Monday Morning Update 9/8/25

Top News

A federal judge partially grants Epic’s motion to dismiss claims that were brought against it in a September 2024 lawsuit by Particle Health (my summary is here). Most monopoly-related claims survived because the judge wasn’t comfortable evaluating the payer market or its players in the limited context of a dismissal motion. The four of nine claims that were not dismissed will proceed to discovery.

Epic claimed that some of Particle’s customers were retrieving medical records for claimed treatment purposes but were actually using them to identify potential plaintiffs for class action lawsuits.

The judge said further proceedings must determine whether a distinct “payer market” exists and whether Epic and Particle actually compete in it.

• Claim 1: monopolization in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act (not dismissed).
• Claim 2: attempted monopolization (not dismissed).
• Claim 3: monopoly leveraging (not dismissed)
• Claim 4: violation of Sherman Act (dismissed).
• Claim 5: violation of New York business law (dismissed).
• Claim 6: tortious interference with contractual relations (not dismissed).
• Claim 7: tortious interference with prospective business relations (dismissed).
• Claim 8: defamation (dismissed).
• Claim 9: trade libel (dismissed).

My take: winning a monopoly cases is rare, and Particle must prove a specific payer market where Epic and Particle are the only players with no viable substitutes. The judge wasn’t signaling the validity of Particle’s claims by failing to dismiss them, only reinforcing that a dismissal petition review wasn’t the place to judge them. Should Particle’s monopoly claims fall short, Claim #6  — in which Particle claims that Epic encouraged XCures to breach its Particle contract — is the only one that could harm Epic, and the economic value of that claim seems low. Also, the similar Claim #7 was dismissed because “general awareness of a competitor’s success” isn’t enough to prove tortious interference, so Particle will need to prove that Epic pressured XCures to break its contract without justification.

Reader Comments

From Pointy Ears: “Re: Oracle Health. They are learning the lessons that every company learned when trying to dabble in healthcare. It’s not their fault.” Oracle seemed surprised at Cerner’s dated technology and shaky business only after shelling out $28 billion in cash, so due diligence wasn’t their long suit. The old-school read of the acquisition is that they saw healthcare as a big growth market that is dominated by little-known vendors. The modern view is that they wanted to upsell Cerner’s customers, grab patient data, one-up the cloud giants with a sexy story for stock analysts, and indulge Larry Ellison’s vanity project. Outsiders rarely do well in healthcare software, with Microsoft (via Nuance) and Philips the exceptions and Google, GE, Haven, and IBM the train wrecks. Larry’s political ties will likely protect the VA contract unless any system-related veteran harm is widely reported, but three years in, Oracle has mostly lost share to Epic, laid off the people who knew the business, and overpromised an Oracle-branded wrapper on top of the same old Millennium system that was already driving customers away (years-long customer problems with Cerner’s RCM didn’t involve UI). History also shows that the employees and customers who stick around through such turmoil are usually the ones who have the fewest options, i.e. aren’t the ones you would choose. Cerner may be Oracle’s Siebel Systems, and if you’re asking what the heck is Siebel, then that’s the point.  

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Poll respondents predict that health systems will be significantly hurt by recent federal policy changes.

New poll to your right or here: What risk is most often overlooked when adopting clinical AI?

I’m sympathetic to the Oracle Health folks who are being cut loose because of management’s failings rather than their own. Is your company looking people like those who might have been made involuntarily available? I’ll waive my policy and encourage you to comment on this post that you’re hiring and maybe specify the type of roles you have open.

Thanks to the following companies that recently supported HIStalk. Click a logo for more information. Your support helps when it’s time for companies to renew their annual sponsorship because they often want to know the result (ad clicks, comments, buzz, and market awareness).

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

MediSpend and RLDatix subsidiary RLDatix Life Sciences will merge to offer software, data, and workflow tools for life sciences.

Sales

• Allina Health selects Five9 as its cloud contact center provider.

People

Brian Pruitt (NetApp) joins CloudWave as SVP for enterprise growth.

Privacy and Security

Sutter Health fires several urgent care employees who posted “insensitive” TikTok videos of themselves posing with patient bodily fluids. Most surprising is that the former employees didn’t bother obscuring their identities, which wasn’t smart even by TikTok user standards.

Other

Scammers are using AI to create videos in which doctors appear to pitch quack products, which a cybersecurity group attributes to a global operation. Eric Topol, MD reports that dozens of AI-generated knockoffs of his new book are being sold on Amazon, some of which were bought by his patients.

Sponsor Updates

• SmartSense by Digi supports the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe Ancestral Lands Movement as a sponsor of its charity golf tournament.
• Medicomp Systems releases a new episode of its “Tell Me Where IT Hurts” podcast featuring PointClickCare CMO Hamad Husainy, DO.
• Symplr publishes its fourth annual Compass Survey titled “Progress Stalled: How Crisis Culture is Costing Healthcare.”
• Nordic releases a new episode of its “Designing for Health” podcast featuring Marina Gerner, PhD.
• Nym names Lihi Shoham and Dvir Winder software engineers, Shahar Siman Tov and Ido Lindman medical data analysts, Reina Suescun director of strategy and operations, and Niv Eckhaus NLP research engineer.
• Rhapsody will present at the Civitas Networks for Health Annual Conference September 29 in Anaheim, CA.
• TeamBuilder will present at The Millenium Alliance’s Transformation Assembly September 9-10 in Dallas.
• Visage Imaging announces it has been granted an Authority to Operate for the Veterans Affairs Enterprise Cloud by the VA for its Visage 7 CloudPACS.
• Waystar will exhibit at EClinicalWorks Day September 10 in Houston.
• WellSky publishes a new report titled “Addressing today’s healthcare workforce challenges: Results from a national study.”

