News 2/6/23

Top News

Athenahealth will lay off 178 employees, re-deploy 100 to more high-priority areas, and consider making changes to its office space in Watertown, MA, according to paywalled reporting by The Boston Globe. The company’s last round of layoffs, in 2019, impacted nearly 4% of its workforce.

HIStalk Practice Musings

My reading so far this year has tended toward the Dark Ages, as I’ve become engrossed in Bernard Cornwell’s “The Last Kingdom” series. I’ve yet to see the Netflix show, which I can only imagine is just as bloody, if not bloodier, than the warfare between Saxons, Britons, and a host of other post-Roman tribes depicted in the novel. I’ve also strayed into Cornwell’s Arthur series, which offers an interesting, brutal take on the more typical depictions of the Arthurian saga. Cornwell is my kind of author, spinning tales into a dozen books.

Readers may remember my mention last year of the book “Russian Winter” by Daphne Kalotay. She was kind enough to let me know that her new book, The Archivists, will be released in April.

Finally, I can’t help but mention that I thoroughly enjoyed comedian Nate Bargatze’s new Amazon Prime comedy special, Hello World. I bring it up here because he did at least 30 seconds on his frustration with filling out the same paper medical forms at every doctor’s appointment he’s ever been to.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Simple HealthKit raises $8 million in a Series A funding round led by Initialized Capital. The company offers a digital health platform encompassing diagnostics and follow-up care to groups including providers, retail clinics, employers, and universities. Founder Sheena Menezes was a former director at Scanadu, a Tricorder-like medical device manufacturer that aimed to put a smartphone-powered diagnostic tool in everyone’s pocket before rebranding and being acquired by Health.io in 2020.

Announcements and Implementations

Houston-based Legacy Community Health Clinic will use $1 million in federal funding to upgrade its 10 year-old EHR. The clinic will go live on the new, unspecified system across its 55 facilities in October.

Research and Innovation

Physician practices are focused on the following healthcare trends, according to anonymous user data from AdvancedMD customers: patient-centric payment capabilities, integrating behavioral and mental health offerings, automation technologies that can improve workflows, remote patient monitoring, and digital patient self-service tools.

Other

Cardiovascular Associates (AL) notifies patients of a data breach late last year in which an unauthorized third party gained access to certain CVS systems that contained patient information. Some of that data was copied and removed from the network.

Fast Company profiles Fresh Connect, a Boston-based nonprofit that has created a credit card physicians can “prescribe” to their patients to help them pay for fruits and vegetables. The Fresh Connect card is scanned at check out, and the cost of fruits and vegetables is deducted from the bill’s balance. Cards are typically funded with $100, with overall funding coming from programs like Medicaid and other nonprofits. Shopping data can be tied to a patient’s EHR for analysis of patient experience and food access, outcomes, and costs. Massachusetts-based ACO Community Care Cooperative has used the card as part of a larger pilot project focused on patients with complex health needs.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic releases a new podcast, “Making Rounds: The up and downside of disintermediation.”
• Nordic publishes DocTalk Ep. 202, “The Marvel of In-House Business Intelligence.”

Blog Posts

• Improving Patient Safety Through Unified Clinical Collaboration (TigerConnect)
• Increasing access to behavioral health resources (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 2/1/23

Top News

White label telehealth company OpenLoop Health expands its headquarters in Des Moines, IA to accommodate growth from 25 to 175 employees in the last year. CEO Jon Lensing, MD says the company hopes to hire an additional 400 staffers and close another funding round by the end of 2023. It acquired Reliant.MD’s practice group last month.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Aluna raises $15 million in a Series B funding round. The company has developed a smart inhaler and companion app to help asthmatic patients and their providers track lung function, triggers, and response to medication. The company, which hopes to raise a Series C round of funding next year, plans to expand into COPD and cystic fibrosis.

People

Hinge Health names Deborah Conrad chief marketing officer.

