News 6/13/22

Top News

Substance use disorder telemedicine startup Boulder Care raises $36 million in a Series B round that brings its total funding to $50 million.

The Oregon-based company, launched in 2017 by CEO Stephanie Strong, now has 100 employees. It offers its app-based program directly to consumers and by referral from providers and other healthcare organizations.

GeekWire reports that the company got a “boost” during the pandemic when the federal government waived the requirement for an in-person visit for providers to prescribe Suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction. It’s a situation similar to the one in which now-embattled telemedicine company Cerebral found itself in with regard to its easier ability to prescribe medications without an in-person visit. That company, founded just two years ago, now faces federal scrutiny for its prescribing practices.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

MedVanta launches as a managed services organization designed to help independent orthopedic and musculoskeletal practices thrive. The founders have based the new company’s business model on The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics, an independent medical group that they launched in 2013.

Government and Politics

HHS issues guidance on how covered healthcare entities can conduct audio-only telehealth appointments in a HIPAA-compliant manner.

Research and Innovation

An Athenahealth survey of 743 physicians finds that satisfaction with interoperability-enhancing technology is lacking when it comes to sharing information with providers outside of their EHR network. Not surprisingly, 80% of respondents find this lack of data-sharing capabilities stress-inducing. Surveyed physicians believe a lack of coordination among different facilities and a lack of desire among EHR vendors are the biggest contributors to the interoperability issue.

Other

Geoffrey Fowler, The Washington Post’s technology columnist, attempts to provide some clarity around the health data-mining practices of companies like patient intake software vendor Phreesia, which uses the data of consenting patients to serve up pharmaceutical ads related to their specific health histories and current issues. Patients who opt out of the data-mining practice (Phreesia doesn’t release that figure) aren’t supposed to see any difference in their ability to use the company’s technology. But as one doctor jadedly told a patient, one of Fowler’s sources, “Your information is all over the web anyhow!”

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic posts a video titled “The Impact of Cloud on Patient Care.”
• Healthwise wins a merit Digital Health Award in the digital health media/publications: video category.
• The Empowered Patient Podcast features Medicomp Systems CEO Dave Lareau.
• Nordic publishes a video titled “Considerations for successful EHR extensions.”

Blog Posts

• Our Mission Together: Healthcare and Digital Transformation in the UK (Nordic)
• Recent HIPAA Breaches: How to Avoid an Email Breach & Secure Your Practice (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 6/8/22

Top News

Virtual opioid use disorder treatment provider Bicycle Health raises $50 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total raised to $83 million. The company offers its services to employers and consumers.

Webinars

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

People

Bryan Adams (Best Buy Health) joins Duo Health as CTO.

American Oncology Network hires Karen Pilley as chief revenue cycle officer.

Announcements and Implementations

LIMS vendor GoMeyra announces GA of its white-label virtual clinic technology, which will initially focus on in-home testing and care management.

Government and Politics

An audit of The Center for Comprehensive Mental Health’s billing for telemedicine visits finds that the Texas-based facility overbilled by $936. After testing 30 claims, auditors found that the center didn’t consistently bill the appropriate Current Procedural Terminology codes based on time duration parameters for telemedicine evaluation and management services with add-on psychotherapy services.

Research and Innovation

A multi-state study conducted at 52 community cancer centers has revealed that patients with advanced cancer who shared their symptoms weekly via digital surveys exhibited 35% better physical function, 16% better management of their symptoms, and 41% better health-related quality of life compared to patients who were evaluated less frequently during in-person appointments. Researchers will now focus on developing implementation models that are efficient for practices.

Other

Adding this to my summer reading list: “I Watch You Sleep: A Doctor’s Tales of Anesthesia and Chain Restaurants” promises to let readers in on “what really goes on when you get knocked out.” Author and amateur stand-up comedian Zach Antonov, MD currently practices somewhere in the South.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 6/6/22

Top News

Primary care-focused practice management and value-based care transition company Aledade has raised $123 million in Series E funding, bringing its total investments to nearly $420 million.

The company, which also offers technology optimization, works with more than 1,000 independent practices across the country.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to these companies for recently supporting HIStalk Practice. Click a logo for more information.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Virtual women’s healthcare company Visana Health raises $2.6 million in a seed funding round. Founder and CEO Joe Connolly launched the Minneapolis-based company in 2019 after watching his mother struggle with undiagnosed endometriosis and fibroids for 25 years.

I missed the April news that Nudj Health raised $10 million in a Series A funding round. The company has developed app-based programs to help patients with chronic conditions maintain or improve their health and wellness in between office visits.

Announcements and Implementations

Greenway Health announces GA of Greenway Secure Cloud, a cloud-based EHR and practice management platform that manages provider data in a maximum security data center with annual data uptime of 99 percent.

Professional Park Medical Services (GA) implements CareTrack’s patient care plan adherence software.

Government and Politics

A federal judge sentences Joshua Maywalt to five years and five days in federal prison for healthcare fraud, aggravated identity theft, filing a false income tax return, and failing to file an income tax return. Maywalt had been working at an unspecified medical billing and coding company in Clearwater, FL. He committed his crimes through the office of a physician client, fraudulently billing services to Florida Medicaid and funneling the money to a personal account. He has also been ordered to forfeit $2.5 million and personal property in Tampa.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “A Bridge to the Future of Behavioral Health.”
• EClinicalWorks publishes a new customer success story, “How Online Booking is Helping a Cardiology Practice.”

