News 4/19/23

Top News

Front-office practice management startup Third Way Health raises $1.55 million in pre-seed funding, which it will use to launch US operations via pilots with practices in California and New York.

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 response to pressure from former board members, Cano Health separates the roles of chairman and CEO, both held most recently by Marlow Hernandez, DO. Director Solomon Trujillo has been named chairman, allowing Hernandez to focus solely on the role of chief executive. The company notified shareholders of the role split in a letter that outlined its plans to improve operations, which may include selling off certain assets.

Announcements and Implementations

Choice Medical Group (CA) will use analytics from Decision Point to improve patient engagement.

The Collaborative for Children and Families in New York will implement EHR and care coordination software from Foothold Technology.

Next Level Medical leverages RevSpring’s patient engagement and payment technologies across its urgent care and employee wellness clinics in Texas.

Direct primary care company Hint Health selects Eden Health to power its fully virtual care service for employers and health plans.

Government and Politics

Online vision test company Visiblly, formerly known as Opternative, will pay $500,000 to the FDA to settle allegations that it misrepresented customer satisfaction rates and satisfaction guarantees, marketed its tests without the required clearance or approval, and claimed that its tests were as accurate as in-person exams. Visibly gained the necessary FDA approvals last August while the investigation was underway.

Research and Innovation

A small survey of practices that use medical chatbots on their websites finds that 77% believe AI-powered chatbots will be able to effectively treat patients within the next decade. The most common chatbot uses among those surveyed include Scheduling appointments, requesting medication refills, and providing requested information. Over half of practices that use chatbots for scheduling save an hour of administrative work each week.

New Surescripts data shows that almost half of all counties in the US are experiencing a shortage of primary care physicians. Sixty-one percent of those counties are home to retail pharmacies that could be tapped to fill in the healthcare gap.

Other

The Florida Association of ACOs develops an accelerator program to connect startups with mentors and investors, ACOs, and value-based care organizations.

Oncologist, assistant medical school professor, and singing comedian Stuart Bloom, MD brings “How to Avoid Burnout in 73 Minutes: A Musically Invasive Musical Procedure” to the stage in Minneapolis. Three of the five performances have already sold out.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/17/23

Top News

Calibrate Health lays off 18% of its workforce as it pivots from a direct-to-consumer online obesity drug prescriber to a telemedicine company that offers its weight-loss services to employers. The company has raised nearly $128 million since launching in 2020.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Stephen Canon, MD and his wife Honor Canon, MD launch Vamio Health, a virtual care service designed to help children and their families manage chronic bedwetting.

Announcements and Implementations

EClinicalWorks announces that it will integrate ChatGPT, cognitive services, and machine learning models from Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service with its EHR and practice management technologies.

The Heart & Vascular Institute (MI) selects remote patient monitoring technology and services from HBox Virtual Care.

Major Health Partners (IL) will implement social services referral software from Unite Us across its numerous facilities in Shelbyville.

True Health Family Medicine (AZ) will implement EHR and patient engagement software from EClinicalWorks.

Canary Telehealth will use virtual care software and services from GenieMD as part of its population health management and care coordination programs.

Other

The new landlord of a building in Dewey, OK, that once housed a doctor’s office discovers hundreds of baby pictures left by the physician, who died in 2009. The photos, dated between 1956 and 1982, document the hundreds of babies delivered over the doctor’s 50-year career. The landlord is working with the local history museum to post the photos online so that residents can request to have them returned.

In Florida, a former nurse pleads guilty to tampering with a consumer product after it was discovered she had replaced nearly 450 vials of fentanyl with saline solution, which were then used during outpatient surgical procedures. Surveillance footage also shows the nurse injecting herself with the narcotic.

Sponsor Updates

• Women’s Health Associates realizes a 40% increase in revenue cycle payment processing with Healow Payment Services from EClinicalWorks.

Blog Posts

• Doctor, do you mind the interruption? (Nordic)
• Unlock the Potential of Your Answering Service: Realizing Enterprise Value (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/12/23

Top News

Recuro Health secures $47 million in a Series B investment round. The company offers several types of virtual care services and digital medical home programs incorporating virtual primary and behavioral healthcare.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Virtual digestive care provider Oshi Health raises $30 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total raised to $60 million. The company’s customers include payers, employers, health systems, and specialty practices. Aetna, a CVS Health company, announced last week that it would offer Oshi’s digital program to members in six states.

RCM company Assembly Health acquires JD Matthews Medical Billing Specialists. Assembly Health businesses also include Clinic Anywhere, APS Medical Billing Solutions, SYFR, and Doctor’s Choice Medical Services.

Cano Health leadership concerns escalate, as three former board members write a letter to fellow shareholders alerting them to concerns about the company’s “staggering underperformance” and “deeply troubling” business relationships with family members of CEO Marlow Hernandez, DO. The former board members – Barry Sternlicht, Elliot Cooperstone, and Lewis Gold, MD – have formed an investment group aimed at ousting Hernandez and revitalizing the business, which reported a $428 million loss last year.

Codex IT, a health IT firm focused on eye care practices, acquires computer infrastructure support vendor Practical Systems. It’s Codex’s second acquisition this year, having bought Intranet Consulting in January.

Tech-enabled physician optimization company Vytalize Health acquires Independent Physician Association of New York by securing a controlling interest in its management company, Practice Management of America.

People

Chris Murray (Evolent Health) joins Brightside Health as CFO.

Privia Health promotes Parth Mehrotra to CEO, effective July 1. Mehrotra will succeed Shawn Morris, who will retire.

Announcements and Implementations

Bass Medical Group’s Cancer Center (CA) will implement automated patient screening software developed by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network that will alert providers to patients that may need mental health support.

