News 1/6/21

Top News

Hinge Health, a telemedicine company specializing in chronic back and joint pain, raises $300 million in a Series D funding round that brings its total raised to $436 million and valuation to $3 billion.

Founded in 2015, the company moved from London to San Francisco to target US-based employers and payers. Its service includes wearables, an app, and health coaching, which its founders believe can help decrease the need for surgery and/or opioids.

Webinars

January 13 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “The One Communication Strategy Clinicians Need Now.” Sponsor: PerfectServe. Presenters: Clay Callison, MD, CMIO, University of Tennessee Medical Center; Nicholas E. Perkins, DO, MS, hospitalist and physician informaticist, Prisma Health. Healthcare organizations are leveraging their current investments and reducing their vendor footprint, so there’s no room for clutter in healthcare communication. The presenters will describe the one communication strategy that clinicians and organizations need today, how to improve patient experience and protect revenue, and how to drive the communication efficiency of clinical teams.

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

People

Steve Smerz (Icario) joins Halo Health as CTO.

Announcements and Implementations

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority awards Orion Health a $50 million contract to support its new HIE, set to go live in the fall.

FPA Women’s Health selects NextGen’s Patient Experience Platform, which includes virtual visit capabilities, and self-scheduling software.

Government and Politics

Baltimore County in Maryland launches a portal for providers looking to determine when they’ll receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Like many states, Maryland is first vaccinating frontline health care workers, residents and staff at nursing homes, and first responders.

Other

As health and fitness New Year’s resolutions kick in, I (a former gym-goer turned tennis addict) thought it apropos to mention this bit of digital health news: The Mecca Gym in Idaho has launched a pilot project with Carium to help its members track nutrition and body metrics, access exercise resources, and write in digital journals. Mecca trainers use the data to personalize fitness regimens, stay in touch with members, and stay on top of their metrics. Gym owner Eric Cafferty is even considering one day adding an on-site clinic.

In Oregon, a judge sentences former bookkeeper Andrea Johnson to four years in prison for stealing more than $1 million from former medical and dental practice employers. She also pled guilty to filing a false tax return; impersonating an IRS agent through a fake identity; setting up a phone and voicemail account for a phony IRS taxpayer advocate; and attempting to assist her boss, a medical practice owner, with his IRS tax collection issues as that fake advocate, which it seems she likely caused. She continued her illegal activities even after charges were brought against her in 2018, eventually turning herself in. She also faces a $1.2 million fine.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• COVID-19 Exposes Need for Interoperability & Integration in Healthcare (Part 2) (AdvancedMD)

• Thirlby Clinic: Using Telehealth and CCM for Better Disease Management (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 1/4/21

Top News

Multi-vertical technology services business Intrado acquires patient intake and engagement software vendor Asparia (fka SimplifiMed). Asparia co-founder and president Chinmay Singh is now an Intrado VP.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to the following companies for supporting HIStalk Practice. Click a logo for more information.

I’m playing catch-up this week on the ambulatory health IT news that trickled in over the holiday break. Please email me with any newsworthy (or just plain fun) items that crossed your inbox or social media feed.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Canadian clinic operator and health IT developer CloudMD acquires New Jersey-based health data integration and security vendor IDYA4 for $14.8 million. The acquisition is CloudMD’s second in less than six months: It bought mental health assessment and care coordination vendor Snapclarity for $2.5 million last fall.

Well Health Technologies, another Canadian clinic operator and health IT developer, acquires practice management software company Adracare for $3,724,285. Toronto-based Adracare serves customers primarily in the mental health, medicinal cannabis and physical therapy sectors in five countries.

People

Noteworth names Donna Morrow (Optimize.health) VP of clinical operations and Gytis Barzdukas (GuideSpark) as VP of product.

Announcements and Implementations

Montana HIE Big Sky Care Connect implements DrFirst’s MedHx medication history information system.

The Commonwealth of Virginia will create an e-referral system for social services using technology from Unite Us.

Edison Radiology Group (NJ) selects RCM software and services from Healthcare Administrative Partners.

Other

Y’all know I love a good library story: The local paper profiles Wheel It Forward, a lending library of durable medical equipment that serves primarily hospice patients in Connecticut and New York. The nonprofit accepts 10 to 15 pieces of donated equipment each week on average, and lends out five or six weekly. Its most popular pieces include hospital beds, power wheelchairs, patient lifts, and scooters. CEO and founder Elliot Sloyer has authored several children’s books, and, coincidentally, says he’s always dreamed of operating his own library.

Oncologist and Arkansas Cancer Institute founder Omar Atiq, MD forgives nearly $650,000 in debt for 200 patients as he prepares to close the facility and retire. Atiq, who shared the news in a holiday greeting card to the affected patients, was happy to be able to help one last time: “Being sick is hard, having cancer is harder, and having cancer in this pandemic is devastating.”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Preparing for the 2021 E/M code transition begins with education (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 1/4/21

Top News

Multi-vertical technology services business Intrado acquires patient intake and engagement software vendor Asparia (fka SimplifiMed). Asparia co-founder and president Chinmay Singh is now an Intrado VP.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to the following companies for supporting HIStalk Practice. Click a logo for more information.

I’m playing catch-up this week on the ambulatory health IT news that trickled in over the holiday break. Please email me with any newsworthy (or just plain fun) items that crossed your inbox or social media feed.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Canadian clinic operator and health IT developer CloudMD acquires New Jersey-based health data integration and security vendor IDYA4 for $14.8 million. The acquisition is CloudMD’s second in less than six months: It bought mental health assessment and care coordination vendor Snapclarity for $2.5 million last fall.

