News 1/24/24

Top News

Eye Care Leaders files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The EHR and practice management software vendor has had its share of trouble over the last several years, including multiple ransomware attacks and subsequent outages in 2021 and an ensuing, provider-initiated lawsuit against the company for allegedly covering up the attack, among a host of other issues.

Also no doubt adding fuel to the fire is the fact that ECL founder and former insurance executive Greg Lindberg has been convicted of fraud and bribery, and is still facing multiple lawsuits related to questionable business practices.

Webinars

None scheduled in the coming weeks. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Tech-enabled practice management and optimization company Apollo Medical Holdings will rebrand to Astrana Health next month.

People

Apollo Medical Holdings promotes Brandon Sim to president and CEO, while CFO Chan Basho takes on the additional role of COO. Dinesh Kumar, MD joins the company as CMO.

Announcements and Implementations

Allergy and immunology care provider AllerVie Health is improving its digital infrastructure in the coming year, implementing a new EHR across its clinics in a dozen states, offering remote respiratory monitoring, and upgrading IT hardware and software to support enhancements.

Government and Politics

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services launches PA Navigate, a healthcare and social services search tool powered by Findhelp that also incorporates data from four health information exchanges.

Research and Innovation

The amount of time primary care physicians spend documenting in their EHRs continues to increase, according to an analysis of 141 providers between 2019 and 2023. On average, PCPs spend nearly 30 minutes working in their EHRs per eight hours of appointment time. Inbox messaging increased significantly in the areas of patient messages, e-consults, and prescription refills.

Other

Vivi Health will use Fitbit wearables as a part of its remote patient monitoring service for patients dealing with substance abuse. Vivi will use Fitibit biometric data to inform relapse risk assessments and custom recovery plans.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/22/24

Top News

Amazon reportedly begins offering its One Medical providers access to virtual consults with its Amazon Pharmacy pharmacists as part of a pilot project geared towards improving outcomes for high-risk patients with complex medication regimens.

As Mr. HIStalk pointed out last week, Amazon hasn’t made many changes to One Medical since acquiring it in 2022 for $4 billion, other than to offer Prime customers discounts on joining the primary care practice. One Medical, he added, “is now exposed to Amazon-recruited members who are older and less affluent than One Medical’s former client base.” It seems that this older patient base will benefit the most from the trial integration of services.

Webinars

January 24 (Wednesday) noon ET. “Medication Management Redefined.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Caleb Dunn, PharmD, MS, senior product manager, DrFirst. Clinical workflow experts will paint a reimagined vision for e-prescribing that offers enhanced patient adherence, customizable clinical support, intelligent pharmacy logic, and data integrity and safety. Join this first chapter of an ongoing conversation about what medication management should be, how to deliver greater benefits today, and how to prepare for the future. Elevating your solution and customer benefits isn’t as hard, scary, or economically challenging as you may think.

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

People

RCM consulting, software, and services company SimiTree promotes Tiffany Fuller to SVP and Brian Harris to VP.

Announcements and Implementations

Allied Digestive Health will implement Provation’s Apex clinical documentation and charting software at its 30 facilities across New Jersey and New York.

SiParadigm, a pathology lab based in New Jersey, selects CareCloud’s Central practice management platform.

Government and Politics

Beginning this fall, CMS will test a new Innovation in Behavioral Health Model through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The model is designed to help community-based practices better coordinate behavioral healthcare with physical and social care services through improved – and incentivized – care coordination. Participating practices will receive funding to support increased use of health IT, including EHRs; practice transformation; and technical assistance.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks shares a new customer success story, “Boosting Wellness Visits & Incentive Revenue in Healthcare.”
• Nordic releases a new Designing for Health Podcast, “Interview with David K. Butler, MD.”
• EClinicalWorks customer DePaul Community Health Centers (LA) adds Sunoh.ai ambient listening technology from ECW to its V12 EHR.

