News 8/3/22

Top News

Homeward raises $50 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total raised to $70 million. The company partners with health plans to deliver tech-enabled mobile, virtual, and in-home care to Medicare patients in rural communities.

Webinars

August 10 (Wednesday) 12:30 ET. “Navigating healthcare’s data quality challenge: An actionable discussion.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Alastair Allen, CTO, Better; Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer, IMO. Achieving a consolidated patient record is challenging in an environment of hospital M&A, where EHR rip-and-replace projects are expensive and HIEs and FHIR connectivity haven’t significantly accelerated progress. The underlying problem is that systems don’t speak the same language due to a lack of comprehensive, persistent clinical terminology and data standards adoption. UK-based Better offers a unique, FHIR-based approach to integrating disparate EHR data. The presenters will explore how to improve clinical data quality and how interoperable information can be used to support patient safety, reimbursement, and population health management.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Patient adherence software vendor CareTrack secures $2.5 million from Hybrid Capital Partners. The Carrolton, Georgia-based company’s technology helps primary care providers manage Medicare patient care in between appointments. CareTrack co-founders Andrew Mills and Derek Skinner hail from Greenway Health.

People

Joseph Ortiz (Concept 2 Market) joins MedMatch as chief innovations and operations officer.

PatientIQ names Erik Johnson (Verato) VP of marketing.

Ro co-founder Rob Schutz will step down as chief growth officer, transitioning to an advisory role and maintaining his seat on the board. The online prescription delivery and telemedicine company launched in 2017, achieving a $7 billion valuation earlier this year alongside its $150 million funding round. It laid off 18% of its workforce in June.

Announcements and Implementations

Orbit Telehealth (fka Telespine) develops white-label virtual care capabilities for physical therapists.

Athenahealth integrates DrFirst’s RxInform patient medication notification software with its EHR to improve medication adherence.

Silver Health Care implements CareTrack’s patient adherence software for Medicare patients across its five locations in New Mexico.

Other

Frome Medical Practice in Somerset, England, has partnered with the local library to make blood pressure monitors available to patrons, who can then submit their results via the practice’s website. The practice will follow up with those whose readers are higher or lower than normal.

Perhaps library-goers in Frome will check out the fairly new memoir from Vanderbilt pediatric neurosurgeon Jay Wellons, MD. “All That Moves Us: A Pediatric Neurosurgeon, His Young Patients, and Their Stories of Grace and Resilience” “reflects on triumphant successes, unforeseen complications, and the young patients whose lives have been in his hands,” according to recent BookBub review.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Best Practices for Negotiating Health Insurance Contracts (AdvancedMD)
• Closing the Gap Between Patients and Their Records (EClinicalWorks)
• How to Create Fair (and Pain-Free) Physician Schedules (TigerConnect)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 8/1/22

Top News

Carequality expands its interoperability framework to allow the participation of federal agencies. The expansion comes courtesy of updated agreements with existing member EHealth Exchange, which offers federal agencies HIE capabilities.

Implementers of the Carequality framework includes customers of ambulatory HIT vendors like Athenahealth, EClinicalWorks, NextGen, PCC, Allscripts, and Epic.

Mr. HIStalk interviewed Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project, Carequality’s parent organization, earlier this year.

Webinars

August 10 (Wednesday) 12:30 ET. “Navigating healthcare’s data quality challenge: An actionable discussion.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Alastair Allen, CTO, Better; Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer, IMO. Achieving a consolidated patient record is challenging in an environment of hospital M&A, where EHR rip-and-replace projects are expensive and HIEs and FHIR connectivity haven’t significantly accelerated progress. The underlying problem is that systems don’t speak the same language due to a lack of comprehensive, persistent clinical terminology and data standards adoption. UK-based Better offers a unique, FHIR-based approach to integrating disparate EHR data. The presenters will explore how to improve clinical data quality and how interoperable information can be used to support patient safety, reimbursement, and population health management.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Bright Futures Speech Therapy in San Diego selects Kareo’s EHR, practice management, and billing software.

Research and Innovation

A study of 59 end users and 1,000 patients finds there’s a bit of a disconnect between perceptions of EHR utilization: Just one third of clinicians felt that patients perceived EHR use to be a positive experience. The majority of clinicians reported that, because of the EHR, they maintained less eye contact, listened less carefully, and focused less on their patients – all of which they felt contributed to less personal appointments. Patients felt otherwise, with nearly 92% reporting that their clinician’s use of an EHR was positive.