Blog Posts

• Why No-Contract, Pay-as-You-Go Pricing Allows Healthcare Contact Centers to Better Control Their Costs (CTG)
• Scaling impact with personalized healthcare for member-centric success (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Bringing an Academic Medical Center and Regional Health System onto a Single Oracle Fusion Instance (Impact Advisors)
• Front Office Tactics for Revenue Success After the Open Enrollment Period (Inovalon)
• Navigating Value-Based Care: What It Means for Rehab Therapy (Netsmart)
• The Rise of Emoji in Healthcare Communication (PerfectServe)
• Driving Smarter, Connected Care: How Force Therapeutics + Redox Integrate to Streamline Provider Workflows (Redox)
• CIOs: Crisis Culture Is Killing Our Progress (Here’s How to Fix It) (Symplr)
• Advocacy, Resiliency, and Rural Health: A CFO’s Perspective (CereCore)

Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 9/5/25

HHS Announces Crackdown on Health Data Blocking

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says that the agency will increase resources to enforce healthcare information blocking.

Reveal HealthTech raises $7.2M to push AI deeper into US healthcare

Healthcare AI startup Reveal HealthTech announces $7.2 million in Series A funding.

Trump administration agrees to restore health websites and data

HHS will restore health and sciences webpages and data it had deleted as settlement terms of a lawsuit that was brought by the Washington State Medical Association.

XiFin Accelerates AI-Driven RCM Future with New Growth Funding and Addition of Visionary Leader Jeff Margolis to Its Board

RCM and workflow automation software vendor XiFin announces new funding and the addition of TriZetto founder Jeff Margolis to its board.

News 9/5/25

Top News

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says that the agency will increase resources to enforce healthcare information blocking, which the HHS announcement says “was not a priority under the Biden Administration.”

ASTP says it is reviewing reports involving certified health IT developers. ASTP and HHS OIG will “take an active enforcement stance against health care entities that restrict patients’ engagement in their care by blocking the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information.” 

Reader Comments

From Unashamed Cerner: “Re: Oracle Health layoffs. It’s tough being walked out, but remember that what you did here matters, whether it was for Cerner, Oracle Health, or an acquired company. Larry Ellison seems intent to prove that the most effective way to ‘disrupt’ healthcare is to simply fire everyone who knows how it works.” 

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

The local press profiles Dallas-based Scribematic, a 15-employee firm that sells a white-labeled ambient documentation system to mid-sized and specialty EHR vendors. Owner and CEO Calvin Carter says Epic’s launch of its own AI scribing tools threatens smaller vendors with customer losses and warns them that building a competing product is risky and difficult.

A Kansas City TV station confirms Oracle Health layoffs, adding that the company’s KC headcount has dropped from 11,000 during its Cerner days to 6,000 now. Online discussion was extensive.

Online weight loss prescription vendor Remedy Meds will acquire Thirty Madison for $500 million in stock. Thirty Madison runs online prescribers Nurx (birth control), Cove (migraine), and Keeps (men’s hair loss). The companies report annual revenue of $450 million for Remedy and $220 million for Thirty Madison.

The new private equity owner of Walgreens will split the company into five standalone businesses — Walgreens (US drugstores), The Boots Group (international pharmacies), Shields Health Solutions (specialty pharmacy), CareCentrix (home health), and VillageMD (primary care).

Federal contractor GovCIO acquires SoldierPoint Digital Health, which holds a seven-year, $2 billion VA contract for telehealth and connected care solutions in the Connected Care Integrated Network. 

Digital health vendor HealthLynked will conduct a reverse split on its shares, which at the current price of under $0.03 value the company at $7 million.

WellSpan Health elevates its three-year collaboration with General Catalyst’s HATCo — which combines innovation, investment, and ownership of the Summa Health health system — to become its first Transformation Partner. It will co‑develop AI solutions that it expects to save 400,000 clinical hours annually and boost operational performance over the next five years.

Sales

• FQHC Primary Health Solutions will deploy call center voice agents from SoundHound AI.
• Hamilton Health Sciences implements the Philips Capsule Medical Device Integration system to provide Epic with continuous data from ventilators; intra-aortic balloon pumps; cardiac monitors; continuous renal replacement therapy; and ECMO.
• Comanche County Memorial Hospital (OK) will implement Meditech Expanse.

People

Trimedx hires Srilekha Akula (Alto Pharmacy) as chief data and AI officer.

Justin Neece, MBA (Azara Healthcare) joins MedeAnalytics as chief growth officer.

Announcements and Implementations

TigerConnect launches an interfacility transfer coordination product.

A new KLAS report looks at enterprise imaging, specifically vendor-neutral archive and universal viewer. It notes that radiology and cardiology are the most widely stored and viewed image types, with growth in some areas, but few organizations are storing POCUS (wound care and dermatology images) and little progress has been made in digital pathology usage.

Government and Politics

HHS will restore health and sciences webpages and data it had deleted as settlement terms of a lawsuit that was brought by the Washington State Medical Association. HHS had deleted information on pregnancy risks, opioid-use disorder, and AIDS under the White House’s order to stop using the term “gender.”

Other

New York City hospitals say that FDNY’s new policy that requires ambulance crews to take patients to the computer-chosen closest hospital – regardless of physician privileges, patient preferences, or condition – is endangering patients. FDNY’s commissioner disagrees, saying that “We’re not the Uber business or Lyft business to take people where they want to go” and that the change was needed to reduce 911 response times.

