News 4/27/22

Top News

Concert Health raises $42 million in Series B financing, bringing its total raised to $56.5 million. The company specializes in helping primary care, women’s healthcare, and pediatric practices integrate behavioral healthcare services.

Webinars

April 28 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Undercoded and Underpaid: Making It Easier to Document to Optimize Reimbursement.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Deepak Pillai, MD, physician informaticist, IMO; June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, senior director of informatics, IMO; Nicole Douglas, sales engineer, IMO. The presenters will discuss how to simplify precise documentation for clinicians; the effects of imprecise coding on reimbursement; why accurate code capture at the point of care can have positive downstream impact on population health initiatives; and how third-party solutions integrated with the EHR can reduce documentation burdens.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Medical billing vendor Billed Right acquires competitor Ruffe Systems Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

People

Surgical Notes promotes Angela Mattioda to SVP of RCM solutions and client experience and Carla Reese to SVP of operations.

Announcements and Implementations

Azalea Health will integrate Phreesia’s patient intake and engagement software with its EHR.

Practice EHR incorporates quality data analytics and automated CMS compliance reporting technology from Health EFilings into its EHR and practice management software.

The Texas Association of Community Health Centers implements CareSignal’s deviceless remote patient monitoring technology at 12 of its FQHCs.

Government and Politics

Urgent care facilities owner and physician Josef Schenker, MD will pay $564,218 to settle allegations that he falsely submitted Medicare claims for COVID-19-related vaccination and testing services not actually rendered.

HHS allocates $90 million to help designated health centers modernize their data and reporting capabilities, enabling them to gain a better picture of social determinants of health.

Other

The Patricia Romanko Public Library in Parma, Idaho, will use a $6,800 grant to convert an old bank vault into a dedicated space for telemedicine appointments. The private area will be the only healthcare facility in Parma, which saw its lone health clinic recently close.

North Dakota-based billing and revenue services vendor Adaptive Health Integrations notifies over 500,000 people of an October data breach.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/25/22

Top News

H3 Healthcare Holdings launches with consulting services for physician practices. Co-founder and CEO Beka Hegenwald’s healthcare experience includes stints at PMD, Johns Hopkins, and Greenway. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Scott Huston has spent time at PMD, McKesson, and Tenet Healthcare.

Webinars

April 28 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Undercoded and Underpaid: Making It Easier to Document to Optimize Reimbursement.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Deepak Pillai, MD, physician informaticist, IMO; June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, senior director of informatics, IMO; Nicole Douglas, sales engineer, IMO. The presenters will discuss how to simplify precise documentation for clinicians; the effects of imprecise coding on reimbursement; why accurate code capture at the point of care can have positive downstream impact on population health initiatives; and how third-party solutions integrated with the EHR can reduce documentation burdens.

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

People

MaxHealth names Prakash Patel (Anthem), MD CEO.

MDLive promotes Jonathan Salon to CEO.

Government and Politics

A federal court indicts New York-based physician Elemer Raffai, MD for allegedly prescribing and ordering via telemedicine medically unnecessary durable medical equipment for Medicare patients he never saw in person, and most likely bribed, ultimately receiving $4 million in Medicare payments. He faces 10 years in prison.

Research and Innovation

Findings from AMA’s annual telehealth survey show, not surprisingly, that 85% of physicians are using telehealth and 70% will continue to using it. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that more than half of surveyed physicians cannot access all of their telehealth systems from within their EHR, prompting interoperability and workflow concerns. More than 75% note that their telehealth software doesn’t automatically collect and deliver patient data.

Sponsor Updates

• Medicomp Systems releases a new episode of its Tell Me Where It Hurts Podcast featuring Greenway Health CMO Michael Blackman, MD.

Blog Posts

• How Remote Patient Engagement Solutions Reduce Readmissions (PerfectServe)
• The Importance of Real-Time Communication in Hospice Care (TigerConnect)
• User-centered system design can help save lives (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 4/20/22

Top News

Tech-enabled primary and urgent care company Carbon Health acquires MedPost Urgent Care’s clinics in California. It now operates 120 clinics nationwide.

Carbon Health raised $350 million in a Series D funding round last year, which enabled it to acquire remote patient monitoring vendor Alertive Healthcare several months later. It announced a clinic and services partnership with the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network earlier this month.

Webinars

April 22 (Friday) 1 ET. “CMIO 3.0: What’s Next for the CMIO?” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Becket Mahnke, MD, CMIO and pediatric cardiologist, Confluence Health; Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer, IMO. The relatively short history of the CMIO role includes Version 1.0 (EHR implementation, Meaningful Use, and regulatory compliance) and Version 2.0 (quality and efficiency). Version 3.0 is at the forefront of predictive analytics, population health initiatives, and optimization of data-driven tools. The presenters will discuss the digital revolution’s impact on CMIO responsibilities; the connection between clinical informatics, analytics, population health and the CMIO; and how CMIO 3.0 will be involved in the adoption of advanced technologies.

April 28 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Undercoded and Underpaid: Making It Easier to Document to Optimize Reimbursement.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Deepak Pillai, MD, physician informaticist, IMO; June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, senior director of informatics, IMO; Nicole Douglas, sales engineer, IMO. The presenters will discuss how to simplify precise documentation for clinicians; the effects of imprecise coding on reimbursement; why accurate code capture at the point of care can have positive downstream impact on population health initiatives; and how third-party solutions integrated with the EHR can reduce documentation burdens.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

CentralReach, a behavioral health EHR vendor headquartered in New Jersey, will relocate its headquarters from Matawan to 25,000 square feet of office space in Holmdel. Though the company’s team of nearly 400 employees are fully remote, CentralReach decided to build out a remote-first hybrid work space so that they could collaborate in-person, as needed. The new space will be ready this summer. CentralReach expects to hire another 100 employees by the end of the year.

