Pandemic Investment Hit $8 Billion For Digital Health Companies Last Quarter

Modern Healthcare: Digital Health Companies Raked In $8.1 Billion In Q3
Digital health companies around the globe raised a collective $8.1 billion in venture capital from investors in 2021's third quarter—a record for the sector, according to new data from market research firm Mercom Capital Group. Venture-capital funding was up 5% from $7.7 billion raised in 2021's second quarter, which previously held the record for the largest funding quarter among digital health companies. The $8.1 billion funding total for the quarter is also more than double the $3.9 billion that digital health companies raised in 2020's third quarter. (Kim Cohen and Broderick, 10/4)

Stat: Hospitals Launch New Venture To Build A Better Digital Health Marketplace
It’s one of the biggest market failures in modern medicine. The lack of a widely shared data language is effectively blocking adoption of innumerable software applications designed to make health care cheaper, more effective, and personal. On Tuesday, three large health systems formed a new nonprofit company to fill that gap. The venture, dubbed Graphite Health, is seeking to build an App-Store-like marketplace where digital health entrepreneurs can sell their software tools, and hospitals and consumers can more easily buy and implement them. (Ross, 10/5)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: GAO Highlights Provider Complaints About MIPS
A new government watchdog report offers more doubt about the effectiveness of a heavily criticized Medicare provider payment program. The Merit-based Incentive Payment System scores physicians and other providers based on quality and cost measures uses those scores to adjust future Medicare payments. Congress and President Barack Obama established MIPS in a 2015 law intended to improve outcomes and reduce spending. MIPS lets providers cherry-pick the measures they report and doesn't yield enough of a payoff to be worth participating in, said most stakeholders the Government Accountability Office interviewed for an analysis published Friday. (Bannow, 10/4)

AP: Union Reaches Deal With Group Home Agency, Cancels Strike
Several hundred unionized group home and day program workers in Bridgeport and eastern Connecticut have reached a new contract with the latest provider, ending a strike that was threatened to begin Tuesday, their union announced Monday, The agreement with Whole Life Inc., which has more than 39 locations, is the second reached by the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, SEIU in less than a week. While the union withdrew its strike notice to Whole Life, unionized workers are still planning to walk out at Sunrise Northeast Inc. and Alternative Services-Connecticut Inc. on Oct. 12, affecting 160 and 100 workers respectively. (10/4)

Georgia Health News: Wellstar-United Contract Ends Without A Deal, Affecting Thousands
Tens of thousands of UnitedHealthcare members will now face higher out-of-pocket fees if they go to Wellstar Health System hospitals and doctors. The contract between the two organizations ended Sunday without a new agreement. An estimated 80,000 United members will be affected. Payment for medical services is the sticking point. United says the Wellstar demands for higher reimbursements are excessive, and the 11-hospital Wellstar says it’s seeking the same rates that other insurers are paying. (Miller, 10/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Alameda County Reprimands Ambulance Provider, Demands Improvement In Response Times
Alameda County officials on Monday rebuked the county’s contracted ambulance provider, Falck, for failing to meet performance requirements in August and demanded that Falck implement a plan to correct its shortfalls. In a letter to local Falck administrators Monday, Lauri McFadden, director of the Alameda County Emergency Medical Services Agency, which coordinates first responder and ambulance service, said a review of Falck’s performance in August showed that the contractor responded to incidents on time less than 90% of the time — a violation of Falck’s contract with the county. (Picon, 10/4)

And in news about health care personnel —

Axios: Texas Observer: Medical Boards Allowed Abusive Doctors To Treat Patients 
A Texas doctor accused of inappropriately touching 17 female patients had then been told by a medical board to only treat men before being reported for assault by a male patient, an investigation by the Texas Observer found. Medical boards that oversee doctors across the U.S. have used this loophole of curbing the types of patients predatory doctors are allowed to see rather than revoking their licenses, experts in the report said. (Fernandez, 10/5)

USA Today: Miami Nurse Fired After Posting Photos Of Baby Born With Birth Defect
A nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami was fired after posting photos of a baby born with a birth defect over social media in early September, according to multiple local media outlets. Sierra Samuels, a nurse with the hospital since 2016, was working in the neonatal intensive care unit and shared two photographs over Instagram of a newborn with gastroschisis, a birth defect of the abdominal wall that causes the baby's intestines to protrude from the body. (Gleeson, 10/4)

Stat: New Jackson Heart Study Leader Commits To Putting Research Into Action
There’s a reason why the nation’s largest and longest-running study of cardiovascular disease in African Americans calls Jackson, Miss., home. That community, like others in the southeastern United States, has long experienced disproportionately high rates of cardiovascular disease. (Cooney, 10/5)