Mid-week news roundup: US offers $10M for BlackCat/ALPHV info; most Change systems still down; Risant closes Geisinger buy; SureScripts exploring sale; DarioHealth 2023 revenue -23%; Amazon Pharmacy same-day delivery NYC and LA

April 3, 2024 | by

US State Department pays well for Big Breach information. Interestingly, this US agency through the Diplomatic Security Service has a special program, Rewards for Justice (RFJ), for cyberattacks that are deemed “malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)”. The activities of the now-disappeared (ha ha!) BlackCat/ALPHV  ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group, identified on 29 February as the culprits in the massive Change Healthcare/Optum system takedown, are now listed as qualifying for a reward, presumably as disruptive to US healthcare and not just UnitedHealth Group. Contact Rewards for Justice via the Tor-based tips-reporting channel at: he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad.onion (Tor browser required). That is, if you dare! Rewards for Justice release, Becker’s

Six weeks later, most Change services are still X-d on the Optum Solution Status page. A quick rundown of the hundred or so programs that Change provides to enterprises has a long line of Xs with some triangles containing ! (partial outage) or yellow boxes (degraded performance). The green checkmarks are clustered in high-priority areas such as pharmacy solutions and clinical decision support. Otherwise, they are scattered across categories. The summary on the top of page (dropdown) lists workarounds for specific programs such as batch processing and transitioning over to Optum systems unaffected by the attack. This Editor bets that most of these Change legacy systems will come back only partially if at all–many will be abandoned and replaced by Optum systems. Hat tip to HIStalk 29 March

Risant Health, the non-profit community hospital system founded by but separate from Kaiser Permanente, has closed its acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health as of 2 April.  Jaewon Ryu, MD, JD, currently Geisinger’s president and CEO, will move to CEO of Risant Health, with Terry Gilliland, MD, replacing him at Geisinger. The Risant plan announced last April is that Kaiser will fund $5 billion to Risant, which will acquire now four or five health systems over the next four to five years. The health systems will retain their names and operational areas. The purpose of Risant is to bring community systems it acquires greater access to capital, technology, and resources for facility improvements, innovation, and investment in patient care. Keeping an eye on 109-year-old Geisinger. Risant release

Mega e-prescription system Surescripts is exploring a sale. Silicon Valley investment bank TripleTree is handling the search for buyers. Currently, Surescripts is owned 50% by CVS Caremark and Cigna-owned Express Scripts, with two trade groups, the National Association of Community Pharmacies and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, owning the other 50%. It isn’t disclosed in the Business Insider ‘reveal’ what group(s) is interested in selling all or part of its ownership. Since Surescripts holds 95% of the e-prescribing market, any buyer or investor would need be mega flush to buy into it. 

DarioHealth didn’t have a great 2023. Net revenue was down 23% versus 2022: $20.4 million to the prior year’s $27.7 million. The chronic condition management company managed to narrow its 2023 net loss of $59.4 million from $62.2 million in 2022. A lot of the problems seemed to center on their Q4, with net revenue that declined to $3.6 million from $6.8 million in Q4 2022 and a net loss that increased to $14.3 million from $12.6 million in Q4 2022.  Dario’s gross profits for 2023 were down 38% to $6 million, a decrease of 38% versus 2022’s $9.7 million. The changing financial picture was attributed to a new private label platform with Aetna launching in 2024, changing from a B2C to a B2B2C model, and February’s “transformational acquisition” of Twill (Happify) in telemental health. As this Editor noted then, it was a feat of funding legerdemain that rivaled a Frank Lorenzo deregulation-era airline acquisition. Their information around 2023 earnings isn’t much different. Dario provides a combined app and in-person approach to musculoskeletal (MSK) therapy, diabetes (including GLP-1 drugs), hypertension, weight management, and behavioral health. Mobihealthnews, Dario release

And speaking of pharmacy, Amazon Pharmacy expanded same-day medication-delivery offerings to NYC residents and the greater Los Angeles area. This adds to same-day prescription delivery available in Phoenix, Austin, Seattle, Indianapolis, Miami, and Texas, including free drone delivery in College Station. How it works: Amazon has small facilities and pharmacists near the areas, ready to fill and deliver medications in minutes using genAI and machine learning tools. Delivery in NYC/Manhattan will be by bike and in LA, electric vans or other commercial vehicles. (Editor’s note: bike delivery in the outer boroughs is like LA–impractical.) Amazon Prime members have additional benefits. Competition here are online companies like Mark Cuban Cost Plus and GoodRx’s prescription service. But perhaps it’s a good time to sell Surescripts? Mobihealthnews

Short takes: PocketHealth, Brightside fundings; VA OIG reports hit Oracle Cerner; Change cyberattack/legal updates; UHG-Amedisys reviewed in Oregon; Optum to buy Steward Health practices

March 28, 2024 | by

It’s a relatively quiet week before the Easter holiday, with a few fundings, more drama at the VA around Oracle Cerner, updating Change Healthcare’s comeback, and the continuing scrutiny around UnitedHealth’s acquisitions:

PocketHealth garners a US$33 million Series B. The Toronto-based company markets an AI-assisted platform to health systems and providers that allows patients to access their medical imaging and reports as well as for providers to easily share imaging information. The funding was an all-equity round by Round13 Capital with participation from Deloitte Ventures, Samsung Next, and existing investors Questa Capital and Radical Ventures to bring total funding since 2020 to $55.5 million. The fresh funding will be used to grow further within the US and Canada and develop new platform functions. Patients have access to three platforms:  Report Reader to explain medical terms in the patient’s report, Follow-Up Navigator for follow-up imaging recommendations, and MyCare Navigator to equip patients with relevant, personalized questions to ask their doctor. The platform is available in 775 hospitals and imaging centers across North America and is used by more than 1.5 million patients.  PocketHealth release, Mobihealthnews

Brightside Health moves to a Series C of $33 million. This round for the telemental health company was led by S32, along with Kennedy Lewis, Time BioVentures, and Anne Wojcicki (Redwood Pacific) with existing investors ACME, Mousse Partners, and Triventures. Total funding since 2018 is $114 million. Brightside provides telemental health through payers in 50 states such as CareOregon, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, and Centene. The new funding will be used to expand into the usual new markets and offerings. Trip Hofer, who was former CEO of Optum Behavioral Health Solutions and now with .406 Ventures, will join the Brightside board of directors. Their most recent moves are expansion into Medicare and Medicaid programs for psychiatry, therapy, and their Crisis Care program for individuals with elevated suicide risk. Release

The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) released three reports last Thursday (20-21 March) that were sharply critical of the new Oracle Cerner EHR. While Oracle Cerner Millenium operates in only five VA locations, not including the joint MHS/Genesis Lovell FHCC, each one has been problematic from training to implementation–and are on hold. The OIG reports available here on the Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) are scathing on the EHR’s scheduling and pharmacy features leading to patient safety and staff usability issues.

  • At VA Central Ohio Healthcare System (facility) in Columbus and elsewhere, this led to inaccurate medication and allergy information transmission from new EHR sites to legacy EHR sites that staff and pharmacists had to work around to provide adequate safety checks.
  • Also at VA Central Ohio, the Cerner EHR system error in 2022 led to a patient’s missed appointment since it was not routed to a queue to prompt rescheduling efforts. Subsequently, a nurse practitioner never evaluated the medication refill request, nor did a psychologist evaluate mental status and critical clinical information. The veteran patient died by accidental overdose approximately seven weeks after that missed appointment.
  • Regarding future implementations, the OIG was specific on what had to be fixed on both: “These concerns include the need for additional staffing and overtime to meet or exceed pre-deployment appointment levels, displaced appointment queue functionality, challenges related to providers and schedulers sharing information, inaccurate patient information, difficulties changing appointment type, and the inability to automatically mail appointment reminder letters. At facilities currently relying on the EHR, these issues have resulted in inconsistent workarounds and additional work, increasing the risk for scheduling errors.” 

Healthcare IT News, Healthcare Dive, EHR Intelligence, TTA 22 Feb

Change Healthcare’s systems are gradually returning. Since our last update on 14 March, UnitedHealth Group confirmed that 99% of pharmacy network services were up and running–and that they have fronted $2 billion to providers. Separately, they launched workaround software for medical claims preparation.

  • On 15 March, the electronic payments platform was restored.
  • On 20 March, UHG restored Amazon Web Services. It was backed up from Assurance, a claims and remittance management program, and claims clearinghouse Relay Exchange.
  • Relay Exchange went back online by 24 March to begin processing $14 billion in medical claims.

