News 2/22/21

Top News

Conversion Labs rebrands to LifeMD to reflect its transition from performance marketing to direct-to-consumer telemedicine and online prescription delivery. It will soon launch a subscription-based, concierge primary care telemedicine service.

Webinars

February 24 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Maximizing the Value of Digital Initiatives with Enterprise Provider Data Management.” Sponsor: Phynd Technologies. Presenters: Tom White, founder and CEO, Phynd Technologies; Adam Cherrington, research director, KLAS Research. Health systems can derive great business value and competitive advantage by centrally managing their provider data. A clear roadmap and management solution can solve problems with fragmented data, workflows, and patient experiences and support operational efficiency and delivery of a remarkable patient experience. The presenters will describe common pitfalls in managing enterprise information and digital strategy in silos, how to align stakeholders to maximize the value of digital initiatives, and how leading health systems are using best-of-breed strategies to evolve provider data management.

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

People

Carbon Health board member Russell Fradin joins the company as vice chair.

Physician network management company Wellvana Health names Jay Meyers (Anthem) CEO, Sunil Cardozo (Innovista Health Solutions) COO/CIO, and Readus Smith (Patriot Healthcare Systems) Chief Managed Care Officer. Interim CEO Worthe Holt Jr, MD has transitioned to CMO.

Announcements and Implementations

Exer Urgent Care (CA) implements Waiting Room Management software from Pomelo Health across its 19 clinics and virtual clinic.

Other

A physician and parent becomes concerned when she sees a $15 fee for PPE on a bill from her son’s pediatrician at Bayview Physicians Group. According to the group, the line item is meant to be covered by insurance – never the patient, and to help track pandemic-related expenses. And yet payers aren’t required to pay the newly coded fee. Most, including CMS, say the supplies are covered in separate supply agreements. Ethicists worry that PPE surcharges will keep uninsured patients from scheduling appointments due to the added expense. BPG, however, says it doesn’t add the fee to an uninsured patient’s bill, and doesn’t pursue fees from those insurance company has denied it.

In South Carolina, the Charleston County Public Library system will offer women access to telemedicine services from the WISE Teleheatlh Network.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic publishes a new white paper, “2021 E/M Updates: EHR Workflow and Operational Considerations.”

Blog Posts

• Educate Your Orthopedic Patients with Human-Centered Digital Programs (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 2/17/21

Top News

Medicare ACO-focused practice management company Vytalize Health acquires patient financial engagement startup MedPilot.

Webinars

February 24 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Maximizing the Value of Digital Initiatives with Enterprise Provider Data Management.” Sponsor: Phynd Technologies. Presenters: Tom White, founder and CEO, Phynd Technologies; Adam Cherrington, research director, KLAS Research. Health systems can derive great business value and competitive advantage by centrally managing their provider data. A clear roadmap and management solution can solve problems with fragmented data, workflows, and patient experiences and support operational efficiency and delivery of a remarkable patient experience. The presenters will describe common pitfalls in managing enterprise information and digital strategy in silos, how to align stakeholders to maximize the value of digital initiatives, and how leading health systems are using best-of-breed strategies to evolve provider data management.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Canadian EHR vendor Medfar Clinical Solutions raises $19.6 million in an investment round led by Walter Capital Partners.

People

Rob Tennant (MGMA) joins WEDI as VP of federal affairs.

Paul Ricci (SOC Telemed) has joined Qualifacts as president and CEO.

Skylight Health Group names Jerry Oliphant (Atrium Health) COO and Georges Feghali, MD (GMF Healthcare Consulting) CMO.

Announcements and Implementations

Care Management Network will implement virtual care technologies from Reliq Health Technologies across its 50 clinics in California.

Practice management and software developer Anytime Pediatrics announces GA of turn-key virtual care integration services at tiered levels to suit practice needs and budgets.

Innovative Management Solutions, a joint venture between independent practice associations Coordinated Behavioral Care and Coordinated Behavioral Health Services, joins the HealtheConnections HIE in New York.

Summit CityMD (NY) implements patient engagement and payment software from Cedar.

Arizona HIE Health Current will connect 35 organizations within the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System’s Whole Person Care Initiative to NowPow’s healthcare and social services referral software.

Other

The Jewish National Fund, under the leadership of retired San Diego physician Sol Lizerbram, MD will plant trees in Israel to honor those who have received a COVID-19 vaccine. The foundation’s tree-planting program has over the years planted 240 million trees across the globe. Lizerbram founded EHR and practice management company HealthFusion in 1998, and then sold it to Quality Systems in 2015 for $165 million.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• The Right Balance: Technology & Patient Care (AdvancedMD)
• How healow Check-In is transforming healthcare (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 2/15/21

Top News

Online provider search and appointment-booking app Zocdoc raises $150 million in a private equity round led by Francisco Partners, bringing its total raised to $376 million.

