Another turkey: potential 9M patients affected by medical transcription vendor data breach

Vendors are hot, hot, hot…with hackers. In another notable vendor data incident, Perry Johnson & Associates (PJ&A), a Henderson Nevada-based provider of transcription services for hospitals and physician practices, reported a data security incident to the US Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) on 3 November. The breach occurred in the network and files were copied 27 March-2 May, when it was detected. 8.95 million individuals were affected, with over 4 million individuals in NYC and Syracuse at Northwell Health, the largest health provider in New York State, and Crouse Health. Northwell hasn’t had much luck with transcription providers, having been affected by Nuance Communications’ hack earlier this year by one of their vendors–the Progress Software MOVEit file transfer protocol (FTP) theft traced back to ransomwareistes CLOP [TTA 3 Aug].

Personal health information stolen for all included name, date of birth, address, medical record number, hospital account number, admission diagnosis, and date(s) and time(s) of service. While the records didn’t contain financial information, some patients may have had breaches of their Social Security numbers, insurance information and clinical information from medical transcription files, such as laboratory and diagnostic testing results, medications, the name of the treatment facility, and the name of healthcare providers.

PJ&A notified affected providers on 29 September and affected patients on 31 October. In addition to the 4 million+ in New York, 1.2 million individuals were served by Cook County Health in Illinois. The rest have not been identified. TechCrunch, News4NY, PJ&A notice 

News roundup: cybersecurity benchmarking study, Tyto Care’s Home Smart Clinic, Long Island’s $2.6B life sciences hub, Singapore’s Speedoc raises $28M, NantHealth’s sinking feeling, Hims & Hers revenue up 95%

Censinet, the American Hospital Association (AHA), and KLAS Research announced at industry confab CHIME22 Fall Forum a benchmarking study on health system cybersecurity. The study, currently enrolling hospital and health system participants, according to the release will enable a comparison of cybersecurity investments, resources, performance, and maturity to peer organizations across key operational cyber metrics. It will also cover NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) and Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP). Censinet provides healthcare risk management solutions, consolidating enterprise risk management and operations capabilities. Hat tip to HISTalk 9 Nov.

TytoCare’s latest is the rollout of the Home Smart Clinic, a platform that combines TytoCare’s FDA-cleared handheld for remote physical exams; Tyto Insights, their AI-powered diagnostic support that aids diagnosis in remote physical exams; Tyto Engagement Labs, a suite of user engagement services including behavioral science-backed blueprints, consulting services, and marketing tailored to each specific program and cohort; and support for multiple provider models and different patient populations. The new platform is targeted to health plans and providers. Release (Yahoo)

Long Island NY’s proposed Midway Crossing project, creating a life sciences hub in quaintly named Ronkonkoma, would cost about $2.55 billion, but create an estimated 4,300 science, technology, engineering, and healthcare positions. They’d also be lucrative, with salaries mostly well over $100,000 a year. The proposal was authored (sic) by Michael Dowling, president of Northwell Health, and James Hayward, PhD, president and CEO of Applied DNA Sciences, and appeared in Newsday (paywalled). Its 179 acres would include a STEM educational center, research labs, biotech manufacturing facilities, health care offices, a hotel and convention center plus connect to the LIRR and Long Island-MacArthur airport. While approved by local authorities, it now needs funding. Becker’s

Traveling to the far Pacific…Speedoc, a home health company based in Singapore, raised $28 million. Speedoc offers app-based video consults and home visits, non-emergency ambulance transport, and remote monitoring for several chronic conditions. It is available in nine cities in Singapore and Malaysia. According to Mobihealthnews, it is also one of the technology partners for the two-year pilot of the Mobile Inpatient Care@Home initiative by the Ministry of Health’s Office for Healthcare Transformation. The pre-Series B funding round was led by its new investors Bertelsmann Investments, Shinhan Venture investment, and Mars Growth. Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, which led its $5 million Series A funding round in 2020, also participated. 