Mark Goodwin (American Family Care) joins Greenway Health as SVP of revenue services.

Government and Politics

Prescription savings company GoodRx will pay $1.5 million to settle FTC allegations that it shared the sensitive, personal health information of its users with third-party sites like Google and Facebook, which then used that information to serve up targeted ads to those individuals. The FTC also alleges that GoodRx misrepresented its HIPAA compliance and failed to implement data-protection policies.

Research and Innovation

Physicians in Canada spend 18.5 million hours annually on unnecessary administrative tasks, according to a new report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The report points out that reducing paperwork by 10% would equate to time that could be spent on 5.5 million patient visits. For context, physicians in the US spend nearly two hours each day on EHR documentation outside of regular working hours, according to research published last year in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Other

Chico Immediate Care Medical Center (CA) notifies 3,780 patients of a data breach last fall caused by an unauthorized employee accessing its EHR. The employee was purportedly gathering information for a nearby competing clinic.

Sponsor Updates

• Compass Medical, a 95-provider organization with six locations in Massachusetts, uses EClinicalWorks to excel at value-based care and combat physician burnout.

Blog Posts

• New Evaluation & Management (E/M) Code Updates for 2023 (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 1/30/23

Top News

Remote patient monitoring and virtual care company CoachCare acquires Nvolve, an RPM business that caters to pain management and orthopedic practices.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Patient engagement software vendor Engage Technologies Group acquires aesthetic-focused practice employee optimization company APX Platform.

People

Mark Gaines (Talkdesk) joins Viewgol as VP of sales, central.

Other

Job Alert: In Western Australia, the Shire of Quairading is prepared to offer $1 million in salary and benefits to a physician interested in taking over the town’s fully equipped clinic. Accommodation in a four bedroom, two bath house – just steps away from the clinic – will also be provided.

Retired Ob/Gyn Richard Chamberlain becomes a substitute bus driver, noting that he’s likely transporting kids he delivered to their respective schools.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• What is a Clinical Communication and Collaboration Platform? (PerfectServe)
• Data Privacy & Healthcare Cybersecurity: Addressing the Growing Challenge for Healthcare Organizations (TigerConnect)
• Stepping onto the health IT platform (Nordic)
• What Does Healthcare Disruption Look Like? (Healthwise)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 1/25/23

Top News

ReviveHealth, a membership-based virtual care company that caters to individuals and employer groups, acquires competitor SwiftMD for an undisclosed sum.

ReviveHealth acquired virtual urgent care company ISelectMD and digital pharmacy services vendor ManifexRx in August of last year.

Webinars

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

NextGen Healthcare reports Q3 results: revenue up 8%; EPS $0.26 vs. $0.24, beating analyst expectations on revenue but missing on earnings. Company shares have lost 8% since the beginning of the year.

People

Forge Health names Chad Burkholder (UnitedHealth Group) COO.

Zócalo Health names Sarah Lopez, MD (Harbor-UCLA Medical Center) CMO.

Announcements and Implementations

ACO Health Partners (FL) selects Spatially Health’s Equity Equalizer technology, which helps organizations identify and manage patient barriers related to social determinants of health. ACO Health Partners was recently sold by HealthLynked to Palm Beach ACO.

Research and Innovation

Researchers determine that primary care physicians who use community health exchange services to look up information about transitions of patient care admit fewer patients to the hospital and see fewer return to the ER.

Other

Dermatologist and TikTok “skinfluencer” Muneeb Shah, DO recounts his decision to partner with teledermatology company Cortina on branded content. He joined Cortina as its medical content advisor after making sure the company used board certified dermatologists as part of its prescribing process, noting he had turned down six or seven opportunities with other companies that did not: “I feel strongly that board-certified dermatologists should be involved in that process.”

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes a new e-guide, “2023 MIPS Improvement Activities.”

Blog Posts

• Happiness, recruitment, and retention (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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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

More news: HIStalk.

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