News 8/2/21

Top News

Tech-enabled provider Juno Medical raises $5.4 million in a seed funding round led by Vast Ventures. The company has opened its first clinic in Harlem, and will soon expand to Brooklyn. It also plans to expand its virtual care offerings and price transparency capabilities.

Webinars

None scheduled in the coming weeks. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Registry data and analytics company CorEvitas acquires Vestrum Health, which offers data culled from retina-focused EHRs for research, analytics, and commercialization.

It seems NextGen’s years-long legal battle with a disgruntled former board member has finally come to an end: The company has prevailed in a lawsuit brought by former board member Ahmed Hussein that alleged the health IT vendor fraudulently misrepresented its 2012 earnings guidance, causing Hussein to hold off on selling shares that would have netted him $400 million. A jury found that the statements were made in good faith at the time, negating the rest of the claim. NextGen has wrangled with Hussein since at least 2008, when executives asked shareholders to help them defeat his “destructive attacks.”

People

Natasha Mehta (Parallon) joins Getix Health as CEO and COO.

Research and Innovation

MGMA data finds that physician practices were more productive last year than hospital-owned practices (quickly pivoting to telemedicine), though those hospital affiliates didn’t experience as much revenue loss. As one might expect, physician-owned practices were more directly impacted by expenses related to COVID-19 safety measures. 

Other

The local paper profiles the success the Johnson City Community Health Center (TN) has seen with an internally developed tracking tool for diabetic patients. The EHR-embedded tool, designed by Practice Administrator Vanessa Smith and Clinical Director Kayla Norma, MD includes a checklist for items like A1C levels, diabetic eye exams, foot exams, and medications; plus medical reminders. Since implementing the tool six months ago, the center has seen its population of patients with uncontrolled diabetes drop from 38% to 29%.

Former Circle Medical director Cassie Choi, RN co-founds Pair Team, which offers clinics in underserved areas automated systems that help patients quickly find care and services. The San Francisco-based startup raised $2.7 million in seed funding late last year.

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Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 7/28/21

Top News

Behavioral health clinic SonderMind raises $150 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to $183 million. The company, which offers virtual and in-person care, will use the investment to improve its data-based patient-provider matching capabilities and expand into all 50 states.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Online therapy and medication management startup Rey raises $10 million in a Series A funding round. The company incorporates virtual reality developed by parent company OxfordVR into its curated wellness plans.

Catalyst Health Network, which offers primary care practice support services, acquires MediBookr, which offers patient engagement and care navigation capabilities to providers, payers, and employers.

Talkiatry, an in-person and virtual mental health provider, raises $20 million in a Series A funding round.

People

David Wilson (Berkeley Research Group) joins Therapy Brands as VP of RCM.

Altais President and CEO Jeff Bailet, MD takes on the additional role of Brown & Tolan Physicians CEO on an interim basis until a replacement is found for departing CEO Kelly Robinson.

Announcements and Implementations

Radiology Specialists of Louisville selects RCM software and services from Healthcare Administrative Partners.

Cardiology Consultants (SC) implements cloud-based enterprise imaging and reporting software from ScImage.

Government and Politics

Following in Delaware’s footsteps, the Hawaii State Department of Health will equip 15 public libraries with private, connected spaces for telehealth visits, and cellular hotspot units that can be checked out for virtual visits from home. The $3.7 million project is timely for a number of reasons; perhaps most notable is the fact that Hawaii has the third worst physician shortage in the US.

Research and Innovation

A survey of 799 physicians from mostly independent practices finds that while feelings of burnout have been common (28% of respondents report feeling burnt out at least once a week), physicians report lower rates of burnout and higher satisfaction on a range of measures compared to 2018. Physicians working at FQHCs, however, report being less satisfied with their jobs than their counterparts at independent and hospital-owned practices. Burdensome administrative tasks, including time-consuming record-keeping, continue to contribute to job dissatisfaction.

Other

A Detroit lifestyle publication profiles twin sisters Lauren and Adriane Marchese, both MDs who worked together at the Detroit Medical Center during the height of the pandemic. They have since started their own practice, Michigan Primary Care and Rheumatology Associates. “The reaction from the majority of patients when they first see us together is pure laughter,” says Lauren (pictured on the right). “It’s a wonderful thing we’re able to do for our patients. Nobody wants to go see a doctor — we know that. But if we can make it a more positive experience, that warms our hearts.”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• E-Prescribing Potency Codes Sunset & Modifications (AdvancedMD)
• Using Prisma to Create Better Patient Records (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 7/26/21

Top News

Craft Capital Management sells OnDemand Visit, a telemedicine practice development company, to an unnamed national healthcare services company.

Webinars

July 28 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Stop running from your problem (list): Strategies for streamlining the EHR’s front page.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Amanda Heidemann, MD, CMIO, CMIO Services LLC; James Thompson, MD, physician informaticist, IMO. How can clinicians mitigate the longstanding EHR problem list challenges of outdated or duplicative entries, rigid displays, and limited native EHR capabilities? The presenters will describe how to analyze current problems, create a problem list governance strategy, and measure improvement progress.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

HealthQuest Capital invests in patient journey management company 83bar.

People

Adhitya Bhatia (Persistent Systems) joins Himagine Solutions as chief client officer.

Therapy Brands names Rob Sutton (Affiliated Monitoring) SVP of customer care and Nick Padula (Philips Healthcare) EVP of its applied behavioral analysis segment.

Announcements and Implementations

US Radiology Specialists will implement Fujifilm’s Synapse Enterprise Information System across its 160 outpatient imaging centers.

