News 7/28/25

Top News

AbsoluteCare announces $135 million in new funding from a group of investors that includes CVS Health Ventures. The company offers Medicare and Medicaid patients in urban areas data-driven physical and behavioral healthcare with a strong focus on social determinants of health.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Praia Health presented a webinar last week titled “Innovating the Consumer Experience Beyond the EMR with Open Standards.”

Announcements and Implementations

Family First Center of Lake County (IL) selects Ensoftek’s DrCloudEHR.

RoundTable Wellness (IN) implements behavioral health-focused ProsperityEHR.

The Comprehensive Digestive Institute of Nevada will use remote patient monitoring, care coordination, and AI-powered symptom triage and alerts software from Vironix Health.

Government and Politics

The Town of Andover in Massachusetts uses technology and resources from Care Solace to offer residents a mental health and social services support line and online search tool.

Syracuse ASC will pay $250,000 and implement a corrective action plan to settle potential HIPAA violations related to a 2021 ransomware attack that led to a data breach impacting 25,000 people. HHS OCR found that the surgery center hadn’t performed a thorough risk analysis before the breach, and that it failed to notify impacted individuals in a timely manner.

Research and Innovation

RapidClaims earns top marks for highest overall performance of AI-powered claims automation platforms, according to a Black Book Research survey of physician practice and medical group providers.

A survey of 291 independent primary care physicians finds that nearly 40% are already using AI software on a daily basis for clinical documentation. Accuracy and reliability were their top deciding factors in selecting AI tools.

Other

Rezilient Health opens its third direct primary care “CloudClinic” in its hometown of St. Louis. The startup, which works primarily with employers and payers, enables patients to see trained clinicians who perform intake and vitals and then connect them virtually with physicians. Rezilient has developed its own technology and plans to open five more clinics in the coming year. The company announced $10 million in Series A funding last October.

Sponsor Updates

Blogs

• EHR Integration: PerfectServe Messaging for Epic & Oracle Health (PerfectServe)

Contacts

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News 7/23/25

Top News

CaringAI launches to offer providers AI-powered dementia assessment, care planning, and care management solutions.

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

People

Medical Home Network names Ashley Snyder (DaVita Kidney Care) chief development officer.

Announcements and Implementations

In-home primary care provider HarmonyCares selects Athenahealth’s AthenaOne platform comprising EHR, practice and revenue cycle management, AI, and patient engagement software.

Experity announces the GA of its AI-powered Care Agent technology for urgent care providers. It plans to launch AI scribe and insurance-matching capabilities later this year.

Tia Health will offer its members virtual therapy and psychiatric services from Talkspace.

Alevea Mental Health (AZ) implements EHR, online appointment scheduling, and virtual care technologies from EClinicalWorks.

Research and Innovation

A small survey of behavioral health providers finds that 43% use multiple health IT systems, while a similar percentage use systems that unify EHR and care coordination capabilities. Forty-one percent are planning to add functionality or replace existing systems within the next one to two years, with behavioral health-specific features, scheduling and billing integration, and ease of use noted as top purchasing requirements.

Access to virtual care services enable post-partum mothers to more easily engage in screenings for smoking, emotional and physical abuse, and post-partum depression, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Other

Retired physician Ian “Dr. Rock” Chung, MD will put his practice in Sydney, Australia up for auction next month. The practice, which was active up until two years ago, saw the likes of David Bowie, Bono, and Tina Turner walk through its doors. Chung was tour doctor to several bands including The Rolling Stones.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Patient Portals, Telehealth and Beyond: The Healthcare Technology Solutions Driving Improved Patient Outcomes (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 7/21/25

Top News

Health IT services and staffing company Techmatter acquires billing, coding, and virtual staffing vendor DoctorPapers.

Sponsored Events and Resources

July 22 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Innovating the Consumer Experience Beyond the EMR with Open Standards.” Sponsor: Praia Health. Presenters: Ryan Howells, principal, Leavitt Partners and program manager, The CARIN Alliance; David LaBine, VP of software engineering, Providence Digital Innovation Group; Robin Monks, CTO, Praia Health; Kristen Valdes, CEO, b.well. As healthcare faces rising consumer expectations and tighter regulations, the high cost of maintaining fragmented, proprietary systems is no longer sustainable. While patient data access has improved, the lack of open standards continues to hinder innovation, drive up integration costs, and limit the potential of digital health beyond the EHR. This webinar will discuss how open standards like OIDC,  HL7 FHIR, and open technology requirements are essential for reducing integration burdens, accelerating development, and lowering maintenance costs. Panelists will describe how every closed integration represents a lost opportunity and will offer practical strategies for leveraging open technology as a competitive advantage that improves efficiency, ensures compliance, and strengthens patient trust.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Announcements and Implementations

MidWest Eye Center (OH) implements AI-powered voicemail automation capabilities from Switchboard, MD.

US Orthopaedic Partners will implement automated RCM software and services from Adonis across its network of physician practices in the Southeast.

MindTherapy.works EHR developer Juggernaut Systems Express announces the development of Detox-in-a-Box for addiction treatment facilities. The platform includes EHR automation, documentation templates, and a clinical workflow app.

Point-of-sale system Clover expands into healthcare with the launch of PracticePay, a healthcare payments platform developed using technology from Rectangle Health.

Other

American Medical Association members suggest adding these six novels to your summer reading list. I can vouch for “The Red Tent” (and the movie), and also highly suggest “An Irish Country Doctor” and related titles by Patrick Taylor. The author notes that his main character first appeared in 1995 in his monthly column in “Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humor.” Though now out of print, you can take a look at favorite cartoons from the magazine in “In Stitches,” available on Amazon.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Patient Portals, Telehealth and Beyond: The Healthcare Technology Solutions Driving Improved Patient Outcomes (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 7/16/25

Top News

EvolvedMD, which offers primary care providers tech-enabled behavioral healthcare coordination services, raises $34 million in a Series B funding round. The Scottsdale, AZ-based company has raised $48 million since launching in 2015.

