News 1/4/21

Top News

Multi-vertical technology services business Intrado acquires patient intake and engagement software vendor Asparia (fka SimplifiMed). Asparia co-founder and president Chinmay Singh is now an Intrado VP.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

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I’m playing catch-up this week on the ambulatory health IT news that trickled in over the holiday break. Please email me with any newsworthy (or just plain fun) items that crossed your inbox or social media feed.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Canadian clinic operator and health IT developer CloudMD acquires New Jersey-based health data integration and security vendor IDYA4 for $14.8 million. The acquisition is CloudMD’s second in less than six months: It bought mental health assessment and care coordination vendor Snapclarity for $2.5 million last fall.

Well Health Technologies, another Canadian clinic operator and health IT developer, acquires practice management software company Adracare for $3,724,285. Toronto-based Adracare serves customers primarily in the mental health, medicinal cannabis and physical therapy sectors in five countries.

People

Noteworth names Donna Morrow (Optimize.health) VP of clinical operations and Gytis Barzdukas (GuideSpark) as VP of product.

Announcements and Implementations

Montana HIE Big Sky Care Connect implements DrFirst’s MedHx medication history information system.

The Commonwealth of Virginia will create an e-referral system for social services using technology from Unite Us.

Edison Radiology Group (NJ) selects RCM software and services from Healthcare Administrative Partners.

Other

Y’all know I love a good library story: The local paper profiles Wheel It Forward, a lending library of durable medical equipment that serves primarily hospice patients in Connecticut and New York. The nonprofit accepts 10 to 15 pieces of donated equipment each week on average, and lends out five or six weekly. Its most popular pieces include hospital beds, power wheelchairs, patient lifts, and scooters. CEO and founder Elliot Sloyer has authored several children’s books, and, coincidentally, says he’s always dreamed of operating his own library.

Oncologist and Arkansas Cancer Institute founder Omar Atiq, MD forgives nearly $650,000 in debt for 200 patients as he prepares to close the facility and retire. Atiq, who shared the news in a holiday greeting card to the affected patients, was happy to be able to help one last time: “Being sick is hard, having cancer is harder, and having cancer in this pandemic is devastating.”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Preparing for the 2021 E/M code transition begins with education (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 12/16/20

Top News

Workit Health raises $12 million in a Series B round of funding that will enable the addiction treatment telemedicine startup to expand beyond the five states it currently serves.

The company, which has raised $20 million since launching five years ago, offers virtual group and one-to-one therapy and coaching, as well as medication-assisted online programs.

Co-founders Robin McIntosh and Lisa McLaughlin met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting more than 10 years ago.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

HIStalk Practice will be on holiday hiatus through the end of the year. I hope everyone enjoys the break, a few good books, and time off from the news cycle. See you in 2021!

Webinars

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

People

Canadian clinic company Jack Nathan Health names Glenn Copeland, MD CMO. Copeland, former chairman and CEO of Cleveland Clinic Canada, will take a 20% stake in the company’s new subsidiary, Jack Nathan Functional Health.

Digestive health care coordination software company SonarMD names A.R. Weiler (Livio Health Group) CEO, and promotes Beth Houck to COO.

Announcements and Implementations

Independent practice network Tandigm Health selects Care Continuity’s cloud-based provider communication and consultation management software.

Research and Innovation

An EHR timestamp analysis of 21 million doctor visits finds that the average length of exams was 18 minutes. More than two-thirds of visits were shorter or longer than scheduled by five minutes, leading analysts to suggest that practices could benefit from taking a more strategic look at scheduling workflows.

Other

Cloud hosting and IT services company Netgain notifies customers, including Crystal Practice Management, of a late-November ransomware attack that forced it to take some of their data centers offline. Crystal Practice Management notified its optometry and vision therapy practice customers of the attack, adding that thousands of Netgain servers were impacted.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Understanding and Maximizing Reimbursement with Telehealth & Telemedicine (AdvancedMD)
• How a Practice Found Success with Telehealth & Contactless Check-In (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 12/14/20

Top News

Physician practice-focused health IT vendor Elation Health raises $40 million in a Series C funding round led by Generation Investment Management, bringing its total raised to $55 million.

Founded in 2014 by siblings Kyna and Conan Fong, the company caters to a network of 14,000 independent clinicians. In addition to virtual visit capabilities added earlier this year, Elation will soon offer billing and payment collection, population management, interoperability, and quality reporting solutions.

Webinars

December 15 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Highlights from the 2021 CPT Code Set Update.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, senior director of global clinical services, IMO; Shelly Jude, RHIA, RHIT, mapping manager, IMO. Top coding professionals will highlight the most important changes to the Current Procedural Terminology code set that take effect on January 1, including crucial additions, deletions, and revisions; how to communicate Official Coding Guidelines changes to the healthcare team; and a description of the impact that the code set update could have on practice.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Automated patient engagement software startup Pair Team raises $2.7 million in seed funding. Founders Neil Batlivala and Cassie Choi, RN came up with the technology, which helps providers, payers, and patients avoid gaps in care, while building out operational software at direct primary care company Forward.

Community care provider Cityblock Health wraps up a $160 million financing round that brings its valuation to over $1 billion. The company, which serves Medicaid and low-income patients in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC, offers primary and behavioral healthcare, and access to social services through its proprietary Commons software.

Blueprint will use $3.4 million in seed funding to further develop its assessment, analytics, and reimbursement software for mental healthcare providers.