Research and Innovation

Kareo’s semi-annual report on the state of independent practices may give you something to smile about:

• Just over half of surveyed practices saw the same number of patient visits in 2020 as they did in 2019, no doubt enabled by the high adoption rates of telemedicine.
• Seventy-five percent of practices expect to grow this year, compared to 59% in 2019.

Other

The local news honors Dennis Saver, MD who passed away recently at the age of 68. Named family physician of the year by the Florida and American academies of family physicians, Saver helped to launch the We Care Clinic in the early 90s to serve patients in need. In 2012, Saver was recognized at the White House as a leader in health IT.

Fans of “Poldark” may be interested in this: Practices in Cornwall are offering locum shifts to physicians vacationing in the area to help offset the lack of clinicians and “the extortionate cost of the hols.”

Sponsor Updates

• Authority Magazine interviews Nordic Advisory Services Practice Lead John Distefano.
• EClinicalWorks releases a customer success video featuring Zeid Medical Group, “Using Prisma and Interoperability for Better Records.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 7/21/21

Top News

Tech-enabled primary care company Carbon Health raises $350 million in a funding round led by Blackstone. A list of individual investors contributing to the round includes artist Shephard Fairey and several professional athletes. The California-based company has raised over $522 million since launching in 2015.

Carbon Health operates 80 clinics in a dozen states, and offers virtual care in 23. It acquired virtual diabetes clinic Steady Health last month.

It has named Myoung Cha (Apple) chief strategy officer and president of home-based care, and Nita Sommers (Khlosla Ventures) chief growth officer.

Webinars

July 28 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Stop running from your problem (list): Strategies for streamlining the EHR’s front page.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Amanda Heidemann, MD, CMIO, CMIO Services LLC; James Thompson, MD, physician informaticist, IMO. How can clinicians mitigate the longstanding EHR problem list challenges of outdated or duplicative entries, rigid displays, and limited native EHR capabilities? The presenters will describe how to analyze current problems, create a problem list governance strategy, and measure improvement progress.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Well Health Technologies launches a venture funding arm that has invested in Bright, a Canadian developer of corporate virtual wellness programs.

People

Jennifer Frankenfield (Optum/ConnectYourCare) joins Clearwave as chief product officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Care and social services coordination software company Unite Us develops an end-to-end solution that enables users to identify and predict social care needs in communities, manage patient enrollment for services, and leverage outcomes data and analytics.

Health IT vendor MedEvolve announces GA of Patient Financial Engagement Services, including digital payment options, financial counseling, and mobile patient engagement capabilities.

Alabama Regional Medical Services selects remote patient monitoring technology from DarioHealth.

Practice EHR announces upcoming GA of practice management software for enterprise environments.

Other

The Lake County Health Department in Illinois notifies 25,000 patients of two data breaches. The first, which occurred in 2019, involved an unencrypted email containing a medical records request spreadsheet that was sent to an internal employee. The second, discovered in May, involved an unencrypted Google spreadsheet used by employees and volunteers.

A Direct Relief analysis finds that none of the 20 FQHCs impacted by the recent Lava, Tennant, and Salt fires in Northern California have backup generators, meaning that they’ll have no way to access digital medical records or keep vaccines at appropriate temperatures should power fail. Direct Relief will likely target outpatient facilities along the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast in its next analytics project.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “How Population Health Solutions Improve Patient Outcomes and Experiences.”

Blog Posts

• What are the economics of remote patient monitoring for your practice? (AdvancedMD)
• Winning the Medical Information Game (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 7/19/21

Top News

EverCommerce acquires Medical Design Technologies, which offers mobile charge capture capabilities and analytics to small and medium-sized practices.

Webinars

July 28 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Stop running from your problem (list): Strategies for streamlining the EHR’s front page.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Amanda Heidemann, MD, CMIO, CMIO Services LLC; James Thompson, MD, physician informaticist, IMO. How can clinicians mitigate the longstanding EHR problem list challenges of outdated or duplicative entries, rigid displays, and limited native EHR capabilities? The presenters will describe how to analyze current problems, create a problem list governance strategy, and measure improvement progress.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Leonard Green & Partners reportedly begins the sale process for MDVIP, a membership-based primary care provider that it acquired in 2017.

People

ZoomCare names Jeffrey Fee (PatientOne) CEO.

Practice EHR promotes Chris Baltas to COO.

Announcements and Implementations

VillageMD and Walgreens announce they will open 29 new facilities in Texas this year as part of their plan to open 600 joint facilities across the US within the next four years. The partners announced their expansion plans, backed by a $1 billion investment, at the beginning of the year.

Phreesia announces GA of Appointment Accelerator, a patient engagement tool designed to fill cancelled appointment slots.

Spring Hills Management Services Organization will implement CareCloud’s EHR, practice management, and RCM software and services across its post-acute and assisted living, and home care facilities in seven states.

Illinois Bone & Joint Institute begins implementing Epic at its facilities in Illinois and Indiana.

Research and Innovation

MGMA highlights key factors physician practices will need to address in recruiting and keeping post-pandemic employees:

• Consider hiring incentives, bonuses, flex schedules, and teleworking models; as well as even more creative options for rural areas.
• Enhance compensation packages with features designed to combat burnout and enhance wellness.

Other

How’s this for a show premise?!: Tony Award-winning actress Audra McDonald stars in “The Bite” as a telemedicine doctor who discovers that a new strain of the coronavirus is turning her patients into zombies. The six-episode series airs on Spectrum. While I’m sure it’s no “Shaun of the Dead,” I may just have to binge it over the next long weekend.

I noticed some chatter around lapel pins as I was catching up on HIStalk posts that I missed while on vacation. Healthcare workers, especially those in pediatrics, may be interested to know that a Pokemon fan has created lapel pins of several characters dressed as if ready for the healthcare trenches.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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