The company has over the last several months expanded into telemedicine and COVID-19 vaccine scheduling.

It seems to have moved past the lawsuit brought by its former CEO, Cyrus Massoumi, who claimed that company executives committed fraud when they ousted him five years ago, and that “Zocdoc is now a shadow of the company it once was, mired in a steep financial decline, failing to raise further capital, and taking on debt with crippling interest rates.” The lawsuit was dismissed last month.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

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Webinars

February 24 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Maximizing the Value of Digital Initiatives with Enterprise Provider Data Management.” Sponsor: Phynd Technologies. Presenters: Tom White, founder and CEO, Phynd Technologies; Adam Cherrington, research director, KLAS Research. Health systems can derive great business value and competitive advantage by centrally managing their provider data. A clear roadmap and management solution can solve problems with fragmented data, workflows, and patient experiences and support operational efficiency and delivery of a remarkable patient experience. The presenters will describe common pitfalls in managing enterprise information and digital strategy in silos, how to align stakeholders to maximize the value of digital initiatives, and how leading health systems are using best-of-breed strategies to evolve provider data management.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Lone Star Circle of Care implements NextGen’s Patient Experience Platform across its 37 locations in Texas.

Other

Senior primary care provider ChenMed stresses the benefits of the 1.2 million “love calls” its physicians have made to patients over the last 12 months: “Depression and anxiety, left unchecked, can adversely affect health,” says CMO Gordon Chen, MD “and many seniors are living with multiple and major chronic conditions that frankly need both virtual and in-person care by the doctor who knows them best. So, I encourage every doctor in America to demonstrate how frequent touches and year-round kindness are precisely what create the doctor-patient relationship that yields better health outcomes.”

Sponsor Updates

• Altruista Health adds evidence-based medical content from Healthwise to its GuidingCare care management and population health software.

Blog Posts

• New E/M documentation changes: Where does your organization stand? (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 2/10/21

Top News

Behavioral health EHR startup Alleva raises an undisclosed amount of seed funding that brings its total raised to $3 million.

Webinars

February 24 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Maximizing the Value of Digital Initiatives with Enterprise Provider Data Management.” Sponsor: Phynd Technologies. Presenters: Tom White, founder and CEO, Phynd Technologies; Adam Cherrington, research director, KLAS Research. Health systems can derive great business value and competitive advantage by centrally managing their provider data. A clear roadmap and management solution can solve problems with fragmented data, workflows, and patient experiences and support operational efficiency and delivery of a remarkable patient experience. The presenters will describe common pitfalls in managing enterprise information and digital strategy in silos, how to align stakeholders to maximize the value of digital initiatives, and how leading health systems are using best-of-breed strategies to evolve provider data management.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Several weeks after raising $3.7 million, medical billing and RCM startup Gentem Health raises $10 million in a Series A round led by Vulcan Capital.

Forbes looks at the challenges Parsley Health founder Robin Berzin, MD faced as she pivoted her company from in-person care in fancy flagship clinics to all-virtual care in early 2020. The membership-based primary care company expanded its telemedicine services from 10 states to 35 in four months, and doubled its staff to 150. Its virtual care services are now available in 47 states. “The growth we saw in our brick-and-mortar disappeared overnight and that was a scary moment as founder and CEO,” says Berzin, who founded Cureatr before launching Parsley Health in 2016.

People

Al Campanella (AXC Management Consulting) joins DataGen as president.

Apollo Medical Holdings promotes CTO Brandon Sim to the additional role of COO.

Manifest MedEx names Adam Harrison (HealthMine) chief growth officer.

Skylight Health Group hires Paul Kulas (St. Joseph Health Medical Group) as SVP of operations.

Announcements and Implementations

Loden Vision Centers adopts NextGen’s RCM Services across its five locations in Nashville.

Radix Health announces GA of COVID-19 vaccine communication and scheduling management software.

In Puerto Rico, Bueno Healthcare implements Orb Health’s Enterprise Virtual Care technology to improve patient access and care coordination.

The Massachusetts FQHC Telehealth Consortium will use $3.1 million from the FCC’s Connect Care Pilot Program to increase bandwidth at its 35 facilities and provide mobile hotspots for patients.