Sponsor Updates

• CereCore releases a new episode of its podcast titled “The Value of Advocacy in Rural Health: A CFO’s Perspective.”
• Agfa HealthCare will exhibit at ASE 2025 September 5-7 in Nashville.
• Artera publishes a new report titled “Trends in Patient Engagement.”
• AvaSure will integrate Ascom’s Healthcare Platform Suite and Myco devices with its Virtual Care Platform.
• Consensus Health Solutions will exhibit at the National Tribal Health Conference September 7-12 in Chandler, AZ.
• DrFirst; TrustCommerce, a Sphere company; and First Databank will sponsor the New England Epic-users Collaborative Fall Summit October 27 in Waltham, MA.

Blog Posts

• Beyond Spreadsheets: Unlocking the Power of Advanced Analytics in Healthcare RCM (AGS Health)
• Master Your NG8 Upgrade with a Fully Customizable Support Solution (Med Tech Solutions)
• Protecting Patient Privacy in the Age of Information Sharing (Netsmart)
• AI isn’t coming for your job: It’s coming for your workflow (Nordic)
• What Healthcare Leaders Need to Know About Autonomous Medical Coding (Nym)
• 5 most unproductive touches in the healthcare RCM process (Waystar)
• How to Demonstrate Patient Safety Under the PSSM Program (CereCore)
• Rural hospitals, we hear you: Ambient listening AI is here (Altera Digital Health)
• Self-service in health IT: More than a fancy kiosk (Cardamom)
• AI Prompt Injection in Healthcare: The Real Cyber Risk Hiding in Plain Sight (Clearwater)
• What If You Had the Right Partner to Get There? (CloudWave)
• Why Eliminating Per-Agent Licensing Is a Game Changer for Healthcare Communication (CTG)
• How Can Data Positively Impact Social Determinants of Health? (Dimensional Insight)
• Lessons In Selflessness: A Reflection for International Overdose Awareness Day (First Databank)
• Choose with Confidence: Your Social Care Platform Guide (Findhelp)
• Artera Celebrates Industry Recognitions and Leadership Promotions (Artera)
• Closing the CX Gap: What Business Leaders Get Wrong—and How to Fix It (Five9)
• Leveling Up Healthcare Cybersecurity Teams From “Overwhelmed to Elite” (Fortified Health Security)
• 4 Things to Know About the Future of Epic & AI (Healthcare IT Leaders)

Contacts

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

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 9/4/25

In the spirit of “no good deed goes unpunished,” insurance giant Cigna Healthcare creates a new reimbursement policy that adds additional scrutiny for certain high-level evaluation and management codes, which could lead to those visits being downcoded.

We saw this type of review during the early days of EHR adoption, prior to Meaningful Use. Physicians began using the power of the EHR to more accurately document the work they had been doing, but perhaps not documenting as well as they could have. When practice management systems picked up on that additional documentation to suggest higher billing codes, there was a bit of backlash in some parts of the country. Fortunately, my health system had a detail-oriented coding and compliance department that was willing to go to the mat for our physicians, so we didn’t see much negative impact.

I wonder if this is partly being driven by increasingly detailed documentation that is being generated through ambient documentation systems. I am curious if organizations are changing internal revenue cycle management policies to get ready. Feel free to reach out if you’re doing something different to prepare for this or if you feel targeted.

With recent changes to federal vaccine recommendations, some professional and clinical organizations are coming out with their own guidelines, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

It used to be easy to pick the guidelines that would be used to inform your EHR’s health maintenance and vaccine reminder features, but things just got a little trickier. I’m interested to learn if organizations will be incorporating these varied guidelines or instead will stick with the revised federal guidelines and leave physicians to shoulder the cognitive burden of remembering the other guidelines.

Sometimes I see headlines that don’t make sense. This one from CMS promotes its “Crushing Fraud Chili Cook-Off Competition.” I went to the linked website to see if it helped me make sense of it. I get the cook-off analogy (or bake-off, as some describe it), I don’t know why they doubled down on the “chili” aspect, which is also included in the challenge’s logo.

The competition is designed to identify ways to reduce labor-intensive processes. As someone who has cooked a lot of chili in her life I wouldn’t define it as a particularly challenging dish. I guess “steel cage match” didn’t resonate with the CMS folks, but it would draw more attention than a chili cook-off with no chili.

I’ve been in healthcare a long time, but somehow I missed out on this annual Most Beautiful Hospitals competition. The 2025 winners that were announced this week range from pediatric subspecialty to critical access hospitals. I’m sure people prefer to get their care in places that are aesthetically pleasing or provide a more healing and recuperative environment, but based on my last few care encounters, I would settle for one that has decent wayfinding and communication that go beyond the bare minimum.

From AI Troll: “Re: Taco Bell. It is using AI in its drive-throughs.” The piece details the issues the company has had in trying to implement AI-powered voice ordering. It has been used at 500 locations, and although some implementations have been successful, others have been challenged by people placing wildly inappropriate orders such as 18,000 cups of water.

I used to work at a healthcare facility that was next door to a Taco Bell. I saw many orders being placed by our paramedics and other support staff. The franchise couldn’t even get orders right with humans in the loop on both sides of the order, so I don’t have a lot of confidence that AI would be helpful there. I would personally rather order through an app than argue with interactive AI, but then again, I’m not the demographic that Taco Bell is likely looking for.

From Mascot Wannabe: “Re: health systems and stadium naming rights. Here’s a weird one.” People have spotted stickers around Chattanooga, TN that promote the naming of the new minor league baseball stadium after Erlanger Health. However, the health system denies being behind the stickers, which say, “We bought the best baseball stadium naming rights in Chattanooga” and feature an outdated Erlanger logo.

The health system’s CEO is quoted as saying that it’s “an investment that’s going to have a create return for Erlanger and the community,” but I haven’t seen anyone quantify the ROI of such deals. If you’re in the know, feel free to reach out anonymously.

