Due to recent legislative changes, Healthcare organizations are under growing pressure to balance cost, performance, and innovation. CTG wants to hear from leaders like you on how IT managed services can help — or hinder — those goals in this quick, 5-minute survey. Your insights will help inform industry understanding and provide a clear picture of how IT managed services is currently being used.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Sunstone Partners acquires a majority stake in healthcare cybersecurity and compliance company Clearwater.

CareCloud will acquire the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s MAP App, a revenue cycle performance benchmarking tool used by providers.

Assort Health raises $76 million in a Series B round, bringing total funding to $102 million since launching in 2023. It offers specialty-specific AI voice agents for inbound patient phone calls.

Confido Health raises $10 million in a Series A round to expand its AI voice agent platform for appointment scheduling and patient access.

Investors file a class action lawsuit against online weight loss clinic operator LifeMD, claiming that executives touted strong Q1 results and raised guidance without disclosing high acquisition costs and refunds. The company then missed Q2 targets, cut guidance, and saw shares fall 44% in one day. LFMD shares are down 80% from their all-time high in early 2021, valuing the company at $322 million.

Huntzinger Management Group renames itself to Avarion.

People

Elsevier promotes Brent Gordon to president of its Health Education business unit.

Clearwater promotes Baxter Lee to president. He takes over from Steve Cagle, who becomes a board advisor.

ChristianaCare names Petrena Saunders, DNP, RN (Vizzia Technologies) CNIO.

David Bartley, MBA (MedeAnalytics) joins Iris Telehealth as chief solutions officer.

Sales

• Seattle Children’s will implement Abridge’s ambient clinical documentation software across its hospital following a 90-day pilot.

Announcements and Implementations

Beebe Healthcare (DE) will go live on Epic next month.

RevSpring announces GA of its new referral management software.

Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in England will roll out Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EHR in November.

Innovaccer develops a Social and Community Health Information Exchange for public sector agencies.

Trilliant releases SimilarityIndex Hospitals, a free tool that allows hospitals to compare their key operating metrics with those of the 50 most similar US hospitals.

Ambience Healthcare launches an inpatient ICD-10 CDI assistant that helps hospitalists capture precise, compliant diagnoses during the encounter.

Government and Politics

UK Prime Minister Keith Starmer announces NHS Online, a virtual service launching in 2027 that will let GP-referred patients speak to specialists by phone or video. The model draws on projects such as University Hospital Southampton’s, where irritable bowel disease patients could request help as needed, cutting in-person visits by 73% and wait times by 58%.

Other

Golisano Children’s Hospital’s NICU increases the survival rates for babies born at 22 to 24 weeks from 14.3% to 70% after creating a collaborative initiative that includes adding protocols to its EHR.

Sponsor Updates

• ReferWell staff donate handmade bookmarks and gently used books to Books 4 Everyone.
• CereCore releases a new podcast titled “From Cerner to Oracle Health: Building Partnerships That Last.”
• SelectQuote uses Findhelp’s platform to connect its low-income Medicare customers with free and reduced-cost social services.
• KLAS Research recognizes significant satisfaction gains amongst Agfa HealthCare customers who use the company’s Enterprise Imaging VNA and Xero Viewer.
• Western Australia Health implements Altera Digital Health’s Opal document management solution.
• AvaSure announces the 2025 AvaPrize Award Winners, recognizing innovation and excellence in virtual care.
• Canopii Collaborative names Ben Hintz account executive.
• Judi Health becomes the exclusive Jersey Patch Partner of the Charlotte Hornets.
• Clinical Architecture releases a new episode of “The Informonster Podcast” titled “PIQI Update and HL7 Connectathon Recap.”
• The “Empowered Patient” podcast features CliniComp SVP of Client Services Sandra Johnson in an episode titled “Hospital CIOs Setting Priorities and Plans to Use AI.”
• Concord Technologies launches the Concord Connect Ignition Program to help healthcare organizations transition from manual document processing to AI-driven, Straight-Through Processing.
• Divurgent names Amanda Young director of client service.

Blog Posts

• FY 2026 ICD-10-CM: What Coding Leaders Need to Know (AGS Health)
• Epic AI Strategy: Getting AI Approved in an Ever-Changing Landscape (CereCore)
• Enhancing medication safety through technology: A pharmacist’s perspective (Altera Digital Health)
• Revenue cycle optimization: Moving beyond the buzzwords (Cardamom)
• Unifying Healthcare Communication: Why Direct Secure Messaging (DSM) Matters (Concord Technologies)
• Defending Healthcare’s Frontline with Advanced Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (CloudWave)
• Key Takeaways from DIUC25 (Dimensional Insight)
• Take Heart: Medication Adherence Programs Solve Problems Before They Start (DrFirst)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Sponsorship information.
Contact us.

Monday Morning Update 9/29/25

Top News

KLAS interviews 35 Epic customers at UGM following the company’s AI announcements. Most said that Epic’s move into ambient speech was expected.

Customers generally expect Epic’s product to be cheaper and better integrated than those of competitors.

Some respondents worry that Epic’s expanding footprint will stifle competition and innovation, although more than half expect to implement Epic’s ambient speech offering within two years.

Reader Comments

From Skeptical CIO: “Re: Epic’s ambient speech. Everyone assumes it will be cheaper than Nuance or Abridge, but Epic add-ons haven’t exactly reduced overall costs. The Epic tax keeps going up while reducing competitor innovation. I don’t buy the argument that Epic will run this as a loss leader.”

From Grizzled Analyst: “Re: federal telehealth coverage. Ending with a shutdown and turning off a decade of progress with the stroke of a Congressional pen. Hospitals spent millions on virtual care platforms, patients got used to access, and now it’s all at risk because of political brinkmanship.”

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Most poll respondents don’t expect personal financial improvement next year, with federal government volatility most often cited as the cause.

New poll to your right or here: Would you change doctors over non-clinical problems such as staff behavior, billing errors, bad tech, or scheduling headaches? It probably depends on how much you rely on continuity of care, whether you perceive your physician as better than the alternatives, or who takes your insurance. Medical practices are odd that much of the management and public-facing behavior is left to unqualified or unmotivated employees because doctors are poor managers. 