Menopause care-focused telemedicine company The Cusp shuts down, telling the local business paper that it had failed to find investors to keep operations going. It launched in 2018, employed 21, and had raised $4.2 million. Founder and now former CEO Taylor Sittler, MD also co-founded Color Genomics, a partner in NIH’s All of Us research program.

Primary care clinic operator and health IT developer MCI OneHealth prepares for a $23.5 million Canadian IPO.

People

Jordana Bernard (InTouch Health) joins InnovaTel Telepsychiatry as chief compliance officer.

Other

In Texas, the San Antonio Fire Department routes some healthcare-related calls directly to a telemedicine service using GoodSam software, freeing up rescue units for more dire emergencies. The department says the new service has already reduced daily fire/EMS dispatches by nine in its first seven weeks.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic releases a new video featuring Scripps Health, “How to implement a successful Community Connect program.”

Blog Posts

• Measuring and Improving Patient Self-Efficacy and Informed Choice (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 12/9/20

Top News

Ro signals its intent to offer in-home healthcare with its acquisition of WorkPath, which has developed app-based, appointment-scheduling software for house-call companies.

Webinars

December 15 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Highlights from the 2021 CPT Code Set Update.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, senior director of global clinical services, IMO; Shelly Jude, RHIA, RHIT, mapping manager, IMO. Top coding professionals will highlight the most important changes to the Current Procedural Terminology code set that take effect on January 1, including crucial additions, deletions, and revisions; how to communicate Official Coding Guidelines changes to the healthcare team; and a description of the impact that the code set update could have on practice.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Primary care company Carbon Health will open a dozen more clinics in California over the coming months. The San Francisco-based company, which announced a $100 million Series C funding round last month, has developed proprietary health IT including an app and virtual visit capabilities.

Rapper and music executive Rick Ross invests in telemedicine startup Jetdoc, also signing on as an adviser and spokesperson. Launched in February by former Trusted Health Plans CEO Tommy Duncan, the service is available in Florida, with expansion to additional states expected next year.

Healthcare transaction advisory firm VMG Health acquires RR Health Strategies, a medical coding, compliance, and operational management consulting firm.

Announcements and Implementations

Umatilla County Human Services in Oregon will replace its legacy EHR with EnSoftek’s DrCloudEHR.

Other

A Press Ganey telemedicine survey and analysis of 1.3 million patients from 154 practices offers insight into what they do and don’t like about virtual encounters, and how providers can improve upon them:

• Patients are more likely to give positive reviews after virtual visits than after in-person visits because they feel they more of their physician’s attention.
• The process is lacking: Nearly 90% would recommend their provider after a video visit, but only 76% would recommend doing so virtually.
• Researchers suggest providers develop a central resource team to help staff adopt more telemedicine-friendly workflows, and patients become more comfortable with virtual encounters.
• Specialties should develop protocols to triage patients into virtual care or in-person care.
• Telemedicine protocols should be consistent across an organization’s care setting so that patients encounter the same look and feel when video chatting with their PCP or dermatologist.

The Schenectady Fire Department in New York pilots a telemedicine program that so far has enabled its paramedics to treat 27 of its 41 telemedicine patients at the scene rather than transporting them to the ER. Department officials anticipate the program will see a similar success rate in the coming months, as 12,000 of its 18,000 annual calls are for medical reasons.

COVID vaccinations commenced in the UK earlier this week, with 81 year-old William Shakespeare becoming the second recipient. The Twitterverse was quick to respond with references to Vacbeth and #TamingoftheFlu.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• 3 Things That Might Be Preventing Your Patients From Using Telemedicine (AdvancedMD)

• Kiosk, HEDIS, and More: Welcoming Patients to the Medical Landscape (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 12/7/20

Top News

California Governor Gavin Newsom announces that CA Notify, an app-based, COVID-19 exposure-tracking tool, will launch statewide later this week.

The app was developed using technology from Google and Apple, and piloted at seven of the University of California’s campuses. The university estimates that 250,000 users have so far opted in, and 82 positive test verification alerts have been issued.

Just 18 states have made similar tools available, with some leveraging the Google/Apple technology developed six months ago. User adoption has been underwhelming, with, for example, just under 500,000 out of 10.5 million residents opting in to North Carolina’s SlowCOVIDNC app. Connecticut and Virginia have been more successful, with 20% of their residents opting in to either Iphone-embedded exposure notifications or a stand-alone app.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for that hard-to-shop-for doctor in your life? Consider “The Physician’s Guide to Mother Goose” by pediatrician TK Denmark, MD. He gives a humorous, ICD-10 spin to the traditional stories, pushing readers to ponder the diagnosis of that unlucky soul who may have been “struck by cow, initial encounter” after it had finished its lunar calisthenics.

How about gift ideas for the well-read book-lover? Check out these “28 Bookish Gift Ideas.” Some are cheeky, some are practical, and some seem downright delicious. I’m adding the LED neck light to my wish list right now.

Webinars

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

People

Aledade promotes Matt Kendall to president, Dan Bowles to chief growth officer, Ahmed Haque to chief performance officer, and Sean Cavanaugh to chief policy officer and chief commercial officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Abercrombie Radiology (TN) implements ERad’s RIS, patient portal and communications software, and mammography tracking module.

Other

Several hotels in Tucson will begin offering telemedicine services from MedCare 2U. The company will also offer hotel guests prescription delivery within 60 minutes, and rapid COVID-19 testing.

Sponsor Updates

• Healthwise wins six Digital Health Awards in the Health Information Resource Center Fall 2020 competition.

Blog Posts

• Fighting the Pandemic with the COVID-19 Vaccine (Healthwise)
• COVID-19 vaccinations: Now is the time for healthcare IT to step up (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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