Morning Headlines 1/28/25

Raintree Systems Acquires Rehab Therapy AI Technology Leader Yoomi Health

Therapy-focused health IT vendor Raintree Systems acquires Yoomi Health, a New York-based company specializing in digital tools and remote patient monitoring for physical therapy.

Aligned Marketplace Increases Total Seed Funding to $11M, Expands Advanced Primary Care and Employer Partnerships, Including with 7-Eleven

Aligned Marketplace, which offers an online platform that connects self-insured employers to advanced primary care providers, raises $3 million in seed funding.

Walgreens Stock Falls on Concerns Potential Buyout Deal is ‘Dead’

The Wall Street Journal reports that a potential take-private deal between Walgreens and private equity firm Sycamore Partners, first reported in early December, is no longer on the table.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 1/27/25

Several people have reached out this week to try to schedule meetings with me at ViVE, which is coming up next month in Nashville. As much as I would like a good excuse to visit a city that can be a lot of fun, I just couldn’t justify the expense of another conference, especially given how close it is to HIMSS.

Registration for ViVE is over $2,000, which is a substantial sum when you’re paying for it out of your own pocket. I’ve attended in the past as a boutique consultant, and once I factored in travel and other costs, the return on investment just wasn’t there.

When I’ve written about the expense of going to conferences in the past, I’ve been asked why I don’t just get a media pass and go for free. It’s tricky to do that when you’re an anonymous blogger, since conferences undoubtedly want your real name. I managed to get CES to approve my application to attend virtually under the Jayne HIStalk, MD identity the year they had a virtual show. That made sense because people couldn’t see me as I listened to pitches and presentations. I can’t exactly walk around with a name badge that says “Dr. Jayne” without a lot of questions.

As for HIMSS, it’s still a place where I can accomplish a lot of meetings and gather the information that I need to help my clients, in an atmosphere with less hype. I’ve grown accustomed to the predictability of the large convention hall atmosphere and don’t need a lot of flashing lights or bold visual displays pulling my attention from the work at hand.

Exhibitors tend to send larger teams to HIMSS compared to other shows, so it’s easier to connect with resources when you find a new vendor that you want to explore. My past experiences at ViVE and HLTH have been that the person I need to talk to isn’t at the show, although I understand that I’m a small sample size and that experience might not be typical.

I got my first HIMSS party invite this weekend, which always makes me smile. I’ve already got my dancing shoes ready for the occasion, which puts me ahead of where I usually am with planning efforts.

I’ve done a fair amount of consulting work in non-traditional areas, so I wasn’t surprised when an organization contacted me to help with a project to migrate school health records from one system to another. I’m not new to technology in the school health setting or to record conversions.

If you haven’t been in school or haven’t had children in school in the last decade, you might not be aware that schools have been embracing healthcare IT. Initially, the uptake I saw was mostly around digital health histories and immunization records, which certainly made it easier for school health officials to identify students who might not be in compliance with state laws or district policies. Electronic systems were also used to track the forms that parents submitted to allow their children to self-administer medications such as asthma inhalers and allergy rescue injections. These are pretty straightforward uses of technology and wouldn’t make most people think twice.

As schools began to have more medically complex students wo attend full time (as opposed to being in a specialized school setting), I started to see districts invest in systems that supported medication administration documentation, not unlike those that are used in hospitals. I also saw inventory tracking systems and triage systems come into play.

Even before the arrival of COVID, school districts were starting to use technology to deal with the inability to staff a nurse into every school due to budgetary constraints. In situations where schools don’t staff a nurse, many of those nursing tasks fall to school secretaries, teacher aides, or other administrative staffers. If a nurse was shared between buildings, those resources could host a video conference while evaluating an ill or injured student.

Around the same time, we also started to see hospitals and health systems partner with school districts to deliver health services in the schools in an attempt to close gaps in care and reduce preventable visits to the emergency department. These school-based clinics often involved rotating nurse practitioners who would evaluate and treat patients in consultation with a hospital-based physician, using shared electronic health records hosted by the health system. Funding for these programs was often tenuous, however. As true telehealth rose to prominence, we started to see hospitals and health systems pull back on those in-person clinics and opt instead for virtual care, which could be delivered in a less costly way.

As I was putting together my proposal for the records conversion, I decided to see what was out there in the literature regarding school health. It was a timely search since there was a great article posted this week in JAMA Health Forum. It’s a good reference to learn about the history of the school nurse role and how much it has changed. The authors talk about health and hygiene efforts in the early 1900s and the evolution to where we are today.

I think most people consider issues like vaccines, injuries, illness, and preventive screenings as the purview of the school nurse. Unless they have personal exposure to other health needs in the school setting, they might not consider other responsibilities, such as assisting students with insulin pumps or with tube feedings. The number of students who are taking medications at school is much higher than 40 years ago, and people who don’t work regularly with young people are often surprised to learn how many people under age 18 are taking at least one daily medication.

School nurses are also more involved in behavioral and mental health interventions than in previous decades. In some areas, they serve as the only healthcare professionals who might interact with a child. I’m excited to see schools and communities that realize the value of school nurses as key members of the healthcare team, especially those who are willing to use data captured in the schools to better inform community health decisions.

Even though this project is primarily a records conversion, I’m excited to potentially become a resource for future projects involving health data in the schools. It’s much easier to craft a proposal around an area of informatics where I’m passionate, so here’s to hoping I ultimate win the contract.

What are your thoughts about the role of informatics in the schools? Have you worked on a school-based health project? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Readers Write: Social Care Data: The Key to Unlocking Community Health

Social Care Data: The Key to Unlocking Community Health
By Carla Nelson

Carla Nelson, MBA is senior director of healthcare policy at Findhelp.

Rising healthcare costs in the US demand innovative solutions, and social care data is emerging as a critical tool for driving informed decisions and improving community health. Policies that are promoting high-value care and funding for social services like transportation and medically-tailored meals show promise but face significant hurdles, including a lack of standardized data. Without a clear picture of community needs and resources, decision-makers struggle to optimize investments and implement effective strategies.

Social care data – such as health-related social needs (HRSNs), referrals, services received, and program availability — fills critical gaps in understanding community health. Technology can play a pivotal role in collecting, analyzing, and sharing this data, enabling its integration with datasets like healthcare claims, Medicaid member files, and public data sources such as Census data or CDC indices. These combined datasets provide actionable insights, empowering organizations to identify unmet needs, allocate resources efficiently, and improve service delivery. By integrating social care data with healthcare and other datasets, technology can enable more effective policies, investments, and service delivery strategies.

Analyzing patterns in social care searches or service usage can uncover gaps in available programs. For example, if a region shows high demand for food assistance but limited service availability, this insight can guide resource allocation and program expansion. Similarly, aggregated data on social care needs can help measure the capacity of community organizations and inform targeted investments.

As social care systems become increasingly digitized, ensuring the privacy of sensitive data is essential. Unlike healthcare data, which is protected by HIPAA, social care data lacks comparable safeguards. Organizations and governments must prioritize stringent privacy measures, ensure consent-driven data collection, and adopt policies to protect individuals’ sensitive information as they seek assistance.

