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EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 6/22/23

June 22, 2023 Dr. Jayne 1 Comment

I continue to receive emails from multiple vendors addressing me as “Hey Jayne” and demanding that I schedule a call, or alternatively, respond to the email to tell the sender I’m not interested. I can guarantee I’m not going to respond to an email with that salutation, nor am I going to respond to bullying.

I keep trying to block the senders, but they’re somehow still getting through from at least two organizations. You might think that continued non-response would also be a ticket to be taken off of their marketing list. I’m also getting hit with solicitations for speaking engagements at dubious “conferences” that sound decidedly pay-to-play, but those seem to be a little easier to block.

In his recent Healthcare AI News roundup, Mr. H mentioned the inclusion of skin conditions in the Google Lens visual search tool. I decided to give it a whirl and ran three pictures of known dermatological findings through it. The tool scored zero out of three, so I think there’s still some opportunity for improvement. Granted, one of the conditions isn’t super common and it suggested a condition that is often confused with the actual diagnosis, but the other two submissions were very common, and I was surprised it didn’t do a better job with those.

When technology companies are marketing directly to consumers, it’s hard for primary care physicians and others who have the patient’s interests at heart to get ahead of the messaging and explain how these tools might or might not be used. It’s one more thing that overburdened clinicians need to add to their list of anticipatory guidance for upcoming patient visits.

AI continues to be a hot topic both within the US and around the globe. Various European consumer protection organizations are calling for investigation of AI systems in the interim before European Union regulations on the systems go into effect. Concerns range from the risks involved when AI generates content that mimics human work to the risk that AI could manipulate humans into doing things that will harm them. The European Union is creating rules for technology use, but they won’t go into effect for a couple of years.

Other countries are addressing the issue on a case-by-case basis, with Italy ordering OpenAI to stop processing user information during the investigation of a data incident. Nations such as France, Spain, and Canada are also looking into the technology. The next few months will be interesting as far as the continued discussion of AI and how it can best be used for the greater good.

I started doing some clinical work with a new organization and they’re eager to get my informaticist opinion on their EHR and how they might improve it. The first thing I recommended was some optimization to improve usability by putting the most commonly selected items on various menus in positions where they will be the easiest to select for the greatest number of patient visits. The EHR analyst couldn’t figure out how to do it, so he had to open a ticket with their vendor. It turns out that the EHR doesn’t allow this level of configuration, but rather forces items on the menu to be displayed in the order in which the menu items were built in the system’s back-end utility.

I remember seeing that kind of nonsense on a system I implemented back in 2009, but I thought that vendors had moved beyond that. It’s no wonder that physicians are complaining about scrolling since they are having to do more of it than they should.

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Registration is open for the LOINC conference being held October 17-20 in Atlanta. Sessions will focus on health data interoperability issues. Attendees include providers, patients, laboratory organizations, government entities, software vendors, device manufacturers, researchers, and students. The first day will be “devoted to LOINC learning,” with educational sessions to support newer users of LOINC and grow expertise in advanced users. Subsequent days will include public meetings of the LOINC committee as well as presentations from the LOINC community. Proposals are still being accepted, and for those unable to attend in person, there is an option for online participation.

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Speaking of conferences, one of my favorite readers is attending a meeting this week and sent some musings about his experiences. The meeting is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies annual Psychedelic Science conference,  being held in Denver. Organizers estimated the potential attendance at 10,000 and continuing medical education credits are being offered. The conference agenda is fascinating, and my reporter has found it to be “wildly informative” and full of information about topics he had not previously been aware of.

Based on his reports, it feels like the event was pretty mellow and lower key than some other conferences. There was at least one EHR vendor was exhibiting although I didn’t catch which one it was. I imagine the vendor has to have either some highly specialized content, or alternatively, a fairly significant ability for clients to customize to meet their needs.

Other interesting offerings included sessions on the convergence of wearables, neuroscience, and psychedelics; a history of the discipline; discussion of rituals; practical techniques for prayer practice; the use of psychedelics in alcohol use disorder; and a stomp class.

The use of drugs like ketamine and psilocybin also features prominently in the agenda. I have worked with a handful of patients who have had life-changing experiences with ketamine treatment, so I hope people are open minded when considering some of these non-mainstream treatments. The website’s chatbot told me the conference was sold out except for single-day passes for Friday, so it sounds like plenty of people are interested in learning more.

I don’t have any conference travel planned for a while, so I’ll just have to live vicariously through my readers. If you’re attending a meeting we haven’t historically reported on, feel free to send your thoughts and observations. Or if you have ideas of meetings that you think HIStalk should be covering, please pass those along as well. As I put together my conference plan for the rest of 2023 and the first half of 2024, nothing is off the table.

Do you have any work-related travel that you’re looking forward to? What makes it unique or appealing? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Morning Headlines 6/22/23

June 21, 2023 Headlines 2 Comments

AccurKardia Announces Final Closing of $2.7 Million Series Seed Round

AccurKardia, which sells AI-powered clinical-grade ECG interpretation software, completes a $2.7 million seed funding round.

AMA announces organizations selected for grants to research EHR use

The American Medical Association awards $589,000 in grants to nine organizations that will study EHR use for solutions that can prevent clinician burnout, enhance care, and improve workflows.

‘You’re not God’: Doctors and patient families say HCA hospitals push hospice care

An NBC News report says that publicly traded hospital operator HCA Healthcare used an algorithm to identify hospitalized inpatients who were likely to die, then pushed them into palliative or hospice care to improve hospital performance measures that are tied to executive bonuses.

Doctors urge ‘pause’ on Federated Data Platform bidding amid Palantir data security concerns

Doctors in England call for the government to pause the tender process for a new $600 million national federated data platform, saying that frontrunner Palantir is a private US company with ties to US security agencies that would discourage participation and that the procurement process favors the company because of its lobbying efforts and the waiving of procurement procedures during the pandemic.

DexCare Closes $75M in Series C Funding, Led by ICONIQ Growth, to Accelerate Market Expansion of its Care Access Platform

Providence spinout DexCare, which offers a customer acquisition and healthcare navigation system, raises $75 million.

Healthcare AI News 6/21/23

News

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Google adds the ability to search for skin conditions to its Lens visual search tool. Users take or upload a photo of their skin condition and the system finds visual matches, which it says is easier than trying to describe the situation with words.

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Startup Dandelion Health, which offers de-identified health system data for clinical research, launches a free public service that will evaluate the performance, fairness, and equity of health algorithms. It will initially focus on predictive algorithms for cardiology. The company’s pilot program – which uses data from Sharp HealthCare, Sanford Health, and Texas Health Resources – will evaluate if an algorithm trained on one area’s dataset performs equally well when applied to other populations and if it does so fairly for everyone.