Blog Posts

• 7 Patient Engagement Solutions to Help Patients and Practices in 2024 (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/17/24

Top News

CMS publishes the Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule, which enacts firm timelines for select payers to issue prior authorizations, and mandates the implementation by certain payers of HL7 FHIR APIs to better enable electronic prior authorizations and for easier exchange of data between providers and payers. The final rule also adds a new EPA measure for eligible clinicians under the MIPS Promoting Interoperability performance category.

Webinars

January 19 (Friday) 1 ET. “Unlocking Reliable Clinical Data: Real-World Success Stories.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Alistair Erskine, MD, MBA, CIO/CDO, Emory Healthcare; Jason Hill, MD, MMM, associate CMIO, Ochsner Health; Colin Banas, MD, MHA, chief medical officer, DrFirst. Health system leaders will describe how they are empowering clinicians with reliable patient data while minimizing workflow friction within Epic. They will offer real-world experience and tips on how to deliver the best possible medication history data to clinicians at the point of care, use clinical-grade AI to infer and normalize prescription instructions in Epic, and encourage patient adherence to medication therapies for optimal outcomes.

January 24 (Wednesday) noon ET. “Medication Management Redefined.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Caleb Dunn, PharmD, MS, senior product manager, DrFirst. Clinical workflow experts will paint a reimagined vision for e-prescribing that offers enhanced patient adherence, customizable clinical support, intelligent pharmacy logic, and data integrity and safety. Join this first chapter of an ongoing conversation about what medication management should be, how to deliver greater benefits today, and how to prepare for the future. Elevating your solution and customer benefits isn’t as hard, scary, or economically challenging as you may think.

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

People

Kelley Blair (Therapy Brands) joins Nimble Solutions as CEO. Blair takes over from Nader Samii, who has become executive chairman.

Qualifacts hires Charles Reitano (Crestview Revenue Solutions) as SVP of RCM.

Valer, formerly known as Voluware, names Philip Dolan (Personify) chief growth officer and Jennifer Golladay (Engooden Health) VP of client success.

Announcements and Implementations

Autism treatment provider Hopebridge rolls out an internally developed patient portal across its facilities in a dozen states.

Government and Politics

California’s Department of Health Care Services launches two behavioral health services apps for families with children between the ages of infancy and 25. Brightline’s Brightlife Kids app and Kooth’s Soluna app offer age-appropriate behavioral health services and resources, including coaching, care navigation services, assessments, tools, and educational content, as well as crisis and safety protocols.

The relatively new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health is developing an electric vehicle-based program that aims to bring healthcare services to rural areas. Dubbed PARADIGM, the Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & InteGrated Medical care, the program will feature vehicles equipped with virtual care software and related medical devices. The program also hopes to eventually make on-board clinical documentation software interoperable with EHRs.

Research and Innovation

The FDA clears DermaSensor’s AI-powered, handheld, skin cancer detection device. The company will market the product to primary care physicians for use in routine screenings on patients over the age of 40.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 1/15/24

Top News

Harbor Health raises $95.5 million, bringing its total raised to more than $218 million. The Texas-based primary and specialty healthcare provider, which is focusing its services on employers in the Austin area, has eight clinics and two mobile units. It also offers virtual appointments.

Webinars

January 19 (Friday) 1 ET. “Unlocking Reliable Clinical Data: Real-World Success Stories.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Alistair Erskine, MD, MBA, CIO/CDO, Emory Healthcare; Jason Hill, MD, MMM, associate CMIO, Ochsner Health; Colin Banas, MD, MHA, chief medical officer, DrFirst. Health system leaders will describe how they are empowering clinicians with reliable patient data while minimizing workflow friction within Epic. They will offer real-world experience and tips on how to deliver the best possible medication history data to clinicians at the point of care, use clinical-grade AI to infer and normalize prescription instructions in Epic, and encourage patient adherence to medication therapies for optimal outcomes.

