Industry Insight

Iodine Software Acquires Physician Engagement Platform Artifact Health

Iodine Software, a health care AI company, has acquired physician engagement platform company Artifact Health. The acquisition brings together two industry leaders and expands Iodine’s clinical predictions and insights platform beyond clinical documentation improvement teams to directly engage physicians through Artifact’s HIPAA-compliant mobile platform.

Iodine experienced rapid growth over the last decade by applying its CognitiveML Engine to solve mid–revenue cycle leakage—a problem that costs health care systems billions in lost revenue due to resource-intensive, highly manual clinical documentation workflows. More than 500 hospitals and health systems using Iodine report significant improvements to quality scores and increase earned-revenue capture. This acquisition announcement signals Iodine’s commitment to expand its machine learning technology to broader health care workflows.

Artifact Health is a pioneer of physician-centric clinical documentation improvement and coding workflow solutions. In 2016, Artifact collaborated with Johns Hopkins Medicine to help develop a cloud-based mobile platform that makes it faster and easier for health care providers to respond securely and compliantly to questions about patient documentation. Artifact seamlessly integrates with core health care systems, including all major EHR systems, to ease administrative burdens on health care providers and give them back valuable time for patient care. Artifact’s mobile platform is currently deployed to more than 80,000 health care providers at more than 200 hospitals.

“Artifact allows us to immediately improve the documentation experience for physicians,” says William Chan, CEO and cofounder of Iodine Software. “The acquisition also allows us to realize our vision of delivering a broader set of our machine learning predictions directly to physicians.”

Iodine selected Artifact for its flexible technology, mobile delivery, and seamless EHR workflow integration, which produce demonstrably better physician satisfaction and engagement. By adding Artifact’s mobile-based platform to Iodine, health care organizations can now automate physician queries and other administrative tasks that require more complex clinical judgment while delivering them directly to physicians’ mobile devices. Together, Iodine and Artifact deliver a powerful mid–revenue cycle solution that improves documentation integrity and ensures proper reimbursement so health care systems maintain long-term financial resiliency.

“Over the past seven years, Artifact Health has built a solid reputation for streamlining and standardizing the physician query process with efficient, convenient, and easy-to-use technology that physicians find enjoyable to use,” says Marisa MacClary, CEO and cofounder of Artifact Health. “Iodine and Artifact share the same mission to design innovative health care technologies that improve patient care by reducing administrative burden. We are thrilled to join an outstanding company with superior technology and an amazing team.”

The full Artifact team will join Iodine immediately. Moving forward, the combined Iodine-Artifact team will continue delivering innovative machine learning predictions that engage caregivers at their convenience. Ultimately, the combined companies will help health care organizations achieve their desired financial, operational, and quality outcomes.

Artifact CEO Marisa MacClary will join Iodine as executive vice president of Artifact and will lead the Artifact platform.

— Source: Iodine Software

New York Health System to Outsource 500 IT, RCM Jobs to Optum

Bassett Healthcare Network and Optum announce a strategic collaboration to further enhance Bassett’s clinical and operational performance and advance delivery of high-quality, convenient, and affordable health care for patients across Central New York.

Optum will provide Bassett Healthcare Network with a broad scope of services including revenue cycle management, an extensive set of advanced data and analytic capabilities, and IT to advance quality care and the patient experience. The relationship gives Bassett the operational capabilities and financial resiliency to meet the evolving needs of the residents of Central New York. It also positions the organization for further growth opportunities while remaining an independent, locally governed health system focused on serving the unique needs of the community and providing patient-focused care.

“Optum’s scale and range of resources strengthens our ability to deliver unmatched care to our local communities,” says Tommy Ibrahim, MD, president and CEO of Bassett Healthcare Network. “Building on our long history of strategic relationships, our collaboration with Optum will create career opportunities for our employees and infuse Bassett with leading innovations and expertise that will greatly modernize and enhance experiences and access to clinical services for patients. It also will expand our ability to partner with other health care providers in the region, to better serve patients in Central New York.”

