News 3/25/24

Top News

Walgreens-owned VillageMD sells its 11 primary care clinics in Rhode Island to Arches Medical Partners. The company announced it would close its clinics in Florida and Illinois earlier this year, in keeping with its late-2023 decision to close 60 clinics as part of $1 billion worth of cost-cutting measures.

Arches owns New Era Medical Operations, a technology company focused on independent practice associations.

Webinars

March 27 (Wednesday) 3 ET. “Houston Methodist: Deploying clinical AI at scale for improved outcomes.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, chief of cardiovascular disease prevention and wellness, Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center; Brenda Campbell, RN, senior consultant, HM Health System Innovations; Nassib Chamoun, MS, founder and CEO, HDAI. The presenters  will share how an interdisciplinary team collaborated to successfully use predictive models and a novel AI-driven approach to address post-discharge mortality. They will also describe how they expanded use of the platform to reduce clinician time spent digging through the EHR with a one-page risk profile, including codes extracted from notes using generative AI, and targeting their highest risk patients for extra attention. They will speak to how they overcame barriers to bringing AI at scale to support clinicians across the care continuum.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Health Information Management Systems announces GA of its AxiomEHR featuring AI-powered automation capabilities for behavioral healthcare providers.

Solace Behavioral Health will implement the Cx360 EHR from Core Solutions across its four behavioral healthcare facilities.

Southern Illinois Associates selects the EClinicalWorks Cloud EHR.

Nebraska Cancer Specialists uses autonomous evaluation and management coding software from Calm Waters AI.

Nextech adds AI-powered virtual assistant, documentation, and support capabilities to its EHR for specialty practices.

Government and Politics

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduces the “Health Care Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2024.” If passed, the bill will enable eligible providers to receive advanced and accelerated payments in the wake of a cyberattack, provided they and, if applicable, an impacted third-party, meet minimum cybersecurity standards.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD renews its partnership with data automation platform vendor FrontRunnerHC.
• Nordic releases a new Designing for Health Podcast, “Interview with Joyce Lee, MD.”

Blog Posts

• Beyond medicine: Envisioning healthcare’s role in fostering community and connection (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 3/20/24

Top News

Conduce Health raises $3 million in seed funding. The startup has developed a marketplace for primary care physicians looking to transition to value-based care through partnerships with specialty care providers. Services offered include risk management and contracting and payment services, and precision analytics to match specialists with patients.

Webinars

March 27 (Wednesday) 3 ET. “Houston Methodist: Deploying clinical AI at scale for improved outcomes.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, chief of cardiovascular disease prevention and wellness, Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center; Brenda Campbell, RN, senior consultant, HM Health System Innovations; Nassib Chamoun, MS, founder and CEO, HDAI. The presenters  will share how an interdisciplinary team collaborated to successfully use predictive models and a novel AI-driven approach to address post-discharge mortality. They will also describe how they expanded use of the platform to reduce clinician time spent digging through the EHR with a one-page risk profile, including codes extracted from notes using generative AI, and targeting their highest risk patients for extra attention. They will speak to how they overcame barriers to bringing AI at scale to support clinicians across the care continuum.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare IT company DAS Health opens a new office in Chicago.

People

Stacy Fox (Health Gorilla) joins Acclivity Health as VP of sales.

Phreesia promotes Jack Callahan to CTO.

Announcements and Implementations

Practice Fusion adds TrustCommerce’s Cloud Payments software to its EHR.

Practice management software vendor MConsent expands its offerings to optometry practices.

Burrell Behavioral Health (MO), Clarity Healthcare (MO)^, Jefferson Center for Mental Health (CO), and TCN Behavioral Health (OH) have implemented patient engagement and telemedicine technology from Mend.

Rectangle Health adds PracticeHwy’s fertility-focused EIVF billing software to its Practice Management Bridge platform.

Pediatric Associates implements Ambience Healthcare’s AI operating system, integrating it with its EClinicalWorks EHR.

Government and Politics

Robert Purbeck pleads guilty in a federal court to charges of computer fraud and abuse after purchasing access to a Griffin, GA-based medical clinic’s server, hacking into its medical records, and then using the stolen personal information to extort patients. Purbeck, who lives in Idaho, also hacked into the servers of the City of Newnan, in Georgia, ultimately compromising the information of 132,000 people. Purbeck, who faces sentencing, will pay $1 million in restitution to his victims.

HHS launches the ACO Primary Care Flex Model to offer primary care physicians working within ACOs a one-time, advanced shared savings payment and monthly prospective primary care payments for using innovative, team-based care methods.

A federal court sentences the “Rock Doc” to 20 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids in exchange for money and sex from his practice in Jackson, TN. According to court documents, Jeffrey Young Jr. maintained “a party-type atmosphere at his clinic, and prescribed these drugs at least in part to boost his popularity on social media and promote a self-produced reality TV show pilot.”