Sponsored Events and Resources

July 22 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Innovating the Consumer Experience Beyond the EMR with Open Standards.” Sponsor: Praia Health. Presenters: Ryan Howells, principal, Leavitt Partners and program manager, The CARIN Alliance; David LaBine, VP of software engineering, Providence Digital Innovation Group; Robin Monks, CTO, Praia Health; Kristen Valdes, CEO, b.well. As healthcare faces rising consumer expectations and tighter regulations, the high cost of maintaining fragmented, proprietary systems is no longer sustainable. While patient data access has improved, the lack of open standards continues to hinder innovation, drive up integration costs, and limit the potential of digital health beyond the EHR. This webinar will discuss how open standards like OIDC,  HL7 FHIR, and open technology requirements are essential for reducing integration burdens, accelerating development, and lowering maintenance costs. Panelists will describe how every closed integration represents a lost opportunity and will offer practical strategies for leveraging open technology as a competitive advantage that improves efficiency, ensures compliance, and strengthens patient trust.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

In Puerto Rico, EHR vendor E Health Partners acquires RCM company Assertus Holdings.

People

Lalith Vadlamannati, PhD (Hinge Health) joins Aledade as CTO.

Sightview promotes Melissa Wright to VP of client operations and names Casi Nestelroad, MBA (Nextech Systems) VP of product management.

Announcements and Implementations

Lattimore Physical Therapy & Sports Rehabilitation Network implements the Athelas Air EHR across its 35 locations in New York.

KAM Alliance (IL) selects Ensoftek’s DrCloudEHR.

Phoenix Heart (AZ) selects NextGen Healthcare’s cardiology suite of health IT solutions.

Government and Politics

The VA Fargo Health Care System in North Dakota installs an Accessing Telehealth through Local Area Stations virtual care site at the Carl E. Rogen American Legion Post 139.

Research and Innovation

Nearly a third of surveyed medical groups are experiencing longer wait times for new-patient appointments, according to a recent MGMA Stat poll. Forty percent report wait times are the same as last year, and 26% are experiencing shorter wait times. Those practices cite hiring additional staff as the biggest reason they’ve been able to keep wait times shorter for new patients. Digital check-in, self-scheduling tools, and waitlist notification systems were also cited.

A small AdvancedMD survey of physician practices finds that, when it comes to healthcare technology, EHRs and telehealth have the greatest impact on patient outcomes. Nearly 70% of respondents use EHR data to inform personalized treatment plans, and 85% say data integration is now essential for care delivery.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 7/14/25

Top News

Online weight-loss prescription delivery company NextMed will pay $150,000 to settle FTC charges that it lured consumers in with fake testimonials created by its own employees, used before-and-after photos of people who were not NextMed customers, published unsubstantiated weight-loss claims, and used carrot-or-stick tactics to influence customer reviews.

The company also failed to adequately explain the terms of its membership program and costs, obtain consent to charge consumers, and process cancellation and refund requests in a timely manner.

FTC will use the $150,000 to repay NextMed customers.

Sponsored Events and Resources

July 22 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Innovating the Consumer Experience Beyond the EMR with Open Standards.” Sponsor: Praia Health. Presenters: Ryan Howells, principal, Leavitt Partners and program manager, The CARIN Alliance; David LaBine, VP of software engineering, Providence Digital Innovation Group; Robin Monks, CTO, Praia Health; Kristen Valdes, CEO, b.well. As healthcare faces rising consumer expectations and tighter regulations, the high cost of maintaining fragmented, proprietary systems is no longer sustainable. While patient data access has improved, the lack of open standards continues to hinder innovation, drive up integration costs, and limit the potential of digital health beyond the EHR. This webinar will discuss how open standards like OIDC,  HL7 FHIR, and open technology requirements are essential for reducing integration burdens, accelerating development, and lowering maintenance costs. Panelists will describe how every closed integration represents a lost opportunity and will offer practical strategies for leveraging open technology as a competitive advantage that improves efficiency, ensures compliance, and strengthens patient trust.

Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Gheorg, an app developed to help children manage stress and anxiety, announces an undisclosed amount of funding from the John H. Scully and Regina K. Foundation.

People

Apree Health promotes Marla McLaughlin, MD to chief medical officer.

Nuvem names Ryan Doyle (Omnicell) chief growth officer, Dennis Wright (Omnicell) chief marketing officer, Brenda Barry (Omnicell) chief customer officer, and Vaughn Kinosian (Omnicell) SVP of enterprise pharmacy.

Announcements and Implementations

Missouri’s St. Louis County Health Department implements Epic through a partnership with SSM Health.

Research and Innovation

Independent physician practices are feeling pressured to seek out support in order to survive, whether that be through private equity, consolidation, or becoming affiliated with local health systems, according to a Black Book Research survey of 496 practices. Seventy percent anticipate losing their autonomy within the next 18 months if they don’t make major operational and/or financial changes. Top efforts to maintain independence have included:

• Signing new value-based care contracts with payers
• Outsourcing administrative and RCM operations, and
• Joining IPAs, MSOs, and ACOs.

Other

Jonathan Decker, DO faces decades of jail time and up to a $1 million fine for prescribing 2 million pills’ worth of controlled substances without properly examining patients, if at all; and altering patient records to legitimize prescriptions. Decker conducted his operation, which netted him $1 million, working for Done Global, whose founder and CEO and clinical president were charged last summer with similar crimes. The company continues to operate in China.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Recognizing Common HIPAA Violations and How to Prevent Them (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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