Bonus Features – September 17, 2023 – 20% of healthcare marketers worried about job security amid AI adoption, 53% of executives using AI to address drug diversion “very confident” in their efforts, and more

Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.

News

• Comments rolled in on the proposed Calendar Year 2024 Physician Fee Schedule. The EHR Association called for greater flexibility in the data completeness threshold and additional criteria to enhance patient matching accuracy, while MGMA called for a positive update to the Medicare conversion factor amid high inflation.
• Meanwhile, WEDI called to “indefinitely postpone” the No Surprises Act Convening Provider Requirement in a comment letter, given “almost insurmountable challenges” in identifying providers, facilities, and the ability to collect and transfer good faith estimates.
• The HHS Office for Civil Rights released v3.4 of its Security Risk Assessment Tool, with updated features including the ability for organizations to track response to HIPAA security vulnerabilities inside the tool.

Studies

• One in five healthcare marketers is concerned about job security amid growing adoption of AI, according to a survey by Tebra. That said, many marketers are using AI for tasks such as  keyword research (39%), content creation (36%), and content optimization (26%).
• Development infrastructure is far and away the most exposed attack surface in healthcare, accounting for 56% of all cybersecurity incidents, according to research from Palo Alto Networks Unit 42. Networking infrastructure is second at 18% and remote access services are third at 7%.
• With 79% of healthcare executives saying drug diversions go undetected, 67% or organizations are planning to strengthen drug diversion efforts in 2023, according to a Wolters Kluwer survey. Among executives using AI, 53% are “very confident” in their efforts.
• More than 60% of benefits consultants believe digital health point solutions will eventually be consolidated under a single navigation provider, according to a Quantum Health survey. The main reason: 60% say navigation services employer’s existing carriers don’t meet employer needs.

Partnerships

• Pearl Health is partnering with Walgreens to expand value-based care in collaboration with community-based primary care physicians.
• Robotics company Vicarious Surgical signed a strategic development agreement with Intermountain Health.
• PBM MedImpact is integrating with GoodRx effective January 1, 2024.
• Paymentus validated the Paymentus Patient Billing and Payments stack through Oracle Health’s developer program and now integrated with the Oracle Health EHR.
• AvaSure integrated Ouva AI-powered patient observation into its TeleSitter product for virtual nursing. Additionally, AvaSure released research indicating that two-thirds of nurse leaders see virtual nursing as critical to acute patient care.

Products

• Patient engagement company Belong.Life launched Tara, a conversational AI cancer clinical trial matching platform.
• Predictive analytics vendor Trilliant Health added national demand forecasting to its publicly available API offerings.

Sales

• Intermountain Healthcare and UPMC are transitioning to Epic from Cerner, with implementations expected to be completed by the end of 2025 and the middle of 2026, respectively.
• Los Angeles-area Adventist Health Simi Valley chose Luna for in-home, in-person outpatient physical therapy.
• East Tennessee Health Information Network chose 4medica to manage duplicate patient records.
• Central California Alliance for Health selected ZeOmega Jiva for care management, workflow optimization, and utilization management.
• New Jersey-based gynecology practice Seashore MD selected eClinicalWorks Project Kickstart and healow Open Access. In addition, Maryland-based Total Health Care is using healow to decrease no-show rates in in high-risk patients by 34%.
• California-based Cedars-Sinai affiliate Huntington Health chose Marvin Behavioral Health to provide virtual mental health services to employees.
• Eastern Kentucky’s Cumberland River Behavioral Health chose Accelecom fiber technology.

People

• Interoperability company Rhapsody named Sagnik Bhattacharya as Chief Executive Officer.
• Surescripts named Dr. Lynne Nowak as its first Chief Data and Analytics Officer.
• Data aggregation company Edifecs appointed Dr. Summerpal Kahlon as Chief Medical Officer.
• Telemental health provider Brightside Health appointed Julia Bernstein as Chief Operations Officer.
• Homecare management vendor HHAeXchange hired Tim Brewer as Chief Technology Officer.
• Sleep diagnostics company Nox Health appointed Brigitte Nettesheim as President.
• athenahealth named Neville Zar as Senior Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management.

If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo. Note that submissions received after the close of business on Thursday may not be included in Bonus Features until the following week.