Research and Innovation

University of Pittsburgh researchers find that telemedicine visits with primary care physicians result in fewer prescriptions of antibiotics versus virtual visits with a direct-to-consumer telemedicine provider. Follow-up appointments with PCPs via telemedicine were also fewer, a fact the researchers attribute to proper diagnoses and prescribed therapies during the first visit.

Research in the latest issue of Hypertension shows that hypertension may be controlled better with telemedicine visits combined with self-managed blood pressure readings than with traditional office visits.

Other

If you’re looking for something to read over Spring Break: University of Michigan Medical School Dean and Michigan Medicine CEO Marschall Runge, MD, PhD debuts his first novel, “Coded to Kill,” described as “a medical thriller about an artificial intelligence program, originally developed as a single nationwide storage system for medical records, that turns into a killing machine.” The reviews on Goodreads definitely make me want to pick up a copy.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Boosting Data Analysis in Healthcare.”

Blog Posts

• Interoperability in Healthcare: Why It Matters (AdvancedMD)
• Revolutionizing Work-Life Balance with a Smart AI-Driven EHR (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 3/18/24

Top News

Patient intake and engagement software vendor Phreesia reports a 24% increase in Q4 earnings, bringing in $95 million. The company saw a similar bump in fiscal year revenue, to $356 million. Prompted by an investor’s question about the Change Healthcare cyberattack, CEO Chaim Indig noted during the earnings call that “it’s been pretty terrible for a lot of our clients” and that Phreesia employees have worked diligently to shift its customers to alternate clearinghouses while Change recovers. He also emphasized the company’s commitment to continued investments in security and compliance.

Webinars

March 27 (Wednesday) 3 ET. “Houston Methodist: Deploying clinical AI at scale for improved outcomes.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, chief of cardiovascular disease prevention and wellness, Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center; Brenda Campbell, RN, senior consultant, HM Health System Innovations; Nassib Chamoun, MS, founder and CEO, HDAI. The presenters  will share how an interdisciplinary team collaborated to successfully use predictive models and a novel AI-driven approach to address post-discharge mortality. They will also describe how they expanded use of the platform to reduce clinician time spent digging through the EHR with a one-page risk profile, including codes extracted from notes using generative AI, and targeting their highest risk patients for extra attention. They will speak to how they overcame barriers to bringing AI at scale to support clinicians across the care continuum.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Walgreens will close distribution facilities in Dayville, CT, and Orlando, FL, laying off 646 employees in the process. The closures are part of an organizational restructuring announced last summer.

People

AllerVie Health promotes Rachel Russell to chief experience officer, a role that will shape the clinic chain’s new technology-focused patient experience division.

Announcements and Implementations

Regional Medical Associates (DE) adds Sunoh.ai medical scribe technology to its EClinicalWorks EHR.

Healthgrades automates appointment requests within physician profiles on its website using technology from Medchat.

Circle Medical selects AI-powered preventive care and clinical trial screening software from Healwell AI’s Khure Health business.

Care collaboration company Thyme Care launches Thyme Care Oncology Partners to help oncology clinics transition to value-based care.

United Medical Centers, an FQHC with nine locations in Texas, selects EHR and practice management software from NextGen Healthcare.

Other

Physician practices across the country express their frustration with the impact the Change Healthcare cyberattack has had on their ability to process claims, see insured patients, make payroll, and keep the lights on. The practice of Christine Meyer, MD has gone from average weekday deposits of between $20,000 and $50,000 to just $77. Meyer sums up the situation: “It’s been one of the most stressful things we’ve gone through as a practice, and that’s saying something given that we survived COVID. …To find ourselves suddenly, you know, looking at our home and its value, and can we afford to put it up to pay our employees, is a terrible feeling.”

Meanwhile, Thomas Edwards, MD of Berkshire Allergy Care in Pittsfield, MA, says the three-clinic practice, which employs 30 people, will be broke after the next payroll. Edwards notes that the practice’s billing company, AdvancedMD, hasn’t been able to successfully push claims through a clearinghouse other than Change. Thus, BAC will have to retroactively submit paper-based claims, which could take weeks, if not months. Edwards has applied for various forms of financial aid to keep the practice afloat, including that offered by UnitedHealth Group.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic Consulting debuts its Cloud Innovation Lab developed in partnership with Microsoft Azure and AWS.

• EClinicalWorks offers a new customer success story, “Empowering Population Health & Revenue Growth.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 3/13/24

Top News

The HHS Office of Civil rights launches an investigation into the Change Healthcare attack to determine if patient data was breached and what, if any, HIPAA violations have been committed by Change and parent company UnitedHealth Group.