A survey of 1,000 patients finds that they typically give a practice four chances before seriously considering switching providers. Ease of payment, ability to make online appointments, digital access to medical records, and receptiveness to new technology were cited as factors that help to retain patients.

Innovators develop XRAI Glass, smart glasses for people who are deaf or suffer from hearing loss that use augmented reality to convert audio into captions that are displayed in front of the wearer’s eyes.

Other

Summer’s not over yet: AMA members recommend five novels and eight nonfiction books to add to your summer reading list.

We still have Internet (in case those venomous possums come calling).

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 7/27/22

Top News

Text message-based concierge care provider Summer Health announces $7.5 million in seed funding. The initial version of the company’s app focuses on pediatric-focused urgent and developmental care. Summer Health currently offers its services, which include expert advice, milestone workups, referrals for in-person care, and prescription and lab tests, for $20 per month.

Webinars

August 10 (Wednesday) 12:30 ET. “Navigating healthcare’s data quality challenge: An actionable discussion.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Alastair Allen, CTO, Better; Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer, IMO. Achieving a consolidated patient record is challenging in an environment of hospital M&A, where EHR rip-and-replace projects are expensive and HIEs and FHIR connectivity haven’t significantly accelerated progress. The underlying problem is that systems don’t speak the same language due to a lack of comprehensive, persistent clinical terminology and data standards adoption. UK-based Better offers a unique, FHIR-based approach to integrating disparate EHR data. The presenters will explore how to improve clinical data quality and how interoperable information can be used to support patient safety, reimbursement, and population health management.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare payments startup Sift Healthcare raises $9 million in Series A funding.

NextGen’s revised 2023 revenue and earnings estimates cause shares to drop 5% in after-hours trading. The company reported 5% revenue growth for Q1 2023, with fully diluted EPS dropping slightly.

People

Victoria Giambattista (CareRev) joins TSI Healthcare as VP of marketing.

Announcements and Implementations

Greenway Health announces GA of medical coding services.

Research and Innovation

MGMA’s latest report on costs and revenues finds that:

• Productivity at physician-owned practices are lower than pre-pandemic/2019 levels.
• Revenue increased last year, jumping especially at physician-owned, non-surgical practices.
• Similar practices saw operating costs increase between 2020 and 2021.

Researchers determine that embedding digital versions of paper-based patient surveys within EHRs enables easier data collection, which in turn leads to increased research efficiency and decreased survey-related labor costs. Survey data can also be tied to a patient’s medical record for contextualization.

Other

Perhaps appointments will be discounted during Prime Day?

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success story featuring Orthopaedic Institute of Ohio, “Prisma: How Better Data Improves Care and Reduces Costs.”

• Nordic releases a new episode of its “DocTalk” video series.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 7/25/22

Top News

Healthie raises $16.5 million in Series A funding. The company has developed white-label EHR, practice management, patient engagement, and billing technology for providers interested in launching virtual care services.

Webinars

August 10 (Wednesday) 12:30 ET. “Navigating healthcare’s data quality challenge: An actionable discussion.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Alastair Allen, CTO, Better; Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer, IMO. Achieving a consolidated patient record is challenging in an environment of hospital M&A, where EHR rip-and-replace projects are expensive and HIEs and FHIR connectivity haven’t significantly accelerated progress. The underlying problem is that systems don’t speak the same language due to a lack of comprehensive, persistent clinical terminology and data standards adoption. UK-based Better offers a unique, FHIR-based approach to integrating disparate EHR data. The presenters will explore how to improve clinical data quality and how interoperable information can be used to support patient safety, reimbursement, and population health management.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Mental health chatbot development company Wysa raises $20 million in a Series B funding round led by HealthQuad. The startup plans to expand further into the US, UK, and India; and to improve integration with WhatsApp.

Lisa Health launches its menopause-focused health and wellness Midday app and announces $2.5 million in seed funding. The app incorporates education material and access to virtual visits from the Mayo Clinic. A premium version of the app that includes symptom tracking will launch later this year.

Announcements and Implementations

Erie Family Health Centers deploys OCHIN’s hosted Epic system at its 13 clinics in Chicago, with assistance from Pivot Point Consulting.

Bedrock Management Services selects CareCloud’s Remote digital health technology to support its home-based exercise physiology program in seven states.