Turning to a non-tech topic for a change, this BMJ Open article on physician attire caught my attention. The authors did a systematic review of patient perceptions of physician dress to see if it impacts the physician-patient relationship. They identified studies that were published from 2015 to 2025. They found that patient preferences varied based on specialty, clinical context, and physician gender.

Some studies have found that combining casual dress with white coats may signal approachability in primary care and ambulatory settings. Scrubs were favored for emergency and operative environments, where they signaled preparedness and professionalism. Male physicians were perceived as more professional when wearing formal attire with white coats, while female physicians in similar attire were often misidentified as nurses or assistants.

I recall a dustup in a large California-based integrated health system a while back. A new OB/GYN department policy specified that female physicians must wear “hosiery,” but had no similar recommendation for males. Administrators couldn’t justify the change since unspecified hosiery isn’t considered personal protective equipment. If they had a Victorian aversion to bare ankles, it would have made more sense to require coverage with clearer language. Physicians responded by wearing silly socks to prove a point, and the policy quickly vanished.

What do you think defines professional attire? Should physicians consider ditching the white coat or keeping it for historical value? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 9/4/25

MedEvolve Transitions Revenue Cycle Management Services Business to Sustainable Medical Billing

AI-driven revenue cycle and analytics technology vendor MedEvolve sells its RCM services business to Sustainable Medical Billing, which will continue to use MedEvolve’s products.

Oracle layoffs hit Kansas City on Tuesday

The local news confirms a HIStalk reader’s rumor that Oracle has laid off an unspecified number of employees based in Kansas City.

Meroka Raises $6M in Seed Funding

Meroka, which helps independent physicians sell their practices to their employees, announces $6 million in seed funding.

PurpleLab Acquires Kaid Health to Expand AI-Powered Healthcare Intelligence and Patient Journey Visibility

Healthcare analytics business PurpleLab acquires Kaid Health, which specializes in AI-enabled medical coding and risk adjustment.

Healthcare AI News 9/3/25

News

Epic launches Comet, a set of generative AI models that were trained on 100 billion de-identified patient records from a subset of Cosmos data. The models learn how clinical patterns evolve to predict likely outcomes. Research access opens in February 2026.

A local TV station reports that Lee Health (FL) has deployed AI for ambient scribing and an orthopedic chatbot, with additional plans for a patient scheduling chatbot and an AI voice system to handle incoming calls.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center CMIO Dara Mize, MD, MS says that its 100-physician DAX Copilot pilot has freed up documentation time while improving quality. More than half of participating faculty physicians say that the technology makes them less likely to leave, while one reported easier visits with Spanish-speaking patients thanks to real-time translation.

Business

Northeastern University profiles alumni-founded Predictive Healthcare and its MyHealthPal tool, which uses AI to detect surgical site infections earlier.

AI-driven revenue cycle and analytics technology vendor MedEvolve sells its RCM services business to Sustainable Medical Billing , which will continue to use MedEvolve’s products. MedEvolve will focus on its Effective Intelligence platform, practice management software, and AI-powered workflow automation and analytics.

Healthcare email privacy compliance technology vendor Paubox releases an AI-powered inbox security solution. 

Research

A study finds that 6% of 950 FDA-cleared AI-enabled devices were tied to 182 recall events. Half of the recalls happened within a year of clearance, and products that lacked clinical validation and those sold by publicly traded companies were disproportionately involved. The authors conclude that FDA’s 510(k) process may overlook early AI product failures and that investor pressure may push public companies to launch products prematurely.

Other

CMS’s six-state, AI-based pilot project to require prior authorization for a dozen costly, low-value procedures — such as nerve stimulators and incontinence devices — will pay vendors a cut of denied claims. Critics warn that it imports the least popular feature of Medicare Advantage into traditional Medicare and could set up adversarial battles between providers and government.

A man claims that he applied to become CEO of OpenAI — promising to replace the entire C-suite with AI agents — and received this clever company response. If it isn’t true, I still want it to be.

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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This Week in Health Tech 9/3/25

Morning Headlines 9/3/25

Predoc raises $30 million to stop document chasing in healthcare

AI-powered medical records retrieval and insights startup Predoc raises $30 million in seed and Series A funding.

Eversana Merges with Waltz Health to Create a New Force in Pharma Commercialization and Prescription Drug Access

Prescription routing and affordability solutions vendor Eversana acquires Waltz Health, which provides software-powered drug marketplaces.

Abridge CEO downplays impact of Epic’s new AI on call with customers

Stat reports that AI scribe vendor Abridge met with hospital customers late last week to reassure them after Epic announced its development of potentially competing Microsoft/Nuance-powered products.

Americans to Gain New Access to Real-Time Prescription Drug Price Information

HHS highlights the fact that providers and their patients will have real-time access to prescription drug information through certified health IT when the HTI-4 final rule goes into effect October 1.

News 9/3/25

Top News

AI-powered medical records retrieval and insights startup Predoc raises $30 million in seed and Series A funding.

Reader Comments

From We’re All Gonna Get Laid (Off): “Re: Oracle Health. RIFfed a reported 20% of its remaining health division employees this morning.” The percentage is unverified, but the human capital liquidation – which was ironically timed just after Labor Day — is not.

