News 8/30/21

Top News

HHS expands its Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program from 21 states to 45 using $11 million from the American Rescue Plan. The funding will provide state and regional pediatric teams with telemedicine-focused consultation, training, technical assistance, and care coordination services.

Webinars

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “Patient Acquisition and Retention: The Future of Omnichannel Virtual Assistants.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenters: Harris Hunt, SVP growth product, Cancer Treatment Centers of America; Patty Riskind, MBA, CEO, Orbita; Nathan Treloar, MSc, co-founder and COO, Orbita. Consumers want the same digital healthcare experience from healthcare that they get in online shopping, banking, and booking reservations, and the pandemic has ramped up the patient and provider need for frictionless access to healthcare resources and services. Health systems can improve patient acquisition and retention with the help of omnichannel virtual assistants that engage and delight. Discover how to open and enhance healthcare’s digital front door to offer care that goes beyond expectations.

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2022 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, VP global clinical services, IMO; Theresa Rihanek, MHA, RHIA, mapping manager, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, clinical terminologist, IMO. IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders will discuss the coding changes in the yearly update to allow your organization to prepare for a smooth transition and avoid negative impacts to the bottom line. The presenters will review new, revised, and deleted codes; highlight revisions to ICD-10-CM index and tabular; discuss changes within Official Coding Guidelines, and review modifier changes.

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

People

Primary care management company Skylight Health names Mohammad Bataineh (Bataineh Palmeri) president. He takes over from co-founder Kash Qureshi, who will remain an executive member of the board and oversee technology and data analytics.

Announcements and Implementations

Neighborhood Health (TN) uses the NextGen Mobile app to connect data from its street medicine program to its NextGen EHR. The FQHC’s program cares for 600 homeless people in Nashville.

Patient engagement software vendor Klara now interfaces with Modernizing Medicine’s payment processing technology.

Government and Politics

The Maryland Department of Health will use $1.5 million in SAMHSA funding to launch a telemedicine pilot program that will provide mental and behavioral health providers and their patients in 10 areas with smartphones, tablets, and Internet access for video visits.

Other

Atlanta Allergy & Asthma notifies patients of a January data breach. It wasn’t until last month that, after further investigation, the clinic realized some patient information had been removed from its network.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success story, “Saving Summer with Kiosk, the Patient Portal, and More at MedRite.”
• EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success video, “Using Healow Check-In at Utah Orthopedic Spine & Injury Center.”

Blog Posts

• In the Age of Chronic Conditions, Patient Education is Crucial (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 8/25/21

Top News

Rezilient Health raises $2.5 million in seed funding. The St. Louis-based company plans to expand its engineering and software development teams and subsequently launch its employee-focused CloudClinics, brick-and-mortal spaces equipped with diagnostic equipment that physicians can control remotely with the aid of on-site nurses.

Webinars

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “Patient Acquisition and Retention: The Future of Omnichannel Virtual Assistants.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenters: Harris Hunt, SVP growth product, Cancer Treatment Centers of America; Patty Riskind, MBA, CEO, Orbita; Nathan Treloar, MSc, co-founder and COO, Orbita. Consumers want the same digital healthcare experience from healthcare that they get in online shopping, banking, and booking reservations, and the pandemic has ramped up the patient and provider need for frictionless access to healthcare resources and services. Health systems can improve patient acquisition and retention with the help of omnichannel virtual assistants that engage and delight. Discover how to open and enhance healthcare’s digital front door to offer care that goes beyond expectations.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The Massachusetts FQHC Telehealth Consortium raises $878,000 as part of a $12 million fundraising campaign. The organization will use the funding to, among other things, explore the use of telehealth navigators. The consortium’s network has provided more than 1 million telemedicine appointments since March 2020.

Carbon Health acquires Southern Arizona Urgent Care and Med7 Urgent Care (CA). The company, which raised $350 million in July, offers virtual and in-person primary and urgent care at 83 clinics in a dozen states.

Practice management and maternity analytics company Unified Women’s Healthcare acquires competitor Women’s Health USA, making the combined entity the largest company of its kind serving women in the US.

Research and Innovation

A KaufmanHall report highlights the uncertainty physician groups are experiencing in the midst of the delta variant. While productivity and revenue have increased versus pre-pandemic levels, expenses have been higher, as has the need for larger investments to offset insufficient revenue.

Other

Utah-based Revere Health notifies 12,000 patients their information may have been exposed in a late June phishing email attack that left medical records exposed for about 45 minutes. Revere officials belief the attack was intended to enable the hackers to access more employee email accounts.