Our Readers with very long memories will remember that transformative health darling, NantHealth. This Patrick Soon-Shiong NantWorks company, originally in genetic sequencing for cancer research, was caught en flagrante in a ‘pay to play’ scheme with the University of Utah funding NantHealth and providing data that would prove useful to other Soon-Shiong companies [TTA 18 April 2017]. It’s long since pivoted to payer/provider data solutions (NaviNet). What’s not improved is their bottom line. It lost $13.7 million, or $0.12 cents per share, increasing loss by 26% from 3Q 2021. Shares on NasdaqGS are trading at $0.31. Yahoo!Finance/SimplyWallSt. Another tip of the cap to HISTalk 9 Nov.

And who said all of telehealth is suffering? Online direct-to-consumer marketer Hims & Hers posted a third consecutive $100 million+ quarter in revenue. Their Q3 revenue was up 95% versus Q3 last year, reaching $144.8 million. They also gained 70,000 new online subscribers for a total of 991,000, up 80% year over year. Q4 guidance is up to $159 million to $162 million, with a full-year revenue forecast of $519 million to $522 million. And yes–they’re profitable. Their embarrassing TV spots notwithstanding, they seem to have found The Magic Formula. FierceHealthcare

J.P. Morgan forms life sciences/healthcare VC group; virtual care Ovatient formed by MUSC Health, MetroHealth; Oracle’s putting lots of KC office space on market

Some more good news in healthcare–maybe a bit of spring in autumn?

J.P. Morgan is setting up a new venture capital team to invest in life science healthcare companies. The new group, Life Sciences Private Capital, will sit within J.P. Morgan Private Capital. Investments will be in early and growth-stage companies developing novel therapeutics and technologies in several target areas including genetic medicine, oncology, neurodegenerative disease, rare diseases, autoimmunity, AI/ML platforms, metabolic diseases, and neuropsychology. Heading the group is Dr. Stephen Squinto as Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner. He joins from OrbiMed Advisors, and previously co-founded and built numerous biotechnology companies including Alexion Pharmaceuticals plus being a scientific founder of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Also joining are Dr. Gaurav Gupta and  Anya Schiess with experience at OrbiMed and Healthy Ventures respectively, as well as a prestige group of advisors. JPM press release, Becker’s

The Medical University of South Carolina health system (MUSC Health) and The MetroHealth System (MetroHealth) are partnering in a joint venture for virtual and in-home care. From the press release, Ovatient is designed to improve the care experience by linking patients to the delivery of virtual and in-home care via a platform that connects to health systems and acute or procedural care, eliminating fragmented care experiences. The JV also intends to sell the platform to other providers. Other health systems are either joining forces with virtual care providers and AI platforms or forming their own, such as NYC’s Hospital for Special Surgery with their RightMove virtual MSK spinoff, and Northwell Health. MetroHealth release, Mobihealthnews

And if you’re a company looking for luxe office space, Oracle’s putting a lot of it on the market. Granted, it’s in Kansas City, but it’s two buildings: the former Cerner World Headquarters in North Kansas City and a separately located Realization Campus in KC. Current onsite employees will be consolidated at the fairly new Innovations Center in KC by 30 November, which has a substantial 2 million square feet of space. The health clinic part of WHQ will close as well, but not the data centers–at least for now. (A gargantuan task!) Both WHQ and Realization, according to the Oracle Cerner thread on Reddit, have been largely unused since 2020, the pandemic, and Cerner’s transition to a hybrid workforce. Cerner had from 2021 been reducing KC-area office space which had been funded locally by $170 million in sales tax and revenue bonds. The downside is once moved, how many will remain? Oracle reportedly has been considering $1 billion in cuts and is busily refinancing its debt incurred by the Cerner purchase [TTA 27 Oct]. Ridding itself of empty office space is actually a good start, versus cutting heads–a bad move as Oracle tries to save Cerner at the VA and MHS. HealthcareITNews, HISTalk, KSHB 41

News & deal roundup: Oak Street adds telespecialty RubiconMD, ATA plumps for wider telehealth access, yet claims fall to 4%, West Suffolk NHS adds Zivver mail/file security, Northwell’s $100M for AI–and miss industry shows yet?

