Staffing firm Envision Healthcare exits Chapter 11 bankruptcy, splits off AmSurg clinics. One of the Big Bankruptcies earlier this year has been reorganized, cutting $8 billion in debt by 70% and spinning off its AmSurg surgical clinics to new ownership. The hospital and physician staffing company was hurt as early as 2020 with shortages of available staff, then the pandemic which cut patient volumes, and conflicts with payers around out-of-network billing charges. The last put the company in conflict with the ‘no surprises’ patient protection billing law that took effect this year. One particular legal spat with UnitedHealthcare tied up both companies for years, but was won by Envision after an independent arbitration panel this past spring awarded Envision $91 million, finding that UHC breached its in-network contract. KKR, which had taken Envision private in 2018, lost $3.5 billion in equity, one of their largest corporate investment losses. Henry Howe, the company’s chief financial officer, takes over as interim CEO on 1 December as current CEO Jim Rechtin leaves to join Humana. Healthcare Dive Background: TTA 12 May, 16 May
Walgreens fills its chief information officer vacancy with the interim CIO. Neal Sample was appointed last Wednesday (1 Nov) as CIO and EVP, reporting to new CEO Tim Wentworth and joining the executive and IT governance committees. Sample was appointed last month as an IT advisor after CIO Hsiao Wang left suddenly on 2 October. Both Wentworth and Sample worked with each other at Express Scripts, with Sample holding both COO and CIO positions there, then departing for the CIO position at Northwestern Mutual. Walgreens release, Retail Dive
Philips receives an additional $44 million from the Gates Foundation for further Lumify Ultrasound System development. The total of $60 million in grants starting in 2021 was for the development of AI-enabled applications to improve obstetric care in low- and middle-income countries. The Lumify handheld ultrasound system assists frontline health workers, such as midwives, in interpreting obstetric images and identifying possible complications during pregnancy in hours versus weeks of training. The system’s Kenya trial was successful. The additional funding will be used to expand global adoption in underserved rural communities. Philips release This follows Gates Foundation grants to GE Healthcare ($44 million) and Butterfly Network ($5 million) for easily deployed ultrasound and imaging systems to support low-income countries’ rural maternal health and respiratory scanning. Mobihealthnews
More on Orlando Health’s partnership with Walmart. Briefly noted here last week in Walmart’s release and reporting on Walmart Health’s new partnership with Centene’s Ambetter plan in Florida was the Orlando Health hospital partnership. This will coordinate care for patients admitted to the health system’s hospitals or who need specialty care. It is a first for Walmart as it has not previously partnered with local health systems on specialty and hospital care as an extension of its clinics. Eight of its 48 clinics are in the Orlando area. Becker’s Health IT 1 Nov, 6 Nov
Cigna is exploring a sale of its Medicare Advantage (MA) business. According to the exclusive report by Reuters (may be paywalled), Cigna is in early stages, at this point consulting with an investment bank. Cigna is not much of a player in the difficult state-by-state, county-by-county MA business, with 599,000 members as of 30 September, which is about 3% of their 19 million total insurance members. But it has been problematic, with Cigna recently paying CMS $172 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting incorrect data to obtain higher payments. By comparison, UnitedHealthcare and Humana have nearly half (47% or 14.5 million) of the national 30.8 million MA members (KFF). Becker’s
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