News 1/23/23

Top News

Rx Redefined raises $8 million in a Series A funding round. It offers group practices the ability to directly manage the order of medical supplies and delivery of them to their patients.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

HealthLynked will sell its ACO Health Partners subsidiary to PBACO Holding for up to $3 million. The company offers a network of providers that its members can search for and make appointments with using its online tools, as well as virtual consults and medical record-sharing services. PBACO Holding, which does business as Palm Beach ACO, is considering an IPO in 2024.

People

CVS Health names Amy Bricker (Express Scripts) chief product officer, consumer.

Research and Innovation

An increase in virtual primary care visits during the pandemic did not correlate with an increase in trips to the emergency room, according to a Canadian study that looked to see if the lack of in-person care prompted some patients to seek a similar level of care in the ER.

Other

Dollar General officially enters the retail healthcare market by partnering with mobile medical clinic company DocGo to offer healthcare services just outside of three stores in Tennessee. Given the typically rural locations of most Dollar Generals, it’s no doubt an effort to help offer easier access to patients who live far from traditional healthcare facilities, and to encourage patients to pick up over the counter remedies from the retailer’s shelves.

Sponsor Updates

• TigerConnect remains a leader in the Clinical Communication and Collaboration category on G2 for Winter 2023.
• EClinicalWorks publishes a new customer success story, “Brookhaven Heart & MD365: Streamlining Patient Engagement and Intervention with RPM.”

Blog Posts

• See a Mumpsimus? Stop a Mumpsimus! (Nordic)
• Clinical Communication in 2023: Trends and Predictions (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/18/23

Top News

Male fertility-focused provider Posterity Health raises $7.5 million in a seed funding round, bringing its total raised to $17 million. It says it will use the investment to further develop its digital health platform. It offers virtual consults and operates clinics in Colorado and Texas.

Webinars

January 19 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Supercharge Your Clinical Data Searches.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Paul Robbins, MSMBA, VP of product, Particle. Particle’s team will preview the exciting results of Specialty Search, a new condition-specific record locator service. This webinar will review how to collect patient records from top Centers of Excellence across the entire country; how healthcare organizations of all types are benefiting from Specialty Search capabilities, using Particle’s simple API; and why a focused search of chronic condition data — in oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, orthopedics, and more — has an outsized impact on care outcomes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

This tweet thread offers an interesting glimpse into the trend of private equity firms buying up physician practices, with little mention of how these acquisitions impact patient care. A few nuggets:

• The practice is a “large and super active” ASC that does $18M in annual revenue, with seven physicians – two of of whom are the “superstars” that bring in the majority of revenue.
• Practice owners typically stay on for two to five years.
• Standard operating model for a practice, once acquired, typically centers around hiring, better reimbursement negotiations, improving inefficiencies, revenues, etc. This one in particular is probably part of a larger play to help recruit more physicians into a brand.
• Similar deals are being done in the physical therapy, dermatology, med spa, and dental spaces.
• There is interest in pharmacies, but Walgreens and CVS are dominating.
• The most active PE firms doing these deals are Shore Capital Partners, KKR, Sheridan Capital Partners, and Linden Capital Partners.

Independent primary care practice management and optimization company Aledade becomes a public benefit corporation.

Announcements and Implementations

Child & Family Services of Erie County (NY) selects Credible EHR software from Qualifacts.

Research and Innovation

Community health center network AllianceChicago reports an increase in well-child visits and immunizations after implementing QliqSoft’s Quincy chatbot as part of a CHEC-UP digital intervention study.

Other

Publix Pharmacy opens its fourth telemedicine site in partnership with Beaufort Memorial Hospital (SC). Virtual consults are $67.

STAT looks at the lengths telemedicine patients will go to in order to ensure that their prescriptions, particularly those for ADHD, carry over to in-person physicians when their online-only telemedicine physicians close up shop. As online providers like Cerebral face federal scrutiny for their prescribing practices, and pharmacies refuse to fill prescriptions from their doctors, patients face the challenge of shifting to in-person care with new providers, some of whom may not be as quick to prescribe the same medications: “You hear ‘telehealth’ and you’re automatically stuck wearing the ‘pill mill,’ ‘drug seeking’ stigma like a backpack, no matter where you go,” says one patient who shifted from online to in-person care.

