News 6/8/20

Top News

Aledade, Privia Health, and 18 healthcare organizations ask congressional leaders for at least $15 billion in direct stimulus funding for primary care practices struggling to stay open and care for patients during the pandemic: “Without action by Congress, primary care practices across the country may close over the coming weeks and months, further exacerbating primary care shortages and leaving some communities without access to care. This will jeopardize our COVID response, weakening our ability to protect patients, not just from this pandemic, but other public health emergencies in the future.”

Without federal assistance, analysts have predicted at least 60,000 primary care physicians may potentially go out of business by the end of June.

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Webinars

June 10 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “COVID-19: preparing your OR for elective surgeries.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Janice Kelly, MS, RN, president, AORN Syntegrity Inc.; David Bocanegra, RN, nurse informaticist, IMO. The presenters will cover the steps and guidelines that are needed for hospitals to resume performing elective surgeries and how healthcare information technology can optimize efficiencies and financial outcomes for the return of the OR.

June 18 (Thursday) 12:30 ET. “Understanding the ONC’s Final Rule: Using FHIR HL7 for Successful EHR Integrations.” Sponsor: Newfire Global Partners. Presenters: Bob Salitsky, healthcare IT expert, Newfire Global Partners; Jaya Plmanabhan, MS, healthcare data scientist. This fast-paced, 30-minute webinar will provide an overview of the Final Rule and describe how technology vendors, payers, and providers can use FHIR HL7 to deliver true interoperability. Attendees will learn how to define the data, technology, and flows needed for their EHR integration projects; how products can retrieve health information while meeting compliance regulations; and the benefit of adopting quickly to the future of data exchange while simplifying future integration efforts.

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Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist Gregg Soifer, MD launches DocNow, an app-based appointment-booking service for physicians that also offers telemedicine and patient relationship management capabilities.

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People

Healthcare call center software company Keona Health hires Gina Tabone (TeamHealth Medical Call Center) as VP of strategic partnerships.

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Research and Innovation

Chinese technology company Huawei develops a phone with temperature-taking capabilities. It seems to be available only in China for now.

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Other

GrandPad adds telemedicine and remote patient monitoring capabilities to its senior-focused tablets, giving users the ability to send their health data to caregivers.

XpresSpa will pivot to XpresCheck at JFK’s Terminal 4 by the end of this month to offer airport employees COVID-19 screening and testing services. The facility will leverage AdvancedMD’s practice management and EHR software through a partnership with healthcare CRM and marketing company HyperPointe.

CNBC’s Chrissy Farr points out that Optum has gone up against GoodRx for prescription savings.

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Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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