Primary care network Oak Street Health acquired virtual specialty telehealth provider RubiconMD for $130 million. Oak Street is a 19-state network of physicians in care centers who specialize in Medicare patients. RubiconMD has 230 specialists who provide doctor-to-doctor teleconsults (eConsults) in 120 specialties, with an emphasis on cardiology, nephrology, and pulmonology, which is a strong fit for Oak Street. RubiconMD also has separate offerings for specialty care panels and behavioral health. The $130 million includes up to $60 million in cash or cash/stock, subject to achievement of defined performance milestones. Management transitions were not disclosed. Release, FierceHealthcare

The American Telemedicine Association wants to preserve wider telehealth access into 2022–even if the public health emergency (PHE) for Covid has to be extended. Although the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed by CMS for 2022 includes areas of wider telehealth access and reimbursement (temporary access under Schedule 3 added in 2021) into 2023 regardless of the PHE, Congressional action is required to permanently expand telehealth beyond the existing programs mostly for rural areas. If necessary, ATA is advocating that Health & Human Services (HHS) extend the PHE through 2022 so that telehealth access and reimbursement are preserved. ATA releaseFierceHealthcare

While this Editor can understand ATA’s frustration and the sincerity of its aims, it distorts the emergency meaning of a PHE that is just about nonexistent except for mandates. And telehealth claims, even with current access, have sunk down to a tick above 4%, 60% of which are mental health codes (FAIR Health July national data). Too many providers, too little demand? 

The West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (WSFT) has selected Zivver UK to secure its mail and file transfer systems, as it migrates from NHS Mail to Microsoft 365. It includes encrypted email to patients as a core requirement meeting NHS digital standards, and ease of use for both sender and recipient in MS Outlook. 4,800 staff at WSFT, which covers 280,000 people who live in West Suffolk. Release. Hat tip to HISTalk for this and the next two stories.

Northwell Health backs AI health startups via joint venture with Aegis Ventures with $100 million stake. The JV between the two New York-based companies “will ideate, launch, and scale AI-driven companies to address healthcare’s most challenging quality, equity, and cost problems” with stakeholders across Northwell’s extremely large system. According to the release, “Northwell has a track record of success in AI research, including the development of a landmark algorithm that predicts patients’ overnight stability to reduce the need to wake them for vital sign checks.” Nice to know that a health system appreciates patient sleep. 

And finally–miss the grip and grin of a F2F industry trade show and presentations? Your Editor, who was once a habitué of meetings from Boston to Florida, does. Really! Virtual conferences, once fun, are now tedious. So enjoy this walk through of HLTH21 by Ben Rooks, the Investor Man, at the Boston Seaport (a great venue, though not precisely central), right down to the barbers, puppy rescue, disco ball, and juice shots. Courtesy of HISTalk

News Roundup of acquisitions, funding: Health Catalyst-Vitalware, Change Healthcare-Nucleus.io, Medtronic-Companion Medical, Cecelia Health; Proteus Health sale contested, but sold (updated 20 Aug)

Spin that lasso, round up the dogies, because we’re going to the rodeo! Data and analytics company Health Catalyst is acquiring Vitalware, which provides ‘chargemaster’ revenue workflow optimization and analytics SaaS technology to healthcare organizations. The deal is expected to come in at about $120 million with a $30 million earnout, funded by stock and cash, and close later this year.  Health Catalyst is on a buying tear, having acquired Healthfinch, a prescription refill management and visit planning platform to close care gaps, for $40 million in cash and shares in July. Health Catalyst went public in July 2019 and is trading at a market cap of nearly $1.3 bn (Unicorn Status isn’t what it used to be!). They’ve also inked a partnership deal with Northwell Health, the largest provider in New York State, to expand Northwell’s enterprise data and analytics capabilities with EHR integration. Health Catalyst releases on Vitalware, Healthfinch, and Northwell Health. Also FierceHealthcare.