The Heart & Vascular Institute (MI) will offer its patients CareCloud’s chronic care management program.

E-consult and referral management company AristaMD announces GA of a unified care transition platform that includes patient-to-provider matching, digital referral processing, and e-consults. In related news, AristaMD promoted Eric Urquiza earlier this year to SVP of operations and client experience.

Research and Innovation

A study published in JAMA finds that audio-only telemedicine visits offered at 30 multisite FQHCs in California increased during the pandemic, and continue to play a major role in access to care, with such visits still accounting for one in five primary care visits, and two in five behavioral health visits. The study’s authors believe more research is necessary to determine the effectiveness of audio-only visits and how they can be made to better serve patients, particularly those in rural areas.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes a new e-guide, “Private Practice KPIs: 12 Data Points That Impact Revenue.”
• Nordic publishes a new episode of DocTalk, “Using data wisely: Telling the insight story.”

Blog Posts

• How to manage ‘relentless’ payment denial codes (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/10/23

Top News

A survey of opioid use disorder virtual care patients finds that 46% believe seeking in-person treatment would be challenging, due either to the fact that they don’t have a regular primary care doctor or would not feel comfortable discussing OUD treatment with their current physician. The survey of 460 patients was conducted in light of the DEA’s proposed rules that would limit the prescription of certain medications via telemedicine.

The findings bolster a more recent, rigorous NIH study that found that Medicare patients who took advantage of virtual care services for OUD during the pandemic had a 33% lower risk of fatal drug overdose.

Virtual care companies that prescribe controlled substances are facing the very real possibility that the DEA will reinstate a pre-pandemic rule requiring patients to undergo an in-person visit before having such medications prescribed virtually.

Webinars

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

People

Eitan Shay (Vynca) joins DarioHealth as chief product officer.

Tia names Stacey Irving (DaVita) COO.

Cano Health hires Mark Kent (Care Management Resources) as chief strategy officer.

Ophelia names Alexandra Minarik (Babylon) chief commercial officer and Chris Sharon (Omada Health) COO.

Announcements and Implementations

The Palm Plastic Surgery & Medspa (FL) implements EClinicalWorks.

Advanced Orthopedics New England goes live on Athenahealth.

Other

Only in Alaska(?): A young moose wanders into the lobby of Providence Health Park in Anchorage, momentarily sidetracked by scrumptious potted plants before being carefully shooed out of the building. The moose then plopped down outside of the oncology wing for an after-meal nap in the snow.

Amazon Clinic General Manager and Chief Medical Officer Nworah Ayogu, MD shares a few thoughts with CNBC on the company’s plans for changing the healthcare status quo:

• Amazon thinks of people as customers rather than patients: “It kind of shifts the power dynamic where the customer is the one who is deciding what happens, they are directing things, and the rest of us are going to serve the customer. It’s a frame that I like because it puts us in kind of a servant mentality and mindset.”
• Regarding the company’s Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh grocery businesses, “We know that care and medication are two important pillars but there’s more – there’s food, there’s nutrition, there’s products. We have some unique assets to bring to bear to also connect patients to those things that they need for their care as well.”
• He believes Amazon can stand out amongst retail clinics run by the likes of CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens: “I think we’re … becoming more of that as a marketplace where you can find your providers and producer groups for your issue. So right now, that focuses on connecting people rapidly to common conditions.”

Sponsor Updates

• Clark Health (FL) sees a 200% growth in services since investing in EClinicalWorks technology over a decade ago.

Blog Posts

• Healthcare Call Center Trends: What Leaders Need to Know (PerfectServe)
• Focusing on Public Health: Staying Connected with the Community (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/5/23

Top News

Practice management and patient engagement vendor Engage Technologies Group acquires APX Platform, which specializes in practice management software for aesthetic practices.

APX founder and Co-CEO Terri Ross will join Engage as president of its aesthetics division, while co-CEO Izhak Musli will become SVP of Engage’s product development and data science.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Signify Health CEO Kyle Armbrester tells Axios that being acquired by CVS Health will enable the senior-focused, home healthcare company to build out products, pursue mergers and acquisitions, and prioritize pharmacy services and medication adherence programs for its patients. Remote patient monitoring is also an area of focus, according to Armbrester, who was formerly an SVP and chief product officer at Athenahealth.

An article in Health Affairs looks at the implications of the $50 billion “investment frenzy” of corporations like Amazon, CVS Health, and Walmart gobbling up and building out primary care practices. CMS-compelled reimbursement policies and value-based care contracts are, according to the authors, what will lead to increased costs, monopolization, and a stagnant market that does not favor the patient.

People

Amar Desai, MD returns to UnitedHealth as executive-in-residence, serving as a senior adviser to CEO Andrew Witty. Desai left the payer last October to join CVS Health as head of its new healthcare delivery division, overseeing clinical services delivered through the company’s retail health, chronic disease management, and behavioral health service lines.

Research and Innovation

An MGMA survey of 569 medical group leaders finds that 10% use AI tools in their practices. Top uses for those tools include patient communications, capturing clinical documentation, and improving predictive analytics and billing operations. The majority of those who don’t use AI-enabled solutions say they won’t until they see more evidence of their ROI.

Other

Just in time for HIMSS: Inviza Health debuts self-charging smart insoles that can track a wearer’s steps, heart rate, body temperature, and blood oxygen levels. Embedded GPS tracking and fall detection make them suitable for those with Alzheimer’s. The wearables pair with a companion app and clinical dashboard for remote patient monitoring.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD releases 31 updates with enhancements to telehealth, medication cards, claims status, and mobile prescription drug monitoring program features.
• Nordic releases another episode of its In Network podcast feature, Designing for Health: “Designing for Health: Interview with Dr. Archana Tedone.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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