Business

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Korea-based AI medical solutions vendor SPASS receives FDA 510(k) clearance for its AI-based detection software for sepsis, anaphylaxis, and hypovolemic shock.

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DeepX earns FDA clearance for its digital dermatoscope, which will acquire images for teledermatology review. The company is seeking FDA approval for integrating the images with an AI algorithm that will analyze lesions based on their light transferring properties to provide fast-track diagnosis of skin cancer.

A McKinsey report predicts that generative AI will add $4.4 trillion to the global economy, with leading use cases being in banking, technology, and life sciences.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI is reportedly planning to launch a marketplace for AI models that use its technology, which could raise competitive issues with its partners.  


Research

Researchers find that AI-powered analysis of EHR data can predict pancreatic cancer earlier, identifying heightened risk up to three years before diagnosis. Unexpected predictive symptoms include gallstones, Type 2 diabetes, anemia, and GI symptoms. The researchers believe that 320 of each 1,000 people the AI model identifies as high risk will develop cancer. The federal government doesn’t recommend screening symptom-free people for pancreatic cancer, but targeting AI-identified high-risk patients would make surveillance more affordable and improve long-term survival.

AI algorithms for predicting inflammatory bowel disease have been enhanced to offer personalized treatment recommendations and – by incorporating patient-reported outcomes, sensor data, and biomarkers – to detect early signs of worsening or to predict which treatments will be effective.


Other

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Meredith Broussard, MFA, whose 2018 book “Artificial Unintelligence” coined the term “technochauvinism” in describing the belief that technology can solve any problem better than humans, describes her experience with running open-source AI models on her mammograms to see if it would detect the cancer that her doctor has already diagnosed:

The AI that I used did, in fact, work. But it doesn’t diagnose the way that a doctor does. It drew a circle around an “area of concern” on a single flat image and gave me a score between zero and one … I realized that I had expected more—not the Terminator, and not a Jetsons-style robot doctor, but at least a humanlike diagnosis based on my entire medical record. This is pretty typical. We often have imaginary expectations about AI, and the technology fails to live up to what we imagine it can do. It would be really great if we could diagnose more people earlier. It would be great if we could use technology to save more lives from cancer. We are absolutely all united in that goal. But the idea that AI is going to be our salvation for diagnosing all cancers in the next few years is a little bit overblown.


Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 6/21/23

June 20, 2023 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/21/23

Vanderbilt turns over transgender patient records to state in attorney general probe

VUMC notifies some of its patients that it has sent their medical records to the state’s attorney general, whose office is conducting an investigation into billing state-insured patients for transgender care services.

Creating the world’s largest medical imaging library – Gradient Health closes $2.75M round

Raleigh, NC-based Gradient Health, which offers developers a library of 350 million medical images for AI training, raises $2.75 million.

Caraway Secures $16.75M Series A Funding

Virtual care company Caraway – which offers mental, physical, and reproductive health services in six states, primarily to women aged 18-27 — raises $16.75 million in a Series A funding round.

Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/21/23

News 6/21/23

June 20, 2023 News 4 Comments

Top News

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Healthcare shift-bidding platform vendor CareRev will reportedly lay off one-third of its corporate workforce, about 100 employees, following the departure of founder and CEO Will Patterson, RN. He resigned after admitting to colleagues that he delivered an investor Zoom pitch – which resulted in a $50 million Series A round — while taking LSD.

Patterson announced in January 2023 that the company would focus on expanding its technology platform, which would require laying off an unstated number of employees. 


Reader Comments

From Amicus Briefly: “Re: Oracle Cerner layoff. A physician says in a private member group that its whole clinical team was eliminated, including nurse and physician executives.” Unverified since the company hasn’t said a word on that topic, but I haven’t seen that claim elsewhere. Layoffs in big, far-flung companies are often hard to quantify otherwise since those involved don’t have easy ways to compare information. It’s easier in a one-office business because you see the empty cubes or watch out the window to see who’s being marched out. Those who should eventually notice are the company’s customers, whose interests are not necessarily aligned with those of shareholders.


Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 2 ET. “The End of COVID Public Health Emergency is Here. Is Your Rev Cycle Ready?” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Vanessa L. Moldovan, commercial enablement + insights program manager, Waystar. This webinar will describe the proactive steps that are needed to avoid increased rejections and denials. It will cover regulatory waivers and flexibilities, major shifts in telehealth, changes to reimbursement, and the impact of the end of the PHE on Medicaid coverage.

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

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Gradient Health, which offers AI developers a library of 350 million raw and labeled medical images from 1,000 partner hospitals for system training, raises $2.75 million.

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The founders of India-based vanity drug telehealth vendor Mojocare admit — following an investor-commissioned forensic audit after the company laid off 80% of its employees — that they were falsifying sales. A report says that the “judgment-free wellness platform” vendor was selling products to companies that were owned by the relatives of the founders, then restocking the delivered products, inflating its gross merchandise value. The money-losing company raised $21 million in a Series A funding round in August 2022 after reporting that its revenue had increased 38-fold. The two founders have no healthcare experience.


Sales

  • In England, Leeds Teach Hospitals NHS Trust will implement Flatiron Health’s real-world data for oncology research.

People

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Evergreen Healthcare Partners promotes John Evans to SVP of operations.


Announcements and Implementations

Malaysia’s Health Ministry will implement an expanded, cloud-based EHR nationwide in 2026.

Silver Cross Hospital expands its use of Kyruus ProviderMatch to include scheduling of primary care, gastroenterology, and cardiology.

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Microsoft opens a public preview of Azure OpenAI Service that allows running models on client-owned data, eliminating the need for training.


Government and Politics

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A Tennessee news site reports that Vanderbilt University Medical Center has notified some of its patients that it has sent their medical records to the state’s attorney general, who it says is investigating VUMC’s billing for transgender care services for patients who are covered by state-sponsored insurance. Commenters question the legality of providing the records under HIPAA and how VUMC chose the patients whose records it sent. HHS advises under its HIPAA “Court Orders and Subpoenas” guidance that providers can share PHI under a court order, or in the case of a subpoena, if the patient has been notified in advance to give them the chance to object or seek a protective order. The cited VUMC communication refers to a “civil investigation” in which the patient records were “requested.” The AG’s chief of staff says that the office is “surprised that VUMC has deliberately chosen to frighten its patients like this,” adding that its billing investigation involves only VUMC and certain providers, not patients.


Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 6/20/23

June 19, 2023 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/20/23

How Palantir is helping hospitals with tasks that used to require spreadsheets and whiteboards

A CNBC report looks at Cleveland Clinic’s work with Palantir’s AI software to manage resource allocation.

CareRev Plans to Cut Roughly a Third of Staff

Healthcare shift-bidding platform vendor CareRev will reportedly lay off one-third of its corporate workforce, about 100 employees, following the departure of CEO Will Patterson over claimed conduct issues.

Biden picks North Carolina’s former health chief, Mandy Cohen, to run CDC

As previously speculated, the White House will name Aledade EVP Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH as new CDC director effective with the resignation of Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH on June 30.

Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/20/23

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 6/19/23

June 19, 2023 Dr. Jayne Comments Off on Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 6/19/23

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have been having issues with my health system’s online billing functions. I was receiving paper statements before I received the online bills and couldn’t figure out how to adjust it so that I didn’t get paper statements.

At a recent visit, I asked the staff to see if they could adjust it on their side, and they said they would try. Interestingly, they also refused to accept my co-pay at the time of service, which is a big negative as far as revenue cycle management, so I wasn’t hopeful that they’d be able to get my account set up in a best practice fashion.

It looks like the “turn off paper statements” piece worked because I received an online invoice today. It included the co-pay (no surprise there) but also an unexpected co-insurance amount that doesn’t match how my insurance works. I haven’t even received the Explanation of Benefits document yet, so I’m not about to pay it. We will have to see how this cycle continues to unfold.

We had some family adventures in healthcare this weekend, with an unexpected injury that required attention beyond what I could manage with my first aid kit. Of the urgent care facilities in the area, some had spots available for online check-in, but others didn’t. Since we wanted a minimal wait, we opted for the one that was displaying available capacity, which is also an organization that I know fairly well.

As expected, walking in with a bleeding injury of the head puts one at the front of the line whether you have an appointment or not. Unfortunately, the provider wasn’t a great communicator and was mentioning how busy she was and how many other patients she was tending to rather than making the patient feel at ease.

She tried to downplay the injury a little, but fortunately the patient followed my advice and advocated for the treatment that is actually standard of care – they only knew that because I had prompted them after evaluating the injury and referring them to in-person care. The alternative treatment offered is typically less time-intensive for the provider, but results in poorer outcomes for this specific patient scenario. Most patients don’t know the difference, and it’s sad when our healthcare system is repeatedly putting time pressures ahead of patients.

After resolving the situation, we headed out for some Father’s Day celebrations, and then I came home to catch up on some work. It was timely that Mr. H called out this New York Times story on the level of moral crisis that physicians in the US are facing. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear a story from a colleague about this issue.

I’ve worked for organizations whose relentless focus on profits led to inappropriate prescribing behaviors as well as excessive ordering of tests. In one urgent care position, management justified these actions by saying, “we’re still only one-sixth the cost of a visit to the emergency department” and regularly presented me with reports that illustrated how much of an outlier I was to my peers when looking at the sheer number of prescriptions ordered. It should be noted that this organization had its own in-house pharmacy for which it didn’t submit insurance claims, so all prescriptions generated revenue.

From a conscience standpoint, by the time I worked for this organization, my prescribing habits were well established. I didn’t fall into the trap of trying to keep up with my peers in a way that didn’t make sense for clinical quality. Due to my training and prior experience, I also tended to make more clinical diagnoses using decision support tools and algorithms rather than tests and imaging studies, so of course that was an issue as well.

Eventually the organization figured out that my clinical skills and procedural abilities allowed me to see patients at a pace and volume that still made them money, so they left me alone, and eventually, the reports stopped coming my way. At the same organization, I also had to deal with some occasional patient safety issues as they encouraged me to practice outside my comfort zone with certain procedures, forcing me to have difficult conversations about my refusal to treat patient care like the Wild West.

Once they transitioned from being physician-owned to being owned by non-clinical investors, I knew my time there was limited. Others saw the writing on the wall as well, and now the organization can’t even keep its locations staffed. Not because there’s a shortage of clinicians, but because there’s a shortage of those who want to work there.

The article details many of the issues I’ve run across while in practice or in talking with my colleagues. Physicians are reluctant to speak out when they find themselves in these situations, because it’s been reinforced that they need to be team players, or they have experienced that reporting their concerns can lead to retaliation.

Former physician peers have lied on exit interviews because they were afraid that what they said would make the rounds in the physician lounge and come to haunt them in their new positions. Even in large cities, the physician community can be small. Powerful physicians on a given hospital’s medical staff can make things difficult for physicians who are younger, newer, or who otherwise have less political clout.

When I initially entered practice, I was once called out by a senior physician who felt I wasn’t giving him enough referrals and demanded to know why. I’m not sure who I could have complained to about that since he was not only chair of his department, but president of the medical staff.

That situation is relatively mild compared to some of the pressures that physicians experience today, especially those who work in segments that are largely controlled by private equity organizations or who are under strict productivity models for their compensation. Many physician contracts have clauses that would be problematic for other classes of employees.

I was recently presented with a contract that specified compensation based on the concept of a 12-hour shift, with no extra pay for additional time spent. When I asked for the language to be changed, I was told no, that all the other physicians already working had agreed to it and they weren’t willing to alter it. Needless to say, I won’t be working for that organization. Whether they’re lying about what other physicians have agreed to or just being difficult, it’s a decent indicator that they don’t value their physicians’ time. I guarantee they wouldn’t offer that contract to a nurse.

When physicians don’t feel valued, it creates psychological challenges that make it difficult to deliver good patient care. Whether consciously or subconsciously, decisions are made in the heat of the moment that can impact patient care but are based on the provider’s current situation.

I suspect that’s what my family member experienced today, when they were offered two different but non-equivalent management plans with a comment that it was up to the patient to decide. The difference in the clinician’s time was about 10 minutes, but sometimes that 10 minutes is what keeps you from going to the bathroom, eating lunch, or taking care of two more patients waiting for care. It’s a sad commentary on what many of us are facing every single day with patients caught in the middle.

If you’re in a non-clinical role, do you consult clinical colleagues for advice prior to seeking care for yourself or a loved one? Have you had to advocate for yourself or someone else for medical care in the last year? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Comments Off on Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 6/19/23

Readers Write: The Shift Toward an Employer-Driven Market in Healthcare Technology

June 19, 2023 Readers Write 4 Comments

The Shift Toward an Employer-Driven Market in Healthcare Technology
By Mike Silverstein

Mike Silverstein is managing partner of the healthcare IT and life sciences practice of Direct Recruiters, Inc. of Solon, OH.

