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

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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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News 12/11/23

Top News

Patient intake software vendor Phreesia beats analyst expectations for Q3 2024 with a 25% bump in revenue to $91.6 million.

The company has within the last four months acquired medical answering service ConnectOnCall (for $14 million) and e-forms management and automation company Access.

Webinars

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

People

Angela Cosby (BayCare Medical Group) joins Walmart as VP of operations, healthcare delivery.

Announcements and Implementations

Kidney & Primary Care of Texas selects practice and care management services and software from Renal Care 360.

Complete Health will implement Relatient’s automated patient scheduling technology across its 24 locations across the Southeast.

Women’s Health Associates in Idaho will roll out Sunoh.ai’s ambient listening technology for clinical documentation.

Government and Politics

Lafourche Medical Group (LA) will pay HHS OCR $480,000 to settle potential HIPAA violations related to a 2021 phishing attack that exposed the PHI of 35,000 people. An OCR investigation found that the medical group had failed to conduct a risk analysis as required by HIPAA prior to the breach, and that it had no cybersecurity review policies in place.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD earns its Electronic Prescribing for Controlled Substances recertification from the Drummond Group.
• Medicomp Systems releases a new “Tell Me Where It Hurts” podcast featuring Bob Taylor, DO, chief product strategies of TouchWorks EHR, Altera Digital Health.

Blog Posts

• Nurses of Note 2023: The Lead Director for Ambulatory Care Management (PerfectServe)
• Smart Coverage Detection Equals Better Patient Care + Stronger Bottom Line (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 12/6/23

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Peregrine Health launches with $7 million in Series A funding. Created through the merger of Integrative Life Network and Integrative Health Centers, Peregrine offers unified mental and behavioral healthcare through its residential, partial hospitalization, outpatient, and telemedicine programs. CEO Ryan Chapman founded both ILN and IHC.

Webinars

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

People

Community Care Cooperative names Jenny Carney (Milliman) COO.

Announcements and Implementations

Walmart will offer mammography services using technology from RadNet at its Supercenter in Milford, DE (not, interestingly, a Walmart Health location). The MammogramNow pilot will use RadNet’s DeepHealth AI as part of the breast cancer screening service.

Athenahealth adds generative AI capabilities to its AthenaOne platform encompassing EHR, practice management, billing, and patient engagement technologies.

Research and Innovation

K Health develops a machine learning model using de-identified data from 17,000 Mayo Clinic primary care encounters that physicians have used to optimize blood pressure medication and treatment in hypertension patients.

A survey of physicians in the ambulatory space finds that most don’t have established relationships with post-acute care providers. While nearly 90% report receiving notifications when their patients are admitted or discharged from a hospital, just 63% are notified when their patients are discharged from a post-acute care facility. Notifications typically come via phone call or fax.

Other

The local paper profiles the Idaho Health Neighborhood Center, which makes a point of hiring physicians from other countries as medical assistants while also providing them with time to study for their US medical licenses. Managed by Cornerstone Whole Healthcare Organization, the clinic values the expertise and cultural sensitivity these physicians bring to its rural and underserved patient populations.

The profile reminds me of a great movie I saw a few months ago on Prime: Based on a true story, Peace by Chocolate is, among other things, the story of a Syrian refugee who struggles to become a physician in Canada. If you’re looking for something uplifting and encouraging to watch during the holiday break, I highly recommend it.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic releases a new Designing for Health Podcast, “Interview with Billy Nicolich.”

Blog Posts

• Help Your Patients Pay Less for Their Prescriptions (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 12/4/23

Top News

Private equity firm Resurgens Technology Partners acquires mental health-focused EHR and practice management software company Valant Medical from GemSpring Capital.

Webinars

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

People

Justin Pierce (Ventra Health) joins CareCloud as chief sales officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Texas Family Wellness Clinic will adopt Sunoh.ai’s AI-powered natural language clinical documentation software.

Health insurer Louisiana Healthcare Connections announces a new partnership with the Louisiana State Medical Society and that it will invest $1 million in helping eligible practices implement EHR software.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic expands its partnership with Fortified Health Security to strengthen security operations and deploy global response capabilities for customers.
• A Black Book Market Research survey of top cybersecurity customers ranks PerfectServe a top vendor in secure communications platforms, physician practices.
• EClinicalWorks publishes a new customer success story, “Transforming Care with RPM Seamless Integration.”

Blog Posts

• Before implementation, think about prehabilitation (Nordic)
• How Patient Journey Mapping Improves the Patient Experience (PerfectServe)
• The Sequoia Project Annual Meeting Recap: This Event Was FHIR! (HealthMark Group)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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