News 9/22/21

Top News

Care coordination and social services referral company Unite Us acquires NowPow, which offers a similar community care and services referral platform.

The acquisition comes just over a month after Unite Us announced its acquisition of analytics-focused Carrot Health.

Webinars

October 6 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “Solving Patient Experience Challenges Through a Strong Digital Front Door.” Sponsor: Avtex. Presenters: Mike Pietig, VP of healthcare experience, Avtex; Jamey Shiels, MBA, VP of consumer experience, Advocate Aurora Health; Chad Thorpe, care ambassador, DispatchHealth. Patients expect healthcare providers to offer them the same digital experience they get when banking, shopping, and traveling. This webinar will describe how two leading healthcare providers created digital front doors that exceed patient expectations, improve patient outcomes, drive loyalty and acquisition, and future-proof their growth strategies in competitive markets.

October 6 (Wednesday) 1 ET.  “A New, Streamlined Approach to Documentation and Problem List Management in Cerner Millennium.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Deepak Pillai, MD, physician informaticist, IMO; David Arco, product manager, IMO; Nicole Douglas, senior product marketing manager, IMO. The IMO Core CSmart app, which is available for Cerner Millennium in the Cerner code App Gallery, helps providers document with specificity, make problem lists more meaningful, and improve HCC coding. This webinar will review the challenges and bottlenecks of clinical documentation and problem list management and discuss how streamlined workflows within Cerner Millennium can help reduce clinician HIT burden.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Alpha Medical, a chat-based telemedicine company focused on women’s health, raises $24 million in a Series B round. It has raised $35 million since launching four years ago. The consumer-focused startup plans to begin offering its services to payers and employers.

Government and Politics

HHS awards $73 million to 10 academic institutions as part of its Public Health Informatics & Technology Workforce Development Program. Overseen by ONC, the program aims to bolster public health IT efforts, improve COVID-19 data collection, and increase the presence of underrepresented communities within the public health IT workforce.

Other

Family Medical Center of Michigan pays Ukraine-based ransomware attackers $30,000 to regain control of encrypted financial files. FMC paid the ransom a week after the breach was detected, and then waited two weeks to receive the encryption key. The provider’s cybersecurity firm advised paying the ransom as part of a strategy to define the scope of the hack and what information may have been compromised.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Enterprise Imaging supports connected care in Moscow (AdvancedMD)

• The Power of Search in Healthcare and Beyond (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 9/20/21

Top News

NextGen Healthcare names David Sides (Teladoc Health) president and CEO. Sides spent 17 years as SVP of worldwide consulting at Cerner, and had a shorter, more recent stint as president and CEO of Streamline Health.

Webinars

October 6 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “Solving Patient Experience Challenges Through a Strong Digital Front Door.” Sponsor: Avtex. Presenters: Mike Pietig, VP of healthcare experience, Avtex; Jamey Shiels, MBA, VP of consumer experience, Advocate Aurora Health; Chad Thorpe, care ambassador, DispatchHealth. Patients expect healthcare providers to offer them the same digital experience they get when banking, shopping, and traveling. This webinar will describe how two leading healthcare providers created digital front doors that exceed patient expectations, improve patient outcomes, drive loyalty and acquisition, and future-proof their growth strategies in competitive markets.

October 6 (Wednesday) 1 ET.  “A New, Streamlined Approach to Documentation and Problem List Management in Cerner Millennium.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Deepak Pillai, MD, physician informaticist, IMO; David Arco, product manager, IMO; Nicole Douglas, senior product marketing manager, IMO. The IMO Core CSmart app, which is available for Cerner Millennium in the Cerner code App Gallery, helps providers document with specificity, make problem lists more meaningful, and improve HCC coding. This webinar will review the challenges and bottlenecks of clinical documentation and problem list management and discuss how streamlined workflows within Cerner Millennium can help reduce clinician HIT burden.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Digital physical therapy company Hinge Health acquires Wrnch, which has developed 3-D motion-tracking technology to capture full body movement. The San Francisco-based company, which raised $300 million in January, says it now has the largest computer vision team in digital health.

The Portland business paper profiles Shelley Bailey and her fertility-focused telemedicine startup Famlee, which she describes as a “step therapy before IVF kicks in.” The service offers at-home labs, clinical treatment, and medication delivery through its app.