But on the legal and Federal fronts, UHG will be keeping its legal department busy. Starting the week of 11 March, the first class action lawsuit was filed by a women’s health practice in Albany, MS–Advanced Obstetrics & Gynecology PC. Another class action suit was filed on 18 March by Gibbs Law Group on behalf of providers to be named. Patients who have had compromised PII and PHI will be next from the 4 or 6 terabytes of payer information held by ‘notchy’ and other affiliates from the BlackCat/ALPHV masterminded attack as this is confirmed. Expect these to multiply like weeds in May. HIPAA Journal  And the American Hospital Association, Senators and House Representatives are jumping all over Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure that payments are made to Medicare, Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage plans–as well as calls for investigating UnitedHealth. Becker’s, FierceHealthcare

As expected, UHG’s acquisition of Amedisys home health is running into more opposition at the state level. In this case, it’s the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) that will be conducting a full review. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been investigating the acquisition on antitrust grounds almost since it was announced in June 2023. Shareholders approved the $3.3 billion buy the following September, but it has not closed. UHG’s plan is to merge it into Optum’s home health providers Contessa Health and LHG Group, creating a home health juggernaut. As noted earlier this month when DOJ announced a further antitrust probe of UHG around the UnitedHealth plan relationships with Optum services, “DOJ has a long memory, a Paul Bunyan-sized ax to grind, and doesn’t like losing. One wonders if now UHG has buyer’s remorse after fighting for two years to buy Change.” (And winning versus DOJ!) Fierce Healthcare

Yet UHG goes on buying providers, DOJ scrutiny or not. Optum is bidding for Steward Health Care’s Stewardship Health practices over nine states. For-profit Steward, headquartered in Dallas, needs to raise funds as it is in debt overall and facing major problems in Massachusetts, with several hospitals at risk of closure. In any case, the company wants to exit the state. A purchase price was not announced. The transaction is under review by Massachusetts’ Health Policy Commission (HPC) over the next 30 days. The Stewardship transaction would add to OptumCare’s total of 90,000 physicians–10% of US physicians, a number that is raising red flags on the state and Federal levels. FierceHealthcare, WBUR

Can digital health RPM achieve meaningful change with type 2 diabetics? New metastudy expresses doubt.

March 27, 2024 | by

A metastudy from the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) has reservations about the efficacy of digital diabetes management tools. Over $50 billion has been invested in the sector between development, investments, mergers, and acquisitions. Generally, the claim around digital management tools for diabetes to aid self-management and prevent poor outcomes, particularly for those at high risk, has been that they can 1) deliver meaningful and lasting clinical benefits in reduction of HbA1c (glycemic control) and 2) reduce long-term costs of poor control, benefiting patients. In the US, diabetes affects 11% of the population and is an expensive chronic condition. It also disproportionately affects people of color and those with lower income, especially as they age.

The systematic literature review of 1,100-plus studies was augmented by interviews with physicians, patients, digital health experts, along with companies. They included 120 clinical references from DarioHealth, Omada, and Virta. The PHTI grouped digital tools into three types of solutions for Type 2 diabetes in adults. All used standard glucometers, not continuous glucose monitors/CGM as well as apps to provide real time feedback to a virtual or actual coach or care team:

  1. Remote patient monitoring (glucometer plus feedback): Glooko
  2. Behavior/Lifestyle modification (glycemic feedback plus coaching features): DarioHealth, Omada Health, Perry Health, Teladoc (Livongo), Verily (Onduo), and Vida
  3. Nutritional ketosis (dietary guidance that restricts carbohydrates and monitors the patient’s glycemic and ketone levels): Virta Health

The findings did not meet their expectations in demonstrating “clear, substantial, and durable progress toward glycemic control in people with type 2 diabetes, resulting in a lower prevalence of uncontrolled type 2 diabetes across the population.”

  • They did not deliver clinically meaningful benefits compared to ‘usual care’. Only three out of 10 comparative HbA1C studies achieved a meaningful difference of 0.5 percentage points (Minimal Clinically Important Difference or MCID) in patients. Their range was 0.23 to 0.60 percentage points compared to usual care.  The nutritional ketosis program had greater benefits as long as patients maintained the rigorous requirements of the therapeutic regimen.
  • The average price impact of the solution exceeds the savings achieved from the clinical benefits. The PHTI analysis looked at commercial insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid over three years. Provider reimbursement and pricing exceed cost savings from avoided care.

So where is the worth? The PHTI study recommended that:

  • Payers use these solutions for the highest risk and diverse/underserved populations
  • Regularly analyzing outcomes and tie contracts to clinical performance
  • Focus on patients with higher starting HbA1c newly starting insulin
  • Payers could also recommend nutritional ketosis as the Virta program had greater benefits.
  • Solutions could also evolve to include GLP-1 drugs, CGMs, and nutritional ketosis.

PHTI study (free download of full report, four sections, and appendices). PHTI press release.

PHTI is also offering a free webinar on Thursday 28 March at 2pm US Eastern Time on assessing digital diabetes management tools–registration here.

Why is the US DOJ filing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple–on monopolizing the smartphone market?

March 22, 2024 | by

The Department of Justice’s antitrust filing against Apple on the iPhone is a many-splendored thing–and will take many years to work through the courts. It was filed Thursday 21 March in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleging monopolization or attempted monopolization of smartphone markets in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. New Jersey’s US District Courts are in beautiful Newark, Camden, and Trenton. The DOJ was joined by 16 states in the lawsuit including NJ. Apple has promised to fight it tooth and nail, correctly realizing this goes to the core of its business. “This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets” and “We believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will vigorously defend against it.”

On the face of this, the DOJ antitrust lawsuit seems almost ludicrous. While iPhones have a 60% market share in the US (Backlinko), there’s plenty of Android phones from Samsung and others (sadly, no longer LG) at competitive prices from every carrier. This Editor never looked twice at an iPhone for personal use and wasn’t impressed by a short-lived company phone, a totally locked-down iPhone 6. (On the other hand, my second computer at work where I really self-learned computing was an easy-to-use Mac 2si, a long time ago.) There are about 140 million iPhone owners in the US. Obviously, Apple makes a product and ecosystem, including the Apple Watch, that people, especially US upper-income users, prefer. There are features that Androids have and iPhones have, and sometimes the twains don’t meet, but for most of us it doesn’t matter.

But does Apple act in an anticompetitive, monopolistic way?

The DOJ says yes. The complaint states that Apple uses its control over the iPhone to engage in a broad, sustained, and illegal course of conduct, using its monopoly power to extract as much revenue as possible. The specifics include some centering on the Apple Watch:

  • Apple has exclusive software features–apps–that Android manufacturers don’t have or don’t work as well, for instance Apple Pay, iMessage, Find My Phone, FaceTime, and AirTags.
  • Apple Pay blocks other financial institutions from instituting their own cross-platform payment systems.
  • Apple’s control over app developers in their ‘walled garden’, locking them in especially in the cloud gaming area, but generally imposing contractual restrictions on and withholding critical access from developers in the name of security and privacy. Reportedly there are 30% commissions on app sales. Blocking ‘super apps’ restricts not only developers but also users from switching to Android since they will lose use of the app.
  • Apple’s messaging systems are only partly interoperable with Android and have unique features not available on Android
  • App Store commissions and rules are prohibitive for many developers
  • Locking in consumers with features not available on Android
  • Lack of interoperability of the Apple Watch with Android phones, and other manufacturers’ watches with iPhones 

What is interesting is that in the Apple Watch charges, there’s nothing about how Apple has essentially stolen features from other developers such as AliveCor and Masimo as found in other Federal courts. That IP theft is outside of antitrust and being litigated in other courts.

Much of the heated commentary has to do with the Apple Brand Promise and how they deliver apps. Apple is an integrator and people like the ‘walled garden’. The phone ‘just works’. Quoting Alex Tabarrok in Marginal Revolution, Apple is a gatekeeper that promises its users greater security, privacy, usability, and reliability. Users trade off control for a seamless experience and it delivers. It’s desirable. However, many of us don’t need or want to give over all that much control and desire flexibility in a more open platform. Not all of us need or want ‘seamless’ features like Apple Pay and live very well without that or games. 

What will keep DOJ and Apple entertaining each other in court for the next few years are court decisions over the years that have favored Apple:

  • Monopoly has been defined in repeated decisions as market share in the 70-80% range, not 60%
  • The concept of ‘procompetitive’ means that if you can choose between open access and the Apple ‘walled garden’, Apple has a legitimate competitive feature.
  • Companies don’t have a ‘duty to deal’ with other companies
  • Apple as a monopoly has already been dismissed in other cases

The push towards the DOJ action has apparently been stimulated by the EU Digital Markets Act, which Apple will comply with, as well as Apple competitors in the US who have tried and failed to restrict Apple in integrating its services. Will DOJ succeed in forcing Apple to be more like Android? The debate will rage on. DOJ release, 88 page filing, The Verge, 9to5 Mac, Medium.com, AP, Epoch Times

Mid-week roundup: UK startup Anima gains $12M, Hippocratic AI $53M, Assort Health $3.5M; Abridge partners with NVIDIA; VillageMD sells 11 Rhode Island clinics; $60 for that medical record on the dark web

March 21, 2024 | by

It may be a little chilly out, but it feels like Springtime For Early Round Funding and Big Partnerships.

