News 1/31/24

Top News

Cardinal Health will acquire Specialty Networks and its PPS Analytics software for $1.2 billion. In addition to analytics, Specialty Networks offers urology, rheumatology, and gastroenterology practices clinical and business intelligence, population health management, research and registries, and group purchasing.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Valendo Health launches out of startup incubator Redesign Health with $4 million in seed funding. The company specializes in remote diabetes patient monitoring and related services, as well as assistance in moving practices into value-based contracts. It aims to work primarily with independent endocrinology practices, and counts virtual specialty clinic Cecelia Health and Advanced Metabolic Care and Research (CA) among its initial customers.

Pregnancy care platform startup Aster raises $2.4 million in seed funding. Aster’s patient management software offers EHR capabilities, a scheduling tool, remote patient monitoring, virtual consults, and transcription services for in-person appointments.

App-based house call company Dispatch Health lays off 88 corporate employees in its latest round of restructuring. The Denver-based company has raised over $400 million since launching in 2013.

Austin-based patient engagement and retention technology startup Vital Interaction raises $15 million in a Series A funding round.

Accompany Health launches with $56 million in Series A funding. The company offers primary and behavioral healthcare, as well as social care services to low-income patients in the home or virtually, initially serving those in the Detroit area. Founder and CEO Rahul Rajkumar, MD was a former deputy director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and has served in executive roles at health insurance companies.

Announcements and Implementations

Innovaccer announces GA of InScribe, its AI-powered clinical documentation virtual assistant.

Rectangle Health unifies its patient engagement, payments, and office compliance technologies into the single Bridge platform.

The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics will offer its patients in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC digital musculoskeletal care from Genie Health.

Government and Politics

Four healthcare clinics in Nova Scotia have launched a mobile medical records app to 4,000 patients as part of a pilot project that will run through March. Patients throughout the rest of the province will have access to their records via the app by the end of June. News of the pilot project coincides with publication of a report by The Public Policy Forum that calls for modernization of Canada’s healthcare data and digital infrastructure. Report recommendations include the elimination of medical faxes by the end of this year and a commitment to a paperless, interoperable healthcare system by 2028, as well as incentivizing wearables through consumer rebates or tax measures.

Other

The Verily-backed OneFifteen substance use disorder treatment center in Dayton, OH, will resume outpatient care in March after separating from Premier Health subsidiary Samaritan Behavioral Health last year. OneFifteen opened in 2019, partnering with Premier Health and Kettering Health to offer outpatient, inpatient, and crisis unit care on its campus.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/29/24

Top News

Bass Medical Group will use a $20 million investment from ApolloMed (soon to be known as Astrana Health), as well as the physician network optimization company’s value-based care and operational technology and services, to expand and enter into new value-based care arrangements and markets.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

In Canada, preventive care technology vendor Healwell AI acquires EHR company Intrahealth Systems from Well Health Technologies for $24 million. Well acquired Intrahealth, which was founded in New Zealand and now serves small  and medium-sized enterprise organizations, in 2021.

People

Cindy Braden (DigitalOptometrics) joins eye care billing company OneSpot as VP of sales.

Announcements and Implementations

New Jersey-based GS Medical Associates will implement PainScript’s remote patient monitoring capabilities for pain management and behavioral health.

Research and Innovation

Nearly 100% of independent physicians say that specialty-specific EHRs optimize their value-based reimbursement, practice management, and patient satisfaction efforts, according to a Black Book survey of 33,000 clinicians. Eighty-five percent, however, feel that their current EHRs could be fine-tuned to better collect, analyze, and report data across a variety of metrics. Surveyed physicians are clamoring for AI and machine-learning EHR features, with 60% reporting these will top their health IT shopping lists in 2024. Top-ranked ambulatory EHR vendors, according to the survey, include Practice Fusion/Veradigm for general practice, Elation Health for family practice, Netsmart for behavioral and mental healthcare, Experity for urgent care, and NextGen Healthcare for multispecialty clinics.

Sponsor Updates

• Centerpoint Health leverages data from the EClinicalWorks EHR and its Healow no-show prediction AI model to improve its clinical workflows.
• Florida Digestive Health Specialists adds Sunoh.ai virtual scribing capabilities to its EClinicalWorks EHR.
• Pinnacle Family Care (NC) improves efficiency using the EClinicalWorks AI assistant for Prisma.

Blog Posts

• Streamlining Workflows and Improving Patient Outcomes with EHR Optimization (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/24/24

Top News

Eye Care Leaders files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The EHR and practice management software vendor has had its share of trouble over the last several years, including multiple ransomware attacks and subsequent outages in 2021 and an ensuing, provider-initiated lawsuit against the company for allegedly covering up the attack, among a host of other issues.

