News 2/19/24

Top News

Connexin Software, parent company of pediatric health IT vendor Office Practicum, agrees to settle a series of class-action lawsuits related to a 2022 data breach for $4 million. The breach affected 120 Office Practicum Customers, and potentially impacted up to 3 million patients.

The company, which would have had to file for bankruptcy had the case progressed, will offer plaintiffs and class members three compensation choices:

• Identity theft monitoring for three years, plus up to $1 million in insurance.
• Up to $7,500 in reimbursement for out-of-pocket losses or time spent as a result of the data security incident.
• Cash payment, subject to the number of valid claims submitted for that option.

Webinars

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

People

Karen Mitchell (AccentCare) joins Quartet Health as chief growth officer.

Other

Omni Family Health works to bring its NextGen EHR and other internal systems back online after an attempted cyberattack forced it to downtime procedures last week. The company operates 40 health centers in three California counties.

Auburn University’s Rural Health Initiative will use a USDA telemedicine grant to install 14 telemedicine carts at 14 locations across the state – four where patients see providers virtually, and 10 where patients can receive treatment. Program organizers anticipate the carts will increase healthcare access for up to 43,000 patients across 12 counties.

The local paper profiles Aegis Medical Group EHR Administrator Peter Kizza, PhD, who recently earned one of the first doctorates in health informatics from UTHealth Houston’s School of Biomedical Informatics. Kizza is also an adjunct professor at UT Health and founder of IT support services company GatorIT, though he says his ultimate goal is to one day become a healthcare CIO.

Sponsor Updates

• Medical Risk Solutions reports a 40% decrease in patient call volume after implementing Healow Open Access online appointment booking software from EClinicalWorks
• AdvancedMD’s 2024 Winter Release gives private practices elevated levels of operational agility and more streamlined billing capabilities
• EClinicalWorks customer Be Well Primary Care Medicine (TX) reports that over 95% of its patients use Healow Sign for faster check-in during office visits.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Boosting Data Analysis in Healthcare.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 2/14/24

Top News

Anatomy Financial launches with $7.6 million in funding. Led by husband-and-wife team Callum and Sasha King, the company has developed AI-powered financial automation software for medical and dental practices, and digital health and healthcare billing companies.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

PatientFi secures funding from Questa Capital. The company offers patient payment technology to practices specializing in medical aesthetics.

Redesign Health, a healthcare startup development company based in New York City, reportedly lays off 77 employees as it slows down company creation in the wake of a sluggish investment market. The company, which has raised $164 million since launching in 2018, laid off a similar number of staff two years ago.

People

ModMed promotes Joe Harpaz to co-CEO.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 2/12/24

Top News

Hybrid mental health practice SokyaHealth rebrands to Headlight and announces $18 million in funding.

The company, which operates in seven states, has named former PillPack executive Geoff Swindle CEO.

Webinars

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

People

Agilon Health names Senior Medical Director and VP of Network Performance Karthik Rao, MD interim chief medical officer. Rao takes over from Benjamin Kornitzer, MD who will become a special advisor to the company.

Esteban López, MD (Hopscotch Health Children’s Urgent Care) joins Doxy.me as chief medical officer.

Other

Meadville Medical Center officials attempt to explain the need for facility fees after patients of Meadville Ob/Gyn Associates take to social media to complain about being billed separately for clinical care and facility fees. While the medical center says the facility fees – some in the $400 range – are a billing necessity based on insurance coverage and hospital ownership, patients continue to express frustration at the charges and lack of proactive communication from MMC about what they would be billed for once the practice became a part of the hospital in early 2023.

Sponsor Updates

• Kellum Medical Group (TX) leverages the Sunoh.ai AI medical scribe as part of its EClinicalWorks EHR implementation.
• Waystar will exhibit at Nymbl.Con 2024 February 14-16 in Scottsdale, AZ.
• The Blue Bonnet Family Medicine Health and Wellness Clinic in Texas attributes a 10% increase in patients seen to its use of EHR and AI assistant technology from EClinicalWorks.
• AdvancedMD announces QBSolutioneers as its newest integration partner.