Updated. Another major 2019 IPO, Change Healthcare, is acquiring Nucleus.io, a  cloud-based imaging and workflow platform, from San Diego-based developer NucleusHealth. This is a significant move, fitting into their Enterprise Imaging area and accelerating their implementation of a complete cloud-based, end-to-end solution within their Enterprise Imaging Network. Nucleus.io serves over 7,500 organizations and will add to Change Healthcare’s imaging customer base. Change is acquiring the Nucleus.io technology and team. NucleusHealth will continue to operate under its own name; they also operate a teleradiology platform, StatRad. Terms were not disclosed. Release. HealthcareITNews (Updated to clarify that the Change Healthcare acquisition is the Nucleus.io technology and not NucleusHealth the company)

Medtronic, which insiders dub the 9,000 lb. elephant of medical devices and remote patient management, has been quiet of late, but that doesn’t mean the elephant isn’t moving and sitting where it wants to sit. Continuing to build in diabetes care, they have just acquired Companion Medical, developer and marketer of the InPen, a insulin pen with a companion app, which was FDA cleared in 2016 and remains the only ‘smart insulin pen’ system. Eli Lilly and K2 Health Ventures were Companion’s major funders. Closing is expected within two months. Terms were not disclosed. Medtronic is clearly constructing a closed-loop diabetes management system through acquisitions such as Companion as well as diet-management startups Klue and NutrinoRelease, Mobihealthnews

And in diabetes management, Cecelia Health (the renamed Fit4D), scored a healthy $13 million in Series B funding. Rittenhouse Ventures and Endo Investors co-led the round, with participants Boston Millennia Partners, SustainVC, G100 Capital and others, for a total of $22.4 million in funding (Crunchbase). Fit4D developed clinical virtual coaching with certified diabetes educators, and partners with health plans, self-insured employers, medical device and pharma companies. The funding will go to developing a first-in-kind ‘Virtual Clinic’ for diabetes, which will offer continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) training, education on medication adherence and lifestyle and behavior change, mental health screening and counseling. These will be then supported by algorithms recommending necessary dosage and titration changes that will be reviewed and approved by Cecelia Health’s Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (CDCES) and endocrinologists.  ReleaseMobihealthnews  A few days before the funding, Cecelia announced their participation with the Jaeb Center for Health Research Foundation in Tampa in their research to develop a virtual specialty clinic model, funded by a $5 million grant from the Helmsley Foundation. Release

Updated for Proteus sale. The troubled ‘smart pill’ pioneering company and one-time unicorn Proteus Digital Health, which filed for Chapter 11 (reorganization) bankruptcy on 16 June [TTA 17 June], planned to exit it with a $15 million ‘stalking horse’ deal with Otsuka Pharmaceuticals in advance of a bankruptcy auction. ‘Stalking horse’ deals set a floor at an auction and essentially set a minimum price. Investors, including Novartis and two Hong Kong funds, contested that fire sale earlier this week, claiming the sale to Otsuka was undervalued and if the IP and other assets were divided, a higher price would be obtained. One could understand their feelings, as Proteus raised nearly $500 million from them which essentially has vanished.

On Wednesday 19 August, the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved the sale to Otsuka, which was filed on Thursday. A key part of the hearings was Proteus’ investment banker, Raymond James & Associates, fruitlessly reaching out to over 240 potential buyers. What scared them off was Proteus’ burn rate–between $2 million and $2.5 million a month–with no clear prospect of positive cash flow or profitability (the latter quite elusive even in public companies). The purchase by Otsuka, which was deemed fair in the ruling with the opportunity for others to provide higher offers, covers information technology assets, intellectual property, and equipment, including equipment used to design and manufacture wearable sensors. Related court documents.

Otsuka was Proteus’ last major partnership for Abilify MyCite that ended suddenly in January. From the case documents schedule, this will be wrapped by end of September. FierceHealthcare 12 Aug, 27 July    STAT+ (paywalled) 20 Aug, HealthcareITNews

Does healthcare need a new EHR system? A major health system thinks so. (Updated)

An interesting pairing to work on a ‘next generation EHR’. EHR and HIT giant Allscripts and Northwell Health, the largest health system in New York State, are partnering to develop an EHR that is AI and cloud-based and–what’s different–voice-enabled. Allscripts will, according to the release, provide development and systems integration expertise; Northwell will provide the clinician input, testbed, and also support the project with IT and administrative staff. The goal is an optimized patient and clinician experience, which is about as specific as the release gets. According to POLITICO’s Morning eHealth, the foundation for the system will be Avenel, the company’s stripped-down, cloud-based EHR platform, There’s no further information on timing, cost, what the AI might do, or whether the focus will be on acute care or outpatient/specialty practices.

