News 1/8/24

Top News

Healthcare Outcomes Performance Company, a value-based orthopedic care business based in Phoenix, acquires virtual care provider MoonlightOrtho.

Webinars

January 19 (Friday) 1 ET. “Unlocking Reliable Clinical Data: Real-World Success Stories.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Alistair Erskine, MD, MBA, CIO/CDO, Emory Healthcare; Jason Hill, MD, MMM, associate CMIO, Ochsner Health; Colin Banas, MD, MHA, chief medical officer, DrFirst. Health system leaders will describe how they are empowering clinicians with reliable patient data while minimizing workflow friction within Epic. They will offer real-world experience and tips on how to deliver the best possible medication history data to clinicians at the point of care, use clinical-grade AI to infer and normalize prescription instructions in Epic, and encourage patient adherence to medication therapies for optimal outcomes.

January 24 (Wednesday) noon ET. “Medication Management Redefined.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Caleb Dunn, PharmD, MS, senior product manager, DrFirst. Clinical workflow experts will paint a reimagined vision for e-prescribing that offers enhanced patient adherence, customizable clinical support, intelligent pharmacy logic, and data integrity and safety. Join this first chapter of an ongoing conversation about what medication management should be, how to deliver greater benefits today, and how to prepare for the future. Elevating your solution and customer benefits isn’t as hard, scary, or economically challenging as you may think.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

The Corvallis Clinic, a physician-owned company with 11 locations in Oregon, considers an acquisition offer from UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Health business in the face of ongoing financial losses that will, among other things, likely result in its inability to retain clinicians. UnitedHealth has promised to hire more physicians, increase service quality, and upgrade software and improve workflows. The deal would be UnitedHealth’s third within the state.

People

Matt Wesolosky (Net Health) joins Lightning Step as CFO.

NextGen promotes Srinivas Velamoor to president and COO, and James Hammerschmidt to CFO.

Mindful Support Services promotes Krystal Tonning to EVP and Ryan Bourke to vice president of operations.

Announcements and Implementations

Premier Orthopaedic and Hand Center (IL) selects EHR and patient engagement software from EClinicalWorks.

Research and Innovation

Withings unveils its BeamO “multiscope,” a device designed for use during home-based virtual visits that acts as a digital thermometer, electrocardiogram, oximeter, and stethoscope all in one. The company anticipates launching the product, which has an accompanying app, in July for $250 at select retailers.

Other

Health and wellness company Love.Life begins offering its members telemedicine appointments via its acquisition of Plant Based Telehealth. Whole Foods co-founder and former CEO John Mackey founded Love.Life in 2022.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic releases a new podcast, “Designing for Health: Interview with Kevin Dufendach, MD and Andy Spooner, MD.”

Blog Posts

• How to succeed in value-based care without really trying (Nordic)
• Looking Back: Five Key Success Stories from 2023 (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/3/24

Top News

MGMA calls on ONC to pull back on its proposed financial penalties for providers found guilty of information-blocking. The trade association suggests that physician practices would face undue financial and administrative burdens if faced with such disincentives – both of which would hamper interoperability and value-based care efforts. MGMA hopes that the final rule will take a more educational approach, using corrective action programs to promote the sharing of information.

Webinars

January 31 (Wednesday) noon ET. “Essential Innovations in Primary Care: The Impact of AI on Physician Burnout, Efficiency, and Value-Based Performance.” Sponsors: Navina and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Presenters: Steven Waldren, MD, VP/CMIO, AAFP; Jarrett S. Dodd, MD, medical director, CVFP Medical Group; Ronen Gordon, MBBS, head of medical product, Navina. If 2023 was the year of artificial intelligence (AI) hype, 2024 will be the year in which we’ll see how AI actually delivers. This webinar will delve into AI’s role in transforming primary care. A panel of experts will discuss how AI can help primary care organizations as they navigate the reality of physician burnout and complexities of value-based payment models. We will review strategies for integrating AI tools into clinical workflows and discuss how AI implementation impacts physician engagement, workflow efficiency, and value-based outcomes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Former Doxy.Me director Neel Ghoshal launches Healthpitality, a telemedicine company focused on hospitality and restaurant workers. The startup currently offers individual memberships in South Carolina and Florida, though Ghoshal envisions employers adding on Healthpitality services as part of their benefits packages.

People

HIMSS elects Greenway Health Director Stephanie Jamison chair of its EHR Association.

Announcements and Implementations

The Mississippi Department of Human Services will use mental and behavioral healthcare evaluation services from Syra Health at its Oakley Youth Development Center.

New England Orthopedic Surgeons implements EHR, RCM, and patient engagement software from Athenahealth.