To harness the potential of social care data, readers can take these key steps:

1. Invest in Data Infrastructure

• Advocate for and allocate funding to modernize data collection and sharing systems.
• Support community organizations in adopting technology that enables real-time data sharing and analytics.

2. Promote Cross-Sector Collaboration

• Build partnerships between healthcare providers, community organizations, and government agencies to share data and insights.
• Facilitate the integration of social care data with other datasets to create a comprehensive view of community needs.

3. Advance Data Standardization

• Participate in initiatives to develop and adopt standardized formats for social care data to enable consistent use and sharing.

4. Prioritize Privacy and Consent

• Implement robust privacy policies and ensure individuals provide informed consent for the use of their data.
• Stay informed about evolving regulations to protect sensitive information.

5. Leverage Data for Decision-Making

• Use data to identify gaps in resources, track outcomes, and guide investments in social care programs.
• Share insights with policymakers to advocate for targeted interventions and funding.

6. Educate Your Community

• Raise awareness of the importance of social care data among stakeholders, emphasizing its role in improving community health.
• Provide training on how to use data tools and analytics for effective decision-making.

Advancing the infrastructure for social care data is essential to make informed policy and investment decisions. Challenges remain, including limited technological capacity for many community organizations and early-stage standardization of social care data. However, progress is underway. States and organizations are leveraging new technologies to integrate health and social care, building seamless referral systems, and creating platforms for effective data sharing.

As social care data capabilities mature, they will unlock new opportunities to understand and address community needs, leading to more effective policies, smarter resource allocation, and improved health outcomes. Investments in data systems and technology today are paving the way for a healthier, more equitable future for all.

Morning Headlines 1/27/25

UnitedHealth says hack at tech unit impacted 190 million people

UnitedHealth Group increases its estimate of individuals impacted by a February 2024 ransomware attack on its Change Healthcare division from 100 million to 190 million, affecting nearly half of all Americans.

Leidos teams with CareDx to transform the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network

Leidos selects transplant software vendor CareDx to fulfill its $235 million federal contract to modernize the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

Allara lands $26M to expand women’s hormone telehealth

Virtual women’s hormonal healthcare company Allara raises $26 million in a Series B funding round.

Startup Rad AI has raised new funding from Transformation Capital at a valuation of $525 million

Rad AI, which offers AI-powered workflow tools for radiologists, raises $73 million in a Series C funding round that values the company at $525 million.

Monday Morning Update 1/27/25

Top News

UnitedHealth Group increases its estimate of individuals impacted by a February 2024 ransomware attack on its Change Healthcare division from 100 million to 190 million, affecting nearly half of all Americans.

The company says that it has no evidence of the stolen data being misused, but is offering two years of free credit monitoring to those who are concerned about potential exposure.

UnitedHealth disclosed this month that the cyberattack has resulted in direct and indirect costs exceeding $3 billion.

UnitedHealth Group acquired Change Healthcare for $13 billion in October 2022 after overcoming a Department of Justice legal challenge. UHG CEO Andrew Witty told the Senate Finance Committee last May that Change Healthcare’s outdated technology, which UHG was in the process of updating, made the breach possible.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Last week’s poll yielded predictable results, but it got me thinking. The challenge with PE-owned healthcare providers is spotting them in the first place, assuming that you have an option to take your business elsewhere if that bothers you. These are often high-profit specialty medical practices and dental offices that were already for-profit, but were at least operated locally with less-aggressive financial motives. To private equity firms, healthcare is just another widget factory that can be squeezed harder to enrich investors. It’s no surprise, then, that even the doctors who benefited financially from PE acquisitions often don’t want to stay under their ownership. The result is a contentious middle ground, caught between the mission of healing and the relentless drive to maximize shareholder value. It’s naïve to design a healthcare system that prioritizes profit and then lament when individuals and corporations pursue it over doing the ill-defined “right thing.”

New poll to your right or here: What is your 12-month satisfaction with chain drugstores? I’ve been pretty happy with my occasional visits to Walgreens, though it’s more for their non-clinical services than anything else. Example: not only can you send FedEx and UPS packages from their stores, but you can also have your incoming packages shipped directly to them at no extra cost and then pick them up at your convenience. This is especially handy for shipments that require a signature or are at risk of porch piracy, such as wine or electronics. It’s free because getting you in the door tempts you to grab an impulse pack of smokes, a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush, or a COVID vaccination.

If you’ve sent email to an histalk.com email address lately and didn’t hear back, please resend. The webhost had to throttle back an overly aggressive spam filter yet again.

I tried the news-dominating, China-developed AI chatbot DeepSeek. For now, I’m using it more than my paid ChatGPT account because it gives thoughtful answers quickly. It’s free and open source, was built in two months, cost only $5 million to train, and runs on cheaper chips, causing Silicon Valley to wet themselves and attempt to reverse engineer DeepSeek. I asked the LLM which health tech companies are at risk for 2025 and received thoughtful, detailed answers that it broke out into public versus private companies.

Five Minutes = Grateful Classroom

Health system executives, technologists, and radiologists — Volpara Health will make a significant donation to Donors Choose for your response to this quick survey. I also have access to matching funds that will probably triple their donation, and you’ll be helping a cancer technology company understand how providers are approaching AI. Disclosure: shameless grifting abounds, but there’s no personal gain here — Volpara isn’t giving me anything, nor are they an HIStalk sponsor, and Donors Choose is 99% rated for financial efficiency, modestly-paid leadership, and transparency. Afterward, I will list the classroom projects that I funded with Volpara’s donation.

Take the survey now.

Sponsored Events and Resources

Note: I’ve updated the title of this section to better reflect increasingly common alternatives to live webinars, such as on-demand presentations.

Instant Access Webinar: “Healthcare Data Security: Aligning Processes with Evolving Threats & Regulations.” Sponsor: Inovalon. Presenters: Anthony Houston, MBA, senior director of security, risk, and compliance, Inovalon; Paul Wilder, MBA, executive director, CommonWell Health Alliance; Luke McNamara, MPA, deputy chief analyst, Google Cloud; Michael Quinn, VP of strategic partner development, Inovalon. Hear leaders in healthcare data security discuss some of the top recent threat evolutions and how organizations can proactively respond by making ongoing improvements to security protocols.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Leidos selects transplant software vendor CareDx to fulfill its $235 million federal contract to modernize the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is being replaced after 40 years due to outdated technology and the company’s conflicting role as both a transplant policy organization and a software vendor.

Rad AI, which offers AI-powered workflow tools for radiologists, raises $73 million in a Series C funding round that values the company at $525 million. Fun fact: Rad AI’s co-founder Jeff Chang became the youngest radiologist in US history after starting medical school straight out of junior high at 16 and completing his radiology residency at 26.

Tokyo-based digital healthcare vendor Doctors will launch its US business in the first half of 2025.

AI startup Retro Biosciences is reportedly raising a $1 billion funding round. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman provided the company’s initial funding of $180 million and will participate in the latest round. The company’s goal is to  add 10 years to the healthy human lifespan by using AI to target and reengineer the cellular drivers of aging.

People

Providence restructures its leadership team, moving Chief Digital Officer Sara Vaezy, MPH, MPA to chief transformation officer, which covers AI, innovation, and digital care and marketing.