Well Health Technologies, another Canadian clinic operator and health IT developer, acquires practice management software company Adracare for $3,724,285. Toronto-based Adracare serves customers primarily in the mental health, medicinal cannabis and physical therapy sectors in five countries.

People

Noteworth names Donna Morrow (Optimize.health) VP of clinical operations and Gytis Barzdukas (GuideSpark) as VP of product.

Announcements and Implementations

Montana HIE Big Sky Care Connect implements DrFirst’s MedHx medication history information system.

The Commonwealth of Virginia will create an e-referral system for social services using technology from Unite Us.

Edison Radiology Group (NJ) selects RCM software and services from Healthcare Administrative Partners.

Other

Y’all know I love a good library story: The local paper profiles Wheel It Forward, a lending library of durable medical equipment that serves primarily hospice patients in Connecticut and New York. The nonprofit accepts 10 to 15 pieces of donated equipment each week on average, and lends out five or six weekly. Its most popular pieces include hospital beds, power wheelchairs, patient lifts, and scooters. CEO and founder Elliot Sloyer has authored several children’s books, and, coincidentally, says he’s always dreamed of operating his own library.

Oncologist and Arkansas Cancer Institute founder Omar Atiq, MD forgives nearly $650,000 in debt for 200 patients as he prepares to close the facility and retire. Atiq, who shared the news in a holiday greeting card to the affected patients, was happy to be able to help one last time: “Being sick is hard, having cancer is harder, and having cancer in this pandemic is devastating.”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Preparing for the 2021 E/M code transition begins with education (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 12/16/20

Top News

Workit Health raises $12 million in a Series B round of funding that will enable the addiction treatment telemedicine startup to expand beyond the five states it currently serves.

The company, which has raised $20 million since launching five years ago, offers virtual group and one-to-one therapy and coaching, as well as medication-assisted online programs.

Co-founders Robin McIntosh and Lisa McLaughlin met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting more than 10 years ago.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

HIStalk Practice will be on holiday hiatus through the end of the year. I hope everyone enjoys the break, a few good books, and time off from the news cycle. See you in 2021!

Webinars

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

People

Canadian clinic company Jack Nathan Health names Glenn Copeland, MD CMO. Copeland, former chairman and CEO of Cleveland Clinic Canada, will take a 20% stake in the company’s new subsidiary, Jack Nathan Functional Health.

Digestive health care coordination software company SonarMD names A.R. Weiler (Livio Health Group) CEO, and promotes Beth Houck to COO.

Announcements and Implementations

Independent practice network Tandigm Health selects Care Continuity’s cloud-based provider communication and consultation management software.

Research and Innovation

An EHR timestamp analysis of 21 million doctor visits finds that the average length of exams was 18 minutes. More than two-thirds of visits were shorter or longer than scheduled by five minutes, leading analysts to suggest that practices could benefit from taking a more strategic look at scheduling workflows.

Other

Cloud hosting and IT services company Netgain notifies customers, including Crystal Practice Management, of a late-November ransomware attack that forced it to take some of their data centers offline. Crystal Practice Management notified its optometry and vision therapy practice customers of the attack, adding that thousands of Netgain servers were impacted.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Understanding and Maximizing Reimbursement with Telehealth & Telemedicine (AdvancedMD)
• How a Practice Found Success with Telehealth & Contactless Check-In (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 12/14/20

Top News

Physician practice-focused health IT vendor Elation Health raises $40 million in a Series C funding round led by Generation Investment Management, bringing its total raised to $55 million.

Founded in 2014 by siblings Kyna and Conan Fong, the company caters to a network of 14,000 independent clinicians. In addition to virtual visit capabilities added earlier this year, Elation will soon offer billing and payment collection, population management, interoperability, and quality reporting solutions.

Webinars

December 15 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Highlights from the 2021 CPT Code Set Update.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, senior director of global clinical services, IMO; Shelly Jude, RHIA, RHIT, mapping manager, IMO. Top coding professionals will highlight the most important changes to the Current Procedural Terminology code set that take effect on January 1, including crucial additions, deletions, and revisions; how to communicate Official Coding Guidelines changes to the healthcare team; and a description of the impact that the code set update could have on practice.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Automated patient engagement software startup Pair Team raises $2.7 million in seed funding. Founders Neil Batlivala and Cassie Choi, RN came up with the technology, which helps providers, payers, and patients avoid gaps in care, while building out operational software at direct primary care company Forward.

Community care provider Cityblock Health wraps up a $160 million financing round that brings its valuation to over $1 billion. The company, which serves Medicaid and low-income patients in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC, offers primary and behavioral healthcare, and access to social services through its proprietary Commons software.

Blueprint will use $3.4 million in seed funding to further develop its assessment, analytics, and reimbursement software for mental healthcare providers.

Menopause care-focused telemedicine company The Cusp shuts down, telling the local business paper that it had failed to find investors to keep operations going. It launched in 2018, employed 21, and had raised $4.2 million. Founder and now former CEO Taylor Sittler, MD also co-founded Color Genomics, a partner in NIH’s All of Us research program.

Primary care clinic operator and health IT developer MCI OneHealth prepares for a $23.5 million Canadian IPO.

People

Jordana Bernard (InTouch Health) joins InnovaTel Telepsychiatry as chief compliance officer.

Other

In Texas, the San Antonio Fire Department routes some healthcare-related calls directly to a telemedicine service using GoodSam software, freeing up rescue units for more dire emergencies. The department says the new service has already reduced daily fire/EMS dispatches by nine in its first seven weeks.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic releases a new video featuring Scripps Health, “How to implement a successful Community Connect program.”

Blog Posts

• Measuring and Improving Patient Self-Efficacy and Informed Choice (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.