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Throughout the last few years, the healthcare technology market has been largely candidate driven. During the “grow at all costs” period that started in late 2020 and continued through fall of 2022, capital was cheap, and companies were doubling down on product that was to be delivered by expensive and newly hired engineering and data talent.

That has slowed tremendously in recent months and has been coupled with significant layoffs across most of big and medium tech. What felt like an inelastic demand for technical talent over the last number of years, which corresponded to growing compensation demands, has flipped.

Below are three market trends we are seeing that signify a shift toward an employer-driven market.

Technological Advancements

It’s no secret that technology continues to change the landscape of the global workforce. The continuous stream of new AI and automation tools being introduced has the potential to change processes, procedures, and potentially even replace human labor in some situations. According to a March 2023 report from Goldman Sachs, the automation of certain tasks could disrupt a staggering 300 million jobs worldwide.

As these changes evolve, employers’ expectations of current and prospective talent are to be able to adapt and leverage new technology to their advantage versus letting it replace them.

An Emphasis on Talent That Has a Near-Term ROI

Sales, business development, demand generation marketing, customer success, and FP & A roles are crucial right now. Investors are demanding greater discipline from their portfolio companies as the cost of capital has increased and the bottom has fallen out of company valuations, particularly in tech. Right now, each company is tasked with showing a path to break even and/or profitability. No investor wants their portfolio company to have to go out for a fundraise right now for fear of a down round.

While healthcare technology employers hire and retain talent, the pressure is high for candidates to showcase that they are results driven to land great roles. If you can help make a dollar, protect a dollar, or count a dollar – sales and marketing, customer success, and accounting and finance, respectively — there are still strong opportunities in the market. As companies strive toward profitability in a tumultuous time, there may be more uncertainty for roles further away from revenue.

The Abundance of Tech Talent

With recent layoffs, there is now an abundance of healthcare technology talent on the street with far less demand for its services. As a result, passive candidates have become more risk averse. Clients are realizing there is a bit of an opportunity to buy low(er) on some needle-moving talent.

A lot of mediocre candidates did really well for themselves over the last couple of years. Healthcare technology companies are seeing an opportunity to top grade on positions where they settled in the last 24 months, and there is added scrutiny on every candidate in the hiring pipeline.

As we face this potential shift in the market, talent that has a track record of being able to perform and execute in a capital-constrained environment will continue to thrive. Candidates who are more entrepreneurial in the traditional sense — in that they are comfortable doing more with less, versus relying on the ability to obtain unlimited growth capital whenever needed — are still in high demand, along with those with a strong accounting and operations acumen.

Morning Headlines 6/19/23

June 18, 2023 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/19/23

Optum health startup incubator on ice

Optum dissolves its Startup Studio incubator after three years and 100 health companies incubated.

Amazon called to account – on health data

Senators Peter Welch (D-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) express concern to Amazon President and CEO Andy Jaffy that the company’s virtual Amazon Clinic may be collecting and sharing health data from customers.

Hackers claim responsibility for Norton Healthcare ‘cyber event’ as Louisville patients await answers

The BlackCat ransomware group claims responsibility for last month’s attack on Norton Healthcare (KY), the effects of which are still impacting the health system’s network and services.

Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/19/23

Monday Morning Update 6/19/23

June 18, 2023 News 5 Comments

Top News

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Oracle has declined to comment about its layoffs in the former Cerner business last week, but affected employees have cited numbers ranging from 500 to 1,200.

Reddit commenters said that recently hired managers were targeted, along with the HealthIntent and CommunityWorks teams, support service owners, and employees who were assigned to the VA’s stalled implementation.


Reader Comments

From Innit: “Re: [cancer screening technology vendor name omitted.] Fired the CEO and two of four salespeople after missing financial goals.” I left the name out pending a company response. Its leadership page and the LinkedIn profiles of the CEO and salespeople have not changed.

From Staffer: “Re: Children’s Mercy KC. Brought in expensive consultants to train the entire workforce on culture. Executive leadership talks the talk, but some are not changing or are almost weaponizing the culture concepts against staff. I’m curious about reader experience – how is the perception of your organization, has it run a culture initiative, did leaders change or did they get swapped out, and did the organization change following the initiative?” My only experience with this was in my short, long-ago stint with a for-profit company, but I suspect the same challenges remain:

  • The organizations that undertake these projects are already in trouble and expect consultants to fix their most pressing problems.
  • Executives who created the problems pretend to participate, but don’t actually plan to change their own behavior.
  • Hiring a bunch of expensive consultants creates pressure to deliver ROI quickly, but culture change is slow and uncertain.
  • Companies are paying consultants to ask their employees what they think instead of talking to them directly, which pretty much says it all with regard to the disconnect between management and employees.
  • It’s a big de-motivator to ask for opinions that are then ignored.
  • It’s easier to recognize a good or bad culture than to turn one around.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

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Nearly half of poll respondents have experienced a negative impact of a previously signed non-compete agreement. A couple of folks mentioned that non-competes should include compensation – either the old company pays you while your time-out ticks away or gives you vesting or other benefits to offset your potential lost earnings – but the Epic model of pushing the non-compete onto providers and consulting firms means that you might not get offers and won’t know why.

New poll to your right or here, as suggested by a reader: does the fear of losing your job force you to work in a suboptimal or unethical way?

Listening The Descendents (that’s how they spell it), inserted into my YouTube feed because I’ve been listening to the Hives. An HIStalk search finds that I mentioned them in 2017, where I noted that the lead singers of at least three punk rock bands have earned PhDs – Bad Religion, The Offspring, and The Descendents. They look like Walmart-fashioned grandpas waiting for the Applebee’s early bird special, but then they just rip into blazing fast and highly skilled punk rock that sends youthful moshers flinging themselves off the stage. The band formed in 1977, with Milo Aukerman stepping down temporarily to earn a UCSD PhD in molecular biology followed by postdoctoral research. Also on my playlist: the reader-suggested collaboration between Dolly Parton and Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, in which Parton’s warbling pairs surprising well with Halford’s growl as collaborators whose combined age is 148.

Lorre always offers Summer Doldrums incentives to new HIStalk sponsors this slow time of year, along with some first-year perks for small startups that need a boost. Contact her.


Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 2 ET. “The End of COVID Public Health Emergency is Here. Is Your Rev Cycle Ready?” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Vanessa L. Moldovan, commercial enablement + insights program manager, Waystar. This webinar will describe the proactive steps that are needed to avoid increased rejections and denials. It will cover regulatory waivers and flexibilities, major shifts in telehealth, changes to reimbursement, and the impact of the end of the PHE on Medicaid coverage.

