Cerner’s CEO Learns To Battle Epic

Stat: Can David Feinberg Fix Cerner? The CEO Of EHR Giant Faces New Threats
In many ways, David Feinberg was an unconventional choice to lead Cerner, one of the nation’s largest vendors of electronic health records. As a prior CEO of health systems, he was a prominent customer of Epic, the company’s arch rival, and a longtime friend of its founder and CEO, Judy Faulkner. At a recent gathering of hospital informatics executives in California, where one might expect the competitors to be working the room, Feinberg and Faulkner instead gravitated toward each other, chatting easily about the future of their work. Feinberg even snapped a selfie of the smiling CEOs and tweeted it. (Ross, 11/9)

Stat: Hospitals Charge Insurers More Than What Medicare Pays For Infused Drugs
Nearly a dozen of the highest-rated hospitals in the U.S. charged commercial health insurers and cash-paying patients significantly more than what Medicare has recently paid for 10 infused medicines on which the government spends the most money, according to a new analysis. Median prices exceeded the Medicare Part B payment limit by a low of 169% at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, while the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix exceeded the payment limit by 344%. Among cash-paying customers, the prices ranged from 149% of the Medicare payment limit at Rush to 306% at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, both based in Boston. (Silverman, 11/8)

Axios: Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Can Impose Fees On Some Mergers 
Health insurance companies that are licensed by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association face steep financial penalties from that organization if they merge with a competitor that doesn't sell BCBS insurance. Blue Cross Blue Shield is one of the most recognizable health insurance names in the country, and the powerful association behind that brand wants to keep its dominance in local markets. (Herman, 11/9)

Crain's New York Business: The Big Business Of Blood
The advertisements beckon: "Just one pint of your healthy blood can save up to three lives." "An hour of your time can mean a lifetime for someone else." "If you're looking for a sign, this is it! There's a CRITICAL NEED for blood and platelets." The pleas make blood shortages out to be a constant crisis, made even worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Blood and its derivatives—namely red blood cells, platelets and plasma—indeed are essential to modern medicine. And hospital consolidations and cost-cutting measures have largely left the jobs of collecting, processing and distributing the precious resource to not-for-profit blood centers. (Kaufman, 11/8)

In industry news —

Axios: Nue Life Health Builds Telemedicine Platform For Psychedelic Medicine 
The Miami-based telemedicine startup NUE Life Health is aiming to become an early leader in combining digital mental health therapy with psychedelics and other mind-altering compounds." Drugs like ketamine and psilocybin — the active ingredient in magic mushrooms — are showing real promise in addressing mental health disorders. Access to the compounds and the specialized therapy and monitoring they require is a challenge, but using telemedicine could help. (Walsh, 11/8)

Modern Healthcare: Tenet To Buy $1.2 Billion Stake In 92 More Ambulatory Surgery Centers
Tenet Healthcare will pay $1.2 billion to acquire SurgCenter Development in a deal that will add 92 ambulatory surgical centers to the for-profit health system, the company announced Monday. The transaction includes a five-year partnership and development agreement between Dallas-based Tenet's ambulatory surgery subsidiary, United Surgical Partners International, and SurgCenter Development's principals to provide continuity and support for the facilities and their physician partners. After the deal closes, Tenet will own at least part of more than 440 ambulatory surgical centers in 35 states. (Bannow, 11/8)