From Joe Schneider, MD: “Re: vaccine recommendations in CDS. It’s fascinating to watch the silence of the big EHR companies as they ponder whether to support the AAP and ACOG COVID vaccination recommendations in their Clinical Decision Support tools. The recommendations of the groups differ, most importantly from the reconstituted ACIP by recommending COVID coverage for children 6-23 months and for pregnant women. Having seen newborn babies and new moms struggling with COVID and the damage it does, I hope Epic, Cerner, and the others have the guts to take a stand. The AAP thinks this is just the first salvo of a broader attack on vaccinations. Sue Kressly is the president and she just did a podcast on this. It’s got some ads in the beginning, but the wait is worth it. It also has good vaccination advice at the end.” Thanks. The podcast is here.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

The most common needs of the minority of poll respondents who used online services from unfamiliar clinicians were primary or urgent care, weight loss, and mental health.

New poll to your right or here: How hard will Medicaid cuts and higher ACA premiums hit health systems by increasing the number of uninsured patients? Medicaid’s “unwinding” will disenroll a lot of people, and ACA plans will become even less affordable because of rising premiums and the possibility that existing tax credits will be allowed to expire. Hospitals in rural areas and non-expansion states will see the biggest impact.

Sponsored Events and Resources

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare AI governance and risk management startup Alignmt AI announces $6.5 million in seed funding.

Digi International will incorporate newly-acquired Jolt Software’s operations technologies into its SmartSense business, which offers operational intelligence and compliance automation software for healthcare and other verticals.

Prescription routing and affordability solutions vendor Eversana acquires Waltz Health, which provides software-powered drug marketplaces.

Stat reports that AI scribe vendor Abridge met with hospital customers late last week to reassure them after Epic announced its development of potentially competing Microsoft/Nuance-powered products.

Sales

• Connecticut Children’s Care Network will implement data activation, population health analytics, and quality reporting solutions from Innovaccer.

People

ReferWell names Imad Ahmed (Universal Health Services) as COO and chief product officer, and Glen Olson (Shearwater Health) as SVP of sales.

Cris Ross, MBA (Mayo Clinic) and John Driscoll (Walgreens Boots Alliance) join health tech venture studio Aegis Ventures as venture partners.

Announcements and Implementations

Logan Health’s Shelby campus (MT) goes live on Oracle Health as part of a systemwide implementation.

Government and Politics

HHS develops a public dashboard that offers insight into organ donations, including those that occur out of order and cases where organs aren’t used. The launch is part of the government’s overhaul of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which has faced criticism for increased cases of “skipping the line” and organ procurement organizations ignoring signs of life that are incompatible with donation.

Privacy and Security

University of Iowa Health Care and affiliate UI Community HomeCare notify 211,000 patients and employees of a July 3 data breach. The hacker was able to view and take copies of files from within HomeCare’s computer system, which prompted both organizations to take their shared systems offline for one day.

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center recovers from an outage that began during a system upgrade last Friday. The hospital reverted to downtime and diversion procedures over the weekend.

Other

Oracle Health lists the former Malvern, PA campus of Cerner-acquired SMS / Siemens at 51 Valley Stream Parkway for sale.

Clinics in South Australia report surging abuse from patients who are unable to get appointments after several practices stopped taking new patients. One clinic logged 15 incidents in a single day, with front desk staff berated by visitors shouting “If I die, it’ll be your fault” and slamming doors when told that no GPs in the state’s second-largest city are accepting new patients. Some patients have turned to ChatGPT and TikTok for medical advice, but attempts to redirect them to telehealth services have mostly failed.

A Utah judge awards $1 billion to the family of a newborn girl who was left permanently disabled during delivery at Steward-owned Jordan Valley Medical Center (UT). The mother, who was visiting Utah briefly, was attended by newly trained nurses and a doctor who reportedly dismissed concerns about the developing complications and went back to bed in the on-call room. Judge Patrick Corum remarked that the mother “would have been better off delivering this baby at the bathroom of a gas station, or in a hut somewhere in Africa.” Lawyers say Steward’s bankruptcy makes full collection unlikely, but they hope to secure the $500 million in punitive damages.

Sponsor Updates

• Symplr employees assemble hygiene products during volunteer time with Giving the Basics.
• Arcadia publishes a new report titled “ Scaling Smarter: The Data Strategies Powering High-Performing Health Plans.”
• Wolters Kluwer Health adds an AI Article Summary feature to its Ovid platform for medical researchers.
• Vyne Medical publishes a new case study titled “How Automation is Shaping the Future of Document Management at VHC Health.”
• KLAS Research names Nym a top performer in a new report titled “Autonomous Coding 2025: A Promising Start for an Early Market.”
• PerfectServe will exhibit at the MGMA Leaders Conference September 28-October 1 in Orlando.
• Redox releases a new episode of its “Shut the backdoor” podcast titled “The Quiet Disruptor – Inside an Intern’s AI Innovation.”
• ReferWell names Annette Betancur, PhD, MBA, RN strategic account manager.
• TruBridge will exhibit at the TORCH/TARCH Annual Fall Conference September 8-11 in Round Rock, TX.
• WellSky submits a comment letter to CMS on the CY2026 Home Health Proposed Payment Rule.

Blog Posts

• Reducing Administrative Burden for Physician Practices (Med Tech Solutions)
• Evaluate Your EVV Solution by Asking These Questions (Netsmart)
• Why healthcare IT managed services should be in your 2026 budget (Nordic)
• Bringing SDOH into Focus: The Role of Coding in Advancing Health Equity (Nym)
• 3 Ways ‘Data with Purpose’ Is Shaping Patient Care (Surescripts)
• AI in healthcare payments: 300+ leaders reveal what’s working + where they’ll invest next (Waystar)

Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 9/2/25

University of Iowa Health Care reports cybercriminal incident affecting 211,000

University of Iowa Health Care and UI Community HomeCare notifies 211,000 patients and employees of a July 3 data breach that prompted the organization to take systems offline for one day.

