Industry Insight

Nuance Announces Acquisition of Saykara

Nuance Communications announces the acquisition of Saykara, a like-minded startup focused on developing a mobile artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to automate clinical documentation for physicians. The acquisition underscores Nuance’s ongoing expansion of market and technical leadership in conversational AI and ambient clinical intelligence solutions that reduce clinician burnout, enhance patient experiences, and improve overall health system financial integrity.

“The complementary technology built by the Saykara team aligns strongly with our technology portfolio and growth strategy as well as the needs of our clients,” says Joe Petro, Nuance executive vice president and chief technology officer. “This acquisition welcomes some familiar and highly respected technology leaders whom I am excited to have join our research and development team, which consists of the best and brightest minds in applying AI and machine learning to health care. With a shared vision, we will continue our aggressive focus on innovation, growth, and on delivering industry-leading AI-powered solutions that meaningfully address the compelling business problems that our health care clients and their clinicians face every day.”

Saykara was founded in Seattle in 2015 by Harjinder Sandhu, PhD, a serial entrepreneur who previously served as an executive in Nuance’s R&D division. Sandhu and Saykara’s team of leading engineers, machine learning experts, and experienced technology executives will join Nuance’s research and development team.

“I welcome the opportunity to rejoin the market leader in conversational AI and ambient clinical intelligence, and the impressive Nuance research and development team—especially at this important juncture in the development and adoption of these AI-powered health care innovations,” says Saykara Founder and CEO Harjinder Sandhu. “We are very familiar with Nuance’s advanced technology, domain expertise, and world-class technical team and share the company’s mission to make what matters to alleviate the clinical documentation burden on clinicians around the world.”

— Source: Nuance Communications

Intraprise Health Acquires HIPAA One

Intraprise Health, a provider of cybersecurity services and solutions and the Protect risk management software platform, has acquired HIPAA One, a provider of HIPAA compliance automation software. The merger allows Intraprise Health to offer an integrated set of cybersecurity and compliance software solutions to the health care market. Leveraging this new suite of integrated products, chief information security officers and security teams can now holistically address security risk management and HIPAA compliance across the continuum of their health system or network. Bluff Point Associates led the financing, with existing investor Health Enterprise Partners also participating.

HIPAA One’s security, privacy, and compliance products, combined with Intraprise Health’s Protect risk management platform, present a solution that addresses some of the industry’s greatest pain points. “Pairing HIPAA One’s automated Security Risk Assessment software platform with Intraprise Health’s existing cybersecurity capabilities offers our customers a complete security and compliance solution, increasing our commitment to securing our customers’ data,” says Sean Friel, Intraprise Health’s CEO.

The combined Protect and HIPAA One product suite will deliver a full spectrum of security and compliance capabilities for the systems, applications, networks, and devices of health care organizations and third-party vendors.

— Source: Intraprise Health

U of Cincinnati Medical Center to Pay HIPAA Fine for Not Sending Patient’s Records to Third Party

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announces its 12th settlement of an enforcement action in its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative. OCR announced this initiative as an enforcement priority in 2019 to support individuals’ right to timely access to their health records at a reasonable cost under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

The University of Cincinnati Medical Center (UCMC), an academic medical center providing health care services to the Greater Cincinnati community, has agreed to take corrective actions and pay $65,000 to settle a potential violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule’s right of access standard.

In May 2019, OCR received a complaint alleging that UCMC failed to respond to a patient’s February 22, 2019, records access request directing UCMC to send an electronic copy of her medical records maintained in UCMC’s EHR to her lawyers. OCR initiated an investigation and determined that UCMC failed to provide a copy of the requested medical records in a timely manner, a potential violation of the HIPAA Rules, which include the right of patients to have electronic copies of records in an EHR transmitted directly to a third party. As a result of OCR’s investigation and intervention, the complainant received all of the requested medical records in August 2019.

“OCR is committed to enforcing patients’ right to access their medical records, including the right to direct electronic copies to a third party of their choice. HIPAA-covered entities should review their policies and training programs to ensure they know and can fulfill all their HIPAA obligations whenever a patient seeks access to his or her records,” says Roger Severino, OCR director.

In addition to the monetary settlement, UCMC will undertake a corrective action plan that includes two years of monitoring. A copy of the resolution agreement and corrective action plan may be found at hhs.gov/sites/default/files/university-of-cincinnati-medical-center-ra-cap.pdf.

— Source: Health and Human Services