I share your concerns about a lot of similar projects, but I think this one's an outcomes comparison thing, not…
Monday Morning Update 6/12/23
Top News
Madison, WI-based news site Isthmus questions whether Epic’s non-compete agreements limit Dane County’s entrepreneurial growth as compared to Microsoft’s startup influence in the Seattle area.
A former Epic employee says that it’s nearly impossible for people like him to launch a startup given the two-year non-compete that involves the 4,500 banned companies that Epic lists as competitors and its “all efforts” pledge that prohibits part-time, professional, or teaching work while working for Epic.
The article also notes that Epic requires independent consulting firms, vendors that are listed in its app marketplace, and its customers to incorporate the same two-year non-compete terms.
Some of the former employees who were interviewed say they took jobs that seemed unrelated to Epic, but were terminated by their new employers when Epic inquired.
The FTC is reviewing its proposed ban on non-compete agreements, which is almost certain to be legally challenged.
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
A surprising number of poll respondents say their phone has driven life-changing improvements, with some examples being Pokémon Go leading to exercise, Reframe for sobriety, Apple Watch’s three-ring activity tracker, Strava for exercise, exercise trackers and monitoring, and calorie tracking.
New poll to your right or here: Has a non-compete agreement that you previously signed ever had a negative impact on your search for a new job?
My fascination with ChatGPT has been replaced by annoyance at the hucksters who are carpet-bombing LinkedIn and Twitter with dull, formulaic, and probably ChatGPT-generated drivel that practically begs for followers and newsletter sign-ups. They will disappear in a few months as they fight each other to be top-of-mind for short attention span crumbs, but meanwhile it’s getting tedious being swamped with repetitive content from self-proclaimed experts:
- Pithy “ChatGPT for business” editorializing from people who have never held a real job beyond self-promotion and who have no documented education, experience in AI, or success in running a company.
- Soulless, pointless one-sentence-per-paragraph eye-rolling insight haikus on LinkedIn.
- Recirculating low-value lists of ChatGPT tools, prompts, and screenshots.
- Making lists of predictions of companies or industries will be rendered obsolete by ChatGPT.
- Posting the non-clever results of the “I asked ChatGPT and here’s what it said” type.
- Folks, many of them in marketing and writing, who don’t realize that any leverage they get from ChatGPT will be quickly adopted by everyone else, erasing any temporary competitive advantage.
Webinars
June 22 (Thursday) 2 ET. “The End of COVID Public Health Emergency is Here. Is Your Rev Cycle Ready?” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Vanessa L. Moldovan, commercial enablement + insights program manager, Waystar. This webinar will describe the proactive steps that are needed to avoid increased rejections and denials. It will cover regulatory waivers and flexibilities, major shifts in telehealth, changes to reimbursement, and the impact of the end of the PHE on Medicaid coverage.
July 12 (Wednesday) 2 ET. “101: National Network Data Exchanges.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Troy Bannister, founder and CEO, Particle Health. It’s highly likely that your most recent medical records were indexed by a national Health Information Network (HIN). Network participants can submit basic demographic information into an API and receive full, longitudinal medical records sourced from HINs. Records come in a parsed, standardized format, on demand, with a success rate above 90%. There’s so much more to learn and discover, which is why Troy Bannister is going to provide a 101 on all things HIN. You will learn what HINs are, see how the major HINS compare, and learn how networks will evolve due to TEFCA.
Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.
Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock
A Business Insider article predicts a startup “mass extinction event” for startups in late 2023 through 2024 that may have already started, although with low visibility since “most startups die quietly and slowly” since they aren’t publicly traded. The result could be asset sales, recapitalization at lower valuation, acqui-hires in which companies are bought simply to poach their employees, and low-visibility shutdowns.
A researcher in Australia says that employees value work-from-home options because of – in addition to time spent commuting — poorly designed corporate offices that stifle inspiration and creativity with cookie-cutter furnishings, high noise levels, and interruptions, also noting that companies tout serendipitous conversations and collaboration that usually doesn’t happen just because employees are forced to sit in a room together. She says the return-to-office push is being driven by Theory X managers who think lazy employees need to be observed and controlled as well as economic concerns about commercial property values.
