News 3/29/21

Top News

Cityblock Health wraps up its Series C funding round, ultimately raising $192 million. The company focuses on providing value-based care to Medicaid populations in New York through partnerships with payers, community clinics, social services, and behavioral health providers.

Webinars

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

Announcements and Implementations

Harris Healthcare’s PulseCheck business integrates CareCloud’s (fka MTBC) MTBC Force RCM and practice management software with its UrgiChart documentation software for urgent care.

Central Virginia Family Physicians, part of Privia Medical Group, implements Suki’s AI Assistant for voice-enabled clinical documentation.

California-based clinic network TrueCare implements Epic’s MyChart.

Crossover Health, a primary care company serving payers and employers like Amazon, raises $162 million in a Series D funding round, bringing its total raised to $281.5 million.

Concierge practice Pure Cardiology in Charlotte, NC implements virtual health and wellness services from Health Logx, which leverage remote patient monitoring capabilities from Carium.

Government and Politics

Lydia Henslee and several co-conspirators plead guilty to conspiracy and kickback charges related to stealing patient information from a provider’s EHR and then selling the information to durable medical equipment providers in the guise of physician orders. The defendants used their $3 million in ill-gotten gains to purchase cars and jet skis.

Other

The local news profiles Niu Health, an online clinic launched by Hawaii-based physician Tony Trpkovski, MD. The digital clinic offers unlimited telemedicine sessions for $10 a month. Patients can access prescription medications via an Amazon-type lockers located at partner clinics. The clinic’s operating costs are subsidized by advertisers that pay to have their messaging played in the clinic’s virtual waiting room.

And speaking of virtual waiting rooms …

CVS Health and the nonprofit Purchaser Business Group on Health launch CalHIVE, a telemedicine initiative that will work with seven California-based primary care organizations to help them improve care for patients with diabetes and asthma using individualized coaching and analytics.

Sponsor Updates

• Medicomp Systems launches a new healthcare podcast spotlighting ways to improve health IT.

Blog Posts

• A Partner for Reinventing Your Practice (EClinicalWorks)
• How COVID-19 Changed the Healthwise Model – and the Future of Health Care (Healthwise)
• Transparency and Healthcare (Nordic)
• How to Manage Complex Radiology Scheduling (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 3/24/21

Top News

MTBC President A. Hadi Chaudhry will succeed Stephen Snyder as CEO. Snyder will become chief strategy officer and remain a board director.

MTBC will change its name to CareCloud, which it acquired last year, effective March 29.

Webinars

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

People

Brian Koppy (CVS Health) joins senior-focused primary care company Cano Health as CFO.

Announcements and Implementations

LeadingReach announces GA of OutReach CRM, a physician marketing tool designed to improve referral management.

PHR vendor Saina Health selects privacy, security, and compliance software and services from ClearData.

GoodRx develops a Vaccine Guide to help users find COVID-19 vaccine appointments by state, site, or pharmacy, and to determine what type of vaccine is available at a specific location.

Athenahealth adds coding support to workflows within its practice management, EHR, and RCM technologies.

Research and Innovation

A survey of 787 pediatricians finds that nearly all have telemedicine capabilities and will continue to use telemedicine after the pandemic is over. EHR integration, connectivity, price, and flexible workflows are the most compelling factors for those pediatricians looking for new virtual care technology. End users also say peripheral device integrations, real-time translation services, documentation, and platform availability in multiple languages are important features.

Other

And for dessert … Meal delivery service DoorDash will begin delivering COVID-19 nasal and saliva tests from Vault Health and Everlywell in a dozen cities. Prices will range between $109 and $119.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 3/22/21

Top News

Ro raises $500 million in a Series D funding round that brings its total raised to $876 million, and valuation to $5 billion. The company, which now markets itself as a digital health clinic, offers telemedicine, online prescription delivery, in-home lab and nursing services, and smoking cessation programs.

The company plans to scale up its at-home services, hire more providers, and increase its pharmacy distribution centers from eight to 10.

Hemant Taneja, managing partner at Ro investor General Catalyst, has also invested in the new, Glen Tullman-led Transcarent, which helps self-insured employers guide employees to more cost-effective care.

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

Summit Medical Group and CityMD, which merged in 2019, rebrand to Summit Health. The primary, specialty, and urgent care provider has 200 locations in New Jersey and New York, and six in Oregon.

Senior-focused primary care company Agilon Health intends to raise $100 million in an IPO, according to paperwork filed with the SEC. Based in California, the company works with 16 physician groups in 17 regions. The company offers data integration and performance analytics as part of its value-based care platform.

People

Susan Shiff, PhD, MBA (Merck) joins McKesson’s cancer technology and insights business, Ontada, as president. She replaces interim president Derek Rago, who transitions to SVP of strategic initiatives.