LeanTaaS promotes industry long-timer Harwant Sethi to VP of sales.

Health Catalyst promotes Lynne Dossey, MPH to SVP/GM of North America.

Announcements and Implementations

Samsung is working on a non-invasive optically-based continuous glucose monitor for its Galaxy Watch, a feature that Apple is also reportedly trying to develop.

Black Book Research publishes its free “2025 Black Book of Healthcare Cybersecurity.”

Kaleida Health will partner with Olean General Hospital and Bertrand Chaffee Hospital and also replace Oracle Health with Epic, as a reader predicted here a couple of months ago.

Other

A newborn’s mom who is live-streaming TikTok video from an unnamed hospital’s NICU draws heat from followers who watch her unplug her baby’s monitor to summon a nurse to bring her a sandwich. She claims nurses told her to unplug any time she needs something and that viewers who express astonishment are “annoying.”

SNL hilariously roasts men aged 20 to 45 with Medcast, a visit to One Medical that looks like a podcast where they can “be honest in a way they never would with a normal doctor” and instead “just vibe.”

I haven’t seen this term in a while.

Sponsor Updates

• Capital Rx’s marketing team wins AVA Awards from AMCP for the company’s LinkedIn page and M3P digital marketing campaign.
• Optimum Healthcare IT announces that it is the first ServiceNow partner globally to receive the Validated Practice designation for its Healthcare and Life Science product line.
• Tegria will sponsor the Future of Health Care Conference February 20 in St. Paul, MN.
• Prominence Advisors publishes “ROI in the Fast Lane – Data Harmonization.”
• Black Book Research lists the top 100 healthcare IT advisory services projected to experience the highest demand in 2025, with the following HIStalk sponsors ranking among the top firms: Impact Advisors (enterprise IT infrastructure planning and HIT 0perations), Nordic (EHR implementation and optimization for Epic, Oracle Health, Altera Digital Health, Athenahealth, Veradigm, ModMed systems), Tegria (Meditech EHR implementation and optimization), Optimum Healthcare IT (go-live consultants and staffing), and Clearwater (medical device security strategy, and patient and consumer data privacy and security advisory).

Blog Posts

• How to Protect Provider Endpoints, the Critical Edge of your Network (Med Tech Solutions)
• Caregiver Engagement: 3 Key Takeaways from the IDD Leadership Summit (Netsmart)
• Making the most of your EPR for greater efficiency (Nordic)
• How your TV can support family caregivers (Sonifi Health)
• Cybersecurity in Healthcare Starts with 1 Question (Surescripts)
• 3 top AI + GenAI advancements transforming RCM, denials + more (Waystar)

Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 1/24/25

TRICARE Online Patient Portal Decommissioning: Download Your Health Records Now

The Department of Defense urges patients who want personal copies of their legacy medical records to download them immediately from the TRICARE Online Patient Portal, which will be shut down on April 1 since it has been replaced by MHS Genesis.

UCHealth experiences issue with electronic record system

UCHealth (CO) recovers from a brief EHR outage that also impacted its patient app.

NHS plans £180m framework for AI diagnostics and predictive analytics

The UK’s NHS will establish a $250 million fund to help trusts invest in diagnostic and predictive AI tools, with an initial focus on medical image analysis and pathology.

Trump’s VA pick voices support for continued EHR deployment

VA secretary nominee Doug Collins tells the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that he will review the VA’s Oracle Health implementation with a fresh perspective and is optimistic about its completion, noting that project rollouts could resume earlier than the recently announced target date of mid-2026.

News 1/24/25

Top News

VA secretary nominee Doug Collins tells the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that he will review the VA’s Oracle Health implementation with a fresh perspective and is optimistic about its completion.

Collins expressed confidence that project rollouts could resume earlier than the recently announced target date of mid-2026.

Reader Comments

From Senor Ortega: “Re: Express Scripts. Its fax service has been down since January 17. The only way to send them new prescriptions is via fax.” Unverified. I’ve emailed the company’s press contact. Meanwhile, my own contacts suggest that it was a brief outage and faxing is back to normal now, but anyone who knows different is welcome to chime in. I had forgotten that Express Scripts (pharmacy benefits manager) is part of Evernorth Health Services, which is owned by Cigna.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Dear conference attendees – while I admire your enthusiasm for spending your employer’s money to attend some conference, my own enthusiasm wanes when faced with a splashy LinkedIn announcement of that attendance (I’m annoyed only if it has a gratuitous graphic to game the LinkedIn algorithm, especially if the conference obviously provided it, but otherwise it’s just fine). For those who have asked me, I don’t know if ViVE is hosting a cash-grabbing nostalgia act for Industry Night this year (the Fergie-free Black Eyed Peas should now be unexpectedly available, prices start at $400,000, and who doesn’t like “Where Is The Love?” even if their newer stuff uses a lot of computer enhancement).

Health system executives, technologists, and radiologists — complete a short, anonymous survey about your organization’s AI purchasing plans and Volpara Health will make a significant donation to teach grant requests through DonorsChoose. Eleven questions, two or three minutes of your time, and a teacher somewhere gets some help with classroom necessities. I bragged on HIStalk reader participation when Volpara suggested the donation, so help me avoid looking bad.

Webinars

Stream on demand. “Healthcare Data Security: Aligning Processes with Evolving Threats & Regulations.” Sponsor: Inovalon. Presenters: Anthony Houston, MBA, senior director of security, risk, and compliance, Inovalon; Paul Wilder, MBA, executive director, CommonWell Health Alliance; Luke McNamara, MPA, deputy chief analyst, Google Cloud; Michael Quinn, VP of strategic partner development, Inovalon. Hear leaders in healthcare data security discuss some of the top recent threat evolutions and how organizations can proactively respond by making ongoing improvements to security protocols.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Behavioral health AI agent developer Eleos raises $60 million in a Series C funding round.

Sweden-based full-body scanner company Neko Health raises $260 million in a Series B funding round, valuing the company at $1.8 billion. Neko, co-founded by Spotify’s billionaire CEO Daniel Ek, has performed 10,000 scans in London and Stockholm, priced at $400 and $250 respectively, and boasts a waitlist of 100,000 people. The scans measure blood pressure, blood oxygen, ECG, heart risk, blood values, BMI, eye pressure, and skin mole assessments. Patients receive consultations with company doctors immediately after their scans. Based on the numbers provided in the announcement, Neko has generated between $2.5 million and $4 million in revenue since its launch in February 2023, which establishes its valuation at a lofty 900 to 1,440 times annual revenue, so they had better start working through that waitlist. Neither of the co-founders have prior healthcare experience.

People

Bethany Miller-Urroz (Zus Health) joins Sownder as SVP and head of sales for North America.

Australia’s EHealth NSW hires Richard Taggart, MBA, MPharm (Calvary Health Care) as chief executive and CIO of NSW Health .

Announcements and Implementations

Meditech releases APIs that are compatible with version 4 of USCDI.

Mayo Clinic and Cerebras Systems will collaborate to develop LLMs that can review the medical records of patients to determine how they will respond to treatments based on their genetic makeup. The models will be trained on the genomic data of 100,000 Mayo patients.

Precision medicine technology company Tempus AI launches a personal health concierge app that collects a patient’s medical records and applies AI to generate insights.

