The article about Pediatric Associates in CA has a nugget with a potentially outsized impact: the implication that VFC vaccines…
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.
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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.
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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.”
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Regarding forgiven medical debt: If amounts are large enough, forgiven debt must be reported to the IRS on your tax return for the year the cancellation occurs. This means that saga is not over yet — the government will consider it income. There is a way around this problem by the holder of debt donating the debt to a non profit which in turn gifts the forgiveness to the patient. Example here: https://www.proskauertaxtalks.com/2016/06/last-week-tonight-debt-forgiveness/