Government and Politics

The White House will begin sending COVID-19 vaccines to FQHCs beginning next week, with doses going to at least once center in each state. One million doses will be 1 million divided among 250 centers in the coming weeks.

Research and Innovation

A Black Book survey of 2,000 practices and medical groups finds that nearly all will seek outside help in navigating value-based care contracts due to a lack of internal know-how and resources. Survey takers rated Cigna’s CareAllies consulting arm highest among value-based care transformation and strategy advisors.

Other

A local physician shares his frustration with finding and affording the ultra-cold freezers required to store certain COVID-19 vaccines. Freezers that were once $4,000 are now $20,000, says Doug Cochran, who says a black market has sprung up. “The public might think, ‘oh he’s a doctor … he has great connections to some medical supply house,’ but we’re like everyone else. We’re looking on EBay, second-hand suppliers, I would go looking through a junkyard if I knew they worked.”

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD will cover half of the dues for 40 new members of the Association of Independent Doctors.

Blog Posts

• Congress Passes Amendment to HIPAA Regulations (AdvancedMD)
• One Key for 2021: Staying Focused on Patients (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 2/8/21

Top News

Canadian primary care company Well Health Technologies strengthens its presence in the US with the pending acquisition of CRH Medical Corp. for $369 million. CRH provides anesthesia services at 69 ambulatory surgery centers and gastrointestinal clinics across 13 states.

Well Health, which is one of Canada’s largest EHR vendors, acquired San Francisco-based primary care company Circle Medical for $14 million in September.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Dr. Jayne reminded readers last week of National Women Physicians Day, which occurs on February 3 to honor the birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell, who in 1849 became the first woman to achieve a medical degree in the United States. Readers may want to check out “The Doctors Blackwell,” which recounts the journey of Elizabeth and her sister, Emily, to becoming physicians.

Webinars

February 24 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Maximizing the Value of Digital Initiatives with Enterprise Provider Data Management.” Sponsor: Phynd Technologies. Presenters: Tom White, founder and CEO, Phynd Technologies; Adam Cherrington, research director, KLAS Research. Health systems can derive great business value and competitive advantage by centrally managing their provider data. A clear roadmap and management solution can solve problems with fragmented data, workflows, and patient experiences and support operational efficiency and delivery of a remarkable patient experience. The presenters will describe common pitfalls in managing enterprise information and digital strategy in silos, how to align stakeholders to maximize the value of digital initiatives, and how leading health systems are using best-of-breed strategies to evolve provider data management.

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

People

EQHealth Solutions names Mac Fuselier (David Raines Community Health Centers) CFO.

Research and Innovation

Canadian researchers find that virtual visits accounted for 71% of all visits between March and July of 2020, a dramatic increase compared to the 1.2% of virtual visits that occurred during the same timeframe in 2019. Nearly 33% of patients would prefer virtual care as their first point of contact after the pandemic.

Other

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, Magnolia Medical Clinic co-owner Ravi Shah, MD tells the local news that his practice’s biggest challenges during the pandemic have been staffing and a lack of funding to hire more people, fighting price gouging for PPE, communicating with state and federal health agencies, and staying on top of COVID-19 updates. Shah says they are committed to moving forward, even when stretched thin because of staff COVID diagnoses or quarantining. His father and practice founder Suresh Shah was hospitalized for COVID for one month – the only time in 30 years he’s missed more than a week of work.

Fast Company looks at the healthcare industry’s shift toward telemedicine and the increasingly likelihood of financially struggling practices and burnt out physicians to make the leap to full time digital care. It also points out that traditional telemedicine companies like MDLive and Doctor on Demand are now having to think beyond urgent care services to differentiate themselves from competitors and traditional practices that have gone digital. Incorporating primary care services, where a patient sees the same physicians for treatment, seems to be the shiny new differentiator companies like Amwell and Teladoc are pursuing.

Meanwhile, this article serves as a reminder that many patients and practitioners will always prefer in-person appointments. The hype around telemedicine will likely wane as healthcare facilities begin to eventually see a more consistent mix of virtual and in-person patients. “Most people still want to see people,” says Private Medical founder Jordan Shlain, MD. “And that goes both ways, with the doctors and the patients.”

Amazon adds a new Alexa feature that helps users find the nearest COVID-19 testing site.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic, for the third year in a row, is the only firm with a rating higher than 90 across seven or more “Best in KLAS” categories.
• Medicomp Systems CMO Jay Anders will present at Health Datapalooza February 18.

Blog Posts

• Make Every Pregnant Patient Feel Like You Make House Calls (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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