WellSky announces its participation in TEFCA and its selection of Kno2 as its QHIN.

Government and Politics

The UK’s NHS will establish a $250 million fund to help trusts invest an diagnostic and predictive AI tools, with an initial focus on medical image analysis and pathology.

The Department of Justice sues Walgreens, accusing the company of filling millions of opioid prescriptions without medical justification and instructing its pharmacists to process them without verifying their validity. In response, Walgreens has countersued, arguing that the federal government has not clearly outlined the responsibilities of drugstores when handling potentially questionable prescriptions that were issued by licensed prescribers. DOJ sued CVS with similar accusations last month.

The Department of Defense urges patients who want personal copies of their legacy medical records to download them immediately from the TRICARE Online Patient Portal, which will be shut down on April 1 since it has been replaced by MHS Genesis.

Privacy and Security

The Sequoia Project publishes a white paper that reviews managing privacy and consent when sharing PHI, inviting public feedback by February 21.

Other

The Armed Forces of Ukraine will replace its paper medical forms with an electronic Primary Health Record that will be maintained through the Armed Forces Medical Information System. The system will capture information about combat injuries that will be used to create an evidence-based medicine database.

A viral video from India captures a hospital housekeeper running an ECG on a patient. The hospital confirmed the video’s authenticity, adding that while it it is trying to recruit more ECG techs, the machine is so easy to use that anyone can do it.

Sponsor Updates

• Black Book Research publishes a new technical guide, “The 2025 Black Book of Behavioral Health IT.”
• Five9 will present at Customer Contact Week Orlando January 28.
• Fortified Health Security welcomes Lauren Amador as a renewals specialist.
• Health Data Movers releases a new episode of its “Quick HITs” podcast, “Innovating Healthcare IT with Khalid Turk: Equity, Integration, and the Future of Digital Transformation.”
• Inovalon releases a new “Inovators” podcast, “Healthcare Data’s Evolution: New Patient Expectations and Exciting Healthcare Advancements.”
• Meditech customer Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Canada earns HIMSS Stage 7 recognition.
• Healthmonix releases the 2025 Mental and Behavioral Health Registry (MBHR), a specialized Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR).
• MRO releases a new episode of “The MRO Exchange” podcast, “Automated Record Retrieval w/ CHRISTUS Health’s RCS Director, Prudence Budemer.”

Blog Posts

• CMS Health Equity Initiatives in 2025 and Beyond (Findhelp)
• The Role of Analytics in Reducing Denials and Rejections (FinThrive)
• Navigating Legacy EHR Data: How to Prepare for Transitioning to a New EHR System (HCTec)
• 5 Ways to Optimize UKG Pro Workforce Management for Healthcare (Healthcare IT Leaders)
• Mastering Denials: Practical Solutions for Improving Appeals Performance (Medhost)
• Optimum Healthcare IT Achieves ServiceNow Validated Practice Badge for HCLS (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• Rethinking productivity to enhance revenue cycle performance (Meditech)
• Licking Memorial Health System Proactively Identifies and Resolves Citrix Slowness Issues Before Epic Hyperdrive Speed & Reliability Impacts Users (Goliath Technologies)
• The Successful Road to Epic is Paved with Multiple Stakeholders (Med Tech Solutions)

Contacts

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

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 1/23/25

I had a bittersweet moment today. I watched one of my favorite pieces of healthcare software fade into the sunset. The health system where I spent the majority of my career finally retired the clinical repository that it built back in the 1990s when it was on the cutting edge of innovation.

As students, we were fascinated by the idea that we could see information from different hospitals in the network. The system served as the core of what eventually became a homegrown EHR. Although the EHR piece has since been replaced by a sequence of vendors, the repository continued chugging along in the background, serving as both an archive and as a testament to the system’s longstanding commitment to technology use in patient care. Farewell, my dependable and sturdy app. I never thought you’d last this long.

I’m a card-carrying member of Generation X and remember learning a thing or two from TV shows like “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company.” Understandably, this press release from NewYork-Presbyterian caught my eye as the organization is partnering with Sesame Workshop to create campaigns that promote children’s health.

The project starts with an “Ask a Doctor” video series that includes Sesame Street characters alongside physicians covering topics like healthy sleep, food allergies, and routine health visits. Some of the episodes are already live on YouTube. As a primary care physician, I give the wellness visit episode two thumbs up. Watching it took me into an internet rabbit hole involving The Count, who has been my crush for longer than I care to admit. Watching him sing a duet with Billie Eilish was amazing. If anyone knows the physicians who were featured in the videos, I’d love to hear what it was like to film them.

Mr. H recently pondered on the question of why telehealth physicians need to wear scrubs or a white coat, going on to note that maybe he will buy “one of those ill-concealing exam gowns for future use in amusing the online doctor.” As someone who has delivered quite a bit of telehealth care over the last decade, that would absolutely make my day if I popped into my virtual visit and saw someone wearing a gown.

I’ve certainly had experience with the varying dress codes in telehealth organizations. One of my former telehealth employers required that we wear white coats for all of our patient-facing interactions, and I wasn’t a fan. When I was an old-timey primary care physician in solo practice, I never wore a white coat. The primary reason was that they have a tendency to store and spread germs. I also felt that some patients were intimidated by it, and that not wearing a lab coat helped build rapport with those patients.

When I moved to the emergency department, I wore a white coat because it was policy. My hospital also provided scrubs for us to wear and always ensured that we had two white coats laundered for every shift. That way, if you ended up being soiled by something unpleasant, you could quickly swap it out.

Once our group stopped being employed by the hospital and was outsourced to a staffing company, the laundry services stopped. I’d say we were then 50/50 on wearing white coats. If you ran into something messy, you either had to go coatless or have a spare in your locker. Given that change, many of us opted to wear isolation gowns to protect our clothing more frequently. Although this probably increased costs, no one really cared.

When I started seeing patients in telehealth, only one of the three companies that I worked for required white coats. The others required “professional dress,” and some of those dress codes were nebulous. One called for collared shirts, with no recognition of feminine norms of business dress where someone might wear a suit jacket with a non-collared blouse underneath. That undoubtedly is more formal / professional than, say, a collared golf shirt, but the latter was allowed while the former was technically against the rules.

Another company was more specific, calling for dress that is “business casual or greater in formality.” It went on to further evaluate that clothing should be clean, in good repair, and without excessive wrinkles. I personally thought that was pretty reasonable, because we all know that even if you start your day fully pressed, you’re likely to be at least a tiny bit rumpled by the end of the day. You shouldn’t look like you’ve just exited your bed, however.

For me, a white coat is strictly functional rather than ceremonial. Are you a medical student who needs to tote a lot of things in your pockets? Then a lab coat may be for you. I’ve also seen students wearing the equivalent of a Batman utility belt, and that always makes me smile. Are you in a surgical subspecialty that requires that you keep your scrubs covered if you’re not actively in an operating suite? Then it may be for you, too, with a couple of caveats such as remaining in designated areas of the hospital and changing to street clothes if you’re going to leave them. Personally, I’ve practiced medicine wearing an evening gown, hiking boots, and everything in between, and I’ve brought my A-game regardless of my outfit.