People

Primavera Health names Nicholas Duran (Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics) president and CEO. Duran is also a member of the Florida House of Representatives.

Medical records retrieval company Medchart hires Kevin Callahan (Coinbase) as VP of product design.

98point6 co-founder and Chairman Jeff Greenstein becomes interim CEO after the unexpected departure of co-founder Robbie Cape.

Announcements and Implementations

MyTelemedicine adds primary care to its virtual care services.

Radiology Associates in Arkansas implements Rad AI’s technology for generating customized radiology report impressions and consensus guideline recommendations.

Other

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services notifies the public of a cyberattack that occurred in May. Several DHHS systems were taken offline for several months as a result of the attack, including the state’s Electronic Vital Records System.

In the UK, Emma Richardson takes up wing walking to raise money for her local GP’s office and church. Richardson, who lives with several debilitating health conditions that have contributed to her near blindness, was inspired by Sir Captain Tom Moore’s fundraising walk around his garden last year as he approached his 100th birthday.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Caring is Sharing (Data) at Innova Primary Care.”

Blog Posts

• Connecting operational and clinical data for optimum performance (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 9/15/21

Top News

Women’s healthcare provider Tia raises $100 million in a Series B funding round led by Lone Pine Capital. It has raised $132 million since launching in 2017.

The New York City-based company will use the new funding to expand its membership-based virtual and in-person services, and enter new markets like San Francisco.

Tia reports that more than 60% of its care is delivered virtually.

Webinars

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “Patient Acquisition and Retention: The Future of Omnichannel Virtual Assistants.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenters: Harris Hunt, SVP growth product, Cancer Treatment Centers of America; Patty Riskind, MBA, CEO, Orbita; Nathan Treloar, MSc, co-founder and COO, Orbita. Consumers want the same digital healthcare experience from healthcare that they get in online shopping, banking, and booking reservations, and the pandemic has ramped up the patient and provider need for frictionless access to healthcare resources and services. Health systems can improve patient acquisition and retention with the help of omnichannel virtual assistants that engage and delight. Discover how to open and enhance healthcare’s digital front door to offer care that goes beyond expectations.

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2022 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, VP global clinical services, IMO; Theresa Rihanek, MHA, RHIA, mapping manager, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, clinical terminologist, IMO. IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders will discuss the coding changes in the yearly update to allow your organization to prepare for a smooth transition and avoid negative impacts to the bottom line. The presenters will review new, revised, and deleted codes; highlight revisions to ICD-10-CM index and tabular; discuss changes within Official Coding Guidelines, and review modifier changes.

October 6 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “Solving Patient Experience Challenges Through a Strong Digital Front Door.” Sponsor: Avtex. Presenters: Mike Pietig, VP of healthcare experience, Avtex; Jamey Shiels, MBA, VP of consumer experience, Advocate Aurora Health; Chad Thorpe, care ambassador, DispatchHealth. Patients expect healthcare providers to offer them the same digital experience they get when banking, shopping, and traveling. This webinar will describe how two leading healthcare providers created digital front doors that exceed patient expectations, improve patient outcomes, drive loyalty and acquisition, and future-proof their growth strategies in competitive markets.

October 6 (Wednesday) 1 ET.  “A New, Streamlined Approach to Documentation and Problem List Management in Cerner Millennium.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Deepak Pillai, MD, physician informaticist, IMO; David Arco, product manager, IMO; Nicole Douglas, senior product marketing manager, IMO. The IMO Core CSmart app, which is available for Cerner Millennium in the Cerner code App Gallery, helps providers document with specificity, make problem lists more meaningful, and improve HCC coding. This webinar will review the challenges and bottlenecks of clinical documentation and problem list management and discuss how streamlined workflows within Cerner Millennium can help reduce clinician HIT burden.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

DuPage Medical Group, Chicago’s largest independent physician group, will change its name to Duly Health and Care, reflecting its expansion beyond DuPage County. The group, which experienced a nearly week-long network outage in July, has raised $1.7 billion.

Announcements and Implementations

Northwest Treatment in Oregon implements EnSoftek’s DrCloudEHR.