Pondering: 

• Would outcomes differ if health system C-level executives, especially those who are going all-in on AI, were themselves replaced by AI that was trained on hospital data? That might be even more relevant to for-profit company C-level folks, who seem to misfire often enough that maybe AI can’t do worse while saving huge annual salaries.
• With the raft of upcoming MyChart enhancements, should it work like Uber where doctors and patients rate each other for future consideration in booking appointments?
• Were you really “promoted” if your new job is higher on the org chart but comes with no increase in pay? I admit that I accepted an offer like that once, and would do so again, because (a) the office view was killer; and (b) the alternative was to hope they didn’t hire an insufferable idiot as my new boss. The health system claimed that they couldn’t afford to pay me more, which wasn’t the strongest argument since I had IT access to its salaries and financials.

Listening: The Favors, a collaboration between apparently popular (judging from Spotify stream counts) Finneas O’Connell (“Finneas,” a 10-time Grammy winner and Billie Eilish’s brother and collaborator) and Ashley Willson (“Ashe”). They wrote all the songs on their new release. It’s not usually my kind of genre, but I’ve played the album several times and can’t get enough. My painfully obvious prediction is that they will soon approach household name status, probably both individually and collectively.

Meanwhile, I’m cooling on podcasts just as quickly as I embraced them. I tried all the reader suggestions, but endless commercials are so jarring and distracting that I can’t focus on the story.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Survey: “What’s your take on the value of IT Managed Services?” Sponsor: CTG. Due to recent legislative changes, Healthcare organizations are under growing pressure to balance cost, performance, and innovation. CTG wants to hear from leaders like you on how IT managed services can help — or hinder — those goals in this quick, 5-minute survey. Your insights will help inform industry understanding and provide a clear picture of how IT managed services is currently being used.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Veradigm will provide a business update after Tuesday’s market close, raising speculation that it will make an announcement about Nasdaq relisting.

Bonsai Health, whose AI agents automate the front-office workflows of medical practices, raises $7 million in seed funding. Founders Travis Schneider and Luke Kervin have launched three previous companies together, most recently PatientPop, which merged with Kareo in late 2021 to form Tebra.

People

Randall Sanborn, MS (MyMichigan Health) joins Aspirus Health as VP of system IT process and emerging technologies.

Announcements and Implementations

A Black Book Research poll of physician practice managers finds rapid growth in digital tool use and stronger EHR/RCM vendor ties, but half worry that collections will drop with medical debt removed from credit reports, while 81% don’t trust their system’s AI prompts due to lack of transparency and auditability. The report notes that practice managers often don’t recognize or use the capabilities of their current systems.

A sponsored 9to5 Mac article highlights 100-bed Emory Hallandale Hospital’s deployment of Macs, IPads, IPhones, and Apple Watches that run Epic Hyperspace, including its native MacOS app.

A Canadian news network warns patients that Epic MyChart’s new user agreement requires arbitration and a class action waiver, though such clauses aren’t enforceable under the consumer protection laws of some provinces. It also notes that patients can instead use hospital-specific web version of MyChart, which doesn’t include those terms.

Yale School of Medicine researchers validate that consumer prices increase when hospitals acquire medical practices. Interesting facts:

• States do not enforce antitrust laws.
• Healthcare quality doesn’t usually improve post-acquisition because “doctors are rather good at providing care across corporate boundaries” due to experience navigating insurance and referrals.
• Hospitals aren’t required to report practice acquisitions to regulators, so the authors had to develop an AI algorithm that probed available records to find doctors who changed employment from private practices to hospitals.
• Prices go up because hospitals press employed doctors to keep referrals in-house, insurers are reluctant to remove practices from their networks when that would mean removing the hospital as well, and consolidation increases market power.

Government and Politics

Politico reports that a looming federal shutdown, which can be avoided only if Congress passes a funding bill by Tuesday night, would end Medicare’s coverage of telehealth visits this week.

The UK government creates a National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, which will accelerate NHS adoption of AI by advising on regulation and reviewing technology such as ambient voice that falls into a regulatory gray area. The group’s chair is University of Birmingham medical professor Alastair Denniston, MBBChir, MA, PhD.

Other

My favorite headline of the week calls Oprah an influential “woo-woo wellness” aficionado, only lightly mentioning that she gave our Medicare leader an early, scrub-wearing medutainment platform to peddle miracle cures and fad diets.

Sponsor Updates

• PerfectServe sponsors the American Heart Association’s Greater Washington Golf Tournament.
• RLDatix launches its new Hello from RLD campaign, reintroducing the company in the wake of its major transformations over the last few years.
• Arcadia, MRO, Healthmonix, and Navina will exhibit at the NAACOS Fall 2025 Conference October 8-10 in Washington, DC.
• Redox releases a new episode of its “Shut the backdoor” podcast titled “The Link Between Disney Imagineering and Healthcare Security Teams – Making the Impossible Possible with guest Bob Weis.”
• Waystar will exhibit at the KPCA Annual Conference October 1-3 in Covington, KY.

Blog Posts

• How Kern Medical Closed a $963K Gap and Gained $3M in 60 Days (Inovalon)
• Prioritizing Mental Health: 67% of Medical Groups Have a Behavioral Health Specialist on Staff (AdvancedMD)
• Reimagine trust for today’s healthcare with UpToDate Expert AI (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• How Autonomous Coding Keeps Pace with AMA/CMS and Simplifies Update Season (Nym)
• Demystifying Healthcare Payments: Complexity, Change, and What’s Next (TrustCommerce a Sphere company)
• And the 2025 Surescripts White Coat Award Winners Are… (Surescripts)
• Confronting the Crisis of Workplace Violence in Healthcare (Symplr)
• 4 Key Takeaways From Meditech Live 2025 (Tegria)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information.
Contact us.

News 9/26/25

Top News

Epic announces these items at Thursday’s Open@Epic:

• MyChart Central, which adds biometric login using Epic ID and allows retrieval of a patient’s records from any participating organization.
• Connection of home medical devices without external apps using Epic’s new Bluetooth Generic Health Sensor specification.
• Real-time “blue dot” patient wayfinding in MyChart (November 2025).
• Additional prior authorization APIs (February 2026).
• Developer licenses for the Clarity Data Model.
• Staff duress APIs (February 2026).
• Updates to Open.Epic and Epic’s Vendor Services, including a five-step guide with developer roadmap, 40 developer playbooks, and expanded Sandbox testing capabilities.