In many hospitals, people of all different roles wear white coats, so it doesn’t help differentiate whether you’re a physician or not. It’s not a mantle of authority, so when those of us who are normally in those environments are forced to wear them so that we “look like physicians,” it doesn’t ring true.

Do you know how people tell physicians from non-physicians in the hospital? Name tags. Especially the ones that have “MD” or “DO” or “RN” or “PharmD” or a host of other titles in big bold letters so that patients know with whom they are interacting. Do you know what I never had in telehealth? If you guessed “name tag,” then you’re a winner. Even though patients aren’t seeing us in person, I think that having a professional name tag with a photo and credentials just like the hospital ones would help build credibility and trust in the same way as a white coat. And for those of us who feel that wearing a white coat might be an issue for our patients, it would allow us to make the choice.

What do you think? Should telehealth physicians be required to wear white coats, or be empowered to dress like the professionals they are? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 1/23/25

Eleos Raises $60M Series C to Transform Behavioral Health with AI Agents

Behavioral healthcare AI company Eleos announces $60 million in Series C funding, bring its total raised to $128 million.

Erlanger restores all network systems

Erlanger Health (TN) recovers from a Wednesday morning network outage, which the health system says was not related to a cyberattack.

Trump announces $500B Stargate AI project: ‘Country will be prospering like never before’

Shares of AI infrastructure companies rise sharply on the White House’s announcement of Stargate, a private sector project in which major technology companies, several of which have strong healthcare ties, will invest up to $500 billion to build AI data centers.

CareGenix Receives Growth Funding Package From Decathlon Capital Partners

Decathlon Capital Partners invests in virtual care and remote patient monitoring company CareGenix.

Healthcare AI News 1/22/25

News

Shares of AI infrastructure companies rise sharply on the White House’s announcement of Stargate, a private sector project in which major technology companies — including OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle — will invest up to $500 billion to build AI data centers. Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, who was present during the announcement, said that the “most charismatic” application of AI would involve EHRs, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicted that “we will see diseases get cured at an unprecedented rate.” The project’s key technology partners were announced as Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI. An OpenAI blog post says that SoftBank will run the financial side of the project and OpenAI will lead operations.

Oracle’s Larry Ellison also predicts at the Stargate announcement that AI will be used to create personalized MRNA cancer vaccines. He says that AI can diagnose cancer from a blood test, sequence the tumor’s genes, and then create a vaccine, all within two days. Shares of MRNA vaccine maker Moderna jumped the news coverage.

The White House revokes a previous executive order that required AI developers who create tools for certain users, including public health,  to share product safety results with the federal government.                   

The UK’s NHS will establish a $250 million fund to help trusts invest an diagnostic and predictive AI tools, with an initial focus on medical image analysis and pathology.

Mayo Clinic and Cerebras Systems will collaborate to develop LLMs that can review the medical records of patients to determine how they will respond to treatments based on their genetic makeup. The models will be trained on the genomic data of 100,000 Mayo patients. Cerebras sells AI hardware, software, and AI model creation services.

Business

Precision medicine technology company Tempus AI launches a personal health concierge app that collects a patient’s medical records and applies AI to generate insights. The company says that its Olivia app can connect directly to the EHRs of 1,000 health systems, sync with health devices, and accept manual uploads. Outputs include a profile summary, summaries of physician notes, medical image sharing. and clinical trials matching.

Google DeepMind’s CEO says that the first drugs that were developed with the help of AI will start clinical trials this year.

Other

Hofstra’s medical school is using AI to make the first cut of the applications it receives, which it says is not only efficient, but also objective and consistent. Several other medical schools are using AI similarly to choose a few dozen students from thousands of applications. George Washington University’s medical school says it spends 6,000 hours of faculty time each year performing manual screening of applications.

The CEO of drug maker Sanofi says the company is using AI to decide if a given drug under development should advance to the next phase. He explains, “We’re not used to having somebody without a career at stake in the room at a senior level.”

Unionized nurses from the Albany, NY VA hospital and other hospitals nationwide rally to voice concerns about hospitals prioritizing AI investments over staff recruitment and retention. The union, which organized the January 16 national protest, has called for stricter AI regulation and greater nurse involvement. A member survey revealed that nurses believe AI often compromises patient safety by undermining their clinical judgment. One nurse highlighted concerns about discharging a post-operative patient with only a tablet for AI-guided updates, saying, “You need eyes on a patient.” The VA responded by emphasizing improved performance metrics and assured that AI would be used safely and responsibly to support, not replace, care teams. National Nurses United, an AFL-CIO affiliate, has issued guidelines for AI use in patient care. Over 100,000 of its members are entering contract negotiations.

Contacts

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Morning Headlines 1/22/25

Percipio Health raises $20M and unveils AI-powered Population Health Monitoring platform

App-based population health startup Percipio Health officially launches with $20 million in Series A funding from investors that include UPMC Enterprises and Labcorp.

Innovaccer Acquires Humbi AI to Launch Actuarial and Contracting Copilot Capabilities for Payers, Providers, and Life Sciences Companies

Innovaccer acquires actuarial software vendor Humbi AI.

Iris Telehealth Acquires InnovaTel to Expand Telepsychiatry Services

Behavioral telehealth vendor Iris Telehealth acquires InnovaTel, which offers telepsychiatry services.

News 1/22/25

Top News

Struggling consumer genetic testing company 23andMe considers selling its Lemonaid telehealth business.

23andMe acquired the business in 2021 for $400 million.

23andMe’s entire board resigned last September over differences in the company’s direction. It  announced a restructuring plan several months later that included laying off 40% of its staff and cutting several therapy programs.

Reader Comments

From ACIO: “Re: Children’s National. If I may, this isn’t a net-new deal against Epic. Children’s National (AKA The Bear Institute) was one of the first Cerner ITWorks clients, where Cerner basically took over all of IT (essentially full IT outsourcing). About the last ITWorks deal out there is University of Missouri (The Tiger Institute) as I believe at this point they pay almost nothing to Cerner and we all know that a university in today’s climate would really have a PR nightmare if they tried to replace an IT system to the tune of several 100s of millions of dollars.”

From What Happens In Vegas: “Re: Epic. It was recently reported that Carl Dvorak is no longer president of Epic. For as long as I can remember, the names ‘Carl and Judy’ were always mentioned together. Judy is getting older, so it seems like news that the person who was assumed to be taking over might not be poised to do so.” Carl recently said that he took a job in Epic’s international business sometime around May 2024. Sumit Rana’s LinkedIn says that he became president in August 2024. Sumit has been at Epic for 26 years and started as a developer, which I think I remember is a board requirement to run the company per Judy’s wishes. Carl has been with the company for 38 years, wrote a lot of Epic’s code at the beginning, and led the company’s architecture decisions. Google stalking suggests that Judy is 81, Carl is 59, and Sumit is 48.