Anima, a London-based startup fresh out of Y Combinator, now has a $12 million Series A raise. It was led by Molten Ventures, with participation from existing investors Hummingbird Ventures, Amino Collective and Y Combinator. Its platform combines online consultation with productivity tools for integrated care enablement in one dashboard for primary care. Their founders position it as a single source for patient truth across care settings, avoiding missed diagnoses. As of today, Anima is deployed in over 200 NHS clinics in England caring for a combined 2 million patients and a monthly request volume of over 400,000 requests. They also claim to halve the time the time practices spend on coding, processing, and filing documents and resolve 85% of patient inquiries within a day. Shun Pang, co-founder and CEO of Anima, who trained as a doctor at Cambridge University, told TechCrunch. “The entire clinic collaborates in a real-time multiplayer dashboard, like Figma, and can ping cases to each other, and chat with a Slack-like UX.” he said. He also added that Anima’s processing system can “autonomously ingest any document, like handwritten, diagrams, imaging, and output a summary, with structured fields.” Anima has not entered the US market yet. Anima blog/release, Tech.EU

Hippocratic AI raised a jumbo $53 million Series A for what they term the first safety-focused Large Language Model (LLM) for healthcare. AI of course is the hottest funding area in healthcare. With two previous rounds raised in mid-2023, their total funding is $118 million (Crunchbase), creating a valuation estimated at $500 million. Investors were co-led by Premji Invest and General Catalyst with participation from SV Angel and Memorial Hermann Health System as well as existing investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health, Cincinnati Children’s, WellSpan Health, and Universal Health Services (UHS). Their product is a novel staffing marketplace where health systems, payors, and others can “hire” auto-pilot generative AI-powered agents to conduct low-risk, non-diagnostic, patient-facing services to help solve the massive healthcare staffing crisis. This is now being released for phase three safety testing with 5,000 licensed nurses, 500 licensed physicians, and the company’s health system partners. Release

San Francisco-based startup Assort Health now has a seed round of $3.5 million to advance its generative AI approach to healthcare call centers. Its goal is to eliminate front desk stress and call center/service holds. Their system in development uses AI and NLP (natural language processing) to understand a caller’s intent, then to integrates with the medical providers’ EHR, including Epic, to resolve patient inquiries without human intervention. Funding was led by Quiet Capital (!) joined by Four Acres, Tau Ventures, and a number of angel investors from tech companies. Release

Another generative AI company with a substantial Series C under its belt, Abridge, is partnering with super-hot NVIDIA.  The partnership also comes with undisclosed funding from NVIDIA’s VC arm, NVentures, to add to last month’s $150 million raise. Abridge is developing conversational AI technology using LLM and speech recognition to ease the burden of taking notes during the doctor’s appointment, with fluency in 14 languages across 55 medical specialties. Abridge’s technology is designed to capture clinician-patient conversations and structure the scribing. NVIDIA’s partnership will give Abridge access to NVIDIA’s computing resources, foundation models, and expertise in efficiently deploying AI systems at scale. Release

Another episode in the continuing Walgreens Restructuring Saga has VillageMD selling 11 practices to Arches Medical Partners. The practices are located in the Providence metro area of Rhode Island and consist of three urgent cares and eight offices with a total of 50 physicians and 75,000 patients. It is unusual because it is the first time that VillageMD sold their practices instead of closing the offices, which they are doing with 85 to 90 offices. Transaction cost was not disclosed but closed on 2 March. Arches is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They acquired these practices but also deploy software from its wholly-owned technology subsidiary, New Era Medical Operations (NEMO), to enable IPAs to negotiate and manage global risk contracts. Arches release, Becker’s, Crain’s Chicago Business

Wondering why ransomwareistes, their affiliates, and hackers in general are attracted to healthcare? It’s the value of a medical record. Going rates on the ‘dark web’ are now topping $60, according to CNBC’s source, a cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler. By comparison, Social Security number are a bargain $15 and a credit card number but $3. It’s also easier to hack than ever due to affiliate relationships termed ransomware-as-a-service or RaaS. The ransomware is supplied, the affiliate hackers do the work, and they share in the rewards–most of the time (see ‘notchy’ being scammed by BlackCat/ALPHV on the Change Healthcare cyberattack TTA 5 Mar). But this doubles or triples the potential for company extortion, with multiple ‘actors’ attacking a company, extorting a ransom, and then keeping healthcare data and selling it through their channels.

The article concludes that healthcare execs need to get very, very serious about protecting their data. Yet this year has marked healthcare downsizing IT departments in order to save money. This is as security software has proliferated–but has to be purchased and managed. Another distressing fact: this Editor only last week attended a major NYC conference on cybersecurity. Healthcare was mentioned only in passing as a market. Worse, till this Editor questioned a speaker from the floor, was the massive Change Healthcare attack even mentioned–and unfortunately she knew more about it than the speaker!

Weekend roundup: NHS Dumfries (Scotland) cyberattacked; delisted Veradigm’s strong financials; One Medical NY patients’ coverage clash; Suki voice AI integrates with Amwell; Legrand and Possum extended; Zephyr AI’s $111M Series A

March 15, 2024 | by

NHS Scotland’s Dumfries and Galloway region reported on Friday 15 March a “focused and ongoing” cyberattack affecting their 148,500 patients. Information is light at this point, but the region has reported system incursions that may involve the acquisition of patient data. “We have reason to believe that this could include patient-identifiable and staff-identifiable data.” Police Scotland, the Scottish Government, the National Cyber Security Centre, and the NHS have all been notified along with law enforcement. This story is developing. NHS D&G cyberattack page, BBC News, The Record, Cybercrime Magazine Top News 15 Mar

Delisting from Nasdaq hasn’t hurt Veradigm’s results in the slightest. As TTA and others noted in late February, Veradigm management telegraphed their strong financial state while announcing the acquisition of ScienceIO, an AI data company. These are all unaudited revenue numbers:

  • For 2023, revenue between $608 million and $622 million, net income from continuing operations is estimated between $49 million and $58 million.
  • For 2024, their estimate is for revenue growth ranging from $620 million to $635 million, with adjusted EBITDA of between $104 million and $113 million, with net cash of $140 million subsequent to the ScienceIO acquisition.

Veradigm’s repositioning post-ScienceIO will be around healthcare intelligence with scaled and proprietary LLM products supporting physicians & providers, payers, and life science research enterprises. Release

Now about those 2022 and 2023 financial reports that went sideways due to their financial software. Lee Westerfield, their interim chief financial officer, stated at the Barclays 26th Annual Global Healthcare Conference that the audit process is not only “prolonged” but also not fully in the company’s hands but with auditors. While they won’t say it out loud, it seems that Veradigm hasn’t let the Nasdaq delisting cramp their style, nor making money, at all.  Crain’s Chicago Business

New York-area One Medical patients caught in the UnitedHealthcare-Mount Sinai clash. Mount Sinai, one of the leading hospital systems of the New York metro, is in a dispute with UnitedHealth on their upcoming insurance contract.  Mount Sinai requested higher payments for hospital stays and physician visits, not unexpected given the duration of most of these contracts span several years and inflation has bitten hard over the past two years, but UHG rejected this. The lack of a contract as of Thursday 14 March means that as of 22 March, patients of Amazon-owned One Medical practices in the New York area with UnitedHealthcare and Oxford insurances (Oxford is an insurance brand of UHG) will not be in-network if receiving services through Mount Sinai’s hospital network. One Medical is part of Mount Sinai’s clinically integrated network (CIN) but apparently this has no impact. This Editor is betting that Amazon did not figure on provider/payer disputes of this type–it may be the first of many affecting One Medical with hospital networks. Becker’s

Some good news from Amwell around their new partner, Suki AI. The Suki voice-enabled AI powered digital assistant will be integrated into Amwell’s platform Converge. The voice assistant will not require a separate app as fully integrated into Converge and into Amwell providers’ existing workflows. Suki Assistant leverages natural language processing to help clinicians complete notes 72% faster on average, according to Suki, and also supports coding and dictation. A date was not specified for implementation. Suki has partnered with with multiple EHR systems, including most recently Meditech. The Amwell platform is used by providers at more than 55 health plans covering 90 million lives, plus 2,000 hospitals and health systems. Suki release, Healthcare IT News

In more partner news in the UK, Legrand and Possum have extended their now 14-year reseller agreement. Possum continues as the exclusive reseller for the NOVO range of Legrand telecare products in the UK and Ireland. Read more about it on TSA Voice and UKTelehealthcare. While you’re there, our UK Readers can also seek our supporter UKTH’s continued training events and resources on the 2025 Digital Switchover. Legrand is a long-time advertising supporter of TTA.