Reader Comments

From Concerned Clinical Staff: “Re: Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Rolling out the Go Helen Nurse Concierge app ahead of Epic implementation. Does anyone have more information on the company? It seems duplicative with Epic’s Rover and Bedside and lack of Epic integration seems like a prime situation for errors in allergies, NPO, etc.” My understanding is that patients use the company’s voice app to make non-clinical, hospitality-type requests from their rooms (bring ice, order meals, etc.) that are then routed internally by the company’s concierge team. Nurses can also make in-room requests to have supplies brought to the room. The hospital is piloting Helen.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

HIStalk sponsors who are participating in the HLTH conference October 19-22: tell me about your activities and I’ll include them in my conference guide.

I’m slowly warming up to podcasts after years of dismissing them, and I now see why they’re perfect for long walks and road trips. My first full series, which I’ve actually listened to twice, is the Peabody-winning investigative documentary “S-Town.” It’s gripping, provided you aren’t put off by profanity. Since its 2017 release, it has been downloaded 200 million times, which may make it the most-listened-to podcast ever. The experience reminds me of 1940s radio drama, where intimacy and imagination fill the mental space more powerfully in the absence of visuals.

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Concord Technologies. Concord Technologies is a leading provider of Secure Document Exchange, Intelligent Document Processing, and Interoperability solutions to healthcare providers, payers, and  other highly regulated businesses. For more than 20 years, billions of sensitive records containing valuable patient information have been reliably, accurately, and securely exchanged across Concord’s digital health network, and today, the company processes more than 4 billion pages of protected data each year. The company is also recognized for its best-in-class development of new artificial intelligence technologies, including Concord’s Practical AI approach to solving the most pervasive administrative challenges in the healthcare industry and for pioneering end-to-end Straight-Through Processing of healthcare data into the system of record. Thanks to Concord Technologies for supporting HIStalk.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Datavant acquires DigitalOwl, which summarizes patient records for law and insurance firms.

AmplifyMD, which offers hospitals a multispecialty virtual care platform and physician network, raises a $20 million Series B round.

Oracle awards its newly announced co-CEOs stock options worth $350 million, $250 million for Clay Magouyrk and $100 million for Mike Sicilia.

Sales

• Java Medical Group will expand its use of TruBridge’s technology and services at Russellville Hospital (AL).
• Bethany Children’s Health Center will implement Commure’s documentation and workflow platform, integrated with Meditech.
• Primary care provider Marathon Health chooses Medbridge’s Pathways musculoskeletal care platform.

People

Intermountain Health promotes Mike Harmer, MPA to VP of ERP digital services.

Announcements and Implementations

CommonSpirit Health will use ESO’s EMS–hospital integration platform to give nearly 4,000 Utah first responders real-time access to the hospital outcomes data of patients they have transported.

CareCloud launches a hospital-focused physician relationship management platform obtained from its acquisition of Medsphere one month ago.

AI meeting assistant vendor Fireflies.ai rolls out Fireflies for Healthcare, a HIPAA-compliant documentation platform that integrates with EHRs via Chrome and generates clinical notes, patient summaries, referral letters, sick notes, and follow-up scheduling. Plans start at $10 per provider per month.

WellSky launches the AI-supported WellSky CarePort Referral Intake solution.

Wolters Kluwer Health announces UpToDate Expert AI, which allows clinicians to access evidence-based answers at the point of care.

The Joint Commission recognizes Tampa General Hospital with its inaugural innovation award, citing its work with Palantir, implement of ambient documentation, use of Apella’s OR safety computer vision technology, and its hospital-at-home program.

Ambience Healthcare introduces HCC Compliance Validator, which verifies in real time that clinician-selected diagnoses are substantiated for CMS compliance.

Access Community Health Network collaborates with Epic and the Social Security Administration to exchange medical records electronically to speed up disability benefit review.

Sutter Health launches Sutter Sync, developed with Epic, to send readings from its proprietary blood pressure cuff, scale, and glucometer directly to Epic’s MyChart app on the patient’s phone, eliminating the need for a separate device app. Epic mentioned its Bluetooth Generic Health Sensor specification this week at Open@Epic.

Other

A study finds that private equity hospital takeovers are linked to staff and salary cuts, more patient transfers to other hospitals, and increased ED deaths.

ProPublica details an insurer’s denial of mental health coverage for a man who tried to commit suicide twice. His wife accuses the company of “weaponized incompetence” for intentionally throwing up barriers such as publishing incorrect fax numbers and blocking her access to billing codes, denial reasons, and medical records that her husband had authorized her to see.  

Sponsor Updates

• Medicomp Systems releases a new episode of its “Tell Me Where IT Hurts” podcast featuring Health Gorilla Chief Medical Officer Steven Lane, MD.
• The “NCPDPunscripted” podcast features First Databank VP of Clinical Network Services Lathe Bigler.
• AvaSure, First Databank, Inovalon, PerfectServe, Symplr, and Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at the ANA Magnet & Pathway Conference October 8-10 in Atlanta.
• Healthcare IT Leaders publishes a new guide titled “The Ultimate Workday Resource Planning & Staffing Guide.”
• Gartner recognizes Linus Health in its Hype Cycle for Digital Care Delivery, 2025, under the category of digital clinical voice analysis.
• Optimum Healthcare IT publishes a new episode of its “Visionary Voices” podcast titled “Agentic AI in Healthcare,” featuring Sameer Sethi from Hackensack Meridian Health.

Blog Posts

• Technology can help meet patients where they are (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• New Jersey Social Care Summit: Highlights from the Garden State (Findhelp)
• Why Five9 in Epic’s Toolbox Program Sets a New Standard for Healthcare CX (Five9)
• Why Unstructured Data Is a Hidden Risk (Fortified Health Security)
• Be Ready Before Disaster Strikes: Building an Effective Business Continuity Plan (Impact Advisors)
• How to improve the patient financial experience: Address these 8 reasons why patients do not pay their medical bills (Inbox Health)
• Inside a Mental Health Provider’s Revenue Cycle Transformation (Inovalon)
• How Should AI Be Used in Healthcare? A Guide to Intentional Implementation (Kyruus Health)

Sponsor Spotlight

Wolters Kluwer Health announces UpToDate Expert AI, GenAI for clinicians, built by clinicians. Clinicians get fast, reliable, evidence-based answers for patient care in a chatbot-style interface. UpToDate Expert AI is purpose-built for centralized, enterprise-wide deployment and management. For health system administrators, Wolters Kluwer’s well-established ecosystem approach is committed to supporting enterprise needs for transparency, compliance, and governance. And, UpToDate is embedded in top digital health tech platforms, AI scribes, and EHRs ensuring workflow integration. See details. (Sponsor Spotlight is free for HIStalk Platinum sponsors).