From Matthew: “Re: Color Screens. Pretty sure Glen Tullman was an investor in the company that made the weird computer doors for Walgreens. EWTD (Everything Walgreens Touches Dies), including itself?” The company’s website had a now-archived web page that listed Glen Tullman as co-founder and vice chair. Co-founder and board chair of Chicago-based Cooler Screens (now CoolerX) is Greg Wasson, former president and CEO of Walgreens.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

A reader’s donation funded the purchase of a document camera for Ms. H in Yonkers, NY, who provided the view above from her middle school classroom as she projects material onto the screen that all can now see. Students are also using it for collaboration projects. I will say, having directing other people’s money to hundreds of DonorsChoose projects, that the biggest bang for the buck comes from document cameras, headphones for students, Chromebooks, and small PA systems to allow the teacher to be heard without wrecking their voice. In fact, I see that Ms. H is asking for headsets to allow students to interact with AI-tailored reading lessons, the use of which is being piloted by her classroom (OK, I admit that I just fully funded that one since another teacher’s funded project was cancelled, which freed up some money).

Here’s a fantastic opportunity to support frontline teachers through DonorsChoose, courtesy of Volpara Health, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lunit Inc. that provides clinically validated AI-powered software for personalized breast cancer screening and early detection. Teri Thomas, MSN, RN — Volpara’s CEO and an industry long-timer – will make a generous Donors Choose donation for each health system executive, technologist, or radiologist who completes a short, anonymous survey describing their organization’s AI purchasing plans. It’s like a slot machine where you pull the lever once, the money jingles into my teacher bucket, and I choose STEM projects to support. Not only will your participation fund classroom needs, Volpara’s donation will be doubled by matching money that is provided by my Anonymous Vendor Executive. If you work for a provider in administration, technology, or radiology, please answer 11 easy questions and Volpara and I will do the rest.

Webinars

January 23 (Thursday) 11 ET. “Maximizing Revenue With Minimal Resources: Work Smarter, Not Harder in Claims Management.” Sponsor: Inovalon. Presenter: Travis Fawver, senior sales engineer, Inovalon. Navigating the challenge of hitting revenue goals is daunting, but billing doesn’t have to be. The presenter will explore how strategic adoption of new technology can transform claims management processes from reactive to proactive. Learn how to reduce denials while empowering staff to focus on high-value activities, and gain proven strategies to simplify workflows, automate routine tasks, and build a more efficient RCM operation to maximize reimbursement.

Stream on demand. “Healthcare Data Security: Aligning Processes with Evolving Threats & Regulations.” Sponsor: Inovalon. Presenters: Anthony Houston, MBA, senior director of security, risk, and compliance, Inovalon; Paul Wilder, MBA, executive director, CommonWell Health Alliance; Luke McNamara, MPA, deputy chief analyst, Google Cloud; Michael Quinn, VP of strategic partner development, Inovalon. Hear leaders in healthcare data security discuss some of the top recent threat evolutions and how organizations can proactively respond by making ongoing improvements to security protocols.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Percipio Health officially launches with $20 million in Series A funding from investors that include UPMC Enterprises and Labcorp. The company offers app-based population health monitoring and management. Medhost founder and former CTO Eric Rock started the company with David Lucas, a former colleague at Medhost, Vivify Health, and Optum, in 2022.

Inovaccer acquires actuarial software vendor Humbi AI.

Behavioral telehealth vendor Iris Telehealth acquires InnovaTel, which offer telepsychiatry services.

Sales

• University of Kentucky HealthCare will implement Visage Imaging’s Visage 7 Enterprise Imaging Platform.
• University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust in England will go live on Epic in 2026.

People

CompuGroup Medical US promotes Benedikt Brueckle to CEO, a position he also held between 2017 and 2021.

Qure.ai names Jim Mercadante (RapidAI) chief commercial officer.

Rob Cornelssen (Huron) joins Health Systems Informatics as VP of business development.

Ken Kaufman (Mpaired) joins Sirona Medical as CEO.

Waystar promotes Todd Woods, MBA to chief growth officer, ambulatory.

RevSpring hires Nicole Rogas, MBA (Symplr) as president.

Announcements and Implementations

Arrive Health develops Arrive Accelerate to offer providers AI-generated guidance on medication coverage requirements for improved prior authorization workflows.

In New York, Somos Community Care, Forward Leading IPA, and Western New York Integrated Care Collaborative implement Findhelp’s social care referral software.

OCH Regional Medical Center (MS) will go live on Oracle Health on January 27.

Government and Politics

ASTP/ONC publishes newly updated SAFER guides, which address EHR safety.

Northeast Surgical Group (MI) will pay $10,000 to settle federal allegations that it violated the HIPAA Security Rule by failing to conduct risk analyses on its information system. A ransomware gang attacked the group in 2023, exposing the PHI of 15,300 patients.

Privacy and Security

Allegheny Health Network files a breach report indicating that the information of 294,000 of its home medical equipment and home infusion patients was compromised by a cyberattack on IntraSystems, which manages AHN’s servers.

Sponsor Updates

• Consensus Cloud Solutions offers a free plan of its flagship digital cloud fax solution, eFax, to aid in disaster response.
• Ascom names Tobias Stanelle (Philips Healthcare) managing director for the Ascom Americas region.
• Capital Rx adds more than 80 new partnerships in 2024 and prepares for another year of record growth.
• Gartner recognizes Dimensional Insight in its Peer Insights Voice of the Customer for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms report with an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5.

Blog Posts

• How verifying insurance eligibility can increase revenue + ease staff burden (Waystar)
• 5 Eye-Opening Reasons to Assess Your Healthcare IT Today (CereCore)
• The Role of AI and Automation in Revenue Cycle (AGS Health)
• Specialty practices: How a tailored system avoids disruption (Altera Digital Health)
• Top 5 Cybersecurity Pitfalls in Operational Technology (OT) (CTG)
• Executive Search for Startup Companies: Building a Leadership Team from Scratch (Direct Recruiters)
• Why Device Readiness is Critical in an EHR Implementation (Divurgent)
• From Prescribing to Adherence: Tackling the Toughest Medication Management Challenges (DrFirst)

Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 1/21/25

NS Health fine-tunes text message and YourHealthNS appointment reminder service

Nova Scotia Health officials alert patients to improvements being made to a text-based appointment reminders service they attempted to roll out last week.

IntusCare Increases Total Funding to Over $27M through Strategic Follow-On Funding

Senior-focused healthcare technology and managed care services company IntusCare announces $11.5 million in additional funding.

Knack RCM Announces Acquisition of HealthyBOS, a Leading US and Philippines-Based Revenue Cycle Management Provider

Knack RCM, which provides revenue cycle services to ambulatory providers and durable and home medical equipment suppliers, acquires DME-focused revenue cycle company HealthyBOS.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 1/20/25

Several of my primary care friends got together tonight to drink margaritas. Partly because we’ve all got cabin fever from the weather, and partly to commiserate about our worries about what’s about to happen to public health in the United States.

We did the math and estimated that the group has easily spent over half a million hours in scheduled patient care during the last 25 years. If you figure a conservative four patients per hour, that’s more than two million times we’ve walked into an exam room asking, “How can I help you today?” and creating an individualized care plan for the patient in front of us. Some of the group have been practicing medicine for longer than 25 years, and especially once the tequila was flowing, the good stories started coming out.

On the whole, we think we have some well-founded fears. One member of the group has spent her career working in public health and is worried about the gag clauses that some states have put in place that prohibit conversations about vaccines, even ones that have been around for decades. As one does when one is a clinical informaticist and having drinks with other physicians, I asked my favorite generative AI tool to list the top 10 public health achievements.

