News 8/16/23

Top News

Urgent care technology vendor Experity acquires cloud-based, teleradiology-focused OnePACS for an undisclosed sum.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

My five-year-old, 32 GB IPad has been beset with performance problems that are individually quirky and collectively infuriating. I was about to fling it across the room like a Frisbee last night when I noticed that Apple is offering a new 64 GB Generation 9 version from 2021 at just $250 via Amazon. It arrived less than eight hours later, and pairing it up with its older sibling and copying everything over took just a handful of clicks (that ecosystem convenience is why I’m willing to be slightly extorted by Apple). The new one is snappy, with a nice display and a ton of available memory for a non-power user like me. The old one was too, back in its day, when it cost me $329. It feels like I got a decent deal and acceptable annualized cost both times.

Webinars

August 24 (Thursday) 2 ET. “RCM analytics in action: How to use your data to drive decisions + revenue.” Sponsor: Waystar. Presenter: Laura Tungate, solution strategist team lead, Waystar. This webinar will describe how to use RCM analytics to take control of your data even if you use outdated or multiple tools. Attendees will learn how to target improvements, describe the KPIs that are key to revenue cycle leaders, prioritize dashboards that spotlight organizational goals and build alignment, and how and when to apply RCM analytics to go from analysis to action faster.

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

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Italian investment firm Exor becomes the biggest investor in Philips, acquiring a 15% stake in the company for $2.8 billion. Shoe aficionados may be interested to know that Exor, run by the powerful Agnelli family, also has a hefty stake in the French footwear house of Christian Louboutin.

Healthcare market intelligence firm Definitive Healthcare acquires provider data and analytics startup Populi.

European IT company Cegeka will acquire Computer Task Group, a global, multi-vertical digital transformation consultancy, in a take-private deal valued at $170 million.

Hospitals are cutting back on their venture capital investing, Stat notes, shutting down or downsizing their splashily announced investment arms.

Sales

• The Veterans Health Administration will offer veterans access to digital educational medical content from Mediflix.
• Nashville General Hospital (TN) will implement Oracle Health’s CommunityWorks EHR.
• SSM Health (MO) selects diagnostic imaging technology and support services from Siemens Healthineers.
• The Health Plan Alliance chooses 1upHealth as its preferred vendor for interoperability solutions and services.

People

Cathy Donohue, MBA (Commure) joins CodaMetrix as SVP of product.

Annexus Health names Sarah Provan (PointClickCare) VP of operations.

Bridget Bell (Nordic) joins Cardamom Health as VP of business development.

David Singer (East Tennessee Children’s Hospital) returns to LCMC Health (LA) as CIO.

Announcements and Implementations

Lakewood Health System (MN) goes live on Epic.

London Northwest University Hospital will go live on Oracle Health later this week.

Williamson Medical Center (TN) implements interactive patient engagement technologies from Sonifi Health throughout its new postpartum unit and renovated emergency department and lobby areas.

Other

A ProPublica report describes how insurance companies used a CMS staffer turned lobbyist to convince the federal government to allow them to charge providers up to 5% to receive electronic payments, in essence charging doctors and hospitals fees to get paid the money that is owed to them. An MGMA poll found that large medical practices pay up to $1 million per year in fees, while AdventHealth says it pays $1.8 million. The report concludes,

The shift from paper to electronic processing, which began in the early 2000s and accelerated after the Affordable Care Act went into effect, was intended to increase efficiency and save money. The story of how a cost-saving initiative ended up benefiting private insurers reveals a lot about what ails the US medical system and why Americans pay more for health care than people in other developed countries. In this case, it took less than a decade for a new industry of middlemen, owned by private equity funds and giant conglomerates like UnitedHealth Group, to cash in.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center describes how it has reduced physician inbox message volume with changes to Epic MyChart. Some of them are:

• Clinicians are no longer notified when a patient hasn’t read a message within 48 hours, which was generating 60,000 notifications per month.
• Patients are told that they can expect a response within two business days and that messages aren’t read on weekends or holidays.
• The “read receipt” timestamp was removed from patient view since it triggered when anyone looked at the message, not just the physician.
• The message character limit was reduced from 1,500 to 1,000.
• Patients are allowed 14 days to reply to an existing message threat instead of the previous 60 days, at which time they must enter a new message.
• A MyChart information banner suggests that patients add common VUMC phone numbers as contacts so they will know to accept those calls.

Cooper University Health Care (NJ) will include an area akin to an Apple Genius Bar within its new facility at Moorestown Mall. Dubbed Cooper Connect, the area will have staff on hand to answer anyone’s questions about the health system’s app, as well as any health and wellness app. The renovated Sears department store is slated to open in November.

Sponsor Updates

• Clinical Architecture staff sort and label 3,050 cans at Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana.
• Virginia Eye Institute transitions to EClinicalWorks V12.
• Dimensional Insight will co-host a community hike August 29 in Concord, MA with HIT Like a Girl to promote women in health IT.
• Ascom publishes a new report, “Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS), a Clinical Safety Net, Drives Tomorrow’s Brighter Healthcare Outlook.”
• Baker Tilly releases a new Healthy Outcomes Podcast, “Navigating the 340B Drug Pricing Program for healthcare providers.”
• Clearwater publishes a new case study, “Fortifying At-Home Wellness Screenings: Reperio Health Teams Up with Clearwater to Safeguard Security.”
• Nordic released a video titled “Craig Joseph, MD, and his journey to Verona.”
• Current Health releases a new case study, “Care-at-home program keeps high-risk heart failure patients out of the hospital.”
• Spok announces that 20 of the 22 adult hospitals and seven out of the 10 children’s hospitals named to the latest US News & World Report Best Hospitals Honor Rolls use the company’s secure healthcare communications solutions to facilitate care collaboration and support exceptional patient care.

Blog Posts

• High-Quality Clinical Data Increases Risk Score Accuracy for Health Plans (Availity)
• The Role of Intelligent Automation in Relieving Staffing Burdens in Healthcare (Access)
• Are you tracking how often patients visit your practice? (AdvancedMD)
• Mastering the Revenue Cycle: Navigating a Four-Stage Journey to Transformation and Maturity (AGS Health)
• Identifying the right patients at the right time (Arcadia)
• Automation Saves Thousands for Meditech Expanse Implementation (Time is Money) (CereCore)
• Changes are Coming for the NIST Cybersecurity Framework: What Do They Mean for Healthcare and How Can You Prepare for Compliance? (Clearwater)
• Improving Clinical Documentation: Simplifying Fax Processing for Healthcare Providers (Consensus Cloud Solutions)
• Strengthening Healthcare Security: Moving Beyond Traditional Risk Assessments (CloudWave)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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