Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.
CIO Insights from CHIME’s Fall Forum. John Lynn attended the CHIME Fall Forum and tuned in to the CIO panel, where longtime and interim CIOs shared their thoughts on how the CIO role has changed, how CIOs can help to address burnout, and how to guide their organizations into the future. Panelists also talked about the path forward for digital innovation. Read more…
Unpacking the Future of Healthcare M&A. A recession may be on the horizon, but Rahul Rekhi at Lazard told John that healthcare might see a lot of M&A activity heading into 2023. They discussed why M&A interest is picking up now – and why a lot of potential buyers have been sitting on the sidelines for a while. Read more…
Telehealth Visits Can Improve Clinical Revenue – to a Point. Andy Oram talked to several experts about the future of telehealth. The consensus was that telehealth can improve revenue streams through more appointments, automated workflows, and lower facility costs – but the long-term impact will all depend on whether CMS and private insurers are willing to maintain current reimbursement levels. Read more…
Facebook’s Meta Pixel Faces Legal Firestorm for Data Breach Role. One-third of major American hospitals uses Meta Pixel to track visitor traffic. Anne Zieger noted that multiple health systems have suffered data breaches when Pixel sent PHI back to Meta when patients were using MyChart. Along with the breaches, Meta is facing at least three class action lawsuits alleging that Meta Pixel gather data illegally. Read more…
Printing Isn’t Going Anywhere, So Implement It Properly. Healthcare isn’t getting away from paper any time soon, between fax machines and backups when the EHR system goes down. John interviewed Summer Jones and Ryan Huisinga at at ACDI about the importance of implementing the right printing infrastructure and scaling up or down as needed. Read more…
Unpacking the IT Needs of HIEs. In the latest CIO Podcast, John connected with Henry Vynalek at the Ohio Health Information Partnership. They discussed why HIEs have unique IT infrastructure needs, along with the potential of HIEs to address interoperability challenges and improve health inequity at the same time. Read more…
High Costs Remain a Concern for Healthcare Providers. With costs rising and revenue flat, health systems and physician practices are struggling with interoperability. Colin Hung spoke to Patrice Wolfe and Thomas Thatapudi at AGS Health about how process automation such as claims retrieval can ease the burden on RCM staff, bringing in more revenue with less manual work. Read more…
Modernizing Medicine to Pay $45 Million to Settle Whistleblower Suit. The EHR vendor is paying the settlement to the federal government to settle a complaint of false claims and kickback allegations. As Anne noted, it’s just the latest of several Department of Justice settlements with EHR vendors over allegations of false claims and kickbacks. Read more…
AI’s Role in Healthcare’s Digital Transformation. AI is positioned to aid the industry’s transition from sick care to smart care through ongoing monitoring that catches early warning signs. The key, according to Faramarz Farhoodi at AI Nexus Healthcare, is bringing AI beyond pattern recognition to actionable recommendations for preventive care. Read more…
Featured Health IT Job: Clinical Systems Analyst with QuadMed, based in Sussex. WI (outside Milwaukee) or remote, posted to Healthcare IT Central.
Funding and M&A Activity:
- VillageMD acquired Summit Health-CityMD for $8.9 billion, with Walgreens and Cigna among the investors involved. The move creates one of the largest independent provider groups in the United States, with 680 locations in 26 markets.
- Direct primary care platform Hint Health acquired AeroDPC, an EHR and practice management vendor.
- Data archive vendor MediQuant completed its acquisition of Knowledge-Based Systems.
- Point-of-care advertising vendor CheckedUp acquired Health Media Network, which provides health and wellness content.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.