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information.
Contact us.

News 9/24/25

Top News

Oracle promotes Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to co-CEOS, replacing Safra Catz.

Magouyrk was president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and has been with the company 11 years. Sicilia joined the company in 2008 and most recently was president of Oracle Industries. Both were heavily involved with Oracle’s AI work.

Sicilia, a former lobbyist, was an early post-acquisition spokesperson for Oracle in several federal hearings about the VA’s stalled Oracle Health project. He is a regular critic of Epic and CEO Judy Faulkner. CTO Larry Ellison said, “Mike has spent the last several years modernizing Oracle’s Industry applications businesses, including Oracle Health, by completely rebuilding those applications using the latest AI technologies.”

The promotions were first disclosed in a June SEC filing.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Patient communications and payment solutions RevSpring will acquire Kyruus Health, which offers provider search and scheduling.

Pharmacy benefit manager and administrator Capital Rx rebrands to Judi Health, the name of its AI-powered health benefit management platform, and announces $400 million in new funding. The company has raised $732 million since its 2017 launch. I interviewed CEO AJ Loiacono last October.

Patient Square Capital will acquire tech-enabled group purchasing and supply chain company Premier Inc. in a $2.6 billion take-private deal. Premier, which went public in 2013, has been evaluating strategic alternatives for two years.

Prosper AI raises $5 million in seed funding. The company develops AI voice agents for patient access and administrative workflows.

Enterprise telehealth vendor Caregility announces $25.1 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to $92 million.

Diabetes software vendor Glooko acquires Monarch Medical Technologies, which offers a glucose management system. Glooko’s CEO says the acquisition will support its efforts to deliver a full hospital-to-home service.

Sales

• The New York Office of Mental Health will implement Oracle Health’s EHR across 24 inpatient psychiatric facilities and 300 outpatient programs.
• Yale New Haven Health (CT) will roll out Artisight’s Smart Hospital Platform, initially focusing on virtual nursing.

People

ReferWell names Loren Koerber (Medecision) VP of strategic account management.

Jason Bond, MBA (CareAbout Health) joins Sevaro Health as CFO and SVP of strategy.

Matt Rockhold (GE HealthCare) joins Thynk Health as chief commercial officer.

Joe Moscola, PA, MBA (Northwell Health) leaves the organization and will offer advisory consulting services.

Allymar Health Solutions hires Cecil Lynch, MD, MSc (Accenture) as CMIO.

Scottsdale Institute appoints John Glaser, PhD (Harvard Medical School) as board chair, replacing co-founder Don Wegmiller.

Announcements and Implementations

Sutter Health (CA) will use Epic-connected medical devices in its Sutter Sync digital care program for patients with chronic conditions and pregnancy.

Quest Diagnostics announces a collaboration with Epic to integrate its lab operations nationally, streamlining ordering, results, billing, and patient engagement through technologies like MyChart as part of its Project Nova initiative

Micromedex adds AI-powered drug information search for clinical decision support.

Government and Politics

VA Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office CNIO Toni Phillips, RN touts the new Oracle Health-based federal EHR’s streamlined medication administration capabilities, noting that the clicks to scan patient IDs have been reduced from 15 to two.

Sponsor Updates

• Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust’s review of Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EPR finds that the system has delivered significant advancements in care quality, patient safety, and clinical efficiency.
• Black Book Research publishes a new report titled “The Middleware Mandate.”
• Linus Health, Navina, and Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at AAFP FMX October 5-9 in Anaheim, CA.
• Clinical Architecture sponsors CHIME Innovation Summit Southwest through September 25 in Irving, TX.
• Consensus Cloud Solutions will exhibit at the HIMSS Gulf Coast Conference September 24-26 in New Orleans.
• Divurgent releases a new episode of “The Vurge” podcast celebrating the company’s 18^th anniversary.
• Canopii Collaborative names Brady Thomas account executive.
• Symplr adds capabilities to its Operations Platform that unify provider data.
• Surescripts announces the 11 winners of its 2025 Surescripts White Coat Award.

Blog Posts

• Emerging Trends and Challenges in Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management (AGS Health)
• How clinical decision tools improve healthcare and potentially reduce malpractice risk (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Arcadia Customers Outperform National Average in 2024 MSSP (Arcadia)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information.
Contact us.

Monday Morning Update 9/22/25

Top News

The American College of Medical Informatics will present its Morris F. Collen Award of Excellence to Christopher Chute, MD, DrPH at the AMIA annual meeting November 15-19 in Atlanta.

He is an informatics professor and head of biomedical informatics and data science at Johns Hopkins University and professor emeritus of biomedical informatics at Mayo Clinic, a division he founded and chaired for 20 years.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

The vast majority of poll respondents don’t agree with Larry Ellison’s belief that Oracle’s size and application development technology gives it a strong competitive advantage over Epic. Reader Jim says this:

I think Epic’s customer focused strategy and market size gives it a strategic advantage. Oracle has significantly underestimated what it takes to win in healthcare. Healthcare requires a long-term view and consistency even when profits are elusive. Mass layoffs, major customer losses, and not mentioning healthcare in their quarterly presentations supports my belief.

New poll to your right or here: Do you expect your personal financial situation to improve in 2026? Leave a poll comment to elaborate further.

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Canopii Collaborative. Canopii is a healthcare IT services firm that specializes in providing consulting services for health plans and health systems. Our primary focus is ensuring that you achieve the maximum value of your Epic software. Leveraging deep domain expertise in the Epic ecosystem, Canopii offers personalized attention to clients and delivers measurable, sustainable results. We are committed to improving healthcare outcomes by optimizing systems, increasing efficiency, and helping clients achieve their strategic goals. Thanks to Canopii for supporting HIStalk.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Morgan Stanley predicts that AI will generate “trillions of dollars in savings” by 2050, including $600 billion from drug development and $900 billion from hospital costs.

Investigative outlet The Lever reports that Epic’s new MyChart user agreement requires users to accept binding arbitration and a class action waiver, with patients who decline being redirected to a downgraded version of the portal.