Sponsor Updates

• Skin Solutions Dermatology (TN) reports a significant increase in monthly online appointments after implementing the Healow Open Access online appointment booking solution from EClinicalWorks.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new set of podcasts focusing on “Transforming Patient Care with EClinicalWorks and Healow.”
• EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success story, “Healow Enables Seamless Interoperability for Foster Children’s Medical Records.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 12/20/23

Top News

Knownwell, a hybrid primary care and weight management clinic based in Needham, MA, raises $20 million in a Series A funding round.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Chamber Cardio launches to offer cardiology practices value-based care services including contracting support, evidence-based guidelines, real-time data, and clinical extenders.

People

Strategic Radiology names Greg Thomson (Vector Health Solutions) COO.

Research and Innovation

A survey of 450 breast cancer patients finds that nearly 70% use online resources several times a week to manage their care, and that nearly 90% seek additional information about their diagnosis from sources outside of their care team. Most interesting, perhaps, is the fact that 60% of surveyed patients say they wouldn’t ask their care team questions via their patient portal if there was an associated cost for doing so.

A majority of consumers say they appreciate when their physician uses AI to inform diagnoses and prescription options, according to a DrFirst survey of 1,008 patients. Twenty-seven percent use consumer-facing generative AI tools to research health issues.

An AMA study finds that 74% of surveyed practices offered telemedicine visits in 2022, with over half having provided a video-based visit within the last week. Use of remote patient monitoring increased 21% over the previous year.

Findings published in the BMJ suggest that new episodes of Doctor Who shown on Christmas Day are associated with (slightly) lower death rates in the following year across the UK. The lead author suggests, among many other slightly tongue-in-cheek things, that watching a doctor (with two hearts!) caring for people “could encourage health-seeking behaviour.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 12/18/23

Top News

Remote patient monitoring and virtual care company CoachCare acquires RPM vendor Verustat. CoachCare has been on a bit of a buying spree over the last year, having acquired RPM companies WebCare Health, NVolve, and Alertive.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Nine months after acquiring telehealth-based weight management company Sequence, WeightWatchers launches WeightWatchers Clinic to offer members access to prescription weight loss drugs.

Announcements and Implementations

Behavioral healthcare coordination and support company Holon Health selects CareCloud’s TalkEHR.

Charlie Health, which offers teens and young adults virtual, intensive outpatient mental healthcare, will offer patients access to Talkiatry’s virtual psychiatric care as they transition out of its programs.

ClarityHlth launches to offer consumers a one-stop shop for comparing telemedicine providers based on specialty, pricing, accepted insurance, medications, and payment methods. The business model seems remarkably similar to that of Amazon Clinic.

Government and Politics

Optum Medical Care of New Jersey will pay $160,000 to the HHS Office of Civil Rights to resolve potential HIPAA violations related to six complaints of failure to provide timely access to requested medical records. Patients received requested records between 84 and 231 days, rather than within the federally mandated 30 days.

Sponsor Updates

• The National Health Insurance Authority in the Bahamas reports a significant uptick in cancer screenings since the implementation of its EClinicalWorks EHR and associated population health tools.
• Nordic releases a new Designing for Health Podcast, “Interview with Lalita Abhyankar, MD.”
• EClinicalWorks announces its intent to become a QHIN.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 12/13/23

Top News

Weight loss company Medifast invests $20 million in virtual primary care provider LifeMD so that it can begin offering its members access to prescription weight-loss drugs.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Primary Record raises $1 million in pre-seed funding. The startup has developed a family medical record-keeping and –sharing app. Former Indiana University Health critical care nurse Jean Ross, RN co-founded Primary Record in 2020.

Announcements and Implementations

Practice Better adds an AI-powered charting assistant to its practice management software for health and wellness providers.

Privia Medical Group Gulf Coast (TX) offers virtual care services for women from Iron Health that include weight management, hormone replacement therapy, and sleep and brain health. The new Privia Wellness wraparound service will launch at additional Privia practices in the coming months.

Research and Innovation

A survey of 229 PCPs finds that the majority haven’t yet tried an AI-powered scribe tool, and are relying on their EHR vendor to steer them in the right product direction. Biggest obstacles to adoption include a lack of time to research options, lack of integration with existing technologies, and a lack of confidence in accuracy. Those who have tried AI scribing solutions report being underwhelmed and seeing a need for features that support template personalization, patient education materials, and process automation.

Other

Crystal Lake Health Center (MI) confirms it was hit with a cyberattack. DataBreaches.net reports that the hackers claim to have stolen more than 120 GB of patient data, and have leaked 47.5 MB of that data as proof.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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