Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.

News

The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information about the ALPHV BlackCat ransomware-as-a-service group that was behind the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

A report from HFMA and Eliciting Insights found 94% of providers using Change Healthcare as their primary clearinghouse have incurred additional expenses from using manual processes or implementing new technology. Additionally, 56% said no payers have provided them with financial assistance, and 55% expect an adverse impact on patient care.

ONC released its Draft 2024-2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan and is accepting public comments on the document until May 28. In a blog post, ONC highlighted the plan’s goals to promote health and wellness, enhance the delivery and experience of care, and accelerate research and innovation, all by connecting the health system with health data.

Studies

• A study from Maine’s University of New England found VR technology can enhance empathy and improve bedside manner in medical students.
• A new report from Diligent and Bitsight indicated healthcare actually outperforms other industries in cybersecurity performance, due in large part to the highly regulated nature of the industry.

Partnerships

• FrontRunnerHC renewed its partnership with AdvancedMD to provide updated patient information within the AdvancedMD platform.
• Incite Strategic Partners and SnapCare are partnering to provide tech-enabled workforce management tools for senior living providers.
• Teva UK and Closed Loop Medicine announced a strategic partnership to advance the development of personalized medicines.

Product Launches

• Intiveo launched Intiveo Connect to improve communication between dental practices and caregivers, other family members, and referring practices.
• QuickBlox released a HIPAA-compliant chatbot approved for use with OpenAI.
• SS&C released its SS&C Blue Prism Next Generation intelligent automation platform, which supports use cases such as health monitoring.
• Wearable safety technology vendor CENTEGIX launched the CENTEGIX Safety Platform to support incident response in hospitals and health systems.

Company News

• Urgent care software maker Experity migrated about 300 practices to RCM vendor Waystar in response to the disruption of claims submission from the Change Healthcare hack.
• WellSky announced the Clinical Care Specialist-Home Health certification for home health providers.
• WVU Medicine is tapping Interwell Health to improve the care of patients with kidney disease in West Virginia.
• Carequality marked 10 years as a trusted exchange framework, noting it exchanges about 745 million documents monthly.
• Hello Heart presented evidence that 84% of seniors lowered their blood pressure after 26 weeks of monitoring using the company’s mobile app.
• An analysis of 2023 case data from The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic found its virtual second opinions produce an average savings of $8,705 per patient.

People

• Provider of autism and IDD care software CentralReach appointed David Stevens as Head of Generative AI.
• Consulting Magazine recognized Rachel Marano, President & Founder of Pivot Point Consulting, with a Leaders in Technology award.
• Data platform Innovaccer launched an AI Advisory Board.

If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo. Note that submissions received after the close of business on Thursday may not be included in Bonus Features until the following week.