Digi Acquires Jolt to Accelerate ARR Growth and Strengthen SmartSense’s Market-Leading Offerings

Digi International will incorporate newly-acquired Jolt Software’s operations technologies into its SmartSense business, which offers operational intelligence and compliance automation software for healthcare and other verticals.

Systems restored for Ohio State hospital system after network upgrade caused outage

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center recovers from an unexpected system outage that occurred during a system upgrade.

Morning Headlines 8/29/25

Tiny US Agency to Enforce Substance Abuse Regs – and HIPAA

HHS shifts enforcement of substance use records confidentiality from SAMHSA to the Office for Civil Rights, which also handles HIPAA enforcement.

Alignmt AI Raises $6.5M in Seed Funding

Healthcare AI governance and risk management startup Alignmt AI announces $6.5 million in seed funding.

NY Health System Settles Web Tracker Privacy Claim for $5.3M

Mount Sinai Health System will pay $5.3 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit that accused it of using pixel tracking tools to send patient portal and website visitor information to Facebook.

News 8/29/25

Top News

ChatGPT maker OpenAI will reportedly build its own healthcare applications. 

The company has hired former health tech executives from Doximity and the investment community.

Business Insider reports that OpenAI is considering developing both consumer-facing and enterprise tools, including clinical triage, clinical documentation, and patient engagement.

Reader Comments

From Alabaster: “Re: Dr. Jayne’s concerns about OpenEvidence. What risks do you see for physician users?” I’m not an attorney, but my cursory review of the company’s Terms of Use and Business Associate Agreement suggests some areas of concern that, to be fair, are true of many clinician-targeted applications and services:

• The company can sell de-identified data and use records of detailed user interactions to train its models or for commercial purposes. That de-identified data may still contain enough specificity to allow re-identification of patients, especially in rare or unusual cases that are described in user prompts and are more likely when using a tool like this to find information.
• The BAA does not restrict the use of non-PHI or tracking technologies for ad targeting, which likely aligns with the company’s intent to sell ads to drug companies.
• The platform is labeled as educational only, leaving physicians fully liable for any clinical decisions it suggests or patient harm that results. The company caps its own liability at $100.
• Physicians may not be able to reproduce the AI’s previous outputs in a legal defense since the tool doesn’t guarantee version control or output retention.
• Doctors who submit patient-specific information without a signed institutional BAA could violate employer policy and HIPAA. The Terms of Use prohibit use on behalf of a hospital without legal authorization, and the tool may bypass hospital IT controls that were designed to ensure compliance. Using the product without institutional review and approval puts the risk squarely on the physician, with no guarantee of support in what could be a high-profile case given the trendy AI angle.

Sponsored Events and Resources

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Alphabet’s Verily business shuts down its medical device division and doubles down on “precision health, AI, and data,” according to an internal memo obtained by media.

Sales

• Cleveland Clinic will implement Dyania Health’s AI-powered clinical trial matching tool.

People

Suresh Krishnan (Cone Health) joins Memorial Health (IL) as SVP/CIO.  

Announcements and Implementations

Providence evaluates Nuance DAX ambient documentation for family medicine physicians who were identified in Epic as working after hours or taking over a week to close notes. Burnout dropped from 57% to 27%, documentation frustration fell from 89% to 39%, and more doctors reported better patient connection. After-hours “pajama time” decreased from 107 minutes to 81. Note: the study group was tiny.

France-based HeartFocus launches FDA-cleared heart exam software in the US on Butterfly Network’s handheld ultrasound devices. The AI-powered tool enables any clinician to perform heart scans for early detection.

West Virginia University scientists develop AI models that detect signs of heart failure from ECGs rather than less-available echocardiography by incorporating local socioeconomic and environmental factors.

Altera Digital Health integrates Medicomp’s Quippe Clinical Intelligence Engine into its new ambient documentation solution for the TouchWorks EHR.

Artisight says that its smart hospital platform is the first that can autonomously document OR activity in the EHR using AI and computer vision. The system records patient entry and exit and procedure start and end time. It also prompts staff to complete next steps in their workflow.

Government and Politics

CMS opens a research challenge to identify innovative solutions that can detect Medicare fraud using claims data.

Drug companies launch a lobbyist-sponsored watchdog group whose goal is to limit Medicare drug price negotiations by requiring analysis of CMS data. A spokesperson for one of the lobbying firms says, “The vast majority of our effort is focused on the analytics, and we didn’t see anybody, including CMS, publicly reporting at this level of granularity. This data is hard to work with, so we are investing in this kind of information.”

HHS shifts enforcement of substance use records confidentiality from SAMHSA to the Office for Civil Rights, which also handles HIPAA enforcement. Observers worry that OCR, which was already stretched thin by staffing and budget cuts, won’t be able to complete investigations in a timely manner.

Privacy and Security

Mount Sinai Health System will pay $5.3 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit that accused it of using pixel tracking tools to send patient portal and website visitor information to Facebook.

Sponsor Updates

• Capital Rx staff volunteer at a back-to-school event with the New York City Football Club and Niño de la Caridad Foundation.
• The Medicomp Systems “Tell Me Where IT Hurts” podcast releases a new episode titled “The Evolution of FDB” with FDB Executive Chairman Charles Tuchinda, MD.
• Artera announces that it has been named the named the 2025 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leader in the patient engagement platforms and solutions industry.
• Inovalon will work with Google Cloud to develop an AI-powered prior authorization solution for its Inovalon One Platform.
• Healthcare Growth Partners advises EVideon during its sale to TigerConnect.
• Health Data Movers releases a new episode of its “Quick HITs” podcast titled “Shaping the Future of Pediatric Healthcare IT, with Dr. Anita Harris-Brown.”
• Healthcare IT Leaders will exhibit and present at Workday Rising September 15-18 in San Francisco.
• Infinx releases a new episode of its “Revenue Cycle Optimized” podcast titled “Building a Strong Foundation in Soft Collections & Patient Services.”
• Navina will present at Hospitalogy’s VBC Retreat September 18 in Austin, TX.