Fast Company profiles Bicycle Health, an online provider specializing in opioid use disorder treatment that got its start six years ago in a brick-and-mortar clinic in California. The pandemic initiated a pivot to virtual-only consults, and the company now treats patients in 32 states. When it comes to prescription fulfillment, it seems the company hasn’t faced the same government scrutiny as companies like Cerebral and Done. Bicycle’s internally developed pharmacy finder has helped ensure patients can pick up prescriptions locally in a timely manner.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic releases another episode of its “In Network” podcast, “Designing for Health: Dr. Zafar Chaudry.”

Blog Posts

• Data Reconnaissance: Understanding your practice’s data landscape (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 1/16/23

Top News

Actress Kristen Bell becomes a spokesperson for Hers and its virtual mental healthcare service. Bell joins athletes like Michael Phelps (Talkspace), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Antidote Health), and Simone Biles (Cerebral) as brand ambassadors for direct-to-consumer telehealth startups that have seen their popularity with patients and investors skyrocket, as COVID ushered in relaxed telehealth rules. Talkspace has reportedly caught the eye of Amwell, while Cerebral faces federal scrutiny for its prescribing practices. Biles quietly severed ties with Cerebral (where she was technically chief impact officer) in December as its inner turmoil escalated. Hers, meanwhile, has raised $233 million along with partner online wellness company Hims.

Webinars

January 19 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Supercharge Your Clinical Data Searches.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Paul Robbins, MSMBA, VP of product, Particle. Particle’s team will preview the exciting results of Specialty Search, a new condition-specific record locator service. This webinar will review how to collect patient records from top Centers of Excellence across the entire country; how healthcare organizations of all types are benefiting from Specialty Search capabilities, using Particle’s simple API; and why a focused search of chronic condition data — in oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, orthopedics, and more — has an outsized impact on care outcomes.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Highland Rivers Behavioral Health (GA) leverages Findhelp’s social and human services search tool.

Government and Politics

Medical billing company Amvik Solutions will pay $153,000 to settle federal allegations that it improperly billed Medicaid for applied behavior analysis services on behalf of customer Helping Hands Academy.

Research and Innovation

Lone Star Circle of Care Austin (TX) pilots an AI-powered nutritional assessment, guidance, and goal-setting platform developed by researchers at the University of Texas and Dell Medical School. Patients input their nutritional data into the Nutri tool, which processes and compares it to dietary guidelines, and then presents it and corresponding nutritional goals via interface for use during appointments.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success story, “Value-Based Care Achieved Through PCMH and HEDIS.
• Nordic posts a new episode of DocTalk titled “The two sides of digital health.”
• EClinicalWorks customer Children First Pediatrics reports successful process automation, increased patient compliance, and general cost savings using the company’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS).

Blog Posts

• How Bedside Manner Improves Patient Recovery (PerfectServe)
• 2023 Top Healthcare Cybersecurity Threats (TigerConnect)
• How Patient Education Can Increase Compassion in Healthcare (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 1/9/23

Top News

Specialty EHR and practice management vendor ModMed acquires allergy testing and immunotherapy software company Xtract Solutions.

Webinars

January 19 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Supercharge Your Clinical Data Searches.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Paul Robbins, MSMBA, VP of product, Particle. Particle’s team will preview the exciting results of Specialty Search, a new condition-specific record locator service. This webinar will review how to collect patient records from top Centers of Excellence across the entire country; how healthcare organizations of all types are benefiting from Specialty Search capabilities, using Particle’s simple API; and why a focused search of chronic condition data — in oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, orthopedics, and more — has an outsized impact on care outcomes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Herself Health launches with $7 million in seed funding. The company offers primary care services to women 65 and older at its clinic in St. Paul, MN. CEO Kristen Helton was formerly general manager of Amazon Care.

Codex IT, a healthcare IT consulting and managed services company focused on eye care practices, acquires Intranet Consulting.

People

David Shelton (MedAssist) joins Aidéo Technologies as CEO.

LifeMD names Jessica Friedeman (Healthgrades) CMO.

UnisLink appoints David Strand (Kenwood Health) executive chairman.