Research and Innovation

Researchers at UCLA determine that informing primary care physicians of how their care stacks up against their peers has no significant impact on their ability to provide preventive care. It does, however, lower their job satisfaction and leads to increased rates of burnout. The nearly 200 PCPs interviewed during the five-month study reported feeling a lack of leadership support when faced with benchmarking interventions, though training the leaders on how to better present the data did take some of the edge off.

Other

One Medical members take to Twitter to voice their discontent with its acquisition by Amazon. Most are concerned with the possibility that Amazon could use their PHI for retail-oriented purposes, though the company has denied it will do so. Their qualms echo those of Dr. Jayne and her colleagues: “Several of us brought up the point that most consumers don’t read terms and conditions, even when there are limited updates to an agreement, so it’s likely that Amazon could obtain such a consent without patients full understanding what they’ve accepted.”

Recommended reading: Urgent care physician Wayne Liebhard, MD has published, “Walking The Tightrope: Trusting Your Life To Telemedicine,” in an effort to help patients better understand the pros and cons of virtual visits. He explains: “Someone needs to sound the alarm when a type of care is being promoted that — if used improperly — may not always be safe, and that is the reason the book was written.”

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic Consulting achieves ISO 27001 certification.
• PerfectServe publishes a case study, “Children’s Hospital & Medical Center Omaha: Centralizing Provider Scheduling Across an Enterprise.”

Blog Posts

• Key Steps for Successful Provider Credentialing (AdvancedMD)
• Cost & Utilization Explorer: Seeing, Understanding, Acting (EClinicalWorks)
• Healthcare interoperability can put people first (Nordic)
• Transforming care delivery with modern healthcare technology (TigerConnect)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 7/13/22

Top News

Fold Health raises $6 million from a group of investors that includes Zus CEO Jonathan Bush. The San Francisco-based startup is developing technology for primary care practices that unifies patient onboarding, marketing, messaging, and billing into one application. Customers will be charged on a monthly basis, per user.

Fold Health co-founders CEO Abhijit Gupta and President Ram Sahasranam both spent time at Athenahealth before transitioning to AbVaRa Capital and then Iron Pillar. Gupta founded health app developer Praxify Technologies in 2010, which Athenahealth acquired in 2017 for $63 million.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Pediatric and family-oriented virtual behavioral healthcare company Brightline adds a $10 million investment from Northwell Health (NY) to its Series C funding round, bringing its total to $115 million. Brightline, which markets its services to employers and payers, has raised a total of $220 million.

People

Kevin Marasco (Zenefits) joins Tebra as chief marketing officer.

Announcements and Implementations

The Knoxville Academy of Medicine Foundation rolls out NinePatch’s Whole Person Care referral and care coordination software to the Tennessee Community Resource Network.

Behavioral health EHR vendor Kipu Health announces GA of its patient portal.

E-consult and referral company AristaMD will leverage Axuall’s physician onboarding and enrollment software to improve its own onboarding, privileging and payor enrollment processes.

Online physician search and appointment scheduling website Zocdoc develops an API that will enable providers to integrate their back-end scheduling software with Zocdoc’s technology, enhancing visibility of real-time appointment availability and improving online scheduling.

Research and Innovation

A CVS Health survey of 1,000 consumers and 400 providers finds that 37% have scheduled an online appointment to save time and/or money, while 53% of providers say virtual appointment options have led t more patient visits and improved care plan adherence. Nearly 75% of patients appreciate receiving custom alerts and reminders about screenings and checkups, though no mention is made of whether or not those reminders led to appointments.

Other

The local news profiles Howard Tucker, MD a centenarian who was recognized several years ago by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest practicing doctor. Tucker currently lectures neurology residents at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland. He doesn’t see patients anymore, though, according to his grandson, he did sneak out of the house during the early days of COVID to help with patients at the hospital. Tucker doesn’t seem to be a fan of telemedicine: “To me, it’s a very discomforting thought, but that’s my limited perspective on the future of anything. It works partially, but I can’t fathom how they’re still working without seeing a patient, feeling around, knowing what you’re looking at.”

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success story featuring Ninth Street Internal Medicine, “Healow Pay: Improving Collections, Reducing Phone Calls.”

Blog Posts

• Truth about Browser Extensions with Cloud Applications including AdvancedMD (AdvancedMD)
• Florida is the Perfect Place for Early Birds (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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