Blog Posts

• What If You Could Secure Every Layer—And Prove It? (CloudWave)
• Amazon Connect: The No-Brainer Choice for Healthcare Business Continuity (CTG)
• Tailoring the Findhelp Social Care Network for Your Community: A How-To Guide (Findhelp)
• Seamless Patient Care Starts with Smarter Integration (Five9)
• Why a Risk Assessment is the First Step Toward Cyber Resilience in Healthcare (Fortified Health Security)
• Smarter Screening, Better Care: How Regional One Health Found At-Risk Patients Faster (Inovalon)
• Provider Data Management: AI, Interoperability, and the Future of Member Experience (Kyruus Health)
• Innovate and connect: Your invitation to Meditech Live25 (Meditech)
• Five Ways EHR Consulting Can Help Your Healthcare Facility Run Smoother (Med Tech Solutions)
• How to Design Your Clinical Data Registry for Maximum Value (MRO)

Sponsor Spotlight

This week, healthcare technology company RLDatix announced the launch of Smart Entry, a new AI-enabled feature designed to streamline documentation for safety event reporting. Proven to give time back to frontline staff, RLDatix’s Smart Entry is reducing event reporting time by up to 70%. RLDatix will be exhibiting with an immersive booth experience related to its Safety & Risk Management module, which houses Smart Entry, at the upcoming ASHRM 2025 conference from September 28-30, 2025. (Sponsor Spotlight is free for HIStalk Platinum sponsors).

Contacts

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

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 8/28/25

Researchers from Indiana University have created an algorithm that helps clinicians search through patient data from health information exchanges and other sources. The tool identifies the most relevant data for a given visit such as in the ED, where surfacing key information quickly can impact treatment decisions.

It also suggests next search terms based on those used by other clinicians, similar to what we’re used to on retail and commercial platforms. The team has earned two patents for its work.

Public health informatics is a key domain that must be mastered to obtain board certification in clinical informatics. I hadn’t done much work in that area when I prepared for my board exam, but I found it to be fascinating. It’s also challenging due to limited US public health funding and the need to work across disparate systems — state registries, public health center clinics, disease surveillance platforms, and environmental data sources.

I’d like to give a shout-out to the public health informatics teams in Mississippi that provided the data that led state health officials to announce a public health emergency from rising infant mortality rates. That declaration lets the state mobilize resources it otherwise couldn’t.

Mississippi has previously been on watch lists for its high numbers of preterm births. It also a “maternity-care desert,” with wide regions lacking hospitals that offer obstetric care. 

Informatics will underpin many of the proposed solutions, such as improving standardization of care, expediting transfers to different levels of care, monitoring prenatal care opportunities, expanding home visit programs, addressing gaps in maternal care, and improving patient education and engagement around safe sleep practices. If you’re working on any of these healthcare IT projects in Mississippi, we’d love to hear from you.

Speaking of love, props to one of my favorite PR people, Grace Vinton, for channeling her inner Swiftie into healthcare advocacy with a series of reflections on what has become the social media story of the week. I was excited to see a healthcare tie-in so that HIStalk wouldn’t be the only media outlet that didn’t do at least some kind of coverage.

Other captions included: “When prior auth says immediately yes;” “When there’s a telehealth option; “When there’s a patient access quality measure;” and “When the war for patients to get full access to their own data is finally won”. I never thought I would see the day when I would add “Swiftie” to my Microsoft Word dictionary, but here we are.

Mr. H called this recent sponsorship announcement to my attention last week. I’m always leery of hospitals that spend their money on stadium-naming rights or on partnerships that seem nebulous. This one seems to be more than just name recognition, with a Mount Sinai Health System web page detailing the ways they’ll be supporting the event.

There will be a booth for player meet-and-greets, a Children’s Sports Zone for family activities, and a broad swath of Mount Sinai physicians on standby, representing specialties including orthopedic surgery, emergency medicine, sports medicine, anesthesiology, psychiatry, radiology, and urology. There are also some health and wellness videos including one on “how to prepare for a day at the US Open” and another one on “heart health and tennis.” Kudos to the health system for turning this into more than a name-on-the-wall moment. 

From Lost in the Archives: “Re: medical records requests. My hospital is being absolutely crushed by requests dating back decades, since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was extended to cover hazardous exposures in St. Louis. The Department of Justice is requiring that hospitals certify all the medical records for patients to receive cancer-related compensation. Most of the records being requested have already been purged. This is a nightmare for patients and our skeleton crew in medical records.” I did a little digging to find that the legislation adds eligibility for residents in 21 ZIP codes in and around the St. Louis metropolitan area that were contaminated with uranium waste after processing that was related to Cold War efforts. The compensation program, which is administered by the Department of Justice, previously covered certain cancers for patients who lived in New Mexico and other areas that were affected by release of radiation during atmospheric nuclear tests.

I cold-called one of the academic medical centers in the area. They are putting together their own guidance for patients since the phone number for the program doesn’t work. The rep I spoke to declined to be identified, but said that the stories are “heartbreaking” and patients “just start sobbing” when told that their records have been purged. She mentioned that they are directing patients to the Missouri Cancer Registry, which started gathering data in the 1980s. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who is working there to understand how they’re managing the request volume.