Sales
- The New York State Office of Mental Health chooses NTT Data to provide Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) services for the Child Support Workstream of the Integrated Eligibility System (IES) Program.
People
Cedars-Sinai hires James Jones, MHA, MSN, RN (UW Medicine) as its first CNIO.
Bridget Bell (Nordic Consulting Partners) joins Cardamom Health as VP of business development.
CommonSpirit Health promotes Karen Hunter, DNP, RN to system VP of clinical informatics.
Industry long-timer Michael Kendzierski died May 26 at 61. He retired a few months ago from DrFirst and had held executive sales jobs with Spok, Vocera, CareFusion, Initiate Systems, Eclipsys, and Spacelabs.
Announcements and Implementations
Orbita launches CallDeflectAI, a conversational virtual assistant for provider websites that answers common patient questions using only provider-approved documents and web pages. The company offers a 30-day free trial and promises a one-day launch.
Medhost will offer its partners the Sentri7 antimicrobial and sepsis surveillance suite of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Sponsor Updates
- EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Prisma: Enhancements & Benefits for Clinicians.”
- Tegria will host a LinkedIn Live discussion June 21, “Demystifying Cloud Misconceptions for Healthcare.”
- AdvancedMD publishes a new e-book, “The Private Equity M&A Playbook: A Guide for Private Practices.”
- Meditech publishes a new whitepaper, “Insights on the evolution and implications of healthcare workforce challenges.”
- NeuroFlow releases a new Bridging the Gap Podcast featuring Stephen Klasko, MD of General Catalyst.
- Nuance will present at AHIP 2023 June 14 in Portland, OR.
- Netsmart will present at the I2I Center for Integrative Health Spring Conference June 12 in Raleigh, NC.
- A new KLAS report highlights the success PerfectServe’s customers have experienced with its clinical communication solutions.
- Sectra will exhibit at SIIM 2023 June 14-16 in Austin, TX.
- Volpara Health issues a statement on the new USPSTF breast cancer screening recommendations.
- Waystar will exhibit at the FL AAHAM Annual Conference June 21-23 in Daytona Beach Shores.
- Optum, Availity, Bamboo Health, Surescripts, West Monroe, Ellkay, First Databank, Intelligent Medical Objects, InterSystems, Trualta, and Wolters Kluwer Health will exhibit at AHIP 2023 June 13-15 in Portland, OR.
- Medhost offers customers access to Wolter Kluwer Health’s Sentri7 surveillance suite with turnkey regulatory reporting.
- Zen Healthcare IT’s Stargate IHE Gateway achieves EHealth Exchange Validated Product designation.
Blog Posts
- EHR Implementation: How to Achieve Successful Change Management (HealthTECH Resources)
- Mount Sinai South Nassau (MSSN): One Teaching Hospital’s Journey to Adopting a CC&C Solution (Mobile Heartbeat)
- What You Need to Know: Revolutionize Your Rehab with Digital MSK (Net Health)
- Addressing the Rising Risk of Complex Behavioral Health Care on Our Healthcare System (NeuroFlow)
- A Window Into the State of Medical Coding in the US (Nym Health)
- Nurses of Note 2023: The Interim Director and Nurse Development Leader (PerfectServe)
- The Advantage of a Revenue Cycle Management Partner in Claims Denial Management (PMD)
- Honoring Breakthrough Healthcare Technologies at Premier’s Annual Innovation Celebration (Premier)
- Revenue Cycle Company Brings Medical Practices Live 66% Faster While Continuing to Grow Their Revenue (RCxRules)
- Proprietary new research is live – how Redox is exposing some of the hidden data roadblocks of cloud and AI adoption in healthcare (Redox)
- The Didi Davis Clinical Interoperability Showcase (Surescripts)
- Bringing generative AI to healthcare through the contact center (Talkdesk)
- Demystifying Cloud Misconceptions for Healthcare (Tegria)
- Leveraging Cerner Millenium EHR for a comprehensive Well Baby Program in Qatar: Integrating care processes and promoting early intervention (Oracle Cerner)
- Top 5 Reasons Caregivers Call Healthcare Providers: Insightful Guide for Health System Executives (Trualta)
- How to Purchase Therapy Equipment on a Budget (WebPT)
Contacts
Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Contact us.