UnitedHealth Group has said Change Healthcare’s electronic payments systems will be restored by March 15 and its medical claims platform by the week of March 18. Its e-prescribing and pharmacy claims and payments capabilities came back online on March 7.

Webinars

March 27 (Wednesday) 3 ET. “Houston Methodist: Deploying clinical AI at scale for improved outcomes.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, chief of cardiovascular disease prevention and wellness, Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center; Brenda Campbell, RN, senior consultant, HM Health System Innovations; Nassib Chamoun, MS, founder and CEO, HDAI. The presenters  will share how an interdisciplinary team collaborated to successfully use predictive models and a novel AI-driven approach to address post-discharge mortality. They will also describe how they expanded use of the platform to reduce clinician time spent digging through the EHR with a one-page risk profile, including codes extracted from notes using generative AI, and targeting their highest risk patients for extra attention. They will speak to how they overcame barriers to bringing AI at scale to support clinicians across the care continuum.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Kayne Anderson Growth Capital acquires a majority stake in specialty telehealth company TeleMed2U. The company offers its services to provider groups, health systems, payers, employers, and directly to consumers.

Announcements and Implementations

NJ Primary Care implements EZMarketer online appointment scheduling and reminders from Physicians Marketing Solutions.

OrthoVirginia (WV) selects virtual rheumatology care from Remission Medical.

TeleVox announces GA of its patient relationship management software for physician practices.

The Springboard Center (TX) implements Kipu Health’s EHR, CRM, and RCM technology for mental and behavioral healthcare.

Solace Behavioral Health will go live on the Cx360 EHR from Core Solutions across its four location in Florida.

Essen Health Care (NY) rolls out ReferWell’s care scheduling software and care concierge service.

Government and Politics

CMS extends the MIPS data submission deadline to April 15 in an effort to give physician practices more time in the midst of disruptions caused by the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

Other

Medical Associates of Northern New Mexico warns patients that cyber scammers have created a bogus website masquerading as the practice’s patient portal.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 3/11/24

Top News

Chamber Cardio, a value-based care optimization company focusing on cardiology practices, raises $8 million in seed funding.

Webinars

March 27 (Wednesday) 3 ET. “Houston Methodist: Deploying clinical AI at scale for improved outcomes.” Sponsor: Health Data Analytics Institute. Presenters: Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH, chief of cardiovascular disease prevention and wellness, Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center; Brenda Campbell, RN, senior consultant, HM Health System Innovations; Nassib Chamoun, MS, founder and CEO, HDAI. The presenters  will share how an interdisciplinary team collaborated to successfully use predictive models and a novel AI-driven approach to address post-discharge mortality. They will also describe how they expanded use of the platform to reduce clinician time spent digging through the EHR with a one-page risk profile, including codes extracted from notes using generative AI, and targeting their highest risk patients for extra attention. They will speak to how they overcame barriers to bringing AI at scale to support clinicians across the care continuum.

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

People

Walmart Health names Ken Silverstein, MD VP of clinical operations. Silverstein, a former ChristianaCare physician executive, had been consulting on operations for the chain of clinics.

Announcements and Implementations

Premier Radiology Services implements RamSoft’s OmegaAI and PowerServer PACS software across its teleradiology operation.

Research and Innovation

A survey of 400 Medicare patients, all of whom have had telehealth visits, finds that 69% would be comfortable conducting their annual wellness visits virtually from home. A slightly higher percentage say they’d even be comfortable conducting virtual wellness visits with providers who aren’t their regular primary care doctor, provided their medical records could easily be shared with their care team.

A survey of 1,400 adults gleans several interesting findings related to healthcare AI:

• Nearly 70% are not comfortable with AI-powered healthcare diagnoses.
• More than half are comfortable with using AI for online scheduling and estimating medical costs.
• Just 2% of those surveyed have used generative AI tools to search for healthcare information.
• While 70% of respondents turn to their physicians for healthcare information, younger patients rely predominantly on Dr. Google.
• Though 47% believe AI will majorly impact healthcare over the next five years, just 29% think it will have the same level of impact on their own patient experiences.

Other

The latest HIStalk poll, “Have you scheduled an in-person medical visit purely online in the past year?,” is incredibly timely, given that I did that exact thing on behalf of a family member just last week. Scheduling a same-day appointment using the Walmart Health website was easy. I was even able to easily figure out what the cost would be for the type of appointment scheduled – a bonus when you’re not using insurance. The visit wound up being just $25 more than an insured neighbor paid to visit the WellStar-owned urgent care just around the corner.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic Consulting and SupraNet Communications extend their partnership to offer unlimited free WiFi services at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, WI.
• Bella Medical (TX) adds Sunoh.ai medical scribe software to its EClinicalWorks implementation.

Blog Posts

• Prisma AI: Pioneering Value-based Care Through Advanced Interoperability (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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