Vaccinations are right up there, along with fluoridated drinking water and family planning. These have been under fire for years and the administration that takes office this week has them in their crosshairs. Also in the top five are tobacco control, which we’re improving upon in the US, and improvements to maternal and infant health, where we’re not doing well compared to other developed nations.

Another top item is workplace safety, where I agree that in thinking back over a century, we’ve come a long way. However, healthcare folks are still at high risk when they go to work, facing everything from infectious diseases and radiation exposure to musculoskeletal injuries and workplace violence. Families of police officers and firefighters have long faced the possibility that their loved ones might not come home from their scheduled shifts, but now healthcare workers are starting to have the same conversations. Additionally, physicians and emergency medical services staffers are more likely to die by suicide than the general public. I’m hoping that sobering statistics will lead lawmakers to allocate more resources to care for the caregivers, but I’m not sure how much state governments or our national legislature will take this on.

A couple of us had recently been at a former colleague’s retirement party and shared what we heard in his retirement speech. He was leaving primary care after 20 years in the patient care trenches, which seems short based on how much training you have to do to become a physician, but which can seem like an eternity when you’re working in a demanding, production-based environment where moral injury is occurring daily.

He finally decided to leave after a series of administrative disasters in his health system-owned practice, such as penalties for physicians who run late with their office schedules. The idea that patients should be scheduled for 10-minute slots and that spending 15 minutes on a visit was too much time was more than he could personally take.

Although a couple of us knew the full story behind his decision, most of the people at the retirement party didn’t. We expected him to throw at least a little bit of shade at his soon-to-be former employer. We were pleasantly surprised when he gave a recap of some of the things he’s been through in practice and some of the good things that have happened over the last two decades, reminding us that physicians have traditionally persevered during times of adversity.

Some of the notable events he mentioned included increases in discussions of end-of-life care following some dramatic court decisions and the creation of Medicare Part D. He talked about severe challenges physicians have faced, such as Hurricane Katrina, when patients were stranded in hospitals without electricity, water, or sanitation. He reminded us that it wasn’t just lobbyists that pushed for electronic health records, but patient safety advocates who saw what happened with that hurricane as well as Hurricane Rita, which came just a month later and where tens of thousands of patient records were damaged or lost.

As expected, he had a few choice words about Meaningful Use and excessive clicking in EHRs, but reminded us of some good things that have come with technology, such as no longer having to take our board exams in a convention center with hundreds of other test takers bearing handfuls of sharpened number two pencils. He reminded us that physicians have historically risen to the occasion when it seemed like the world went sideways, and that the majority of us had survived a global pandemic together. It was a nice reminder that although we may be facing difficult conversations with our patients about vaccine safety, fluoride in the water, and the risks of drinking raw milk, at least we don’t have a novel pathogen stalking the globe at the moment.

He told the assembled crowd that he plans to do volunteer work in a part of the world that has few medical resources. He hopes to regain some of the joy found in caring for patients, even though it will be a physically and mentally challenging environment. I’ve known him for a long time and am very glad to hear that he isn’t hanging up his stethoscope just yet, but based on his career and his involvement in medicine outside his practice, I know that both his patients and the community are going to miss him.

My margarita-drinking colleagues enjoyed hearing about some of the things we mentioned from the speech. Especially since for many of us, some of those events have moved to the far reaches of our memories or have been suppressed as a coping mechanism. Any that any time someone talks about the pandemic, I’m still prone to flashbacks of how I felt coming home from the emergency department, changing clothes in the garage, and trying desperately to not bring home a virus that could kill my family. Still, there were some good reminders that things have been worse and that there are still plenty of people out there who respect physicians, public health workers, and the experience and expertise that we bring to the table.

I’m sure things will look a bit less rosy when the tequila wears off, but we’ve agreed to try to get together regularly to support each other in the months to come. We also created a buzzword bingo card to help us find some humor to go along with the feelings of futility some of us are likely to feel. It will be interesting to see how many more of us retire early or move to a different type of practice with the continued evolution of healthcare. Some of the group are exploring alternatives, but given my work in clinical informatics, I don’t think I’ll be writing a retirement speech anytime soon.

What are you seeing in your healthcare crystal ball for 2025? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 1/20/25

Passing the Baton

ASTP / National Coordinator Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP says his goodbyes after four years.

23andMe has been quietly exploring a possible sale of its telehealth business, Lemonaid

Struggling consumer genetic testing company 23andMe considers selling its Lemonaid telehealth business, which it acquired in 2021 for $400 million.

US firm set to build Somerset HQ despite concerns

The local council approves Epic’s plans for a 90-acre, 2,000-employee European headquarters in North Somerset, England.

Monday Morning Update 1/20/25

Top News

ASTP / National Coordinator Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP says his goodbyes after four years.

Reader Comments

From Granular Argument: “Re: Children’s National. Has chosen Epic to replace Oracle Health, contracting underway.” Unverified. This reader reported in October that the hospital was doing demos of both. I wouldn’t be surprised since Oracle wins few (any?) net-new deals against Epic.

From Deal Kvetcher: “Re: Health Catalyst. SEC filings show that it paid $86 million in cash plus up to $33 million in earnouts to acquire Upfront Healthcare.” Crunchbase shows that Upfront has raised $30.5 million, with the last round being a $10.5 million Series C in September 2022. Meanwhile, Health Catalyst’s JPM presentation this month shows a steadily declining revenue growth since its 2019 IPO (38% to 3%) and consistent losses from operations. HCAT shares have lost 86% of their value since their first day of trading and are down 41% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $334 million.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Pondering: why does a telehealth doctor need to wear scrubs or a white coat? Maybe they are dashing online between in-person visits. I could have asked about a stethoscope, which clearly has zero utility when “seeing” a patient virtually. I also notice that 6% of poll respondents had their most recent encounter in video form. I’ve never had a video visit, but perhaps I’ll buy one of those ill-concealing exam gowns for future use in amusing the online doctor.

New poll to your right or here: What is the patient impact of private equity firms buying healthcare provider organizations? I added an “it depends” option, but I hereby restrict its use to respondents who promise to leave a poll comment that provides an example of when patients benefited from having their provider bought by PE.

Webinars

January 23 (Thursday) 11 ET. “Maximizing Revenue With Minimal Resources: Work Smarter, Not Harder in Claims Management.” Sponsor: Inovalon. Presenter: Travis Fawver, senior sales engineer, Inovalon. Navigating the challenge of hitting revenue goals is daunting, but billing doesn’t have to be. The presenter will explore how strategic adoption of new technology can transform claims management processes from reactive to proactive. Learn how to reduce denials while empowering staff to focus on high-value activities, and gain proven strategies to simplify workflows, automate routine tasks, and build a more efficient RCM operation to maximize reimbursement.