Zephyr AI raises $111 million in Series A financing. Revolution Growth, Eli Lilly & Company, Jeff Skoll, and EPIQ Capital Group financed a bountiful Series A scarcely seen since 2022. As you’d expect, Zephyr has this year’s flavor, having integrated AI into precision medicine for oncology and cardiometabolic disease. Zephyr’s earlier seed round of $18.5 million was raised in March 2022 (Crunchbase). From the release: “The new funds will enable Zephyr AI to further enhance its analytical speed and fortify its extensive collection of training and validation data sets. Moreover, the funds will support the expansion of the company’s scientific and commercial teams to expedite the delivery of its rapidly growing pipeline of insights to the market.”

Reality Bites Again: UHG being probed by DOJ on antitrust, One Medical layoffs “not related” to Amazon, the psychological effects of cyberattacks

March 6, 2024 | by

When It Rains, It Really Pours for UnitedHealth Group. On the heels of their Optum/Change Healthcare ransomware disaster are recent reports that the US Department of Justice is investigating UHG over multiple antitrust concerns. According to the Wall Street Journal, DOJ is examining certain relationships between the company’s UnitedHealthcare insurance unit and its Optum services unit, specifically around Optum’s ownership of physician groups. UHG has been aggressively buying and buying interests in practice groups for several years, announcing quite publicly that their goal was to own or control 5% of US physicians. In 2022 and 2023, they bought CareMount, Kelsey-Seybold, Atrius Health, Healthcare Associates of Texas, and Crystal Run Healthcare (Becker’s). Local reporting by the Examiner News in Westchester, NY, brought much of this history to light. In that area, it started with local practice group CareMount and their 25% layoff after being folded into Optum Tri-State with ProHealth in Long Island and NYC and Riverside Health–a layoff pattern that accelerated in the practice groups in 2023.

DOJ lost out on their challenge to the Change Healthcare acquisition in November 2022, deciding not to appeal the Federal District Court decision in 2023 [TTA 23 Mar 2023]. But DOJ never sleeps; they are examining with a microscope UHG’s $3.3 billion bid for home health provider Amedisys that started in August 2023 and has not moved forward. DOJ has a long memory, a Paul Bunyan-sized ax to grind, and doesn’t like losing. One wonders if now UHG has buyer’s remorse after fighting for two years to buy Change.

In the Alternate Reality Department, One Medical CEO Trent Green insisted that their reorganization and layoffs were unrelated to their acquisition by Amazon. Those of us who are a little less credulous know that with 98% of acquisitions, staff are laid off. Overlapping areas wind up being pinkslipped, no matter their individuals’ quality or even difference in business: finance, HR, legal, marketing, IT, operations, compliance, sales, account managers…the list is almost endless. According to the Washington Post article (also Becker’s), One Medical cuts, estimated at up to 400, also included front desk staff, office managers, health coaches, behavioral health specialists and a pediatrician–people who aren’t employed by other Amazon units. One Medical’s corporate offices in New York, Minneapolis, and St. Petersburg, Florida are closing, and its San Francisco office space is reduced to one floor. TTA 14 Feb

One Medical has never been profitable, as this Editor noted when the acquisition was announced as part of the “race to transform healthcare models”. This wasn’t going to last long with Amazon, which has been aggressively been cutting and dumping in other units such as Audible, Prime, and Halo. Marketing Amazon-style with deeply discounted memberships to Prime members also has its limitations. One Medical has a scant 200 mostly urban offices, which means that members outside those areas only have access to virtual visits. It had previously cultivated a patient population of young, mostly healthy and lower-cost urbanites, who as they grow older and have families might stick with the practice–or find it not compatible with or targeted to their needs in middle age. Management has changed: Green replaced Amir Dan Rubin, MD, as CEO last September. CFO Bjorn Thaler will move to a new position focused on growth initiatives. A layer of regional general managers will report to an Amazon head of operations, and legal, finance, and technology teams will report to Amazon’s healthcare business structure. Inbound calls now go to Mission Control, a central call center, and even those humans will be in future supplemented by an AI-enabled chatbot.

Iora Health, One Medical’s specialized (acquired) unit in Medicare Advantage and Medicare Shared Savings Programs including the advanced ACO REACH model, in October was rebranded as One Medical Senior, with an intention for all One Medical offices to serve age 65+–but with current patients, many with multiple chronic conditions, now reporting cutbacks in callbacks, appointment length, physician load, and services provided such as transportation. One clinic had 20 staff cut back to five with patients pushed out to virtual visits–hardly appropriate for a high needs, older, less technologically savvy patient population in value-based care, quality-measured models. Editor’s note: having had some experience in ACO and VBC World, Amazon may as well get out of ACOs because practices in these primary care models require specialized and dedicated management, reporting, and population nurturing. They don’t mainstream well.  I have also read that ironically, Iora was profitable for OneMedical, which is 1) why they bought it and 2) ran it separately.

In this Editor’s view, human costs are a factor shown to be absent from Amazon’s business calculations for success–which doesn’t quite square with the mission of healthcare for healthier patients and better outcomes.

Speaking of the reality of human cost, let’s spare a thought for those dealing with the effects of a cyberattack or data breach. They are the IT staff, pharmacists, software specialists, front line clinicians, billing specialists, doctors, therapists, business managers, coders…the list goes on. They share their feelings of frustration, helplessness, distress, aloneness, and financial fear on Reddit, Twitter/X and other forums. Few think of them taking the brunt of patient frustration and their state of mind day after day as Change/Optum’s disaster goes on and on. Writer Molly Gamble of Becker’s has the final and most sympathetically descriptive say in her brief but important article about When ransomware strikes, who to call?  A full read is recommended.

Helplessness or loss of control, especially at a collective level, can be psychologically and emotionally taxing. Recognizing a threat but not knowing what to do about it can increase one’s stress, anxiety and fear. The lack of a known end point of a cyberattack like Change is experiencing can intensify psychological distress. Some independent therapists, for instance, have noted they have halted their insurance billing for a week due to the downtime and expressed fear about going longer without income. 

These mental effects, while lesser-discussed, are exactly what cyberthreats intend to bring on. Cyberterrorists want to create mental and physical harm, and research has found that the psychological effects of cyber threats can rival those of traditional terrorism.

Short takes on a springlike ‘defrosting’: Redi Health’s $14M Series B, Dario Health buys Twill for ~$30M

February 29, 2024 | by

Announced during ViVE, Redi Health gained a $14 million Series B. Funding came from not the VC or PE Usual Suspects so in evidence two short years ago, but from Blue Heron Capital with participation from inside investors Refinery Ventures, Mutual Capital Partners, Rev1 Ventures, and M25. This brings Redi’s total funding to about $19 million, after early-stage rounds totaling $5 million.

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Redi integrates program enrollment, a patient assistance program on a mobile app and website, and co-pay strategies into a single platform targeting patients with multiple chronic conditions. The app includes medication and symptom tracking, a pharma assistance program, and a navigator that connects providers, field teams, and patient support managers. Redi’s most convincing stats are that Traditional Patient Support Programs (PSPs) contribute to a non-adherence rate of approximately 70%, leading to estimated losses of over $600 billion annually for the pharmaceutical industry, but don’t get into the cost of non-adherence in patient outcomes: morbidity and mortality associated with poor medication adherence costs $528.4 billion annually (PAN Foundation). Yahoo!Finance, Mobihealthnews  Hat tip to Steven Wardell of Wardell Advisors

Another sign of the times? Complicated Deals. DarioHealth is buying Twill, formerly known as Happify (and with a behavioral health app still known as Happify). Dario is putting up $10 million in cash. The rest is in 10 million shares of common stock (Nasdaq,  DRIO) in the form of pre-funded warrants for the benefit of Twill’s debt holders and equity holders. These warrants will not vest all at once but in four phases after closing: 270 days, 360 days, 540 days, and 720 days. As Dario stock is at about $2.50, this is approximately $20 million for a total transaction cost of $30 million. 

Dario has a combined app and in-person approach to musculoskeletal (MSK) therapy, diabetes, hypertension, weight management, and behavioral health. Twill concentrates on telementalhealth, initially on reducing stress and increasing wellness, but now has expanded to the mental issues around chronic conditions, pregnancy and maternal health, with tailored and culturally adapted tracks and activities. It is not stated if the Twill products will continue under their present names.

The combination of both companies is expected to double Dario’s pro forma 2023 revenues to $30.5 million, based on extrapolating Q1-3 2023 revenues: $16.7 million in Dario revenues and $13.8 million in Twill revenues.