A consumer survey about video meeting experiences during the pandemic reveals a few interesting things about human nature. While the vast majority of the 1,000 respondents felt that meetings via video were more meaningful, with stronger engagement among participants, they also fessed up to multitasking. Top activities pulling their total attention away from calls included going to the bathroom, getting dressed, and faking a bad connection to leave early. As an audio-only fan, I can certainly identify with the cited burdens of being “camera ready” before a call, and not really wanting to see myself on camera.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Yes, Virginia, the government does investigate telemedicine (AdvancedMD)
• In a World of Apps, Healow Delivers What Patients Most Want (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 8/23/21

Top News

NextGen Healthcare founder and Director Sheldon Razin and Director Lance Rosenzweig announce their intent to nominate new directors to the company’s board in an effort to combat Chairman Jeffrey Margolis and his “imperial boardroom culture.” They attribute the company’s “anemic growth, deteriorating margins, poor hiring and operational practices, and wasteful capital allocation policy” to poor direction from Margolis and a lack of fresh, diversified perspectives from the board.

They also take the board to task for failing to develop a succession plan for former NextGen President and CEO Rusty Frantz, who left abruptly in June.

The company, which saw its annual revenue increase 3% between 2020 and 2021, has said it will consider the nominations at its annual shareholder meeting in October.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Clear Arch Health develops EHR integration capabilities for its remote patient monitoring software.

Government and Politics

Nevada Advanced Pain Specialists will pay $1 million to settle allegations that it submitted false payment claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary urine drug testing.

Orange County in California will use $2 million in state funding to invest in data integration technology across its care coordination programs.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 8/18/21

Top News

Maven Clinic, a digital women’s and family healthcare provider, raises $110 million in a Series D funding round led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Lux Capital (with help from investor Oprah Winfrey). The company, which caters to employers and payers, has raised $200 million since launching in 2014.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Austin-based EqualizeRCM acquires A Cord Billing & Business Services, which offers RCM solutions to physician practices in Oklahoma. EqualizeRCM expanded into the South last year through its acquisition of competitor Solutions4MD’s[sic].

DocSpace raises $1.2 million in seed funding. The Houston-based startup has developed automated tools to help physicians set up online practices, including digital health storefronts and back-office management solutions. The new funding will help the company further develop its one-click checkout and payment capability. Co-founder Mario Amaro, MD is a US Navy veteran, having served as an aerospace medical technician for seven years.

People

Hinge Health names Hassan Asghar (Bremer Bank) CISO and Ryan Russell (Amazon) SVP of design and user experience.

Optimize Health names Ryan Clark (Phreesia) VP of customer success, Sarah Jacob (Accolade) VP of product, and Louie Martinez (Quartet Health) head of people.

Announcements and Implementations

Privia Health will offer virtual maternity care tools and programs from Babyscripts to its network of 700-plus practices.

Optometric Management Group will leverage insurance billing and credentialing services from RevCycle Partners across its eight locations in Ohio.

Other

Bucking the trend: Josh Thompson, MD opens Thompson Medical Clinic in Oneida, TN after four years working as a hospitalist at not-so-nearby Fort Sanders in Knoxville. Thompson says the long commute to Knoxville helped a big factor in opting for the life of a solo practitioner, as was the fact that several clinics in Oneida had closed, leaving local residents with fewer options for care.

The American Board of Telehealth develops a Teleprimary Care Certificate program to help primary care physicians develop telehealth programs using industry best practices. The online course consists of six hour-long modules.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes the 2021 edition of its “MACRAnyms” e-book.
• EClinicalWorks releases a series of podcasts focused on “How Health Centers Nationwide are Improving Access to Care.”

Blog Posts

• Using hello2healow for Patient Outreach in Florida (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 8/16/21

Top News

Ambulatory health IT and RCM vendor Kareo acquires PatientlySpeaking, a Westlake Village, CA-based business that offers automated billing solutions to physician practices and billing companies.

Kareo sold its managed billing services business in 2019, deciding to offer those services to its customers through its partner network.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Ambulatory health IT vendor PracticeSuite acquires competitor Hello Health for an undisclosed sum.

People

Robert Millette (Lee Health) joins Integrated Care Solutions as VP of delivery innovation.

Announcements and Implementations

The North Coast Health Improvement and Information Network in California selects NinePatch care and social service coordination software from QS Systems.

Indian Health Services will implement Valorant Health’s telehealth software to offer patients within its Catawba Health Unit (SC) access mental and behavioral healthcare.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic publishes a new whitepaper, “The new healthcare ecosystem: Preparing for decentralized care.”
• TCS Healthcare Technologies will use Healthwise’s Care Management Solution in its care management platform.
• Nordic Consulting partners with Fortified Health Security to offer its customers cybersecurity solutions.

Blog Posts

• ‘When’ not ‘if:’ Resilience is an essential component of healthcare cybersecurity (Nordic)
• 3 Steps to “Tidy Up” Your Health Content (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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