People

Ganesh Persad, MSBI (Emory Healthcare) joins Cottage Health as VP/CIO.

UnitedHealth Group promotes Sandeep Dadlani, MMS, MBA to CEO of Optum Insight, its technology-enabled services business that includes the acquired Change Healthcare.

Announcements and Implementations

Evidently launches Ask Evidently, an AI chat tool that embeds in any EHR and lets users query information in the patient’s chart.

Joint Commission and the Coalition for Health AI publish “Guidance on Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare,” which provides internal governance for US health systems on implementing AI at scale.

University Hospitals launches its whole-hospital Connected Care Team initiative at UH Lake West, where it provides virtual nursing support to inpatient nursing units.

A new KLAS report reviews patient communications.

Other

A new Harris Poll survey finds that half of healthcare workers will seek or take a new job next year, although two-thirds say they would stay if their employers provide tuition support. Half of healthcare employers say that lack of advancement and educational opportunities drive employees to seek jobs elsewhere. Employees cite AI as the top skill they expect to need within five years, although 42% worry that it will take their jobs. 

A therapist accidentally shares his screen during a virtual session, allowing the patient to see that he is pasting their conversation into ChatGPT to suggest responses. In another case, a therapist who is replying via email to a grieving patient forgets to delete the AI prompt header, “Here’s a more human, heartfelt version with a gentle, conversational tone.” Patients not only feel misled, but unhappy when they find out that their private thoughts are being exposed to a tool that offers limited privacy assurances.

Sponsor Updates

• PerfectServe surpasses $100 million in contracted annual recurring revenue, a testament to the accelerating adoption of its Unite healthcare communication and scheduling platform.
• Black Book Research announces that Meditech Expanse has been ranked the top EHR for community hospitals under 150 beds.
• Surescripts publishes a new data brief titled “Care Teams Seek Tools to Improve the Patient Experience.”
• Meditech announces that customers are now live with the latest workflow advancements to its Traverse Exchange interoperability solution, which now includes consolidated patient summaries.
• Altera Digital Health, Artera, HealthMark Group, Infinx, Meditech, MRO, Nym, PerfectServe, TruBridge, and Waystar will exhibit at the MGMA Leaders Conference September 28-October 1 in Orlando.
• Nordic releases a new episode of its “Designing for Health” podcast titled “Interview with Justin Schrager, MD and Nick Sterling, MD, PhD.”

Blog Posts

• Key insights from healthcare leaders on redesigning care models around nursing priorities (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Going Beyond Your KLAS Measurement: Turn EHR Experience Data into Actionable IT Conversations (Goliath Technologies)
• 5 Things Healthcare Leaders Want from AI in 2025 and Beyond (Netsmart)
• Beyond the sandbox: Building real infrastructure for clinician-led innovation (Nordic)
• The Evolution of ICD Coding: What to Expect with ICD-11 (Nym)
• New AI‑Powered Physical Threats to Healthcare—and How to Prepare (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• Digital Experience Is the Patient Experience (Praia Health)
• The denial dilemma: How AI is reducing the burden of prior authorization (WellSky)

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Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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News 9/19/25

Top News

Sevaro Health raises $39 million in a Series B funding round.

The company’s Synapse AI technology connects hospital-based providers with virtual neurology care.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Bambu Ventures and Innova Capital Partners acquire telehealth company Lemonaid Health from what’s left of 23andMe, which is currently in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, for $10 million. 23andMe acquired Lemonaid Health in 2021 for $400 million.

Provider workforce management software startup Assured raises $6 million in seed funding.

The feud between OpenEvidence and Doximity heats up, with Doximity now countersuing OpenEvidence for defamation and false advertising. OpenEvidence sued Doximity in June for “brazen corporate espionage” related to Doximity executives allegedly impersonating various physicians and using their NPI numbers to gain access beyond what they were entitled to, with their alleged ultimate goal being to grab OpenEvidence code. (Dr. Jayne had fun summarizing the suit when she came across it several months ago.) Both companies are looking to create a ChatGPT-like tool for healthcare.

Sales

• Sutter Health (CA) customer support teams will use Hyro’s AI-based voice and chat capabilities.

People

Todd Holling (University of Texas Health San Antonio) will join Kootenai Health (ID) as interim CIO.

Konza Health promotes David Dooley, MBA to VP of software solutions and engineering, Melissa Talley to VP of clinical data quality, and Sara Warnock to VP of health IT.

Announcements and Implementations

Ardent Health implements Ambience Healthcare’s AI software for documentation, coding, and clinical workflows across its ambulatory sites.

University Hospitals (OH) launches a Connected Care Team virtual nursing program at its Lake West Medical Center using technology from Vitalchat.

Other

Mayo Clinic’s Department of Nursing develops Nurse Virtual Assistant, a generative AI tool that displays patient care summaries and evidence-based nursing resources in a tab within Mayo Clinic’s EHR.

Sponsor Updates

• Infinx sponsors The Cancer Research Collaboration & RadNet Golf Tournament in Mission Viejo, CA.
• Ellkay sponsors the Emerson Health (MA) Auxiliary Golf Tournament.
• First Databank names David Beam strategic account manager, Ethan Donohue software engineer, and Crystal Krebs clinical informatics pharmacist.
• Five9 develops an AI-powered integration for ServiceNow.
• Fortified Health Security names Grant Thorburn enterprise regional director.
• Healthcare IT Leaders sponsors the SCHIMSS Annual Fall Golf Tournament & Scholarship Fundraiser.
• Health Data Movers wins a Best Firms to Work For Award from Consulting Magazine.
• MRO will exhibit at the NAHRI Revenue Integrity Symposium September 25-26 in Westminster, CO.

Blog Posts

• Redefining speed: The AI revolution in clinical decision-making (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Why Amazon Connect Is the Perfect Choice for Call Centers in Healthcare (CTG)
• AI Evaluation in Clinical Decision Support: Building a Foundation of Trust (Elsevier)
• Our Pricing Philosophy: People First, Always (Findhelp)
• MIPS MVPs: Your complete guide to choosing the right value pathway in 2025 (Healthmonix)
• The Digital Cure: Improving Access and Efficiency in Healthcare (Impact Advisors)
• Top 5 Listings Management Software Solutions for Healthcare in 2025 (Kyruus Health)
• Mobile clinics, farming, and community outreach: how to creatively tackle health equity challenges (Meditech)

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Healthcare AI News 9/17/25

News

Meditech announces several AI enhancements to its MyHealth patient portal and Expanse EHR at its customer event, including the addition of chatbots and the integration of Commure’s AI-powered clinical documentation software with its Expanse Now app. Meditech is also working to bring agentic AI to its billing and operational workflows.