Blog Posts

• 3 Technologies for Health Education Explained (Healthwise
• An ounce of prevention (Nordic)
• Nurses of Note Awards 2022: Retired Interior Designer Embarks on Second Career as a Nurse (PerfectServe)
• What’s cloud got to do with it? (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 6/1/22

Top News

Hint Health, a tech company focused on better enabling direct primary care practices, has raised $45 million in a Series B funding round.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Summer is unofficially here, and with it comes the need to compile vacation-worthy reading lists. I’m indulging in a re-read of “Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife” by Linda Berdoll, a bodice-ripper that pays cheeky homage to Jane Austen’s original work. The more professionally-minded may want to check out the AMA’s “8 great books hand-picked by doctors for your reading list.”

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

CloudMD, a Canadian software, services, and clinic operations company, reports a jump in Q1 revenue to $41.4 million CAD. The company attributes the increase to its 2021 acquisition of MindBeacon, a developer of white-label virtual cognitive behavioral therapy software.

Announcements and Implementations

CVS Health develops a virtual primary care service for payers that gives their members access to virtual primary care, on-demand care, chronic condition management, and mental healthcare from a dedicated care team via a single digital resource. Members will also have the option to seek in-person care at in-network providers, including CVS Health’s MinuteClinic.

Bellevue Pain and Wellness (WA) selects Kareo and PatientPop’s EHR, practice management and growth, and billing technologies.

Rite Aid will connect its Medicare pharmacy customers in Michigan with virtual, mobile, and in-person care from Homeward, a tech-enabled healthcare company focused on helping patients in rural areas access care.

Apricity Health, an oncology-focused care management and remote patient monitoring company, selects Health Gorilla’s Health Interoperability Platform and Patient360 health record software.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks publishes a new customer success story featuring Provida Family Medicine, “How the EClinicalWorks EHR Integrates Data from Other EHRs.”
• Nordic will present at the EHealth 2022 Virtual Conference + Tradeshow June 1-2.
• EClinicalWorks publishes a new customer success story, “Advocate Aurora Health: Helping a Regional Nonprofit with Population Health Solutions.”

Blog Posts

• How a digital, all-in-one software solution helps you grow your practice & refocus on patient care (AdvancedMD)
• The Best of Healthcare IT in the Heart of America (EClinicalWorks)
• Nurses of Note Awards 2022: The Dynamic Nurse IT Leader (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 5/25/22

Top News

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD releases an advisory on addressing and combatting health worker burnout. The advisory offers fairly in-depth action items for stakeholders across the care continuum including provider organizations; federal, state, local, and tribal governments; payers; and healthcare technology vendors. Sadly, it seems that, according to Murthy, health IT companies are still struggling with:

• Designing technology to serve the needs of health workers, care teams, and patients across the continuum of care.
• Designing platforms with the goal of interoperability at the outset.
• Strengthening integration of data across different platforms and health sectors.
• Improving seamless storage of and access to health data.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Well Health Technologies combines its EMR Group, billing and RCM, and several digital application businesses into its new Provider Solutions Business Unit.

People

Elation Health names Amanda Melander (Athenahealth) SVP and head of marketing.

Scott Weingarten, MD (Cedars-Sinai) joins Vytalize Health as chief value officer.

Other

Drummond Group launches a pediatric health IT certification and pilot initiative that will help vendors comply with the ONC’s voluntary EHR certification requirements. Pilot participants include NextGen, Office Practicum, and PCC. The pilot will wrap up in July, after which Drummond Group will finalize test scripts based on recommendations from ONC, HL7, and ARHQ.

Marketplace looks at the increasing urgency with which healthcare practices are messaging patients to leave online reviews. “Tone-deaf timing,” as one patient put it, is a big turn off, as is the feeling that patients are being badgered to do a practice’s marketing for them. Zen Media CEO Shama Hyder advises practices to wait one to two days before sending review requests: “You don’t want to go so long that a patient has completely moved on with their life and forgotten about their experience. Or worse yet, had a rough experience and already decided to share that on a public forum.”

Brian Wedgeworth, aka the “Casanova Scammer,” pleads guilty to 25 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering after a five-year stint of swindling money from more than 30 women. Wedgeworth’s schemes involved posing as a doctor and convincing his victims he needed money to pay off his medical practice’s debts.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic posts another episode of its monthly “DocTalk” series titled “Soft Interoperability.
• Nordic publishes a video titled “Modernizing Healthcare Data Infrastructure with the Cloud.”
• Nordic transitions the Tasman brand, and its presence in Europe and the Middle East, to the Nordic global brand.

Blog Posts

• Nurses of Note Awards 2022: The Nurse Informatics Team at Mecklenburg County Public Health (PerfectServe)
• Two Ways to Increase Your Patient Engagement (Healthwise)
• Essential ephemera: The sad, over-too-quickly life of a wearable datum (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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