News 8/7/23

Top News

SimplePractice, a health and wellness technology company owned by EngageSmart, acquires psychiatry-focused EHR and practice management vendor Luminello.

Webinars

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

People

Fred Sheffield (TeleVox) joins Lightning Step as CFO.

ThoroughCare names Carol Helton (Medecision) chief revenue officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Midland Community Healthcare Services (TX) selects EClinicalWorks.

Research and Innovation

A new report from MGMA finds that physician-owned practices continue to see a decrease in support staffing levels, with the most impacted being primary care practices. Of those practices that haven’t seen a decrease, 44% report their current staffing levels are unable to keep up with patient demand.

Other

Jeffrey Harris, MD offers several scenarios in this JAMA Network op-ed in which an AI-enhanced EHR can improve a primary care physician’s clinical productivity. For such technology to be truly impactful, today’s EHRs must be overhauled to accommodate NLP and machine-learning add-ons, Finally, he stresses that health IT developers must think beyond the restrictive requirements of government certification to create these innovative, AI-enhanced technologies.

A CNCB reporter goes through a mock doctor’s appointment to get a feel for how AI can help improve her visit. She notes that Nuance’s Dax Express app was able to record her interaction with her physician and then nearly immediately offer up documentation (minus one pertinent recommendation) ready for her EHR: “From a patient perspective, I have to admit it was refreshing to talk to a doctor who wasn’t typing into a PC, and then to get a record that really captured what I was saying.”

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• The fog of more: Price transparency will increase health systems’ competition for patients (Nordic)
• Nurses of Note 2023: The District School Nurse (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 8/2/23

Top News

Tech-enabled kidney care company Healthmap Solutions raises $100 million in a funding round led by WindRose Health Investors, bringing its total raised to $226 million. Founded in 2016, Healthmap has seen its workforce grow from 50 to 600 over the last several years.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Remote patient monitoring and chronic care management company MD Revolution acquires NavCare, a competitor based in Augusta, GA. NavCare President and COO Chris MacInnis will become MD Revolution’s COO, while NavCare EVP Theresa Lantz will become VP of client success.

CVS Health reports a Q2 revenue boost of 10.3% a day after confirming that it will cut 5,000 corporate jobs as it reprioritizes spending to focus more on care delivery and technology. The company has spent nearly a combined $19 billion in 2023 on its acquisitions of Oak Street Health and Signify Health.

Social care navigation software vendor Pear Suite opens a new office in Tulsa, OK. The expansion was enabled by a strategic investment from Atento Capital.

Announcements and Implementations

Orange County Migraine & Wellness Center (CA) implements EClinicalWorks.

Somers Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine Group signs on for practice management services from Health Plus Management.

Springfield Clinic will roll out EHR, practice management, and billing software from Athenahealth across its facilities in Illinois.

KMS Healthcare announces GA of Connect, a development tool for clinical data exchange that consists of customizable, pre-tested FHIR APIs and an HL7 conversion engine.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 7/31/23

Top News

Hybrid women’s health clinic HerMD raises $18 million in a Series A extension that brings its total funding to $28 million. The company offers care in Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, New Jersey, California, and Indiana and plans to expand into New York City soon.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to EClinicalWorks for its continued support of HIStalk Practice. Click the logo for more information.

Webinars

Check out last week’s Volpara Health webinar with Kettering Health, “Lessons We’ve Learned Since Launching Our Cancer Prevention Program.”

Additional webinars are available on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Ambulatory-focused health IT vendor CharmHealth invests in patient education and engagement startup My Diabetes Tutor, which was a finalist in the health IT company’s innovation challenge several years ago.

Announcements and Implementations

CareCloud will leverage Google Cloud technology to add generative AI capabilities to its products and services in the coming months.

Population health company Varmed Management selects Nutex Health’s Clinigence population health analytics software.

Henry Schein Medical announces GA of MedPac, a remote exam kit equipped with a connected tablet,and diagnostic devices to help clinicians offer virtual care.

Government and Politics

Government officials in Alberta, Canada decry the Marda Loop Medical Clinic’s decision to offer patients membership-based services that give them, among other things, quicker access to providers. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says this violates the Canada Health Act, which ensures patients have access to national medical services at no additional cost.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks population health tools help HealthTexas Medical Group achieve a five-star customer rating.
• Nordic releases a new Designing for Health Podcast, “Interview with Dr. A Jay Holmgren.”
• Medicomp Systems releases a new “Tell Me Where It Hurts” podcast with Grace Cordovano of Unblock Health.
• Nordic releases a new Making Rounds Podcast, “The hopes and promises of AI.”

Blog Posts

• The Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap: Does it get us where we need to go? (Nordic)
• How to Enhance Locum Tenens Workflows (PerfectServe)
  

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Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 7/26/23

Top News

NextGen Healthcare reports a 16% uptick in Q1 revenue as well as an increase in earnings, beating analyst expectations for both.

The DoJ announced earlier this month that the company will pay $31 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by misrepresenting the capabilities of select versions of its EHR software, and that it offered kickbacks in the form of credits of up to $10,000 to users whose recommendations led to new sales.

Webinars

July 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Use Generative AI.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenter: Bill Rogers, co-founder, president, and chairman, Orbita. The advent of generative AI tools truly represents a paradigm shift. And while some healthcare leaders embrace the transformation, others are hesitant. Invest 20 minutes to learn why you shouldn’t wait. When combined with natural language processing, workflow automation and conversational dialogs, generative AI can help leaders address a raft of challenges: from over-extended staff, to the rising demand for self-service tools, to delivering secure information to key stakeholders. You will learn where AI delivers the greatest value for providers and life sciences, how it can solve critical challenges faced by healthcare leaders, and how Orbita has integrated generative AI into its conversational platform so healthcare leaders can leverage its full capabilities safely and securely.

