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Blogroll
Headlines for March 8-15
- Posted March 15th 2009
- by Janice
MedAdvant, a revenue cycle management (RCM) services provider that was acquired by Marlin Equity Partners in January, rebrands itself Capario.
Pharma Capital Partners is the new fund formed by former Merck Capital Ventures partners. PCP is raising $100M to invest in technologies that improve performace in pharma company operations (not drug development).
Health IT implementation services company, Vitalize (Reading, MA) acquires r3 Health Partners (Santa Ana, CA), a competitor.
Business Roundtable publishes report that concludes that US healthcare lags other countries in value — taking cost and outcomes into consideration. No surprise. Link to report in article; I haven’t read it yet.
Through partnerships with HealthGrades and Joint Commission, Med-Avantage (which creates provider directories for health plans) enhances its directories with hospital quality measures.
ARRA applies HIPAA privacy regulations to pharmacies and “business associates” of pharmacies. New restrictions apply to “communications” that are subsidized by pharma. Data-mining of Rx records (even anonymized records) not addressed in ARRA (stimilus bill).
Hospital Value Index (www.hospitalvalue.com), a comprehensive index of hospital quality, affordability, efficiency, and patient satisfaction, releases latest study results. Produced by Data Advantage, a private healthcare info company based in Nashville, Hospital Value Index integrates measures on over 3000 hospitals, using multiple data sources from CMS (e.g., Medicare spending, HCAHPS scores) and some additional sources.
Home page for AHRQ’s comparative effectiveness research site.
Xconomy interviews David Cerino, general manager of health care solutions at Microsoft. Cerino describes evolution of Microsoft’s HealthVault, its health care platform.
Even though CVS is closing some regional clinics until the fall because of seasonal demand, use of CVS MinuteClinics is on the rise in Massachusetts. It seems the high level of focus on healthcare costs in Mass combined with the price transparency & convenience of MinuteClinics over traditional office visits is driving demand for MinuteClinic services.
Margaret Hamburg, former health commissioner in NYC, is leading candidate for FDA commissioner.
FDA approves device that is injected into tumors and sends back radiation level readings via RFID, allowing accurate measuring of higher energy/shorter radiation time treatment. DVS-HFT dosimeter device is made by Sicel Technologies, Morrisville, NC.
NIH announces the availability of $1.5B in research grants from ARRA to be distributed for: medical research (at least $200M); construction grants for research facilities ($1B); and grants for purchasing research equipment ($300M).
Soon physicians will be able to buy a complete package of software & maintenance for an electronic health records system at Sam’s Club. WalMart has partnered with Dell & eClinicalWorks (an EMR vendor). Initial fees start at under $25K with maintenance fees of about $4-6.5K/year.
Practice Fusion, which promotes its free ad-supported electronic medical records s/w has partnered with LDM Group, St. Louis, to offer its ScriptGuide that provides physicians with custom patient education info for certain chronic diseases.
Enclarity, based in Aliso Viejo, CA, raises $5.5M from existing investors Bain Capital (Boston) and Ignition Partners (Seattle). Enclarity sells data management software to healthcare companies that provides data cleansing and matching services, along with a master provider db.
Allscripts sells its medication unit to A-S Medication Solutions for $26M. Allscripts had announced that they would sell the unit last month.
Marlin Equity Partners (an LA-based PE firm) acquires MD Everywhere, a revenue cycle management (RCM) SaaS solution for physicians. Marlin recently acquird Quik+Cross and MedAvant Healthcare Solutions.
CVS Caremark plans to close about 16% of its existing MinuteClinics until fall. CVS now has about 460 clinics (not including the 16% to be closed).
CRS report on Google Book Search Library Project copyright implications. I haven’t read report yet, but will take a look.
Minneapolis-based Muve licensed technology from Mayo Clinic and developed the Gruve. “The Gruve tracks every movement and calculates the number of calories each burns. Then after being synched up with Muve’s accompanying Web site, the device matches that information against the wearer’s weight goal.”
SureScripts-RxHub changes name to Surescripts and launches new site: The E-Prescribing Resource Center at www.surescripts.com.
Interview with Jonathan Bush, CEO of Athenahealth, a web-based s/w (SaaS) company that provides billing, EMR and other services to physician practices. Based in Watertown, MA. Bush comments on $19B of stimulus money targeted to EMR expansion. Also comments that Athenahealth plans to expand its sales & marketing in 2009.
Further consolidation among big pharma. Deal is expected to close in 43rd Qtr 2009. “Monday’s announcement was just the latest in a string of recent deals in the pharmaceutical world. Pfizer Inc. (PFE, Fortune 500) announced Jan. 26 that it is buying the smaller Wyeth (WYE, Fortune 500) for $68 billion, and Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG continues to pursue a $40 billion hostile bid of Genentech Inc. (DNA).”
Late in posting this story that has circulated widely over the last week about Medical Justice, which is trying to encourage physicians to have patients sign waivers saying that they won’t post comments on web physician review sites like Angie’s list or others. We reported on this in earlier blogs, too.
DJ blog on why there may be an uptick in transactions that take public companies private in the health care sector.
Using technology from Baltimore-based VISICU, a telehealth company that allows hospitals to remotely monitor ICU patients, Anchorage’s Providence Alaska Medical Center launches an eICU.
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