Other

Practicing what they preach: Mental healthcare startup Rose Health shuts down for a week so that its employees can rest and recharge (while still being paid) before the company embarks on raising a $5 million Series A funding round. Rose Health, which currently serves 30 physician groups, is also preparing to pilot its platform with several ACOs, coordinated care providers, and health systems. Founder and CEO Kavi Misri stresses that “As a mental health company, we want to practice what we preach and even though we are losing a week of operations, we will gain benefit for recharged, refreshed Rose team members who will be ready to take on Q4 as we onboard these large practices as well as focus on raising a $5 million Series A.”

Patients express frustration and disbelief when they find out that Gastroenterology Consultants in Houston waited nearly seven months to notify them of a January data breach, and that the practice didn’t receive any proof that patient data had been deleted after a resolution had been negotiated. As one patient put it, “

While this tweet is no doubt reflective of physicians working within UCSF Health, I wonder if physicians working in smaller clinical environments have experienced the same thing. I’d love to hear from readers who have or who are currently dealing with how to make this work from a clinical and business standpoint.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Preparing for the 2021 Virtual National Conference (EClinicalWorks)
• Must EHRs become platforms? (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 9/13/21

Top News

App-based house call and telemedicine company Remedy pivots and rebrands as CareHive, a digital health company that offers telemedicine, digital front door services, analytics, and clinical navigation. Remedy laid off 82 employees last November, many of whom were hired during the previous summer’s peak of COVID-19 patients.

Remedy CMO Ronald Dixon, MD has been named CEO of CareHive.

Webinars

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “Patient Acquisition and Retention: The Future of Omnichannel Virtual Assistants.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenters: Harris Hunt, SVP growth product, Cancer Treatment Centers of America; Patty Riskind, MBA, CEO, Orbita; Nathan Treloar, MSc, co-founder and COO, Orbita. Consumers want the same digital healthcare experience from healthcare that they get in online shopping, banking, and booking reservations, and the pandemic has ramped up the patient and provider need for frictionless access to healthcare resources and services. Health systems can improve patient acquisition and retention with the help of omnichannel virtual assistants that engage and delight. Discover how to open and enhance healthcare’s digital front door to offer care that goes beyond expectations.

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2022 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, VP global clinical services, IMO; Theresa Rihanek, MHA, RHIA, mapping manager, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, clinical terminologist, IMO. IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders will discuss the coding changes in the yearly update to allow your organization to prepare for a smooth transition and avoid negative impacts to the bottom line. The presenters will review new, revised, and deleted codes; highlight revisions to ICD-10-CM index and tabular; discuss changes within Official Coding Guidelines, and review modifier changes.

October 6 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “Solving Patient Experience Challenges Through a Strong Digital Front Door.” Sponsor: Avtex. Presenters: Mike Pietig, VP of healthcare experience, Avtex; Jamey Shiels, MBA, VP of consumer experience, Advocate Aurora Health; Chad Thorpe, care ambassador, DispatchHealth. Patients expect healthcare providers to offer them the same digital experience they get when banking, shopping, and traveling. This webinar will describe how two leading healthcare providers created digital front doors that exceed patient expectations, improve patient outcomes, drive loyalty and acquisition, and future-proof their growth strategies in competitive markets.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Digital maternity care software vendor Babyscripts raises $12 million in a Series B funding round led by MemorialCare Innovation Fund. The company expects to double its staff of 45 within the next 12 to 18 months, and expand its services to all 50 states.

NextGen Healthcare notifies shareholders ahead of its annual meeting on October 13 that the two new director candidates put forth by board members Sheldon “Shelly” Razin – who also founded the company – and Lance Rosenzweig have disassociated themselves from the process. NextGen has accused Razin and Rosenzweig, both of whom have have been involved in other company lawsuits and proxy fights, of attempting to take control of the company. Meanwhile, the company has said it will announce its new CEO before the annual meeting.

Period- and ovulation-tracking app developer Flo raises $50 million in a Series B funding round. The company settled charges with the FTC earlier this year over the fact that its app shared user information with Facebook, Google, and other companies while assuring them it would keep their information private.

People

Kelley Blair (Change Healthcare) joins Therapy Brands as COO.