OSF Healthcare is using virtual care solutions at some of its facilities in an effort to reduce emergency department wait times. Patients are screened to ensure that they are appropriate candidates for virtual services. Those who opt in receive their care in a dedicated virtual exam room. Patients can be examined by the virtual physician using electronic stethoscopes, otoscopes, and ophthalmoscope technology as well as standard audio and video tools.

As someone who has worked in various emergency settings with a wide range of acuity levels, it makes sense to have lower-acuity patients seen virtually if doing so helps the overall staffing model while providing the same quality of care.

People often don’t realize that a fair amount of the care that goes on in the emergency department these days is really primary care. Hospitals have been caring for these patients in fast-track units for years. Unfortunately, even those units get saturated.

During the years I worked fast-track, I was usually the only physician on the unit. Patient care could have been so much more efficient if we’d had another 0.3 or 0.5 FTE physician working, but staffing half a human is hard to do. These virtual approaches allow that additional human to provide staffing to two or more facilities, which makes it more cost effective.

Have you ever had a virtual visit in the ED? Would you object if it were offered? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 8/28/25

OpenAI wants to build its own healthcare apps, hire exec from Instagram and Doximity to lead

ChatGPT maker OpenAI will reportedly build its own health app, tapping former health tech executives from Doximity and the investment community.

Alphabet’s Verily closes its medical device division and lays off staff

Alphabet’s Verily business shuts down its medical device division and doubles down on “precision health, AI, and data,” according to an internal memo from CEO Stephen Gillett.

CMS launches ‘chili cook-off competition’ to source AI that can detect fraud

CMS hopes to discover new AI solutions that will help curb Medicare fraud through its recently launched Crushing Fraud Chili Cook-Off Competition.

Ascension Wisconsin reverses course, no longer plans to outsource ICU doctors to TeamHealth

Ascension Wisconsin decides not to outsource ICU staffing to TeamHealth after physicians warn that the switch could result in a transition to electronic ICUs and substandard patient care.

This Week in Health Tech 8/27/25

Healthcare AI News 8/27/25

News

Cleveland Clinic will implement Dyania Health’s AI-powered tool that scans medical records to identify clinical trial candidates. The health system has also invested in the company. Founder and CEO Eirini Schlosser is a former investment banker who previously founded an EHR data mining technology company.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI will reportedly build its own health app, tapping former health tech executives from Doximity and the investment community. Business Insider reports that OpenAI is considering both consumer-facing and enterprise tools, including clinical triage, clinical documentation, and patient engagement.

Parents sue OpenAI over the death of their teenage son, citing ChatGPT transcripts in which the chatbot engaged with him as he discussed suicide and shared self-harm photos. They allege it praised his ability to fashion a noose, confirmed his belief that it could hang a human, and suggested hiding it rather than leaving it out as a cry for help. He reportedly bypassed safety prompts by framing his questions as part of a story he was writing.

Business

India-based Narayana Health launches a self-developed ambient documentation tool for its Athma EHR. Future plans include integration of wearables, external health records, and predictive models to personalize treatments. Founder, chairman, and cardiac surgeon Devi Shetty, MBBS called out AI’s potential to reduce errors and cost:

There are millions of data points coming from everywhere, and we are constantly worried we are missing something. AI, however, can do all this and present it in a manner that allows doctors to access maximum information about the patient in the quickest possible time. More than anything else, AI will prevent doctors from making mistakes and will double or triple their productivity. They will become more efficient in treating patients properly, and errors will be reduced. In the process, costs will go down dramatically because whenever productivity increases, cost goes down.

AI precision medicine technology vendor Tempus AI acquires Paige, which has developed FDA-cleared AI pathology tools, for $81 million.

Research

Researchers build an AI system that filters EHR data for ED physicians treating urgent cases and recommends search terms that peers have found useful, in the “you might like” style of Amazon or Netflix.

Other

A Washington Post opinion piece says that FDA’s new AI assistant for reviewing drug approval documents is error-prone and “makes stuff up” when summarizing content. HHS attributes the criticism to disgruntled former employees. Analysts flagged a pre-launch HHS report that cited non-existent studies, included invalid links,and mischaracterized findings, concluding that it was likely written using ChatGPT.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins and other institutions warn that older Americans may not live long enough to benefit from FDA-cleared AI technologies unless  bottlenecks are removed. They recommend:

• Medicare should develop time-limited payments for AI technologies that are then converted to value-based models if they are proven effective. They note that imaging tools capture too much CMS interest compared to decision support and remote patient monitoring.
• The federal government should provide grants or tax credits to companies that support data standardization initiatives and interoperability.
• The federal government should reform the unsuccessful policies that were intended to increase rural broadband access to support remote specialist care.
• Developers should form community advisory boards to encourage AI uptake among seniors who may prefer hands-on care.

Microsoft’s head of AI warns that tools mimicking consciousness may mislead users by telling them what they want to hear. One physician predicts that clinicians will soon ask about AI usage alongside with that of smoking and alcohol. A professor expands on the concern in his book “Automating Empathy.”

While these things are convincing, they are not real. They do not feel, they do not understand, they cannot love, they have never felt pain, they haven’t been embarrassed, and while they can sound like they have, it’s only family, friends and trusted others who have. Be sure to talk to these real people.”

Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 8/27/25

Assort Health nabs $50M to automate patient phone calls, sources say

Assort Health, which helps providers automate processes using AI voice agents, announces $50 million in Series B funding.

ASTP Awards Next Option Year for TEFCA RCE Contract to The Sequoia Project

ASTP/ONC awards The Sequoia Project a second option year as the TEFCA Recognized Coordinating Entity.

Eyebot gets $20M Series A to expand eye care access

Eye care kiosk company Eyebot raises $20 million in a Series A funding round, bringing its total raised to $30 million.