News 3/4/24

Top News

MGMA asks HHS for its assistance in helping physician practices overcome the disruption Change Healthcare’s outage has caused. The trade association says its members have been experiencing:

• Disruptions to billing and cash flow.
• Little to no electronic remittance advice from payers.
• Rejected or non-transmissible prior authorization submissions.
• An inability to perform patient eligibility checks.
• An inability to transmit electronic prescriptions.
• Disruptions to health IT.

The American Medical Association and American Hospital Association have penned similar letters requesting that HHS step in and help providers stay financially afloat.

Change Healthcare announced on Friday that it brought an alternate e-prescribing solution online.

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Webinars

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

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Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Valorant Health rebrands to Rainfall Health, The digital health company partners with local providers and government and community agencies to connect patients living in rural areas with virtual and in-person care.

Kaid Health launches a US-based Coding Services Group to help providers supplement their coding capabilities.

Virtual gastrointestinal clinic and “wraparound care” provider Salvo Health raises $5 million, bringing its total raised to $15.5 million.

Small to mid-sized practices are beginning to feel the effects of the Change Healthcare outage, with many revenue cycles stymied by an inability to receive reimbursements from payers. Some practices are having to decide whether or not to take out loans to make ends meet or even close up shop for good. Private practice allergist and immunologist Kiranjit Khalsa, MD is considering cutting back hours for staff and possibly closing for a few days to stretch what supplies she already has and cut back on billable employee hours.

Walgreens will close its six VillageMD clinics in Illinois, all of which are in the company’s hometown of Chicago. The news comes on the heels of the retail pharmacy’s decision to pull 50-plus clinics out of Florida. VillageMD operations will continue in 13 states.

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Announcements and Implementations

Cancer Care Specialists of Illinois selects Canopy’s Intelligent Care Platform to streamline its manual triage, care management, and remote patient monitoring processes.

Orchid Wellness in Texas implements EHR, online appointment scheduling, and text-to-pay software from EClinicalWorks.

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Other

Pandora Family Physicians (OH) warns patients of scammers who have been using a fake Pandora phone number to contact patients in an attempt to get them to divulge their insurance information and Social Security numbers.

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Sponsor Updates

• PerfectServe opens nominations for its 2024 Nurses of Note awards program.
• Odessa General Surgery Robotics (TX) adds Sunoh.ai medical AI scribe capabilities to its EClinicalWorks EHR.

Blog Posts

• 5 strategies to reduce future cybersecurity threats in the healthcare revenue (Waystar)
• With an AI-Powered EHR, Sunoh.ai, and Healow Patient Engagement, ECW is a One-Stop Solution for Small and Independent Practices (EClinicalWorks)

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Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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