Gabe Stein (Gebbs Healthcare Solutions) joins Eclat Health Solutions as CEO. Co-founder and former CEO Karthik Polsani becomes group CEO and board member.

Announcements and Implementations

Coastal Orthopedics (FL) selects NextGen Healthcare’s RCM services.

Med Tech Solutions announces GA of practice data analytics.

Kipu will integrate billing software from BillingPlatform with its EHR for behavioral healthcare and substance use disorder-focused providers.

Other

Seattle-based City Pods debuts a prototype of its mini-housing unit designed to give homeless people access to private dwellings within communal living spaces like shelters while they look for more permanent housing. The units are meant to be installed in facilities already equipped with plumbing, electricity, water, and presumably, WiFi. Each pod also has an Amazon Fire tablet for virtual care sessions.

Pediatrician Bryan Kornreich, MD says his Virginia practice is seeing more cases of COVID-19 now than it did last November. His staff runs through up to100 tests a day – a number that he says can’t be sustained because his manufacturer can’t keep up with demand.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 9/8/21

Top News

Cityblock Health has raised $400 million, bringing its valuation to $5.7 billion. The company partners with payers in four states plus Washington, DC to offer tech-enabled primary care and social services to Medicaid patients via a network of independent practices collectively known as Cityblock Medical Practices.

Co-founders Toyin Ajayi, Iyah Romm, and Bay Gross came from Google-backed Sidewalk Labs, which incubated the company before it launched as an independent venture in 2017.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

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Webinars

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “Patient Acquisition and Retention: The Future of Omnichannel Virtual Assistants.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenters: Harris Hunt, SVP growth product, Cancer Treatment Centers of America; Patty Riskind, MBA, CEO, Orbita; Nathan Treloar, MSc, co-founder and COO, Orbita. Consumers want the same digital healthcare experience from healthcare that they get in online shopping, banking, and booking reservations, and the pandemic has ramped up the patient and provider need for frictionless access to healthcare resources and services. Health systems can improve patient acquisition and retention with the help of omnichannel virtual assistants that engage and delight. Discover how to open and enhance healthcare’s digital front door to offer care that goes beyond expectations.

September 16 (Thursday) 1 ET. “ICD-10-CM 2022 Updates and Regulatory Readiness.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, VP global clinical services, IMO; Theresa Rihanek, MHA, RHIA, mapping manager, IMO; Julie Glasgow, MD, clinical terminologist, IMO. IMO’s top coding professionals and thought leaders will discuss the coding changes in the yearly update to allow your organization to prepare for a smooth transition and avoid negative impacts to the bottom line. The presenters will review new, revised, and deleted codes; highlight revisions to ICD-10-CM index and tabular; discuss changes within Official Coding Guidelines, and review modifier changes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

EHR and practice management vendor Azalea Health acquires DashboardMD, a healthcare analytics company based in Miami Lakes, FL. DashboardMD CEO Jose Valero will become Azalea’s director of analytics.

Canadian Well Health Technologies will acquire US-based Wisp, a women’s telehealth and e-pharmacy company, for $41 million.

People

Summit Health names Jeffrey Alter (Anthem) CEO.

Todd Haedrich (Covetrus) joins Optimize Health as CEO. Co-founder and former CEO Jeff LeBrun will take on the role of chief strategy officer.

Announcements and Implementations

BriteStar Primary Care (TX) selects remote patient monitoring technology from Claris Healthcare.

House call and telemedicine company Opear MD selects Health Gorilla’s Patient360 medical record retrieval software.

The Verland Foundation implements the SmartCare EHR from Streamline Healthcare Solutions.

Other

Patrons of libraries in Ohio can now “check out” an Abott BinaxNOW Home Test for COVID-19, which includes a telemedicine session to help with test administration and result reporting.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks publishes a new customer success story, “Using EClinicalWorks Tools to Measure Quality for Shared Savings at Innova Primary.”
• Medicomp Systems releases a new Tell Me Where It Hurts Podcast featuring CPSI CMO William Hayes, MD.

Blog Posts

• Is your phone being spied on? (AdvancedMD)
• Why Usability is Critical to Healthcare IT (EClinicalWorks)
• Telehealth Needs Your Help (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.