Stream on demand. “Healthcare Data Security: Aligning Processes with Evolving Threats & Regulations.” Sponsor: Inovalon. Presenters: Anthony Houston, MBA, senior director of security, risk, and compliance, Inovalon; Paul Wilder, MBA, executive director, CommonWell Health Alliance; Luke McNamara, MPA, deputy chief analyst, Google Cloud; Michael Quinn, VP of strategic partner development, Inovalon. Hear leaders in healthcare data security discuss some of the top recent threat evolutions and how organizations can proactively respond by making ongoing improvements to security protocols.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Startup Our Expert Doc launches a digital electronic second opinion service that is aimed at connecting non-US patients with US doctors for a flat fee of $350 (and 50% off in January). The principals aren’t listed, but the company’s website address is a nice Raleigh, NC house that is owned by a quadruple-boarded Duke pulmonologist who is also listed as one of the available doctors (the company’s listed phone number is also his own, it appears). I was prepared to launch a snark attack about what seemed at first glance to be a questionable business (especially after viewing their YouTube videos, which feature a computer voice that says medical REE-cord), but I have to say that the providers listed are mostly amazingly well credentialed, and quite a few of them also work for Duke. PR seems to be a bit of a struggle for the company, so I offer to interview Dr. M if he is so inclined (my cred: I recently interviewed The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic CEO Frank McGillin, which also offers virtual second opinions in a joint venture with Amwell).

Chatham Emergency Services (GA) implements ArcGIS software that displays the diversion status of local hospitals and shows EMS crews how long it takes to get patients off the stretcher and inside, which allows them to seek the fastest care for situations such as stroke. The hospital dashboard can also be used by the public, as shown above.

Epic’s plans for a 90-acre, 2,000-employee European headquarters in North Somerset, England are approved despite 700 objections about loss of green belt, a local disapproval rate of 96%, and public gallery observers of the voting shouting “shame.” The project still requires approval by the secretary of state.

People

Surgical coordination software vendor Surgimate hires Kraig Brown (Office Practicum) as CEO. He replaces founder Rebecca Brygel, who will transition to product ambassador.

Announcements and Implementations

WellSky launches WellSky Extract for Home Health, which uses AI to extract information from patient documents and prescription labels to populate its home health EHR. The company says this is the first of a series of modules that it calls SkySense, with the next offerings being an ambient scribing solution and an EHR summarization application.

Government and Politics

The House Budget Committee lists the cost-cutting options it is considering to keep paying for federal tax cuts. Some of the healthcare-related ones:

• Eliminate the non-profit status for hospitals, taxing them as for-profit businesses.
• Eliminate federal healthcare tax credits and Medicaid access for non-citizens.
• Roll back the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid.
• Stop reimbursing hospitals for the unpaid debts of Medicare beneficiaries.
• Implement Medicare site-neutral payments.
• Replace payments to hospitals for uncompensated cares with a new fund that will include care delivered outside of hospitals.
• Reform ACA subsidies.
• Reform graduate medical education payments.
• Eliminate Medicare’s inpatient-only list so that more surgeries can be performed in lower cost outpatient settings.
• Reform the prescription price-setting aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act.
• Reform Medicare physician payments.

Other

A Redditor vows that ChatGPT saved his life after he entered his post-workout symptoms (muscle weakness and pain) and ChatGPT urged him to go to the hospital because it suspected a muscle breakdown condition called rhabdomyolis. The hospital ran lab tests that confirmed the diagnosis, which he knew almost immediately because he ran his results through ChatGPT as well. Redditors understood the takeaway – use ChatGPT to interpret symptoms, then go to a doctor to confirm and treat.

This is only slightly healthcare related, but a good business lesson. Happiest Baby, the maker of the $1,700 “smart bassinet” Snoo that rocks affluent babies to sleep, sparks customer outrage by introducing a $20 monthly subscription fee to use features that were previously free. The company defends the move as a “critical step” to counter losses from the thriving resale market, which they say undercuts new-product sales. Health tech folks will get this — the company’s long-term strategy isn’t to lower prices, but rather to get corporations, insurance companies, and government agencies to subsidize the Snoo’s cost. Customers are complaining to the FTC that a retroactive subscription requirement is a bait-and-switch tactic that should not be allowed.

Walgreens scraps the futuristic “smart doors” it installed on drugstore refrigerators, which were intended to display video ads, track inventory, and dynamically price items. The screens failed to deliver the promised sales boost, and the then-CEO reportedly asked, “Why do our stores look like an effing casino?” Screen vendor Cooler Screens sued Walgreens for $200 million and retaliated by cutting off data feeds, leaving customers — many of whom disliked the opaque screens from the start — staring at blank displays or makeshift printed signs. The failed project left $50 million worth of unusable custom screens gathering dust in a warehouse. This debacle echoes Walgreens’ earlier misstep with Theranos, which cost the company millions in customer lawsuit settlements over faulty in-store blood tests.

Sponsor Updates

• Optimum Healthcare IT publishes a white paper titled “5 Things to Know Before You Invest in ServiceNow”
• Netsmart offers a new case study featuring Amedisys, “Making Major Time-Savings Possible for Collectors.”
• Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast, “Interview with Brendan Keeler.”
• QGenda will exhibit at ASA Advance 2025 January 31-February 2 in Atlanta.
• TruBridge will exhibit at HFMA Western Region Symposium January 19-22 in Las Vegas.

Blog Posts

• CloudWave’s Predictions for Healthcare IT in 2025 Part 3: A Growing Threat of Healthcare Supply Chain Attacks (CloudWave)
• Clinical benefits of medical device connectivity (Philips Capsule)
• The future of healthcare: 5 resolutions you can’t ignore (Nordic)
• How Staff Self-Scheduling Can Boost Retention and Satisfaction (SnapCare)
• Ready for Action: Advancing Pharmacy Interoperability (Surescripts)
• Why Data Analytics Is Driving Healthcare’s Shift to the Cloud (Tegria)
• Coverage Detection 101: How RCM teams find missing or hidden insurance (Waystar)

Sponsor Spotlight

Planning a Workday project? Healthcare IT Leaders has released the ultimate Workday resource planning and staffing guide, including a comprehensive breakdown of the staffing requirements for each phase of a Workday project in healthcare organizations. The whitepaper provides detailed role breakdowns across six critical areas — from legacy system support to post-implementation optimization — so organizations can better plan their resource needs. Download the guide here.

Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 1/17/25

Glitches force N.S. Health to put text message reminders on hold

Canada’s Nova Scotia Health pauses its rollout of appointment text reminders after the system sent incorrect information, failed to indicate whether the visit was in-person or virtual, and in some cases referred to a non-existent appointment.

DEA Announces Three New Telemedicine Rules that Continue to Open Access to Telehealth Treatment while Protecting Patients

DEA announces new rules that will give providers more flexibility in prescribing controlled substances via telehealth and treating veterans virtually.

UnitedHealth (UNH) Reports Q4 Earnings: What Key Metrics Have to Say

UnitedHealth Group reports Q4 results: revenue up 6.8%, EPS $6.81 versus $6.16, beating earnings expectations but falling short on revenue.

Teal Health raises $10M to create at-home cervical cancer screenings

Teal Health, which is in the process of developing a telehealth-based service for at-home cervical cancer screenings, announces $10 million in additional seed funding.

Core Sound Imaging, Provider of Medical Imaging Platform Studycast, Announces $80 Million Growth Investment from PSG

Medical imaging solution vendor Core Sound Imaging raises a $80 million growth investment and gives the private equity investor the executive chair seat on the board.