Government and Politics

HealtheLink, an HIE serving healthcare organizations in Western New York, will use federal funding from ONC’s Star HIE program to better support data sharing between regional immunization information systems and HIEs. It will develop new technologies to evaluate the COVID-19 vaccination status of patients; risk stratify unvaccinated patients; monitor those who have been vaccinated; develop additional monitoring criteria; and alert providers to a patient’s immunization status, hospital admissions status, and COVID-19 test status.

Other

OpenNotes will host a series of virtual drop-in clinics next week to give providers a chance to ask questions about the open visit notes portion of the 21st Century Cures Act Info Blocking Rule, which kicks in April 5 . Featured daily topics will include implementation, ambulatory care, pediatrics, mental health, and interoperability, among several others.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Health Education: The Golden Key to Successful Care Transitions (Healthwise)
• Radiology Productivity: Beyond the RVU (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 3/17/21

Top News

Amazon plans to expand Amazon Care, its virtual and house call care service, to employees in all 50 states this summer. It will also begin marketing the service to other employers.

The online retailer launched the service as a pilot for its Seattle-based employees two years ago, initially offering urgent care and then progressing to primary care and management of chronic conditions.

The company announced last week that it would also expand its network of employee clinics operated by Crossover Health to five regions in Texas, Arizona, Kentucky, Michigan, and California. It hasn’t yet hinted at how it might bundle the two separate endeavors together.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Care and social services coordination software company Unite Us reaches unicorn status with a $150 million Series C funding round.

Harmonize Health raises $10 million in a Series A funding round. The two year-old, San Francisco-based company offers an integrated solution for remote patient monitoring, chronic care management, and outcomes tracking for elderly and high-risk patients.

Strive Health, which focuses on kidney care optimization using analytics and care navigators, raises $140 million in a Series B funding round led by CapitalG.

Announcements and Implementations

Greenway Health announces GA of GRS Select, a suite of customizable RCM services aimed at helping practices recover from COVID-induced losses.

Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging in Las Vegas implements OpenDoctor’s online appointment scheduling software for its nine locations.

Other

Kaiser Permanente physician Linda Shiue, MD recounts her path from traditional physician to author of “Spicebox Kitchen,” a cookbook that aims to show “how a stash of spices can act as the cook’s equivalent to a doctor’s bag.” (Check out her KP profile page for tons of recipes.) She recounts: “I started writing recipes for my patients … on my prescription pad, which felt very radical. … Even with all the kind of highfalutin medical training I’ve had, those recipes were what earned me the most passionate letters of gratitude from patients.”

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks publishes a guide to choosing a vaccine administration management system.

Blog Posts

• 3 Actionable Tips for Reducing Claim Rejections (AdvancedMD)
• The brilliance of GROSS (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 3/15/21

Top News

DaGrosa Capital Partners invests in Hoy Health, a bilingual telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, and medication access company based in Morristown, NJ.

CEO Mario Anglada helped to launch Univision’s first consumer-focused telehealth program before founding Hoy Health in 2017.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Canadian Well Health Technologies makes a seed investment in startup fertility clinic Twig Fertility, which plans to open a clinic in Toronto with digital health offerings that include app-based virtual visits, online scheduling, prescription delivery, and notifications.

Blueberry Pediatrics launches in six states with a membership-based telemedicine service that offers, for $18 a month, unlimited care for every child in a member’s household.

People

Cynthia Miller (Deloitte) joins MiraMed Global Services as VP of coding and client services.

Well Health Technologies, which acquired EHR vendor Intrahealth last week for $15 million, promotes Ammar Shah to VP of M&A.

Announcements and Implementations

Tech-enabled primary care company Carbon Health develops a digital COVID-19 vaccine card that will help patients vaccinated at Carbon Health sites keep track of their doses and offer proof of shots.

Florida Cancer Specialists implements a Virtual Image Exchange using technology from Thinking Systems.

Government and Politics

Over the next six weeks, 700 additional health centers will join 250 already participating in the federal government’s Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program, which is helping to ensure that vaccines are given out equitably.

Other

Hatfield Medical Group installs a hitching post outside of its office in Apache Junction, AZ so that patients can ride their horses to appointments. (This story reminds me of the time I saw two people ride their horses through my local Wendy’s drive-thru!)

The LA Times covers the art healthcare workers have created during the pandemic. From doll house furniture to toast art, ball gowns, and painting, the creativity has served as a means of coping and escape for physicians like Jacqueline Pflaum-Carlson, MD: “When the pandemic hit, every aspect of my clinical practice was affected — there was no escape. I started painting so I could separate my work tragedy from home stressors. I needed to get the imagery and emotions out of my head before I could be present for my two young daughters and husband whose lives were also uprooted.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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