July 27 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Denial Prevention 101: How to stop denials from the start.” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Crystal Ewing, director of product management, Waystar. There’s a reason denial prevention is prominent everywhere in healthcare RCM. Denials reduce cash flow, drive down revenue, and negatively impact the patient and staff experience. More than half of front-end denials don’t have to happen, but, once they do, that money is gone. It’s a pretty compelling reason to take some time now to do some preventative care on your revenue cycle. This webinar will help you optimize your front end to stop denials at the start. We’ll explore the importance of not only having the right data, but having it right where staff need it, when they need it.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Emagine Solutions Technology, developer of The Journey pregnancy app, receives $1 million in research and development funding from the US National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research program.

Whole Foods co-founder and former CEO John Mackey launches Love.Life, a hybrid health and wellness company focused on patients interested in longevity, lifestyle, and concierge services. Love.Life will add in-person care to its current virtual offerings next year.

People

Walgreens names Monica Reed (CareCentrix) VP of health centers strategy and operations.

Announcements and Implementations

Total Orthopedics and Sports Medicine implements Veradigm’s patient communication and billing software across its facilities in New York and New Jersey.

Miami-based UniVida Medical Centers rolls out EClinicalWorks ahead of its expansion into Central and North Florida.

Valley-Wide Health Systems in Colorado leverages virtual care and coordination services from TimeDoc Health as a part of its chronic care management program.

Nine counties in California implement the Credible behavioral health EHR from Qualifacts, with assistance from Kings View Professional Services.

Research and Innovation

The Sequoia Project’s Consumer Voices Workgroup publishes a report on their experiences with interoperability, noting that the average consumer doesn’t have easy access to their own health records; typically can’t understand the records they do have access to; and aren’t able to share their records without taking extra steps that can include phone calls, filling out paper forms, faxes, and trekking to physician offices.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 7/24/23

Top News

MCI Onehealth Technologies, which manages a Canadian primary care network and develops health IT, will sell its clinical assets to competitor Well Health Technologies so that it can focus solely on AI-powered health IT and clinical research.

Webinars

July 26 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “Lessons We’ve Learned Since Launching our Cancer Prevention Program.” Sponsor: Volpara Health. Presenter: Albert Bonnema, MD, MPH chief medical information officer, Kettering Health System, and Chris Yuppa, product owner for oncology services and cancer prevention, Kettering Health System. Kettering’s IT department has played a critical role in providing an EHR-driven framework to bring cancer risk assessment and individual prevention plans to more than 90,000 patients. Primary care, OB/GYN, oncology, and imaging providers are now able to assess the hereditary, genetic, and lifestyle factors that affect the risk of developing lung, breast, ovarian, colon, and prostate cancer in any patient encounter. Learn how Kettering brings together people, processes, and technology to be more proactive in the fight against cancer and where its cancer prevention program is headed next.

July 27 (Thursday) noon ET. “Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Use Generative AI.” Sponsor: Orbita. Presenter: Bill Rogers, co-founder, president, and chairman, Orbita. The advent of generative AI tools truly represents a paradigm shift. And while some healthcare leaders embrace the transformation, others are hesitant. Invest 20 minutes to learn why you shouldn’t wait. When combined with natural language processing, workflow automation and conversational dialogs, generative AI can help leaders address a raft of challenges: from over-extended staff, to the rising demand for self-service tools, to delivering secure information to key stakeholders. You will learn where AI delivers the greatest value for providers and life sciences, how it can solve critical challenges faced by healthcare leaders, and how Orbita has integrated generative AI into its conversational platform so healthcare leaders can leverage its full capabilities safely and securely.

July 27 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Denial Prevention 101: How to stop denials from the start.” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Crystal Ewing, director of product management, Waystar. There’s a reason denial prevention is prominent everywhere in healthcare RCM. Denials reduce cash flow, drive down revenue, and negatively impact the patient and staff experience. More than half of front-end denials don’t have to happen, but, once they do, that money is gone. It’s a pretty compelling reason to take some time now to do some preventative care on your revenue cycle. This webinar will help you optimize your front end to stop denials at the start. We’ll explore the importance of not only having the right data, but having it right where staff need it, when they need it.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

FQHC-focused CHC Consulting Group launches new subsidiaries focused on RCM and healthcare technology.

Small practice-focused patient billing startup Collectly raises $29 million in a Series A funding round. The company launched in 2017 as a digital debt collector, later pivoting to healthcare payments.

People

ChenMed promotes Steve Nelson to president.

Announcements and Implementations

Kymera Independent Physicians (NM) selects NextGen’s enterprise EHR and practice management software.

Research and Innovation

A study of EHR data from six primary care clinics reveals that the incorporation of remote patient monitoring helped to improve treatment and outcomes for hypertensive patients.

Other

Peachtree Orthopedics in Atlanta alerts patients to an April breach of its computer network that may have compromised some personal information. It is the practice’s third breach in seven years.

Sponsor Updates

• Encore Health Group and Affiliates sees success with its upgrade to EClinicalWorks V12, and Healow patient engagement solutions.
• Nordic Consulting receives 12 of 13 validations in a recent KLAS report on EHR education software and services.
• Medicomp Systems releases a new Tell Me Where It Hurts Podcast featuring Greenway Health CMO Michael Blackman, MD.
• Nordic posts a new podcast, “Designing for Health: Interview with Dr. Manish Patel”.

Blog Posts

• Note bloat, we can’t quit you (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.