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

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Optum dissolves its Startup Studio incubator after three years and 100 health companies incubated.


Sales

  • The VA awards Sierra7 and partner AvaSure a contract to provide a TeleCare Companion solution to seven VA medical centers in VISN 9, powered by AvaSure’s TeleSitter solution.

People

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John Noseworthy, MD (Mayo Clinic) joins Northwell-created virtual-first care ecosystem vendor Caire as executive chair.

Brent Averette (Komodo Health) joins Transcarent as SVP of enterprise sales.

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Damo Consulting founder and CEO Paddy Padmanabhan, MBA died Thursday of cancer.


Privacy and Security

Politico reports that Senators Peter Welch (D-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have expressed concern to Amazon President and CEO Andy Jaffy that the company’s virtual Amazon Clinic may be collecting and sharing health data from customers. They ask in a letter that Amazon provide its patient authorization form, which they have heard requires prospective patients to consent to data disclosure that waives HIPAA protections. They also want to review sample provider contracts and how collected is shared.

A newly declassified report confirms that US spy agencies routinely purchase commercially available data on US citizens that includes their browsing history and cell phone location.


Other

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield — noting that 60% of the claims it receives for Ozempic suggest that it is being prescribed for weight loss rather than diabetes — sends letters to prescribers warning them that it will alert law enforcement and state licensure boards when it suspects inappropriate use or fraudulent activity. The letter provides few details, but since prescribers can legally order drugs for off-label uses, it seems likely that the insurer is going after doctors who improperly claim that patients have diabetes in getting insurance to pay.

A New York Times report says that the corporatization of healthcare has alienated physicians whose bosses order them to behave in profit-seeking ways that don’t align with their values. It notes that some doctors have been fired for raising issues related to patient safety or poor working conditions and are forced to hit productivity targets that preclude showing empathy or support. They also have to manage patients whose don’t have the insurance or cash to afford potentially beneficial treatments.

A TV station in Australia profiles the country’s first standalone, nationally accredited virtual hospital.


Sponsor Updates

  • CereCore publishes a case study titled “Epic Advisory Services: An Acquisition and Install Story.”
  • Experity celebrates a successful investment cycle with an employee trip to Orlando.
  • Meditech publishes a new e-book, “A strong revenue cycle begins and ends with a satisfied patient.”
  • Nordic releases a new Making Rounds Podcast, “Turning data into insights with managed services.”
  • OmniSys parent company XiFin names Kyu Rhee, MD senior strategic advisor.
  • Surescripts publishes a podcast titled “Bringing Healthcare to the People: How Dr. Brett Giroir Serves His Nation.”
  • Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, and Virginia Children’s Care Network join Premier’s Kiindo pediatric-focused collaborative and purchasing alliance.
  • Verato publishes a new white paper, “What Is Referential Matching?”
  • Waystar customer Alivi Health announces that it has achieved a 99.89% clean claim rate.

Blog Posts


Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
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Morning Headlines 6/16/23

June 16, 2023 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/16/23

Oracle Cerner cuts more jobs, focusing on roles with VA, federal contracts

Oracle conducts another round of layoffs in the former Cerner business, according to employee reports on Reddit and LinkedIn.

Snooping in Medical Records by Hospital Security Guards Leads to $240,000 HIPAA Settlement

Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (WA) pays $240,000 to settle allegations that several of its security guards accessed without permission the medical records of 419 patients.

Veradigm’s plan to regain compliance with Nasdaq receives approval

Nasdaq gives Veradigm another extension to submit its annual and quarterly reports, with the company expecting to file Form 10-K on September 18, 2023 rather than June 14.

Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/16/23

News 6/16/23

June 15, 2023 News 3 Comments

Top News

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Oracle conducts another round of layoffs in the former Cerner business, according to employee reports on Reddit and LinkedIn. Federal business groups, specifically teams involved in the VA’s now-paused implementation, were most often mentioned.

The company also reportedly rescinded some job offers.

Oracle CEO Safra Catz said of the Cerner business in this week’s earnings call, “You will be seeing some more significant changes, and we have legal entity combination imminently and that actually gives us a lot more flexibility regarding the way we operate the business. We are just at the very beginning of it. Their margins are nowhere close to the way we run our company.“

Oracle has reportedly laid off 3,000 of Cerner’s 28,000 employees in the year since the $28 billion acquisition.

Meanwhile, the stock market likes what it heard this week and has pushed ORCL shares to record highs, valuing the company at $342 billion and the wallet of CTO and Chairman Larry Ellison at nearly $150 billion. Shares rose another 3.5% on Thursday.


Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 2 ET. “The End of COVID Public Health Emergency is Here. Is Your Rev Cycle Ready?” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Vanessa L. Moldovan, commercial enablement + insights program manager, Waystar. This webinar will describe the proactive steps that are needed to avoid increased rejections and denials. It will cover regulatory waivers and flexibilities, major shifts in telehealth, changes to reimbursement, and the impact of the end of the PHE on Medicaid coverage.

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

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Nasdaq gives Veradigm another extension to submit its annual and quarterly reports, with the company expecting to file Form 10-K on September 18, 2023 rather than June 14. The former Allscripts announced at the end of February that audits internal had uncovered revenue recognition problems that would force a 15-day delay in filing its report that was due March 1. The company then announced on March 22 that it had fallen out of Nasdaq compliance by failing to file its 10-K by the revised date. It was given another 60 days to file the report. Nasdaq issued a delisting notice for MDRX shares on May 18 for failing to file its reports on time. MDRX shares have lost 35% since January 1 versus the Nasdaq’s 30% gain, valuing the company at $1.3 billion. 

Nasdaq retracts its delisting warning for shares of Healthcare Triangle, determining that it made a mistake in calculating the company’s per-share value following its May 26 reverse stock split.

Healthcare staffing company Aya Health acquires Flexwise Health, whose software forecasts hospital staffing needs.

BurstIQ acquires the business intelligence solution of Olive AI.


Sales

  • Health risk management firm Captive Health will offer its covered members KeyCare’s virtual care services, accessed from MyChart and Captive Health’s mobile app.

Announcements and Implementations

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A new KLAS report on population health management technology vendors finds that Epic and Innovaccer stand out, and along with Arcadia, are most often considered. Customers give high partnership marks to Azara Healthcare, Relevant Healthcare, and Salient Healthcare.