People

Virtual lactation consult company Nest Collaborative promotes Judith Nowlin to CEO. Founder Amanda Gorman, NP will become chief clinical officer.

Duo Health names Richard Barager, MD (Balboa Nephrology Medical Group) CMO and Anthony Perry, MD (Rush University Medical Center) chief clinical officer. 

Announcements and Implementations

Remote patient monitoring company Accuhealth launches a concierge chronic care management program for clinics that leverages its AI-assisted RPM technology.

South Florida Skin Center, a two-physician practice in Port Charlotte, selects billing software and services from Dermatology Billing Associates.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Why You Should Move Out from Legacy Systems for Your Practice (AdvancedMD)
• HCC: More Than Just Letters, They Are Key to Coding and Care (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 4/18/22

Top News

Virtual mental health treatment provider Ahead, which launched in 2019 as a subscription-based service focused on ADHD, announces it will shut down after raising $9 million in 2020 from Truepill. The closure seems largely due to Truepill’s decision to no longer invest in the company as it turns its attention to corporate customers, according to CEO Sid Viswanathan.

The news comes less than a week after online clinic Halcyon Health’s CEO announced via LinkedIn that the substance use disorder-focused company would be closing. Halcyon Health was also founded in 2019, and had raised $2.5 million.

Webinars

April 22 (Friday) 1 ET. “CMIO 3.0: What’s Next for the CMIO?” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Becket Mahnke, MD, CMIO and pediatric cardiologist, Confluence Health; Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer, IMO. The relatively short history of the CMIO role includes Version 1.0 (EHR implementation, Meaningful Use, and regulatory compliance) and Version 2.0 (quality and efficiency). Version 3.0 is at the forefront of predictive analytics, population health initiatives, and optimization of data-driven tools. The presenters will discuss the digital revolution’s impact on CMIO responsibilities; the connection between clinical informatics, analytics, population health and the CMIO; and how CMIO 3.0 will be involved in the adoption of advanced technologies.

April 28 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Undercoded and Underpaid: Making It Easier to Document to Optimize Reimbursement.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Deepak Pillai, MD, physician informaticist, IMO; June Bronnert, MSHI, RHIA, senior director of informatics, IMO; Nicole Douglas, sales engineer, IMO. The presenters will discuss how to simplify precise documentation for clinicians; the effects of imprecise coding on reimbursement; why accurate code capture at the point of care can have positive downstream impact on population health initiatives; and how third-party solutions integrated with the EHR can reduce documentation burdens.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Titi Oguni, NP and Joshua Yang, MD launch telemedicine company Breezefast.

People

Tiffani Misencik (Intelerad Medical Systems) joins Greenway Health as chief revenue officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Providence Community Health Center implements Bluestream Health’s virtual care platform-as-a-service to provide telehealth services to its 12 facilities across Providence, RI.

Other

Voices Rock Medicine, an all-female choir of physicians, appears on Canada’s Got Talent singing Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song.” The choir, which launched in 2019, now has 60 in-person members and 40 virtual members.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• A Different Point of View: Healthcare IT’s History of Magical Thinking (Medicomp Systems
• 5 Considerations for Choosing a Clinical Collaboration Platform (TigerConnect
• Autism Awareness: A Personal Perspective (Healthwise)
• Modern love: Why modernizing the enterprise beats an innovation-only focus (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 4/13/22

Top News

Primary care company Carbon Health launches a diabetes management program leveraging technology developed by Steady Health, which it acquired last year. It is also using technology from Abbott and Dexcom to integrate continuous glucose management data with its EHR and patient app.

Webinars

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

People

The American College of Physicians promotes Daisy Smith, MD to chief membership and engagement officer.

Hint Health names David Cameron, MD (Nadhari Medical Clinic) CMO of its Hint Connect community of direct primary care physicians.

DAS Health COO Michelle Jaeger takes on the additional role of president.

Madison Mauzé (Vertex Systems) joins telehealth vendor SecureVideo as CEO. Former CEO and founder Jonathan Taylor will take on the role of chief product and technology officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Evolent Care Partners will use care management software and services from Strive Health to help its network of primary care physicians better care for patients with chronic or end stage kidney disease.

Mankato Clinic (MN) has adopted CareSignal’s deviceless remote patient monitoring technology as part of its chronic care management programs for patients with COPD, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, and depression.

Research and Innovation

For the fourth year in a row, ModMed achieves the top customer ranking for its integrated practice management, EHR, and RCM software, according to a Black Book survey of end users working in surgical specialties.

Other

Canadian Marc Cotran shares what led to his decision to hang up his stethoscope after 18 years in family medicine. It’s interesting to note the influence health IT had on his burnout:

… [W]hat disappointed me the most is the lack of technological progress in medicine. The app that controls my robot vacuum cleaner is far smarter than the electronic medical record (EMR) system I was forced to use. And I know about apps — I spent seven years building my own records system.

So many times I sat frustrated, begging my USB dongle to contact the mother ship to get results for the patient sitting in front of me — typing my password eight times in a row to finally get a partial response.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Improve Practice Outcomes by Outsourcing Your Revenue Cycle (AdvancedMD)
• Focusing on Public Health: Staying Connected with the Community (EClinicalWorks)
• 3 Benefits of Advanced Clinical Workflows in Alarm Management (TigerConnect)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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Become a sponsor.