Also no doubt adding fuel to the fire is the fact that ECL founder and former insurance executive Greg Lindberg has been convicted of fraud and bribery, and is still facing multiple lawsuits related to questionable business practices.

Webinars

None scheduled in the coming weeks. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Tech-enabled practice management and optimization company Apollo Medical Holdings will rebrand to Astrana Health next month.

People

Apollo Medical Holdings promotes Brandon Sim to president and CEO, while CFO Chan Basho takes on the additional role of COO. Dinesh Kumar, MD joins the company as CMO.

Announcements and Implementations

Allergy and immunology care provider AllerVie Health is improving its digital infrastructure in the coming year, implementing a new EHR across its clinics in a dozen states, offering remote respiratory monitoring, and upgrading IT hardware and software to support enhancements.

Government and Politics

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services launches PA Navigate, a healthcare and social services search tool powered by Findhelp that also incorporates data from four health information exchanges.

Research and Innovation

The amount of time primary care physicians spend documenting in their EHRs continues to increase, according to an analysis of 141 providers between 2019 and 2023. On average, PCPs spend nearly 30 minutes working in their EHRs per eight hours of appointment time. Inbox messaging increased significantly in the areas of patient messages, e-consults, and prescription refills.

Other

Vivi Health will use Fitbit wearables as a part of its remote patient monitoring service for patients dealing with substance abuse. Vivi will use Fitibit biometric data to inform relapse risk assessments and custom recovery plans.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/22/24

Top News

Amazon reportedly begins offering its One Medical providers access to virtual consults with its Amazon Pharmacy pharmacists as part of a pilot project geared towards improving outcomes for high-risk patients with complex medication regimens.

As Mr. HIStalk pointed out last week, Amazon hasn’t made many changes to One Medical since acquiring it in 2022 for $4 billion, other than to offer Prime customers discounts on joining the primary care practice. One Medical, he added, “is now exposed to Amazon-recruited members who are older and less affluent than One Medical’s former client base.” It seems that this older patient base will benefit the most from the trial integration of services.

Webinars

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.

People

RCM consulting, software, and services company SimiTree promotes Tiffany Fuller to SVP and Brian Harris to VP.

Announcements and Implementations

Allied Digestive Health will implement Provation’s Apex clinical documentation and charting software at its 30 facilities across New Jersey and New York.

SiParadigm, a pathology lab based in New Jersey, selects CareCloud’s Central practice management platform.

Government and Politics

Beginning this fall, CMS will test a new Innovation in Behavioral Health Model through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The model is designed to help community-based practices better coordinate behavioral healthcare with physical and social care services through improved – and incentivized – care coordination. Participating practices will receive funding to support increased use of health IT, including EHRs; practice transformation; and technical assistance.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks shares a new customer success story, “Boosting Wellness Visits & Incentive Revenue in Healthcare.”
• Nordic releases a new Designing for Health Podcast, “Interview with David K. Butler, MD.”
• EClinicalWorks customer DePaul Community Health Centers (LA) adds Sunoh.ai ambient listening technology from ECW to its V12 EHR.

Blog Posts

• 7 Patient Engagement Solutions to Help Patients and Practices in 2024 (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/17/24

Top News

CMS publishes the Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule, which enacts firm timelines for select payers to issue prior authorizations, and mandates the implementation by certain payers of HL7 FHIR APIs to better enable electronic prior authorizations and for easier exchange of data between providers and payers. The final rule also adds a new EPA measure for eligible clinicians under the MIPS Promoting Interoperability performance category.

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.

People

Kelley Blair (Therapy Brands) joins Nimble Solutions as CEO. Blair takes over from Nader Samii, who has become executive chairman.

Qualifacts hires Charles Reitano (Crestview Revenue Solutions) as SVP of RCM.

Valer, formerly known as Voluware, names Philip Dolan (Personify) chief growth officer and Jennifer Golladay (Engooden Health) VP of client success.

Announcements and Implementations

Autism treatment provider Hopebridge rolls out an internally developed patient portal across its facilities in a dozen states.

Government and Politics

California’s Department of Health Care Services launches two behavioral health services apps for families with children between the ages of infancy and 25. Brightline’s Brightlife Kids app and Kooth’s Soluna app offer age-appropriate behavioral health services and resources, including coaching, care navigation services, assessments, tools, and educational content, as well as crisis and safety protocols.

The relatively new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health is developing an electric vehicle-based program that aims to bring healthcare services to rural areas. Dubbed PARADIGM, the Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & InteGrated Medical care, the program will feature vehicles equipped with virtual care software and related medical devices. The program also hopes to eventually make on-board clinical documentation software interoperable with EHRs.

Research and Innovation

The FDA clears DermaSensor’s AI-powered, handheld, skin cancer detection device. The company will market the product to primary care physicians for use in routine screenings on patients over the age of 40.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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