HIStalk Practice Sponsors Named Best in KLAS

• PerfectServe – physician scheduling
• Waystar – patient financial engagement

Blog Posts

• Don’t Just Replace Cortext – Upgrade to Real-Time Care Team Collaboration with PerfectServe (PerfectServe)
• Priority One for 2024: Staying Focused on Patients (EClinicalWorks)
• What is TEFCA? Find out in Our TEFCA 101 Autocomplete Game Video! (HealthMark Group)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 2/7/24

Top News

Amazon will reportedly lay off several hundred workers within its One Medical primary care and Amazon Pharmacy businesses.

The news comes shortly after Amazon announced a pilot project in which One Medical providers would receive access to virtual consults with Amazon Pharmacy pharmacists in an effort to improve outcomes for high-risk patients.

The online retailer laid off 80 Amazon Pharmacy employees in July, and 159 staff in August after closing Amazon Care.

Webinars

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

People

Weave names former Tebra executive David McNeil (Envoy) chief revenue officer.

Michael Waite (Revco Solutions) joins Savista as VP of sales.

Announcements and Implementations

Southeast Primary Care Partners implements the SmarTest screening and testing platform from Mental Health Technologies across its clinics in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama.

Other

Second-year medical resident Nikhil Illa, MD launches Pocket Scribe, an AI-powered clinical documentation assistant that also captures billing and coding details to predict visit reimbursement rates.

Elevate ENT Partners (FL) notifies 1,000 patients of coding and patient statement processing errors made by Waystar and RevSpring that led to patients being misdirected to other patient accounts via the practice’s PatientNotebook portal.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 2/5/24

Top News

SAMHSA and ONC launch the Behavioral Health Information Technology Initiative, which will invest $20 million over the next three years to promote the use of health IT within behavioral healthcare and practice settings.

The initiative will work with SAMHSA’s Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant and Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG) recipients to identify and pilot a set of behavioral health-specific data elements that will help to improve data exchange for behavioral health providers and care coordination with primary care and specialty physicians.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to Nordic for its continued support of HIStalk Practice. Click the logo for more information.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Aquiline Capital Partners acquires physician practice-focused RCM vendor Health Prime.

Primary care company Cano Health files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of a restructuring program first announced in August 2023, the announcement of which coincided with the hiring of new CEO Mark Kent. At the time, the company announced plans to sell off assets and lay off employees as it questioned its ability to stay in business. Cano’s troubles came to light in early 2023, when several high-profile board members resigned, citing mismanagement. The company was valued at $4.4 billion when it went public on the NYSE via SPAC merger in June 2021, but shares have since nosedived. The company’s market cap was down to $32 million in November.

Announcements and Implementations

No Junk Food Zone, an online health and wellness club serving members in Washington, DC, selects Ensoftek’s DrCloud EHR.

Other

Moses Lake Community Health Center (WA) notifies 1,200 individuals of a 2023 data breach and payment scam in which hackers gained access to two employee email addresses, and then impersonated legitimate MLCHC vendors by sending phony invoices in an effort to extract payments. The health center was also a victim of the CaptureRx data breach in 2021. That incident forced the pharmacy administrative services business to consider bankruptcy in light of a class-action lawsuit that was ultimately settled for $4.75 million.

The local paper profiles Montana Pediatrics, a nonprofit virtual clinic that connects families with a network of after-hours pediatricians through Ahana software, and offers care coordination services to rural patients with medically complex needs. It will launch several pilot programs this year, including distributing at-home healthcare kits to 5,000 families and offering integrated behavioral healthcare services to 100 patients.

Sponsor Updates

• Waystar joins Meditech’s Alliance program.
• EClinicalWorks announces that its Sunoh.ai AI-powered ambient listening technology now integrates with EClinicalMobile and EClinicalTouch apps on iOS and Android smartphones, iPads, and Microsoft Windows and macOS devices.
• Hyndman Area Health Center expands its use of EClinicalWorks technology with the addition of AI solutions including the Sunoh.ai virtual scribe.

Blog Posts

• 5 questions to ask when you’re at a crossroads in your EHR strategy (Nordic)
• 5 strategies to overcome patient payment complexities (Waystar)
• Benefits of Medical AI Scribe Integrated within the EHR (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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