Government and Politics

Human Rights Watch calls for the US government to protect Americans from aggressive billing and debt collection by non-profit hospitals, which the organization says is interfering with their other human rights such as housing, food, and education. It concludes that the US model of giving tax breaks to privately operated hospitals and hoping they will reciprocate by delivering charity care isn’t working, making the US a big outlier in medical debt. The report says the government should require hospitals to provide as much charity care as they receive in tax subsidies, for the IRS to set national standards for hospital financial assistance, and for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to require debt collectors to make sure that patients have been screened for financial assistance eligibility before pressing them for payment. 


Sponsor Updates

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  • Team Ellkay raises over $35,000 for the Alpine Learning Group during its annual Go the Distance for Autism cycling event.
  • Vyne Medical publishes a new case study, “How to Establish Proof of Patient Authorizations to Overturn Denials.”
  • A new report from Forester recognizes InterSystems as a strong performer among top data management and analytics vendors.
  • Redox publishes a new report, “Uncovering hidden data roadblocks of cloud and AI adoption in healthcare.”
  • Black Book lists the top-ranked payer technologies category leaders exhibiting at AHIP this week. HIStalk sponsors include Wolters Kluwer Health (member and consumer education solutions) and Optum (end-to-end payer RCM outsourcing, payer analytics outsourcing).
  • Wolters Kluwer Health and Laerdal Medical launch VRClinicals for Nursing to enhance nurse training with realistic, multi-patient scenarios using virtual reality.
  • Konza National Network’s interoperability platform earns certified status by HITRUST for information security.
  • Direct Recruiters parent company Starfish Partners acquires Global People and cybersecurity-focused NinjaJobs.
  • Fortified Health Security names Katarzyna Parzonka conference and event coordinator.
  • Healthwise wins six Digital Health Awards.
  • Loyal names Matt Gove (Summit Health/CityMD) senior advisor.

Blog Posts


Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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Send news or rumors.
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EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 6/15/23

June 15, 2023 Dr. Jayne Comments Off on EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 6/15/23

I recently took a smaller version of The Great American Road Trip and made it a point to visit some historical roadside attractions. In the 1950s, it was all about seeing the USA in your Chevrolet (or equivalent) and families might have stopped at various quirky museums or points of interest.

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One of the places I visited had a collection of antique cars. I was struck by the idea of this 1960s era Amphicar. In some ways it’s a solution in search of a problem, which is something we see often in the world of healthcare IT. I have so many vendor emails hit my box each week promising to solve problems that I didn’t even know I had that I can’t keep track of them all.

The Amphicar was innovative, but didn’t make it big, ceasing production only four years after it began. Sounds like a lot of the products I see out there.

A group of organizations including AstraZeneca, Elevance Health, Geisinger, and UCSF have come together to publish a framework for evaluating digital health products. The goal is for care delivery organizations, health insurers, and trade groups to use it to determine whether digital health products are evidence based. The authors examined 70 frameworks that were created to assess the evidence around digital health intervention, determining that the existing frameworks lacked the specificity needed by healthcare organizations.

Sometimes people forget that digital health interventions can be as important and useful to patients as medications and surgeries. For example, an appropriate intervention to help patients stop smoking can prevent lung cancer. Digital coaching to manage body weight can lead to reductions in heart disease and stroke. The authors identified certain requirements as being potentially non-negotiable for organizations depending on their needs: HIPAA compliance, FDA clearance, and ability to be understood by patients with a fifth-grade reading level were examples.

Organizations are instructed next to use existing evidence assessment frameworks that have been defined for non-digital interventions. Following that, they should apply the new framework’s 21-item supplementary checklist for considerations specific to digital health. These may include elements such as assessing an intervention for selection biases, looking at data gaps, or ensuring that underserved patients were included in the product’s clinical trials.

According to the article, there are 300,000 health apps and 300 wearables in the marketplace, so being able to determine quality of an intervention is key. I wonder how much traction this approach will get, especially when we’re already struggling to make use of evidence quality in non-digital interventions. One of the hottest topics among physicians in my area is the surge in providers offering non-evidence-based hydration and vitamin infusion services. Comments such as “the patients want it, and I don’t see the harm” win the day, along with the potential for revenue. I’ll be watching closely to see how the world of evidence for digital interventions plays out.

Mayo Clinic is planning a $1 billion expansion and its new clinical spaces will incorporate data from patient wearables. Clinicians will have the opportunity interact with patient data elements such as pulse, steps, and sleep. I got a chuckle out of the fact that the article specifically called out Mayo’s “marble-filled lobby” since so many hospitals are overly proud of their non-patient-care spaces while patients may struggle to have basic needs met.

I also found it interesting that it mentioned the tension between Mayo’s lobbyist and Governor Tim Walz over the potential for penalties against hospitals that have excessive cost growth. The project is part of Mayo’s plans to transform the city into an international medical hub. The system has pitched the state, county, and city for $500 million in public funding for campus-serving infrastructure improvements. The new expansion will impact several blocks in downtown Rochester and is intended to make the campus more streamlined and modern, eliminating wayfinding confusion and harmonizing the patient experience. Construction is slated to begin in 2024.

Northwell Direct has inked a deal with the US State Department to offer telehealth consultations to patients seeing Department of State medical professionals around the world. The offering will apply to US government employees and their families posted outside the US. Consultations will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and requests will be triaged for assignment to the appropriate Northwell provider staff in more than 100 specialties and subspecialties. Those providers will also provide medical clearance services before employees are sent outside the US, as well as clinical case reviews. Northwell Health also partners within the US with Teladoc for additional virtual care delivery services, so it’s not entirely clear how this will all fit together.

Speaking of government, the Surgeon General of the United States has issued an advisory about the impacts of social media on adolescent and child mental health. The report notes that social media use is nearly universal in those ages 13 to 17 with nearly two-thirds reporting daily social media use and one-third reporting use of platforms “almost constantly.” It goes on to conclude that “social media presents a meaningful risk of harm to youth” with those spending more than three hours daily facing double the risk of mental health problems as others who spend less time on social media.

The long and short of it is that “we cannot conclude social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents” and lists steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of harm in those groups. These include: reaching out for help for those negatively impacted by social media; creating boundaries to balance media use; being selective about what is posted and shared online; and addressing cyberbullying. A short summary is available or you can view the full advisory.

Many of my family physician colleagues are still trying to figure out how to balance their use of telehealth within the context of traditional primary care practice. A recent report from the University of Washington Center for Health and Workforce Studies showed that while there was limited data about how medical assistants participate in the telehealth setting, those staffers can transition to virtual roles following additional education and training. Unfortunately, I think a lot of organizations just try to throw people in a role without fully thinking it through. We saw this a decade ago, when practices decided they would just turn their medical assistants into scribes but didn’t think through how to create an appropriate training program or how that role transition might otherwise impact office dynamics.