URAC launches a healthcare AI accreditation program with pathways for AI developers and users of AI in healthcare delivery.

Sutter Health (CA) customer support teams will use Hyro’s AI-based voice and chat capabilities.

Ardent Health implements Ambience Healthcare’s AI software for documentation, coding, and clinical workflows across its ambulatory sites.

Business

The FDA grants clearance for the upgraded Tempus Pixel cardiac imaging platform from precision medicine vendor Tempus AI. The company acquired Paige, a developer of FDA-cleared AI pathology tools, last month for $81 million.

AI-powered virtual care startup Doctronic announces $20 million in Series A funding. The company has developed a chatbot that can assess symptoms, offer guidance, and connect users with virtual care providers.

Automated patient billing and payments software vendor Inbox Health announces $20 million in new funding.

Healthcare AI operating system developer Innovaccer acquires Story Health, which offers a digital specialty care management platform.

Research

Researchers at Stanford University develop healthcare AI benchmarks to help users determine how well AI agents can automate tasks that clinicians typically perform manually in EHRs.

Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital (NY) launches a cardiac catheterization AI research lab to explore how AI can improve patient care and outcomes.

Other

HHS makes ChatGPT available to its employees, noting that it’s a helpful tool for summarizing long documents and advising users to to read results with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Three high school seniors in Nebraska develop MedFinanceAI, a bilingual chatbot designed to help Omaha residents better understand local medical costs. The team sourced the online tool’s data from local hospitals and medical databases.

The National University Health System in Singapore initiates AI-free periods amongst its providers to help prevent clinical de-skilling.

A patient in southeastern Pennsylvania uses Confluence Health’s AI tool to successfully appeal her insurer’s repeated denial of coverage for her ADHD medication. The insurer, however, claims the denial was initially caused by a physician reviewer error and that the AI-generated, 11-page appeal letter had no bearing on its final decision.

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News 9/17/25

Top News

Innovaccer acquires Story Health, which offers a digital specialty care management platform. Innovaccer will incorporate Story Health’s technology with its AI-enabled Healthcare Intelligence Cloud operating system for health systems.

Reader Comments

From Danger Mouse: “Re: Siemens Healthineers. Have you heard the rumor about Siemens Healthineers in preliminary negotiation to sell its Diagnostics division? If yes, do you have further details?” There were rumblings at the end of last year, when Siemens execs began taking a long, hard look at their Healthineers ROI. Bloomberg let the “exploring strategic alternatives” cat out of the bag last week, causing an uptick in company stock. Sources say the sale could bring in as much as $7 billion.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Automated patient billing and payments software vendor Inbox Health announces $20 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to $55 million since launching in 2014.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (WA) initiates a second round of layoffs within its Virtual Health Services division, with the elimination of 24 roles expected to begin in November. The health system laid off 116 virtual health employees in June, citing financial problems.

Virtual mental healthcare company Cerebral raises $25 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to nearly $500 million. Cerebral acquired competitor Resilience Labs, its first acquisition, last month.

Post-acute care coordination startup MedSetGo raises $2.4 million in seed funding.

AI-powered virtual care startup Doctronic announces $20 million in Series A funding. The company has developed a chatbot that can assess symptoms, offer guidance, and connect users with virtual care providers.

Sales

• Hospice of the Western Reserve (OH) selects Netsmart’s CareFabric platform.
• Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (NJ) will go live on Epic in early 2027.

People

Health Catalyst names Ben Albert (Upfront Healthcare) president and COO. Health Catalyst acquired Upfront in January.

Alan Roga, MD (TruLite Health) joins Transcarent as chief clinical officer.

WittKeiffer hires Jeffrey Sturman (Memorial Healthcare System) as managing partner and IT practice leader.

Agfa HealthCare names Chris LaFratta (Ascom Americas) SVP of client services, North America and Colleen Healy (Microsoft) VP of customer growth, North America.

Announcements and Implementations

North Valley Hospital District (WA) implements Oracle Health.

Meditech adds Commure’s AI-powered clinical documentation software to its Expanse Now app.

Sentara Health (VA) rolls out HealthSnap’s remote patient monitoring and chronic care management capabilities at 12 primary care locations.

Hospital General Castañer in Puerto Rico implements emergency room EHR software from EClinicalWorks.

Government and Politics

HHS OCR and ASTP release an updated version of the free Security Risk Assessment Tool for small and midsized providers.

Sponsor Updates

• Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at Magnet & Pathway Conference 2025 October 8-10 in Atlanta.
• CereCore publishes a new info sheet titled “Meditech Optimization Results.”
• In observance of World Patient Safety Day, Black Book Research recognizes top vendors by patient safety technology category, including the following HIStalk sponsors: Elsevier and Wolters Kluwer Health (diagnostic and treatment accuracy tools), PerfectServe (care coordination and communication safety), AvaSure (fall prevention and safety sensors), and RLDatix (reporting and safety intelligence platforms).

Blog Posts

• Transforming Appeals Management with Automation (AGS Health)
• Better Data, Better Care: Improving Payer-Provider Collaboration (Inovalon)
• GenAI in healthcare brings the need for risk policies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Spotlight on the Hidden Issues Revealed by Meditech Assessments (CereCore)
• Diving into Direct Primary Care (Altera Digital Health)
• Why HITRUST Isn’t Enough for Agentic AI Systems: Insights from Artera’s SVP of Technical Operations (Artera)
• Hungry to lead: Why servant leadership fills everyone’s plate (Cardamom Health)
• The Human Factor: Why Phone Scams Are Still So Effective in Healthcare (Clearwater)
• The Strategic Reward of Healthcare IT Managed Services (CTG)
• Reimagining Healthcare Training: Harnessing AI for Smarter Learning & Development (Divurgent)
• Benched by Bureaucracy: How Electronic PA Gets Prostate Cancer Patients Back in the Game (DrFirst)

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Monday Morning Update 9/15/25

Top News

The FDA grants clearance for the upgraded cardiac imaging platform of precision medicine vendor Tempus AI, sending the company’s shares up 14% on Thursday to reach a market cap of $15 billion.

