Walgreens continues to tidy its accounts. The ten-year-old whistleblower-initiated Federal lawsuit charged that Walgreens violated anti-kickback statutes for Medicare and Medicaid was settled for $5 million on Tuesday. The claim was that patients at the Cook County Health & Hospital System’s Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center were induced to fill prescriptions at Walgreens’ specialty pharmacy by waiving copayments, an inducement that violated the False Claims Act. The lawsuits were filed in the Federal District Court for Northern Illinois by Sarah Castillo Baier and Rita Svendsen Baier in 2014, then by the Department of Justice and the state of Illinois filing their joint complaint four years later in 2018. The settlement will be divided between the two whistleblowers and the US and Illinois governments. This is Walgreens’ second settlement in the last month and pocket lint compared to the first; their $595 million bill for settling the $1 billion PWNHealth/Everly Health arbitration award came due at the end of February. Crain’s Chicago Business
UniDoc signs agreement to buy AGNES Connect from AMD Telemedicine. The Canadian ‘doc-in-a-box’ remote virtual clinic company has agreed to acquire the AGNES Connect business line, software, and customers to its present H3HealthCube product (right). Their NEIL Connect software for the HealthCube was already built on the AGNES Connect telemedicine clinical exam platform. Interestingly, UniDoc is acquiring the use of the AMD Telemedicine name for AGNES along with related goodwill and trademarks, for which they are paying a low US $175,000 in cash plus a revenue share. The Canadian Securities Exchange may have to approve, but the closing is expected shortly. The H3Health Cube was recently placed in Italy and Ukraine [TTA 13 Feb]. Release
This week’s three launches are:
- Klarity Health launches Kiwi Health. Telehealth and independent private practice management platform Klarity Health’s new Kiwi Health is designed as an an all-in-one marketing and communications tool. It provides practices with SaaS tools to set up and promote an online presence in 30+ clinical directories, professional website management, patient intake and scheduling, a patient portal, loyalty, and engagement. Klarity has operations in 40 states with practices serving over 100,000 patients while retaining 94.3% of its doctors–all on a slim raise of $12.5 million. Release
- Tunstall Healthcare UK introduces Communicall Digital. This fully digital warden call system is designed for supported housing and retirement communities including extra care environments. It enables residents not only to summon assistance through its alarm feature, but also to manage door entry and room-to-room video calls through a simple touchscreen system. The system also reports resident activity to care staff through the Central Management Platform. It is fully compliant with the UK’s digital transition requirements to the industry-standard BS8521-2 (NOW-IP) protocol. THIIS
- Ireland’s Ministry of Health launches the Health Service Executive (HSE) Health App. The initial release will enable Irish residents to access and store their health information including self-declared medications; view a list of medicines received through the Irish Drugs Payment Scheme or Medical Card Scheme; their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC); their medical Long-term Illness (LTI), Drugs Payment Scheme (DPS) and GP Visit cards; flu and COVID-19 vaccination records; maternity service appointments, and information on HSE services. Additional features will be rolled out during 2025. Ireland Department of Health release
Meanwhile, clinicians and their leadership stand waaaay far apart on burnout and workplace mental health. A study from VITAL WorkLife, a mental health provider for healthcare workforces including physicians and nurses, finds that there’s a Grand Canyon of a perceptual gap between clinicians and healthcare employer leadership.
- 79% of clinicians feel unsupported — while 95% of leaders believe they are addressing healthcare worker burnout
- 80% of clinicians believe that it’s urgent to address to address mental health challenges in their organization–but only half of the leadership agree
- Over 70% of clinicians believe that their leadership considers organizational mental health a low-priority issue
- 98% of healthcare leadership believe that they make workplace mental health a priority, while only 39% of clinicians agree–and believe that organizational performance is far more their concern.
- 92% of healthcare leadership believe that existing programs are well tailored to organizational needs–but only 16% of clinicians agree. 33% disagree and an addition 51% find themselves in the ‘middle’.
The online survey of 210 healthcare professionals across the US was taken over a three-week period in January 2025, with a cross-section of healthcare functions including leadership level medical, nursing, HR, and wellness staff, as well as clinicians. The full survey is available for download at this link. Release
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