Re: Walmart Health: Just had a great dental visit this morning, which was preceded by helpful reminders from Epic, and…
News 6/28/21
Top News
Nearly 500 One Medical employees (excluding physicians and other clinicians) announce their intent to unionize to address the mistreatment they suffered during the pandemic. Their complaints include:
- The company’s mismanaged COVID-19 vaccine program, which wound up making national news after company whistleblowers alerted the media to the fact that ineligible patients – some with ties to leadership – received the vaccine ahead of eligible patients, resulting in a congressional investigation.
- Denial of hazard payment to frontline workers.
- The wrongful termination of 19 employees.
- Hiring unlicensed and/or inexperienced phlebotomists.
- Sub-par care for community members who couldn’t afford One Medical’s typical membership fees.
One Medical went public earlier this year, and acquired senior-focused primary care company Iora Health several weeks ago for $2 billion.
Webinars
June 30 (Wednesday) 1 ET. “From quantity to quality: The new frontier for clinical data.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Dale Sanders, chief strategy officer, IMO; John Lee, MD, CMIO, Allegheny Health Network. EHRs generate more healthcare data than ever, but that data is of low quality for secondary uses such as population health, precision medicine, and pandemic management, and its collection burdens clinicians as data entry clerks. The presenters will review ways to reduce clinician EHR burden; describe the importance of standardized, harmonious data; suggest why quality measures strategy needs to be changed; and make the case that clinical data collection as a whole should be re-evaluated.
Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
Kindbody raises $62 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to $122 million. The New York-based company operates clinics in eight metro areas and offers virtual care. It will use the funding to further develop its proprietary EHR and patient portal technology and scale its offerings to employers.
Online health and wellness company Hims & Hers Health will acquire Apostrophe, which offers tele-dermatology and online prescriptions. Apostrophe CEO and co-founder Ben Holber will become CEO of the new Hims & Hers dermatology business line.
In Canada, CloudMD acquires occupational health clinic company Oncidium, including workflow management technology that will be rolled out across CloudMD’s network of providers. CloudMD has also acquired digital eyewear company VisionPros, which serves patients across North America.
CNBC profiles Doximity, the under-the-radar Silicon Valley company (often called “LinkedIn for doctors”) that went public last week to the tune of $500 million. Founder Jeff Tangney had previously co-founded Epocrates with Tom Lee, MD who would go on to found One Medical. (Epocrates was eventually sold to Athenahealth for $300 million.) Tangney looped Lee in on early phases of the Doximity network, using One Medical providers as beta testers. Tangney says its best advertising comes from Doximity’s 1.8 million users, and its best product ideas come from its annual medical advisory board retreat: “The best ideas come at cocktail hour on Saturday night.”
People
Remote patient monitoring program company Optimize Health hires Neha Ajmera (Lyft) as its first SVP of operations.
Jason Sears (Lockton Companies) joins Therapy Brands as SVP of IT and development operations.
Announcements and Implementations
Coastal Family Health Center (MS) selects remote patient monitoring technology and services from DarioHealth.
Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Hawaii’s largest FQHC, will implement an AI-based digital monitoring system from Foresight Health Solutions to track the health of COVID-19 patients.
Research and Innovation
PatientPop’s latest patient perspective survey finds that 61% of surveyed patients prefer digital methods for scheduling appointments, filling out forms, paying bills, accessing health records, and asking questions. Patients overwhelmingly prefer text messages for upcoming appointment and scheduling reminders.
Other
In Florida, Specially Fit Foundation owner and founder Mark Oliver launches Olive Health to provide house calls and virtual care for the disabled community he works with through the foundation. Oliver hopes to fill a gap in offering convenient care, particularly for developmentally disabled patients on Medicaid who often have to wait two months or more for an appointment with an appropriate provider.
Agilon health, Aledade, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, Catalyst Health Network, ChenMed, Elation Health, Everside Health, MDVIP, One Medical, and VillageMD launch Primary Care for America to drive policy change pertaining to patient access, workforce growth, and innovation in care delivery and payment models.
Sponsor Updates
- EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success story, “Record Retrieval Made Easy with Prisma.”
- Nordic and the American Medical Association publish a white paper titled “2021 E/M Transition: How Organizations Are Moving Forward Successfully.”
Contacts
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