Together, Bassett Healthcare Network and Optum will work to improve business processes through advanced technology, insights, and innovation, enabling Bassett to enhance its focus on delivering patient-focused care. The collaboration will do the following:

• accelerate Bassett’s efforts to expand patient access and convenience through tools and strategies that support the patient journey, from scheduling and care navigation to payment resolution;
• enable Bassett to apply Optum’s analytic capabilities to deliver higher-quality, more cost-effective care powered by Optum’s data, talent, and ongoing investments in advanced analytic approaches and technology;
• modernize revenue cycle processes to improve administrative efficiencies, deliver transparent billing, and further ensure financial stability; and
• power digital transformation through health care–specific IT strategies including enhancing infrastructure and network security across all hospitals in Bassett’s care delivery network.

As part of this comprehensive relationship, approximately 500 Bassett employees performing in-scope functions will have the opportunity to transition to Optum. These employees will continue to directly support Bassett Healthcare Network’s work and mission. With access to new skill development opportunities, technologies, and processes at Optum, these team members will continue to build on their successful work in making Bassett Healthcare Network the health system of choice for people in Central New York.

— Source: Bassett Healthcare Network and Optum

HIE Collaborative Adds Three Members

The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) announces three new members have joined the organization, including the Connecticut Health Information Exchange (Connie), Big Sky Care Connect of Montana, and Health Sciences South Carolina.

These new members represent a cross-section of health care across the United States. They will benefit from SHIEC’s advocacy on behalf of member organizations to ensure their needs are represented in nationwide conversations about critical health care issues including HIT, health data sharing, and stewardship.

“At its center, Connie is about patients receiving the best possible health care, providing continuity in medical information, and providing secure, timely treatment for Connecticut residents,” says Jennifer Searls, executive director of Connie. “We’re excited to join the SHIEC network to collaborate and learn from other HIEs nationwide to bring best practices and services to Connecticut.”

“Established in 2004 as the nation’s first statewide biomedical and bioinformatics research collaborative of its type, we are committed to transforming public health and economic well-being through clinical research, population health, quality, and data exchange initiatives across the Carolinas and beyond” says Kenneth R. Deans, Jr, president and CEO of Health Sciences South Carolina. “Becoming a member of SHIEC helps us engage and collaborate with others nationwide to do so much more quickly and efficiently.”

“Ninety-five percent of the US population is served by America’s health information exchanges (HIEs) which are SHIEC members,” says SHIEC Interim CEO Lisa Bari. “These new members show that HIEs are growing and serving more and more people at the regional, state, and local levels.”

— Source: Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative

Datavant, Ciox Health Deal Valued at $7 Billion

Datavant, the leader in helping health care organizations securely connect their data, and Ciox Health, the leader in clinical data exchange, announce they have signed a definitive agreement to merge the two companies in a transaction valued at $7 billion. The combined entity, to be named Datavant, will be the nation’s largest health data ecosystem, enabling patients, providers, payers, health data analytics companies, patient-facing applications, government agencies, and life science companies to securely exchange their patient-level data.

The combined company is focused on improving patient outcomes and reducing costs by removing impediments to the secure exchange of health data. Datavant will offer the ability to access, exchange, and connect data among the thousands of organizations in its ecosystem for use cases ranging from better clinical care and value-based payments to health analytics and medical research.

Datavant’s combined ecosystem will now include the following:

• more than 2,000 US hospitals and more than 15,000 clinics;
• more than 120 health plans;
• more than 100 health data analytics companies;
• more than 30 life science companies;
• more than 70 academic institutions and nonprofits; and
• more than 75 state, local, and federal government agencies.

“The fragmentation of health data is one of the single greatest challenges facing the health care system today,” says Pete McCabe, CEO of Ciox Health. “Each of us has many dozens of interactions with the health care system over the course of our lives, and that information is retained in siloed databases across disparate institutions. Every informed patient decision and every major analytical question in health care requires the ability to pull that information from across the health data ecosystem while protecting patient privacy. We are thrilled to join forces with the Datavant team to connect health data to improve patient outcomes. Together we are well positioned to navigate the technical, operational, legal, and regulatory challenges to doing so, and are committed to acting as a neutral connectivity solution for our many customers and partners.”

“Every decision made in health care should be informed by data,” says Travis May, CEO of Datavant. “Our goal is to create a ubiquitous, trusted, and neutral data ecosystem where parties across the health care system can seamlessly and securely exchange data—unlocking better outcomes, faster research, and health care at a lower cost. The combined company is positioned to transform America’s health infrastructure and power the health data economy.”

— Source: Datavant and Ciox Health