The rest of the Dario release is a dizzying chronicle of funding legerdemain that this Editor hasn’t seen since her airline days when she sat in on finance meetings that would ultimately decide 1) how many cities the airline could open and 2) how much she could spend on advertising media to support them. There’s a $22.4 million private placement of convertible preferred stock, inducement grants of stock options to employees of Twill to purchase up to 2,963,459 shares of Dario’s common stock at a strike price of $2.55, and 1,766,508 shares, 733,562 in the form of restricted stock units and 1,032,946 in the form of warrants mainly to keep key employees of Twill on board, such as co-founder/CEO Tomer Ben-Kiki, as well as to other employees, board members, and consultants. Investment firm Stifel is listed, but again none of the VC or PE Usual Suspects. 

Twill reported only a single non-equity assistance funding through the PharmStars accelerator in Spring 2023, so Dario likely did not have a lot of investors to buy out.

Roundup: Walgreens’ new chief legal officer; Digital Health Collaborative launched; fundings/M&A defrosting for b.well, R1 RCM, Abridge, Reveleer; Veradigm likely delists, buys ScienceIO–mystery? (updated)

February 27, 2024 | by

Walgreens’ CEO Wentworth’s final add to Executive Committee named. Lanesha Minnix was announced on Monday as the company’s new global chief legal officer and EVP, effective 15 April. She comes from being general counsel and corporate secretary for Ecolab, a Fortune 500 water, hygiene and infection prevention company. As chief legal officer, she will oversee Walgreens’ global legal, compliance, corporate governance and corporate security functions. Ms. Minnix succeeds Danielle Gray, who left in January to “pursue an external opportunity” (Reuters). Yahoo Finance from PR Newswire

A new organization to ‘advance digital health adoption’ launched last week. The Digital Health Collaborative, a coalition of 14 healthcare and consumer organizations, is committed to “evidence-based, cost-effective, equitable digital health solutions.” Their initial activities are expected to include a national purchaser survey, grantmaking, and convenings. The DHC is supported by the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI) and led by Caroline Pearson, also the Executive Director at the NYC-based Peterson Center on Healthcare.

The 14 organizations backing the DHC are: AARP, AHIP, Alliance for Connected Care, American Medical Association (AMA), American Telemedicine Association (ATA), Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Digital Medicine Society (DiMe), Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA), HLTH Foundation, Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI), International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and RockHealth.org.

The DHC with support from PHTI has established a Research and Impact Fund for aligned research and programs. The first grant was provided to DiMe for its Integrated Evidence Plans for Digital Health Products. While a fine list, this Editor notes no payers or hospitals (end user groups) or cybersecurity organizations to advocate for digital health security. DHC release

Some funding and M&A action…zounds!

b.well Connected Health’s Series C clocks in at $40 million. Leavitt Equity Partners led the raise which tops up b.well’s funding to $98.8 million. Their last funding round was a $32 million Series B in July 2021 with HLM Venture Partners as the lead. b.well markets its FHIR-enabled Connected Health platform to unify healthcare data, solutions, and services for end users at payers, providers, and employers. Joining the board are three new members: Andrew Clark, Managing Partner at Leavitt Equity Partners, Ryan Howells, Principal at Leavitt Partners and Executive Director of the CARIN Alliance, as an independent director, and Hon Pak, MD, Head of Digital Health at Samsung. Samsung is a key partner of b.well. A key joint project involves giving Galaxy smartphone users control over their longitudinal health records, as well as proactive, personalized health insights via Samsung Health, with easy access to care from providers including Walgreens, Northwell Health, Lee Health, ThedaCare, and others. Is the lettered round an indicator of Better Times ahead? Release, FierceHealthcare

R1 RCM may go private via investor group. An investor group led by New Mountain Capital is offering to take the revenue cycle management (RCM) company private to buy up shares they do not already own at $13.75 per share. New Mountain holds 32.43% of shares and is working with an investment group that includes another major shareholder TCP-ASC (TowerBrook Capital Partners that has a 29.64% stake, plus Ascension Health Alliance–Ascension accounts for nearly half of R1’s income), putting them at over 62% if TowerBrook goes all in. Mr. Market has weighed in and says that the offer price is already obsolete. It  represented a tidy premium to Friday’s close at $11.10, but the current trading on Nasdaq is well above the bid at $14.45. Current shareholders such as Coliseum Capital Management LLC, one of the five largest shareholders, have already stated to the board that the company is undervalued at the offer price. R1 traded in the $18 as recently as last summer, but hit a headwind at end of year with the loss of customer Pediatrix on implementation issues. But based on their 2023 performance despite this, the other investors are making a good case. R1 RCM is the largest publicly traded RCM company for hospitals and healthcare systems. They closed 2023 profitably with net income of $3.3 million, flipping a $63 million 2022 loss, on a revenue increase of nearly 25% to $2.3 billion.  Reuters, Healthcare Dive

Abridge, a clinical documentation and ‘clinical conversation’ company, is enjoying a lush Series C of $150 million led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures leading five other investors. Abridge has a conversational AI technology using LLM and speech recognition to ease the burden of taking notes during the doctor’s appointment and states it is fluent in 14 languages across 55 medical specialties. Its last raise was a $30 million Series B just last October. A good reason why both is that it is fully integrated within Epic. According to HISTalk, Lightspeed advisor Paul Ricci is a former chairman and CEO of Nuance, one of Abridge’s biggest competitors, so one has to assume he knows what’s what inside this technology. Axios

Another NLP and AI powered healthcare data analytics company, Reveleer, is also topping its tanks with a $65 million raise. Hercules Capital led the venture round on a total funding of $208 million. Release

Veradigm nears a delisting on Nasdaq due to reporting–but plans acquisition of ScienceIO, in what has to be a first. The continuing delisting watch on Veradigm (the former Allscripts) is fading to black with the company anticipating its failure to file needed financial statements with Nasdaq. Its stock continues to decline (today at $7.32 as of noon ET).

Since March 2023, Veradigm has had trouble with required reports due to faulty financial software and has begged extension after extension. The required reports due by Tuesday 27 February are for 2023 quarterlies on form 10-Q and its annual 2022 report on form 10-K.

Veradigm is also facing a slew of shareholder lawsuits on the decline in its share price [TTA 3 Jan]. To counter this, Veradigm announced today (27 Feb) that the board of directors is adopting a limited duration stockholder rights plan that issues by means of a dividend one preferred share purchase right for each outstanding share of Company common stock to stockholders of record on the close of business on 8 March 2024. This becomes exercisable only if a person or group secures beneficial ownership of 10% or more of the outstanding shares in the next year. The rights plan is obviously designed to compensate shareholders in the event of a takeover not approved by the board (i.e. a hostile takeover) via accumulation of stock and make a sale to an unapproved buyer less attractive. Release, MarketWatch/WSJ

Apparently Veradigm is healthy and profitable, according to analysts reported in Healthcare Dive. The company estimated unaudited revenue between $608 million and $622 million for its fiscal year 2023. Net income from continuing operations is estimated between $49 million and $58 million, according to the filing. This, coupled with its business as a data company, further adds to the mystery around their reporting to Nasdaq.

Simultaneous to the delisting, Veradigm announced today that it is acquiring yet another company, ScienceIO, that is (surprise!) an AI company. Veradigm will leverage ScienceIQs proprietary large language models on Veradigm’s rich data set and more. Acquisition cost of $140 million in cash (subject to customary adjustments for cash, indebtedness, working capital and transaction expenses) has approximately $44 million deferred, substantially all of which is payable in installments on each of the first three anniversaries of the closing date. Release

This is not the first acquisition that Veradigm has made with the delisting hanging. In January, Veradigm announced the acquisition of Koha Health, which specializes in orthopedic/musculoskeletal (MSK) revenue cycle management (RCM).

Updated 28 Feb: Nasdaq is delisting Veradigm effective 29 February. It will continue to trade OTC under MDRX until whatever time they become compliant with their reports. Veradigm is not appealing at this time. Healthcare Innovation. Veradigm release

Change Healthcare cyberattack persists–is the BlackCat gang back and using LockBit malware? BlackCat taking credit. (update 28 Feb #2)

February 27, 2024 | by

On Day 7, reports, like recollections, may differ. Today’s Reuters report (26 Feb) attributes the attack on Change Healthcare, which has snarled pharmacies and hospitals since Wednesday [TTA 23 Feb], to a revived BlackCat (a/k/a ALPHV) ransomware operation. Readers will recall that the FBI busted BlackCat right before Christmas last year, seizing their operational darknet websites and putting up a most showy home screen. They worked their way into the BlackCat operation via their affiliate operation. However, BlackCat rebooted a few days later, made an appearance, and went back underground. As Bleeping Computer predicted then, BlackCat is apparently back and, adding insult, not even under a new name. 