Billionaire Tempus founder and CEO Eric Lefkofsky, JD was a co-founder of Groupon and remains chair. He started Tempus in 2015.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Here’s what last week’s poll respondents see as AI risks. 

New poll to your right or here: Does Oracle’s size and use of application code generators give it an edge over Epic in addressing healthcare problems? Larry Ellison made the claim during the earnings call, as his net worth was rising that day  by $100 billion.

This ad popped up during my morning time-wasting ritual.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Online Event: September 16 (Tuesday) 11:30 a.m. ET. “Waystar Innovation Showcase: Activating Advanced Automation + AI to Transform Healthcare RCM.” Join us for Waystar’s Fall Innovation Showcase  to see the tools and tactics that are transforming healthcare payments and driving real, measurable results, like a 36% boost in workforce efficiency. In just one hour, we’ll reveal major advancements helping teams streamline processes, ensure accuracy, and speed reimbursement with AI + less manual work.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Virtual chronic condition care provider Goodpath raises $17 million in a Series A funding round.

Government and Politics

A whistleblower lawsuit accuses Alphabet-owned Verily of misusing patient data, with its former diabetes business chief commercial officer alleging he was fired for reporting HIPAA violations to company leaders.

Other

A LinkedIn post by Archbold Medical Center (GA) CIO/CMIO Kendall Wyatt, MD, RN summarizes the just-concluded Oracle Health and Life Sciences Summit:

• Several clients are using the company’s new EHR.
• The company is moving beyond “listen and create a patient note” ambient AI capability to creating orders for physician review based on their practice patterns.
• The Clinical AI agent is being used by nurses and medical assistants at BayCare Health System to chart by voice.
• Also mentioned: prior authorization approval prediction, automated coding, patient history summaries, and answering questions using the patient history.
• He predicts that Epic is now like the former Cerner, which lost customers because bolting new capabilities onto an old EHR led to disconnected workflow and design.

Today’s bizarre company news: Medical Care Technologies announces that it is supporting its AI health diagnostics mission by acquiring a collection of sports trading cards and memorabilia.

Sponsor Updates

• Censinet announces that enrollment is now open for the 2026 Healthcare Cybersecurity Benchmarking Study.
• AdvancedMD will exhibit at the 2025 Psych Conference September 17-21 in San Diego.
• Vyne Medical publishes a new guide titled “Machine Learning vs. RPA in Healthcare: Finding the Right Automation for Intelligent Data Processing.”
• Netsmart will exhibit and present at the 2025 Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice Annual Conference September 15-17 in Columbus.
• Meditech releases a new case study titled “Wooster Community Hospital Health System Frees Up Nurses’ Charting Time by Almost 1,600 Hours Annually in Expanse.”
• Tegria publishes a new case study titled “Accelerating Revenue Cycle Performance for Measurable Financial Gains.”
• ReferWell names Natalie Dahle manager of people and culture.
• TrustCommerce, a Sphere company, offers a new white paper titled “Demystifying Healthcare Payments: A Practical Overview.”
• Bolton NHS Foundation Trust in England extends its rollout of Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise EPR to its community services.
• TeamBuilder signs a partnership agreement with Workday.
• Waystar will exhibit at the 2025 Biennial HFMA Tri-State Conference September 17-19 in Florence, IN.

Blog Posts

• Your Guide to Healthcare Software Companies: How to Choose the Right Partner (Inovalon)
• Kick-off to coding season (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Building a smarter and more adaptive health system (Nordic)
• Coding Cheat Sheet: E/M Coding Guidelines for 2025 (Nym)
• The Burnout Crisis We’ve Stopped Calling a Crisis (Symplr)
• Insights from the inside: How healthcare leaders can support and grow their teams (WellSky)

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News 9/12/25

Top News

OpenEvidence, which offers ad-supported medical search and AI for clinicians, acquires advertising company Amaro to enable advertising on its site.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Online Event: September 16 (Tuesday) 11:30 a.m. ET. “Waystar Innovation Showcase: Activating Advanced Automation + AI to Transform Healthcare RCM.” Join us for Waystar’s Fall Innovation Showcase  to see the tools and tactics that are transforming healthcare payments and driving real, measurable results, like a 36% boost in workforce efficiency. In just one hour, we’ll reveal major advancements helping teams streamline processes, ensure accuracy, and speed reimbursement with AI + less manual work.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Penguin Ai raises $30 million in funding. The company offers AI solutions for administrative workflows that include medical coding, prior authorizations, claims adjudication, and medical chart summarization.

Ascend Learning acquires Laudio, which sells a workforce management system for frontline leaders in health systems. I interviewed Laudio co-founder and CEO Russ Richmond, MD last year.

Bayer will shut down its radiology AI businesses, discontinuing Calantic Digital Solutions AI and the service offerings of Blackford Analysis.

Musculoskeletal care navigation vendor TailorCare acquires Stabl, which offers a computer vision monitoring platform.

Humana-owned CenterWell will acquire bankrupt The Villages Health, the North Florida-based healthcare system that serves 55,000 patients in the sprawling retirement community.

People

Joel Klein, MD, MA (University of Maryland Medical System)  joins Hackensack Meridian Health as chief digital and information officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Oracle CTO Larry Ellison — who briefly became the world’s richest person Wednesday as his ORCL shares rose by $101 billion — fielded a fanboy-style analyst question about enterprise application competitors during the earnings call.

It’s a huge advantage to be on both sides of that equation, both being an application builder and a builder of the application generation technology, the underlying AI application code generators. That’s a huge advantage. Let me give you another advantage, which is often a disadvantage. We’re very large. We no longer sell individual discrete applications. We sell suites of applications. We decided to go into the medical business against Epic, believing that we could solve much more of the problem because we’re much bigger than they are. By the way, we’re much bigger than Workday or ServiceNow, and we’re solving a larger portion of the problem. We’re able to do all of ERP, then we can add all of CRM, but all the pieces are engineered to fit together. That makes it so much easier for customers to consume.

Oracle launches the Oracle AI Center of Excellence for Healthcare, which will provide a dedicated company team, a resource hub, and advice on regulatory requirements.

Oracle will add OpenAI-powered features to its patient portal, including test result explanations, plain-language translations of medical terms, visit preparation, provider message drafting, and follow-up scheduling. General availability is expected in 2026. The company also announced that it will add precision medicine features from DNAnexus to its EHR.