Allscripts and Northwell will continue with their Allscripts EHRs in use since 2009, Allscripts Sunrise at the 19 Northwell hospitals and Allscripts Touchworks EHR used at Northwell’s 750 owned and operated outpatient practices in the metro New York area. Additional articles at Northwell’s newsroom.

Update 16 Oct: Northwell announced that it was extending its contract with Allscripts through December 2027. Read on in HISTalk for a tart take on the odds that the next-gen EHR will actually be a viable, competitive new product.

NYeC’s 2018 Gala & Awards on 27 November (US)

The influential New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) is honoring four highly influential leaders in improving healthcare through the use of technology on Tuesday 27 November in NYC: Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health; Linda A. Lambert, CAE, Executive Director of the New York State Chapter of the American College of Physicians; and CEO/founders Ido and Roy Schoenberg, MD of American Well.

The gala will be at the Edison Ballroom, which this Editor can confirm was a top-notch venue last year. More information and registration is here.

If you are at all engaged with healthcare systems and technology in the New York metro area, it’s worth your time and fisc to attend this event to be the company of over 250 C-suite executives, leaders, and policymakers.

NYeC is a non-profit which works with the New York State Department of Health to improve healthcare by collaboratively leading, connecting, and integrating health information exchange (HIE) across the state. One of their major tasks is to advance the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY), a network connecting healthcare professionals statewide. 

NY’s Northwell Health Home Care partners with HRS for telehealth tablets

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/HRS.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]New York State’s largest health system, Northwell Health, is partnering with Hoboken, New Jersey-based (and Blueprint Health grad) telehealth provider Health Recovery Systems (HRS) on introducing their tablets into their Home Care Network. The picture at left is of Bernard Feinstein, a 100-year-old Queens-resident Northwell Health patient, who seems to be easily using and handling the touchscreen tablet. HRS tablets are video-enabled for consults and monitor vital signs, connecting via Bluetooth to devices: stethoscope (heart and lung), pulse oximeter , blood pressure, and weight scale. If one enjoys examples of pretzel logic, the release states that Northwell’s telehealth implementation is one of the first–of Bluetooth-enabled monitoring in NY State home care and the first on Long Island. (Cable-connected telehealth systems have been commonplace since 2003, including Northwell’s home care.) The HRS partnership follows on Northwell Ventures’ $1 million Series A investment in Virginia-based telemedicine provider Avizia. Innovate LI,

NYeC Digital Health Conference (NYC)–next week

NYeC Digital Health Conference, 6-7 December 2016 | New World Stages, New York, NY
The New York eHealth Collaborative’s Digital Health Conference brings together 500 senior-level healthcare industry leaders to learn about new innovations and to foster dynamic conversation addressing how healthcare is being redefined through technology. It is well on track to fill completely, so if you’ve been delaying your booking, now is the time. And our readers enjoy a 10 percent discount.

Updated and expanded agenda here.

Keynote speakers:
• Robert Wachter, MD, Professor and Interim Chairman of the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, author of “The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age” [TTA 16 Apr 15]. (To this Editor, this is a must-see keynote!)
• Steven Johnson, PBS Host and Bestselling Author, “How We Got To Now” and “Where Good Ideas Come From”

Some other speakers: Carol Raphael, the former CEO of Visiting Nurse Service of NY; Kristopher Smith of Northwell Health; James Mault of Qualcomm Life and Aron Gupta of Quartet Health. This year a who’s who of New York’s healthcare and health tech community will gather for two days of networking, lively intellectual exchange, and exploration to see what’s new, what’s cutting edge and what will shape the future of healthcare.

It’s worth taking the trip to NYC for this right before the holidays! For more information, click here for the website.

Telehealth & Telecare Aware Readers receive a 10% registration discount. Click on this link or the sidebar advert. Important–use code TTA when registering. For updates, @NYeHealth. TTA is a conference partner/media partner of the NYeC DHC.