January 24 (Wednesday) noon ET. “Medication Management Redefined.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Caleb Dunn, PharmD, MS, senior product manager, DrFirst. Clinical workflow experts will paint a reimagined vision for e-prescribing that offers enhanced patient adherence, customizable clinical support, intelligent pharmacy logic, and data integrity and safety. Join this first chapter of an ongoing conversation about what medication management should be, how to deliver greater benefits today, and how to prepare for the future. Elevating your solution and customer benefits isn’t as hard, scary, or economically challenging as you may think.

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

Announcements and Implementations

Member practices of Community Care Physician Network in North Carolina implement Proficient Health’s referral management software.

Research and Innovation

A study in JAMA finds that physicians who respond to digital patient messages while on vacation are more likely to suffer from burnout than those, of course, who don’t. Seventy percent of survey respondents reported working during their vacation, with 15% logging at least an hour each day. Less than half of those surveyed say their EHR inboxes were fully covered while they were away.

Other

The Southern Oklahoma Library System makes available new telehealth pods at select branches, courtesy of grants from AARP.

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks announces that McKenzie Health System (MI) is improving operations using its EHR, clinical rules engine, and robotic process automation.
• Medicomp Systems releases a new episode of the Tell Me Where It Hurts Podcast featuring Juan Carlos Gallegos, RN senior director of product, Homecare Homebase.

Blog Posts

• To sit or not to sit: How a chair can affect patient satisfaction (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 1/10/24

Top News

Suicide prevention-focused telemedicine company Vita Health raises $22.5 million in a Series A funding round. The startup has raised over $32 million since launching in 2021.

Webinars

January 19 (Friday) 1 ET. “Unlocking Reliable Clinical Data: Real-World Success Stories.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Alistair Erskine, MD, MBA, CIO/CDO, Emory Healthcare; Jason Hill, MD, MMM, associate CMIO, Ochsner Health; Colin Banas, MD, MHA, chief medical officer, DrFirst. Health system leaders will describe how they are empowering clinicians with reliable patient data while minimizing workflow friction within Epic. They will offer real-world experience and tips on how to deliver the best possible medication history data to clinicians at the point of care, use clinical-grade AI to infer and normalize prescription instructions in Epic, and encourage patient adherence to medication therapies for optimal outcomes.

January 24 (Wednesday) noon ET. “Medication Management Redefined.” Sponsor: DrFirst. Presenters: Nick Barger, PharmD, VP of product, DrFirst; Caleb Dunn, PharmD, MS, senior product manager, DrFirst. Clinical workflow experts will paint a reimagined vision for e-prescribing that offers enhanced patient adherence, customizable clinical support, intelligent pharmacy logic, and data integrity and safety. Join this first chapter of an ongoing conversation about what medication management should be, how to deliver greater benefits today, and how to prepare for the future. Elevating your solution and customer benefits isn’t as hard, scary, or economically challenging as you may think.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Catalight, an Easterseals affiliate, spins off its technology and innovation group into a standalone behavioral health technology company known as Xolv Technology Solutions.

Announcements and Implementations

Sleep Advantage in Seattle selects CareCloud’s EHR and practice management software.

Firefly Children and Family Alliance (IN) implements Arize care management technology from Cantata Health Solutions.

Spectrum Healthcare will leverage EHR, practice management, population health, and other solutions from NextGen Healthcare across its seven locations in Arizona.

Research and Innovation

Provider organizations should focus their technology investments on the areas of clinical decision support, EHR transition, and remote patient monitoring, according to a recent workforce survey of 700 providers. Respondents included telehealth utilization and greater use and/or adoption of technology among their top reasons for considering employment with an organization.

Specialty practice EHR vendor 4D EMR incorporates Knowtex’s specialty-specific voice and generative AI clinical documentation capabilities, enabling more automated workflows.

Other

Philip Masterson, MD makes headlines (earning a mention on Good Morning America) after a TikTok video of him roller skating his way into retirement goes viral. Masterson, who rolled through TotalEmergency Care (TX) on his last day dancing to “Hit the Road Jack” by Ray Charles, says skating has been a big stress reliever for him during the course of his 40-year medical career. He and his wife plan to spend the next year living in Spain.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.