Bleeping Computer today reported that BlackCat’s hack went through a critical ConnectWise ScreenConnect auth bypass flaw (CVE-2024-1708 and 1709) which was actively exploited in attacks to deploy ransomware on unpatched servers. This was confirmed by Reuters and Health-ISAC, a healthcare-focused organization engaged in cyber best practices and threat intelligence, via the American Hospital Association’s AHA Cybersecurity Advisory today (26 Feb). AHA is advising healthcare organizations to actively reevaluate their connection or disconnection status of Change Healthcare systems which have been deemed safe by Optum.

As of today, BlackCat did not claim credit for taking down Change’s systems nor is there any report of a ransom demand. It is perhaps too early to determine if there has been any data theft. Nor are there reports of other healthcare or other organizations being attacked through the ScreenConnect flaw.

Optum has a page detailing the status of Change Healthcare’s individual systems here. Optum has a statement that has remained nearly the same on issues with connectivity since last Wednesday.* This Editor’s experience of the page is that it needs refreshing to view the full version. Regarding the systems, they are a long list to scroll through and your Editor lost count after 100. Most have red Xs by them. Some systems are checked green. Change is also holding Zoom calls to update partners. Reuters reported that Alphabet’s cybersecurity unit Mandiant is in charge of investigating the attack.

Change Healthcare processes 15 billion healthcare claims annually. This attack seems to have hit their pharmacy software the hardest. These software tools are used to verify patient eligibility for specific medication and also their insurance coverage. The outage not only covers the big chains like CVS and Walgreens, but also Tricare and the Military Health System (MHS) globally. TTA 22 Feb, updated 23 Feb.

A Friday report in SC Magazine indicated that the malware used by BlackCat was a strain of LockBit malware going through the ConnectWise ScreenConnect bypass flaw. Their source, Toby Goucker, chief security officer at First Health Advisory, stated that their firm found the ScreenConnect flaws and sent out a notification on 19 February. Goucker noted that bad actors prey on the gap between when these vulnerabilities are uncovered and announced, but before when patches are applied. However, Goucker was not able to confirm that Change uses ScreenConnect.

Ironically, the LockBit ransomwareistes were busted only last week by a combined UK NCA and US DOJ/FBI effort. Like weeds, they never go away entirely.

Oddly, Change Healthcare’s website home page does not have a notice about their problem or direct to a page on their or UHG’s site about it for assistance. We know you’re busy, guys, but from this Editor’s marketing perspective not having an information banner and redirect to the Optum page is a basic communication failure.

**This is a developing story and will be updated.**

*Update 27 Feb 9am Eastern Time.

A repeat of Optum’s boilerplate statement on their page today indicates this cyberattack is still unresolved for most of Change Healthcare–and will remain unresolved at least through today:

Update – Change Healthcare is experiencing a cyber security issue, and our experts are working to address the matter. Once we became aware of the outside threat, and in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect Change Healthcare’s systems to prevent further impact. This action was taken so our customers and partners do not need to. We have a high-level of confidence that Optum, UnitedHealthcare and UnitedHealth Group systems have not been affected by this issue.

We are working on multiple approaches to restore the impacted environment and will not take any shortcuts or take any additional risk as we bring our systems back online. We will continue to be proactive and aggressive with all our systems and if we suspect any issue with the system, we will immediately take action and disconnect. The disruption is expected to last at least through the day. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.
Feb 27, 2024 – 09:03 EST

Identical message 28 Feb 10:48am ET indicating that the effects of this attack are now one week old.

Updated 28 Feb: DataBreaches.net (“The Office of Inadequate Security”) reports that BlackCat is taking credit for it.

“BlackCat informed DataBreaches that yes, they are responsible for the attack. DataBreaches has asked them if they are willing to share any additional details and will update this post if any are received.”

This Editor is also following coverage in the usually reliable The Register which added a reply they obtained from Optum: “Since identifying the cyber incident, we have worked closely with customers and clients to ensure people have access to the medications and the care they need. We also continue to work closely with law enforcement and a number of third parties, including Mandiant and Palo Alto Networks, on this attack against Change Healthcare’s systems.” They are not confirming the perpetrators. 

#2 update from DataBreaches may point to Change Healthcare as well as healthcare in general. Here is part of a Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) that is an ongoing #StopRansomware effort by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA was joined by the FBI and interestingly, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They “are releasing this joint CSA to disseminate known IOCs and TTPs associated with the ALPHV Blackcat ransomware as a service (RaaS) identified through FBI investigations as recently as February 2024.” The addition of HHS as well as February 2024 should be noted. “FBI, CISA, and HHS encourage critical infrastructure organizations to implement the recommendations in the Mitigations section of this CSA to reduce the likelihood and impact of ALPHV Blackcat ransomware and data extortion incidents.” Could this be behind what is going on at Change Healthcare–a BlackCat full-court press versus US healthcare?

And at least one major hospital CEO wants answers now. Tampa General Hospital CEO John Couris went up to Optum’s CEO Amar Desai in the speaker room at the ViVE conference in Los Angeles on Monday, and the answer was far less than satisfactory. “And his answer to me was, ‘We’ll have an update in two days.’ So I don’t think he knows.” Mr. Couris’ speculates that Change Healthcare will 1) not pay ransom and 2) will rebuild its systems in maybe four weeks–and how that puts hospitals like his that use Change as a clearing house for claims in, to put it mildly, a pickle. MedCityNews

Weekend reading: AI cybersecurity tools no panacea, reality v. illusion in healthcare AI, RPM in transitioning to hospital-at-home, Korean study on older adult health tech usage

February 23, 2024 | by

A potpourri of current articles. Hope you don’t feel like Pepper the Robot after you read them!

AI won’t boost cybersecurity, that’s cutting corners (Cybernews)

AI tools that make cybersecurity more effective and faster in response are increasingly available. They are estimated in a Techopedia article rounding up multiple studies to be a global market of over $133 billion by 2030. IBM claims that organizations with AI cybersecurity took 100 days less to identify and contain data breaches. Yet AI can also leave organizations more vulnerable to cyberattack. Hackers and ransomwareistes have been using AI for years in phishing and vishing (phone-based social engineering) attacks–now using OpenAI. What’s vulnerable? Large language models (LLMs) used in generative AI (AI with the ability to create content) can be corrupted and fed false information [TTA 7 Feb] or create deepfake images–Google Gemini is the latest example (not in article). FTA: “We need human critical thinking to use AI to solve and prevent problems. We’re adopting AI far faster than we have the ability to understand how to adopt it properly.” Another approach is to think like a cybercriminal and use AI to better understand how criminals can break into your systems.

What is real and what is illusion with healthcare AI? (03:16 video, Healthcare IT News)

This is a preview of a HIMSS24 talk on 11 March by Dr. Jonathan Chen, assistant professor at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research. Patient care and outcomes are dependent on discerning what is real and what is not, especially in the use of chatbots in patient notes. Generative AI can be very convincing even if it’s not accurate, and that is not what is wanted in patient care. We are at the Gartner Peak of Inflated Expectations when it comes to AI–and we’ve been there before.

RPM strategies for moving from discharge to hospital-at-home care (Healthcare IT News) 

How can the home be better treated as a fundamental care setting? Understanding this is key to transitioning patients from in-hospital acute care to hospital-at-home, which is in reality not being discharged and requires managing a significant number of complex layers. Interview with Cindy Gaines, RN, chief clinical transformation officer at Lumeon, a clinical automation company.

Tailor fit digital health tech to the elderly’s needs: study (Mobihealthnews)

This summarizes a South Korean study that compared the usage of digital devices, such as smartphone apps, health apps, and wearables, among healthy and pre-frail/frail Koreans aged 65+. Smartphone use is nearly universal in South Korea, but wearables are only lightly used. Frailer respondents used social media more than healthy ones and used more healthcare apps on their phones. From the study: “There was a notable difference in the services used by pre-frail and frail respondents compared to healthy respondents. Therefore, when developing digital devices for pre-frail and frail older adults, it is crucial to incorporate customized services that meet their unique needs, particularly those services that they frequently use.”

505 participants completed the survey, with 153 (30.3%) identified as pre-frail or frail and 352 (69.7%) as healthy. Full study in the Journal of Korean Medical Science 27 November 2023

Breaking: Walgreens’ VillageMD shutting in Florida; Change Healthcare system websites cyberattacked (updated 23 Feb)

February 22, 2024 | by

The New Reality Strikes Again. Walgreens is closing all VillageMD locations in Florida. In addition to the 14 already closed, an additional 38 will be shuttered on 15 March for a total of 52. These are all co-located and attached to Walgreens locations (left).