More on the topic of transitioning historically in-person tasks to virtual caregivers. I was talking with some CMIOs earlier this week about whether they think virtual nursing is going to solve some of their staffing issues. Systems such as Washington-based Providence and Arkansas-based Mercy have already rolled out programs and labeled them as successful, preparing for expansion. Among the group, several were enthusiastic about the idea, and one said their system was in the process of rolling it out using internal resources. However, another said her system was about to sunset the concept because it hadn’t yielded the savings it anticipated. Although that organization’s efforts did dramatically reduce its dependence on travel nurses, those savings were countered by expenditures for hardware and third-party staff management.

Has your organization dipped its toes into the waters of virtual nursing? How is it going? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

Comments Off on EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 6/15/23

Morning Headlines 6/15/23

June 14, 2023 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/15/23

BurstIQ Acquires Business Intelligence Platform from Olive AI

Healthcare analytics vendor BurstIQ acquires Olive AI’s business intelligence solution, now known as LifeGraph Intelligence.

Hackensack Meridian Health Invests in Canary Speech, Company with AI Software to Assess Anxiety, Wellness in Spoken Words

Hackensack Meridian Health (NJ) invests in speech analysis technology startup Canary Speech through its Bear’s Den accelerator program.

Apixio and ClaimLogiq Merge to Create a Leading Connected Care Platform

Healthcare analytics vendor Apixio acquires ClaimLogiq, which offers health plan claims technology.

Healthcare Triangle Maintains Compliance with Nasdaq Listing Requirements as Nasdaq Resolves Delisting Determination Error

Healthcare Triangle regains its Nasdaq compliance after the financial services organization determined the health IT vendor had been de-listed in error.

Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/15/23

Healthcare AI News 6/14/23

News

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The American Medical Association’s House of Delegates considers a resolution that would urge doctors to educate patients about the risk of large language models. It also directs AMA to work with the federal government to protect patients from inaccurate, AI-generated medical advice.

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Dartmouth launches the Center for Precision Health and Artificial Intelligence.

In England, the British Labour Party recommends that the UK create a mandatory licensing model for companies that do AI work.

A UK pathologist who pioneered the use of AI to diagnose prostate cancer is advocating the use of similar AI pathology tools to diagnose breast cancer within three days and help finalize treatment recommendations within a week. He says that diagnosing cancer isn’t hard, but it takes more time to review biomarkers to determine optimal treatment, creating patient uncertainty and straining staff resources.


Business

Healthcare analytics vendor BurstIQ acquires Olive’s AI business intelligence solution.

Healthcare analytics vendor Apixio acquires ClaimLogiq, which offers health plan claims technology.

The CEO of drug manufacturer Sanofi says it will be the first pharma company that is powered by AI at scale, using AI and data science to discover drugs, design clinical trials, and improve manufacturing and supply chain processes.

Accenture will spend $3 billion to double its AI-focused employee headcount to 80,000, incorporate generative AI in its client work, and help customers use the technology.


Opinion

A Health Affairs opinion piece predicts that AI will set interoperability back, as providers will use technical and legal tools to prevent large competitors from using their data to train large language models to create competing consumer medical services.


Research

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Researchers test ChatGPT’s ability to provide venomous snakebite advice to consumers, finding that it gives accurate and useful responses, including recommendations to seek medical care when appropriate, but with limitations involving outdated knowledge and lack of personalization.


Other

Peter Lee, VP of OpenAI investor Microsoft, says he was “alarmed” to learn that within the first three days of the release of ChatGPT, doctors were not only using it, but were asking it to help them communicate with patients more compassionately. A former physician executive at Microsoft says that he was “blown away” by ChatGPT’s ability to help him communicate empathetically with a friend with cancer, but observes that doctors don’t evangelize its use because that would require admitting that they aren’t good at talking to patients.

A health technology firm creates Lifesaving Radio, an AI-based radio station whose playlist of hard rock music is optimized to get surgeons “in the zone” of relaxed high efficiency during surgery. The playlist was developed using Spotify’s AI DJ analytics technology to find songs with the ideal tempo, key, and loudness for surgeons. It features an AI-powered DJ that calls out the surgeons and team members by name. The channel’s first music set is an AC/DC-inspired collection called “Highway to Heal,” which includes parodies such as “You Sewed Me All Night Long.”


Contacts

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

Morning Headlines 6/14/23

June 13, 2023 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/14/23

American College of Gastroenterology and American Gastroenterological Association Invest in Oshi Health to Accelerate Adoption of Hybrid Digestive Health Care

Shortly after the close of a $30 million funding round, virtual digestive care provider Oshi Health announces investments from the American College of Gastroenterology and the American Gastroenterological Association’s GI Opportunity Fund.

Oracle beats on top and bottom lines as cloud revenue jumps

Oracle reports Q4 results: revenue up 17%, adjusted EPS $1.67 versus $1.54, beating Wall Street expectations for both and sending shares to an all-time high.

Penn State Health enhancing access to primary care through subscription-based virtual service

Penn State Health launches a subscription-based virtual primary care service, initially available to employees and Penn State College of Medicine students and their dependents.

Comments Off on Morning Headlines 6/14/23

News 6/14/23

June 13, 2023 News 9 Comments

Top News

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Oracle reports Q4 results: revenue up 17%, adjusted EPS $1.67 versus $1.54, beating Wall Street expectations for both and sending shares to an all-time high. From the earnings call:

  • Total cloud revenue was up 55%.
  • The Cerner business contributed $1.5 billion to the company’s $13.8 billion of total revenue that was up 18%.
  • The company is partnering with Nvidia to build the world’s largest high-performance computer, which will run AI at 16,000 GPUs.
  • CTO and Chairman Larry Ellison says that cloud usage is charged by the minute, making Oracle half the price of competitors because it runs twice as fast. He adds that a new Oracle version of MySQL is 1,000 times faster than Amazon Aurora.
  • Ellison says Oracle loves Java for building applications, but the company uses Apex for a tenfold developer productivity gain, which he says is why the company believes that it can rewrite Cerner’s entire suite in a “very, very short period of time.”
  • Ellison says that the company will earn many healthcare wins because of Oracle’s application breadth, also noting that competitors say they are “cloud” when they are actually “hosted.”
  • Ellison adds, “We not only have all the Cerner healthcare apps for hospitals, we’ve specialized our ERP system for hospitals, we’ve specialized our HCM for managing the hospital workforce. We’ve done a bunch of things around the healthcare industry. One of the things we want to do is, you know, we’re the largest provider of clinical trial software. But the clinical — the results of the clinical trial goes to a government regulator. And we’re now working with the government regulators to develop the software that allows them to take the clinical trial output in digital form and get it through the regulatory process much faster at a much lower cost. So, we’re looking at the entire healthcare ecosystem and trying to automate both sides of the transaction.”
  • CEO Safra Catz says “we’re still at the beginning” with the Cerner business, as Oracle has been focused on stabilizing the operation, but work remains to increase Cerner’s profit margins and to move its products to Oracle Cloud.