Apple’s new Watch Series 11 offers hypertension notifications and sleep scoring. Prices start at $399.

AMA releases the CPT 2026 code set.

A study in England finds that primary care physicians who use Eko Health’s AI-enabled smart stethoscope increased detection of heart failure by 2.3 times, atrial fibrillation by 3.5 times, and valvular heart disease by 1.9 times.

Homecare Homebase will incorporate Element5’s agentic AI platform in its EHR.

A new KLAS report on end-to-end revenue cycle outsourcing ranks  Ensemble highest, while clients of R1 RCM and Optum report low satisfaction. Most vendors are investing in AI, but clients say it has yet to deliver operational or financial gains.

Government and Politics

The FDA will convene an advisory panel on November 6 to review AI-powered digital mental health tools.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton drops the state’s lawsuit against a pediatric endocrinologist who he had accused of falsifying medical records in providing transgender youth care. Paxton’s office said that it found no legal violations after reviewing the doctor’s medical records, but warned that it will continue to pursue cases against “delusional, left-wing medical professionals.”

Privacy and Security

US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) asks the FTC to investigate Microsoft over Ascension’s 2024 ransomware attack, which his office says began when a contractor clicked a malicious Bing search result. The incident was enabled by Microsoft’s continued support of the outdated RC4 encryption standard, which the company had pledged to fix in October 2024.

Sponsor Updates

• Medicomp Systems achieves implementation milestones across Southeast Asia.
• Vyne Medical publishes an automation guide e-book titled “Machine Learning vs. RPA in Healthcare: Finding the Right Automation for Intelligent Data Processing.”
• HCTec staff sort and pack 3,420 pounds of food at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee during the company’s volunteer day.
• Health Data Movers names Anthony Velazquez integration engineer.
• A new study using Inovalon data published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology reveals a decline in the number of US radiologists dedicating most of their clinical effort to pediatric imaging.

Blog Posts

• From Chaos to Clarity: Exodus Recovery’s Scheduling Transformation (Inovalon)
• Powering Massachusetts ACOs’ HRSN Service Delivery (Findhelp)
• CISO Brief: August 2025 Cybersecurity Threat Recap & Fall Outlook (Fortified Health Security)
• Human-centered research at Mile Bluff leads to improved clinician experience with Expanse Navigator (Meditech)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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News 9/10/25

Top News

Oracle reports Q1 results: revenue up 12%, EPS $1.01 versus $1.03, missing Wall Street expectations for both.

ORCL shares jumped 22% in after-market trading on the news that its performance obligations – contracted revenue that has not yet been recognized — stands at $455 billion, up 359% year-over-year.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Online Event: September 16 (Tuesday) 11:30 a.m. ET. “Waystar Innovation Showcase: Activating Advanced Automation + AI to Transform Healthcare RCM.” Join us for Waystar’s Fall Innovation Showcase  to see the tools and tactics that are transforming healthcare payments and driving real, measurable results, like a 36% boost in workforce efficiency. In just one hour, we’ll reveal major advancements helping teams streamline processes, ensure accuracy, and speed reimbursement with AI + less manual work.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Sales

• Hartford HealthCare (CT) selects healthcare AI technology from Abridge.
• In England, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust and Essex Partnership University Trust will roll out Oracle Health next year.
• Hospital for Special Care renews its contract with Altera Digital Health through 2032 and has adopted the company’s Sunrise Health Record intelligent faxing solution.

People

Konza Health names Joshua Mosier, MS, MPA (Bamboo Health) VP of operations.

Ajai Sehgal, MEng (Mayo Clinic) joins IKS Health as its first chief AI officer.

WhiteSpace Health CEO Gautam Char, MS will take on the additional role of chief strategy officer of parent company Omega Healthcare.

Mindyra names Bruce Brandes, MBA (Care.ai) as CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

Community Medical Center and Family Medicine Clinics (NE) go live on Epic.

Starr Regional Medical Center (TN) launches a tele-ICU program at its Athens and Etowah sites using clinical services from Equum Medical and technology from Caregility.

Cedars-Sinai will implement AI documentation from Regard, in which it is an investor.

CitiusTech launches Knewron, an AI platform to accelerate time-to-market for healthcare developers.

WellSky expands its partnership with Google Cloud to incorporate predictive insights, AI-first use interaction, and proactive care into its solutions.

Government and Politics

The 436th Medical Group at Dover Air Force Base (DE) collaborates with Maxwell Air Force Base (AL) and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (NJ) to offer virtual pediatric care during times of limited staff availability. Teams customized protocols, set up staff permissions in MHS Genesis, and createf dedicated messaging pools for efficient communication.

Sponsor Updates

• Arrive Health team members volunteer at the Greater Chicago Food Depository as part of the company’s Community Give Back initiative.
• Altera Digital Health publishes a new client story titled “Keeping care front and center: Columbus Community Hospital and Ventus Intelligent Coding.”
• Censinet will present at the KLAS Digital Health Investment Symposium September 10 in Park City, UT.
• Consensus Cloud Solutions will sponsor the Bluebird Leaders Annual Conference September 24-26 in Boulder, CO.
• CloudWave will sponsor Meditech Live 25 September 17-19 in Foxborough, MA.
• Waystar will host its True North client conference, which will include an Innovation Showcase, September 15-17 in Nashville.
• TruBridge announces a strategic partnership with Graphio.ai to enhance execution clarity, align cross-functional teams, and support data-driven decision-making.

Blog Posts

• The Evolution of Digital Agents: Transforming Revenue Cycle Management with Agentic AI (AGS Health)
• Medical Library Discovery Service: How to level up with AI (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• The Last Mile Problem: Closing AI’s Value Gap (Impact Advisors)
• How Revenue Cycle Automation Can Rescue Your Team From Open Enrollment Headaches (Inovalon)
• Mastering Value-Based Contracting: A Playbook for Payer-Provider Success (Netsmart)
• Elevating Imaging, Empowering Flow – Agfa HealthCare at RSNA 25 (Agfa HealthCare)
• Five crucial ways Health IT vendors should approach AI in the regulatory space (Altera Digital Health)
• Population health management software overview and top picks (Arcadia)
• How clinical decision support solutions are leading to improved efficiencies and care outcomes (Wolters Kluwer Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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