Florida was a major expansion market for co-located clinics and its third largest market following Texas and Arizona) according to a report by investment analyst Jefferies.  In October, Walgreens announced the closure of 60 Village Medical locations in ‘non-strategic locations’. In January, CEO Tim Wentworth confirmed that about half of those locations were already closed. Doing the math, the rest of those locations will be in Florida.  Updated–see 29 February

Evidently, Walgreens’ US Healthcare unit views Florida as non-supportable to warrant a drastic move like this in a growing population market. Business Insider, which appears to have an inside track on this from the Jefferies report, “theorized” that many of these Village Medical locations were actually inside pharmacies–too small to attract patients and to recruit primary care doctors. If this is true, for a company that prides itself on retail know-how, as in the old real estate saw ‘location-location-location’, it has made a major and costly misstep.

Walgreens has sunk close to $9 billion into VillageMD: $5.2 billion for the majority stake and another $3.5 billion to aid with the Summit Health/CityMD buy. This does not include the earlier minority investment in VillageMD, so the total is likely well north of $10 billion. It all looked very different in 2020 when it was ‘go big or go home’. One wonders if VillageMD / Village Medical or its parts are on the selling block along with Shields Health if Walgreens has decided on a major strategic change.  Healthcare Dive

And another Reality is Cyberattack. Revenue cycle management and leading patient payment processor Change Healthcare is the latest victim. It notified users that it was disconnecting systems hours after Wednesday morning Eastern Time when it noticed disruptions to some applications that grew into “enterprise-wide connectivity issues.” The disruption is continuing into today (Thursday 22 Feb). There are few public specifics other than the timing and confirmation of the attack as of now, but it appears to have reached down to the local pharmacy level, into providers of all sizes, and shut down nearly every Change Healthcare system. This Editor visited the main website, which appears altered (shrunken); attempts to go to connecting links go to blank screens. Optum is not disclosing further information and perhaps shouldn’t at this point. Change Healthcare is part of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and processes 15 billion transactions a year filled with PHI and PII, which adds to the scariness factor. TechCrunch, Becker’s, HealthITSecurity   This is a developing story and will be updated

Update 22 Feb: HISTalk reports that athenahealth customers are also affected, as their electronic data interchange is supported by Change Healthcare technology.

UnitedHealth Group said in an SEC filing that a “suspected nation-state associated cybersecurity threat actor” gained access to Change Healthcare’s information technology systems. It “cannot estimate the duration or extent of the disruption at this time.” UnitedHealth has retained security experts and was working with law enforcement. As of Thursday evening, the disruption continues and affects pharmacies nationwide in an inability to process insurance claims for prescriptions. Healthcare services are also being disrupted, said an unnamed director at a regional hospital system in Pennsylvania. Reuters

Update 23 Feb: Further corroboration in Fox Business on the above and continuing effects on pharmacies. Tricare, which covers active and retired military, stated on its website in a news release that this is impacting all military pharmacies worldwide. “Military clinics and hospitals will provide outpatient prescriptions through a manual procedure” until the ongoing cyberattack against Change Healthcare “is resolved.”

In more unwelcome news that this cyberattack is ongoing, the American Hospital Association (AHA) is formally advising healthcare facilities to not only disconnect from Change/Optum, but also check their own IT for vulnerabilities. AHA notice.  Also WSJ (not paywalled)

Teladoc closes 2023 with improved $220M loss, but weak forecast for 2024 leads to stock skid

February 22, 2024 | by

A falling tide sinks most boats. If you were riding the telehealth pandemic tide, as Amwell [TTA 15 Feb] and Teladoc did, these last two years were the worst kind of shock. Teladoc’s 2022 was an annus horribilis–the Livongo acquisition went $6.6 billion worth of sideways [TTA 3 Feb 23], wiping out their 2022 with writedowns culminating in a $13.7 billion annual loss. Their 2023 was a lot better, beating analysts’ estimates, but forecast growth is slowing to a crawl.

  • Q4 revenue was up 4% to $661 million, powered by a 15% gain in international revenue of $96 million and a 2% increase in US revenue to $565 million. Hopes for the heavily promoted mental health business BetterHelp fell flat too at a flat $277 million. Their integrated care segment providing telehealth services to health plans, employers, and health systems brought in $384 million, up 8%. Net loss was $29 million versus $3.8 billion in 2022.
  • 2023 notched an 8% increase from $2.4 billion to $2.6 billion, with integrated care accounting for $1.5 billion, up 7%, with BetterHelp revenue reaching $1.1 billion. But losses continued at $220.4 million–versus $13.7 billion in 2022.
  • Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization) increased in Q4 22% to $114 million, with 2023 up 33% to $328 million. BetterHelp’s Q4 increased 11% to $58 million, 19% to $136 million for the year.

This cheerful picture was negated by Teladoc’s downbeat forecast for 2024. Q1 is projected between $630 and $645 million, lower than the analyst take of $673 million. 2024 full year is forecast between $2.635 billion and $2.735 billion, with the analyst take at $2.77 billion. The analysts forecast a 6.8% increase versus Teladoc’s forecast of 5.2%, but the difference was enough to drop their share price by 25%. According to CEO Jason Gorevic, the forecast will be for growth at best in low single digits, which is not what Wall Street wanted to hear. This could be sandbagging–or reality. Telehealth visits dropped 45% in 2022 from 2020 (Trilliant Health), with more recent CMS Medicare data on visits falling 73% in Q2 2023 from Q2 2020. Other factors: telehealth modules in EMRs and population health platforms, many more competitors like Included Health (Grand Rounds/Doctor on Demand) and MDLive.

Teladoc post-Livongo writedown has assiduously focused on cutting costs, higher margins, and getting on that ‘path to profitability’, cutting jobs in data science and engineering, third-party (supplier?) costs, and more. Yet on the Q4/2023/2024 earnings call, the CEO talked up making technology deals for differentiating technologies such as machine learning and (of course) AI, as well as ‘tuck in’ M&A deals. After the Livongo embarrassment, perhaps Mr. Gorevic could give it a rest until notching a few more solid quarters. Quartz, FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive, Teladoc release

Telemental news roundup: Brightside Health expands Medicaid/Medicare partners; Blackbird Health gains $17M Series A; Nema Health’s PTSD partnership with Horizon BCBSNJ

February 21, 2024 | by

Mental health, whether pure ‘telemental’ or an integrated in-person/virtual model, remains one of the healthier (so to speak) sectors of digital health.

Brightside Health announced today a series of new and expanded health plan partnerships as well as expanded state coverage for Medicare and Medicaid plans.

  • CareOregon with a new contract to serve Medicaid beneficiaries.
  • Blue Shield of California with a new contract to serve Medicare Advantage enrollees.

These add to Brightside’s partnerships announced last October:

  • Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas–expanded contract to include Medicare Advantage coverage.
  • Centene’s expansion of coverage state-by-state, including Nebraska Total Care Medicaid and Wellcare Medicare Advantage.
  • Optum for UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members
  • Lucet for Florida Blue members

Under traditional Medicare, coverage now includes Texas, California, Delaware, Arizona, New York, Washington, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, and Illinois.

Beneficiaries and members can access Brightside’s virtual psychiatric therapy including medication, plus cognitive and behavioral therapy with independent skill practice, and Crisis Care, Brightside’s program for those with elevated suicide risk. With the new partnerships, Brightside is now estimating that they cover approximately 100 million lives–one in three US covered lives–and is seeking to further expand these partnerships as well as to traditional (original) Medicare Part B beneficiaries. Brightside Health was founded well before the gold rush in telemental health–2017–and has raised over $81 million over five rounds up to a Series B in March 2022, mainly led by Acme Capital (Crunchbase). Brightside release, Yahoo! Finance, Psychiatric Times

Blackbird Health raised $17 million in a Series A funding. This was led by Define Ventures with participation from Frist Cressey Ventures and GreyMatter, for a total raise of $23 million to date. Blackbird addresses the other side of the spectrum from Medicare–pediatric mental health in an integrated in-person and telemental health model–and serves patients aged 2-26. Blackbird’s care model considers in an ‘understand-first’ approach how children’s brains develop over time and the impact that growth has on mental health. Another unique aspect is that they developed a series of ‘Blackbird Biotypes’ based on 50 million data points drawn over a decade that identify patterns of behavior in clusters of individuals with similar symptoms-linked brain features. These assist in assessment, accurately identifying the underlying root cause of symptoms, and proposing integrated and personalized treatment plans. Blackbird claims this approach results in substantially lower use of medications and ED utilization. Last year, Evolent Health co-founder and COO Tom Peterson joined the company after his own family’s experience with Blackbird’s therapeutic model to help it scale from its three clinics and 40 providers in the Mid-Atlantic region. Blackbird release, Forbes

Startup Nema Health, a virtual clinic targeting a single condition–post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)–is now in-network in Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ (Horizon BCBSNJ) commercial plans. Nema’s model is virtual care for PTSD from evaluation and virtual therapy sessions, starting with intensive sessions 3-5 times per week for 2-4 weeks, through support from a designated peer mentor plus messaging and interactive exercises. Based in NYC, Nema is in-network with UnitedHealthcare/Optum, Oxford, Oscar, and Connecticare in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Horizon is New Jersey’s largest insurer. Nema claims that 76% of their patients no longer meet PTSD criteria after completing Nema therapy. Nema is at seed stage funding of $4.1 million from .406 Ventures and Optum Ventures, raised last November. FierceHealthcare, Nema release

Why this matters:

Since 2020, telemental health got a black eye (and then some) from ADHD and opioid medication-assisted treatment (MAT) providers such as Cerebral, Done Health, Truepill, and others. Thriving during the pandemic, many of them are now facing various Federal charges. Others, like Calm, are basically meditation and sleep apps. The real need, and provider shortage, remains.