Reader Comments

From Apex: “Re: Elation Health. We were notified that our implementation manager is no longer with the company, apparently part of a structured RIF. Not sure how big, but it was a sign of companies hunkering down for the recession and the lack of non-AI investor capital.” Unverified, because I couldn’t find a press contact on their site to confirm the non-anonymous report.


HIStalk Announcements and Requests

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Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Ronin. The San Mateo, CA-based company’s advanced data science and human-centered interfaces embedded in the EHR help clinicians make more precise, confident, and personalized patient care decisions while enhancing the patient and care team experience. Intuitive display of the patient journey: More efficiently and more confidently guide patient care using a reimagined dashboard within the EHR that presents all available patient data in a single click. Efficiently rendered data reduces clinicians burden and supports data-driven decisions. Actionable data insights for personalized care: Preempt adverse events and improve treatment effectiveness using predictive insights delivered at the point of care in the patient chart to accelerate informed, individualized decisions about patient care. Real-time symptom monitoring for effective intervention with PROs: Identify and proactively course-correct at-risk patients for fewer adverse events and emergency department visits through EHR-integrated capture of patient reported outcomes, remote monitoring, effective patient management, and intelligent alerting. Thanks to Ronin for supporting HIStalk.


Webinars

June 22 (Thursday) 2 ET. “The End of COVID Public Health Emergency is Here. Is Your Rev Cycle Ready?” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Vanessa L. Moldovan, commercial enablement + insights program manager, Waystar. This webinar will describe the proactive steps that are needed to avoid increased rejections and denials. It will cover regulatory waivers and flexibilities, major shifts in telehealth, changes to reimbursement, and the impact of the end of the PHE on Medicaid coverage.

July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.

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


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

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A new survey of C-level health system executives by marketing intelligence firm Panda Health looks at the “Churn Index,” as digital health contracts that health systems signed during the pandemic will start expiring, forcing customers to evaluate whether their renewal is cost effective. Telehealth and remote patient monitoring solutions have a potentially high Churn Score due to moderate levels of dissatisfaction.

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Forbes questions why Andreessen Horowitz led a recent $50 million seed funding round in healthcare startup Hippocratic AI even though its founder came from a Medicare Advantage broker with a history of debt, laid-off employees, and unpaid invoices.  Several Health IQ co-founders and executives, including CEO Munjal Shah, MS, moved to Hippocratic AI, angering the small companies – mostly lead generators and call center operators — that are stilled owed millions by Health IQ.


People

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Will Weider, MS (PeaceHealth) joins Aspirus Health as SVP/CIO.

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UCSF promotes Julia Adler-Milstein, PhD as chief of its clinical informatics and digital transformation division.

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Spencer Korn (Salesforce) joins League as SVP of sales and business development.

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PatientNow hires Bethany Little, MA (Community Brands) as CEO.

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Curt Thornton, MHS, MBA (Anatomy IT) joins Linus Health as chief growth officer.

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AvoMD hires Mark Citrone (Doximity) as chief commercial officer.


Announcements and Implementations

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Artera launches Artera Harmony to unify and streamline patient messaging from across the enterprise.

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KLAS reports that as health system acquire independent oncology practices and care centers, more are being moved to Epic and Oracle Health, with Epic users reporting satisfaction with the company’s development roadmap but noting that the system’s complexity creates a user learning curve. Oracle Health users say that PowerChart Oncology is customizable and well integrated, but development is slow and the system is hard to learn.


Government and Politics

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes says she can’t afford to pay $250 per month toward the $452 million that she and former COO Sunny Balwani have been ordered to pay as restitution to defrauded investors. Holmes says she will spend the rest of her working life trying to pay her legal bills, although her attorneys did not object to starting a payment plan from prison at $100 per year. 


Privacy and Security

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St. Margaret’s Health (IL) will cease operations this week after failing to overcome staff shortages, the lingering effects of the pandemic, and a 2021 ransomware attack on parent organization SMP Health that prevented it from submitting claims to payers for nearly three months.


Other

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Bon Secours Mercy Health (OH) develops a Community Health Data Hub for public health research.

Allina Health will re-examine its recently exposed policy of withholding services from patients who have accrued $4,500 in medical debt. The Minnesota-based nonprofit will not, however, restore care for those who are already flagged as debtors.


Sponsor Updates

  • Five9 publishes a demonstration video titled “Five9 Helps with Medicaid Redetermination.”
  • AssociatesMD (FL) increases patient engagement after implementing Healow technology from EClinicalWorks.
  • Waystar enhances its healthcare payments platform for improved transparency, efficiency, and accuracy.
  • Baker Tilly releases a new Healthy Outcomes Podcast, “Navigating challenges in 2023 and beyond for healthcare provider organizations.”
  • Nordic releases an episode of its In Network podcast titled ““Making Rounds: Turning data into insights with managed services
  • Bamboo Health names Amelia Burnett and Laura Reese software engineers, David Antosh cloud engineer, and Bill Alderson senior payroll specialist.
  • The local business paper honors Care.ai with a 2023 Fire Award in the Fresh Faces category.
  • CHIME releases a new Trailblazers Podcast, “Digital Future Optimization, Efficiency, Process – Where Do We Start?”
  • AGS Health, Amenities, Arcadia, Availity, CereCore, Current Health, Medhost, Nordic, Nym Health, Optum, Sphere, VisiQuate, and Waystar will exhibit at HFMA June 25-28 in Nashville.

Blog Posts


Contacts

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

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RECENT COMMENTS

  1. Very disappointing for the AI /CTO/digital employees at HHS. They could have quintupled their salaries in the private sector and…

  2. Per RFK Jr., I predict the following. Very soon, one of his entities (the NIH perhaps) will discover that severed…

  3. 1. RFK. JFC. 2. Holmes can pound sand - delusional as she ever was. And I would know - it's…

  4. Oracle snippy email: reminds me of Neal's famous pizza email.

  5. In a delicious twist of irony - the legal and funding framework for DOGE was created by Obama.

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