Former Summit Health-CityMD CEO Jeff Le Benger, MD will serve as interim president of Summit Health-CityMD, recently acquired by VillageMD for $7 billion.

Louise Perkowski (PrescribeWellness) joins InStep Health as VP of client solutions and sales.

Announcements and Implementations

Palmetto Counseling & Consulting Services (SC) implements EClinicalWorks.

EHR and practice management vendor Azalea Health selects RevSpring’s PersonaPay patient payments portal, merchant services, and billing software.

Research and Innovation

Samsung debuts telemedicine functionality at CES that makes virtual consults available through its smart TV or Galaxy Watch. The company will also offer a special camera designed to capture heart and respiratory rates, oxygen saturation and stress levels. It hasn’t yet made details available as to who will provide the care and what payment options will be available.

Other

Maternal & Family Health Services (PA) notifies patients of an April 2022 ransomware attack that may have compromised PHI.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 1/4/23

Top News

Allscripts rebrands to Veradigm after transitioning many of its products over the last year to the Veradigm name.

Allscripts sold off its Hospitals and Large Physician Practices business segment to Canada-based Harris for up to $700 million in cash in Q2 of last year. The company notes that all remaining EHR, practice management, and patient communication products are now part of the Veradigm Network.

Hints of the rebrand came during an early 2022 investor call, which included slides copyrighted and footnoted as Veradigm. The name first came on the scene in 2018, when Allscripts rebranded its Payer & Life Sciences Division.

For those keeping score, a HIStalk reader bet that the rebrand would happen before HIMSS23.

Webinars

January 19 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Supercharge Your Clinical Data Searches.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Paul Robbins, MSMBA, VP of product, Particle. Particle’s team will preview the exciting results of Specialty Search, a new condition-specific record locator service. This webinar will review how to collect patient records from top Centers of Excellence across the entire country; how healthcare organizations of all types are benefiting from Specialty Search capabilities, using Particle’s simple API; and why a focused search of chronic condition data — in oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, orthopedics, and more — has an outsized impact on care outcomes.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Healthcare feedback, engagement, and relationship management software vendor Well IQ raises an undisclosed amount of Series A funding.

People

Experity promotes Brian Berning to CFO.

First Stop Health promotes Teira Gunlock to CEO.

Announcements and Implementations

The Minnesota Department of Health selects Cue Health’s Cue Care diagnostic platform to power its new COVID-19 telehealth to treatment program. Minnesota residents who self-test positive for the illness will be able to access virtual consults and prescriptions free of charge through the program.

Alpine Ear Nose and Throat implements RCM software and services from CareCloud’s Meridian division across its three offices in Colorado.

Community oncology provider network OPN Healthcare selects Kaid Health’s Whole Chart Analysis and Natural Language Insight & Term Extraction (NLITE) technologies.

Research and Innovation

A survey of 7,246 clinicians who use telemedicine to care for seniors finds that nearly 60% believe it’s “dangerous” to provide virtual visits to older adults with medical complexities, and that a similar percentage think the technology is an unrealistic option for seniors with cognitive or physical challenges. Researchers say the findings point to a need for clinician support, education, and specialized guidelines on providing effective care to older patients via telehealth.

Other

A presumably disgruntled patient trashes the waiting room at Wilson Street Surgery in England. Physician Shehla Imtiaz-Umer attributes the incident to “negative media narrative, anti-GP rhetoric, unrelenting demand, and unrealistic expectations.” No details seem to be available as to what specifically caused the patient’s violent outburst.

PeaceHealth staff open the “Eugene Clinic 1992 Time Capsule” to commemorate the clinic’s 100th anniversary. The clinic merged with PeaceHealth Medical Group in 1995 in an effort to keep up with escalating technological demands, according to retired Eugene Clinic doctor Dick Loescher. The capsule included “vintage” medical gear, a globe, newspaper articles, a shirt, and a banner with signatures of former staff.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD employees deliver gifts to three local schools and help 14 families and 35 children this holiday season as part of the Sub for Santa program.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Clinical Testing Hackathon for V12 Release.”
• Nordic publishes a technical paper titled “Healthcare Modernization Through Cloud-Enhanced Application Accessibility.”

Blog Posts

• Will new entrants slim healthcare by trimming the “waste”? (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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Become a sponsor.