not everyone headed to do the full 24
I had to take a position managing actuaries for 18 months before I could begin on an Epic implementation
Further to the Epic story, HCA’s founders encouraged entrepreneurs, sometimes backing them when they rolled their ideas out of HCA. The HCA family tree has evolved into the Nashville Health Care Family Tree. It’s truly impressive Madison is definitely losing out. https://healthcarecouncil.com/nashville-health-care-industry/family-tree/
At a previous company one of our executives commented that working with Epic was like working with a communist country.
Re: Epic’s non-compete agreement
I suspect Judy cares about the impact her policies could have on Dane County with the same level of seriousness that she cares about public health orders from Dane County. But has she considered the possibility that these policies drive labor costs up for the rest of us?
My head spins when I read that the duration is 2 years. I remember a time when Epic employees could be hired just a few months after they’d left. Judy used to justify her noncompetes by saying that it would be wrong for people to just be able to get trained and immediately take their training to another organization. While I’m not sure that was ever a rampant enough problem to justify even a few months, a short buffer of time was something I could get behind to keep from being the incubator for other organizations. What could possibly be her rationale now that she’s pronounced it must be 2 years that Epic alumni need to wait to use their skills? Especially when they’re barred from using them with clients and third parties with whom Epic is not “competing” in any kind of direct sense.
That sounds a lot less like trying to protect yourself from unreasonable competition from an industry rival, and more like you can’t handle what you should reasonably expect from competing in your own labor market. Heroes, even those who help other heroes, need to take care that they don’t become the villain.
I believe that management teams are susceptible to group-think, especially when the corporation is undeniably successful. It takes wisdom that most managers cannot bring to the table to see that the corporation’s interests are not always society’s interests. And society’s interests must sometimes take priority.
Unreasonable non-competes are one such area. Some outside force is necessary to bring sanity to this area of corporate life. The corporations aren’t going to do this on their own. If they were going to do so, then non-competes would not be a topic of conversation.
I mean, look at the chilling effects:
“Some of the former employees who were interviewed say they took jobs that seemed unrelated to Epic, but were terminated by their new employers when Epic inquired.”
All Epic has to do is to inquire. So Epic benefits and everyone else loses. That seems like a problem to me.
Judy and Carl will continue take anti-labor actions until someone stops them. The Supreme Court doesn’t seem particularly keen on that task, even less so given how the composition has changed since Epic v. Lewis. Even if the FTC does rule non-competes are illegal initially, some company will get an injunction from a federal court until the Robert$ court can make sure things are set right in favor of corporations again. The board of directors at Epic will never get in Judy’s way. Pretty much all that’s left is for Epic employees to form a union.
Is it still “Judy and Carl”? The latest I’ve heard is that it’s now mostly “Judy and the chamber of echoes”!
Or, in the alternative…
Just don’t take the job if you don’t agree with the philosophy.
Or, if you already took the job and are ok with 1 year non compete, then don’t take the free stock to extend your commitment to 2 years. Just say NO!
And, when you think about it at a level a bit deeper than the average Isthmus reporter does, if 4500 of Epic’s “partners” each hired 1 person a year, that would be a devastating loss for Epic and the customers it makes promises to install, support and enhance the software.
The problem is the non-compete itself. It shouldn’t even be a job requirement, in the vast majority of cases.
Epic has the upper hand (and employers generally), in the hiring phase. They can continue to do business and will be just fine overall, even if they don’t hire. The same is not true of an individual. The level of resources available to each party simply isn’t comparable.
Suggesting that there is a way to “work with” an anti-competition request, or even to “walk away from” opportunities that should never have been tied to an anti-competition requirement, is missing the point. No one should have to make choices like that.
The entirety of Silicon Valley would not have happened without employee mobility. Fairchild Semiconductor became the fount of a practically endless stream of new companies, new technologies, and new opportunities. Wealth far beyond what Fairchild could have done by themselves, was created.
Epic can take care of themselves. They will be fine. And if not, I doubt their fate will have much to do with non-compete agreements.