The need for psychiatric care and support for Medicare and Medicaid covered populations is high, but clinical supply is low.

  • According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in announcing the state-based Innovation in Behavioral Health (IBH) eight-year, eight-state integrated care model last month, among the 65 million Americans currently enrolled in Medicare, 25% have at least one mental illness, with 40% of Medicaid members experiencing mental illness or substance use disorders (SUDs).
  • Yet provider shortages have worsened over time–as of 2020, The Commonwealth Fund estimated that an additional 7,400 providers (not necessarily psychiatric MDs) were needed to meet demand. Studies cited in Psychiatric Times (2022) estimate that the current shortage of psychiatrists, running at 6%, is expected to be between 14,280 and 31,109 psychiatrists by 2024. Distribution is concentrated in urban areas and their suburbs as well. It doesn’t help that physicians entering psychiatry in 2003-13 decreased by 0.2% and their average age is 55. Even in well-covered geographic areas, retiring doctors with no replacements have created coverage shortages.
  • For child psychiatry, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) reports that there are just 14 psychiatric specialists for every 100,000 children in America. 

Neuralink BCI human implant subject moving computer mouse by thought: Elon Musk

February 21, 2024 | by

The first patient implanted with the Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI) reportedly is well and has moved a computer mouse cursor by thought. Mr. Musk said this Monday during an X Spaces event, according to Reuters. The thought control is limited to moving the cursor around the screen. Quoted in the Independent (UK), Musk said, “We’re trying to get as many button presses as possible from thinking. So that’s what we’re currently working on is: can you get left mouse, right mouse, mouse down, mouse up… We want to have more than just two buttons.” This is rapid progress, given that the implant was reported on 1 February.

Ars Technica discusses a salient point, which is ethics around reporting a medical study via, in this case, social media, and by the company founder. It is not the way that research is conventionally conducted especially at an early stage. Ars quotes two bioethics professors who wrote a brief essay on this published by the Hastings Center. The PRIME study took only quadriplegic volunteers and the study received a go-ahead from the FDA for this early feasibility study. The money quote: “When the person paying for a human experiment with a huge financial stake in the outcome is the sole source of information, basic ethical standards have not been met.” (However, in the view of the Editor, this entire ethical standard was fractured beyond repair by the Covid fiasco.) The writers also target the researchers, doctors, and other medical professionals taking part in the research. But taking this further, what happens if, as in many studies of high-risk devices, things go wrong? If this Editor were advising Mr. Musk, I would tell him to let his company and scientists do the talking–and stay mum until more solid results are achieved, or not. The two bioethicists also make the point that it could raise the hopes of those with serious paralysis, but that is true of all medical research. Another interesting discussion on Neuralink’s potential is on Yahoo!Finance. Previously in TTA 1 Feb. 

Mid-week news roundup: Elevance-BCBSLA, SCAN-CareOregon mergers scuttled; Amwell’s $679M loss, layoffs; Invitae genetics files Ch. 11; innovations released from DeepScribe, Essence SmartCare (DE), fall detection at Atrium Health (SC)

February 15, 2024 | by

The unforgiving environment for mergers continues. Two payer mergers that seemed fairly reasonable have stalled or been scuttled due to regulatory and policyholder concerns. 

  • Elevance Health (the former Anthem) a multi-state Blue/non-Blue payer, was willing to buy a struggling Blue, BCBS Louisiana (BCBSLA), for $2.5 billion. BCBSLA has again ‘paused’ the process and offer that started last year, with a second withdrawal (the first in September 2023) of its amended filing in December with the Louisiana department of insurance. They also canceled a policyholder meeting and vote scheduled for next week. The reasons why in the BCBSLA statement hint at significant and well-timed opposition to their transition from a Blue non-profit to a for-profit insurer. They reaffirm that they need a partner, but “now is not the right time to make this bold step.” This sounds very final and The End.  FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive  
  • Across the country in Oregon, two smaller payers, SCAN Group and CareOregon, called off a long-planned merger (December 2022). HealthRight Group would have brought together two non-profits with SCAN in Medicare Advantage in five states and CareOregon heavily covering Medicaid members. It faced opposition from Oregon regulatory bodies scheduled to rule on it in the next few weeks, with the state’s Medicaid Advisory Committee nixing it based on SCAN’s California-based ownership. FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive

Amwell not having a good start to its year either. The other large integrated telehealth pioneer provider announced earlier this week a 2023 loss of $679 million, up from $272 million in 2022, and a 10% cut in staff as of the end of the year. What’s eyewatering is that $436 million of the losses were impairment charges caused by a sustained decline in its share price during the first three quarters. The staff cuts will create $15 million in compensation-related savings, which after the amount of the impairment charges seem like pocket change. Revenue declined 6% versus 2022. Some of this is related to Amwell’s transition from its original system to the new Converge platform.

But as typically in the bad news/good news paradigm, there is a ‘path to profitability’ charted by 2025 boosted by a major contract with the US Defense Health Agency in partnership with Leidos. This is part of the Digital First initiative for the Military Health System (MHS) and will replace the MHS Video Connect system with Amwell Converge, a contract that is worth up to $180 million [TTA 2 Nov 23]. In 2024, Amwell will concentrate on expanding its tech partnerships with current customers and winning new clients, according to management on the earnings call. Amwell’s shares are a cheap buy at just over $1.30, but this Editor’s experience is that Federal contracts especially with DOD or related are unpredictable in cash flow. Just ask Oracle. FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive

Invitae, a genetics testing data company, filed Chapter 11. It’s another sign that this former darling sector of health tech/biotech has fallen on hard times (see 23andMe, TTA 2 Feb). This week’s filing in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, an unusual venue for this San Francisco-based company, requests the court to permit the use of cash on hand to fund continued operations as it seeks to sell. The company listed assets of $500 million to $1 billion, but liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion. Invitae went public back in 2015 as a provider-patient driven genetics company previously spun off from Genomic Health. Their shares reached a high of over $56 in the crazy days of December 2020. Shares on OTC are now $0.019. Mobihealthnews, Reuters, Invitae release

Enough with the bad news–let’s look at some innovations.

DeepScribe, a generative AI platform for medical documentation, yesterday announced their new Trust and Safety Suite with three new features:

  1. Clinical Moments: This allows users to trace AI-generated medical notes back to their origins in the clinical conversation
  2. Note Insights: an audit dashboard that provides administrators with a snapshot of DeepScribe’s performance across an organization
  3. Expert Human Audits: DeepScribe’s expert human audits team will review notes and grade the outputs against DeepScribe’s clinical accuracy framework for users and administrators, and then provide customized suggestions to improve output accuracy.

Release, also HIT Consultant

Essence SmartCare was selected as the sole technology provider for Germany’s INES project. INES (intelligent emergency detection system) is an older adult support initiative led by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), one of the largest health insurance funds in Germany, with the participation of nine other partners, and sponsored by the Innovation Fund. The INES project objective is to determine how intelligent alert and emergency systems can improve the care of seniors living independently. The test in three regions in Germany is with 2,000 seniors 75+ living alone. It started in June 2023 and will be in place for 21 months. It will use the MDsense radar-based home monitoring and alert system plus Voice Extender that calls emergency services and permits 2-way calls from any room in the home. Israel-based Essence technologies cover emergency response for the care of older adults at home, on the go, and vital signs monitoring at home and in hospital. This Editor last covered Essence back in September 2020 and am glad to see them still around. However, will the system continue to be used in support of these seniors after the 21 months are up?  Release

Hospital fall detection with the aim of fall prevention is being implemented at South Carolina’s Atrium Health. This was spearheaded by nursing staff to replace an inadequate system for fall detection and prevention. The new system, the Hester Davis Falls Program, permits additional analysis of patient dynamics of falls, identifies trends, and implements targeted interventions to improve outcomes. More in Healthcare IT News